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NEW AND REVISED

EDITION.

AN ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF

FREEMASONRY
AND

ITS

KINDRED SCIENCES:
COMPRISING

THE WHOLE RANGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND LITERATURE

AS CONNECTED WITH THE INSTITUTION.

ALBERT

G.

MACKEY,

M.D.,

AUTHOR OF "LEXICON OF FREEMASONRY," "A TEXT-BOOK OF MASONIC JURISPRUDENCE,'

"SYMBOLISM OF FREEMASONRY,"

ETC., ETC.

CONTAINING ALSO AN ADDENDUM, GIVING THE RESULTS OF SUBSEQUENT STUDY,

RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY TO THE PRESENT TIME, AND A

SELF-PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.
BY

CHARLES

T.

McCLENACHAN,

AUTHOR OF "THE BOOK OF THE ANCIENT ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY,"

"FORMS AND CEREMONIES," ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

"Nature indeed inspires devotion. The air is full of signs, the sky of tokens, the ground of memoranda
and signatures; every object is covered with hints that speak intelligibly to the intelligent."

PHILADELPHIA:
L.

H.

EVERTS
1894.

&

CO.,

Copyright, 1873 and 1878, by Moss

&

Co. and A. G.

REVISED EDITION, WITH ADDENDUM.

Copyright, 1884, by L. H.

Everts

&

Co.

Mackby,

PREFACE.
T ONCE

delivered an address before a

Lodge on the

subject of the external

changes which Freemasonry had undergone since the period of

-*-

the

commencement of the eighteenth

its

revival in

The proper treatment of the

century.

topic

required a reference to German, to French, and to English authorities, with some

of which I

am

afraid that

of the address, a

many

young and

of

my

obtain access to the works which I had cited, and of

as well as of the facts that they detailed,

my reply was

probable that

At the close
me how he could

auditors were not familiar.

intelligent brother inquired of

many

of which he confessed,

he now heard for the

not altogether satisfactory

for I told

first

time.

him that

It

is

knew

of no course that he could adopt to attain that knowledge except the one that had

been pursued by myself, namely, to spend his means in the purchase of Masonic

books and his time in reading them.

But there are few men who have the means, the
the purchase of

and

numerous books, some of them

and the inclination

time,

costly

and

and attentive reading of them which

for

be obtained,

difficult to

is

necessary to master any

thought that, just ten years ago, suggested to

me the task of collecting

for the close

given subject.
It

was

this

materials for a

might consult

work which, under one

its

cover,

would furnish every Mason who

pages the means of acquiring a knowledge of all matters connected

with the science, the philosophy, and the history of his Order.

But I was
I

also led to the prosecution of this

had myself learned, from the experience of

work by a higher

my

consideration.

early Masonic

life,

that th^

character of the Institution was elevated in every one's opinion just in proportion
to the

and
If

amount of knowledge that he had acquired of

its

symbolism, philosophy,

history.

Freemasonry was not

the depths of

now becoming

its

elevation

at one time patronized

by the

learned,

it

was because
If

symbolic science and philosophy had not been sounded.

elevated and popular in the estimation of scholars,

and that popularity

to the labors of those

who have

it

it is

owes that

studied

its

Intel-

PREFACE.

vi

lectual system

and given the

The scholar

result of their studies to the world.

from the perusal of Webb's Monitor, or the Hieroglyphic Chart of Cross,

will rise

with no very exalted appreciation of the literary character of the Institution

But should he have met with

of which such works profess to be an exponent.

even Hutchinson's Spirit of Masonry, or Town's Speculative Masonry, which are

among

the earlier products of Masonic literature, he will be conscious that the

system which could afford material for such works must be worthy of investigation.
Oliver

not alone in the belief that the higher elevation of the Order

is

attributed "

is

to be

almost solely to the judicious publications on the subject of Freema-

sonry which have appeared during the present and the end of the last century."
It

is

the press that

placing

on

it

in the

is

rank of

principles, the

its

At no

elevating the Order

more

its

that

is

scholars that

its

its

more

investigation.

justly appreciated

members generally

its

At no time have they been more

assiduity.

endeavor to obtain a due enlightenment on

all

is

published by scholarly pens

intellectual character been

At no time have

than at the present day.

the labor of

will other scholars be attracted to

time, indeed, has

science with

The more

sciences.

more

is

it

cultivated

its

zealous in the

the topics which

its

system

comprehends.
It

was the desire

to give

my contribution

towards the elevation of the Order, by

aiding in the dissemination of some of that light and knowledge which are not

me

so easy of access, that impelled

of this

work a task which

for the last three years, I

mitted but

little

And now

have steadily

I present to

required to

my

at which,

brethren the result not only of those years of

them with the materials

make a Masonic

scholar.

considered as more than elementary.

afford time to

and

toiled to accomplish,

time for other occupation, and none for recreation.

at least I hope, supply

is

the preparation

have wrought with unintermitted labor that has per-

of more than thirty years of study and research

that

commence

ten years ago to

a work which

for acquiring a

in our art

but

knowledge of much

Encyclopaedic learning

But knowing

become learned scholars

toil,

will, I trust, or

that but few

is

not usually

Masons can

by an entire devotion

to its

study, I have in important articles endeavored to treat the subject exhaustively,

and

in all to give that

amount of information that must make future ignorance

altogether the result of disinclination to learn.

I do not present this

work

as perfect, for I well

of perfection can never be attained by

circumstances, I have sought to
are, for the

work

excuse

it

the culminating point

But, under

as perfect as I could.

most part, the result of the conjoined labor of many

have had no

my

make

human

know that

effort.

errors

help.

Every

article

for I hold that

was written by myself.

many

adverse

Encyclopaedias
writers.

In

this

I say this not to

no author should wilfully permit an error

to

PREFACE.
pollute his pages

but

rather to account for those that

endeavored to commit none.

would correct them

but

vn

let

may

Doubtless there are some.

him who

discovers

exist.

If I

have

knew them,

them remember that they have

been unwittingly committed in the course of an exhaustive and unaided task.

One
and

of the inevitable results of preparing a

so large a

number of

articles

of a few from their proper places.

plement; and where any

inspector

work containing

is

the omission

These, however, have been added in a Sup-

article is not

found

in the

requested to refer to the Supplement,

is

so great a variety

arranged in alphabetical order

body of the work, the

w here
T

probably be

will

it

discovered.

For twelve months,

too, of the

time in which I have been occupied upon this

work, I suffered from an affection of the sight, which forbade

During that

purposes of study.
consulted under

was done under

period,

now happily

my direction by the willing

my dictation by their hands.

eyes of

all

use of the eyes for

passed, all authorities were

my

daughters

all writing

I realized for a time the picture so

often painted of the blind bard dictating his sublime verses to his daughters.

was a time of sorrow for the student

his vocation

but

it

those who, with willing hearts, could

of no import

who could

was a time of gladness

come

not labor with his

to the father

who

work

1440

this

is

but I could not conscientiously close this prefatory address without

at all,

in

that he had

To the world

to his assistance.

referring to this circumstance so gratifying to a parent's heart.

this

own organs

felt

It

my dedication should be To

January

1,

1874.

I to dedicate

Filial Affection.

Albert
Street, Washington, D. C,

Were

G.

Mackey, M. D.

A.

AARON

Aaron. Hebrew pHN, Aharon, a word

of doubtful etymology, but generally supposed to signify a mountaineer. He was the
brother of Moses, and the first high priest
under the Mosaic dispensation, whence the
priesthood established by that lawgiver is
known as the "Aaronic." He is alluded
to in the English lectures of the second
degree, in reference to a certain sign which
is said to have taken its origin from the fact
that Aaron and Hur were present on the
hill from which Moses surveyed the battle
which Joshua was waging with the Amalekites, when these two supported the weary
arms of Moses in an upright posture, because upon his uplifted hands the fate of the
battle depended.
(See Exodus xvii. 10Aaron is also referred to in the latter
12.)
section of the Royal Arch degree in connection with the memorials that were deposited
in the ark of the covenant.
In the degree
of " Chief of the Tabernacle," which is the
23d of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, the
presiding officer represents Aaron, and is
styled " Most Excellent High Priest." In
the 24th degree of the same Rite, or " Prince
of the Tabernacle," the second officer or
Senior Warden also personates Aaron.

ABBREVIATIONS

mention in the Pentateuch of this rod having been placed in the ark, but only that it
was put before it. But as St. Paul, or the
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, asserts
that the rod and the pot of manna were
both within the ark, Royal Arch Masons
have followed this later authority. Hence
the rod of Aaron is found in the ark but
its import is only historical, as if to identify the substitute ark as a true copy of the
original, which had been lost.
No symbolical instruction accompanies its discovery.
;

Ab. 3X. 1. The 11th month of

Hebrew civil year and corresponding to

the
the

months July and August, beginning with

new moon of the former. 2. It is also a

Hebrew word, signifying father, and will be
readily recognized by every Mason as a component part of the name Hiram Abif, which
literally means Hiram his father. See Abif.

the

Abacus. A term which has been lately,

but erroneously, used in this country to
designate the official staff of the Grand MasThe word has no such
ter of the Templars.
meaning for an abacus is either a table used
;

for facilitating arithmetical calculations, or

is

in architecture the

crowning plate of a

column and its capital. The Grand MasAaron's Rod. The method by which ter's staff was a baculus, which see.
Moses caused a miraculous judgment as to
Abaddon. A Hebrew word pl3K,
which tribe should be invested with the signifying destruction. By the Rabbins it is
priesthood, is detailed in the Book of Num- interpreted as the place of destruction, and is
bers (ch. xvii.). He directed that twelve the second of the seven names given by
rods should be laid up in the Holy of Holies them to the region of the dead. In the
of the Tabernacle, one for each tribe that Apocalypse it is rendered by the Greek
of Aaron of course represented the tribe of word 'Airoh/ivuv, Apollyon, and means the
Levi.
On the next day these rods were destroyer. In this sense it is used as a sigbrought out and exhibited to the people, nificant word in the high degrees.
and while all the rest remained dry and
Abbreviations. Abbreviations of
withered, that of Aaron alone budded and technical terms or of official titles are of
blossomed and yielded fruit. There is no very extensive use in Masonry, They were,
;

ABBREVIATIONS

ABBREVIATIONS
however, but rarely employed in the earlier
Masonic publications. For instance, not
one is to be found in the first edition of
Anderson's Constitutions. Within a comparatively recent period they have greatly

A.'.

increased, especially among French writers,

and a familiarity with them is therefore
essentially necessary to the Masonic stuFrequently, among English and aldent.
ways among French authors, a Masonic abbreviation is distinguished by three points,
.'., in a triangular form following the letter,
which peculiar mark was first used, according to Ragon, on the 12th of August, 1774,
by the Grand Orient of France, in an address to its subordinates. No authoritative
explanation of the meaning of these points
has been given, but they may be supposed
to refer to the three lights around the altar,
or perhaps more generally to the number
three, and to the triangle, both important
symbols in the Masonic system.
Before proceeding to give a list of the
principal abbreviations, it may be observed
that the doubling of a letter is intended to
express the plural of that word of which the
Thus, in
single letter is the abbreviation.
French, F.\ signifies " Frere," or " Brother," and FF.\ " Freres," or " Brothers."

D.\ Deputv.
D.\ G.\ G.\ H.\

P.*. Deputy General

Grand High Priest.
D.\ G.\ H.\ P.-. Deputy Grand High

Priest.

D.\ G.\ M.\ Deputy Grand Master.

D.\ D.\ G.\ M.\ District Deputy Grand
Master.
E.\ Eminent Excellent.
E.\ A.*. Entered Apprentice.
Ec.\ Ecossaise. (French.) Scottish; belonging to the Scottish Rite.
E.\ G.\ C.\ Eminent Grand Commander.
E.\ V.'. Ere Vulgaire.
(French.) Vulgar Era Year of the Lord.
F.\ Frere. Brother. (French.)
F.\ C.\ Fellow Craft.
F.\ M.\ Free Mason. Old Style.
;

G.\ Grand.
G.\ A.*. 0.\ T.\ U.\ Grand Architect of
the Universe.
G.\ C.\ Grand Chapter Grand Council.
G.\ Com.*. Grand Commandery Grand
;

Commander.
G.\ E.\ Grand Encampment; Grand

And

in English, L.\ is sometimes used to

denote "Lodge," and LL.\ to denote
" Lodges." This remark is made once for
all, because I have not deemed it necessary
to augment the size of the list of abbreviaIf the intions by inserting these plurals.

East.

G.\ G.\ C.\ General Grand Chapter.

G.\ G.\ H.\ P.'. General Grand High

G.\'h.\ P.'. Grand High Priest.

G.\ L.\ Grand Lodge.
G.\ M.\ Grand Master.
G.\ 0.\ Grand Orient.
G.\ R.\ A.'. 0/. Grand Royal Arch

spector finds S.\ G.\ I.'. to signify "Sovereign Grand Inspector," he will be at no loss
to know that SS.\ GG.\ II.*. must denote
''Sovereign Grand Inspectors."
A.'. Dep.\ Anno Depositionis.
In the
Year of the Deposite. The date used by
Royal and Select Masters.

Chapter.

H.\ A.-. B.\ Hiram Abif.

H.\ E.\ Holy Empire.

and A.'. Ancient and Accepted.

A.\ F.\ M.\ Ancient Freemasons.
A.*. F.\ and A.\ M.\
Ancient Free and
Accepted Mason.
A.'. Inv.\ Anno Inventionis. In the Year
of the Discovery. The date used by Royal
Arch Mason.
A.\ L.'.A?moLucis. In the Year of Light.
The date used by Ancient Craft Masons.
A.\ L.\ G.\ D.\ G.\ A/. D.\ L'U.\ A
la Oloire du Grand Architecte de V Univers.
To the Glory of the Grand Architect of the
A.*,

Universe.

(French.)

The

111.*.
I.*.

I.'.

Nazareyius,

Iesus

Rex

Masonic documents.
J.*. W.\ Junior Warden.
K.\ King.
H.\ Kadosh, Knight of Kadosh.
K.\ M.\ Knight of Malta.
K.\ T.\ Knight Templar.

usual caption of

L.\ Lodge.
LL.\ Lodges.

V Orient.
At the East.
(French.) The seat of the Lodge.
A.". M.\ Anno Mundi.
In the Year of
the World. The date used in the Ancient

L'0.\

Illustrious.

N.\ R.\

Jesus of Nazareth,
(Latin.)
Iudceorum.
King of the Jews.
I.-. T.\ N.\ 0.\ T.\ G.\ A.-. O.-. T.\ U.\
In the Name of the Grand Architect of the
Universe. Often forming the caption of

French Masonic documents.

A.*.

Y.\ M.\ Ancient York Mason.

B.\ A.'. Buisson Ardente. Burning Bush.

B.\ B.\ Burning Bush.
C.\ C.\ Celestial Canopy.
C.\ H.\ Captain of the Host.

M.\ Mason.
M.\ C.\ Middle Chamber.
M.\ E.\ Most Eminent Most Excellent.
and Accepted Rite.
M.\ E.\ G.\ H.\ P.'. Most Excellent
A.*. 0.\ Anno Ordinis.
In the Year of Grand High Priest.
the Order.
The date used by Knights
M.\ E.\ G.\ M.\ Most Eminent Grand
Templars.

Master, (of Knights Templars.)

ABDA
M.\ L.\ Mere Loge.

ABIF

(French.)

Mother

Lodge.

M.\ M.\ Master Mason.

M.\ M.\ Mois Magonnique.
(French.)
Masonic Month. March is the first Masonic
month among French Masons.
M.\ W.\ Most Worshipful.

such word in Hebrew.

0.\ Orient.
OB.-. Obligation.

P.-.

M.\ Past Master.

P.*.

S.\ Principal Sojourner.

R.\ A.'. Boyal Arch.

R.\ C.\ or R.\ f.'. Rose Croix. Appended
to the signature of one having that degree.
R.\ E.\ Right Eminent.
R.\ F.\ Respectable Frere.
(French.)
Worshipful Brother.
R.\ L.\ or R.\ CD .'. Respectable Loge.
(French.) Worshipful Lodge.
R.\ W.\ Right Worshipful.
Scribe.
S.\ C.\ Supreme Council.
S.\ G.".I.\ G.\ Sovereign Grand Inspector General.
S.\ P.*. R.\ S.\ Sublime Prince of the
Royal Secret.
S.\ S.\ Sanctum Sanctorum or Holy of
Holies.
S.\ S.\ S.\ Trots fois Salut.
(French.)
Thrice greeting.
common caption to
French Masonic circulars or letters.
S.\ W.\ Senior Warden.
T.\ C.\ F.\ Tres Chere Frere. (French.)
S.'.

Very Dear Brother.

T.\ G.\ A.-. 0.\ T.\ U.\ The Grand
Architect of the Universe.
V.'. or Ven.\ Venerable. (French.) Worshipful.
V.*.
light.

Abdamon.

The name of the orator

in the 14th degree of the Rite of Perfection,
or the Sacred Vault of James VI. It means
a servant, from abad, "to serve," although
somewhat corrupted in its transmission into
the rituals. Lenning says it is the Hebrew
Habdamon, " a servant ; " but there is no

L.\ Vraie lumi&re.

(French.)

True

secret Order which exAbelites.

isted about the middle of the 18th century
in Germany, called also "the Order of
Abel." The organization was in possession
of peculiar signs, words, and ceremonies of
initiation, but, according to Gadicke (Frei-

maurer Lexicon), it had no connection with

Freemasonry.
Abibalk. In the Elu of the French
Rite, the
assassins.

name of

the chief of the three

Derived most probably from

the Hebrew abi and balah, "ON and ybs,
which mean father of destruction. Lenning,
following the

Thuileur de VEcossisme of
Delaunay, makes it signify from the same
roots, but in defiance of the rules of Hebrew construction, " he who destroys the
father."

Abide by. See Stand to and abide by.

Abif. An epithet which has been applied in Scripture to that celebrated builder
who was sent to Jerusalem by King Hiram,
of Tyre, to superintend the construction of
the Temple. The word, which in the original Hebrew is VDN> an ^ which may be
pronounced Abiv or Abif, is compounded
of the noun in the construct-state '^fcf,
Abi, meaning " father," and the pronomi-

nal suffix *|, which, with the preceding

vowel sound, is to be sounded as iv or
if, and which means "his;" so that the
word thus compounded Abif literally and

V.*. W.\ Very Worshipful.

W.\ M.\ Worshipful Master.

grammatically signifies " his father." The

word is found in 2 Chronicles iv. 16, in

CD

" The pots also,

the following sentence
shovels, and the flesh hooks, and
all their instruments did Huram his father
make to King Solomon." The latter part
of this verse is in the original as follows

'

r-Pp

Lodge.
Lodges.

.'.

Prefixed to the signature of a Knight

Templar or a member of the A. and
A. Scottish Rite below the 33d degree.
Jf, Prefixed to the signature of a Grand
T7 or Past Grand Commander of
;
Knights Templars or a Mason of
the 33d degree in the Scottish Rite.
/T^ Prefixed to the signature of a
*-f-i Grand or Past Grand Master of
Hr Knights Templars and the Grand
Commander of the Supreme Council of the

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

Abda. A word used in some of the
high degrees. He was the father of Adoni(See 1 Kings iv. 6.)
Lenning is
in saying that he is represented by
one of the officers in the degree of Master
in Israel. He has confounded Abda with
his son.
(Encyc. der Freimaur.)

ram.

wrong

and the

noStr ^bnh V3N o-nn

Shelomoh

lamelech

Abif

Huram

nety
gnasah

Luther has been more literal in his version of this passage than the English translators, and appearing to suppose that the
word Abif is to be considered simply as an
appellative or surname, he preserves the

Hebrew form, his translation being as follows " Machte Huram Abif dem Konige
Salomo." The Swedish version is equally
exact, and, instead of "Hiram his father,"
gives us " Hyram Abiv." In the Latin Vulgate, as in the English version, the words
are rendered " Hiram pater ejus."
I have
little doubt that Luther and the Swedish
:

ABLE

ABIF
translator were correct in treating the word
Abif as an appellative. In Hebrew, the word
ab, or " father," is often used, honoris causa,
as a title of respect, and may then signify
friend, counsellor, wise man, or something
Thus, Dr.
else of equivalent character.
Clarke, commenting on the word abrech, in
Genesis xli. 43, says: "Father seems to

have been a name of office, and probably

father of the king or father of Pharaoh might
signify the same as the king's minister
among us." And on the very passage in
which this word Abif is used, he say's:
"
DN> father, is often used in Hebrew to
signify

master,

chief

inventor,

operator."

Gesenius, the distinguished Hebrew lexicographer, gives to this word similar significations,

such as benefactor, master, teacher,

of the dative for the accusative after transiThus, in Jeremiah (xl. 2), we
tive verbs.
have such a construction: vayakach rab
tabachim VIremyahu; that is, literally, "and
the captain of the guards took for Jeremiah," where the b, I, or for, is a Chaldaism
and redundant, the true rendering being,
" and the captain of the guards took Jeremiah." Other similar passages are to be
found in Lamentations iv. 5, Job v. 2, etc.
In like manner I suppose the b before
Huram, which the English translators have
rendered by the preposition "of," to be
redundant and a Chaldaic form, and then
the sentence should be read thus " I have
sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, Huram my father " or if considered as an appellative, as it should be,
:

Huram Abi."
From all this

and says that in the Arabic and the Ethi-

"

opic it is spoken of one who excels in anything. This idiomatic custom was pursued
by the later Hebrews, for Buxtorf tells us,
in his Talniudic Lexicon, that " among the
Talmudists abba, father, was always a title
of honor," and he quotes the following remarks from a treatise of the celebrated
Maimonides, who, when speaking of the
grades or ranks into which the Rabbinical
doctors were divided, says " The first class

I conclude that the word

Ab, with its different suffixes, is always used
in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, in

consists of those each of

whom

bears his
of honor the

reference to
of respect.

Hiram

the builder, as a

title

When King Hiram speaks of

calls him "my father Hiram,"

him he
Hiram Abi; and when the writer of the
Book of Chronicles is speaking of him and
King Solomon in the same passage, he calls
him "Solomon's father"
"his father,"
Hiram Abif The only difference is made by

the different appellation of the pronouns my

own name, without any title
second of those who are called Rabbanim ; and his in Hebrew. To both the kings of
and the third of those who are called Rabbi, Tyre and of Judah he bore the honorable
and the men of this class also receive the relation of Ab, or " father," equivalent to
;

cognomen of Abba, Father."

Again, in 2 Chronicles ii. 13, Hiram, the
king of Tyre, referring to the same Hiram,
the widow's son, who is spoken of subsequently in reference to King Solomon as
" his father," or Abif in the passage already
cited,

writes to

Solomon

"

And now

have sent a cunning man, endued with

understanding, of Huram my father's."
The only difficulty in this sentence is to be
found in the prefixing of the letter lamed
b, before Huram, which has caused our
translators, by a strange blunder, to render
the words V Huram abi, as meaning " of
Huram my father's," * instead of " Huram
my father." Luther has again taken the
correct view of this subject, and translates
the word as an appellative "So sende ich
nun einen weisen Mann, der Berstand hat,
Huram Abif; " that is, " So now I send you
a wise man who has understanding, Huram
Abif." The truth I suspect is, although it
has escaped all the commentators, that the
lamed in this passage is a Chaldaism which
is sometimes used by the later Hebrew
writers, who incorrectly employ h, the sign
:

It may be remarked that this could not be

the true meaning, for the father of King Hiram
was not another Hiram, but Abibaal.
:;:

friend, counsellor,
" Father Hiram."

or

minister.

He

was

The Masons

are therefore perfectly correct in refusing to adopt

the translation of the English version, and
in preserving, after the example of Luther,
the word Abif as an appellative, surname,
or title of honor and distinction bestowed
upon the chief builder of the Temple.
Abiram. One of the traitorous craftsmen, whose act of perfidy forms so important a part of the third degree, receives in
some of the high degrees the name of Abiram AMrop. These words certainly have a
Hebrew look but the significant words of
Masonry have, in the lapse of time and in
their transmission through ignorant teachers, become so corrupted in form that it is
almost impossible to trace them to any inThey may be Hebrew or
telligent root.
;

they

may be anagrammatized

(see

Ana-

only chance that can give

us the true meaning which they undoubtedly have.
Able. There is an archaic use of the
word able to signify suitable. Thus, Chaucer
says of a monk that " he was able to ben an
abbot," that is, suitable to be an abbot.
In this sense the old manuscript Constitutions constantly employ the word, as when
they say that the apprentice should be

gram)

but

it is

ABLUTION

ABRAHAM

"able of birth and limbs as he ought to

be," that is, that he should be of birth
suitable for a member of the Craft, and of
limbs suitable to perform the labors of a

word was given by the secretary to the new

member, viz. Eden, signifying the garden
where Adam, the great aboriginal, was

craftsman.

Then the secretary invested him with

the sign, viz. resting his right hand on
his left side, signifying the first conjunction
of harmony.
It had no connection with Freemasonry,
but was simply one of those numerous imitative societies to which that Institution has

Ablution. A ceremonial purification

by washing, much used in the Ancient
Mysteries and under the Mosaic dispensaIt is also employed in some of the
tion.
high degrees of Masonry.
The better
technical term for this ceremony
tion,

which

is lustra-

formed.
:

given

see.

Abnet. The band

made

or apron,

of

wrought, and worn by

the Jewish priesthood. It seems to have
been borrowed directly from the Egyptians,

fine linen, variously

upon the representations of

all

of whose

is to be found a similar girdle.

Like
the zennaar, or sacred cord of the Brahmins, and the white shield of the Scandinavians, it is the analogue of the Masonic
apron.
secret society which
Aborigines.
existed in England about the year 1783,
and of whose ceremony of initiation the
following account is contained in the British Magazine of that date.
The presiding
officer, who was styled the Original, thus
addressed the candidate

gods

rise.

Abrac.

In the Leland MS. it is said

that the Masons conceal " the wey of wynninge the facultye of Abrac." Mr. Locke
(if it was he who wrote a commentary on
the manuscript) says, " Here I am utterly
in the dark."
It means simply " the way
The
of acquiring the science of Abrac."
science of Abrac is the knowledge of the
power and use of the mystical abraxas,

which

see.

Abracadabra. A

term of incanta-

which was formerly worn about the

neck as an amulet against several diseases,
especially the tertian ague.
It was to be
written on a triangular piece of parchment

tion

in the following form

Original.

Have you

faith

enough

to

ABRACADABRA
ABRACADABR
ABRACADAB
ABRACADA
ABRACAD
ABRACA
ABRAC
ABRA
ABR
AB
A

be

made an

Original ?
Candidate. I have.

Original. Will you be conformable to all

honest rules which may support steadily
the honor, reputation, welfare, and dignity
of our ancient undertaking ?

Candidate. I will.
Original.
Then, friend, promise me that
you will never stray from the paths of
Honor, Freedom, Honesty, Sincerity, Prudence, Modesty, Reputation, Sobriety, and

True Friendship.

It is said that it first occurs in the Car-

Candidate. I do.
Which done, the crier of the court

men

de Morbis

et

Remediis of Q. Serenus

Sammonicus, a favorite of the Emperor

manded silence, and the new member, being Severus in the 2d and 3d centuries, and is
uncovered, and dropping on his right knee, generally supposed to be derived from the
had the following oath administered to him word abraxas. Higgins, [Celt. Druids, p.
by the servant, the new member laying his 246,) who is never in want of an etymology,
right hand on the Cap of Honor, and Nim- derives it from the Irish abra, " god," and
rod holding a staff over his head
cad, "holy," and makes abra-cad-abra,
" You swear by the Cap of Honor, by therefore, signify abra
abra.
the holy
the Collar of Freedom, by the Coat of
Abrabam. The founder of the HeHonesty, by the Jacket of Sincerity, by brew nation. The patriarch Abraham is
the shirt of Prudence, by the Breeches of personated in the degree or Order of High
Modesty, by the Garters of Reputation, by Priesthood, which refers in some of its certhe Stockings of Sobriety, and by the Steps emonies to an interesting incident in his
of True Friendship, never to depart from life. After the amicable separation of Lot
these laws."
and Abraham, when the former was dwellThen rising, with the staff resting on his ing in the plain in which Sodom and its
head, he received a copy of the laws from neighboring towns were situated, and the
the hands of the Grand Original, with these latter in the valley of Mamre near Hebron,
words, " Enjoy the benefits hereof."
a king from beyond the Euphrates, whose
He then delivered the copy of the laws name was Chedorlaomer, invaded lower
to the care of the servant, after which the Palestine, and brought several of the
:

com-

ABRAHAM

ABRAXAS

smaller states into a tributary condition.

Among these were the five cities of the
As the
plain, to which Lot had retired.
yoke was borne with impatience by these
"cities, Chedorlaomer, accompanied by four
other kings, who were probably his tributaries, attacked and defeated the kings of
the plain, plundered their towns, and carAmong
ried their people away as slaves.
those who suffered on this occasion was
Lot. As soon as Abraham heard of t^ese
events, he armed three hundred and eighteen of his slaves, and, with the assistance
of Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, three Amoritish chiefs, he pursued the retiring invaders, and having attacked them near the
Jordan, put them to flight, and then returned with all the men and goods that
had been recovered from the enemy. On

Abraxas. Basilides, the head of the

Egyptian sect of Gnostics, taught that
there were seven emanations, or aeons, from
the Supreme God; that these emanations
engendered the angels of the highest order
that these angels formed a heaven for their
habitation, and brought forth other angels

his way back he was met by Melchizedek,

the king of that place, and who was, like
Abraham, a worshipper of the true God.

Melchizedek refreshed Abraham and his

people with bread and wine; and while
consenting to receive back the persons who
had been liberated from captivity, he re-

Abraham to
Abraham positively
quested

retain the goods.

refused to retain

But
any

of the spoils, although, by the customs of

the age, he was entitled to them, and declared that he had sworn that he would not
take " from a thread even to a shoelatchet."
Although the conduct of Abraham in this
whole transaction was of the most honorable and conscientious character, the incidents do not appear to have been introduced
into the ritual of the High Priesthood for
any other reason except that of their connection with Melchizedek, who was the
founder of an Order of Priesthood.

Abraham, Antoine

Firniin.

Mason who made himself notorious at

Paris,

in the beginning of the present century, by

the manufacture and sale of false Masonic
diplomas and by trading in the higher degrees, from which traffic he reaped for some
time a plentiful harvest.
The Supreme
Council of France declared, in 1811, all his
diplomas and charters void and deceptive.
He is the author of "L'Art du Tuileur,
dedie' a tous les Masons des deux hemispheres," a small volume of 20 pages 8vo,
printed at Paris in 1803, and published
from 1800 to 1808 a periodical work entitled " Le Miroir de la v6rite, dedie" a tous
les Macons," 3 vols., 8vo.
This contains
many interesting details concerning the
history of Masonry in France.
In 1811
there was published at Paris a " Circulaire
du Supreme Conseil du 33e degre, etc., relative a la vente, par le Sieur Abraham de
grades et cahiers Ma^onniques," (8vo, 15
pp.,) from which it is evident that Abraham
was nothing else but a Masonic charlatan.

of a nature inferior to their own that in

time other heavens were formed and other
angels created, until the whole number
of angels and their respective heavens
amounted to 365, which were thus equal to
the number of days in a year and, finally,
that over all these an omnipotent lord
inferior, however, to the Supreme God
presided, whose name was Abraxas.
Now this
word Abraxas, in the numerical force of
its letters when written in Greek, ABPAHA2,
amounts to 365, the number of words in the
Basilidean system, as well as the number
of days in the year, thus A, 1.., B, 2.., P,
365. The
100.., A, 1.., S, 60.., A, 1.., 2 200
god Abraxas was therefore a type or symbol of the year, or of the revolution of the
earth around the sun. This mystical reference of the name of a god to the annual
period was familiar to the ancients, and is
to be found in at least two other instances.
Thus among the Persians the letters of the
name of the god Mithras, and of Belenus
among the Gauls, amounted each to 365.
;

M=

= 5
1 = 10
6=9
P = 100
A = 1
2 = 200 = 365

B= 2
H= 8
A= 30
E = 5
N = 50
= 70
2 = 200 = 365

The word Abraxas,

therefore from this

40

mystical value of the letters of which

it

was

composed, became talismanic, and was frequently inscribed, sometimes with and
sometimes without other superstitious inscriptions, on stones or gems as amulets,
many of which have been preserved or are
continually being discovered, and are to be
found in the cabinets of the curious.
There have been many conjectures among
the learned as to the derivation of the word
Abraxas. Beausobre (Histoire du Manicheisme, vol. ii.) derives it from the Greek,
Saw, signifying "the magnificent
A/3(j)og
Saviour, he who heals and preserves." Bellermann, {Essay on the Gems of the Ancients) supposed it to be compounded of
three Coptic words signifying "the holy
word of bliss." Pignorius and Vandelin
think it is composed of four Hebrew and
three Greek letters, whose numerical value
is

365,

and which are the initials of the

" saving men by wood, i. e. the

sentence

cross."

Abraxas Stones.

Stones on which

ABSENCE

ACACIA

the word Abraxas and other devices are

engraved, and which were used by the
Egyptian Gnostics as amulets.
Absence. Attendance on the communications of his Lodge, on all convenient
occasions, is considered as one of the duties
of every Mason, and hence the old charges
of 1722 (ch. iii.) say that " in ancient times
no Master or Fellow could be absent from it
[the Lodge], without incurring a severe censure, until it appeared to the Master and
Wardens that pure necessity hindered

sacred furniture. Isaiah, in recounting the

promises of God's mercy to the Israelites
on their return from the captivity, tells
them that, among other things, he will
plant in the wilderness, for their relief and
refreshment, the cedar, the acacia, (or, as it
is rendered in our common version, the
shittah,) the fir, and other trees.
The first thing, then, that we notice in
this symbol of the acacia, is that it had
been always consecrated from among the
other trees of the forest by the sacred purposes to which it was devoted. By the
Jew, the tree from whose wood the sanctuary of the tabernacle and the holy ark
had been constructed would ever be viewed
as more sacred than ordinary trees.
The
early Masons, therefore, very naturally appropriated this hallowed plant to the
equally sacred purpose of a symbol, which
was to teach an important divine truth in
all ages to come.
Having thus briefly disposed of the natural history of this plant, we may now proceed to examine it in its symbolic relations.
First. The acacia, in the mythic system
of Freemasonry, is preeminently the symbol Of the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
that important doctrine which it is the
great design of the Institution to teach.
As the evanescent nature of the flower r
which " cometh forth and is cut down,"
reminds us of the transitory nature of
human life, so the perpetual renovation of
the evergreen plant, which uninterruptedly
presents the appearance of youth and vigor,
is aptly compared to that spiritual life in
which the soul, freed from the corruptible
companionship of the body, shall enjoy an
eternal spring and an immortal youth.
Hence, in the impressive funeral service
of our Order, it is said that " this evergreen
is an emblem of our faith in the immortality of the soul.
By this we are reminded
that we have an immortal part within us,
which shall survive the grave, and which
shall never, never, never die." And again,
in the closing sentences of the monitorial
lecture of the third degree, the same sentiment is repeated, and we are told that by
" the ever-green and ever-living sprig " the
Mason is strengthened "with confidence
and composure to look forward to a blessed
immortality." Such an interpretation of
the symbol is an easy and a natural one
it suggests itself at once to the least reflective mind and consequently, in some one
form or another, is to be found existing in
all ages and nations.
It was an ancient

Fines have by some Lodges been

but a pecuniary penalty is clearly an unmasonic punishment, (see Fines;) and even that usage is
now discontinued, so that attendance on
ordinary communications is no longer enforced by any sanction of law. It is a duty
the discharge of which must be left to the
conscientious convictions of each Mason.
In the case, however, of a positive summons for any express purpose, such as to
stand trial, to show cause, etc., the neglect
or refusal to attend might be construed
into a contempt, to be dealt with according
to its magnitude or character in each par-

him."

inflicted for non-attendance,

ticular case.

Acacia.

An interesting and important

symbol in Freemasonry.

Botanically, it is
the acacia vera of Tournefort, and the mimosa nilotica of Linnaeus. It grew abundantly in the vicinity of Jerusalem, where
it is still to be found, and is familiar in its
modern use as the tree from which the gum
arabic of commerce is derived.
Oliver, it is true, says that " there is not
the smallest trace of any tree of the kind
growing so far north as Jerusalem," (Landm.
ii.
149 ;) but this statement is refuted
by the authority of Lieutenant Lynch, who
saw it growing in great abundance in Jericho, and still farther north. (Exped. to Dead
Sea, p. 262.)

The Babbi Joseph Schwarz,

excellent authority, says: "The

Acacia (Shittim) tree, Al Sunt, is found in
Palestine of different varieties it looks like
the Mulberry tree, attains a great height,

who

is

and has a hard wood. The gum which is

obtained from it is the gum arabic." [Descriptive Geography and Historical Sketch of
Palestine, p. 308, Leeser's translation. Phila.,
Schwarz was for sixteen years a
1850.)

resident of Palestine, and wrote from personal observation. The testimony of Lynch
and Schwarz should, therefore, forever settle
the question of the existence of the acacia
in Palestine.
The acacia, which, in Scripture, is always
called Shittah, and in the plural Shittim,
was esteemed a sacred wood among the Hebrews. Of it Moses was ordered to make
the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the
table for the shewbread, and the rest of the

custom,
which is not, even now, altogether disused,
for mourners to carry in
their hands at funerals a sprig of some evergreen, generally the cedar or the cypress, and
to deposit it in the grave of the deceased.

'

ACACIA

ACACIA

According to Dalcho,* the Hebrews always

planted a sprig of the acacia at the head
of the grave of a departed friend. Potter
tells us that the ancient Greeks "had a
custom of bedecking tombs with herbs and
All sorts of purple and white
flowers." f
flowers were acceptable to the dead, but
principally the amaranth and the myrtle.
The very name of the former of these

ture, of that better and spiritual part within us, which, as an emanation from the

which signifies "never fading,"

would seem to indicate the true symbolic
meaning of the usage, although archaeologists have generally supposed it to be simply an exhibition of love on the part of

culcate the great lesson that " life rises out

of the grave."
But incidental to this the
acacia has two other interpretations which
are well worthy of investigation.
Secondly, then, the acacia is a symbol of
innocence. The symbolism here is of a
peculiar and unusual character, depending
not on any real analogy in the form or use
of the symbol to the idea symbolized, but
simply on a double or compound meaning
of the word. For anaua, in the Greek language, signifies both the plant in question
and the moral quality of innocence or
purity of life. In this sense the symbol
refers, primarily, to him over whose solitary grave the acacia was planted, and
whose virtuous conduct, whose integrity of
life and fidelity to his trusts have ever been
presented as patterns to the craft, and con-

plants,

Eagon says, that the ancients substituted the acacia for all other
plants because they believed it to be incorruptible, and not liable to injury from the
attacks of any kind of insect or other ani-

the survivors.

thus symbolizing the incorruptible

mal
nature of the soul.
Hence we see the propriety of placing
the sprig of acacia, as an emblem of immortality, among the symbols of that degree, all of whose ceremonies are intended
to teach us the great truth that " the life
of man, regulated by morality, faith, and
justice, will be rewarded at its closing
hour by the prospect of Eternal Bliss." J
So, therefore, says Dr. Oliver, when the
Master Mason exclaims " my name is Acacia," it is equivalent to saying, " I have
I have triumphed over
been in the grave
and being reit by rising from the dead
generated in the process, I have a claim to

everlasting."
The sprig of acacia, then, in its

life

most

ordinary signification, presents itself to the

Master Mason as a symbol of the immortality of the soul, being intended to remind
him, by its evergreen and unchanging na-

Grand Architect of the Universe, can never

And as this is the most ordinary, the

most generally accepted signification, so
also is it the most important for thus, as
the peculiar symbol of immortality, it becomes the most appropriate to an Order
all of whose teachings are intended to indie.

sequently to all Master Masons, who, by

this interpretation of the symbol, are invited to emulate his example.
Hutchinson, indulging in his favorite

theory of Christianizing Masonry, when he

comes to this signification of the symbol,
thus enlarges on the interpretation " We
Masons, describing the deplorable estate of
religion under the Jewish law, speak in
figures:
'Her tomb was in the rubbish
and filth cast forth of the temple, and Acacia wove its branches over her monument
ahakia being the Greek word for innocence,
or being free from sin implying that the
sins and corruptions of the old law and
devotees of the Jewish altar had hid religion from those who sought her, and she
was only to be found where innocence survived, and under the banner of the divine
:

* " This custom among the Hebrews arose

from this circumstance.
Agreeably to their
laws, no dead bodies were allowed to be interred
within the walls of the city ; and as the Cohens,
or Priests, were prohibited from crossing a grave,
it was necessary to place marks thereon, that
they might avoid them. For this purpose the
acacia was used." (Dalcho, Oration, p. 27, note.)
I object to the reason assigned by Dalcho, but
of the existence of the custom there can be no
question, notwithstanding the denial or doubt
of Dr. Oliver. Blount {Travels in the Levant,
p. 197,) says, speaking of the Jewish burial customs, " those who bestow a marble stone over
any [grave] have a hole a yard long and a foot
broad, in which they plant an evergreen, which
seems to grow from the body and is carefully
watched." Hasselquist {Travels, p. 28,) confirms
his testimony.
I borrow the citations from
Brown, {Antiquities of the Jews, vol. ii., p. 356,)
but have verified the reference to Hasselquist.
The work of Blount I have not been enabled to
consult.

t Antiquities of Greece, p. 569.

% Dr. Crucefix, MS. quoted by Oliver.
marks, ii. 2.

Land-

Lamb and
;

we were

as to ourselves, professing that

to be distinguished by our Acacy,

or as true Acacians in our religious faith

and tenets."

But, lastly, the acacia is to be considered

as the symbol of initiation.
This is by
far the most interesting of its interpretations, and was, we have every reason to
believe, the primary and original; thf
others being but incidental.
It leads us at
once to the investigation of the significant
fact that in all the ancient initiations and
religious mysteries there was some plant
peculiar to each, which was consecrated by
its own esoteric meaning, and which occu* Hutchinson's Spirit of Masonry, Lect. IX.,
p. 99.

ACACIAN

ACADEMY

pied an important position in the celebration of the rites, so that the plant, whatever it might be, from its constant and
prominent use in the ceremonies of initiation, came at length to be adopted as the
symbol of that initiation.
Thus, the lettuce was the sacred plant
which assumed the place of the acacia in
(See Lettuce.)
the mysteries of Adonis.
The lotus was that of the Brahminical rites
of India, and from them adopted by the
Egyptians. (See Lotus.) The Egyptians
also revered the erica or heath; and the
mistletoe was a mystical plant among the
Druids.
(See Erica and Mistletoe.) And,
lastly, the myrtle performed the same office
of symbolism in the mysteries of Greece
that the lotus did in Egypt or the mistletoe among the Druids. See Myrtle.
In all of these ancient mysteries, while
the sacred plant was a symbol of initiation,
the initiation itself was symbolic of the
resurrection to a future life, and of the immortality of the soul. In this view, Freemasonry is to us now in the place of the
ancient initiations, and the acacia is substituted for the lotus, the erica, the ivy, the
The lesson of
mistletoe, and the myrtle.

the akakia, or innocence with which he was

to be distinguished, from the Greek word
a/ca/cm.
(See the preceding article.)
The
Acacians constituted an heretical sect in
the primitive Christian Church, who derived their name from Acacius, Bishop of
Caesarea; and there was subsequently another sect of the same name Acacius,
Patriarch of Constantinople.
But it is
needless to say that the Hutchinsonian
application of the word Acacian to signify
a Freemason has nothing to do with the
theological reference of the term.
The 4th degree of the
Rectified Eose Croix of Schroeder.

same the medium of

imis the
parting it is all that has been changed.
Eeturning, then, to the acacia, we find
that it is capable of three explanations.
It is a symbol of immortality, of innocence,
and of initiation. But these three significations are closely connected, and that
connection must be observed, if we desire
to obtain a just interpretation of the symThus, in this one symbol, we are
bol.
taught that in the initiation of life, of
which the initiation in the third degree is
simply emblematic, innocence must for a
time lie in the grave, at length, however,
to be called, by the word of the Grand
Master of the Universe, to a blissful imCombine with this the recolmortality.
lection of the place where the sprig of acaMount Calvary,
the
cia was planted,
place of sepulture of him who " brought
life and immortality to light," and who, in
Christian Masonry, is designated, as he is
in Scripture, as " the lion of the tribe of
Judah;" and remember, too, that in the
mystery of his death, the wood of the cross
takes the place of the acacia, and in this
little and apparently insignificant symbol,
but which is really and truly the most important and significant one in Masonic
science, we have a beautiful suggestion of
all the mysteries of life and death, of time
and eternity, of the present and of the

wisdom

future.

Academy.

Academy of Ancients

word

introduced by
Hutchinson, in his " Spirit of Masonry,"
to designate a Freemason in reference to

Secrets.)

or of Se-

society

Warsaw, in 1767, by M. Thoux

and founded on the principles
of another which bore the same name, and
which had been established at Rome, about
the end of the 16th century, by John Bapinstituted at
de Salverte,

tiste

Porta.

The

object of the institution

was the advancement of the natural sciences and their application to the occult
philosophy.

Academy

of Sages. An order which

existed in Sweden in 1770, deriving its
origin from that founded in London by
Elias Ashmole, on the doctrines of the
few similar
New Atlantis of Bacon.
societies were subsequently founded in
Russia and France, one especially noted
by Thory [Act. Lot.) as having been established in 1776 by the mother Lodge of

Avignon.

Academy of
emy of

Secrets.

See Acad-

Ancients.

Academy of Snblime Masters

of the Luminous Ring. Founded
in France, in 1780, by Baron Blaerfindy,
one of the Grand Officers of the Philosophic Scotch Rite. The Academy of the
Luminous Ring was dedicated to the philosophy of Pythagoras, and was divided
The first and second
into three degrees.
were principally occupied with the history
of Freemasonry, and the last with the
dogmas of the Pythagorean school, and
their application to the highest grades of

The historical hypothesis which

was sought to be developed in this Academy was that Pythagoras was the founder
of Freemasonry.
science.

Academy of True

Masons.
Dom

at Montpelier, in France, by
Pernetty, in 1778, and occupied with instructions in hermetic science, which were
developed in six degrees, viz. 1. The True
Mason; 2. The True Mason in the Right

Founded

Way 3. Knight of the Golden Key 4.

Bright of Iris; 5. Knight of the Argonauts; 6. Knight of the Golden Fleece.
The degrees thus conferred constituted the
;

Acacian.

{Academic des

crets.

ACADEMY

ACCEPTED

Philosophic Scotch Rite, which was the

system adopted by the Academy. It afterwards changed its name to that of RussoSwedish Academy, which circumstance

died just before the appointed time of her

marriage. Her faithful and grieving nurse
placed on her tomb a basket containing
many of her toys and jewels, and covered
It so happened that the
it with a flat tile.
basket was placed immediately over an
acanthus root, which afterwards grew up
around the basket and curled over under
the superincumbent resistance of the tile,
thus exhibiting a form of foliage which
was, on its being seen by the architect,
adopted as a model for the capital of
a new order so that the story of affection
was perpetuated in marble. Dudley (Naology, p. 164,) thinks the tale puerile, and
supposes that the acanthus is really the lotus
of the Indians and Egyptians, and is symbolic of laborious but effectual effort applied to the support of the world. With
him, the symbolism of the acanthus and
the lotus are identical. See Lotus.

10

leads

Thory

to

believe that

it

was con-

nected with the Alchemical Chapters which

at that time existed in Russia and Sweden.
The entirely hermetic character of the
Academy of True Masons may readily be
perceived in a few paragraphs cited by
Clavel from a discourse by Goyer de Jumilly at the installation of an Academy in
Martinico. "To seize," says the orator,
" the pencil of Hermes
to engrave the
doctrines of natural philosophy on your
columns; to call Flamel, the Philaletes,
the Cosmopolite, and our other masters to
my aid for the purpose of unveiling the
mysterious principles of the occult sci;

ences,
these, illustrious knights, appear
to be the duties imposed on me by the ceremony of your installation. The fountain
of Count Trevisan, the pontifical water,

the peacock's

tail,

are

which you are familiar,"

phenomena with
etc., etc.

Academy, Platonic.

Founded

in

1480 by Marsilius Ficinus, at Florence,

under the patronage of Lorenzo de Medicis.
It is said by the Masons of Tuscany
to have been a secret society, and is supposed to have had a Masonic character,
because in the hall where its members held
their meetings, and which still remains,
many Masonic symbols are to be found.
Clavel supposes it to have been a society
founded by some of the honorary members
and patrons of the fraternity of Freemasons who existed in the Middle Ages, and
who, having abandoned the material design
of the institution, confined themselves to
its mystic character.
If his suggestion be
correct, this is one of the earliest instances
of the separation of speculative from operative Masonry.

Acanthus. A plant, described by

Diosco rides, with broad, flexible, prickly
leaves, which perish in the winter and
sprout again at the return of spring.
It
is found in the Grecian islands on the borders of cultivated fields or gardens, and is
common in moist, rocky situations. It is
memorable for the tradition which assigns
to it the origin of the foliage carved on the
capitals of Corinthian and composite columns. Hence, in architecture, that part
of the Corinthian capital is called the
Acanthus which is situated below the abacus, and which, having the form of a vase
or bell, is surrounded by two rows of
leaves of the acanthus plant.
Callimachus, who invented this ornament, is said
to have had the idea suggested to him by
the following incident.
Corinthian
maiden, who was betrothed, fell ill, and

Accepted. A
which

is

term in Freemasonry
synonymous with " initiated " or

" received into the society." Thus, we find

in the Regulations of 1663, such expressions as these;
person who shall
hereafter be accepted a Freemason, shall
be admitted into a Lodge or assembly until

"No

certificate of the time and

place of his acceptation from the Lodge that
accepted him, unto the Master of that limit
or division where such Lodge is kept." The
word seems to have been first used in 1663,
and in the Regulations of that year is constantly employed in the place of the olden
term "made," as equivalent to "initiated."
This is especially evident in the 6th Regu-

he has brought a

which says, "that no person shall

be accepted unless he be twenty-one years
lation,

old or

more " where accepted clearly means

As the word was introduced in
;

initiated.

use seems also to have soon ceased,

not found in any subsequent documents until 1738; neither in the Regulations of 1721, nor in the Charges approved
in 1722
except once in the latter, where
" laborers and unaccepted Masons " are
spoken of as distinguished from and inIn the Regulaferior to "Freemasons."
tions of 1721, the words " made," " enor "admitted," are constantly
tered,"
1663,

its

for it is

employed in its stead. But in 1738, Anderson, who, in publishing the 2d edition of
the Book of Constitutions, made many
verbal alterations which seem subsequently
to have been disapproved of by the Grand
Lodge, (see Book of Constitutions,) again introduced the word accepted. Thus, in the
5th of the Regulations of 1721, which in the
edition of 1723 read as follows " But no
man can be made or admitted a member of
a particular Lodge," etc., he changed the
phraseology so as to make the article read
"No man can be accepted a member of a
:

ACCLAMATION

ACHAD

And so attached
particular Lodge/' etc.
does he appear to have become to this word,
that he changed the very name of the Order,
by altering the title of the work, which, in
the edition of 1723, was "The Constitutions
of the Freemasons," to that of " The Con-

accusation will be received and investigated,

although remotely derived from one who is
not a member of the Order.
It is not necessary that the accuser
should be a member of the same Lodge. It

Ancient and Honorable

Society of Free and Accepted. Masons."
Although many of the innovations of the

but

stitutions of the

edition of 1738 of the

Book

of Constitutions

were subsequently repudiated by the Grand

Lodge, and omitted in succeeding editions,
"
the title of " Free and Accepted Masons
was retained, and is now more generally
used than the older and simpler one of
"Freemasons," to distinguish the society.
The word
(See Free and Accepted Masons.)
accepted, however, as a synonym of initiated,
has now become obsolete. The modern
idea of an accepted Mason is that he is one
distinguished from a purely operative or
stone-mason, who has not been admitted to
the freedom of the company an idea evidently intended to be conveyed by the use
of the word in the Charges of 1722, already
;

quoted.

Acclamation. A certain form of

words used in connection with the battery.
In the Scottish rite it is hoschea; in the
French, vivat; and in the rite of Misraim,
In the York, it is so mote it be.
hallelujah.
Accolade. From the Latin ad and
It is generally
collum, around the neck.
but incorrectly supposed that the accolade
means the blow given on the neck of a
newly created knight with the flat of the
sword. The best authorities define it to be
the embrace, accompanied with the kiss
of peace, by which the new knight was at
his creation welcomed into the Order of
Knighthood by the sovereign or lord who
See the word Knighthood.
Accord. We get this word from the
two Latin ones ad cor, to the heart, and
hence it means hearty consent. Thus in
Wiclif 's translation we find the phrase in
Philippians, which in the Authorized Version is " with one accord," rendered " with
one will, with one heart." Such is its signification in the Masonic formula, "free
will and accord," that is "free will and
hearty consent." See Free Will and Accord.
created him.

Accusation. See Charge.

Accuser. In every trial in a Lodge

for

an offence against the laws and regulations

or the principles of Masonry any Master
Mason may be the accuser of another, but a
profane cannot be permitted to prefer
charges against a Mason. Yet, if circum-

known to a profane upon which

charges ought to be predicated, a Master
Mason may avail himself of that information, and out of it frame an accusation to
be presented to the Lodge.
And such

stances are

is

sufficient if
it is

Mason

he

is

an

11

affiliated

Mason;

generally held that an unaffiliated

is

no more competent to prefer

charges than a profane.

In consequence of the Junior Warden
being placed over the Craft during the hours
of refreshment, and of his being charged
at the time of his installation to see " that
none of the Craft be suffered to convert the
purposes of refreshment into those of intemperance and excess," it has been very
generally supposed that it is his duty, as
the prosecuting officer of the Lodge, to
prefer charges against any member who,
by his conduct, has made himself amenable
I
to the penal jurisdiction of the Lodge.
know of no ancient regulation which imposes this unpleasant duty upon the Junior
Warden; but it does seem to be a very
natural deduction, from his peculiar prerogative as the custos morum or guardian
of the conduct of the Craft, that in all
cases of violation of the law he should,
after due efforts towards producing a reform, be the proper officer to bring the
conduct of the offending brother to the
notice of the Lodge.
Aceldama, from the Syro-Chaldaic,
meaning field of blood, so called because it
was purchased with the blood-money which
was paid to Judas Iscariot for betraying
his Lord.
It is situated on the slope
of the hills beyond the valley of Hinnom
and to the south of Mount Zion. The
earth there was believed, by early writers,
to have possessed a corrosive quality, by
means of which bodies deposited in it were
quickly consumed and hence it was used
by the Crusaders, then by the Knights
Hospitallers, and afterwards by the Armenians, as a place of sepulture, and the
Empress Helen is said to have built a
charnel-house in its midst. Dr. Eobinson
(Biblical Researches, i., p. 524,) says that the
field is not now marked by any boundary
to distinguish it from the rest of the field,
and the former charnel-house is now a
ruin.
The field of Aceldama is referred to
in the ritual of the Knights Templars.
nom de plume
Acerellos, R. S.
assumed by Carl Eoessler, a German Ma;

sonic writer.

See Eoessler.

Achad.

One of the names of God.

The word IflNj Achad, in Hebrew signione or unity. It has been adopted by
the Masons as one of the appellations of
the Deity from that passage in Deuteronomy (vi. 4) " Hear, O Israel, the Lord
thy God is (Achad) one;" and which the

fies

"

ACQUITTAL

ACHARON

12

Jews wear on their phylacteries, and pronounce with great fervor as a confession of
Speaking
their faith in the unity of God.
of God as Achad, the Rabbins say, " God
is one (Achad) and man is one (Achad).
Man, however, is not purely one, because
he is made up of elements and has another
like himself; but the oneness of

God

is

oneness that has no boundary."

In Hebrew
new kingdom.
Significant words in some of the high

Acharon

JoStP }nnx,

Scliilton.

signifying the

degrees.

corruption of the Hebrew

Acliias.
Achijah, the brother of Jah a significant
word in some of the high degrees.
;

Achishar. Mentioned

in 1

Kings

(iv.

of Ahishar, and there

" over the household
This was a situation
in the East, and equivalent to the modern office of Chamberlain.
The Steward in a Council of Select Masters
is said to represent Achishar.
kabbalistic name of God
Achtariel.
belonging to the Crowm or first of the ten
sephiroth and hence signifying the Crown

under the name

described as being
of King Solomon.
of great importance

6)

or God.

Acknowledged. When
tiated into the degree of

one

is

ini-

Most Excellent

Master, he is technically said to be "received and acknowledged " as a Most Excellent Master.
This expression refers to
the tradition of the degree which states
that when the Temple had been completed
and dedicated, King Solomon received and
acknowledged the most expert of the craftsmen as most excellent Masters. That is,
he received them into the exalted rank of
perfect

and acknowledged workmen, and

acknowledged their right to that title. The

verb to acknowledge here means to own or
admit to belong to, as to acknowledge a

trial for the same offence? To both

of these questions the correct answer would
seem to be in the affirmative.

second

1. An acquittal of a crime by a temporal

court does not relieve a Mason from an
inquisition into the same offence by his
Lodge for acquittals may be the result of
some technicality of law, or other cause,
where, although the party is relieved from
legal punishment, his guilt is still manifest
in the eyes of the community; and if the
Order were to be controlled by the action
of the courts, the character of the Institution might be injuriously affected by its
permitting a man, who had escaped without
honor from the punishment of the law, to
remain a member of the Fraternity. In
the language of the Grand Lodge of Texas,
" an acquittal by a jury, while it may, and
should, in some circumstances, have its influence in deciding on the course to be
pursued, yet has no binding force in Masonry.
We decide on our own rules, and
our own view of the facts." (Proc. G. L.
;

Tex., vol.

ii.,

p. 273.)

To come

to a correct apprehension of
the second question, we must remember
that it is a long-settled principle of Masonic law, that every offence which a Mason
commits is an injury to the whole Fraternity, inasmuch as that the bad conduct of
a single member reflects discredit on the
whole Institution. This is a very old and
well-established principle of the Institution; and hence we find the old Gothic
Constitutions declaring that "a Mason shall
harbor no thief or thief's retainer," and
assigning as a reason, " lest the Craft should
come to shame." The safety of the Institution requires that no evil-disposed member should be tolerated with impunity in
bringing disgrace on the Craft. And, there2.

although it is a well-known maxim

nemo debet bis paniri
of the common law
Acousmatici. The primary class of pro uno delicto that is, "that no one
the disciples of Pythagoras, who served a should be twice placed in peril of punishfive years' probation of silence, and were ment for the same crime " yet we must
hence called acousmatici or hearers. Ac- also remember that other and fundamental
cording to Porphyry, they received only maxim
which
salus populi suprema lex
the elements of intellectual and moral in- may, in its application to Masonry, be well
struction, and, after the expiration of their translated: "the well-being of the Order
term of probation, they were advanced is the first great law." To this everything
to the rank of Mathematici.
See Pythag- else must yield and, therefore, if a memoras.
ber, having been accused of a heinous offore,

son.

Acquittal.

Under

this

head

it

may

be proper to discuss two questions of Masonic law. 1. Can a Mason, having been
acquitted by the courts of the country of
an offence with which he has been charged,
be tried by his Lodge for the same offence?
And, 2. Can a Mason, having been acquitted
by his Lodge on insufficient evidence, be
subjected, on the discovery and production
of new and more complete evidence, to a

fence and tried, shall, on his trial, for want

of sufficient evidence, be acquitted, or, being
convicted, shall, for the same reason, be
and
punished by an inadequate penalty
if he shall thus be permitted to remain in
the Institution with the stigma of the
crime upon him, " whereby the Craft comes
to shame " then, if new and more sufficient evidence shall be subsequently discovered, it is just and right that a new

ACTA

ADAM

trial shall be had, so that he may, on this

newer evidence, receive that punishment
which will vindicate the reputation of the
Order. No technicalities of law, no plea
of autrefois acquit, nor mere verbal exception, should be allowed for the escape of a
guilty member for so long as he lives in

case of the removal, death, or inability of

that officer, is known as the Acting Grand
Master.
For the regulations which prescribe the proper' person to perform these
duties see the words Succession to Office.

the Order, every

man

subject to

is

its disci-

hundred wrongful acquittals of

a bad member, who still bears with him the

pline.

reproach of his evil life, can never discharge the Order from its paramount duty
of protecting its own good fame and removing the delinquent member from its
fold.
To this great duty all private and
individual rights and privileges must succumb, for the well-being of the Order is the
first great law in Masonry.

Acta Iiatomorum,

ou Chronologie

Phistoire de la Franche-Macjonnerie
That is
fran9aise et etrangere, etc.
" The Acts of the Freemasons, or a chronological history of French and Foreign
Freemasonry, etc." This work, written or

de

compiled by Claude Antoine Thory, was

published at Paris, in 2 vols., 8vo, in 1815.
It contains the most remarkable facts in
the history of the Institution from obscure
times to the year 1814 the succession of
Grand Masters, a nomenclature of rites,
degrees, and secret associations in all the
countries of the world, and a bibliography
of the principal works on Freemasonry
published since 1723, with a supplement in
which the author has collected a variety of
rare and important Masonic documents.
Of this work, which has never been trans;

lated into English, Lenning says, [Encycl.

der Freimaurerei) that it is, without dispute, the most scientific work on Freemasonry that French literature has ever produced.
It must, however, be confessed
that in the historical portion Thory has
committed many errors in respect to English and American Freemasonry, and therefore, if ever translated, the work will require much emendation. See Thory.

Acting

Grand Master.

The Duke

of Cumberland having in April, 1752, been

elected Grand Master of England, it was
resolved by the Grand Lodge, in compliment to him, that he should have the privilege of nominating a peer of the realm as
Acting Grand Master, who should be empowered to superintend the Society in his
absence; and that at any future period,
when the fraternity should have a prince
of the blood at their head, the same privilege should be granted. The officer thus
provided to be appointed is now called,
in the Constitutions of England, the Pro
Grand Master.
In the American system, the officer who
performs the duties of Grand Master in

Active Iidge.

13

Lodge

is

said to

be active when it is neither dormant nor

suspended, but regularly meets and is occupied in the labors of Masonry.

Active

Member. An

ber of a Lodge

active

mem-

one who, in contradistinction to an honorary member, assumes

all the burdens of membership, such as
contributions, arrears, and participation in
its labors, and is invested with all the
rights of membership, such as speaking,
voting, and holding office.
Actual Past Masters. Those who
receive the degree of Past Master in symis

bolic Lodges, as a part of the installation

service, when elected to preside, are called
"Actual Past Masters" to distinguish them

from those who pass through the ceremony

a Chapter, as simply preparatory to
taking the Eoyal Arch, and who are distinguished as " Virtual Past Masters."
See

in

Past Master.

Adad. The name

of the principal god

the Syrians, and who, as representing the sun, had, according to Macrobius,

among

(Saturnal., i. 23,) an image surrounded by

rays.
Macrobius, however, is wrong, as
Selden has shown [De Diis Syris, i. 6), in

confounding Adad with the Hebrew Achad,

or one
a name, from its signification of
unity, applied to the Grand Architect of
the Universe.
The error of Macrobius,
however, has been perpetuated by the inventors of the high degrees of Masonry,
who have incorporated Adad, as a name of
God, among their significant words.
The name of the first man.

Adam.

The Hebrew word

man

in

a*

DIN* ADaM,

generic sense, the

collectively,

and

is

signifies

human

species
said to be derived from

HDIKj ADaMaH, the ground, because

the first man was made out of the dust of
the earth, or from ADaM, to be red, in
reference to his ruddy complexion. It is
most probably in this collective sense, as
the representative of the whole human
race, and, therefore, the type of humanity,
that the presiding officer in a Council of
Knights of the Sun, the 28th degree of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite,
is called Father Adam, and is occupied
in the investigation of the great truths
which so much concern the interests of
the race. Adam, in that degree, is man
seeking after divine truth. The Kabbalists
and Talmudists have invented many things
concerning the first Adam, none of which
See
are, however, worthy of preservation.
Knight of the Sun.

14

ADAMS

ADDKESSES

John

Quincy, the sixth

Adams,
President of the United States, who served
from 1825 to 1829. Mr. Adams, who has
been very properly described as " a man of
strong points and weak ones, of vast reading and wonderful memory, of great credulity and strong prejudices," became notorious in the latter years of his life for his
virulent opposition to Freemasonry. The
writer already quoted, and who had an excellent opportunity of seeing intimately
the workings of the spirit of anti-Masonry,
says of Mr. Adams: "He hated Freemasonry, as he did many other things, not
from any harm that he had received from
it or personally knew respecting it, but
because his credulity had been wrought
upon and his prejudices excited against it
by dishonest and selfish politicians, who
were anxious, at any sacrifice to him, to
avail themselves of the influence of his
commanding talents and position in public
life to sustain them in the disreputable
work in which they were enlisted. In his
weakness, he lent himself to them. He
united his energies to theirs in an imprac-

Adarel. Angel of Fire. Eeferred to in

the Hermetic degree of Knight of the Sun.
Probably from TIN, Adr, splendor, and
^X, El, God, i. e. the splendor of God or
Divine splendor.
Addresses, Masonic. Dr. Oliver,
speaking of the Masonic discourses which
began to be published soon after the reorganization of Masonry, in the commencement of the eighteenth century, and which
he thinks were instigated by the attacks
made on the Order, to which they were intended to be replies, says " Charges and
:

addresses were therefore delivered by brethren in authority on the fundamental principles of the Order, and they were printed
to show that its morality was sound, and
not in the slightest degree repugnant to the
precepts of our most holy religion. These
were of sufficient merit to insure a wide
circulation among the Fraternity, from
whence they spread into the world at large,
and proved decisive in fixing the credit of
the Institution for solemnities of character
and a taste for serious and profitable investigations."

W. Moore,

There can be no doubt that these ad-

Freemason's Mag., vol. vii., p. 314.) The result was a series of letters abusive of Freemasonry, directed to leading politicians,
and published in the public journals from
year before his death they
1831 to 1833.
were collected and published under the
title of "Letters on the Masonic InstituBoston,
tion, by John Quincy Adams."
Some explanation
1847, 8vo, pp. 284.
of the cause of the virulence with which
Mr. Adams attacked the Masonic Institution in these letters may be found in
the following paragraph contained in an
anti-Masonic work written by one Henry
Gassett, and affixed to his " Catalogue of
Books on the Masonic Institution." (Boston, 1852.)
"It had been asserted in a
newspaper in Boston, edited by a Masonic
dignitary, that John Q. Adams was a MaIn answer to an inquiry from a person.
son in New York State, whether he was
so, Mr. Adams replied that 'he was not,
and never should be.' These few words,
undoubtedly, prevented his election a second
term as President of the United States. His
competitor, Andrew Jackson, a Freemason,
was elected." Whether the statement contained in the italicized words be true or
not, is not the question.
It is sufficient

dresses, periodically delivered and widely

published, have continued to exert an excellent effect in behalf of the Institution,

ticable

and unworthy cause."

(C.

that Mr. Adams was led to believe it, and

hence his ill-will to an association which
had, as he supposed, inflicted this political
evil on him, and baffled his ambitious views.
Adar. Hebrew, -| "|fr$ the sixth month
of the civil and the twelfth of the ecclesiastical year of the Jews.
It corresponds
to a part of February and of March.
;

by explaining and defending the principles

on which it is founded.
The first Masonic address of which we
have any notice was delivered on the 24th
of June, 1719, before the Grand Lodge of
England, by the celebrated John TheophiThe
lus Desaguliers, LL. D. and F. R. S.
Book of Constitutions, under that date,
says " Bro. Desaguliers made an eloquent
oration about Masons and Masonry." Dr.
Oliver states that this address was issued
in a printed form, but no copy of it now

at least it has escaped the researches of the most diligent Masonic

bibliographers.
On the 20th of May, 1725, Martin
Folkes, then Deputy Grand Master, delivered an address before the Grand Lodge
of England, which is cited in the Freemason's Pocket Companion for 1759, but
no entire copy of the address is now
extant.
The third Masonic address of which we

remains

have any knowledge is one entitled, "A

Speech delivered to the Worshipful and
Ancient Society of Free and Accepted Masons, at a Grand Lodge held at Merchants'
Hall, in the city of York, on St. John's
Day, Dec. 27, 1726, the Right Worshipful
Charles Bathurst, Esq., Grand Master. By

the Junior Grand Warden. Olim meminisse

York Printed by Thomas Gent,
juvabit.
It was
for the benefit of the Lodge."
again published at London in 1729, in
:

ADEPT

ADDRESSES
Benj. Cole's edition of the Ancient Constitutions,

and has been subsequently

re-

printed in 1858 in the London Freemason's

Magazine, from which it was copied in C.
W. Moore's Freemason's Magazine, published at Boston, Mass. This is, therefore,
the earliest Masonic address to which we
have access. It contains a brief sketch of
the history of Masonry, written as Masonic
history was then written. It is, however,
remarkable for advancing the claim of the
Grand Lodge of York to a superiority over
that of London.
The fourth Masonic address of whose
existence we have any knowledge is "A
Speech delivered at a Lodge held at the
Carpenters' Arms the 31st of December,
1728, by Edw. Oakley, late Provincial
Senior Grand Warden in Carmarthen."
This speech was reprinted by Cole at Lon-

don in 1751.
America has the honor of presenting the
The
next attempt at Masonic oratory.
fifth address, and the first American, which
i extant, is one delivered in Boston, Mass.,
on June 24th, 1734. It is entitled "A Dissertation upon Masonry, delivered to a
Lodge in America, June 24th, 1734. Christ's
Regm." It was discovered by Bro. C. W.
Moore in the archives of the Grand Lodge
of Massachusetts, and published by him in
his magazine in 1849.
This address is well
written, and of a symbolic character, as
the author allegorizes the Lodge as a type

of heaven.

And, sixthly, we have "An Address made

body of Free and Accepted Masons
assembled at a Quarterly Communication,
held near Temple Bar, December 11, 1735,
by Martin Clare, Junior Grand Warden."
Martin Clare was distinguished in his
times as a Mason. He had been authorized
by the Grand Lodge to revise the lectures,
which task he performed with great satisfaction to the Craft.
This address, which
Dr. Oliver has inserted in his Golden Remains, has been considered of value enough
to be translated into the French and Ger-

to the

man

languages.
After this period, Masonic addresses
rapidly multiplied, so that it would be impossible to record their titles or even the
names of their authors.
What Martial says of his own epigrams,
that some were good, some bad, and a great
many middling, may, with equal propriety
and justice, be said of Masonic addresses.
Of the thousands that have been delivered,
many have been worth neither printing
nor preservation.
One thing, however, is to be remarked
that within a few years the literary character of these productions has greatly improved. Formerly, a Masonic address on

15

some

festival occasion of the Order was

more than a homily on brotherly love
or some other Masonic virtue.
Often the
orator was a clergyman, selected by the
Lodge on account of his moral character
These clergyor his professional ability.

little

men were

frequently among the youngest

members of the Lodge, and men who had

no opportunity to study the esoteric construction of Masonry.

In such cases we
will find that the addresses were generally
neither more nor less than sermons under
They contain excellent
another name.
general axioms of conduct, and sometimes
encomiums on the laudable design of our
But we look in vain in them
Institution.
for any ideas which refer to the history or
to the occult philosophy of Masonry. They
accept the definition that " Freemasonry is
a science of morality, veiled in allegory
and illustrated by symbols," only in part.
They expatiate on the science of morality,
but they say nothing of the symbols or the
But, as I have already said,
allegories.
there has been an evident improvement
within a few years, in this country especially, for the reform has not equally extended to England. Many of the addresses
now delivered are of a higher order of Masonic literature. The subjects of Masonic
history, of the origin of the Institution, of
its gradual development from an operative
art to a speculative science, of its symbols,
and of its peculiar features which distinguish it from all other associations, have
been ably discussed in many recent Masonic addresses, and thus have the efforts to
entertain an audience for an hour become
not only the means of interesting instruction
to the hearers, but also valuable contributions to the literature of Freemasonry.
It is in this

way

that Masonic addresses

should be written. All platitudes and old

truisms should be avoided; sermonizing,
which is good in its place, is out of place
here.
No one should undertake to deliver
a Masonic address unless he knows something of the subject on which he is about
to speak, and unless he is capable of saying what will make every Mason who hears
him a wiser as well as a better man, or at
least what will afford him the opportunity
of becoming so.

Adelph. Greek for a Brother. The

fourth degree of the order of the Palladium.
Beghellini says that there exists in the
Masonic archives of Douai the ritual of a
Masonic Society, called Adelphs, which has
been communicated to the Grand Orient,
but which he thinks is the same as the
Primitive Rite of Narbonne.
Adept. One fully skilled or well
versed in any art; from the Latin word
" Adeptus," having obtained, because the

ADEPT

ADJOURNMENT

to be in the possession of
the secrets of his peculiar mystery. The
Alchemists or Hermetic philosophers assumed the title of Adepts. (See Alchemy.)
Of the Hermetic Adepts, who were also
sometimes called Eosicrucians, Spencethus

Adjournment. C. W. Moore (Freemasons' Mag., xii., p. 290,) says "

suppose it to be generally conceded that Lodges
cannot properly be adjourned. It has been
so decided by a large proportion of the
Grand Lodges in this country, and tacitly,
at least, concurred in by all.
are not
aware that there is a dissenting voice among
them. It is, therefore, safe to assume that
the settled policy is against adjournment."
The reason which he assigns for this rule,
is that adjournment is a method used only
in deliberative bodies, such as legislatures
and courts, and as Lodges do not partake
of the character of either of these, adjournments are not applicable to them. The
rule which Bro. Moore lays down is undoubtedly correct, but the reason which he
assigns for it is not sufficient.
If a Lodge
were permitted to adjourn by the vote of a
majority of its members, the control of the
labor would be placed in their hands. But
according to the whole spirit of the Masonic
system, the Master alone controls and
directs the hours of labor.
In the 5th of
the Old Charges, approved in 1722, it is
declared that " All Masons employed shall
meekly receive their wages without murmuring or mutiny, and not desert the Master
till the work is finished." Now as the Master
alone can know when "the work is finished," the selection of the time of closing
must be vested in him. He is the sole
judge of the proper period at which the
labors of the Lodge should be terminated,
and he may suspend business even in the
middle of a debate, if he supposes that it
Hence no
is expedient to close the Lodge.
motion for adjournment can ever be admitted in a Masonic Lodge. Such a motion
would be an interference with the prerogative of the Master, and could not therefore
be entertained.
This prerogative of opening and closing
his Lodge is necessarily vested in the Master, because, by the nature of our Institution, he is responsible to the Grand Lodge
for the good conduct of the body over
which he presides. He is charged, in those
questions to which he is required to give his
assent at his installation, to hold the Landmarks in veneration, and to conform to
every edict of the Grand Lodge and for
any violation of the one or disobedience of
the other by the Lodge, in his presence, he
would be answerable to the supreme Masonic authority. Hence the necessity that
an arbitrary power should be conferred
upon him, by the exercise of which he may
at any time be enabled to prevent the adoption of resolutions, or the commission of any
act which would be subversive of, or contrary
to, those ancient laws and usages which he
has sworn to maintain and preserve.

16
Adept claimed
all

writes, in 1740, to his

mother

"

Have you

ever heard of the people called Adepts?

They are a set of philosophers superior to
whatever appeared among the Greeks and
Romans.
The three great points they
drive at, is to be free from poverty, distemand, if you believe them,
pers, and death
they have found out one secret that is capable of freeing them from all three. There
are never more than twelve of these men
and we have
in the whole world at a time
the happiness of having one of the twelve
I am very well acat this time in Turin.
quainted with him, and have often talked
;

with him ,of their secrets, as far as he is

allowed to talk to a common mortal of
[Spencers Letter to his Mother, in
them."
In a similar
Singer's Anecdotes, p. 403.)
allusion to the possession of abstruse knowledge, the word is applied to some of the
high degrees of Masonry.
Adept, Prince. One of the names
of the 28th degree of the Ancient and AcRite.
(See Knight of the Sun.)
was the 23d degree of the System of
the Chapter of Emperors of the East and

cepted

It

West

of Clermont.

Adept, the.

hermetic degree of
the collection of A. Viany. It is also the
4th degree of the Rite of Relaxed Observance, and the 1st of the high degrees of
the Rite of Elects of Truth. " It has much
analogy," says Thory, "with the degree of
Knight of the Sun in the Ancient and Accepted Rite." It is also called " Chaos disentangled."

Adeptus Adoptatus. The 7th degree of the Rite of Zinnendorf, consisting of

a kind of chemical and pharmaceutical instruction.

Adeptus Coronatus. Called also

Templar Master of the Key. The 7th degree
of the Swedish Rite, (which see.)
Adeptus Exemptus. The 7th degree of the system adopted by those German Rosicrucians who were known as the
"Gold-und Rosenkreutzer," or the Gold
and Rosy

Cross,

and

whom Lenning

poses to have been the

who

first

supengrafted

Rosicrucianism on Masonry.

Adhering Mason.

Those Masons

who, during the anti-Masonic excitement

in this country, on account of the supposed
abduction of Morgan, refused to leave their
Lodges and renounce Masonry, were so
called.
They embraced among their number some of the wisest, best, and most influential

men

of the country.

We

We

"

ADONAI

ADMIRATION
Admiration. Sign of. A mode of
recognition alluded to in the Most Excellent Master's degree, or the Gth of the American Rite. Its introduction in that place is
referred to a Masonic legend in connection
with the visit of the Queen of Sheba to

17

to let them be learned by the world

from some other tongue than his, and to
admonish him of them in private. So
there is another but a like duty of obligation, which instructs him to whisper good
counsel in his brother's ear and to warn
King Solomon, and which states that, him of approaching danger. And this
moved by the wide-spread reputation of refers not more to the danger that is withthe Israelitish monarch, she had repaired out and around him than to that which is
not more to the peril that
to Jerusalem to inspect the magnificent within him
works of which she had heard so many- springs from the concealed foe who would
encomiums. Upon arriving there, and be- waylay him and covertly injure him, than
holding for the first time the Temple, which to that deeper peril of those faults and inglittered with gold, and which was so ac- firmities which lie within his own heart,
curately adjusted in all its parts as to seem and which, if not timely crushed by good
to be composed of but a single piece of and earnest resolution of amendment, will,
marble, she raised her hands and eyes to like the ungrateful serpent in the fable,
heaven in an attitude of admiration, and become warm with life only to sting the
at the same time exclaimed, " Rabboni
bosom that has nourished them.
equivalent to saying, " A most excellent
Admonition of a brother's fault is, then,
master hath done this!" This action has the duty of every mason, and no true one
since been perpetuated in the ceremonies will, for either fear or favor, neglect its
of the degree of Most Excellent Master. performance. But as the duty is Masonic,
The legend is, however, no doubt apocry- so is there a Masonic way in which that
phal, and is really to be considered only as duty should be discharged. We must adallegorical, like so many other of the lemonish not with self-sufficient pride in our
gends of Masonry. See Sheba, Queen of.
not in imperious
own reputed goodness
Although
the Old tones, as though we looked down in scorn
Admission.
Charges, approved in 1722, use the word upon the degraded offender
not in lanadmitted as applicable to those who are guage that, by its harshness, will wound
initiated into the mysteries of Freemarather than win, will irritate more than it,
sonry, yet the General Regulations of 1721 will reform but with that persuasive genemploy the term admission in a sense dif- tleness that gains the heart
with the
ferent from that of initiation.
By the word all-subduing influences of " mercy unremaking they imply the reception of a pro- strained "
with the magic might of love
fane into the Order, but by admission they
with the language and the accents of
designate the election of a Mason into a affection, which mingle grave displeasure
Lodge. Thus we find such expressions as for the offence with grief and pity for the
ties,

these clearly indicating a difference in the

meaning of the two words. In Reg. v.
" No man can be made or admitted a Ma-

son of a particular Lodge." In Reg. vi.

" But no man can be entered a brother in
any particular Lodge, or admitted to be a
member thereof." And more distinctly in
" No set or number of brethren
Reg. viii.
shall withdraw or separate themselves from
the Lodge in which they were made brethren or were afterwards admitted members."
This distinction has not always been rigidly preserved by recent writers
but it is
evident that, correctly speaking, we should
always say of a profane who has been initiated that he has been made a Mason, and
of a Mason who has been affiliated with a
Lodge, that he has been admitted a member.
The true definition of admission is,
then, the reception of an unaffiliated brother into membership. See Affiliation.
Admonition. According to the ethics
of Freemasonry, it is made a duty obligatory upon every member of the Order to
conceal the faults of a brother,
that is,
not to blazon forth his errors and infirmi

offender.
this alone, is Masonic admobrother in
not to rebuke
I
faults, and I dare
anger, for I too have
garnot draw around me the folds of

This,

and

nition.

my

am

my

my

they should be polluted by my

but I am to admonish
neighbor's touch
in private, not before the world, for that
would degrade him and I am to warn him,
perhaps from my own example, how vice
ever should be followed by sorrow, for that
goodly sorrow leads to repentance, and repentance to amendment, and amendment

ment

lest

to joy.

Adonai.

In Hebrew *J1N> being the

plural of excellence for

A don,

and

signify-

ing the Lord. The Jews, who reverently

avoided the pronunciation of the sacred
name Jehovah, were accustomed, whenever that name occurred, to substitute for
As to the
it the word Adonai in reading.
use of the plural form instead of the singular, the Rabbins say, " Every word indicative of dominion, though singular in
meaning, is made plural in form." This is
The
called the " pluralis excellentiae."

ADONHIRAM

18

ADONHIRAMITE

Talmudists also say, (Buxtroff, Lex. Talm.,)

that the telragrammaton is called Shem
hamphorash, the name that is explained,
because it is explained, uttered, and set
forth by the word Adonai.
(See Jehovah

and Shem Hamphorash.) Adonai is used

as a significant word in several of the high
degrees of Masonry, and may almost always
be considered as allusive

to or

symbolic

of the True Word.

Adonhiram.

disciples of Adonhiramite Masonry

as the spelling of the name of the person
known in Scripture and in other Masonic
systems as Adoniram, (which see.) They
correctly derive the word from the Hebrew
Adon and hiram, signifying the master who
is exalted, which is the true meaning of
Adoniram, the ?] or h being omitted in the

Hebrew by the coalescence of the two

Hiram Abif has also sometimes
been called Adonhiram, the Adon having
been bestowed on him by Solomon, it is

words.

honor.

Adonhiramite Masonry. Of the

numerous controversies which arose from
the middle to near the end of the 18th century on the continent of Europe, and espe-

among

the students of
so frequently resulted in the invention of new
degrees and the establishment of new rites,
not the least prominent was that which related to the person and character of the
cially in

France,

Masonic philosophy, and which

Temple

builder.

the architect of

son,

The question, Who was

King Solomon's Temple ?

was answered differently by different theand each answer gave rise to a new
system, a fact by no means surprising in

orists,

those times, so fertile in the production of

new Masonic systems. The general theory
was then, as it is now, that this architect
was Hiram Abif, the widow's son, who had
been sent to King Solomon by Hiram, King
of Tyre, as a precious gift, and " a curious
and cunning workman." This theory was
sustained by the statements of the Jewish
Scriptures, so far as they threw any light
on the Masonic legend. It was the theory
of the English Masons from the earliest
times was enunciated as historically correct in the first edition of the Book of Constitutions, published in 1723 has continued
ever since to be the opinion of all English
and American Masons and is, at this day,
the only theory entertained by any Mason
in the two countries who has a theory at all
on the subject. This, therefore, is the orthodox faith of Masonry.
But such was not the case, in the last
century, on the continent of Europe. At
first, the controversy arose not as to the
man himself, but as to his proper appellaAll parties agreed that the architect
tion.
;

Temple was that Hiram, the widow's

is described in the first Book of

who

Kings, chapter vii., verses 13 and 14, and in

the second Book of Chronicles, chapter ii.,
verses 13 and 14, as having come out of
Tyre with the other workmen of the Temple
who had been sent by King Hiram to Solomon. But one party called him Hiram
Abif, and the other, admitting that his original

This has been adopted

by the

said, as a title of

of the

name was Hiram, supposed

that,

in

he had displayed in
the construction of the Temple, he had received the honorable affix of Adon, signifying Lord or Master, whence his name
became Adonhiram.
There was, however, at the Temple another Adoniram, of whom it will be necesconsequence of the

skill

sary in passing to say a few words, for the

better understanding of the present subject.

The first notice that we have of this

Adoniram in Scripture is in the 2d Book
of Samuel, chapter xx., verse 24, where, in
the abbreviated form of his name, Adoram,
he is said to have been " over the tribute "
in the house of David; or, as Gesenius
translates it, " prefect over the tribute service," or, as we might say in modern phrase,
principal collector of the taxes.
Seven years afterwards, we find him exercising the same office in the household
of Solomon
for it is said in 1 Kings iv.
6, that Adoniram, " the son of Abda, was
over the tribute." And lastly, we hear of
him still occupying the same station in the
household of King Kehoboam, the successor of Solomon.
Forty-seven years after
he is first mentioned in the Book of Samuel,
he is stated (1 Kings xii. 18) to have been
stoned to death, while in the discharge of
his duty, by the people, who were justly indignant at the oppressions of his master.
Although commentators have been at a loss
to decide whether the tax-receiver under
David, under Solomon, and under Kehoboam was the same person, there seems to
be no reason to doubt it for, as Kitto says,
[Encyc. Bib.,) "it appears very unlikely
that even two persons of the same name
should successively bear the same office, in
an age when no example occurs of the
father's name being given to his son.
find also that not more than forty-seven
years elapse between the first and lastmentioned of the Adoniram who was over
the tribute
aud as this, although a long
term of service, is not too long for one life,
and as the person who* held the office in the
beginning of Rehoboam's reign had served
in it long enough to make himself odious
to the people, it appears on the whole most
probable that one and the same person is
intended throughout."
The legends and traditions of Masonry
;

We

'

'

ADONHIRAMITE

ADONHIRAMITE

which connect this Adoniram with the

Temple at Jerusalem derive their support
from a single passage in the first Book of
Kings (chapter v. 14), where it is said that
Solomon made a levy of thirty thousand

by refusing any Masonic position to the

former, and making the latter, alone, the
architect of the Temple. It cannot be denied
that Josephus states that Adoniram, or, as
he calls him, Adoram, was, at the very beginning of the labor, placed over the workmen who prepared the materials on Mount
Lebanon, and that he speaks of Hiram, the
widow's son, simply as a skilful artisan,
especially in metals, who had only made all
the mechanical works about the Temple
according to the will of Solomon. This

workmen from among

the Israelites

that

he sent these in courses of ten thousand a

month to labor on Mount Lebanon, and
that he placed Adoniram over these as
their superintendent.

The ritual-makers of France, who were

all Hebrew scholars, nor well versed in

not

Biblical history, seem, at times, to have

confounded two important personages, and
to have lost all distinction between Hiram
the builder, who had been sent from the
court of the king of Tyre, and Adoniram,
who had always been an officer in the court
of King Solomon. And this error was extended and facilitated when they had prefixed the title Adon, that is to say, lord or

master, to the name of the former, making

him Adon Hiram, or the Lord Hiram.

Thus, in the year 1744, one Louis Travenol published at Paris, under the pseudonym of Leonard Gabanon, a work
entitled,
Catechisme des Franc - Macons,
precede d'une abrege de I'histoire d'Adoram,
d'une explication des ceremonies qui
s 'observant a lareception des Maltres, etc.
In
" Besides the
this work the author says
cedars of Lebanon, Hiram made a much
more valuable gift to Solomon, in the person of Adonhiram, of his own race, the son
of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali. His
father, who was named Hur, was an excelSololent architect and worker in metals.
mon, knowing his virtues, his merit, and
his talents, distinguished him by the most
eminent position, intrusting to him the
construction of the Temple and the superintendence of all the workmen."
From the language of this extract, and
from the reference in the title of the book
to Adoram, which we know was one Of the
names of Solomon's tax-collector, it is evident that the author of the catechism has
confounded Hiram Abif, who came out of
Tyre, with Adoniram, the son of Abda, who
had always lived at Jerusalem that is to
say, with unpardonable ignorance of Scripture history and Masonic tradition, he has
supposed the two to be one and the same
person. Notwithstanding this literary blunder, the catechism became popular with
many Masons of that day, and thus arose
the first. schism or error in relation to the
legend of the third degree.
At length, other ritualists, seeing the inconsistency of referring the character of
Hiram, the widow's son, to Adoniram, the
receiver of taxes, and the impossibility of
reconciling the discordant facts in the life
of both, resolved to cut the Gordian knot
etc.,

et

19

apparent color of authority for their opinions was readily claimed by the Adoniramites,

and hence one of their most prominent

Guillemain de St. Victor, [Rec.

propounds their theory thus " We all
agree that the Master's degree is founded on
ritualists,

Prec.,)

the architect of the temple. Now, Scripture

says very positively, in the 4th verse of the
5th chapter of the Book of Kings, that the
person was Adonhiram. Josephus and all
the sacred writers say the same thing, and

undoubtedly distinguish him from Hiram

So that
it is Adonhiram, then, whom we are bound
the Tyrian, the worker in metals.
to honor."

There were, therefore, in the eighteenth

century, from about the middle to near the
end of it, three schools among the Masonic
ritualists, the members of which were divided in opinion as to the proper identity
of this Temple builder
1.

Those who supposed him

to be

Hiram,

the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, whom the king of Tyre had sent to
King Solomon, and whom they designated
as Hiram Abif.
This was the original and

most popular school, and which we now

suppose to have been the orthodox one.

Those who believed this Hiram that

to have been the architect, but who supposed that, in consequence
of his excellence of character, Solomon
had bestowed upon him the appellation of
Adon, "Lord" or "Master," calling him
Adonhiram. As this theory was wholly
unsustained by Scripture history or previous Masonic tradition, the school which
supported it never became prominent or
popular, and soon ceased to exist, although
the error on which it is based is repeated
at intervals in the blunder of some modern
French ritualists.
3. Those who, treating this Hiram, the
widow's son, as a subordinate and unimpor2.

came out of Tyre

tant character, entirely ignored him in their

ritual, and asserted that Adoram, or Adoniram, or Adonhiram, as the name was spelled
by these ritualists, the son of Abda, the
collector of tribute and the superintendent
of the levy on Mount Lebanon, was the
true architect of the Temple, and the one
to whom all the legendary incidents of the

ADONHIRAMITE

20

ADONHIRAMITE

third degree of Masonry were to be referred.

This school, in consequence of the
boldness with which, unlike the second
school, it refused all compromise with the
orthodox party and assumed a wholly independent theory, became, for a time, a promIts disciples
inent schism in Masonry.
bestowed upon the believers in Hiram
Abif the name of Hiramite Masons, adopted
as their own distinctive appellation that
of Adonhiramites, and, having developed
the system which they practised into a peculiar rite, called it Adonhiramite Masonry.
was the original founder of the rite
of Adonhiramite Masonry, and at what
precise time it was first established, are
questions that cannot now be answered

Who

Thory does not

with any certainty.

at-

to reply to either in his Nomenclature of Rites, where, if anything was known

on the subject, we would be most likely to
Ragon, it is true, in his Orthofind it.
doxie Maconnique, attributes the rite to the
Baron de Tschoudy. But as he also as-

tempt

signs the authorship of the Receuil Precieux (a work of which I shall directly
speak more fully) to the same person, in
which statement he is known to be mistaken, there can be but little doubt that he
is wrong in the former as well as in the
The Chevalier de Lussy,
letter opinion.
better known as the Baron de Tschoudy,
was, it is true, a distinguished ritualist.
He founded the Order of the Blazing Star,
and took an active part in the operations
of the Council of Emperors of the East

and West

but I have met with no evidence, outside of Ragon's assertion, that

he established or had anything to do with
the Adonhiramite rite.
I am disposed to attribute the development into a settled system, if not the actual
creation, of the rite of Adonhiramite Masonry to Louis Guillemain de St. Victor,
who published at Paris, in the year 1781,
a work entitled Receuil Precieux de la Maconnerie Adonhiramite, etc.
As this volume contained only the ritual
of the first four degrees, it was followed,
in 1785, by another, which embraced the
higher degrees of the rite. No one who
peruses these volumes can fail to perceive
that the author writes like one who has
invented, or, at least, materially modified
the rite which is the subject of his labors.
At all events, this work furnishes the only
authentic account that we possess of the
organization of the Adonhiramite system of
;

Masonry.

The

of Adonhiramite Masonry consisted of twelve degrees, which were as

follows, the names being given in French
as well as in English
1. Apprentice
Apprente.
rite

2.

3.
4.

5.
6.

7.

Compagnon.
Maltre.
Maltre Par/ait.
Elect of Nine Elu des Neuf.
Elect of Perignan Elu de Perignan.
Elect of Fifteen Elu des Quinze.
Fellow-Craft

Master Mason
Perfect Master

Minor Architect
Petit Architecte.
Grand Architect, or Scottish FellowCraft
Grand Architecte, ou Compagnon
8.

9.

Ecossais.

Maltre Ecossais.
East, or of the Eagle Chevalier de
Chevalier de V Orient, ou de
Knight of Rose Croix Chevalier
10. Scottish
11.

Master

Knight of the Sword, Knight of the

I'lZpee,

I'Aigle.

12.

Pose Croix.
This is the entire

list

of Adonhiramite

degrees.
Thory and Ragon have both
erred in giving a thirteenth degree, namely,
the Noachite, or Prussian Knight. They
have fallen into this mistake because Guillemain has inserted this degree at the end
of his second volume, but simply as a Masonic curiosity, having been translated, as

from the German by M. de Beraye.

no connection with the preceding
series of degrees, and Guillemain positively declares that the Rose Croix is the
ne plus ultra, the summit and termination,

he

says,

It has

of his rite.
Of these twelve degrees, the first ten are
occupied with the transactions of the first
Temple the eleventh with matters relating
to the construction of the second Temple
and the twelfth with that Christian symbolism of Freemasonry which is peculiar
All of
to the Rose Croix of every rite.
the degrees have been borrowed from the
;

Ancient and Accepted Rite, with slight

modifications, which have seldom improved
On the whole, the extinctheir character.
tion of the Adonhiramite Rite can scarcely
be considered as a loss to Masonry.
Before concluding, a few words may be
said on the orthography of the title. As
the rite derives its peculiar characteristic
from the fact that it founds the third degree on the assumed legend that Adoniram,
the son of Abda and the receiver of tribute,
was the true architect of the Temple, and
not Hiram the widow's son, it should properly have been styled the Adoniramite Rite,
and not the Adonhiramite; and so it would
probably have been called if Guillemain,
who gave it form, had been acquainted
with the Hebrew language, for he would
then have known that the name of his hero
was Adoniram and not Adonhirdfoi. The

term Adonhiramite Masons should really

have been applied to the second school described in this article, whose disciples admitted that Hiram Abif was the architect
of the Temple, but who supposed that Solomon had bestowed the prefix Adon upon

ADONIRAM

ADONIS

as a mark of honor, calling him Adonhiram. But Guillemain having committed

the blunder in the name of his Rite, it continued to be repeated by his successors, and
it would perhaps now be inconvenient to
Ragon, however, and a
correct the error.
few other recent writers, have ventured to
take this step, and in their works the sys-

him

tem

is

called

Adoniramite Masonry.

Adoniram. The

notice that

first

we

have of Adoniram in Scripture is in the

2d Book of Samuel (xx. 24), where, in the
abbreviated form of his name Adoram, he
is said to have been " over the tribute," in
the house of David, or, as Gesenius translates it, "prefect over the tribute service,
tribute master," that is to say, in modern
phrase, he was the chief receiver of the
Clarke calls him "Chancellor of
taxes.

the Exchequer." Seven years afterwards

we find him exercising the same office in
the household of Solomon, for it is said (1
Kings iv. 6) that "Adoniram the son of
Abda was over the tribute." And lastly,
we helar of him still occupying the same
station in the household of King Rehoboam, the successor of Solomon. Fortyseven years after he is first mentioned in
the Book of Samuel, he is stated (1 Kings
xii. 18) to have been stoned to death, while
in the discharge of his duty, by the people,
who were justly indignant at the oppressions of his master.
Although commentators have been at a loss to determine
whether the tax -receiver under David,

under Solomon, and under Re.hoboam was

the same person, there seems to be no
reason to doubt it; for, as Kitto says, "It
appears very unlikely that even two persons of the same name should successively
bear the same office, in an age when no
example occurs of the father's name being
given to his son. We find, also, that not
more than forty-seven years elapse between
the first and last mention of the Adoniram
who was over the tribute and as this,
although a long term of service, is not too
long for one life, and as the person who
held the office in the beginning of Rehoboam's reign had served in it long enough
'

'

make himself odious to the people,"it

appears, on the whole, most probable that
one and the same person is intended
throughout." (Encyc. Bib. Lit.)
Adoniram plays an important role in the
Masonic system, especially in the high
degrees, but the time of action in which
he appears is confined to the period occupied in the construction of the Temple.
The legends and traditions which connect
him with that edifice derive their support
from a single passage in the 1st Book of
Kings (v. 14), where it is said that Solomon made a levy of thirty thousand work-

to

21

men from among

the Israelites; that he

sent these in courses of ten thousand a
month to labor on Mount Lebanon, and
that he placed Adoniram over these as
From this brief
their superintendent.
statement the Adoniramite Masons have
deduced the theory, as may be seen in the
preceding article, that Adoniram was the
architect of the Temple; while the Hiramites, assigning this important office to Hiram Abif, still believe that Adoniram occupied an important part in the construction
of that edifice. He has been called " the
first of the Fellow Crafts " is said in one
tradition to have been the brother-in-law
of Hiram Abif, the latter having demanded
of Solomon the hand of Adoniram's sister
and that the nuptials were
in marriage
;

honored by the kings of Israel and Tyre

with a public celebration and another tradition, preserved in the Royal Master's
degree, informs us that he was the one to
whom the three Grand Masters had intended first to communicate that knowledge
which they had reserved as a fitting reward
to be bestowed upon all meritorious craftsmen at the completion of the Temple. It
;

scarcely necessary to say that these and

other Adoniramic legends, often fanciful, and without any historical authority,
are but the outward clothing of abstruse
symbols, some of which have been preserved, and others lost in the lapse of time
and the ignorance and corruptions of modern ritualists.
Adoniram, in Hebrew, DTJ1N, compounded of px, ADON, Lord, and Din,

is

many

HiRaM,
tude.

the Lord of altiword of great importance,

altitude, signifies

It is a

and frequently used among the sacred words

of the high degrees in

all

the Rites.

Adoniramite Masonry.

See

Adonhiramite Masonry.

Adonis, Mysteries

of.

An investi-

gation of the mysteries of Adonis peculiarly claims the attention of the Masonic
student first, because, in their symbolism
and in their esoteric doctrine, the religious
object for which they were instituted, and
the mode in which that object is attained,
they bear a nearer analogical resemblance
to the Institution of Freemasonry than do
any of the other mysteries or systems of
and,
initiation of the ancient world;
secondly, because their chief locality brings
them into a very close connection with the
early history and reputed origin of Freemasonry. For they were principally celebrated at Byblos, a city of Phoenicia,
whose scriptural name was Gebal, and
whose inhabitants were the Giblites or
Giblemites, who are referred to in the 1st
Book of Kings (chap. v. 18) as being the
" stone-squarers " employed by King Solo:

"

ADONIS

22

ADONIS

mon

in building the Temple. Hence there not wish, but because Proserpine will not
must have evidently been a very intimate release him." This was, indeed, the favorconnection, or at least certainly a very fre- ite form of the myth, and on it was framed
quent intercommunication, between the the symbolism of the ancient mystery.
workmen of the first Temple and the inBut there are other Grecian mythologues

habitants of Byblos, the seat of the Adonisian mysteries, and the place whence the
worshippers of that rite were disseminated
over other regions of country.
These historical circumstances invite us
to an examination of the system of initiation which was practised at Byblos, because
we may find in it something that was
probably suggestive of the symbolic system
of instruction which was subsequently so
prominent a feature in the system of Free-

masonry.
Let us first examine the myth on which
the Adonisiac initiation was founded. The
mythological legend of Adonis is, that he
was the son of Myrrha and Cinyras, King
of Cyprus. Adonis was possessed of such
beauty, that Venus became
enamored with him, and adopted him as

surpassing

Subsequently Adonis,

her favorite.

Venus

flew to the succor of her favorite,

late.
Adonis was dead.
On his descent to the infernal regions, Proserpine became, like Venus, so attracted by
his beauty, that, notwithstanding the entreaties of the goddess of love, she refused
to restore him to earth.
At length the

but she came too

desponding Venus were

favor by Jupiter, who

reconciled the dispute between the two
goddesses, and by whose decree Proserpine
was compelled to consent that Adonis
should spend six months of each year
alternately with herself and Venus.
This is the story on which the Greek
poet Bion founded his exquisite idyll entitled the Epitaph of Adonis, the beginning
of which has been thus rather inefiiciently
"done into English."
listened to with

"

and the Loves Adonis dead deplore

beautiful Adonis is indeed.
Departed, parted from us. Sleep no more
In purple, Cypris but in watchet weed,
All wretched beat thy breast and all aread
'Adonis is no more.' The Loves and I
I

The

Oh her grief to see him bleed,

Smitten by white tooth on whiter thigh,
Out-breathing life's faint sigh upon the moun'

tain high.'

evident that Bion referred the

contest of Venus and Proserpine for Adonis
to a period subsequent to his death, from
the concluding lines, in which he says
"The Muses, too, lament the son of CinyIt

is

ras,

and invoke him

to Proserpine to keep and to nurture

in the under world.
But Proserpine had

sooner beheld him than she became

enamored with him and refused, when
Venus applied for him, to surrender him
to her rival. The subject was then referred
to Jupiter, who decreed that Adonis should
have one-third of the year to himself,
should be another third with Venus, and

in their song; but

the remainder of the time with Proserpine.

Adonis gave his own portion to Venus, and
lived happily with her till, having offended
Diana, he was killed by a wild boar.
The mythographer Pharnutus gives a
still different story, and says that Adonis
was the grandson of Cinyras, and fled with
father, Ammon, into Egypt, whose
people he civilized, taught them agriculture, and enacted many wise laws for their
government. He subsequently passed over
into Syria, and was wounded in the thigh
by a wild boar while hunting on Mount

his

Lebanon.

His

wife, Isis, or Astarte,

and

the people of Phoenicia and Egypt, supposing that the wound was mortal, profoundly deplored his death. But he after-

wards recovered, and their grief was replaced by transports of joy. All the myths,
it will be seen, agree in his actual or supposed death by violence, in the grief for his

Lament him.

him

who no

was a great hunter, died from a wound inflicted by a wild boar on Mount Lebanon.

prayers of the

that relate the tale of Adonis differently.

According to these, he was the product of
the incestuous connection of Cinyras and
Myrrha. Cinyras subsequently, on discovering the crime of his daughter, pursued
her with a drawn sword, intending to kill
her.
Myrrha entreated the gods to make
her invisible, and they changed her into a
myrrh tree. Ten months after the myrrh
tree opened, and the young Adonis was
born. This is the form of the myth that
has been adopted by Ovid, who gives it
with all its moral horrors in the tenth book
(298-524) of his Metamorphoses.
Venus, who was delighted with the extraordinary beauty of the boy, put him in
a coffer, unknown to all the gods, and gave

he

does not heed them, not because he does

loss, in his

recovery or restoration to

life,

and in the consequent joy thereon. And

on these facts are founded the Adonisian
mysteries which were established in his
honor.
Of these mysteries we are now to speak.
The mysteries of Adonis are said to have
been first established at Babylon, and thence
to have passed over into Syria, their principal seat being at the city of Byblos, in that
country. The legend on which the mysteries was founded contained a recital of his

:
;

ADONIS

ADONIS

23

making Thammuz and Adonis identical.

The story of Thammuz, as related in the
ancient work of Ibn Wahshik on The AgriByblos. The ceremonies commenced about culture of the Nabatheans, and quoted at
# the season of the year when the river length by Maimonides in his Moreh Nevochtragic death and his subsequent restoration
The mysto life, as has just been related.
teries were celebrated in a vast temple at

Adonis began
its

to

be swollen by the floods at

The Adonis, now called Nahr el Ibrahim,

or Abraham's river, is a small river of
Syria, which, rising in Mount Lebanon,
enters the Mediterranean a few miles south
of Byblos. Maundrell, the great traveller,
records the fact which he himself witnessed,
that after a sudden fall of rain the river,
descending in floods, is tinged with a deep
red by the soil of the hills in which it takes
its rise, and imparts this color to the sea,
into which it is discharged, for a considerable distance. The worshippers of Adonis
were readily led to believe that this reddish
discoloration of the water of the river was a
symbol of his blood. To this Milton alludes
when speaking of Thammuz, which was the
name given by the idolatrous Israelites to
the Syrian god
"

Thammuz came

Whose annual wound

The Syrian damsels

im, describes

Thammuz

as a false prophet,
for his idolatrous
practices, but nothing in that fable connects
him in any way with Adonis. But in the

who was put

source.

next behind,

in

Lebanon allured

lament his fate,

In am'rous ditties, all a summer's day
While smooth Adonis, from his native rock,
Ran purple to the sea, suffused with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded." Paradise Lost.
to

the worship of Thammuz

idolatrous and apostate Jews
was or was not identical with that of
Adonis among the Syrians has been a topic
of much discussion among the learned.
The only reference to Thammuz in the
Scriptures is in the Book of Ezekiel, (viii.
The prophet there represents that he
14.)
was transported in spirit, or in a vision, to
the Temple at Jerusalem, and that, being
led "to the door of the gate of the house
of Jehovah, which was towards the north,
he beheld there women sitting weeping for
Thammuz." The Vulgate has translated
Thammuz by Adonis " Et ecce ibi mulieres
sedebant, plangentes Adonidem;" i. e., "And

Whether
among the

behold women were sitting there, mourning

for Adonis."
St. Jerome, in his commentary on this passage, says that since, according to the heathen fable, Adonis had been
slain in the month of June, the Syrians
gave the name of Thammuz to this month,
when they annually celebrated a solemnity,
in which he is lamented by the women as
dead, and his subsequent restoration to life
is celebrated with songs and praises.
And
in a passage of another work he laments
that Bethlehem was overshadowed by a
grave of Thammuz, and that " in the cave
where the infant Christ once cried the lover
of Venus was bewailed," thus evidently

to death

Apology of St. Melito, of which the Syriac

translation remains, we have the oldest
Christian version of the myth. Mr. W. A.
Wright, of Trinity College, Cambridge,
gives, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, the
following liberal rendering of the Syriac
" The sons of Phoenicia worshipped Balthi,
the queen of Cyprus.
For she loved
Tamuzo, the son of Cuthar, the king of the
Phoenicians, and forsook her kingdom, and
came and dwelt in Gebal, a fortress of the
Phoenicians, and at that time she made all
the villages subject to Cuthar, the king.
For before Tamuzo she had loved Ares, and
committed adultery with him, and Hephaestus, her husband, caught her and was jealous of her; and he (i. e., Ares,) came and
slew Tamuzo on Lebanon, while he made
a hunting among the wild boars. And
from that time Balthi remained in Gebal,
and died in the city of Apatha, where
Tamuzo was buried." This is nothing more
than the Syrian myth of Adonis and, as
St. Melito lived in the second century, it
was doubtless on his authority that Jerome
adopted the opinion that the Thammuz of
"alienated Judah" was the same as the
Adonis of Syria; an opinion which, although controverted by some, has been gen;

erally adopted

by subsequent commenta-

tors.

The

sacred rites of the Adonisian mysbegan with mourning, and the days
which were consecrated to the celebration
of the death of Adonis were passed in lugubrious cries and wailings, the celebrants
teries

often scourging themselves. On the last

of the days of mourning, funereal rites were
performed in honor of the god. On the
following day the restoration of Adonis to
life was announced, and was received with
the most enthusiastic demonstrations of

Duncan, in a very well written work on

The

Religions

of Profane Antiquity,

(p.

350,) gives a similar description of these

rites: "The objects represented were the

grief of Venus and the death and resurrection of Adonis. An entire week was consumed in these ceremonies ; all the houses
were covered with crape or black linen
funeral processions traversed the streets;

while the devotees scourged themselves,

uttering frantic cries. The orgies were then
commenced, in which the mystery of the

; :

24

ADONIS

ADONIS

death of Adonis was depicted. During the

next twenty-four hours all the people fasted
at the expiration of which time the priests
announced the resurrection of the god. Joynow prevailed, and music and dancing concluded the festival."
Movers, who is of high authority among
scholars, says, in his Phonizier, (vol.

i.,

p.

200,) that "the celebration of the Adonisian mysteries began with the disappearance of Adonis, after which follows the

search for him by the women. The myth

represents this by the search of the goddess
after her beloved, which is analogous to the
search of Persephone in the Eleusinia of
Harmonia at Samothrace; of Io in Antioch.
In autumn, when the rains washed the red
earth on its banks, the river Adonis was
of a blood-red color, which was the signal
for the inhabitants of Byblos to begin the
lament. Then they said that Adonis was
killed by Mars or the boar, and that his
blood, running in the river, colored the
water."
Julius Fermicius Maternus, an ecclesiastical writer of the fourth century, thus
describes the funereal ceremonies and the
resurrection of Adonis in his treatise De
Errore Profanarum Religionum, dedicated
to the Emperors Constantius and Constans:
" On a certain night an image is laid out
upon a bed and bewailed in mournful
strains.
At length, when all have sufficiently expressed their feigned lamentation,
light is introduced, and the priest, having
first anointed the lips of those who had
been weeping, whispers with a gentle murmur the following formula, which in the
original is in the form of a Greek distich
Have courage, ye initiates ! The god having
been preserved out of grief, salvation will arise
;

Hierapolis seem rather to have had some

connection with the arkite worship, which
prevailed so extensively in the pagan world
The magnificent temple,
of antiquity.
which in after times the Roman Crassus
plundered, and the treasures of which it
took several days to weigh and examine,
was dedicated to Astarte, the goddess who
presided over the elements of nature and
the productive seeds of things, and who was
in fact the mythological personification of
the passive powers of Nature.
The mythological legend, which has been
detailed in the beginning of this article,
was but the exoteric story, intended for the
uninitiated.
There was also
as there was
in all these mystical initiations of the ana sacred and
cients, an esoteric meaning
secret symbolism, which constituted the
arcana of the mysteries, and which was
communicated only to the initiated.
Adonis, which is derived from the Helord or master
was
brew pN, Adon"
one of the titles given to the sun and
hence the worship of Adonis formed one
of the modifications of that once most exsun worship.
tensive system of religion
Godwyn, in his Moses and Aaron, (1. iv.,
" Concerning Adonis, whom
c. 2,) says
sometimes ancient authors call Osiris,
there are two things remarkable aphanisand
mos, the death or loss of Adonis
By the
heuresis, the finding of him again.
death or loss of Adonis we are to underby his
stand the departure of the sun
finding again we are to understand his

return/'

Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, more fully

explains the allegory thus: "Philosophers have given the name of Venus to
the superior or northern hemisphere, of
to us."
which we occupy a part, and that of ProThis annunciation of the recovery or serpine to the inferior or southern. Hence,
resurrection of Adonis was made, says among the Assyrians and Phoenicians, VeSainte-Croix, in his Mysteres du Paganisme, nus is said to be in tears when the sun, in
(t. ii., p. 106,) by the inhabitants of Alexanhis annual course through the twelve signs
dria to those of Byblos. The letter which of the zodiac, passes over to our antipodes
was to carry the news was placed in an for of these twelve signs six are said to be
earthen vessel and intrusted to the sea, superior and six inferior. When the sun
which floated it to Byblos, where Phoeni- is in the inferior signs, and the days are
cian women were waiting on the shore to consequently short, the goddess is supposed
receive it.
Lucian says, in his treatise to weep for the temporary death or privaon The Syrian Goddess, that a head was tion of the sun, detained by Proserpine,
every year transported from Egypt to By- whom we regard as the divinity of the
blos by some supernatural means.
Both southern or antipodal regions. And Adonis
stories are probably apocryphal, or at least is said to be restored to Venus when the
the act was, if performed at all, the result sun, having traversed the six inferior signs,
of the cunning invention of the priests.
enters those of our hemisphere, bringing
Sainte-Croix describes, from Lucian's with it an increase of light and lengthened
treatise on The Syrian Goddess, the magnifi- days.
The boar, which is supposed to
cence of the temple at Hierapolis; but he have killed Adonis, is an emblem of wincertainly found no authority in that writer ter; for this animal, covered with rough
for stating that the mysteries of Adonis were bristles, delights in cold, wet, and miry sitthere celebrated. The Rites practised at uations, and his favorite *bod is the acorn,

ADONIS

ADONIS

peculiar to winter. The

be wounded by winter,
since at that season we lose its light and
heat, which are the effects produced bydeath upon animated beings. Venus is
represented on Mount Lebanon in an attitude of grief; her head, bent and covered
with a veil, is supported by her left hand

in the harvest or other periods of the hot

The real object of lamentation
season.

a fruit which

sun

is

said, too, to

is

near her breast, and her countenance is

bathed in tears. This figure represents the
earth in winter, when, being veiled in clouds
and deprived of the sun, its energies have

become

The

fountains, like the

eyes of Venus, are overflowing, and the
fields, divested of their flowers, present a
joyless appearance. But when the sun has
torpid.

emerged from the southern hemisphere and

passed the vernal equinox, Venus is once
more rejoiced, the fields are again embellished with flowers, the grass springs up in
the meadows, and the trees recover their
foliage."

Such

supposed by mythologists in genhave been the esoteric doctrine of

the Adonisian initiation, hence said to be
a branch of that worship of the sun that
at one time so universally prevailed over
is

eral to

the world.

And

interpreted,

must have been founded on the

as this allegory,

fact that the solar

when thus

orb disappeared for sev-

months of winter, it followed that the

allegory must have been invented by some
eral

hyperborean people, to whom only such

an astronomical phenomenon could be
familiar.
This is the view taken by the
learned M. Baillie in his Histoire de
V Astronomie Ancienne, who founds on it
his favorite theory that all learning and
civilization originally came from the cir-

cumpolar regions.
This tendency to symbolize the changing
seasons and the decaying and renewed
strength of the sun was common first to
the mythology of the old Aryan race, and
then to that of every nation which descended from it. In Greece, especially, we
have the myths of Linus, w hose melancholy fate was bewailed at the season of
the grape picking, and whose history, although confused by various statements,
still makes him the analogue of Adonis
so that what is said of one might very
properly be applied to the other. On this
subject the following remarks of O. K.
T

Muller, in his

History of Greek Literawill be found interesting:

"This Linus," he says, "evidently belongs
to a class of deities or demigods of which
many instances occur in the religions of
Greece and Asia Minor
boys of extraordinary beauty and in the flower of youth,
who are supposed to have been drowned,
or devoured by raging dogs, or destroyed
by wild beasts, and whose death is lamented
ture,

(p.

23,)

25

was the tender beauty of spring destroyed

by the summer heat, and other phenomena
of the same kind, which the imagination
of these early times invested with a personal form, and represented as gods or
beings of a divine nature." It would not
be difficult to apply all this to the myth of
Adonis, who, like Linus, was supposed to
be a symbol of the dying and of the resuscitating sun.

But, on the other hand, as

observes, this notion of the

Payne Knight
mourning for

Adonis being a testimony of grief for the

absence of the sun during the winter, is
not to be too readily acquiesced in. Thus
Lobeck, in his Aglaophamus, very pertinently inquires why those nations whose
winter was the mildest and shortest should
so bitterly bewail the regular changes of
the seasons as to suppose that even a god
was slain and he observes, with a great
appearance of reason, that even were this
the case, the mournful and the joyful parts
of the festival should have been celebrated
;

at different periods of the year : the former

at the coming on of winter, and the latter
It is not,
at the approach of summer.
perhaps, easy to answer these objections.
all the mythologers, the Abbe Banier
the only one who has approximated to
what appears to be the true interpretation
of the myth. In his erudite work entitled
La Mijthologie et les Fables expliquees par
V Histoire, he discusses the myth of Adonis
He denies the plausibility
at great length.
of the solar theory, which makes Adonis,
in his death and resurrection, the symbol
of the sun's setting and rising, or of his
disappearance in winter and his return in
summer he thinks the alternate mourning
and joy which characterized the celebration
of the mysteries may be explained as referring to the severe but not fatal wound
of Adonis, and his subsequent recovery
through the skill of the physician Cocytus or, if this explanation be rejected, he
then offers another interpretation, which
is, I think, much nearer to the truth
" But if any be tenacious of the opinion
that Adonis died of his wound, I shall account for that joy which succeeded the
mourning on the last day of the festival
by saying it imported that he was promoted to divine honors, and that room
was no longer left for sorrow but that,
having mourned for his death, they were

Of

is

now

to

rejoice

at

who would

his deification.

The

not have been in favor

of a tradition which taught that the god
whom they had served was subject to death,
sought to conceal it from the people, and
invented the allegorical explication which

priests,

ADOPTION

26
I

have been refuting."

ADOPTION

(Tom.

iii., liv.

vii.,

ch. x.)

may

While, therefore, we

grant the pos-

was originally some connection between the Sabean worship of the

sun and the celebration of the Adonisian
sibility that there

festival,
ries,

in

we cannot

common

forget that these myste-

with

all

the other sacred

initiations of the ancient world, had been

originally established to promulgate among
the initiates the once hidden doctrine of
The myth of Adonis in
a future life.
Syria, like that of Osiris in Egypt, of Atys
in Samothrace, or of Dionysus in Greece,

presented, symbolically, the two great ideas

of decay and restoration sometimes figured
as darkness and light, sometimes as winter

of the deputation, then addressing the

nurse, exhorts her not only to watch over
the health of the child that has been intrusted to her care, but also to cultivate his
youthful intellect, and to instruct him with
truthful and sensible conversation.
The
child is then taken from the nurse, placed
by its father upon a cushion, and carried by
the deputation into the Lodge room. The

procession

advances beneath an arch of

foliage to the pedestal of the east,

stops.

"
'

where

Whom bring you here, my brethren ?

says the Master to the godfathers.

" The son of one of our brethren
'

it

'

whom

the Lodge is desirous of adopting,' is the

reply of the Senior Warden.
"
What are his names, and what Masonic
and summer, sometimes as death and life,
but always maintaining, no matter what name will you give him ?
" The Warden replies, adding to the bapwas the framework of the allegory, the inseparable ideas of something that was lost tismal and surname of the child a characand afterwards recovered, as its interpreta- teristic name, such as Truth, Devotion, Benevolence, or some other of a similar nature.
tion, and so teaching, as does Freemasonry
" The Master then descends from his seat,
at this day, by a similar system of allegorapproaches the louveteau or lewis, (for such
izing, that after the death of the body
comes the eternal life of the soul. The is the appellation given to the son of a
inquiring, Freemason will thus readily see Mason,) and extending his hands over its
the analogy in the symbolism that exists head, offers up a prayer that the child may
between Adonis in the mysteries of the render itself worthy of the love and care
Giblemites at Byblos and Hiram the which the Lodge intends to bestow upon it.
Builder in his own institution.
He then casts incense into the censers, and
Adoption, Masonic. The adoption pronounces the Apprentice's obligation,
by the Lodge of the child of a Mason is which the godfathers repeat after him in
Afterwards he
practised, with peculiar ceremonies, in the name of the louveteau.
some of the French and German Lodges, puts a white apron on the infant, proand has been recently introduced, but not claiming it to be the adopted child of the
with the general approbation of the Craft, Lodge, and causes this proclamation to be
into one or two Lodges of this country.
received with the honors.
Clavel, in his Hlstoire Plttoresque de la
"As soon as this ceremony has been perFranc- Maconnerie, (p. 39,) gives the fol- formed, the Master returns to his seat, and
lowing account of the ceremonies of adop- having caused the Wardens with the child
tion.
to be placed in the north-west corner of the
" It is a custom, in many Lodges, when Lodge, he recounts to the former the duties
the wife of a Mason is near the period of which they have assumed as godfathers.
her confinement, for the Hospitaller, if he After the Wardens have made a suitable
is a physician, and if not, for some other
response, the deputation which had brought
brother who is, to visit her, inquire after the child into the Lodge room is again
her health, in the name of the Lodge, and formed, and having carried it out, it is
to offer her his professional services, and restored to its nurse in the anteroom.
" The adoption of a louveteau binds all
even pecuniary aid if he thinks she needs
it.
Nine days after the birth of her child, the members of the Lodge to watch over
the Master and Wardens call upon her his education, and subsequently to aid him,
to congratulate her on the happy event. if it be necessary, in establishing himself
If the infant is a boy, a special communi- in life.
A circumstantial account of the
cation of the Lodge is convened for the ceremony is drawn up, which having been
Eurpose of proceeding to its adoption. The signed by all the members is delivered to
all is decorated with flowers and foliage,
This document
the* father of the child.
and censers are prepared for burning in- serves as a dispensation, which relieves him
cense.
Before the commencement of labor, from the necessity of passing through the
the child and its nurse are introduced into ordinary preliminary examinations when,
an ante-room. The Lodge is then opened, at the proper age, he is desirous of particiand the Wardens, who are to act as god- pating in the labors of Masonry. He is
fathers, repair to the infant at the head of then only required to renew his obligations."
a deputation of five brethren. The chief
In the United States, the ceremony has
:

'

'

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

been recently practised by a few Lodges,

the earliest instance being that of Foyer
Maconnique Lodge of New Orleans, in
1859. The Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted
Rite, has published the ritual of Masonic
Adoption for the use of the members of
that rite. The ritual for which, under the
of "Offices of Masonic Baptism,
title
Eeception of a Louveteau and Adoption,"
is a very beautiful one, and is the comIt is
position of Brother Albert Pike.
scarcely necessary to say that the word
Baptism there used has not the slightest
reference to the Christian sacrament of the

means instructed them

in

27

some of the mys-

which, he says,
she had been made the protectress after the
death of the king. This theory is so full
of absurdity, and its statements so flatly
contradicted by well-known historical facts,
that we may at once reject it as wholly
apocryphal.
Others have claimed Russia as the birthplace of Adoptive Masonry but in assigning that country and the year 1712 as the
place and time of its origin, they have undoubtedly confounded it with the chivalric
Order of Saint Catharine, which was instituted by the Czar Peter the Great in
honor of the Czarina Catharine, and which,
same name.
Adoptive Masonry. An organiza- although at first it consisted of persons of
tion which bears a very imperfect resem- both sexes, was subsequently confined exclublance to Freemasonry in its forms and sively to females. But the Order of Saint
ceremonies, and which was established in Catharine was in no manner connected with
It was simply a
France for the initiation of females, has that of Freemasonry.
been called by the French " Magonnerie Russian order of female knighthood.
The truth seems to be that the regular
d' Adoption ," or Adoptive Masonry, and the
societies in which the initiations take place Lodges of Adoption owed their existence
have received the name of " Loges d' Adop- to those secret associations of men and wotion," or Adoptive Lodges. This apjDellation men which sprang up in France before the
middle of the eighteenth century, and
is derived from the fact that every female
or Adoptive Lodge is obliged, by the regu- which attempted in all of their organizalations of the association, to be, as it were, tion, except the admission of female memadopted by, and thus placed under the bers, to imitate the Institution of Freemaguardianship of, some regular Lodge of sonry. Clavel, who, in his Histoire PitFreemasons.
toresque de la Franc- Maconnerie, an interestAs to the exact date which we are to as- ing but not always a trustworthy work,
sign for the first introduction of this system adopts this theory, says that female Maof female Masonry, there have been several sonry was instituted about the year 1730
theories, some of which, undoubtedly, are that it made its first appearance in France,
wholly untenable, since they have been and that it was evidently a product of the
founded, as Masonic historical theories too French mind. No one will be disposed to
often are, on an unwarrantable mixture of doubt the truth of this last sentiment. The
facts and fictions
of positive statements proverbial gallantry of the French Masons
and problematic conjectures. Mons. J. S. was most ready and willing to extend to
Boubge, a distinguished French Mason, in women some of the blessings of that Instihis Etudes Maconniques, places the origin tution, from which the churlishness, as they
of Adoptive Masonry in the 17th century, would call it, of their Anglo-Saxon brethren
and ascribes its authorship to Queen Hen- had excluded her.
rietta 'Maria, the widow of Charles I. of
But the Masonry of Adoption did not at
England and he states that on her return once and in its very beginning assume that
to France, after the execution of her hus- peculiarly imitative form of Freemasonry
band, she took pleasure in recounting the which it subsequently presented, nor was it
secret efforts made by the Freemasons of recognized as having any connection with
England to restore her family to their posi- our own Order until more than thirty years
tion and to establish her son on the throne after its first establishment.
Its progress
of his ancestors. This, it will be recollected, was slow and gradual. In the course of
was once a prevalent theory, now exploded, this progress it affected various names and
of the origin of Freemasonry
that it was rituals, many of which have not been
established by the Cavaliers, as a secret handed down to us.
It was evidently conpolitical organization, in the times of the vivial and gallant in its nature, and at first
English civil war between the king and the seems to have been only an imitation of
Parliament, and as an engine for the support Freemasonry, inasmuch as that it was a
of the former. M. Boubee adds, that the secret society, having a form of initiation
queen made known to the ladies of her and modes of recognition. A specimen of
court, in her exile, the words and signs em- one or two of these secret female associaployed by her Masonic friends in England tions may not be uninteresting.
as their modes of recognition, and by this
One of the earliest of these societies was
teries of the Institution, of

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

that which was established in the year 1743,

at Paris, under the name of the " Ordre des

Russia ; England alone, always conservative to a fault, steadily refusing to take any

28

Felicitaires,"

which we might very appro-

priately translate as the " Order of

Happy

Folks." The vocabulary and all the emThe

blems of the order were nautical.
sisters made symbolically a voyage to the
island of Felicity, in ships navigated by
There were four degrees,
the brethren.
namely, those of Cabin-boy, Captain, Commodore, and Vice-Admiral, and the Grand
Master, or presiding officer, was called the
Admiral. Out of this society there sprang
in 1745 another, which was called the
" Knights and Ladies* of the Anchor,"
which is said to have been somewhat more
refined in its character, although for the
most part it preserved the same formulary
of reception.
Two years afterwards, in 1747, the Chevalier Beauchaine, a very zealous Masonic
adventurer, and the Master for life of a
Parisian Lodge, instituted an androgynous
system under the name of the " Ordre des
Fendeurs," or "the Order of Wood- Cutters,"
whose ceremonies were borrowed from
those of the well-known political society
of the Carbonari. All parts of the ritual
had a reference to the sylvan vocation of
wood-cutting, just as that of the Carbonari
referred to coal-burning.
The place of
meeting was called a wood-yard, and was
supposed to be situated in a forest the pre;

siding officer was styled Pere Maitre, which

might be idiomatically interpreted as Goodman Master; and the members were designated as cousins, a practice evidently borrowed from the Carbonari. The reunions
of the " Wood-Cutters " enjoyed the prestige of the highest fashion in Paris
and
the society became so popular that ladies
and gentlemen of the highest distinction in
;

France united with it, and membership was

considered an honor which no rank, however exalted, need disdain.
It was consequently succeeded by the institution of
many other and similar androgynous societies, the very names of which it would
be tedious to enumerate.
Out of all these societies which resembled Freemasonry only in their secrecy,
their benevolence, and a sort of rude imitation of a symbolic ceremonial
at last arose
the true Lodges of Adoption, which so far
claimed a connection with and a dependence
on Masonry as that Freemasons alone were
admitted among their male members
a
regulation which did not prevail in the earlier organizations.
It was about the middle of the eighteenth
century that the Lodges of Adoption began
to attract attention in France, whence they
speedily spread into other countries of
into Germany, Poland, and even
Europe

The Masons, says

Clavel, embraced them with enthusiasm as
a practicable means of giving to their wives
and daughters some share of the pleasures
which they themselves enjoyed in their
mystical assemblies.
And this, at least,
may be said of them, that they practised
with commendable fidelity and diligence
the greatest of the Masonic virtues, and
that the banquet and balls which always
formed an important part of their cere-

cognizance of them.

monial were distinguished by numerous

acts of charity.

The first of these Lodges of which we

have any notice was that established in
Paris, in the year 1760, by the Count de
Bernouville. Another was instituted at
Nimuegen, in Holland, in 1774, over which
the Prince of Waldeck and the Princess of
Orange presided. In 1775, the Lodge of
Saint Antoine, at Paris, organized a dependent Lodge of Adoption, of which the
Duchess of Bourbon was Grand Mistress
and the Duke of Chartres Grand Master.
In 1777, there was an Adoptive Lodge of
La Candeur, over which the Duchess of
Bourbon presided, assisted by such noble
ladies as the Duchess of Chartres, the
Princess Lamballe, and the Marchioness
de Genlis and we hear of another governed by Madame Helvetius, the wife of
the illustrious philosopher; so that it will
be perceived that fashion, wealth, and literature combined to give splendor and influence to this new order of female Masonry.
At first the Grand Orient of France
appears to have been unfavorably disposed
to these pseudo-Masonic and androgynous
associations, but at length they became so
numerous and so popular that a persistence
in opposition would have evidently been
impolitic, if it did not actually threaten to
be fatal to the interests and permanence
The Grand
of the Masonic Institution.
;

Orient,

therefore, yielded its objections,

to avail itself of that which

and resolved

Accordingly, on
could not suppress.
the 10th of June, 1774, it issued an edict
by which it assumed the protection and
control of the Lodges of Adoption. Rules
and regulations were provided for their
it

government, among which were two first,

that no males except regular Freemasons
should be permitted to attend them and,
secondly, that each Lodge should be placed
under the charge and held under the sanc:

tion of some regularly constituted Lodge

of Masons, whose Master, or, in his absence, his deputy, should be the presiding
officer, assisted by a female President or
Mistress; and such has since been the organization of all Lodges of Adoption.

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE
A

Lodge of Adoption, under the regula-

tions established in 1774, consists of the

following officers a Grand Master, a Grand

Mistress, an Orator, an Inspector, an Inspectress, a Depositor and a Depositress
or, as these might more appropriately be
translated, a Male and Female Guardian,
a Master and a Mistress of Ceremonies,
and a Secretary. All of these officers wear
a blue w atered ribbon in the form of a collar, to which is suspended a golden trowel,
and all the brethren and sisters have white
:

aprons and gloves.

The Eite of Adoption consists of four
degrees, w hose names in French and Engr

lish are as follows

Female Apprentice.

1.

Apprentie, or

2.

Compagnonne, or Craftswoman.

Maitresse, or Mistress.
4. Parfaite Maitresse, or Perfect Mistress.
It w7 ill be seen that the degrees of Adoption, in their names and their apparent
reference to the gradations of employment
in an operative art, are assimilated to those
of legitimate Freemasonry but it is in those
respects only that the resemblance holds
good. In the details of the ritual there is a
vast difference between the two Institutions.
3.

There was a

degree added in 1817

fifth

by some modern writers called "Female

Sublime Dame Ecossaise, or Soverelect,"

eign Illustrious Dame Ecossaise; but it

seems to be a recent and not generally
adopted innovation. At all events, it constituted no part of the original Rite of

Adoption.

The

first,

or

Female Apprentice's

degree,

simply preliminary in its character, and

is intended to prepare the candidate for
the more important lessons which she is to
receive in the succeeding degrees.
She is
presented with a wmite apron and a pair
of white kid gloves. The apron is given
with the following charge, in which, as in
all the other ceremonies of the Order, the
Masonic system of teaching by symbolism
is

is

followed

" Permit me, my sister, to decorate you

with this apron, which, as the symbol of
virtue, kings, princes, and princesses have
esteemed, and will ever esteem it an honor
to wear."

On receiving the gloves, the candidate is

thus addressed
" The color of these gloves will admonish you that candor and truth are virtues
inseparable from the character of a female
Mason. Take your place among us, and be
pleased to listen to the instructions which
we are about to communicate to you."
The following charge is then addressed
to the candidate by the Orator
:

"

My dear Sister

Nothing

is

better cal-

culated to assure you of the high esteem our

29

society entertains for you, than your admission

as a member, thus giving you a proof of our
sincere attachment.
The vulgar, who are
always ignorant, have very naturally entertained the most ridiculous prejudices against
our Order.
Without any just reason they

have conceived an enmity which has induced

them to circulate the most scandalous rumors
concerning us. But how is it possible that
they, without the light of truth, should be enabled to form a correct judgment ? They are
incapable of appreciating the good that we do
by affording relief to our fellow-creatures in
distress.

"Your sex, my dear sister, having for a

long time been denied admission to our society, alone has had the right to think us unjust.
"What satisfaction must you, therefore, now
enjoy, in perceiving that Freemasonry is a
school of decorum and virtue, and that our
laws are intended to restrain the violence of
our passions, and to make us more deserving

We

have
of your confidence and esteem.
hitherto frequently found ourselves at a loss
in our meetings for the agreeable conversation
of your amiable sex, and hence we have at
length determined to invite you into our society by the endearing name of sisters, with the
hope that we shall hereafter pass our time
more delightfully in your pleasant company,
as well as give additional respect to our Institution.

"

We

our Lodge the temple of virtue,

endeavor, by the exercise of charity, to do all the good we can to our fellowcreatures, and seek to subdue our own passions.
The obligation that we take, not to
reveal our mysteries, prevents pride and selflove from lurking in our hearts, so that we
are enabled without ostentation to perform
all the good deeds which we are bound to

because

call

we

practise.
" The

name of sister, that we bestow upon

you, evinces the esteem that we have entertained for your person in selecting you to parand to cultivate, with
the principles of virtue and benevolence.
"Having now made you acquainted with
the nature of our Institution, we are well assured that the light of wisdom and virtue will
henceforth direct your conduct, and that you
will never reveal to the profane those mysteries which should ever carefully be preserved
by the maintenance of the strictest silence.
May the Omnipotent Deity give you that
strength which will always enable you to support the character of a sincere female Mason."

ticipate in our happiness

us,

It will be seen that throughout this

charge there runs a vein of gallantry,
which gives the true secret of the motives
which led to the organization of the society, and which, however appropriate to a
Lodge of Adoption, would scarcely be in
place in a Lodge of the legitimate Order.
In the second degree, or that of Compagnonne, or "Craftswoman," corresponding
to our Fellow Craft, the Lodge is made the

30

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

symbol of the Garden of Eden, and the

candidate passes through a mimic repre-

symbols and allegories which

sentation of the temptation of Eve, the

fatal effects of which, culminating in the
deluge and the destruction of the human
race, are impressed upon her in the lecture
or catechism.
Here we have a scenic representation of
the circumstances connected with that
The canevent, as recorded in Genesis.
didate plays the role of our common mother.
In the centre of the Lodge, which represents the garden, is placed the tree of life,
from which ruddy apples are suspended.
The serpent, made with theatrical skill to
represent a living reptile, embraces in its
An apple plucked from
coils the trunk.
the tree is presented to the recipient, who
is persuaded to eat it by the promise that
thus alone can she prepare herself for receiving a knowledge of the sublime mysShe receives the
teries of Freemasonry.
fruit from the tempter, but no sooner has

The fourth degree, or that of " Perfect

Mistress," corresponds to no degree in legitimate Masonry. It is simply the summit
of the Rite of Adoption, and hence is also
called the "Degree of Perfection."
Although the Lodge, in this degree, is supposed to represent the Mosaic tabernacle
in the wilderness, yet the ceremonies do
not have the same reference. In one of
them, however, the liberation, by the candidate, of a bird from the vase in which it
had been confined is said to symbolize the
liberation of man from the dominion of his
passions and thus a far-fetched reference is
made to the liberation of the Jews from
Egyptian bondage.
On the whole, the
ceremonies are very disconnected, but the
lecture or catechism contains some excellent lessons.
Especially does it furnish us
with the official definition of Adoptive Masonry, which is in these words
" It is a virtuous amusement by which
we recall a part of the mysteries of our
religion and the better to make man know
his Creator, after we have inculcated the duties of virtue, we deliver ourselves up to the
sentiments of a pure and delightful friendship by enjoying in our Lodges the pleasures
of society
pleasures which among us are
always founded on reason, honor, and innocence."
Apt and appropriate description of an
association, secret or otherwise, of agreeable
and virtuous, well-bred men and women,
but having not the slightest application to
the design or form of true Freemasonry.
The author of La Vraie Magonnerie
oV Adoption, who has given the best ritual
of the Rite, thus briefly sums up the objects
of the Institution
"The first degree contains only, as it
ought, moral ideas of Masonry the second
is the initiation into the first mysteries,
commencing with the sin of Adam, and
concluding with the Ark of Noah as the
the
first favor which God granted to men
third and fourth are merely a series of types
and figures drawn from the Holy Scriptures,
by which we explain to the candidate the
virtues which she ought to practise."
The fourth degree, being the summit of
the Rite of Adoption, is furnished with a
" table-lodge," or the ceremony of a banquet, which immediately succeeds the closing of the Lodge, and which, of course, adds
much to the social pleasure and nothing to
the instructive character of the Rite. Here,
also, there is a continued imitation of the
ceremonies of the Masonic Institution as
they are practised in* France, where the

she attempted to bite it, than she is startled

by the sound of thunder a curtain which
has separated her from the members of the
Lodge is suddenly withdrawn, and she is
detected in the commission of the act of
disobedience. She is sharply reprimanded
by the Orator, who conducts her before the
Grand Master. This dignitary reproaches
her with her fault, but finally, with the
consent of the brethren and sisters present,
he pardons her in the merciful spirit of the
Institution, on the condition that she will
take a vow to extend hereafter the same
clemency to the faults of others.
All of this is allegorical and very pretty,
and it cannot be denied that on the sensitive imaginations of females such ceremonies must produce a manifest impression.
But it is needless to say that it is
nothing like Masonry.
There is less ceremony, but more symbolism, in the third degree, or that of
" Mistress." Here are introduced, as parts
of the ceremony, the tower of Babel and
the theological ladder of Jacob. Its rounds,
however, differ from those peculiar to true
Masonry, and are said to equal the virtues
in number. The lecture or catechism is
very long, and contains some very good
points in its explanations of the symbols
of the degree. Thus, the tower of Babel
is said to signify the pride of man
its
the stones of which it was
base, his folly
composed, his passions
the cement which
united them, the poison of discord
and
its spiral form, the devious and crooked
ways of the human heart. In this manner
there is an imitation, not of the letter and
substance of legitimate Freemasonry, for
nothing can in these respects be more dissimilar, but of that mode of teaching by
;

is its

peculiar

characteristic.

ceremoniously conducted banquet, at which

Masons only are present, is always an ac-

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

eompaniment of the Master's Lodge. Thus,

as in the banquets of the regular Lodges of
the French Rite, the members always use a
symbolical language by which they desig-

Josephine presided at the meeting of one

at Strasburg in the year 1805.
They continued to flourish under the imperial dynasty, and although less popular, or I
should rather say, less fashionable, under
the restoration, they subsequently recovered

nate the various implements of the table

and the different articles of food and drink,
calling, for instance, the knives "swords,"
the forks " pikes," the meats " materials,"
and bread a " rough ashlar " so, in imitation of this custom, the Rite of Adoption
has established in its banquets a technical
vocabulary, to be used only at the table.
;

Thus

the*

Lodge room

is

called

"Eden,"

the doors " barriers," the minutes a " ladder," a wineglass is styled a " lamp," and its
water being "white oil"
contents " oil,"
and wine " red oil." To fill your glass is
" to trim your lamp," to drink is "to extinguish your lamp," with many other eccen-

tric expressions.

Much

taste,

and in some instances, mag-

nificence, are displayed in the decorations

of the Lodge rooms of the Adoptive Rite.

The apartment is separated by curtains

into

and contains ornaments

and decorations which of course vary in the
The orthodox Masonic
different degrees.
idea that the Lodge is a symbol of the
world is here retained, and the four sides
different divisions,

of the hall
continents
rope," the
" America,"

are said to represent the four

the entrance being called " Eu-

right side " Africa," the left

and the extremity in which the
Grand Master and Grand Mistress are
seated "Asia." There are statues representing Wisdom, Prudence, Strength, Temperance, Honor, Charity, Justice, and
Truth. The members are seated along the
sides in two rows, the ladies occupying the
front one, and the whole is rendered as
beautiful and attractive as the taste can

make it.
The Lodges of Adoption flourished greatly
in France after their recognition by the
Grand Orient. The Duchess of BourbOn,
who was the first that received the title of
Grand Mistress, was installed with great
pomp and splendor, in May, 1775, in the
Lodge of St. Antoine, in Paris. She presided
over the Adoptive Lodge Le Candeur until
Attached to
1780, when it was dissolved.
the celebrated Lodge of the Nine Sisters,
which had so many distinguished men of
letters among its members, was a Lodge of
Adoption bearing the same name, which in
1778 held a meeting at the residence of
Madame Helvetius in honor of Benjamin
Franklin, then our ambassador at the
French court. During the reign of terror
of the French revolution, Lodges of Adoption, like everything that was gentle or
humane, almost entirely disappeared. But
with the accession of a regular government
they were resuscitated, and the Empress

their popularity, and are still in existence

in France.
As interesting appendages to this article,
it may not be improper to insert two accounts, one of the installation of Madame
Cesar Moreau, as Grand Mistress of Adoptive Masonry, in the Lodge connected with
the regular Lodge La Jerusalem des Vallees Egyptiennes, on the 8th July, 1854, and
the other of the reception of the celebrated
Lady Morgan, in 1819, in the Lodge La
Belle et Bonne, as described by her in her

Diary.

The account of the installation of Madame Moreau, which is abridged from the
Franc- Macon, a Parisian periodical,

is

as

follows

The

fete

was most interesting and admi-

ably arranged. After the introduction in

due form of a number of brethren and
sisters, the Grand Mistress elect was announced, and she entered, preceded by the
'five lights of the Lodge and escorted by the
Inspectress, Depositress, Oratrix, and MisMons. J. S. Boubee,
tress of Ceremonies.
the Master of the Lodge La Jerusalem des
Vallees Egyptiennes, conducted her to the
altar, where, having installed her into office
and handed her a mallet as the symbol of
authority, he addressed her in a copy of
verses, whose merit will hardly claim for
them a repetition. To this she made a suitable reply, and the Lodge then proceeded to
the reception of a young lady, a part of the
ceremony of which is thus described
" Of the various trials of virtue and fortitude to which she was subjected, there was
one which made a deep impression, not
only on the fair recipient, but on the whole
Four boxes were
assembled company.
placed, one before each of the male officers;
the candidate was told to open them, which
she did, and from the first and second drew
faded flowers, and soiled ribbons and laces,
which being placed in an open vessel were
instantly consumed by fire, as an emblem
of the brief duration of such objects; from
the third she drew an apron, a blue silk
and from the
scarf, and a pair of gloves
fourth a basket containing the working
She was then contools in silver gilt.
;

ducted to the altar, where, on opening a

fifth box, several birds which had been confined in it escaped, which was intended to
teach her that liberty is a condition to
which all men are entitled, and of which no
one can be deprived without injustice.
After having taken the vow, she was in-

32

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

structed in the modes of recognition, and

having been clothed with the apron, scarf,
and gloves, and presented with the implements of the Order, she received from the
Grand Mistress an esoteric explanation of
Adall these emblems and ceremonies.
dresses were subsequently delivered by the
Orator and Oratrix, an ode was sung, the
poor or alms box was handed round, and
the labors of the Lodge were then closed."

Madame Moreau lived only six months

to enjoy the honors of presiding officer of
the Adoptive Eite, for she died of a pulmonary affection at an early age, on the 11th
of the succeeding January.
The Lodge of Adoption in which Lady
Morgan received the degrees at Paris., in
the year 1819, was called La Belle et Bonne.
This was the pet name which long before
had been bestowed by Voltaire on his
favorite, the Marchioness de Villette, under
whose presidency and at whose residence in
the Faubourg St. Germain e the Lodge was
held, and hence the name with which all
France, or at least all Paris, was familiarly
acquainted as the popular designation of

Madame

de Villette.

Lady Morgan,

in her description of the

Masonic fete, says that when she arrived at'

the Hotel la Villette, where the Lodge was
held, she found a large concourse of dis-

proved themselves

fully equal to
brethren of the legitimate Order.

their

Notwithstanding that Adoptive Masonry

has found an advocate in no less distinguished a writer than Chemin Dupontes,
who, in the Encyclopedic Magonnique, calls
it " a luxury in Masonry, and a pleasant relaxation which cannot do any harm to the
true mysteries which are practised by men
alone," it has been very generally condemned by the most celebrated French,
German, English, and American Masons.
Gaedicke, in the Freimaurer Lexicon,
speaks slightingly of it as established on
insufficient grounds, and
expresses his
gratification that the system no longer exists

in

Germany.

Thory, in his History of

the Foundation
of the Grand Orient (p. 361), says that the
introduction of Adoptive Lodges was a consequence of the relaxation of Masonic discipline; and he asserts that the permitting
of women to share in mysteries which
should exclusively belong to men is not in
accordance with the essential principles of
the Masonic Order. The Abbe Robin, the
author of an able work entitled Recherches
sur les Initiations Anciennes et Modernes,
maintains that the custom of admitting
women into Masonic assemblies will perhaps be, at some further period, the cause
of the decline of Masonry in France. The
prediction is not, however, likely to come
to pass for while legitimate Masonry has
never been more popular or prosperous in
France than it is at this day, it is the
Lodges of Adoption that appear to have

tinguished persons ready to take part in the

ceremonies.
Among these were Prince
Paul of Wurtemberg, the Count de Cazes,
elsewhere distinguished in Masonry, the
celebrated Denon, the Bishop of Jerusalem,
and the illustrious actor Talma. The business of the evening commenced with an in- declined.
stallation of the officers of a sister Lodge,
Other writers in other countries have
after which the candidates were admitted.
spoken in similar terms, so that it is beyond
Lady Morgan describes the arrangements a doubt that the general sentiment of the
as presenting, when the doors were opened,
Fraternity is against this system of female
a spectacle of great magnificence.
pro- Masonry.
fusion of crimson and gold, marble busts, a
Lenning is, however, more qualified in
decorated throne and altar, an abundance his condemnation, and says, in his Encycloof flowers, and incense of the finest odor padie der Freimaurerei, that while leaving
which filled the air, gave to the whole a it undecided whether it is prudent to hold
most dramatic and scenic effect. Music of assemblies of women with ceremonies
the grandest character mingled its harmony which are called Masonic, yet it is not to
with the mysteries of initiation, which be denied that in these female Lodges a
lasted for two hours, and when the Lodge large amount of charity has been done.
was closed there was an adjournment to the
Adoptive Masonry has its literature, alhall of refreshment, where the ball was though neither extensive nor important, as
opened by the Grand Mistress with Prince it comprises only books of songs, addresses,
Paul of Wurtemberg. Lady Morgan, upon and rituals. Of the latter the most valuwhose mind the ceremony appears to have able are
1. La Maconnerie des Femmes,
made an impression, makes one remark published in, 1775, and containing only the
worthy of consideration " That so many first three degrees; for such was the system
women," she says, " young and beautiful when recognized by the Grand Orient of
and worldly, should never have revealed France in that year. 2. La Vraie Maconthe secret, is among the miracles which the nerie d' Adoption, printed in 1787. This
much distrusted sex are capable of work- work, which is by Guillemain de St. Victor,
In fidelity to the vow of secrecy, the is perhaps the best that has been published
ing."
female Masons of the Adoptive Rite have on the subject of the Adoptive Rite, and is
;

ADOPTIVE

ADOPTIVE

the first that introduces the fourth degree,

of which Guillemain is supposed to have
been the inventor, since all previous rituals
include only the three degrees. 3. Macon-

unions of these members were styled " Constellations " and the Rite was presided over
and governed by a "Supreme Constellation."
There is some ingenuity and even
beauty in many of the ceremonies, although
it is by no means equal in this respect to

nerie d' Adoption pour

les

Femmes, contained

in the second part of E. J. Chappron's

Necessaire Magonnique, and printed at Paris
This is valuable because it is the
in 1817.
first ritual that contains the fifth degree.
This
4. La Franc- Magonnerie des Femmes.

work, which is by Charles Monselet, is of

no value as a ritual, being simply a tale
founded on circumstances connected with

Adoptive Masonry.
In Italy, the Carbonari, or "CharcoalBurners," a secret political society, imitated
the Freemasons of France in instituting an
Adoptive Eite, attached to their own asso-

Hence an Adoptive Lodge was

founded at Naples in the beginning of this
ciation.

century, over which presided that friend of

Masonry, Queen Caroline, the wife of FerThe members were styled
dinand II.
Giardiniere, or Female Gardeners; and

tney called each other Cugine, or Female

Cousins, in imitation of the Carbonari, who
were recognized as Buoni Cugini, or Good
Cousins. The Lodges of Giardiniere flourished as long as the Grand Lodge of Carbonari existed at Naples.

Adoptive Masonry, American.

The Rite of Adoption

as practised on the
continent of Europe, and especially in
France, has never been introduced into
America. The system does not accord with
the manners or habits of our people, and
undoubtedly never would become popular.
But Rob. Morris attempted, in 1855, to introduce an imitation of it, which he had invented, under the name of the " American
Adoptive Rite." It consisted of a ceremony
of initiation, which was intended as a preliminary trial of the candidate, and of five

named as follows: 1. Jephthah's

Daughter, or the daughter's degree.
2.
Ruth, or the widow's degree. 3. Esther, or
the wife's degree. 4. Martha, or the sister's
degree. 5. Electa, or the Christian Martyr's degree.
The whole assemblage of the
five degrees was called the Eastern Star.
The objects of this Rite, as expressed by
degrees,

the framer, were " to associate in one common bond the worthy wives, widows,
daughters, and sisters of Freemasons, so as to
make their adoptive privileges available for
all the purposes contemplated in Masonry
to secure to them the advantages of their
claim in a moral, social, and charitable
point of view, and from them the performance of corresponding duties." Hence no
females but those holding the above recited
;

relations to

Freemasons were

eligible for

admission. The male members were called

" Protectors ; " the female, " Stellae " the re;

33

the French Adoptive system. Much dissatisfaction was, however, expressed by the
leading Masons of the country at the time of
its attempted organization
and therefore,
notwithstanding very strenuous efforts were
made by its founder and his friends to establish it in some of the Western States, it was
slow in winning popularity. It has, however, within a few years past, gained much
growth under the name of " The Eastern
;

Star."
Bro. Albert Pike has also recently
printed, for the use of Scottish Rite Masons,
The Masonry of Adoption. It is in seven
degrees, and is a translation from the French
system, but greatly enlarged, and is far superior to the original.
The last phase of this female Masonry
to which our attention is directed is the
system of androgynous degrees which are
practised to some extent in the United
This term " androgynous " is deStates.
rived from two Greek words, aner-andros, a
man, and gune, a woman, and it is equivalent to the English compound masculo-fem"
inine. It is applied to those " side degrees
which are conferred on both males and
females. The essential regulation prevailing in these degrees, is that they can be
conferred only on Master Masons (and in
some instances only Royal Arch Masons)
and on their female relatives, the peculiar
relationship differing in the different degrees.

Thus there is a degree generally called

the "Mason's Wife," which can be conferred only on Master Masons, their wives,
unmarried daughters and sisters, and their
widowed mothers. Another degree, called
the " Heroine of Jericho," is conferred only
on the wives and daughters of Royal Arch
Masons ; and the third, the only one that
has much pretension of ceremony or ritual,
is the " Good Samaritan," whose privileges
are confined to Royal Arch. Masons and
their wives.
In some parts of the United States these
degrees are very popular, while in other
places they are never practised, and are
strongly condemned as modern innovations.
The fact is, that by their friends as well as
their enemies these so-called degrees have
When febeen greatly misrepresented.
males are told that in receiving these degrees they are admitted into the Masonic
Order, and are obtaining Masonic information, under the name of " Ladies' Masonry," they are simply deceived. When

woman

is

informed that, by passing

ADVANCEMENT

ADOPTIVE

34

through the brief and unimpressive ceremony of any one of these degrees, she has
become a Mason, the deception is still more
gross

and inexcusable.

But

true that
related by ties of conit is

every woman who is

sanguinity to a Master Mason is at all
times and under all circumstances peculiarly entitled to Masonic protection and
assistance.
Now, if the recipient of an
androgynous degree is candidly instructed
that, by the use of these degrees, the female
relatives of Masons are put in possession
of the means of making their claims known
by what may be called a sort of oral testimony, which, unlike a written certificate,
can be neither lost nor destroyed but that,
by her initiation as a " Mason's Wife " or as
a " Heroine of Jericho," she is brought no
nearer to the inner portal of Masonry than
if she is honestly told all
she was before
this, then there can hardly be any harm,
and there may be some good in these forms
But all attempts to
if prudently bestowed.
make Masonry of them, and especially that
anomalous thing called " Female Masonry,"
are reprehensible, and are well calculated
to produce opposition among the well-informed and cautious members of the Fra;

ternity.

Adoptive Masonry, Egyptian.

system invented
Egyptian Masonry.

by Cagliostro.

Adoration. The

See

leius (Apolog?) uses the expression " to apply the hand to the lips," manum labris
admovere, to express the act of adoration.
The Grecian mode of adoration differed

act of paying

di-

adoration, as if he had said, "If I have

adored the sun or the moon." This mode
of adoration is said to have originated
among the Persians, who, as worshippers
of the sun, always turned their faces to the
east and kissed their hands to that luminary. The gesture was first used as a token of respect to their monarchs, and was
easily transferred to objects of worship.
Other additional forms of adoration were
used in various countries, but in almost
all of them this reference to kissing was in
some degree preserved. Among the ancient
liomans the act of adoration was thus performed The worshipper, having his head
covered, applied his right hand to his lips,
thumb erect, and the forefinger resting on

Eoman in having the head uncovwhich practice was adopted by the

from the
ered,

The Oriental nations cover the

head, but uncover the feet. They also express the act of adoration by prostrating
themselves on their faces and applying
their foreheads to the ground.
The ancient Jews adored by kneeling, sometimes
by prostration of the whole body, and by
kissing' the hand.
This act, therefore, of
kissing the hand, was an early and a very
general symbol of adoration. But we must
not be led into the error of supposing that
a somewhat similar gesture used in some
of the high degrees of Freemasonry has
any allusion to an act of worship. It refers
to that symbol of silence and secrecy which
is figured in the statues of Harpocrates,
the god of silence. The Masonic idea of
adoration has been well depicted by the
mediaeval Christian painters, who represented the act by angels prostrated before a
luminous triangle.
Advanced. This word has two techChristians.

meanings in Masonry.

nical

We

speak of a candidate as being

advanced when he has passed from a lower
1.

vine worship. The Latin word adorare is

derived from ad, " to," and os, oris, " the
mouth," and we thus etymologically learn
that the primitive and most general method
of adoration was by the application of the
fingers to the mouth.
Hence we read in
Job, (xxxi. 26,) "If I beheld the sun when
it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this
also were an iniquity to be punished by the
judges for I should have denied the God
that is above." Here the mouth kissing
the hand is an equipollent expression to

and then, bowing his head, he turned

round from right to left. And hence Apuit,

to a higher degree as we say that a candidate is qualified for advancement from the
Entered Apprentice's degree to that of a
Fellow Craft when he has made that "suit;

able proficiency in the former which, by

the regulations of the Order, entitle him
to receive the initiation into and the inAnd when the
structions of the latter.
Apprentice has thus been promoted to the
second degree he is said to have advanced
in

Masonry.

The word

peculiarly applied to the

into the Mark
degree, which is the fourth in the American modification of the York Eite. The
Master Mason is thus said to be " advanced
2.

is

initiation of a candidate

to the honorary degree of a Mark Master,"

to indicate either that he has now been

promoted one step beyond the degrees of

Ancient Craft Masonry on his way to the
Royal Arch, or to express the fact that he
has been elevated from the common class
of Fellow Crafts to that higher and more
select one which, according to the traditions of Masonry, constituted, at the first
Temple, the class of Mark Masters. See

Mark

Master.

Advancement Hurried.

Noth-

ing can be more certain than that the proper

qualifications of a candidate for admission
into the mysteries of Freemasonry, and the

"

ADVANCEMENT

ADVANCEMENT

35

necessary proficiency of a Mason who seeks ment of our mystic temple, from its porch
advancement to a higher degree, are the to its sanctuary, pausing in his progress to
two great bulwarks which are to protect admire the beauties and to study the uses
the purity and integrity of our Institution. of each, learning, as he advances, " line
Indeed, I know not which is the most hurt- upon line, and precept upon precept," is
ful
to admit an applicant who is un- gradually and almost imperceptibly imbued
worthy, or to promote a candidate who is with so much admiration of the Institution,
The one so much love for its principles, so much
ignorant of his first lessons.

the external, the other the internal

The one
character of the Institution.
brings discredit upon the Order among the
profane, who already regard us, too often,
with suspicion and dislike; the other introduces ignorance and incapacity into our
ranks, and dishonors the science of Masonry
in our own eyes. The one covers our walls
with imperfect and worthless stones, which
mar the outward beauty and impair the
strength of our temple the other fills our
interior apartments with confusion and disorder, and leaves the edifice, though externally strong, both inefficient and inappropriate for its destined uses.
But, to the candidate himself, a too
hurried advancement is often attended with
the most disastrous effects. As in geometry,
so in Masonry, there is no " royal road " to
perfection.
knowledge of its principles
affects

and consequently an acquaintance with its beauties, can only be

acquired by long and diligent study. To
the careless observer it seldom offers, at a

and

its

science,

much to attract his attention

or secure his interest. The gold must be
deprived, by careful manipulation, of the
dark and worthless ore which surrounds
and envelops it, before its metallic lustre
and value can be seen and appreciated.
Hence, the candidate, who hurriedly
passes through his degrees without a due
hasty glance,

examination of the moral and intellectual

purposes of each, arrives at the summit of
our edifice without a due and necessary
appreciation of the general symmetry and
connection that pervade the whole system.
The candidate, thus hurried through the
elements of our science, and unprepared, by
a knowledge of its fundamental principles,
for the reception and comprehension of the
corollaries which are to be deduced from
them, is apt to view the whole system as " a
rude and indigested mass" of frivolous
ceremonies and puerile conceits, whose intrinsic value will not adequately pay him
for the time, the trouble, and expense that
he has incurred in his forced initiation.

just appreciation of its design as a conservator of divine truth, and an agent of human
civilization, that he is inclined, on beholding, at last, the whole beauty of the finished
building, to exclaim, as did the wondering

Queen of Sheba

"

must have done

A Most Excellent Master

all this

The usage in many jurisdictions of this

country, when the question is asked in the
ritual whether the candidate has made suitable proficiency in his preceding degree, is
to reply, " Such as time and circumstances
would permit." I have no doubt that this
was an innovation originally invented to
evade the law, which has always required a
due proficiency. To such a question no
other answer ought to be given than the
positive and unequivocal one that " he has."
Neither " time nor circumstances " should

be permitted to interfere with his attainment of the necessary knowledge, nor excuse its absence. This, with the wholesome rule, very generally existing, which
requires an interval between the conferring
of the degrees, would go far to remedy the
evil of too hurried and unqualified advancement, of which all intelligent Masons
are now complaining.
After these views of the necessity of a
careful examination of the claims of a candidate for advancement in Masonry, and the

own good as well as that

of the Order, that each one should fully
prepare himself for this promotion, it is
proper that we should next inquire into
the laws of Masonry, by which the wisdom
and experience of our predecessors have
thought proper to guard as well the rights
of those who claim advancement as the
interests of the Lodge which is called upon
This subject has been so fully
to grant it.
treated in Mackey's Text Book of Masonic
necessity, for his

Jurisprudence, (b. iii., ch. i., p. 165, and

that I shall not hesitate to incorporate the views in that work into the present

seq.,)

article.

The
for

subject of the petition of a candidate

advancement involves three questions

To him, Masonry is as incomprehensible as of great importance First, how soon, after

was the veiled statue of Isis to its blind receiving the first degree, can he apply for
worshippers, and he becomes, in conse- the second? Secondly, what number of
:

quence, either a useless drone in our hive,

or speedily retires in disgust from all participation in our labors.
But the candidate who by slow and painful steps has proceeded through each apart-

black balls

is

necessary to constitute a re-

And

thirdly, what time must

a first rejection, before the
Apprentice can renew his application for

jection?

elapse, after

advancement ?

ADVANCEMENT

36
1.

How

soon, after receiving

a former

ADVANCEMENT
de-

can a candidate apply for advancement

to the next f
The necessity of a full comprehension of the mysteries of one degree,
before any attempt is made to acquire those
of a second, seems to have been thoroughly
appreciated from the earliest times; and
hence all the Ancient Constitutions have
prescribed that " the Master shall instruct
his Apprentice faithfully, and make him a
perfect workman." But if there be an obligation on the part of the Master to instruct his Apprentice, there must be, of
course, a correlative obligation on the part of
the latter to receive and profit by those instructions.
Accordingly, unless this obligation is discharged, and the Apprentice
makes himself acquainted with the mysteries of the degree that he has already
received, it is, by general consent, admitted
that he has no right to be intrusted with
further and more important information.

gree,

The modern

sustains this doctrine,

as a qualification in passing onward, shall have made
" suitable proficiency in. the preceding degree."
This is all that the general law prescribes.
Suitable proficiency must have
been attained, and the period in which that
condition will be acquired must necessarily
depend on the mental capacity of the candidate.
Some men will become proficient
in a shorter time than others, and of this
fact the Master and the Lodge are to be the
judges. An examination should therefore
take place in open Lodge, and a ballot immediately following will express the opinion of the Lodge on the result of that
examination, and the qualification of the
candidate.
ritual

by requiring that the candidate,

From the difficulty with which the second

and third degrees were formerly obtained
a difficulty dependent on the fact that
they were only conferred in the Grand
Lodge
it is
evident that Apprentices
must have undergone a long probation before they had an opportunity of advancement, though the precise term of the probation was decided by no legal enactment.
Several modern Grand Lodges, however,
looking with disapprobation on the rapidity
with which the degrees are sometimes conferred upon candidates wholly incompe-

have adopted special regulations, prescribing a determinate period of probation

for each degree.
This, however, is a local
law, to be obeyed only in those jurisdictions
in which it is of force.
The general law
of Masonry makes no such determinate
provision of time, and demands only that
the candidate shall give evidence of " suittent,

able proficiency."
2.

to

a rejection

completely silent upon the subject.

It
would seem, however, that in the advancement of an Apprentice or Fellow Craft, as
well as in the election of a profane, the
ballot should be unanimous. This is strictly
in accordance with the principles of Masonry, which require unanimity in admission, lest improper persons be intruded, and
harmony impaired. Greater qualifications
are certainly not required of a profane applying for initiation than of an initiate
seeking advancement nor can there be any
reason why the test of those qualifications
should not be as rigid in the one case as in
the other. It may be laid down as a rule,
therefore, that in all cases of balloting for
advancement in any of the degrees of Masonry, a single black ball will reject.
3. What time must elapse, after a first rejection, before the Apprentice or Fellow Craft
can renew his application for advancement to
;

a higher degree?

Here, too, the Ancient

Constitutions are silent, and we are left to
deduce our opinions from the general principles and analogies of Masonic law.
As
the application for advancement to a higher
degree is founded on a right enuring to the
Apprentice or Fellow Craft by virtue of
his reception into the previous degree
that is to say, as the Apprentice, so soon as
he has been initiated, becomes invested
with the right of applying for advancement
it seems evident that, as
to the second
long as he remains an Apprentice " in good
standing," he continues to be invested with
that right. Now, the rejection of his petition for advancement by the Lodge does
not impair his right to apply again, because it does not affect his rights and standing as an Apprentice; it is simply the
expression of the opinion that the Lodge
does not at present deem him qualified for
must
further progress in Masonry.
never forget the difference between the right
of applying for advancement and the right
of advancement. Every Apprentice possesses the former, but no one can claim the
latter until it is given to him by the unanimous vote of the Lodge. And as, therefore, this right of application or petition is
not impaired by its rejection at a particular
time, and as the Apprentice remains precisely in the same position in his own degree, after the rejection, as he did before,

We

an irresistible deduche may again apply at the next

regular communication, and, if a second
time rejected, repeat his applications at all
future meetings. The Entered Apprentices
it

seems

balls is necessary

Here we are

en-

to follow, as

tion, that

of a

What number of black

constitute

without the guidance of any express

law, as all the Ancient Constitutions are

tirely

Lodge

are competent, at all regular

communications of their Lodge, to petition

Whether that petition
for advancement.

ADYTUM

AFFILIATED

diall be granted or rejected is quite another

thing, and depends altogether on the favor
of the Lodge. And what is here said of an
Apprentice, in relation to advancement to
the second degree, may be equally said of a
Fellow Craft in reference to advancement
to the third.
This opinion has not, it is true, been universally adopted, though no force of authority, short of an opposing landmark,
could make one doubt its correctness. For
instance, the Grand Lodge of California

erected in honor of the dead.

Hence the
interior of the temple was originally no-

decided, in 1857, that "the application of

Apprentices or Fellow Crafts for advancement should, after they have been once
rejected by ballot, be governed by the same
principles which regulate the ballot on petitions for initiation, and which require a probation of one year."
This appears to be a singular decision of
Masonic law. If the reasons which prevent
the advancement of an Apprentice or Fellow Craft to a higher degree are of such a
nature as to warrant the delay of one year,
it is far better to prefer charges against the
petitioner, and to give him the opportunity
of a fair and impartial trial. In many
cases,

a candidate for advancement

is re-

tarded in his progress from an opinion, on

the part of the Lodge, that he is not yet
sufficiently prepared for promotion by a
knowledge of the preceding degree
an

thing more than a cavity regarded as a

place for the reception of a person interred,
and in it was to be found the soros, or coffin,
the taphos, or tomb, or, among the Scandinavians, the barrow or mound grave. In
time, the statue or image of a god took the
place of the coffin'; but the reverence for
the spot as one of peculiar sanctity remained, and this interior part of the temple became, among the Greeks, the 07/Kof, or
chapel, among the Bomans the adytum, or
forbidden place, and among the Jews the
kodesh hakodashim, the holy of holies. (See
Sanctum Sanctorum.) "The sanctity thus
acquired," says Dudley, {Naology, p. 393,)
"by the cell of interment might readily
and with propriety be assigned to any
fabric capable of containing the body of
the departed friend, or the relic, or even
the symbol, of the presence or existence
of a divine personage." And thus it has
happened that there was in every ancient
temple an adytum or most holy place. The
adytum of the small temple of Pompeii is
in excellent preservation. It is carried
steps above the level of the main
building, and, like the Jewish sanctuary,
still

some

is

without

light.

iEneid. Bishop Warburton

(Div. Leg.)

secret

has contended, and his opinion has been

sustained by the great majority of subsequent commentators, that Virgil, in the
sixth book of his immortal Epic, has, under
the figure of the descent of iEneas into the
infernal regions, described the ceremony of
initiation into the Ancient Mysteries.
iEon. This word, in its original Greek,
aiuv, signifies the age or duration of anything. The Gnostics, however, used it in
a peculiar mode to designate the intelligent, intellectual, and material powers or
natures which flowed as emanations from
the Bvdbg, or Infinite Abyss of Deity, and
which were connected with their divine
fountain as rays of light are with the sun.
See Gnosticism.

part of the ancient temples, into which the

people were not permitted to enter, but which
was accessible to the priests only, was called
the adytum. And hence the derivation of
the word from the Greek privative preterite

Lat. ArchiEra. Used in some modern Masonic lapidary inscriptions to designate the
date more commonly known as annus lucis,
the year of light.

objection which may sometimes be removed

before the recurrence of the next monthly
meeting. In such a case, a decision like
that of the Grand Lodge of California
would be productive of manifest injustice.
It is, therefore, a more consistent rule, that
the candidate for advancement has a right
to apply at every regular meeting, and that
whenever any moral objections exist to his
taking a higher degree, these objections
should be made in the form of charges, and
their truth tested by an impartial trial.
To
this, too, the candidate is undoubtedly entitled, on all the principles of justice and
equity.

Adytum.

The most retired and

and dveiv, to enter

that which is not to
be entered.
In the adytum was generally
to be found a taphos, or tomb, or some

a,

sacred images of the god to whom

the temple was consecrated. It being supposed that temples owed their origin to the
superstitious reverence paid by the ancients
to their deceased friends, and as most of
the gods were men who had been deified on
account of their virtues, temples were,
perhaps, at first only statelv monuments
relics or

JEra Architectonica.

tectonic

Affiliated

Mason. A Mason who

holds membership in some Lodge. The

word affiliation is derived from the French
affilier, which Richelet {Diet, de la langue
Francaise) defines, " to communicate to any
one a participation in the spiritual benefits
of a religious order," and he says that such
a communication is called an "affiliation."
The word, as a technical term, is not found
in any of the old Masonic writers, who
always use admission instead of affiliation.

38

AFFIKMATION

AFRICAN

There is no precept more explicitly expressed in the Ancient Constitutions than

that every Mason should belong to a Lodge.
The foundation of the law which imposes
this duty is to be traced as far back as the
Gothic 'Constitutions of 926, which tell us
that "the workman shall labor diligently
on work-days, that he may deserve his
holydays." The obligation that every Mason should thus labor is implied in all the
subsequent Constitutions, which always
speak of Masons as working members of the
Fraternity, until we come to the Charges
approved in 1722, which explicitly state
that "every Brother ought to belong to
a Lodge, and to be subject to its By-Laws
and the General Regulations."
Affirmation. The question has been
mooted whether a Quaker, or other person
having peculiar religious scruples in reference to taking oaths, can receive the degrees of Masonry by taking an affirmation.

Now,

as the obligations of Masonry are

symbolic in their character, and the forms
in which they are administered constitute
the essence of the symbolism, there cannot
be a doubt that the prescribed mode is the
only one that ought to be used, and that

affirmations are entirely inadmissible. The

London Freemason's Quarterly (1828, p. 286,)
says that " a Quaker's affirmation is binding." This is not denied the only quesCan the
tion is whether it is admissible.
obligations be assumed in any but one way,
unless the ritual be entirely changed? and
can any "man or body of men" at this
time make such a change without affecting
the universality of Masonry? Bro. Chase
{Masonic Digest, p. 448,) says that " conferring the degrees on affirmation is no violation of the spirit of Freemasonry, and
neither overthrows nor affects a landmark." And in this he is sustained by the
Grand Lodge of Maine (1823) but the
only other Grand Lodges which have expressed an opinion on this subject
namely,
those of Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Delaware, Virginia, and Pennsylvania
have made an opposite decision. The entire practice of Lodges in this country
is also against the use of an affirmation.
There is no landmark more clear and certain than that which prescribes the mode
:

of entering upon the covenant, and it, by

implication, excludes the affirmation, or
any other kind but the one prescribed.

Africa.

Freemasonry was

first

at-

tempted to be introduced into Africa in

1735, through the appointment, in that
year, of Richard Hull, Esq., by Lord Weymouth, Grand Master of England, as Provincial Grand Master at Gambay, in West
Africa.
In the following year the Earl of
Loudoun appointed Dr. David Creighton

Provincial

At

Castle.

Grand Master of Cape Coast

is a District Grand
South Africa, and the English

present there

Master for
Lodges on that continent are under the control, through him, of the Grand Lodge of
England. I doubt, however, whether any
Lodges were established at an early period
on the African continent by these provincial deputations.

At

all

events, the first

African Lodge that I find marked in Hutchinson's Register of the English Lodges is at
Bulam, on the coast of Africa, under the
date of 1792, and numbered as 495. At
present there are eighteen Lodges in Africa under the English jurisdiction, fourteen
of which are at the Cape of Good Hope,
one at Bathurst on the river Gambia, three
at Cape Coast Castle, and one at Sierra
Leone. The Grand Lodge of Scotland has
a Lodge under its jurisdiction at the Cape
of Good Hope,
lished by the

and several have been estabGrand Orient of France in

Mauritius, Egypt, and Algeria.
African Architects, Order of.
Sometimes called African Builders; French,
Architectes de I'Afrique ; German, AfricanBauherren.
all the new sects and modern degrees
of Freemasonry which sprang up on the
continent of Europe during the eighteenth
century, there was none which, for the
time, maintained so high an intellectual
position as the Order of African Architects, called by the French Architectes de
I'Afrique, and by the Germans Africanische
Bauherren. A Masonic sect of this name
had originally been established in Germany in the year 1756, but it doe3 not
appear to have attracted much attention,
or, indeed, deserved it; and hence, amid
the multitude of Masonic innovations to
which almost every day was giving birth
and ephemeral existence, it soon disappeared. But the society which is the subject of the present article, although it assumed the name of the original African
Architects, was of a very different characIt may, however, be considered, as it
ter.
was established only eleven years afterwards, as a remodification of it.
The new Order of African Architects owed
ische

Of

existence to the Masonic zeal and liberal views of that great monarch, Frederick
II. of Prussia, to whom, also, the now flourishing Ancient and Accepted Rite traces its
its

No monarch in the royal catalogue

of Europe ever was so intimately connected
with, or took so much interest in, Masonic
affairs as the illustrious King of Prussia.
He was to the modern Institution what
tradition says Solomon of Israel was to the
ancient and if his life had been prolonged
for a few more years, until the Masonic
orders which he had established and patorigin.

AFRICAN

AFRICAN

39

had acquired sufficient vigor for guished Masons, the most prominent of
and until the vast Masonic whom were Dr. John Ernest Stahl and the
designs which his wisdom and zeal had Counsellor Charles Frederick Koppen. To
initiated had gained permanent strength them he intrusted the duty of carrying hi?
through his influence, there can be little design of a Masonic reformation into effect
ronized

self-support,

Accordingly, in the year 1767, at Berlin,

doubt that the Order of African Architects
would now have been the ruling power of Koppen, as the first Grand Master, assisted
It would not, it is by Stahl and several other men of letters,
the Masonic world.
true, have opposed the propagation of other established a new Masonic sect, order, or
call it which you please
upon the
sects, nor interfered with the active and rite
dogmatic jurisdiction of supreme councils old and almost extinct society of African
or of Grand Lodges, for its favorite motto Builders, whose name they preserved and
was tolerance of all but by its intellectual whose system they extended and perfected,
power, and by the direction which it would but whose character they entirely changed,
have given to Masonic studies, it would by such important modifications as gave to
have vastly elevated the character of the the new Institution an original condition.
Institution, and would have hastened that They formed a code of statutes in conformity
millennium for which all Masonic students with the views of the king, and which were
are even now so fondly looking, when every therefore very different from those which
Lodge shall be an academy of science.
regulated the other Masonic bodies of the
The memory of a society whose inten- same period. They commenced with the
tions, although unfortunately frustrated by declaration
that the principles which
adverse circumstances, were so praiseworthy, should govern them were to fear God, to
should never be allowed to pass into obli- honor the king, to be prudent and discreet,
vion, but rather should be preserved for and to exercise universal tolerance towards
imitation, and in some fortunate future for all other Masonic sects, but to affiliate with
resuscitation.
Hence I flatter myself that none. Hence, when the Baron Hund, the
the present article, in which I shall endeavor author and chief director of the widely
to give some details of its object and history, spread Rite of Strict Observance, whose inwill not be altogether without gratification fluence had extended over so many conto the reader who takes any interest in the tending sects of German and French Masubject of Masonic progress.
In the eigh- sonry, sought to establish a union with the
teenth century adventurous Masons sought growing Order of African Architects, they

many

own

was, in his opinion, intended to be. The

great minds in its bosom, who in the olden
time had devoted their attention to science
and philosophy, had passed away, and the

peremptorily declined all his solicitations.

As long as the Order existed, it remained
independent of and unconnected with every
In fact, it carried its opposition to
other.
any mingling with rival rites to such an extent that the Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick,
when an applicant for admission into its
fold, was rejected simply because he had
formerly taken an active part in the contentions of several of the Masonic sects.
The Order of African Architects made
the history of Freemasonry its peculiar
study. Its members were occupied with
profound researches into the nature and design of the Ancient Mysteries, in which they
found, as they supposed, the origin of our
Institution, and investigated the character
of all the secret societies which were in any
way assimilated to Freemasonry. They

Masonic leaders, such as Hund and Knigge

and Rosa and Zinnendorf, were occupying
themselves in the manufacture of unmeaning degrees and the organization of rival
rites, in which a pompous ceremonial was

also diligently cultivated the sciences, and

At their meetings
especially mathematics.
they read essays on these various subjects,
and the members communicated to each
other the results of their investigations.

substituted for philosophical research.

Frederick, appreciating the capacity of
Freemasonry for a higher destiny, conceived
the plan of an interior order which might
assume the place and perform the functions
of a Masonic academy.
The king communicated these ideas to several distin-

They published many important documents

on the subjects which they had discussed,
some of which are still extant, and have

to build

temples after their

de-

most of which have fallen into decay

but the Order of African Architects is a
block from the ruins which is well worthy
vices,

of preservation.
Frederick II.,

King

of Prussia,

who had

been initiated while a prince and in the

lifetime of his father, soon after he ascended
the throne, directed the attention of his
great and inquiring mind to the condition
of Freemasonry, for which, from his first

he had conceived a
soon perceived
what it once had been,
was capable of being, and what it

acquaintance with

it,

strong attachment.
that it was no longer

what

it

He

afforded literary aid of great value to sub-

sequent Masonic writers.

Every year, during the life of King Frederick, the Order bestowed a medal of the

AFRICAN

40

AFRICAN

prosperity and popularity go together in

Masonry, as in all other mundane affairs.
But Frederick died in the year 1786, ninenotwithstanding which the Chapters always teen years after the first establishment of
relieved such members as became indigent the society, and in the following year the
Order of African Architects ceased to exist,
and in need of assistance.
The meetings were always of a scientific having not quite completed its second deLodge, or, rather, Chapter, it is
or literary character, and in some of the cade.
Chapters the proceedings were conducted in true, is said to have continued to meet in
a sufficient evidence Berlin until the year 1806, but it exercised
the Latin language
of the educated attainments of the members. no Masonic influence, and must, in all proIn their receptions of candidates they were bability, have greatly deteriorated from the
exceedingly rigorous, respecting neither character of the original foundation.
Such is the history of an institution
wealth nor rank nor political influence if
moral and intellectual qualifications were which, in its incipiency, gave every promise
wanting, an example of which has already of exerting a most wholesome influence on
been given in the rejection of the Duke of the Masonic Order, and which, if it had
lasted to the present day, and had been
Brunswick alluded to above.
In their ceremonies they were very simple, always controlled by intellectual leaders
making no use of aprons, collars, or other like those who directed its early days, must
They looked more to the have contributed most powerfully and sucdecorations.
spirit and intent of Masonry than to its cessfully to the elevation of Freemasonry
throughout the world.
outward form.
Of the esoteric or internal organization
Their epithet of "Africans" they derived from the fact that in their studies of of such a society, some account, howeverMasonic history they commenced with meagre, cannot fail to be interesting to the
Egypt, in the mysteries of whose priest- Masonic student.
hood they believed that they had found
G'adicke, in the Preimaurer - Lexicon,
that,
the origin of the modern Institution. quotes from a ritual of the Order
Hence one of their most popular works namely, which was founded in 1756, and to
was the " Crata Repoa or Initiations in which the more recent Order of Frederick
the Ancient Mysteries of the Egyptian succeeded the following legendary account
Priests," written by their founder and of its origin, a legend certainly more curious
Grand Master, the Counsellor Charles Fred- than authentic
" When the number of builders in the
erick Koppen
a work which, published
first at Berlin in the year 1770, passed East was greatly reduced by the continued
through many editions and was subse- prevalence of wars, they resolved to travel
quently translated into French, and was into Europe, and there to form new estabdeemed of so much importance as to be ed- lishments for themselves. Many of them
ited by Ragon as late as the year 1821.
It came into England with Prince Edward,
was a standard authority among the African the sou of Henry III., and were soon afterArchitects.
wards summoned from that kingdom into
Frederick the Great was very liberal to Scotland by the Lord Stuart. Their estabthis society, which, indeed, may well be lishment in Prussia occurred about the
considered as the offspring of his genius. Masonic year 2307. They were endowed
year after its organization he caused a with lands, and received, besides, the privisplendid building to be erected for its sole lege of retaining the ancient usages of the
use in Silesia, under the special superin- brotherhood which they had brought with
tendence of his architect, the Herr Meil. them, subject to the very proper restriction
He endowed it with sufficient funds for the that in all other respects they should conestablishment of a library, a museum of form to the ordinary laws and customs of
natural history, and a chemical laboratory, the country in which they happened to reand supplied it with furniture in a style of side. Gradually they obtained the protecelegance that was worthy of the king and tion of several monarchs in Sweden, that
the Order. In this library was amassed, of King Ing, about the year 1125 in Engby the efforts of the members and the con- land, of Richard the lion-hearted, about
tributions of friends, among whom the 1190 in Ireland, of Henry II., the father
most conspicuous was the Prince de Lich- of Richard, in ll80; and finally, in Scottenstein, of Vienna, a large collection of land, of Alexander III., who was contemmanuscripts and rare works on Masonry porary with St. Louis, about the year
and the kindred sciences, which no other 1284."
This legend could not, however, have
Masonic society could equal in value.
While its royal protector lived the Order been admitted as veracious by the founders
was prosperous and of course popular, for of the second Order of African Architects.

value of fifty ducats on the writer of the

best essay on the history of Masonry.
The receptions were always gratuitous,

::

AFRICAN

AGAP.3E

whose history has been the subject of the

They could have looked
present article.
upon it only as a symbolical adumbration
of the historic truth that Masonry came
originally from Egypt and the East, and
was gradually, and often by fortuitous ciramong which the Crusades
cumstances,
extended and
played an important part,

11.

of

12.

ramified

into

the

various

countries

Europe.
As the Order of African Architects professed itself to be a Masonic organization,
all its instructions were of course based
upon the three fundamental degrees of
Ancient Craft Masonry. The degrees of
the Rite, for such it is clearly entitled to be
called, were eleven in number, divided into
two classes, designated as " Temples." The
first temple consisted simply of the three
degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry, but the
instructions in these three degrees were far
more extensive and historical than in any
other Rite, and were intended to prepare
the initiate for the profounder investigations into Masonic history which occupied
the higher degrees. It was not, indeed,
until the candidate had arrived at the
seventh degree that the veil of mystery as
to the real design of the institution was removed. Until he became the possessor of
that degree, he did not reap the full advantage of the researches of the Order.
The degrees were named and classified as
follows

FIRST TEMPLE.
1.

Apprentice.

2.

Fellow Craft.
Master Mason.

3.

4.

41

Junior Grand Warden.

5.

Drapier.

6.

Almoner.

Tricoplerius, or Treasurer.
Graphiarius, or Secretary.
9. Seneschal.
10. Standard Bearer.
7.
8.

Marshal.
Conductor.

The African

Architects were not the only

which in the eighteenth century
sought to rescue Masonry from the impure
hands of the charlatans into which it had
society

well-nigh fallen.

African Brother. One of the degrees of the Rite of the Clerks of Strict
Observance.

African Brothers.
titles

One of the
given to the African Architects, which

see.

African Builders.

See

African

Architects.

African Lodges.
Agapse.

The

See Negro Lodges.

agapae,

or love-feasts,

were banquets held during the first three

centuries in the Christian Church. They
were called " love-feasts," because, after partaking of the Sacrament, they met, both rich
the former
and poor, at a common feast
furnishing the provisions, and the latter,
who had nothing, being relieved and refreshed by their more opulent brethren.

Tertullian {Apologia, cap. xxxix.,) thus

do not sit
describes these banquets "
down before we have first offered up prayers
to God ; we eat and drink only to satisfy
hunger and thirst, remembering still that
we are to worship God by night we discourse as in the presence of God, knowing
that He hears us then, after water to wash
our hands, and lights brought in, every one
is moved to sing some hymn to God, either
out of the Scripture, or, as he is able, of his

We

SECOND TEMPLE.

4.

Architect, or Apprentice of Egyptian

secrets.

into Egyptian secrets.

Cosmopolitan Brother.

5. Initiate
6.

Christian Philosopher.
8. Master of Egyptian secrets.
9. Squire of the Order.
10. Soldier of the Order.
11. Knight of the Order.
7.

The

were called superior deas a second

or higher class, with great discrimination,
upon those who had proved their worthigrees,

last three

and were conferred only

ness of promotion.
The assemblies of the brethren were
called Chapters.
The central or superintending power was styled a Grand Chapter,
and it was governed by the following twelve
officers

own composing. Prayer

feast, and we depart,

again concludes
not to fight and
quarrel, or to abuse those we meet, but to
pursue the same care of modesty and chastity, as men that have fed at a supper of
philosophy and discipline, rather than a
corporeal feast."
Dr. August Kestner, Professor of Theology, published in Vienna, in 1819, a
work in which he maintains that the agapae,
established at Rome by St. Clement, in the
reign of Domitian, were mysteries which
partook of a Masonic, symbolic, and religious character.
In the Rosicrucian degrees of Masonry

our

we

find an imitation of these love-feasts of

and the cerethe primitive Christians
monies of the banquet in the degree of
Rose Croix of the Ancient and Accepted
Rite, especially as practised by French
;

1.
2.

3.

Grand Master.
Deputy Grand Master.
Senior Grand Warden.
F

"

AGATE

AGE

Chapters, are arranged with reference to

the ancient agapse. Reghellini, indeed,
finds an analogy between the table-lodges
of modern Masonry and these love-feasts of
the primitive Christians.
stone varying in color, but
Agate.
of great hardness, being a variety of the

crees that the lawful age for initiation shall

be that which in any country has been
determined by the laws of the land to be
the age of majority. The Grand Orient of
France requires the candidate to be twentyone, unless he be the son of a Mason who
has performed some important service to
the Order, or unless he be a young man
who has served six months in the army,

42

flint.

The agate,

in

Hebrew

QJJf

SHeBO,

was the centre stone of the third row in

the breastplate of the high-priest, and on it
was engraved the name of the tribe of
Naphtali. Agates often contain representations of leaves, mosses, etc., depicted by
the hand of nature.

Some

of the represen-

on these are exceedingly singular.

Thus, on one side of one in the possession
of Velchius was a half moon, and on the
other a star. Kircher mentions one which
had a representation of an armed heroine
tations

another, in the church of St. Mark in

Venice, which had a representation of a
king's head, crowned; and a third which
contained the letters I. N. R. I. In the
collections of .antiquaries are also to be
found many gems of agate on which mystical inscriptions have been engraved, the
significations of which are, for the most
part, no longer understood.
Agate, Stone of. Among the Masonic traditions is one which asserts that
the stone of foundation was formed of agate.
This, like everything connected with the
legend of the stone, is to be mystically inIn this view, agate is a symbol
terpreted.
of strength and beauty, a symbolism derived
from the peculiar character of the agate,
which is distinguished for its compact formation and the ornamental character of its
See Stone of Foundation.
surface.
Age, Lawful. One of the qualifications for candidates is that they shall be of
" lawful age."
What that age must be is
not settled by any universal law or landmark of the Order. The Ancient Regulations do not express any determinate number of years at the expiration of which a

candidate becomes legally entitled to apply

The language used is, that
for admission.
he must be of " mature and discreet age."
But the usage of the Craft has differed in
various countries as to the construction of
the time when this period of maturity and
discretion is supposed to have arrived. The
sixth of the Regulations, adopted in 1663,
prescribes that " no person shall be accepted
unless he be twenty-one years old or more
but the subsequent Regulations are less ex;

plicit.

At Frankfort-on-the-Main, the

in the Lodges of
is twenty
Switzerland, it has been fixed at twentyThe Grand Lodge of Hanover preone.
scribes the age of twenty-five, but permits
the son of a Mason to be admitted at eighteen.
The Grand Lodge of Hamburg de-

age required

the initiation may take place at

the age of eighteen. In Prussia the required age is twenty- five.
In England
it is twenty-one, except in cases where
a dispensation has been granted for an earlier age by the Grand or Provincial Grand
Master. In Ireland the age must be twentyone, except in cases of dispensation granted
by the Grand Master or Grand Lodge. In
the United States, the usage is general
that the candidate shall not be less than
twenty-one years of age at the time of his
initiation, and no dispensation can issue
for conferring the degrees at an earlier
period.
Age, Masonic, In all of the Masonic
Rites except the York, a mystical age is
appropriated to each degree, and the initiate who has received the degree is said to
be of such or such an age. Thus, the age
of an Entered Apprentice is said to be three
years that of a Fellow Craft, five and that
of a Master Mason, seven. These ages are
not arbitrarily selected, but have a reference to the mystical value of numbers and
their relation to the different degrees.
Thus, three is the symbol of peace and concord, and has been called in the Pythagorean system the number of perfect harmony, and is appropriated to that degree,
which is the initiation into an Order whose
fundamental principles are harmony and
brotherly love. Five is the symbol of active
life, the union of the female principle two
and the male principle three, and refers in
this way to the active duties of man as a
denizen of the world, which constitutes the
symbolism of the Fellow Craft's degree;
and seven, as a venerable and perfect number, is symbolic of that perfection which is
supposed to be attained in the Master's deIn a way similar to this, all the ages
gree.
of the other degrees are symbolically and
mystically explained. It has already been
said that this system does not prevail in
It is uncertain whether it
the York Rite.
ever did and has been lost, or whether it is
a modern innovation on the symbolism of
Masonry invented for the later Rites. Something like it, however, is to be found in
the battery, which still exists in the York
Rite, and which, like the Masonic age, is
See BaU
varied in the different degrees.

when

tery.

The Masonic

ages are

and

it

will thus

AGRIPPA

AGLxY
be seen that they are

all

mystic numbers

One

of the cabalistic names of

God, which is composed of the initials

of the words of the following sentence:
MIX chyb "QJ 7\r\x,AtahGiborLolamAdonai,
" thou art mighty forever, O Lord."
This
name the Kabbalists arranged seven times
in the centre and the six points of two
interlacing triangles, which figure they
called the Shield of David, and they used it
as a talisman, believing that it would cure
wounds, extinguish fires, and perform other
wonders. See Shield of David.
Agnostus, Irenseus. This is supposed by Kloss, (Bibliog., No. 2497,) to have
been a nom de plume of Gotthardus Arthusius, a co-rector in the Gymnasium of
Frankfort-on-the-Main, and a writer of
some local eelebrity in the beginning of the
seventeenth century. (See Arthusius.) Under
assumed name of Irenaeus Agnostus,
he published, between the years 1617 and
1620, many works on the subject of the
Rosicrucian Fraternity, which John Valentine Andrea had about that time established in Germany. Among those works
were the Fortalicium Scientice, 1617 Clypeum Veritatis, 1618 Speculum Constantice,
Fons Gratice, 1616
Frater non
1618
Frater,
Thesaurus Fidei, 1619
1619
Portus Tranquillitatis, 1620, and several
others of a similar character and equally
quaint title.
Agnus Dei. The Agnus Dei, Lamb
of God, also called the Paschal Lamb, or
the Lamb offered in the paschal sacrifice, is
one of the jewels of a Commandery of
this

and the lamb is then said to support

banner of the resurrection." This is
the modern form in which the Agnus Dei
cross,

" the

3, 5, 7, 9, 15, 27, 63, 81.

Agla.

43

Knights Templars in America, and is worn

by the Generalissimo.
The lamb is one of the earliest symbols
of Christ in the iconography of the Church,
and as such was a representation of the
Saviour, derived from that expression of
St. John the Baptist (John i. 28,) who, on
beholding Christ, exclaimed, " Behold the
Lamb of God." " Christ," says Didron,
[Christ. Iconog.,i. 318,) " shedding his blood

is

represented.

Henry

Agrippa,

Cornelius.

Henry Cornelius Agrippa, who was

distin-

guished as one of the greatest of occult

philosophers, was born in the city of
Cologne, on the 14th of September, 1486.
He was descended from a noble family, and
was personally remarkable for his varied
talents and extensive genius.
In early
youth, he acted as the secretary of the Emperor Maximilian, and subsequently served in
the army of the same monarch in Italy,

where he received the honor of knighthood

conduct in the field. He also
devoted himself to the study of law and
physic, and received from the university
the degree of doctorate in each of those
for his gallant

faculties.

gives an
epistles,

Of

his literary attainments,

ample description in one of

in which he says

he
his

"I am tolerably well skilled in eight

languages, and so completely a master of
six, that I not only understand and speak
them, but can even make an elegant oration,
or dictate and translate in them. I have
also a pretty extensive knowledge in some
abstruse studies, and a general acquaintance
with the whole circle of sciences."
There is some vanity in this, but it must
be confessed that there was much learning to excuse the weakness. The temper
of Agrippa was variable and irascible,
and his disposition bold and independent.
Hence his pen was continually giving
offence, and he was repeatedly engaged in
difficulties with his contemporaries, and
more especially with the priests, who persecuted him with unrelenting rigor. He
travelled much, and visited France, Spain,
Italy,

and England

sometimes

engaged

in the delivery of philosophical lectures,

sometimes in public employments, and

sometimes in the profession of arms.

In 1509 he delivered lectures on Eeuchlin's treatise,

De

Verbo Mirifieo, which in-

our redemption, is the Lamb slain by

the children of Israel, and with the blood
of which the houses to be preserved from
the wrath of God were marked with the
celestial tau.
The Paschal Lamb eaten by
the Israelites on the night preceding their
departure from Egypt is the type of that

volved him in a controversy with the Franciscans and he wrote a work on the Excellence of Women, which also gave offence to
the ecclesiastics, in consequence of which
he was obliged to pass over into England,
where he wrote a commentary on St. Paul's
Epistles.
He afterwards returned to Co-

other divine Lamb of whom Christians are

to partake at Easter, in order thereby to
free themselves from the bondage in which
they are held by vice."
The earliest representation that is found
in Didron of the Agnus Dei is of the sixth
century, and consists of a lamb supporting
in his right foot a cross.
In the eleventh
century we find a banneret attached to this

logne,

for

where he delivered lectures on divinity.

In 1515, we find him reading lectures on Mercurius Trismegistus ; but his ill
fortune followed him, and he soon left that
city, his departure being, according to his
biographer, rather like a flight than a retreat.

In 1518 he was at Metz, where he was for

some time employed as a syndic and coun-

AGRIPPA

AGRIPPA

seller but, having refuted a popular notion,

that St. Anne had three husbands, and having dared to defend an old woman who had
been accused of witchcraft, his old enemies,
the monks, once more renewed their ill
offices, and he was compelled to leave the
city of Metz, bequeathing to it, as his revenge, the character of being the stepmother of all useful learning and virtue.
Thence he retired to Cologne in 1520, and
to Geneva in 1521, where poverty seems to
have pressed hardly upon him.
In 1524 he was at Lyons, in France,
where Francis I. bestowed a pension upon
him, and appointed him physician to the
king's mother an office, however, which he
lost in 1525, in consequence of twice giving
First, beoffence to his royal mistress.
cause he expressed his dislike at being employed by her in astrological calculations
concerning the affairs of France, an employment which he deemed derogatory to a
queen's physician ; and next, because, when
he did make those calculations, he interpreted the stars unfavorably for the king's
Agrippa was not of a temper
enterprises.
to brook this dismissal with equanimity,
and accordingly we find him, in one of his
letters written at this time, denouncing the
queen mother for a most atrocious and perpro atrocissima et
fidious sort of Jezebel
perfida quadam Jezabela.
In 1528 he repaired to Antwerp, and the
year after received from Margaret of Austria, Governess of the low countries, the
appointment of historiographer to the emThe History of the Government of
peror.
Charles V. was his only contribution to the
duties of this office. Soon after Margaret
died, and Agrippa again came into collision
with his old ecclesiastical persecutors,
whose resentment was greatly excited by his
treatise On the Vanity of the Sciences, which
he published in 1530, and another work
soon after, written On the Occult Philosophy.
His pension was discontinued, and in 1531
he was incarcerated in the prison at Brussels.
From this he was, however, soon
liberated, and after a few more adventures,
he finally retired to Grenoble, in France,
where he died in 1535 some writers say
in abject poverty, and in the public hospital, but this has been denied by Gabriel

the animal fled to the river Soane, into

which he leaped, and was never heard of
more.
Martin del Rio says that when
Agrippa travelled, he used to pay his score
at the inns in money which at the time
appeared to be good, but in a few days
turned out to be pieces of horn or shell a
tale which reminds us of one of the stories
in the Arabian Nights.
The same author
retails another apocryphal anecdote about
a student who, during Agrippa's temporary
absence, was strangled in the magician's

44
;

Naude.

The

by an irate demon, and into whose

dead body Agrippa, on his return, caused
library

the devil to enter, and walk several times

across the public square at Louvain, and
finally to drop dead, whereby the death
appeared to be a natural one, and suspicion
was thus averted from Agrippa. The truth
is, however, that the treatise on occult
philosophy was of so abstruse and mystical
a character, that the author found it necessary to write a key to it, which he reserved
for his most intimate friends, and in which
he explained its esoteric meaning.
Masonic historians have very generally
attempted to connect Agrippa with that
Institution, or at least with cognate mystical
societies. Thus, G'adicke {Freimaurer- Lexicon) says "
society for the cultivation of
the secret sciences, which he founded at
Paris, and which extended through Germany, England, France, and Italy, was the
first ever established by a learned man, and
was the pattern and parent of all subsequent similar societies."
Lenning [Encyc. der Freimaurerei) also
states that "It is reported that Agrippa
established in Paris a secret society for the
practice of the abstruse sciences, which became the basis of the many mystical asso:

which have been since originated."

But a writer in the Monthly Review (London, vol. xxv., anno 1798, p. 304,) is still
more explicit on this subject. His language
ciations

" In the year 1510 Henry

as follows
Cornelius Agrippa came to London, and,
as appears by his correspondence, [Opuscula, t. ii., p. 1073, etc.,) he founded a secret
society for alchemical purposes, similar to
one which he had previously instituted at
Paris, in concert with Landolfo, Brixianus,
Xanthus, and other students at that uniThe members of these societies
versity.
did agree on private signs of recognition;
and they founded, in various parts of Europe, corresponding associations for the
prosecution of the occult sciences. This
practice of initiation, or secret incorporation, thus and then first introduced, has
been handed down to our own times; and
hence apparently the mysterious Eleusinian
confederacies now known as the Lodges of
is

on occult philosophy is the

most important of the works of Agrippa,
and which has given to him the false reputation of being a hermetic adept and a magician.
Thus, Paulus Jovius says, that he
was always accompanied by a devil, in the
shape of a black dog, wearing a collar containing some necromantic inscription, and
that when he was about to die he released
the dog with an imprecation, after which
treatise

Freemasonry."

AGRIPPA

AHABATH

In 1856 there was published in London a

Life of Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim,
Doctor and Knight, commonly known as a
Magician. By Henry Morley. This is a
curious and trustworthy work, and contains a good summary of Agrippa, and interesting accounts of the times in which

Numbers are the first cause of the connection of things.

To each number is
attached a peculiar property
thus Unity
is the beginning and end of all things, but

he

lived.

As Agrippa

has, whether justly or not,

been thrown into a connection with Freemasonry, a brief view of his occult philosophy
may not be uninteresting. But it must be
always borne in mind, that this philosophy
was what he called it, u occulta philosophia,"
occult, hidden
containing, like all the
science of the alchemists, more in its inmost
recesses than appears on its surface, and
that he himself, aware of its esoteric char-

45

has no beginning nor end itself. God is

the monad. The binary is a bad number.
The ternary is the soul of the world. The
quaternary is the basis of all numbers. The
quinary is a powerful number it is efficacious against poisons and evil spirits. The
decade, or denary, is the completion of all
things.
The intelligence of God is incorruptible, eternal, present everywhere, influencing everything.
The human spirit is corporeal, but its
substance is very subtle, and readily unites
with the universal spirit, the soul of the
;

world, which is in us.

had written a key, by which his inThis is some part of the occult philosophy
timate friends might be able to interpret its of Agrippa, who, however, has said, in refconcealed meaning and enjoy its fruits. erence to abstruse theories, almost, if not
acter,

Kagon (Orthod. Mac., ch. xxviii.,) gives a

resume of the doctrines, from which the following is condensed
Agrippa said that there were three worlds
the elementary, the celestial, and the intellectual,
each subordinate to the one above
it.
It is possible to pass from the knowledge of one world to that of another, and
even to the archetype itself. It is this scale
of ascent that constitutes what is called
Magism, a profound contemplation, embracing nature, quality, substance, virtues,
similitudes, differences, the art of uniting,
<

separating, and compounding

in short,
the entire operations of the universe. It is
a sacred art, which must not be divulged,
and to whose reality and certainty the universal connection of all things testifies.
There are abstruse doctrines on the elements, of which each performed a particular function. Fire, isolated from all matter,

manifests

upon

it,

however,

its

presence

and action earth is the support of the elements and the reservoir of the celestial influences water is the germ of all animals
and air is a vital spirit, which penetrates
all beings, and gives them consistency and
;

life.

There is a sublime, secret, and necessary

cause which leads to truth.
The world, the heavens, and the stars
have souls, which are in affinity with our
own.

initiated

Freemasons."

Ahabatli Olani. Two Hebrew words

love.
The name of a
prayer which was used by the Jews dispersed
over the whole Roman Empire during the
times of Christ. It was inserted by Dermott in his Ahiman Rezon, and copied into
several others, with the title of "A Prayer
repeated in the Royal Arch Lodge at Jerusalem." The prayer was most probably
adopted by Derruott, and the fictitious title
given to it of a " Royal Arch Prayer " in
consequence of the allusion in it to the

signifying eternal

The world

and has

organs and
its senses.
This is the microcosm.
Imprecations are of efficacy in attaching
themselves to beings, and in modifying
them.
lives,

Names have

its

a potential quality. Magic

language, which language is an
image of signatures, and hence the effect
of invocations, evocations, adjurations, conjurations, and other formulae.

has

like these, that

that the books undertake to teach on
the subjects of magic, astrology, and alchemy
are false and deceptive, if they are understood in the letter but that to appreciate
them, to draw any good out of them, we
must seek the mystic sense in which they
are enveloped a doctrine which applies to
Freemasonry, as well as to the hermetic
philosophy, and the truth of which is now
universally admitted by the learned. The
Freemason who expects to find in the abstruse writings of Agrippa anything directly
referring to his own Institution will be
greatly disappointed; but if he looks in
the pages of that profound thinker for
lessons of philosophy and ethics, which
have a common origin with those that are
taught in the Masonic system, his labor
will not have been in vain, and he will be
disposed to place the wise Cornelius in the
same category with Pythagoras, and many
other philosophers of the olden time, whom
the Craft have delighted to call their ancient
brethren, because, without being Freemasons in outward form and ceremony,
they have always taught true Masonic docIt is not, perhaps, inappropriate to
trine.
give to such unaffiliated teachers of the
true Masonic doctrine the title of "Un-

altogether, unintelligible,

all

its

AHIMAN

AHIAH

46

" holy, great, mighty, and terrible

name

of

God/'
Aliiali.

and |H, rezon, as a noun, " prince," and

an adjective, "royal," and hence, Ahiman

as

So spelled in the common version of the Bible, (1 Kings iv. 3,) but, according to the Hebrew orthography, the word
should be spelled and pronounced Achiah.
He and Elihoreph (or Elichoreph) were the
sopherim, scribes or secretaries of King
Solomon. In the ritual of the 7th degree
of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, according to the modern American ritual, these
personages are represented by the two
Wardens.

Rezon, according to this etymology, will

signify the "royal builder," or, symbolically, the "Freemason."
But to derive
ahiman from amun, or rather amon, which
is the masoretic pronunciation, is to place
all known laws of etymology at defiance.
Rockwell himself, however, furnishes the
best argument against his strained derivation, when he admits that its correctness
will depend on the antiquity of the phrase,
which he acknowledges that he doubts.

Ahiman I&ezon.

The title given to In this, he is right. The phrase is altoBook of Constitutions by that schism gether a modern one, and has Dermott, the
from the Grand Lodge of England which author of the first work, bearing the title
their

took place about the middle of the

tury,

last cen-

as the " Ancient

in contradistinction to the legiti-

and which was known

Masons,"

mate Grand Lodge and its adherents, who

were called the "Moderns," and whose
code of laws was contained in Anderson's
work known as the Book of Constitutions.
The title is derived from three Hebrew
ahim, "brothers;" j""OD>
manah, "to appoint," or "to select," (in
the sense of being placed in a peculiar
class, see Isaiah liii. 12 ;) and J2H, ratzon,
words,

" the

D*nN>

will,

pleasure,

or

meaning " and

;

hence the combination of the three words

in the title, Ahiman Rezon, signifies " the
will of selected brethren "
the law of a
class or society of men who are chosen or
selected from the rest of the world as
brethren. This is the etymology that I
proposed many years ago, and I have seen
no good reason since for abandoning it.
Two other derivations, however, one antecedent and the other subsequent to this,
have been suggested. Dr. Dalcho (Ahim.
Rez. of South Carolina, p. 159, 2d ed.,) derives
it from ahi, "a brother," manah, "to prepare," and rezon," secret;" so that, as he says,

"

Ahiman Rezon

literally

means

the secrets

of a prepared brother." But the best meaning of manah is that which conveys the
idea of being placed in or appointed to a
certain, exclusive class, as we find in Isaiah,
(liii. 12,) " he was numbered (nimenah) with
the transgressors," placed in that class,
being taken out of every other order of

men.

And

may come from

although rezon

" a will or law," it can hardly be

elicited by any rules of etymology out of
the Chaldeeword raz, " a secret," the termination in on being wanting and besides the
book called the Ahiman Rezon does not
ratzon,

contain the secrets, but only the public

laws of Masonry. The derivation of Dalcho

seems therefore inadmissible. Not less so

is that of Bro. W. S. Rockwell, who {Ahim.
Rez. of Georgia, 1859, p. 3,) thinks the derivation may be found in the Hebrew,
pDN, amun, "a builder" or "architect,"

its inventor.
Rockwell's conjectural
derivation is, therefore, for this reason, still
more inadmissible than Dalcho's.
But the history of the origin of the book
is more important and more interesting
than the history of the derivation of its

for

title.

The close of the first quarter of the

eighteenth century found the Masons of the
south of England congregated under the
authority of a governing body at London,
whose title was the Grand Lodge of Free
and Accepted Masons of England. But
from causes, upon which it is here unnecessary to dwell, a schism soon afterwards took
place, and a portion of the brethren, having
seceded from the main body organized an
independent Grand Lodge.
This they
called the Grand Lodge of Ancient York
Masons, and stigmatized the members of
the original body as " Moderns," by way of
insinuating that they themselves were of
the primitive or original stock, and that
their opponents were innovators of a later
birth.
The former of these contending
bodies, the Grand Lodge of England, had,
in the year 1722, caused Dr. James Anderson to collect and compile all the
statutes and regulations by which the Fraternity had in former times been governed
and these, after having been submitted
due revision, were published in 1723,
by Anderson, with the title of The Conto

This work,
of the Freemasons.
of which several other editions subsequently
appeared, has always been called the Book
of Constitutions," and contains the foundations of the written law by which the
Grand Lodge of England and the Lodges
deriving from it, both in that country and
in America, are governed.
But when the

stitutions

Ancient York

Masons

established

their

schismatic Grand Lodge, they found it

necessary, also, to have a Book of Constitutions and accordingly, Laurence Dermott,
;

who was

at

one time their Grand Secretary,

and afterwards

their

Deputy Grand Master,

compiled such a work, the

first

edition of

;
:

AHIMAN

AHIMAN

47

which was published by James Bedford, at the building of Solomon's Temple. This
history, which after all is not worth much,
London, in 1756, with the following title
u Ahiman Rezon or a Help to a Brother
includes some very caustic remarks on the
showing the Excellency of Secrecy, and the revivers of Freemasonry in 1717, whose
Grand Lodge he calls " a self-created asfirst cause or motive of the Institution of
Masonry the Principles of the Craft and sembly."
There is next a "Phylacteria for such
the Benefits from a strict Observance therealso the Old and New Regula- Gentlemen as may be inclined to become
of, etc., etc.
To which is added the greatest Freemasons." This article, which was not
tions, etc.
By Bro. in the first edition, but appeared for the
collection of Masons' Songs, etc.
Laurence Dermott, Secretary." 8vo, 209 pp. first time in the second, consists of direcA second edition was published in 1764, tions as to the method to be pursued by one
with this title "Ahiman Rezon or a Help who desires to be made a Freemason. This
to all that are or would be Free and Ac- is followed by an account of what Dermott
cepted Masons; containing the Quintes- calls " Modern Masonry," that is, the syssence of all that has been published on the tem pursued by the original Grand Lodge
Subject of Freemasonry, with many Addi- of England, and of the differences existing
tions, which renders this Work more use- between it and "Ancient Masonry," or the
ful than any other Book of Constitutions system of the seceders.
He contends that
now extant. By Lau. Dermott, Secretary." there are material differences between the
London, 1764. 8vo, 224 pp.
two systems that of the Ancients being
A third edition was published in 1778, universal, and that of the Moderns not; a
with the following title: "Ahiman Rezon
Modern being able with safety to communior a Help to all that are or would be Free cate all his secrets to an Ancient, while an
and Accepted Masons, (with many Addi- Ancient cannot communicate his to a
tions. ) By Lau. Dermott, D.G.M. Printed Modern a Modern being unable to enter an
for James Jones, Grand Secretary; and Ancient Lodge, while an Ancient can
Sold by Peter Shatwell, in the Strand. easily enter a Modern one all of which, in
London, 1778." 8vo, 232 pp.
his opinion, show that the Ancients have
Five other editions were published the secrets which are not in the possession of the
4th, whose date is unknown to me, but it Moderns.
This, he considers, a convincing
must have been in 1779 the 5th in 1780
proof that the Modern Masons were innovathe 6th in 1800 the 7th in 1807 and the tors upon the established system, and had in8th in 1813. In this year, the Ancient stituted their Lodges and framed their ritual
Grand Lodge was dissolved by the union without a sufficient knowledge of the arcana
of the two Grand Lodges of England, and of the Craft. But the Modern Masons, with
a new Book of Constitutions having been more semblance of truth, thought that the
adopted for the united body, the Ahiman additional secrets of the Ancients were only
Rezon became useless, and no subsequent innovations that they had made upon the
edition was ever published.
true body of Masonry; and hence, they
The earlier editions of this work are considered their ignorance of these newly
among the rarest of Masonic publications. invented secrets was the best evidence of
Hence they are highly prized by collectors, their own superior antiquity.
and I esteem myself fortunate in being the
Dermott has next published the famous
possessor of exemplars of the second, third, Leland MS., together with, the commenand seventh editions.
A copy of the resolutions
taries of Locke.
In the year 1855, Mr. Leon Hyneman, adopted in 1772, by the Grand Lodges of
of Philadelphia, who was engaged in a re- Ireland and Scotland, in which they recogprint of old standard Masonic works, (an nized the Grand Lodge of Ancients, conenterprise which should have received bet- cludes the preface or introduction, which
ter patronage than it did,) republished the in the third edition consists of 62 pages.
second edition, with a few explanatory
The Ahiman Rezon proper, then, begins
notes.
with 23 pages of an encomium on Masonry,
As this book contains those principles of and an explanation of its principles. Many
Masonic law by which, for three-fourths of a modern Masonic address is better written,
a century, a large and intelligent portion and contains more important and instrucof the Craft were governed; and as it is tive matter than this prefatory discourse.
now becoming rare and, to the generality
On the 27th page we find "The Old
of readers, inaccessible, some brief review Charges of the Free and Accepted Masons."
of its contents may not be uninteresting.
These Charges were first printed in AnderThe Preface or Address to the Reader, son's Constitutions, in 1723, and have always
which is a long one, contains what pur- been considered of the highest value as
ports to be a history of Masonry, whose Masonic law. Dermott's Charges are inorigin, under that name, Dermott places at terpolated and much altered, being a copy
:

;;
:

AHIMAN

48

AHIMAN

of those in Anderson's 1738 edition, and

are therefore deemed of no authority.
Fifty pages are next occupied with the
"General Eegulations of the Free and
These are borrowed
Accepted Masons."
from the second edition of Anderson, which
edition has never been in great repute. But
even here, Dermott's alterations and innovations are so considerable as to render this
part of his work entirely untrustworthy as
an exponent of Masonic law.
The rest of the book, comprising more
Colthan a hundred pages, consists of "
lection of Masonic Songs," of the poetical
merits of which the less said the better for
the literary reputation of the writers.
Imperfect, however, as was this work, it
for a long time constituted the statute book
of the " Ancient Masons ;" and hence those
Lodges in America which derived their
authority from the Dermott or Ancient
Grand Lodge of England, accepted its contents as a true exposition of Masonic law
and several of their Grand Lodges caused
similar works to be compiled for their own
government, adopting the title of Ahiman
Eezon, which thus became the peculiar
designation of the volume which contained
the fundamental law of the "Ancients,"
while the original title of Book of Constitutions continued to be retained by the
" Moderns," to designate the volume used
by them for the same purpose.
Of the Ahiman Eezons compiled and
published in America, the following are the
principal.
1. " Ahiman Eezon abridged and digested
as a help to all that are or would be Free and
Accepted Masons, etc. Published by order
of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania by
William Smith, D.D." Philadelphia, 1783.

new Ahiman Eezon was published by

Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1825.
2. " Charges and Eegulations of the An-

the

and Honorable Society of Free and

Accepted Masons, extracted from the Ahiman Eezon, etc. Published by the consent
cient

and direction of the Grand

Scotia." Halifax, 1786.

Lodge of Nova

Grand Lodge of Marvland."

Baltimore,

1797.
5.

"The Ahiman Eezon and Masonic

Eitual,

published

by the

order

of the

Grand Lodge of North Carolina and Tennessee." Newbern, N. C, 1805.

6. " An Ahiman Eezon, for the use of
the Grand Lodge of South Carolina, Ancient York Masons, and the Lodges under
the Eegister and Masonic Jurisdiction
thereof.
Compiled and arranged with considerable additions, at the request of the
Grand Lodge, and published by their authority.
By Brother Frederick Dalcho,
M. D., etc." Charleston, S. C, 1807.
second edition was published by the same
author, in 1822, and a third, in 1852, by
Dr. Albert G. Mackey. In this third edition, the title was changed to that of " The

Ahiman Eezon,
etc."

or

Book of

Constitutions,

And the work was in a great measure

expurgated of the peculiarities of Dermott,

and made to conform more closely to the
Andersonian Constitutions. A fourth edition was published by the same editor, in
1871, in which everything antagonistic to
the original Book of Constitutions has been
omitted.
7. " The Freemason's Library and Gencontaining a delineaeral Ahiman Eezon
tion of the true principles of Freemasonry,
Baltimore, 1817.
etc.; by Samuel Cole."
8vo, 332
92 pp. There was a second edition in 1826.
prepared under the
8. " Ahiman Eezon
direction of the Grand Lodge of Georgia
:

by Wm. S. Eockwell, Grand Master of

Savannah, 1859.
Masons of Georgia."
4to and 8vo, 404 pp. But neither this
work nor the third and fourth editions of
the Ahiman Eezon of South Carolina have
any connection in principle or theory with
the Ahiman Eezon of Dermott. They have
borrowed the name from the "Ancient Masons," but they derive all their law and
their authorities from the "Moderns," or
the legal Masons of the last century.
Eezon and
9. "The General Ahiman
Freemason's Guide, by Daniel Sickles."

This
The New Ahiman Eezon, containing New York, 1866.
8vo, pp. 408.
Laws and Constitution of Virginia, etc. book, like Eockwell's, has no other connecBy John K. Eeade, present Deputy Grand tion with the archetypal work of Dermott
3. "

the

Master of Virginia, etc." Eichmond, 1791.

Another edition was published in 1818, by
James Henderson.

"The Maryland Ahiman Eezon

of
Free and Accepted Masons, containing the
History of Masonry from the establishment
of the Grand Lodge to the present time
with their Ancient Charges, Addresses,
Prayers, Lectures, Prologues, Epilogues,
Songs, etc., collected from the Old Eecords,
Faithful Traditions and Lodge Books by
G. Keating. Compiled by order of the
4.

but the name.

Many of the Grand Lodges of the United

States having derived their existence

and

authority from the Dermott Grand Lodge,

the influence of his Ahiman Eezon was for
a long time exercised over the Lodges of
this country and, indeed, it is only within
a comparatively recent period, that the
true principles of Masonic law, as expounded in the first editions of Anderson's
Constitutions, have been universally adopted
;

amonji;

American Masons.

AHIMAX

AHOLIAB

must, however, be observed, in justice

who has been rather too grossly
abused by Mitchell and a few other writers,
that the innovations upon the old laws of
Masonry, which are to be found in the
Ahiman Eezon, are for the most part not to
be charged upon him, but upon Dr. Anderson himself, who, for the first time, introduced them into the second edition of the
Book of Constitutions, published in 1738.
It i3 surprising, and accountable only on
the ground of sheer carelessness on the part
of the supervising committee, that the
Grand Lodge should, in 1738, have ap-

" In ancient times, the Christian Masons

were charged to comply with the Christian

It

to Dermott,

proved of these alterations made by Anderson,

and

still

more surprising that

it

was

not until 1755 that a new or third edition

of the Constitutions should have been published, in which these alterations of 1738
were expunged, and the old regulations
and the old language restored. But whatever may have been the causes of this oversight, it is not to be doubted that, at the
time of the schism, the edition of the Book
of Constitutions of 1738 was considered as
the authorized exponent of Masonic law
by the original or regular Grand Lodge of
England, and was adopted, with but little
change, by Dermott as the basis of his
Ahiman Eezon. How much this edition of
1738 differed from that of 1723, which is
now considered the only true authority for
ancient law, and how much it agreed with
Dermott's Ahiman Eezon, will be evident
from the following specimens of the first
of the Old Charges, correctly taken from
each of the three works
First of the Old Charges in the Book of
Constitutions, edit., 1723.
"A Mason is obliged by his tenure to obey
the moral law and if he rightly understands
the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist,
nor an irreligious libertine. But though in
ancient times Masons were charged, in
every country, to be of the religion of that
country or nation, whatever it was, yet it
is now thought more expedient only to
oblige them to that religion in which all men
agreed, leaving their particular opinions to
themselves that is to be good men and true,
or men of honor and honesty, by whatever
denominations or persuasions they may be
distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes
the centre of union, and the means of conciliating true friendship among persons that
must have remained at a perpetual distance."
First of the Old Charges in the Book of
Constitutions, edit., 1738.
"A Mason is obliged by his tenure to observe the moral law, as a true Noachida ;
and if he rightly understands the Craft, he
will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious libertine, nor act against conscience.
;

49

usages of each country where they travelled or

worked. But Masonry being found in all noiions,even of divers religions, they are now only
charged to adhere to that religion in which
all men agree, (leaving each brother to his
own particular opinions ;) that is, to be good
men and true, men of honor and honesty,
by whatever names, religions, or persuasions
they may be distinguished for they all
agree in the three great articles of Noah
enough to preserve the cement of the Lodge.
Thus, Masonry is the centre of their union,
and the happy means of conciliating persons that otherwise must have remained at
a perpetual distance."
First of the Old Charges in Dermott's
;

Ahiman Eezon.
"A Mason is obliged by

his tenure to observe the moral law, as a true Noachida

and if he rightly understands the Craft, he
will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious libertine, nor act against conscience.
" In ancient times, the Christian Masons
were charged to comply with the Christian
usages of each country where they travelled
or worked ; being found in all nations, even
of divers religions.
" They are generally charged to adhere to
that religion in which all men agree, (leaving each brother to his own particular opinions;) that is, to be good men and true,
men of honor and honesty, by whatever
names, religions, or persuasions they may be
distinguished; for they all agree in the three
great articles of Xoah enough to preserve the
cement of the Lodge.
" Thus, Masonry is the centre of their
union, and the happy means of conciliating
persons that otherwise must have remained
at a perpetual distance."
The italics in the second and third ex-

show what innovations Anderson

made, in 1738, on the Charges as originally published in 1723, and how closely
Dermott followed him in adopting these innovations. There is, in fact, much less difference between the Ahiman Eezon of Dermott, and Anderson's edition of the Book of
Constitutions, printed in 1738, than there
is between the latter and the first edition
of the Constitutions, printed in 1723. But
the great points of difference between the
" Ancients " and the " Moderns," points,
which kept them apart for so many years,
are to be found in their work and ritual,
for an account of which the reader is re-

tracts will

ferred to the article Ancients.

Ahisiir. See
Alioliab. A

Achishar.

skilful artificer of the

tribe of Dan, who was appointed, together
with Bezaleel, to construct the tabernacle
in the wilderness and the ark of the cove-

AHRIMAN

50

AID

nant. He is referred to in the Koyal Arch degree of the English and American systems.
Aliriman. The principle of evil in
the system of Zoroaster, and as such opposed to Ormuzd, the principle of good.
He emanated, pure, from the primitive
Ormuzd
light, and was the second born
being the first but Ahriman, yielding to
pride, ambition, and hatred of the first born,
or principle of good, was condemned by the
Eternal to dwell for 12,000 years in that part
of space where no ray of light reaches, at
the end of which time the contest between
Light and Darkness, or Good and Evil, will
terminate. See Zoroaster.
Aichinalotarcli. The title given by
the Jews to the Prince of the Captivity, or
representative of the kings of Israel at
Babylon. See Prince of the Captivity.
Assistance. The duty of
Aid
aiding and assisting, not only all worthy
distressed Master Masons, but their widows
and orphans also, "wheresoever dispersed
over the face of the globe," is one of the
most important obligations that is imposed
upon every brother of the " mystic tie " by
the whole scope and tenor of the Masonic
Institution.
The regulations for the exerIn
cise of this duty are tew, but rational.
the first place, a Master Mason who is in
distress has a greater claim, under equal
circumstances, to the aid and assistance of
his brother, than one who, being in the
Order, has not attained that degree, or who
This is strictly in
is altogether a profane.
accordance with the natural instincts of the
human heart, which will always prefer a
friend to a stranger, or, as it is rather energetically expressed in the language of Long
Tom Coffin, " a messmate before a shipmate,
a shipmate before a stranger, and a stranger
before a dog " and it is also strictly in accordance with the teaching of the Apostle
of the Gentiles, who has said: "As we have
opportunity, therefore, let us do good to all
men, especially unto them who are of the
household."
But this exclusiveness is only to be practised under circumstances which make a
selection imperatively necessary.
Where
the grant of relief to the profane would incapacitate us from granting similar relief
to our brother, then must the preference be
given to him who is " of the household."
But the earliest symbolic lessons of the
ritual teach the Mason not to restrict his
benevolence within the narrow limits of the
Fraternity, but to acknowledge the claims
of all men, who need it, to assistance. Inwood has beautifully said: "The humble
condition both of property and dress, of
penury and want, in which you were received into the Lodge, should make you at
all times sensible of the distresses of poverty,

and

and

you can spare from the call of naand the due care of your families,
should only remain in your possession as a
ready sacrifice to the necessities of an unall

ture

fortunate, distressed brother.

Let the distressed cottage feel the warmth of your
Masonic zeal, and, if possible, exceed even
the un abating ardor of Christian charity.
At your approach let the orphan cease to
weep, and in the sound of your voice let the
widow forget her sorrow."
Another restriction laid upon this duty
of aid and assistance by the obligations of
Masonry is, that the giver shall not be
lavish beyond his means in the disposition
of his benevolence.
What he bestows
must be such as he can give " without material injury* to himself or family."
No
man should wrong his wife or children that
he may do a benefit to a stranger, or even
The obligations laid on a
to a brother.
Mason to grant aid and assistance to the
needy and distressed seem to be in the folfirst, to his
lowing gradations
family
next, to his brethren; and, lastly, to the
world at large.
So far this subject has been viewed in a
general reference to that spirit of kindness
:

which should actuate all men, and which it

the object of Masonic teaching to impress on the mind of every Mason as a
common duty of humanity, and whose disposition Masonry only seeks to direct and
guide. But there is another aspect in which
this subject may be considered, namely,
in that peculiar and technical one of Masonic aid and assistance due from one Mason to another. Here there is a duty declared, and a correlative right inferred for
if it is the duty of one Mason to assist
is

another, it follows that every Mason has

the right to claim that assistance from his
brother.
It is this duty that the obligations of Masonry are especially intended to
enforce it is this right that they are intended to sustain. The symbolic ritual of
;

Masonry which

refers, as, for instance, in

degree, to the virtue of benevolence, refers to it in the general sense of a
virtue which all men should practise. But
when the Mason reaches the third degree,
he discovers new obligations which restrict
and define the exercise of this duty of aid
and assistance. So far as his obligations
control him, the Mason, as a Mason, is not
legally bound to extend his aid beyond the
To
just claimants in his own Fraternity.
do good to all men is of course inculcated
and recommended to do good to the house-

the

first

made compulsory by
enactment and sanction.
Now, as there is here, on one side, a duty,
and on the other side a right, it is proper
to inquire what are the regulations or laws
hold

legal

is

enforced and

AID
by which this duty
right maintained.
The duty to grant

is

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE

controlled

4. The widow and orphans of a Master

Mason have the claim of the husband and
claim father extended to them. The written law

and

this

and the right to

Masonically is recognized in the following passage of the Old Charges of
relief

1722:
" But if you discover him to be a true
and genuine brother, you are to respect
him accordingly; and if he is in want, you
must relieve him if you can, or else direct
him how he may be relieved. You must
employ him some days, or else recommend
him to be employed. But you are not
charged to do beyond your ability only to
prefer a poor brother, who is a good man
and true, before any other people in the
same circumstances."
;

This written law agrees in

conditions
with the
unwritten law of the Order, and from the
two we may deduce the following principles
1. The applicant must be a Master Mason.
In 1722, the charitable benefits of
Masonry were extended, it is true, to Entered Apprentices, and an Apprentice was
recognized, in the language of the law, as
"a true and genuine brother." But this
was because at that time only the first degree was conferred in subordinate Lodges,
Fellow Crafts and Master Masons being
made in the Grand Lodge. Hence the
great mass of the Fraternity consisted of
Apprentices, and many Masons never proceeded any further. But the second and
third degrees are now always conferred in
subordinate Lodges, and very few initiates
voluntarily stop short of the Master's degree.
Hence the mass of the Fraternity
now consists of Master Masons, and the law
which formerly applied to Apprentices is,
under our present organization, made applicable only to those who have become

and

its

directions, so far as it goes,

Master Masons.

We

2. The applicant must be worthy.

are to presume that every Mason is " a good
man and true " until the Lodge which has
jurisdiction over him has pronounced to
the contrary. Every Mason who is "in
good standing," that is, who is a regularly
contributing member of a Lodge, is to be
considered as " worthy," in the technical
sense of the term. An expelled, a suspended, or a non-affiliated Mason, does not
meet the required condition of " a regularly contributing member."
Such a Mason is therefore not * worthy," and is not

entitled to

Masonic

assistance.

The

giver is not expected to exceed

his ability in the amount of relief.
The
written law says, " you are not charged to
do beyond your ability " the ritual says,
that your relief must be " without material
3.

injury to yourself or family."

ple is the same in both.

51

The

princi-

says nothing explicitly on this point, but

the unwritten or ritualistic law expressly
declares that it is our duty " to contribute
to the relief of a worthy, distressed brother,
his

widow and orphans."

And lastly, in granting relief or assistance, the Mason is to be preferred to the

profane. He must be placed " before any
other people in the same circumstances."
These are the laws which regulate the
doctrine of Masonic aid and assistance.
They are often charged by the enemies of
Masonry with a spirit of exclusiveness.
But it has been shown that they are in
5.

accordance with the exhortation of the

Apostle, who would do good " especially to
those who are of the household," and they
have the warrant of the law of nature for
every one will be ready to say, with that
kindest-hearted of men, Charles Lamb, " I
;

can

but I cannot
can be a friend to a
worthy man, who, upon another account,
cannot be my mate or fellow. I cannot
like all people alike."
And so as Masons,
while we should be charitable to all persons
in need or in distress, there are only certain
ones who can claim the aid and assistance
of the Order, or of its disciples, under the
feel for all indifferently,

feel for all alike.

positive sanction of

Masonic law.

Aitcheson-Haven Manuscript.

manuscript record formerly preserved

the archives of the Aitcheson-Haven
Lodge, which met at Musselburgh in Scotland, but which is now the property of the
in

Grand Lodge of Scotland. The MS. is engrossed in the minute-book of the Aitcheson Lodge, and is dated 29th of May, A. D.
In
1666.
It has never been published.
Laurie's History of Freemasonry, (ed. 1859,)
there has been inserted " one narration of
the founding of the craft of Masonry, and
by whom it hath been cherished," which
Bro. D. Murray Lyon says is a modern and
somewhat imperfect rendering of the Aitcheson-Haven MS., and not, therefore, a
safe text to be followed.
Aix - la - Chapelle. (In German,
Aachen.)
city of Germany, remarkable
in Masonic history for a persecution which
took place in the eighteenth century, and of
which Gadicke (Freimaur. Lex.) gives the
following account. In the year 1779, Ludwig Grienemann, a Dominican monk, delivered a course of lenten sermons, in which
he attempted to prove that the Jews who
crucified Christ were Freemasons, that Pilate and Herod were Wardens in a Mason's
Lodge, that Judas, previous to his betrayal
of his Master, was initiated into the Order,
and that the thirty pieces of silver, which

"
;
;

he

ALARM

AKXROP

52

said to have returned, was only the

which he paid for his initiation. Aix-

is

tions, viz.

Halo, 21

Rising Virtue, 30

Alabama, 21

Alabama, 51
la-Chapelle being a Roman Catholic city, Farrar, 41 St. Stephens,
Moulton, 34
the magistrates were induced, by the influ- and Russellville, 36. On the 11th of June,
ence of Grienemann, to issue a decree, in 1821, these nine Lodges met in convention
which they declared that any one who in the town of Cahawba, and organized the
should permit a meeting of the Freemasons Grand Lodge of Alabama on the 14th of
in his house should, for the first offence, be the same month; Thomas W. Farrar having
fined 100 florins, for the second 200, and been elected Grand Master, and Thomas A.
for the third be banished from the city. Rogers Grand Secretary.
The Grand Chapter of Alabama was
The mob became highly incensed against
the Masons, and insulted all whom they organized on the 2d of June, 1827, at the
suspected to be members of the Order. At town of Tuscaloosa, and at the same time
length Peter Schuff, a Capuchin, jealous of and place a Grand Council of Royal and
the influence which the Dominican Grie- Select Masters was established.
On the 27th of October, 1860, Sir Knt.
nemann was exerting, began also, with
augmented fervor, to preach against Free- B. B. French, Grand Master of the Grand
masonry, and still more to excite the pop- Encampment of the United States, issued
ular commotion. In this state of affairs, his mandate for the formation of a Grand
the Lodge at Aix-la-Chapelle applied to Commandery of Alabama.
the princes and Masonic Lodges in the
Alapa. In classical Latinity given by
fee

Madison, 21

neighboring territories for assistance and

protection, which were immediately rendered.

by both

letter in

priests, in

French was received

which the writer, who

was one of the former digniof the Order, strongly reminded

them of their duties, and, among other
things, said that "many priests, a pope,
stated that he
taries

and even Dominican and Capuchin monks, had been,

and still were, members of the Order." Although this remonstrance had some effect,
peace was not altogether restored until the
several cardinals, bishops,

neighboring free imperial states threatened

that they would prohibit the monks from
collecting alms in their territories unless
they ceased to excite the popular commotion against the Freemasons.
Akirop. The name given, in the ritual
of the Ancient and Accepted Eite, to one
of the ruffians celebrated in the legend
of the third degree. The word is said in
the ritual to signify an assassin. It might
probably be derived from 3")p, KaRaB, to

but is just as probably a word so corrupted by long oral transmission that its etymology can no longer
be traced. See Abiram.
Alabama. One of the Southern
United States of America. Masonry was
established in this State in the beginning
of the nineteenth century. Mitchell, (Hist,
of Freemas., i. 630,) whose accuracy is, however, not to be depended on, says that it
assault or join battle ;

was planted, as he thinks, in this jurisdiction by the Grand Lodge of Tennessee and
North Carolina. If he be so far right, we
must also add the Grand Lodge of South
Carolina, which, in 1819, granted a warrant to Claiborne Lodge No. 51, afterwards
called Alabama Lodge.
In 1821, there
were at least nine Lodges in Alabama,

holding warrants under different jurisdic-

the master to his manumitted slave as a

symbol of manumission, and as a reminder
that it was the last unrequited indignity

which he was

to receive.

Hence, in medi-

aeval times, the same word was applied to

the blow inflicted on the cheek of the

created

knight by the sovereign

him with the same symbolic

signification.

This was sometimes repre-

newly-created

who

sented by the blow on the shoulder with

the flat of a sword, which has erroneously
been called the accolade. See Knighthood.

Alarm. The

verb, "to alarm," signiin Freemasonry, " to give notice of the

approach of some one desiring admission."

fies,

is to inform
the Lodge that there is some one without
who is seeking entrance." As a noun, the
word "alarm" has two significations. 1.
An alarm is a warning given by the Tiler, or
other appropriate officer, by which he seeks
to communicate with the interior of the
Lodge or Chapter. In this sense the expression so often used, "an alarm at the
door," simply signifies that the officer outside has given notice of his desire to communicate with the Lodge. 2. An alarm is
also the peculiar mode in which this notice
In modern Masonic works,
is to be given.
the number of knocks given in an alarm
is generally expressed by musical notes.
Thus, three distin ct knocks would be desig-

Thus, "to alarm the Lodge,"

nated thus, J J J

ones thus, J J J J

two rapid and two slow

;

a nd th ree knoc ks three

times repeated thus, J J J J J J J a J,

etc.
As to the derivation of the word, a
writer in Notes and Queries (1 Ser. ii.,
151,) ingeniously conjectures that it comes
from the old French a Varme, which in
modern times is aux amies, " to arms
The legal meaning of to alarm is not to
!

ALBAN

ALCHEMY

frighten, but to make one aware of the

And
necessity of defence or protection.
this is precisely the Masonic signification

troduced at an early period of the Christian era an apparently new science, which
they called kniar^fia lepd, or the Sacred
Science, which materially influenced the
subsequent condition of the arts and sciences.
The books from which the sacred
science was taught were called Chemia,
supposed to be derived from Cham, the son
of Noah, to whom was attributed its invention. In the fifth century arose, as the
name of the science, alchemia, derived from
the Arabic definite article al being added
to chemia; and Julius Firmicius, in a work
On the Influence of the Stars upon the Fate
of Man, uses the phrase " scientia alchemiae."
From this time the study of alchemy was openly followed. In the Middle
Ages', and up to the end of the seventeenth
century, it was an important science, studied
by some of the most distinguished philosophers, such as Avicenna, Albertus Magnus,
Raymond Lulli, Roger Bacon, Elias Ashmole, and many others.
Alchemy
called also the Hermetic
Philosophy, because it is said to have been
first taught in Egypt by Hermes Trismegestus
was engaged in three distinct pur-

of the word.
Alban, St.

See Saint Alban.

Albertus Magnus.

scholastic

53

philosopher of the Middle Ages, of great

erudition, but who had among the vulgar
the reputation of being a magician. He
was born at Lauingen, in Swabia, in 1205,
of an illustrious family, his sub-title being
that of Count of Bollstadt. He studied
at Padua, and in 1223 entered the Order
In 1249, he became
of the Dominicans.
head-master of the school at Cologne. In
1260, Pope Alexander VI. conferred upon
him the bishopric of Katisbon. In 1262,
he resigned the episcopate and returned to
Cologne, and, devoting himself to philosophic pursuits for the remainder of his life,
died there in 1280. His writings were very
voluminous, the edition published at Lyons,
in 1651, amounting to twenty-one large
Albertus has been confolio volumes.
nected with the Operative Masonry of the
Middle Ages because he has been supposed
by many to have been the real inventor of
the German Gothic style of architecture. suits
Heideloff, in his Bauhutte des Mittelalters,
1. The discovery of the philosopher's
says, that " he recalled into life the sym- stone, by which all the inferior metals
bolic language of the ancients, which had could be transmuted into gold.
2. The discovery of an alkahest, or uniso long lain dormant, and adapted it to suit
architectural forms." The Masons accepted versal solvent of all things.
his instructions, and adopted in consequence
3. The discovery of a panacea, or univerthat system of symbols which were secretly sal remedy, under the name of elixir vitse,
communicated only to the members of their by which all diseases were to be cured and
own body, and served even as a medium of life indefinitely prolonged.
intercommunication.
He is asserted to
It is not surprising that alchemy, putting
have designed the plan for the construction forth such pretensions as these, should, by
of the Cathedral of Cologne, and to have those who did not understand its true nature,
altered the Constitution of the Masons, and have been flippantly defined as " ars sine
to have given to them a new set of laws.
arte, cujus principium est mentiri, medium
Albrecht,
Christoph. A laborare et finis mendicari," an art without
German author, who published at Hamburg, an art, whose beginning is falsehood, its
in 1792, the first and only part of a work en- middle labor, and its end beggary.
But
titled Materialen zu einer critischen Geschicte while there were undoubtedly many fools
der Freimaurerei, i. e., Collections towards a who understood the language of alchemy
Critical History of Freemasonry.
Kloss only in its literal sense, and many charlasays that this was one of the first attempts tans who used it for selfish purposes, it
at a clear and rational history of the Order. cannot be denied that there must have been
Unfortunately, the author never completed something in it better than mere pretension,
his task, and only the first part of the work to invite the attention and engage the labors
ever appeared. Albrecht was the author of so many learned men.
also of another work entitled, Geheime
Hitchcock, a learned American writer,
Geschicte einers Rosenkreuzers, or Secret His- who published, in 1857, Remarks upon Altory of a Rosicrucian, and of a series of chemy and the Alchemists, says (p. x.) that
papers which appeared in the Berlin Archiv. "the genuine alchemists were religious
derZeit, containing " Notices of Freemasonry men, who passed their time in legitimate
in the first half of the Sixteenth Century." pursuits, earning an honest subsistence,
Albrecht adopted the theory first advanced and, in religious contemplations, studying
by the Abbe Grandidier, that Freemasonry how to realize in themselves the union of
owes its origin to the stone-masons of the divine and human nature expressed in
Strasburg.
man by an enlightened submission to God's
Alchemy . The Neo-Platonicians in- will and they thought out and published,

Henry

ALDWORTH

ALDWORTH

manner of their own, a method of

attaining or entering upon this state, as
the only rest of the soul.'
And in another
place (p. 22) he says: "The subject of alchemy was Man ; while the object was the
perfection of Man, which was supposed to
centre in a certain unity with the Divine
nature."
The alchemists were, in their philosophy,
undoubtedly in advance of their age, and,
being unwilling to make their opinions
openly known to a world not yet prepared
to receive and to appreciate them, they
communicated their thoughts to each other
in a language and in symbols understood
only by themselves. Thus they spoke of
Man as a Stone, and the fire which purified the Stone was the series of trials and

about the year 1713, and was the youngest

child and only daughter of the Right Hon.
Arthur St. Leger, first Viscount Doneraile,
of Ireland, who died in 1727, and was succeeded by his eldest son, the brother of our
heroine.
Subsequently to her initiation
into the mysteries of Freemasonry she
married Richard Aldworth, Esq., of Newmarket, in the county of Cork.
Lodge No. 44, in which she was initiated,
was, in some sort, an aristocratic Lodge,
consisting principally of the gentry and
most respectable and wealthy inhabitants
of the country around Doneraile.
The
communications were usually held in the
town, but during the Mastership of Lord

54
after a

temptations by which man's moral nature

So, too, sulphur, merto be purified.
cury, salt, and many other things, were
symbols by which they taught lessons of
profound religious import to the true adepts,
which, being misunderstood by others, led
thousands into the vain and useless search
for some tangible method of transmuting
the baser metals into gold. " Who," says
one of these philosophers, " is to blame ?
the Art, or those who seek it upon false

is

principles

"

Freemasonry and alchemy have sought

the same results, (the lesson of Divine Truth
and the doctrine of immortal life,) and they
have both sought it by the same method
of symbolism. It is not, therefore, strange
that in the eighteenth century, and perhaps before, we find an incorporation of
much of the science of alchemy into that
of Freemasonry. Hermetic rites and Hermetic degrees were common, and their
relics are still to be found existing in degrees which do not absolutely trace their
origin to alchemy, but which show some
of its traces in their rituals. The 28th degree of the Scottish Rite, or the Knight
of the Sun, is entirely a hermetic degree,
and claims its parentage in the title of
" Adept of Masonry," by which it is sometimes known.

Aldworth, the Hon. Mrs.

This

lady received, about the year 1735, the first

and second degrees of Freemasonry in
Lodge No. 44, at Doneraile, in Ireland.
The circumstances connected with this singular initiation were first published in 1807,
at Cork, and subsequently republished by
Spencer, the celebrated Masonic bibliopole,
in London.
It may be observed, before
proceeding to glean from this work the
narrative of her initiation, that the authenticity of all the circumstances was confirmed on their first publication by an
eye-witness to the transaction.
The Hon. Elizabeth St. Leger was born

Doneraile, under whom his sister was initiated, the meetings were often held at his
Lordship's residence.
It was during one of these meetings at
Doneraile House * that this female initiation took place, the story of w hich Spencer, in the memoir to which we have
referred, relates in the following words
"It happened on this particular occasion
that the Lodge was held in a room separated from another, as is often the case, by
stud and brickwork. The young lady, being
giddy and thoughtless, and determined
to gratify her curiosity, made her arrangements accordingly, and, with a pair of
scissors, (as she herself related to the mother of our informant,) removed a portion
of a brick from the wall, and placed herself so as to command a full view of everything which occurred in the next room so
placed, she witnessed the two first degrees
in Masonry, which was the extent of the
proceedings of the Lodge on that night.
Becoming aware, from what she heard,
that the brethren were about to separate,
for the first time she felt tremblingly alive
to the awkwardness and danger of her situation, and began to consider how she
could retire without observation. She became nervous and agitated, and nearly
fainted, but so far recovered herself as to
be fully aware of the necessity of withdrawing as quickly as possible in the act
of doing so, being in the dark, she stumbled against and overthrew something, said
to be a chair or some ornamental piece of
The crash was loud and the
furniture.
Tiler, who was on the lobby or landing on
which the doors both of the Lodge room
and that where the honorable Miss St.
Leger was, opened, gave the alarm, burst
open the door and, with a light in one
hand and a drawn sword in the other, apT

*
writer in the London Freemason'' s QuarReview (1839, p. 322,) says that she was concealed in a clock-case in the regular Lodge room,
in Maberly's house of entertainment at York.
But the locus in quo is not material.
terly

ALFADER

ALETHOPHILE
now

and fainting

55

from the mind of

the emperor the prejudices which he had
Accordingly,
of the Lodge present, and luckily for it is conceived against the Order.
asserted that but for the prompt appearance in an audience which he had solicited and
of her brother, Lord Doneraile, and other obtained, he described the objects of the
steady members, her life would have fallen Institution and the doctrine of its mysteries
a sacrifice to what was then esteemed her in such a way as to lead the emperor to
crime. The first care of his Lordship was rescind the obnoxious decrees, and to add
" What you have told me of
to resuscitate the unfortunate lady without these words
alarming the house, and endeavor to learn the Institution not only induces me to
from her an explanation of what had oc- grant it my protection and patronage, but
curred having done so, many of the mem- even to ask for initiation into its mysteries.
bers being furious at the transaction, she Is this possible to be obtained?" M. Boewas placed under guard of the Tiler and a ber replied, " Sire, I cannot myself reply
member, in the room where she was found. to the question. But I will call together
The members re-assembled and deliberated the Masons of your capital, and make your
as to what, under the circumstances, was Majesty's desire known; and I have no
to be done, and over two long hours she doubt that they will be eager to comply
could hear the angry discussion and her with your wishes." Accordingly Alexandeath deliberately proposed and seconded. der was soon after initiated, and the Grand
At length the good sense of the majority Lodge Astrea of Russia was in consequence
succeeded in calming, in some measure, the established, of which M. Boeber was elected
angry and irritated feelings of the rest of Grand Master.
the members, when, after much had been
Alexandria, Scnool of. When
said and many things proposed, it was re- Alexander built the city of Alexandria in
solved to give her the option of submitting Egypt, with the intention of making it the
to the Masonic ordeal to the extent she had seat of his empire, he invited thither learned
witnessed, (Fellow Craft,) and if she re- men from all nations, who brought with
The Alexfused, the brethren were again to consult. them their peculiar notions.
Being waited on to decide, Miss St. Leger, andria school of philosophy which was
exhausted and terrified by the storminess thus established, by the commingling of
of the debate, which she could not avoid Orientalists, Jews, Egyptians, and Greeks,
partially hearing, and yet, notwithstanding became eclectic in character, and exhibited
all, with a secret pleasure, gladly and una heterogeneous mixture of the opinions of
hesitatingly accepted the offer. She was the Egyptian priests, of the Jewish Rabbis,
accordingly initiated."
of Arabic teachers, and of the disciples of
Mrs., or, as she was appropriately called, Plato and Pythagoras. From this school
Sister Aldworth, lived many years after, we derive Gnosticism and the Kabbala,
but does not seem ever to have forgotten and, above all, the system of symbolism and
the lessons of charity and fraternal love allegory which lay at the foundation of the
which she received on her unexpected ini- Masonic philosophy. To no ancient sect,
tiation into the esoteric doctrines of the indeed, except perhaps the Pythagoreans,
" Placed as she was," says the have the Masonic teachers been so much
Order.
memoir we have quoted, " by her marriage indebted for the substance of their docwith Mr. Aldworth, at the head of a very trines, as well as the esoteric method of
large fortune, the poor in general, and the communicating them, as to that of the
Masonic poor in particular, had good rea- School of Alexandria. Both Aristobulus
son to record her numerous and bountiful and Philo, the two most celebrated chiefs
nor were these accompa- of this school, taught, although a century
acts of kindness
far from it.
It has intervened between their births, the same
nied with ostentation
been remarked of her, that her custom was theory, that the sacred writings of the Heto seek out bashful misery and retiring brews were, by their system of allegories,
poverty, and with a well-directed liberality, the true source of all religious and philosoothe many a bleeding heart."
sophic doctrine, the literal meaning of which
Alethophile, Lover of Truth. The 5th alone was for the common people, the esodegree of the Order of African Architects. teric or hidden meaning being kept for the
Alexander I., Emperor of Eussia. initiated. Freemasonry still carries into
Alexander I. succeeded Paul I. in the year practice the same theory.
1801, and immedietely after his accession
Alfader. The chief god of the Scanrenewed the severe prohibitions of his pre- dinavians. The Edda says that in Asgard,
decessor against all secret societies, and or the abode of the gods, the supreme god
In 1803, M. Boe- had twelve names, the first of which was
especially Freemasonry.
ber, counsellor of state and director of the Alfader, equivalent to the Greek Pantopater,
military school at St. Petersburg, resolved or the Universal Father.
peared to the
lady.

He was

terrified

to remove, if possible,

soon joined by the members

;

;;

ALLOWED

ALGABIL

56

Algaoil.

SaxJi^.

preme God, signifying

A name of the SuTHE BUILDER,

having an etymological

relation to the
Oiblim, or Builders of Gebal, who acted an
important part in the construction of the
Temple of Solomon. It is equivalent to
the Masonic epithet of God, "the Grand
Architect of the Universe." I insert this
word on the authority of Urquhart, who
gives it in his Pillars of Hercules, ii. 67.

Alincourt, Francois d\

A French

gentleman, who, in the year 1776, was sent

with Don Oyres de Ornellas Pracao, a Portuguese nobleman, to prison, by the governor of the island of Madeira, for being
Freemasons. They were afterwards sent to
Lisbon, and confined in a common jail for
fourteen months, where they would have
perished had not the Masons of Lisbon
supported them, through whose intercession with Don Martinio de Mello they were
Smith, Use and Abuse of
at last released.
Freemasonry, p. 206.
Allegiance. Every Mason owes allegiance to the Lodge, Chapter, or other
body of which he is a member, and also to
the Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter or other
supreme authority from which that body
But this is
has received its charter.
not a divided allegiance. If, for instance,
the edicts of a Grand and a Subordinate
Lodge conflict, there is no question which
Supreme or governing
is to be obeyed.
bodies in Masonry claim and must receive
a paramount allegiance.

Allegory.
in

which there

is

discourse or narrative
literal and a figurative

and a connected meaning

the literal or patent sense being intended,
by analogy or comparison, to indicate the
Its derivation
figurative or concealed one.
from the Greek, a?J.og and ayopetv, to say
something different, that is, to say something
where the language is one thing and the
true meaning another, exactly expresses
the character of an allegory. It has been
said that there is no essential difference
between an allegory and a symbol. There
is not in design, but there
is in their
character.
An allegory may be interpreted
without any previous conventional agreement, but a symbol cannot.
Thus the
legend of the third degree is an allegory,
evidently to be interpreted as teaching a
sense, a patent

restoration to

life

and

this

we

learn from

the legend itself, without any previous understanding. The sprig of acacia is a symbol of the immortality of the soul.
But
this we know only because such meaning
had been conventionally determined when
the symbol was first established. It is evident, then, that an allegory whose meaning
The enigmatical
is obscure is imperfect.
meaning should be easy of interpretation

and hence Lemiere, a French poet, has

said: " L'allegorie iiabite un palais diaphane,"

Allegory lives in a transparent

All the legends of Freemasonry
palace.
are more or less allegorical, and whatever
truth there may be in some of them in a
historical point of view, it is only as allegories
or legendary symbols that they are of importance. The English lectures have therefore
very properly defined Freemasonry to be
"a system of morality veiled in allegory
and illustrated by symbols."
The allegory was a favorite figure among
the ancients, and to the allegorizing spirit
are we to trace the construction of the
entire Greek and Eoman mythology.
Not
less did it prevail among the older Aryan
nations, and its abundant use is exhibited
in the religions of Brahma and Zoroaster.
The Jewish Rabbins were greatly addicted
to it, and carried its employment, as Maimonides intimates, (More Nevochim, III.,
xliii.,) sometimes to an excess.
Their Midrash, or system of commentaries on the
sacred book, is almost altogether allegorical.
Aben Ezra, a learned Rabbi of the twelfth
century, says, "The Scriptures are like
bodies, and allegories are like the garments
with which they are clothed. Some are
thin like fine silk, and others are coarse and
thick like sackcloth." Our Lord, to whom
this spirit of the Jewish teachers in his day
was familiar, inculcated many truths in
parables, all of which were allegories. The
primitive Fathers of the Christian Church
were thus infected; and Origen, (Epist. ad
Dam.,) who was especially addicted to the
habit, tells us that all the Pagan philosophers should be read in this spirit: "hoc
facere solemus quando philosophos legimus." Of modern allegorizing writers, the
most interesting to Masons are Lee, the
author of The Temple of Solomon portrayed by Scripture Light, and John Bun1

yan,

who wrote

Solomon's Temple Spirit-

ualized.

Allocution. The address of the presiding officer of a Supreme Council of

the Ancient and Accepted Rite is sometimes so called. It was first used by the
Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the
United States, and is derived from the
usage of the Roman Church, where certain
addresses of the Pope to the Cardinals are
called allocutions, and this is to be traced
to the customs of Pagan Rome, where the
harangues of the Generals to their soldiers
were called allocutions.
Allowed. In the old manuscript Constitutions, this word is found in the now
unusual sense of" accepted." Thus, " Every
Mason of the

Craft that

is

Mason

allowed,

ye shall do to him as ye would be done unto

yourself."

Mason allowed means Mason

;:

'

ALL-SEEING

ALMOND

that is, approved. Phillips, in his

of Words, (1690,) defines the
verb allow, "to give or grant; to approve of; to permit or suffer." Latimer,
in one of his sermons, uses it in this sense
of approving or accepting, thus: "St.
Peter, in forsaking his old boat and nets,
was allowed as much before God as if he
had forsaken all the riches in the world."
In a similar sense is the word used in the
Office of Public Baptism of Infants, in the
Common Prayer-Book of the Church of

His symbolic name, on the monuments, was

represented by the eye accompanying a
throne, to which was sometimes added an
abbreviated figure of the god, and sometimes what has been called a hatchet, but
which, I consider, may as correctly be sup-

New World

England.

57

posed to be a representation of a square.

The All-Seeing Eye may then be considered as a symbol of God manifested in
his omnipresence
his guardian and pre-

serving character
to which Solomon alludes in the Book of Proverbs (xv. 3), when
he says " The eyes of Jehovah are in every
place, beholding (or, as it might be more
faithfully translated, watching) the evil and
the good." It is a symbol of the Omnipresent Deity.
All-Souls 9 Day. The 2d of Novemfestival in the Romish Church for
ber.
prayers in behalf of all the faithful dead. It
is kept as a feast day by Chapters of Rose
Croix.
:

All-Seeing Eye. An important symSupreme Being, borrowed by the

Freemasons from the nations of antiquity.
Both the Hebrews and the Egyptians appear to have derived its use from that
natural inclination of figurative minds to
select an organ as the symbol of the function which it is intended peculiarly to discharge. Thus, the foot was often adopted
as the symbol of swiftness, the arm of
strength, and the hand of fidelity.
On the
same principle, the open eye was selected as
the symbol of watchfulness, and the eye of
God as the symbol of divine watchfulness
and care of the universe. The use of the
symbol in this sense is repeatedly to be found

bol of the

in the Hebrew writers. Thus, the Psalmist

" The eyes of the
says (Ps. xxxiv. 15)
Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears
are open to their cry," which explains a
subsequent passage, (Ps. cxxi. 4,) in which
" Behold, he that keepeth Israel
it is said
shall neither slumber nor sleep."
In the Apocryphal " Book of the Conversation of God with Moses on Mount Sinai,"
translated by the Rev. W. Cureton from an
Arabic MS. of the fifteenth century, and
:

published by the Philobiblon Society of

London, the idea of the eternal watchfulness of God is thus beautifully allegorized
" Then Moses said to the Lord, O Lord,
dost thou sleep or not? The Lord said
unto Moses, I never sleep but take a cup
and fill it with water. Then Moses took a
cup and filled it with water, as the Lord
commanded him. Then the Lord cast into
the heart of Moses the breath of slumber
so he slept, and the cup fell from his hand,
and the water which was therein was spilled.
:

Almanac, Masonic.

Almanacs

for

the special use of the Fraternity are annually published in many countries of Europe,
but the custom has not extended to Amer-

As early as 1752, we find an Almanack

des Francs- Magons au Ecosse published at

ica.

the Hague. This, or a similar work, was

continued to be published annually at the
same place until the year 1778. The first
English work of the kind appeared in 1775,
under the title of " The Freemason's Calendar, or an Almanac for the year 1775.
Containing, besides an accurate and useful
calendar of all remarkable occurrences for
the year, many useful and curious particuInscribed to
lars relating to Masonry.
Lord Petre, G. M., by a Society of Brethren.
London, printed for the Society of
Stationers." This work was without any
official authority, but two years after the
Freemason's Calendar for 1777 was published "under the sanction of the Grand
Lodge of England." Works of this useful
kind continue to be annually published in
Great Britain and Ireland under the name
of Pocket Boohs, in Germany under that of
Taschenbucher, and in France under that of
Calendriers.

In Hebrew HK' Sk, El

The name by which God was

Almighty.
Shaddai.

Then Moses awoke from his sleep. Then known to the patriarchs before he ansaid God to Moses, I declare by my power, nounced himself to Moses by his tetra(See
and by my glory, that if I were to with- grammatonic name of Jehovah.
draw my providence from the heavens and Exodus vi. 3.) It refers to his power and
the earth, for no longer a space of time
than thou hast slept, they,would at once
fall to ruin and confusion, like as the cup
fell from thy hand."
On the same principle, the Egyptians
represented Osiris, their chief deity, by the
symbol of an open eye, and placed this
hieroglyphic of him in all their temples.

as the Creator and Ruler of the uniand hence is translated in the Septuagint by TravTonparup, and in the Vulgate
by omnipotens.

might
verse,

Almond-Tree. When

it is

said in

the passage of Scripture from the twelfth

chapter of Eccles., read during the ceremonies of the third degree, " the almond-tree

58

ALMONER

shall flourish," reference is made to the

white flowers of that tree, and the allegoric
signification is to old age, when the hairs
of the head shall become gray.
An officer elected or appointed in the continental Lodges of Europe
to take charge of the contents of the almsbox, to carry into effect the charitable resolutions of the Lodge, and to visit sick and

ALPHA
sympathy."
lays

And

the same eloquent writer

down

this rule for a Mason's almsgiv" Give, looking for nothing again,

ing
without consideration of future advantages
give to children, to old men, to the unAlmoner.
thankful, and the dying, and to those you
shall never see again
for else your alms
or courtesy is not charity, but traffic and
merchandise. And omit not to relieve the
needy brethren. A physician is usually needs of your enemy and him who does
See Exclusiveness, Masonic.
selected in preference to any other member you injury."
An almoner is to be also
Alnwick. Manuscript. This manfor this office.
found in some of the English Lodges, al- uscript, which is now in the possession of
though the office is not recognized by law. Bro. E. F. Turnbull of Alnwick, (Eng.,) is
In the United States the officer does not written on twelve quarto pages as a preface
exist, his duties being performed by a com- to the minute-book of the " Company and
It is an important Fellowship of Freemasons of a Lodge held
mittee of charity.
at Alnwick," where it appears under the
office in all bodies of the Scottish Rite.
Alnis-Hox. A box which, towards heading of "The Masons' Constitutions."
the close of the Lodge, is handed around The date of the document is Sept. 20th,
by an appropriate officer for the reception 1701, "being the general head-meeting
of such donations for general objects of day." It was first published in 1871 in
charity as the brethren may feel disposed Hughan's Masonic Sketches and Reprints,
This laudable custom is very (Amer. ed.,) and again in 1872 by the same
to bestow.
generally practised in the Lodges of Eng- author in his Old Charges of the British
In the preface to this latter
land, Scotland, and Ireland, and univer- Freemasons.
The work, Bro. Woodford says of the records of
sally in those of the Continent.
newly-initiated candidate is expected to this old Lodge that, " ranging from 1703 to
contribute more liberally than the other 1757 they mostly refer to indentures, fines,
members. Bro. Hyde Clarke says {Lon. and initiations, the Lodge from first to last
Freem. Mag., 1859, p. 1166,) that "some remaining true to its operative origin. The
brethren are in the habit, on an occasion members were required annually to appear
of thanksgiving with them, to contribute at the Parish Church of Alnwick with
to the box of the Lodge more than on other their approns on and common squares
This custom has not been aforesaid on St. John's Day in Christmas,
occasions."
adopted in the Lodges of America, except when a sermon was provided and preached
in those of French origin and in those of by some clergyman at their appointment.'
the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
A. D. 1708."
Almsgiving. Although almsgiving,
Al-oni-Jah. In the Egyptian mysor the pecuniary relief of the destitute, teries, this is said to have been the name
was not one of the original objects for given to the aspirant in the highest degree
which the Institution of Freemasonry was as the secret name of the Supreme Being.
established, yet, as in every society of men In its component parts we may recognize
bound together by a common tie, it becomes the Sx, Al or El of the Hebrews, the Aum
incidentally, yet necessarily, a duty to be or triliteral name of the Indian mysteries,
practised by all its members in their indi- and the j"V Jah of the Syrians.
vidual as well as in their corporate capacity.
Aloyau, Societe de P. The word
In fact, this virtue is intimately interwoven Aloyau signifies, in French, a loin of beef,
with the whole superstructure of the Insti- and hence the title of this society in Engtution, and its practice is a necessary corol- lish would be The Society of the Loin.
It
lary from all its principles.
At an early was a Masonic association, which existed in
period in his initiation the candidate is France for about fifteen years, until its
instructed in the beauty of charity by the members were dispersed by the revolution.
most impressive ceremonies, which are not They are said to have been in possession
easily to be forgotten, and which, with the of many valuable documents relating to the
same benevolent design, are repeated from Knights Templars and their successors.
time to time during his advancement to See Temple, Order of the.
higher degrees, in various forms and under
Omega. The first and
Alpha
different circumstances.
"The true Ma- last letters of the Greek language, referred
son," says Bro. Pike, " must be, and must to in the Royal Master and some of the
They are explained by
have a right to be, content with himself; higher degrees.
and he can be so only when he lives not this passage in Revelations ch. xxii., v. 13.
for himself alone, but for others who need "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
his assistance and have a claim upon his and the end, the first and the last." Alpha
:

and

ALPHABET

ALPINA

and Omega is, therefore, one of the appellations of God, equivalent to the beginning
and end of all things, and so referred to in
Isaiah xii. 4, " I am Jehovah, the first and

Aleph
Beth
Gimel

the last."

He
old

Vau
Zain

names, like the name of the Divinity, are

to be taken to the Kabbalistic Tree and the
Angels' Alphabet." The Kabbalistic Tree
is a name given by the Kabbalists to the
arrangement of the ten Sephiroth, (which
see.) The Angels' Alphabet is called by the
Hebrews a-J^DH 2DD, chetab hamalachim,

Yod

or the writing of the angels.

In

the

Gaffarel says
that the stars,

[Curios. Inouis., ch. xiii. 2,)

according to the opinion of the Hebrew
writers, are ranged in the heavens in the
form of letters, and that it is possible to

read there whatsoever of importance is to

happen throughout the universe. And the
great English Hermetic philosopher, Eobert
Flud, says, in his Apology for the Brethren
of the Rosy Gross, that there are characters
in the heavens formed from the disposition
of the stars, just as geometric lines and
ordinary letters are formed from points and
he adds, that those to whom God has granted
the hidden knowledge of reading these
characters will also know not only whatever is to happen, but all the secrets of
philosophy. The letters thus arranged in
the form of stars are called the Angels'
Alphabet. They have the power and articulation but not the form of the Hebrew
letters, and the Kabbalists say that in them
Moses wrote the tables of the law. The
astrologers, and after them the alchemists,
made much use of this alphabet; and its introduction into any of the high degree
rituals is an evidence of the influence exerted on these degrees by the Hermetic
philosophy. Agrippa in his Occult Philosophy, and Kircher in his (Edipus Egyptiacus, and some other writers, have given
copies of this alphabet.
It may also be
found in Johnson's Typographia. But it
is in the mystical books of the Kabbalists
that we must look for full instructions on
;

this subject.

Alphabet, Hebrew.

Nearly all of
the significant words in the Masonic rituals
are of Hebrew origin, and in writing them
in the rituals the Hebrew letters are frequently used. For convenience of reference,
that alphabet is here given. The Hebrews,
like other ancient nations, had no figures,
and therefore made use of the letters of
their alphabet instead of numbers, each
letter having a particular numerical value.
They are, therefore, affixed in the following; table

2
3

JJ

Daleth

rituals of the fourth or Secret Master's degree of the Scottish and some other Rites,
we find this passage: "The seventy-two

Alphabet, Angels'.

N A
5 B
G
^ D
H H
V or O
1

59

Cheth
Teth

f]

CH
T

'

IorY

3 CorK
h L

Lamed

Mem

J2

Samech
Ain
Pe

D
V

Tsaddi

Tz

Koph

Nun

Besh

"*1

Shin

&

Tau

j"l

Final Caph
Final Mem
Final Nun
Final Pe
Final Tsaddi

Guttural

QorK
B
SH
T

CorK

o M
}

6
7
8
9

20

Caph

4
5

10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100

200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900

P
y TZ
Alphabet, Masonic. See Cipher.
Alphabet, Samaritan. It is be]

lieved by scholars that, previous to the

captivity, the alphabet now called the Samaritan was employed by the Jews in
transcribing the copies of the law, and that
it was not until their return from Babylon
that they" adopted, instead of their ancient
characters, the Chaldee or square letters,
now called the Hebrew, in which the sacred
text, as restored by Ezra, was written.
Hence, in the more recent rituals of the
Scottish Bite, especially those used in the
United States, the Samaritan character is
beginning to be partially used. For convenience of reference, it is therefore here inserted.
The letters are the same in number
as the Hebrew, with the same power and the
same names, the only difference is in form.

Aleph
Beth
Gimel

fa

Lamed

Mem

^j

Nun

Daleth

Samech

vj

He
Vau
Zam

^
zr

Ayin
Pe

Cheth
Teth

**f

43
Tft

Tsade

vflf

Koph

Eesch
Shin

<\

Yod
-U\
(\f
Tau
Kaph
Alpina. In 1836, and some years after-

wards, General Assemblies of the Masons

ALTAR

ALTENBERG

of Switzerland were convened at Zurich,

Berne, and Basle, which resulted in the
union of the two Masonic authorities of
that confederation, under the name of the
Grand Lodge Alpina. The new Grand
Lodge was organized at Zurich, by fourteen
Lodges, on the 22d of June, 1844.

solemn and binding than one assumed

under other circumstances. Hence, Hannibal's father brought him to the Carthaginian altar when he was about to make
him swear eternal enmity to the Roman

60

Altar.

The most important article of

Lodge room is undoubtedly

furniture in a

It is worth while, then, to investigate its character and its relation to

the altars of other religious institutions.
The definition of an altar is very simple.
It is a structure elevated above the ground,
and appropriated to some service connected
with worship, such as the offering of oblations, sacrifices, or prayers.
Altars, among the ancients, were generWhen permaally made of turf or stone.
nently erected and not on any sudden
emergency, they were generally built in
regular courses of masonry, and usually in
a cubical form. Altars were erected long
before temples. Thus, Noah is said to have
erected one as soon as he came forth from
the ark. Herodotus gives the Egyptians
the credit of being the first among the hea-

the altar.

then nations who invented altars.

Among the ancients, both Jews and Genfor incense
tiles, altars were of two kinds
and for sacrifice. The latter were always
erected in the open air, outside and in front
of the Temple. Altars of incense only were
permitted within the Temple walls. Animals were slain, and offered on the altars

of burnt-offerings. On the altars of incense, bloodless sacrifices were presented

and incense was burnt to the Deity.
The Masonic altar, which, like everything else in Masonry, is symbolic, appears
to combine the character and uses of both
of these altars. It is an altar of sacrifice,
for on it the candidate is directed to lay his
passions and vices as an oblation to the
Deity, while he offers up the thoughts of a
pure heart as a fitting incense to the Grand
Architect of the Universe. The altar is,
therefore, the most holy place in a Lodge.
Among the ancients, the altar was always
Altars
invested with peculiar sanctity.
were places of refuge, and the supplicants
who fled to them were considered as having
placed themselves under the protection of
the deity to whom the altar was consecrated, and to do violence even to slaves
and criminals at the altar, or to drag them
from it, was regarded as an act of violence
to the deity himself, and was hence a sacrilegious crime.
The marriage covenant among the ancients was always solemnized at the altar,

and men were accustomed to make all their

solemn contracts and treaties by taking
oaths at altars. An oath taken or a vow
made at the altar was considered as more

power.
In all the religions of antiquity, it was
the usage of the priests and the people to
pass around the altar in the course of the
sun, that is to say, from the east, by the way
of the south, to the west, singing pseans or
hymns of praise as a part of their worship.
From all this we see that the altar in
Masonry is not merely a convenient article
of furniture, intended, like a table, to hold
a Bible. It is a sacred utensil of religion,
intended, like the altars of the ancient
temples, for religious uses, and thus identifying Masonry, by its necessary existence
in our Lodges, as a religious institution.
Its presence should also lead the contemplative Mason to view the ceremonies in
which it is employed with solemn reverence,
as being part of a really religious worship.
The situation of the altar in the French
and Scottish Rites is in front of the Worshipful Master, and, therefore, in the East.
In the York Rite, the altar is placed in the
centre of the room, or more properly a
little to the East of the centre.
The form of a Masonic altar should be
a cube, about three feet high, and of corresponding proportions as to length and
width, having, in imitation of the Jewish
The
altar, four horns, one at each corner.
Holy Bible with the Square and Compass

should be spread open upon it, while around

These
it are-to be placed three lights.
lights are to be in the East, West, and
South, and should be arranged as in the
annexed diagram. The stars show the
position of the light in the East, West,
and South. The black dot represents the
position North of the altar where there is
no light, because in Masonry the North is
the place of darkness.
Altenberg, Congress of. Al tenberg is a small place in the Grand Dukedom
of Weimar, about two miles from the city of
Jena. In the month of June, 1764, the
notorious Johnson, or Leucht, who called

AMENDMENT

ALTEKBERG
himself the Grand Master of the Knights
Templars and the head of the Rite of
Strict Observance, assembled a Masonic
congress for the purpose of establishing
this Rite and its system of Templar Masonry. But he was denounced and expelled
by the Baron de Hund, who, having proved
Johnson to be an impostor and charlatan,
was himself proclaimed Grand Master of
the German Masons by the congress. See
Johnson and Hund; also Strict Observance,
Rite

Thus, in one

in

respect

to

this

Uber Musar,)
said that whosoever pronounces it with

word.
it is

The Talmudists have many

notions

treatise,

fixed attention and devotion, to him the

gates of Paradise will be opened; and,
again, whosoever enunciates the word rapidly, his days shall pass rapidly away, and
whosoever dwells upon it, pronouncing it
distinctly and slowly, his life shall be prolonged.
All amendments to

Amendment.

of.

Altenberg, Iiodge at.

One

of the
oldest Lodges in Germany is the Lodge of
" Archimedes at the Three Tracing Boards,"
{Archimedes zu den drei Reissbrettern,) in
Altenberg. It was instituted January 31,
In
1742, by a deputation from Leipsic.
1775 it joined the Grand Lodge of Berlin,
but in 1788 attached itself to the Eclectical
Union at Fraukfort-on-the-Main, which
body it left in 1801, and established a directory of its own, and installed a Lodge at
Gera and another at Schnesberg. In the
year 1803 the Lodge published a Book of
Constitutions in a folio of 244 pages, a work
now rare, and which Lenning says is one
of the most valuable contributions to Masonic literature. In 1804 the Lodge struck
a medal upon the occasion of erecting a
new hall. In 1842 it celebrated its centennial anniversary.
plant well known to
Amaranth.
the ancients, and whose Greek name signifies "never withering."
It is the Celosia
cristata of the botanists.
The dry nature
of the flowers causes them to retain their
freshness for a very long time, and Pliny
says, although incorrectly, that if thrown
into water they will bloom anew.
Hence
it is a symbol of immortality, and was usd
by the ancients in their funeral rites. It
is often placed on coffins at the present day
with a like symbolic meaning, and is hence
one of the decorations of a Sorrow Lodge.

Amar-jah. Hebrew

PP~"T/DN, God

spake; a significant word in the high degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
Amazons, Order of. Thory gives
this in his Nomenclature des Grades as an
androgynous degree practised in America.
I have no knowledge of it, and think that
Thory is in error. Ragon says ( Tuill. Gen.,
89,) that it was created in the United States
in 1740, but met with no success.
The response to every Masonic
prayer is, "So mote it be: Amen." The

Amen.

word Amen signifies in Hebrew

verily, truly,

"Its proper place," says Gesenius, " is where one person confirms the
words of another, and adds his wish for
success to the other's vows."
It is evident,
then, that it is the brethren of the Lodge,
and not the Master or Chaplain, who should
pronounce the word. It is a response to
certainly.

the prayer.
superstitious

61

the by-laws of a Lodge must be submitted

to the Grand Lodge for its approval.
An amendment to a motion pending before a Lodge takes precedence of the original motion, and the question must be put
upon the amendment first. If the amendment be lost, then the question will be on
the motion if the amendment be adopted,
then the question will be on the original
;

motion as so amended; and

if

then this

question be lost, the whole motion falls to

the ground.
The principal Parliamentary rules in
relation to amendments which are applicable to the business of a Masonic Lodge
are the following
1.

An amendment must be made

in one

of three ways,
by adding or inserting certain words, by striking out certain words,
or by striking out certain words and inserting others.
2. Every amendment is susceptible of an
amendment of itself, but there can be no
amendment of the amendment of an amendment such a piling of questions one upon
another would tend to embarrass rather
;

than to

which

facilitate business.

"The

object

proposed to be effected by such a

proceeding must be sought by rejecting the
amendment to the amendment, and then
submitting the proposition in the form of
an amendment of the first amendment in
the form desired." Cushing {Elem. Law
and Pract. Leg. Ass., $1306) illustrates this
" If a proposition consists of
as follows
AB, and it is proposed to amend by inserting CD, it may be moved to amend the
amendment by inserting EF; but it cannot
be moved to amend this amendment, as,
The only
for example, by inserting G.
mode by which this can be reached is to
reject the amendment in the form in which
it is presented, namely, to insert EF, and
to move it in the form in which it is desired
to be amended, namely, to insert EFG."
3. An amendment once rejected cannot
be again proposed.
is

4.

An amendment

to strike out certain

words having prevailed, a subsequent motion to restore

5.

them

is

out of order.

An amendment may be proposed which

will entirely change the character and substance of the original motion. The incon-

AMERICAN

62

AMERICAN

sistency or incompatibility of a proposed

the proposition to be
amended, though an argument, perhaps, for
its rejection by the Lodge, is no reason for
its suppression by the presiding officer.
6. An amendment, before it has been proposed to the body for discussion, may be

amendment with

withdrawn by the mover but after it has

once been in possession of the Lodge, it can
only be withdrawn by leave of the Lodge.
In the Congress of the United States, leave
must be obtained by unanimous consent
but the usage in Masonic bodies is to re;

An amendment

having been with-

drawn by the mover, may be again proposed by another member.

8. Several amendments may be proposed
to a motion or several amendments to an
amendment, and the question will be put
on them in the order of their presentation.
But as an amendment takes precedence of
a motion, so an amendment to an amendment takes precedence of the original
amendment.
9.

An amendment

seconder, although

ever admitted. All tribes appear

have been controlled by these secret societies. Alexander von Humboldt mentions
one, called that of the Botuto, orHoly Trumpet,

among

the Indians of the Orinoko,

whose members must vow

celibacy,

and

submit to severe scourgings and fasts. The

Collahuayas of Peru were a guild of itinerant quacks and magicians, who never remained permanently in one spot.
American Rite. It has been proposed, and I think with propriety, to give
5 '

this

name

to the series of degrees conferred

The York Rite, which

in the United States.

quire only a majority vote.

7.

man was
to

does not require a

an original motion

al-

ways does.
There are many other rules relative to
amendments which prevail in Parliamentary bodies, but these appear to be the only
ones which regulate this subject in Masonic assemblies.

American Mysteries. Among the

many

evidences of a former state of civiliamong the aborigines of this country

which seem to prove their origin from the
races that inhabit the Eastern hemisphere,
not the least remarkable is the existence of
Fraternities bound by mystic ties, and claiming, like the Freemasons, to possess an esoteric knowledge, which they carefully conceal from all but the initiated.
De Witt
Clinton relates, on the authority of a respectable native minister, who had received the
signs, the existence of such a society among
the Iroquois. The number of the members
was limited to fifteen, of whom six were to
be of the Seneca tribe, five of the Oneidas,
two of the Cayugas, and two of the St. Regis.
They claim that their institution has existed
from the era of the creation. The times of
zation

meeting they keep secret, and throw

much mystery over all their proceedings.
Brinton tells us in his interesting and
instructive work on The Myths of the New

their

World, (p. 285,) that among the red race

of America "the priests formed societies
of different grades of illumination, only to
be entered by those willing to undergo
trying ordeals, whose secrets were not
to be revealed under the severest penalties.
The Algonkins had three such grades
the
waubeno, the meda, and the jossakeed, the
To this no white
last being the highest.

is

the

name by which they

are usually
certainly a misnomer, for the
Rite properly consists of only the de-

designated,

York

is

grees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft,

and Master Mason, including in the last

degree the Holy Royal Arch. This was the

Masonry that existed in England at the
time of the revival of the Grand Lodge in
1717.
The abstraction of the Royal Arch
from the Master's degree, and its location as
a separate degree, produced that modification of the York Rite which now exists in
England, and which should properly be
called the Modern York Rite, to distinguish it from the Ancient York Rite, which
consisted of only three degrees. But in the

United States still greater additions have

been made to the Rite, through the labors
of Webb and other lecturers, and the influence insensibly exerted on the Order by
the introduction of the Ancient and Accepted Rite into this country. The American modification of the York Rite, or the
American Rite, consists of nine degrees, viz.
1.

Entered Apprentice.

MaS
Ma teT Mason.
* Master

1^1^^

Mark

g
de* the control
Graud Lod g es
Given in Chapters, and under the
of

7.

1
Master.
Past Master.
Most Excellent Master, [control of Grand
Holy Royal Arch.
J Chapters.

8.

Royal Master.

9.

Select Master.

4.
5.
6.

]
I

Given in Counand under the

cils,

control of
Councils.

Grand

tenth degree, called Super-Excellent

Master, is conferred in some Councils as an
honorary rather than as a regular degree
but even as such it is repudiated by many
Grand Councils. To these, perhaps, should
be added three more degrees, namely,
Knight of the Red Cross, Knight Templar, and Knight of Malta, which are given
in Commanderies, and are under the control of Grand Commanderies, or, as they are
;

called, Grand Encampments.

But the degrees of the Commandery, which

sometimes
are also

known

as the degrees of Chivalry,

can hardly be called a part of the American

Rite. The possession of the eighth and ninth
degrees is not considered a necessary quali-

AMETH
fication

for

receiving

American Rite

ANACHRONISM

them.

The

true

consists only of the nine

degrees, above enumerated.

There is, or may be, a Grand Lodge,
Grand Chapter, Grand Council, and Grand
Commandery in each State, whose jurisdiction is distinct and sovereign within its own

There is no General Grand

Lodge, or Grand Lodge of the United States
but there is a General Grand Chapter and
a Grand Encampment, to which the Grand
Chapters and Grand Commanderies of
some, but not all, of the States are subject.
Ameth. Properly, Emeth, which see.

territory.

Amethyst. Hebrew nnSnx,

achlemah.
stone in the breastplate of the
high priest. On it was inscribed the tribe of
Gad. The amethyst is a stone in hardness
next to the diamond, and of a deep red and
blue color resembling the breast of a dove.

The ninth

Order

secret assoof.
Aniieists,
ciation of students, once very extensively
existing among the universities of Northern
Germany. Thory says that this association
was first established in the College of Clermont, at Paris. An account of it was published at Halle, in 1799, by F. C. Laukhard,
under the title of Der Mosellaner-oder Amicistenorden nach seiner Enstehuny, inneren
The Order
Verfassung und Verbreitung.

was finally suppressed by the imperial

government.

Amis Reunis,

liOge des.

The

Lodge of United Friends, founded at Paris

about 1 772, was distinguished for the talents
of many of its members, among whom was
Savalette des Langes, and played for many
years an important part in the affairs of
French Masonry. In its bosom was originated, in 1773, the Rite of Philalethes.
In
1785 it convoked the first Congress of Paris,
for the laudable purpose of endeavoring to
disentangle Freemasonry from the almost
inextricable confusion into which it had
fallen by the invention of so many rites

The Lodge was in possession of a valuable library for the use of

its members, and had an excellent cabinet
of the physical and natural sciences. Upon
the death of Savalette, who was the soul of
the Lodge, it fell into decay, and its books,
manuscripts, and cabinet were scattered.
All of its library that was valuable was
transferred to the archives of the Mother
Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
Barruel gives a brilliant picture of the conand new degrees.

Amnion.

See Amun.

Ammonitisli War. A
allusion
degree.

63

war

to

which

made in the Fellow Craft's

The Ammonites were the de-

is

scendants of the younger son of Lot, and

dwelt east of the river Jordan, but originally formed no part of the land of Canaan,
the Israelites having been directed not to
molest them for the sake of their great progenitor, the nephew of Abraham.
But in
the time of Jephthah, their king having
charged the Israelites with taking away a
part of his territory, the Ammonites crossed
the river Jordan and made war upon the
Israelites.
Jephthah defeated them with
great slaughter, and took an immense
amount of spoil. It was on account of
this spoil
in which they had no share
that the Ephraimites rebelled against Jephthah, and gave him battle. See Ephraim-

ites.

Amphibalus. See Saint Amphibalus.

Ample Form. When the Grand
Master

is present at the opening or closing

of the Grand Lodge, it is said to be opened
or closed " in ample form.'
Any ceremony
performed by the Grand Master is said to
be done " in ample form " when performed by the Deputy, it is said to be " in
due form " and by any other temporarily
presiding officer, it is " in form."
See
7

Form.

Amulet.

Amun.

See Talisman.

The supreme god among

the

He

was a concealed god, and

is styled "the Celestial Lord who sheds
light on hidden things."
From him all
things emanated, though he created nothing.
He corresponded with the Jove of
Egyptians.

the Greeks, and, consequently, with the

Jehovah of the Jews. His symbol was a
ram, which animal was sacred to him. On
the monuments he is represented with a
human face and limbs free, having two tall
straight feathers on his head, issuing from
a red cap in front of the plumes a disc is
sometimes seen. His body is colored a deep
blue.
He is sometimes, however, represented with the head of a ram, and the
Greek and Roman writers in general agree
in describing him as being ram-headed.
There is some confusion on this point.
Kenrick says that Nouf was, in the majority of instances, the ram-headed god of the
Egyptians but he admits that Amun may
;

have been sometimes so represented.

Anaehronism. Ritual makers, espeand suppers given by this

halcyon days, to which the cially when they have been ignorant and
Cresuses of Masonry congregated, while a uneducated, have often committed anafew superior members were engaged, as he chronisms by the introduction into Masays, in hatching political and revolution- sonic ceremonies of. matters entirely out

certs,

balls,

Lodge in

its

ary schemes, but really in plans for the elevation of Masonry as a philosophic institution.

of time. Thus, the use of a bell to indicate the hour of the night, practised in the
third degree the placing of a celestial and
;

ANAGRAM

64

ANCHOR

a terrestrial globe on the summit of the

pillars of the porch, in the second degree

and quotations from the New Testament

and references to the teachings of Christ,
in the Mark degree, are all anachronisms.
But, although it were to be wished that
these disturbances of the order of time had
been avoided, the fault is not really of
much importance. The object of the ritualist was simply to convey an idea, and
this he has done in the way which he supposed would be most readily comprehended
by those for whom the ritual was made.
The idea itself is old, although the mode

Thus, the
it may be new.
used to indicate a specific point of
time, the globes to symbolize the universality of Masonry, and passages from the
of conveying
bell is

Anchor and Ark.

The anchor,

as a

symbol of hope, does not appear to have

belonged to the ancient and classic system
of symbolism.' The Goddess Spes, or Hope,
was among the ancients represented in the
form of an erect woman, holding the skirts
of her garments in her left hand, and in
her right a flower-shaped cup. As an emblem of hope, the anchor is peculiarly a
Christian, and thence a Masonic, symbol.
It is first found inscribed on the tombs in
the catacombs of Rome, and the idea of
using it is probably derived from the language of St. Paul, (Heb. vi. 19,) " which
hope we have as an anchor
of the soul both sure and

deri-

The primitive
Christians "looked upon
life as a stormy voyage,
and glad were the voyagers when it was done,
and they had arrived safe in port. Of this
the anchor was a symbol, and when their
brethren carved it over the tomb, it was to
them an expression of confidence that he
who slept beneath had reached the haven
of eternal rest." (Kip, Catacombs of Borne,
The strict identity between this
p. 112.)
and the Masonic idea of the symbol will be
at once observed.
" The anchor," says Mrs. Jameson, (Sac.
and Legend, Art. L, 34,) "is the Christian
symbol of immovable firmness, hope, and
patience; and we find it very frequently
in the catacombs and on the ancient Christian gems."
It is the peculiar attribute of
St. Clement, and is often inscribed on
churches dedicated to him.
But there is a necessary connection between an anchor and a ship, and hence,
the latter image has also been adopted as a
symbol of the voyage of life; but, unlike the
anchor, it was not confined to Christians,
but was with the heathens also a favorite
emblem of the close of life. Kip thinks
the idea may have been derived from them
by the Christian fathers, who gave it a more
elevated meaning. The ship is in Masonry
substituted by the ark. Mrs. Jameson says,
(ut supra,) that "the Ark of Noah floating
safe amid the deluge, in which all things

vation of many of them, on account of the

obscurity of the persons to whom they
refer, is, perhaps, forever lost but of others
the research for their meaning maybe more

else were overwhelmed, was an obvious

The
symbol of the Church of Christ.
bark of St. Peter tossed in the storm, and
by the Redeemer guided safe to land, was

successful.

also considered as symbolical."

New

Testament to inculcate the practice

of duties whose obligations are older than
Christianity.

Anagram. The manufacture of anagrams out of proper names or other words

has always been a favorite exercise, sometimes to pay a compliment,
as when Dr.
Burney made Honor est a Nilo out of Horatio Nelson,
and sometimes for purposes
of secrecy, as when Roger Bacon concealed
under an anagram' one of the ingredients
in his recipe for gunpowder, that the world
might not too easily become acquainted

with the composition of so dangerous a

material.
The same method was adopted
by the adherents of the house of Stuart
when they manufactured their system of
high degrees as a political engine, and thus,
under an anagrammatic form, they made
many words to designate their friends or,
principally, their enemies of the opposite
party. Most of these words it has now

become impossible to restore to their original form, out several are readily decipherThus, among the Assassins of the
who symbolized, with them,
the foes of the monarchy, we recognize
Bomvel as Cromwell, and Hoben as Bohun,
Earl of Essex. It is only thus that we can
ever hope to trace the origin of such words
in the high degrees as Tercy, Stolkin, Morable.

third degree,

phey,
root

etc.

To look

would be a

for

them

in

any Hebrew

fruitless task.

The

Ananiah. The name

of a learned
said to have introduced

Egyptian, who is
the Order of Mizraim from Egypt into
Italy.
Dr. Oliver (Landm., ii. 75,) states
the tradition, but doubts its authenticity. It
is in all probability apocryphal.
See Mizraim, Bite

of.

steadfast."

These symbolical views have been introduced into Masonry, with, however, the
more extended application which the universal character of the Masonic religious
faith required.
Hence, in the third degree,
whose teachings all relate to life and death,
" the ark and anchor are emblems of a

ANCHOR

ANCIENT

well-grounded hope and a well-spent life.

They are emblematical of that divine ark
which safely wafts us over this tempestuous
sea of troubles, and that anchor which shall
safely moor us in a peaceful harbor where the
wicked cease from troubling and the weary
shall find rest." Such is the language of the
lecture of the third degree, and it gives
all the information that is required on the
The
esoteric meaning of these symbols.
history I have added of their probable origin will no doubt be interesting to the Masonic student.

Anchor, Knight of the.

Knight of

the

See

Anchor.

Anchor, Order of Knights and

Ladies of the. A system of androgynous Masonry which arose in France in the
year 1745. It was a schism which sprang
out of the Order of Felicity, from which it
differed only in being somewhat more refined, and in the adoption of other words
of recognition. Its existence was not more
durable than that of its predecessor. See
Felicity, Order of.

Ancient and Accepted Rite.

See Scottish Rite.

Ancient Craft Masonry.

This

is

the name given to the three symbolic degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft,
and Master Mason. The degree of Royal
Arch is not generally included under this
appellation; although, when considered (as
it really is) a complement of the third degree, it must of course constitute a part of
Ancient Craft Masonry. In the articles of
union between the two Grand Lodges of
England, adopted in 1813, it is declared
that "pure Ancient Masonry consists of
three degrees and no more; viz.: those
of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow
Craft, and the Master Mason, including
the Supreme Order of the Holy Eoyal

lations

Ancient Free and Accepted

Masons. The title most generally assumed by the English and American Grand
Lodges. See Titles of Grand Lodges.

Ancient Masons.

Ancients was the

the schismatic body of
Masons who, in 1738, seceded from the
regular Grand Lodge of England, and who
at the same time insultingly bestowed upon
the adherents of that body the title of

name assumed by

Moderns. Thus Dermott, in his Ahiman

Kezon, (p. 63,) divides the Masons of England into two classes, as follows
" The Ancients, under the name of Free
and Accepted Masons. The Moderns, under
the name of Freemasons of England. And
though a similarity of names, yet they differ exceedingly in makings, ceremonies,
knowledge, Masonical language, and instalI

so

much

so, that they always have

continue to be, two disdirectly independent of each

still

tinct societies,

other."

To understand,

therefore,

anything of the

meaning of these two terms, we must be

acquainted with the history of the schism
of the self-styled Ancients from the legal
Grand Lodge of England. No Masonic
student should be ignorant of this history,
and I propose, therefore, to give a brief
sketch of it in the present article.
In the year 1738, a number of brethren
in London, having become dissatisfied with
certain transactions in the Grand Lodge of
England, separated themselves from the
regular Lodges, and began to hold meetings
and initiate candidates without the sanction
and authority of the Grand Lodge. Preston, who has given a good account of the
schism, does not, however, state the causes
which led to the dissatisfaction of the recusant brethren. But Thory [Act. Lat., i.
36,) attributes it to the fact that the Grand
Lodge had introduced some innovations,
altering the rituals and suppressing many
of the ceremonies which had long been in
use. This is also the charge made by Dermott.
It is certain that changes were made, especially in some of the modes of recognition,
and these changes, it is believed, were induced by the publication of a spurious
revelation by the' notorious Samuel Prichard.
Preston himself acknowledges that
innovations took place, although he attributes them to a time subsequent to the first
secession.

Just about this time some dissensions

had occurred between the Grand Lodge at
London and that at York, and the seceding
brethren, taking advantage of this condition of affairs, assumed, but without authority from the Grand Lodge of York, the

of Ancient York Masons. Matters

however, subsequently accommodated but in the next year the difficulties
were renewed, and the Grand Lodge persisting in its innovations and ritualistic
changes, the seceding brethren declared
themselves independent, and assumed the
appellation of Ancient Masons, to indicate
their adhesion to the ancient forms, while,
for a similar purpose, they denominated the
members of the regular Lodges, Modern
Masons, because, as was contended, they
had adopted new forms and usages. The
seceders established a new Grand Lodge in
London, and, under the claim that they
were governed by the Ancient York Constitutions, which had been adopted at that
city in the year 926, they gained over many
influential persons in England, and were
even recognized by the Grand Lodges of

name

Arch."

been, and

65

were,

66

ANCIENT

Scotland and Ireland. The Ancient York

Lodges, as they were called, greatly increased in England, and became so popular
in America that a majority of the Lodges

and provincial Grand Lodges established in

this country during the eighteenth century
derived their warrants from the Grand
Lodge of Ancient York Masons. In the
year 1756, Laurence Dermott, then Grand
Secretary, and subsequently the Deputy
Grand Master of the schismatic Grand
Lodge, published a' Book of Constitutions
for the use of the Ancient Masons, under
the title of Ahiman Rezon, which work
went through several editions, and became
the code of Masonic law for all who adhered, either in England or America, to the

Ancient York Grand Lodge, while the

Grand Lodge of Moderns, or the regular
Grand Lodge of England, and its adherents, were governed by the regulations
contained in Anderson's Constitutions, the
first edition of which had been published
in 1723.

The dissensions between the two Grand

Lodges of England lasted until the year
1813, when, as will be hereafter seen, the
two bodies became consolidated under the
name and title of the United Grand Lodge
of Ancient Freemasons of England. Four
years afterwards a similar and final reconciliation took place in America, by the
union of the two Grand Lodges in South
Carolina.
At this day all distinction between the Ancients and Moderns has
ceased, and it lives only in the memory of
the Masonic student.
What were the precise differences in the
rituals of the Ancients and the Moderns,

ANCIENT
upon the right or on the left."
testimony as to the character of
these changes is furnished by an address to
the Duke of Athol, the Grand Master of
the Grand Lodge of Ancients, in which it
be placed first

A similar

said " I would beg leave to ask, whether

two persons standing in the Guildhall of
London, the one facing the statues of Gog
and Magog, and the other with his back
turned on them, could, with any degree of
is

gropriety, quarrel about their stations as

rog must be on the right of one, and Magog on the right of the other. Such then,
and far more insignificant, is the disputatious temper of the seceding brethren, that
on no better grounds than the above they
choose to usurp a power and to aid in open
and direct violation of the regulations they
had solemnly engaged to maintain, and by
every artifice possible to be devised endeavored to increase their numbers." It was
undoubtedly to the relative situation of the
pillars of the porch, and the appropriation
of their names in the ritual, that these in;

nuendoes referred. As we have them now,

they were made by the change effected by
the Grand Lodge of Moderns, which transposed the original order in which they
existed before the change, and in which
order they are still preserved by the continental Lodges of Europe.
It is then admitted that the Moderns did
make innovations in the ritual; and although
Preston asserts that the changes were made
by the regular Grand Lodge to distinguish
its members from those made by the Ancient Lodges, it is evident, from the language of the address just quoted, that the
innovations were the cause and not the
it is now perhaps impossible to discover, as
effect of the schism, and the inferential
from their esoteric nature they were only evidence is that the changes were made in
orally communicated
but some shrewd consequence of, and as a safeguard against,
and near approximations to their real na- spurious publications, and were intended,
ture may be drawn by inference from the as I have already stated, to distinguish imcasual expressions which have fallen from postors from true Masons, and not schisthe advocates of each in the course of their matic or irregular brethren from those who
long and generally bitter controversies.
were orthodox and regular.
I have already said that the regular
But outside of and beyond this transpoGrand Lodge is stated to have made certain sition of words, there was another difference
changes in the modes of recognition, in existing between the Ancients and the
consequence of the publication of Samuel Moderns.
Dalcho, who was acquainted
Prichard's spurious revelation.
These with both systems, says that the Ancient
changes were, as we traditionally learn, a Masons were in possession of marks of resimple transposition of certain words, by cognition known only to themselves. His
which that which had originally been the language on this subject is positive. "The
first became the second, and that which had Ancient York Masons," he says, "were
been the second became the first. Hence Dr. certainly in possession of the original, uniDalcho, the compiler of the original Ahi- versal marks, as they were known and
man Rezon of South Carolina, who was given in the Lodges they had left, and
himself made in an Ancient Lodge, but which had descended through the Lodge of
was acquainted with both systems, says, York, and that of England, down to their
(Edit. 1822, p. 193,) " The real difference in day.
Besides these, we find they had pecupoint of importance was no greater than it liar marks of their own, which were unwould be to dispute whether the glove should known to the body from which they had
;

;:

ANCIENT

ANCIENT

and were unknown to the rest of

have, then, the
the Masonic world.
evidence that they had two sets of marks ;
those which they had brought with
viz.
them from the original body, and those
which they had, we must suppose, them(P. 192.)
selves devised."
Dermott, in his Ahiman Kezon, confirms
this statement of Dalcho, if, indeed, it needs
confirmation. He says that "a Modern

system, claiming the original right which

every body of Masons had to assemble and
work without a warrant. Here, however,
they were evidently in error, for it was well
known that on the revival of Masonry, in
the year 1717, this right had been relinquished by the four London Lodges that
were then in operation, and which constituted the Grand Lodge. This objection the
Ancients pretended to meet by declaring
that the Grand Lodge organized in 1717
was not legally constituted, only four Lodges
having been engaged in the organization,

separated,

We

Mason may with

his secrets to

safety communicate all

an Ancient Mason, but that

67

an Ancient Mason cannot, with like safety,

communicate all his secrets to a Modern while, as they said, five were required.
Mason without further ceremony." And Here again they were in error, as there is
he assigns as a reason for this, that " as a no evidence of any such regulation having
science comprehends an art (though an art ever existed.
And, therefore, to place
cannot comprehend a science), even so An- themselves in a less irregular position, they
cient Masonry contains everything valua- organized, in 1757, a Grand Lodge of their
ble among the Moderns, as well as many own, which was subsequently known by the
other things that cannot be revealed with- title of " The Grand Lodge of Free and Acout additional ceremonies."
cepted Masons of England, according to
Now, what were these " other things " the old Constitutions," while the regular
known by the Ancients, and not known by body was known as " The Grand Lodge of
the Moderns ? What were these distinctive Free and Accepted Masons under the Conmarks, which precluded the latter from stitution of England."
visiting the Lodges of the former ? Written
The following is a list of the Grand
of course silent as to these esoBut tradition, confirmed by,
and at the same time explaining, the hints
and casual intimations of contemporary
writers, leads us to the almost irresistible
inference that they were to be found in the
different constructions of the third, or
Master's degree, and the introduction into
it of the Royal Arch element
for, as Dr.
Oliver (Hist. Eng. R. A., p. 21,) says, "the
division of the third degree and the fabrication of the English Eoyal Arch appear,
on their own showing, to have been the
work of the Ancients." And hence the
Grand Secretary of the regular Grand
Lodge, or that of the Moderns, replying to
the application of an Ancient Mason from
Ireland for relief, says " Our society (i. e.
history

is

teric matters.

the Moderns) is neither Arch, Eoyal Arch,

nor Ancient, so that you have no right to
partake of our charity."
This, then, is the solution of the difficulty.
The Ancients, besides preserving
the regular order of the words in the first
and second degrees, which the Moderns had
transposed, (a transposition which has been
retained in the Lodges of Britain and
America, but which has never been observed by the continental Lodges of Europe,
who continue the usage of the Ancients,)
also finished the otherwise imperfect third
degree with its natural complement, the
Royal Arch, a complement with which the
Moderns were unacquainted, or which they,
if they knew it once, had lost.
For some years the Ancient Lodges appear to have worked on an independent

Masters of the Grand Lodge of Ancients

from its organization to its dissolution
Turner;
Edward
1753, Robert
1755,
Vaughan
1757, Earl of Blessington
1761, Earl of Kelly 1767, Thomas Matthew 1771, 3d Duke of Athol 1775, 4th
Duke of Athol; 1782, Earl of Antrim;
1791, 4th Duke of Athol
1813, Duke of
Kent, under whom the reconciliation of
the two Grand Lodges was accomplished.
The Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons
;

was, shortly after its organization, recognized by the Grand Lodges of Scotland and
Ireland, and, through the ability and energy of its officers, but especially Laurence
Dermott, at one time its Grand Secretary,
and afterwards its Deputy Grand Master,
and the author of its Ahiman Rezon, or
Book of Constitutions, it extended its influence and authority into foreign countries and into the British Colonies of
America, where it became exceedingly
popular, and where it organized several
Provincial Grand Lodges, as, for instance,
in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania,
Virginia, and South Carolina, where the
Lodges working under this authority were
generally known as "Ancient York Lodges."
In consequence of this, dissensions existed,
not only in the mother country but also in
America, for many years, between the
Lodges which derived their warrants from
the Grand Lodge of Ancients and those
which derived theirs from the regular or
But
so-called Grand Lodge of Moderns.
the Duke of Kent having been elected, in
1813,' the Grand Master of the Ancients,

ANCIENT

ANDERSON

while his brother, the Duke of Sussex, was

Grand Master of the Moderns, a permanent reconciliation was effected between
the rival bodies, and by mutual compromises the present " United Grand Lodge of
Ancient Freemasons of England " was es-

was commissioned by the Grand Lodge to

collect and compile the history, charges, and
regulations of the Fraternity from the then

68

tablished.

Similar unions were consummated in

Ameri ca, th e last being th at of the two Grand
Lodges of South Carolina, in 1817, and the
distinction between the Ancients and the
Moderns was forever abolished, or remains

only as a melancholy page in the history

of Masonic controversies.
Ancient
Rite. A Eite
differing very slightly from the French
Eite, or Rite Moderne, of which, indeed, it
is said to be only a modification.
It is
practised by the Grand Lodge of Holland
and the Grand Orient of Belgium. It was
established in 1783 as one of the results of
the Congress of Wilhelmsbad.

Reformed

title applied,
Ancient of Days.
in the visions of Daniel, to Jehovah, to signify that his days are beyond reckoning.
Used by Webb in the Most Excellent Master's song.
" Fulfilled is the promise
By the Ancient of Days,
To bring forth the cape-stone
With shouting and praise."

Ancients. See Ancient Masons.

Ancient, The. The third degree
the German Union of Twenty-two.
Ancient York Masons. One

of

of
the names assumed by the Lodges of Ancient Masons, which see.
Anderson, James. The Eev. James
Anderson, D. D., is well known to all Masons as the compiler of the celebrated Book
of Constitutions. He was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 5th of August,

He removed

1684.

to

London,

at what

and became the minnot known,

ister of the Scotch Presbyterian Church in
time

is

Chambers, in
Street, Piccadilly.
his Scottish Biography, describes him as "a

Swallow

learned but imprudent man, who lost a

considerable part of his property in deep
dabbling in the South Sea scheme." He
was the author of an elaborate but very
singular work, entitled Royal Genealogies.
But he is principally indebted for his reputation to his labors on the Ancient Constitutions of Freemasonry.
It is probable that
he was a member of one of the four old
Lodges of London which, in 1717, organized the Grand Lodge of England. At all
events, he is found, four years after, taking
an interest in the concerns of the Craft,
and having so much reputation among his
brethren as to have been selected to discharge the difficult duties of a historiographer.
On the 29th of September, 1721, he

existing ancient Constitutions of the Lodges.

the 27th of December following, his

On

work was

finished, and the Grand Lodge

appointed a committee of fourteen learned
brethren to examine and report upon it.
Their report was made on the 25th of
March, 1722; and, after a few amendments, Anderson's work was formally approved, and ordered to be printed for the
benefit of the Lodges, which was done in
1723. This is now the well-known Book
of Constitutions, which contains the his-

tory of Masonry, (or,

more

correctly, archi-

and the gensame were in use in

tecture,) the ancient charges,

eral regulations, as the

many old Lodges. In 1738 a second edition was published. The edition of 1723
has become exceedingly rare, and copies
of it bring fancy prices among the collectors of old Masonic books.
Its intrinsic
value is derived only from the fact that it
contains the first printed copy of the Old
Charges and also the General Eegulations.
The history of Masonry which precedes
these, and constitutes the body of the
work, is fanciful, unreliable, and pretentious to a degree that often leads to absurdity.
The Craft is greatly indebted to
Anderson for his labors in reorganizing the
Institution, but doubtless it would have
been better if he had contented himself
with giving the records of the Grand Lodge
from 1717 to 1738, which are contained in
his second edition, and with preserving for
us the charges and regulations, which,
without his industry, might have been
lost.
No Masonic writer would now venture to quote Anderson as authority for the
history of the Order anterior to the eighteenth century. It must also be added that
in the republication of the Old Charges
in the edition of 1738, he made several
important alterations and interpolations,
which justly gave some offence to the
Grand Lodge, and which render the
second edition of no authority in this respect.

In 1730, Dr. Anderson, in reply to some

libellous attacks on the Order, and especially the pretended exposition of Prichard, published
Defence of Masonry, which
he subsequently appended to the second

edition of the Book of Constitutions. This

the earliest scholarly discussion of the
character of the Masonic institution, and
proves that Anderson was a man of learning and extensive reading. He died on
May 28, 1739, aged 55 years.

is

Anderson Manuscript.

In the

edition of the Constitutions of the Freemasons, published by Dr. Anderson in 1723,

first

ANDRE

ANDROGYNOUS

is on page 32, a copy of a manuscript,

which he calls " a certain record of Freemasons, written in the reign of King Edward IV." Preston also cites it in his Illus-

tion of manners, and for the supply of the

moral wants of the times. His writings,

there

69

although numerous, were not voluminous,

but rather brief essays full of feeling, judgment, and chaste imagination, in which
great moral, political, and religious sentiments were clothed in such a language of
sweetness, and yet told with such boldness

trations, (p. 133,) but states that it is said to

have been in the possession of Elias Ashmole, but was unfortunately destroyed, with
other papers on the subject of Masonry, at
the Revolution. Anderson makes no refer- of spirit, that, as Herder says, he appears,
ence to Ashmole as the owner of the MS., in his contentious and anathematizing cennor to the fact of its destruction. If the tury, like a rose springiug up among thorns.
statement of Preston was confirmed by other Thus, in his Menippus, one of the earliest
evidence, its title would properly be the of his works, he has, with great skill and
" Ashmole MS. " but as it was first pub- freedom, attacked the errors of the Church
lished by Anderson, Bro. Hughan has very and of his contemporaries. His Herculis
properly called it the "Anderson Manu- Christiani Lucius, xxiv., is supposed by
It contains the Prince Edwin some persons to have given indirectly, if
script."
;

not immediately, hints to John Bunyan

legend.

Andre, Christopher Karl.

An

Mason, who resided at Brtinn, in

Moravia, where, in 1798, he was the DirecHe was
tor of the Evangelical Academy.
very zealously employed, about the end of
the last century, in connection with other
distinguished Masons, in the propagation
of the Order in Germany. He was the
editor and author of a valuable periodical
work, which was published in 5 numbers,
8vo, at Gotha and Halle under the title of
active

Der Freimaurer oder compendiose Bibliothek

Wissencourdigen iiber geheime GesellThe Freemason, or a Compendious Library of everything worthy of
notice in relation to Secret Societies. Besides valuable extracts from contemporary
Masonic writers, it contains several essays
and treatises by the editor.
alles

schaften.

Andrea, John Valentine.

This
philosopher and amiable
moralist, who has been claimed by many
writers as the founder of the Rosicrucian
Order, was born on the 17th of August,
1586, at the small town of Herrenberg, in
Wiirtemberg, where his father exercised
clerical functions of a respectable rank.
After receiving an excellent education in
his native province, he travelled extensively
through the principal countries of Europe,
and on his return home received the appointment, in 1614, of deacon in the town
Four years after he was
of Vaihingen.
promoted to the office of superintendent at
Kalw. In 1639 he was appointed court
chaplain and a spiritual privy councillor,
and subsequently Protestant prelate of
Adelberg, and almoner of the Duke of
Wiirtemberg. He died on the 27th of June,
1654, at the age of sixty-eight years.
Andrea was a man of extensive acquirements and of a most feeling heart. By his
great abilities he was enabled to elevate
himself beyond the narrow limits of the
prejudiced age in which he lived, and his
literary labors were exerted for the reformadistinguished

for his Pilgrim''s Progress.

One of the most important of his works,

however, or at least one that has attracted
most attention,

is

published in 1615.

his

Fama

Fraternitatis,

This and the Chemische

Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreuz, or Chemical

Nuptials, by Christian Rosencreuz, which is
also attributed to him, are the first works in
which the Order of the Rosicrucians is mentioned. Arnold, in his Ketzergeschicte, or History of Heresy, contends, from these works,
that Andrea was the founder of the Rosicrucian Order ; others claim a previous existence for it, and suppose that he was simply
an annalist of the Order while a third party
deny that any such Order was existing at the
time, or afterwards, but that the whole was
a mere mythical rhapsody, invented by
Andrea as a convenient vehicle in which
But the
to convey his ideas of reform.
whole of this subject is more fully discussed
under the head of Posicrucianism, which
;

see.

Andrew, Apprentice and Fellow Craft of St. (Fr., Apprenti et Compagnon de St. Andre; Ger., Andreas lehrling und Geselle.) The fourth degree of the
Swedish Rite, which is almost precisely the
same as the Flu Secret of the French Rite.

Andrew, Cross of
St.

St.

See

Cross,

Andrew's.

Andrew, Favorite of St. (Fr.,

Frtre favori de St. Andre. ) Usually called
" Knight of the Purple Collar." The ninth
degree of the Swedish Rite.
Andrew, Grand Scotch Knight
of

St.

See Knight of

St.

Andrew.

Androgynous Degrees.

(From

a woman.) Those degrees of Masonry which are conferred on

both men and women. Besides the degrees
of the Adoptive Rite, which are practised
avqp,

a man, and

ywij,

in France, there are several of these degrees

which are, as "sides degrees," conferred
Such are the "Mason's
in this country.
Wife," conferred on the wives, daughters,

ANDROGYNOUS

ANIMAL

sisters, and mothers of Master Masons, and

the " Knight and Heroine of Jericho," conferred on the wives and daughters of Royal
Arch Masons. A few years ago, Rob. Morris
invented, and very generally promulgated
through the Western States of this country,
a series of androgynous degrees, which he
called " The Star of the East." There is
another androgynous degree, sometimes
conferred on the wives of Royal Arch Masons, known as the " Good Samaritan."
In some parts of the United States these
degrees are very popular, while in other
places they are never practised, and are
strongly condemned as improper innova-

ritual the angels of the four elements play

an important part.

70

The fact is, that by their friends as

well as by their enemies, these so-called
degrees have been greatly misrepresented.
When females are told that in receiving
these degrees they are admitted into the
Masonic Order, and are obtaining Masonic
information under the name of "Ladies'
Masonry," they are simply deceived. Every
woman connected by ties of consanguinity
to a Master Mason is peculiarly entitled to
Masonic assistance and protection. If she
is told this, and also told that by these androgynous degrees she is to be put in possession of the means of making her claims
known by a sort of what may be called
oral testimony, but that she is by their possession no nearer to the portals of Masonry
than she was before, if she is honestly told
this, then I can see no harm, but the possibility of some good, in these forms if carefully bestowed and prudently preserved.
But all attempts to make Masonry of them,
and especially that anomalous thing called
Ladies' Masonry, are wrong, imprudent, and
calculated to produce opposition among the
well-informed and cautious members of the
Fraternity.
tions.

Angelic Brothers.
briider.)

(Ger., Engelscalled, after their

or Gichtelianer.

Sometimes

founder, Oichtelites
mystical sect of religious fanatics founded
by one Gichtel, about the close of the seventeenth century, in the United Netherlands.
After the death of their founder in 1710,
they gradually became extinct, or were continued only in secret union with the Rosicrucians.
Angels' Alphabet. See Alphabet,
Angels'.
Angerona. The name of a pagan
deity worshipped among the Romans.
Pliny calls her the goddess of silence, and
calmness of mind. Hence her statue has

sometimes been introduced among the ornaments of Masonic edifices. She is represented with her finger pressed upon her
lips.
See Harpowates, for what is further
to be said upon this symbol.
Angle. The inclination of two lines
meeting in a point. Angles are of three
kinds acute, obtuse, and right angles. The

right angle, or the angle of 90 degrees, is

the only one recognized in Masonry, because it is the form of the trying square, one
of the most important working tools of the
profession, and the symbol of morality.

Angular Triad. A name

given by

Oliver to the three presiding officers of a

Royal Arch Chapter.
Worship. The worship of
animals is a species of idolatry that was
especially practised by the ancient Egyptians. Temples were erected by this people
in their honor, in which they were fed and
cared for during life to kill one of them
was a crime punishable with death and
after death, they were embalmed, and inAndrogynous Masonry. That so- terred in the catacombs. This worship was
called Masonry which is dedicated to the derived first from the earlier a'doration of
cultivation of the androgynous degrees. the stars, to certain constellations of which
The Adoptive Rite of France is Androgyn- the names of animals had been given next,
ous Masonry.
from an Egyptian tradition that the gods,
Angel. Angels were originally in the being pursued by Typhon, had concealed
Jewish theogony considered simply as mes- themselves under the forms of animals;
sengers of God, as the name Malachim im- and lastly, from the doctrine of the metemports, and the word is thus continually used psychosis, according to which there was a
in the early Scriptures of the Old Testa- continual circulation of the souls of men
ment. It was only after the captivity that and animals. But behind the open and
the Jews brought from Babylon their mys- popular exercise of this degrading worship
tical ideas of angels as instruments of creathe priests concealed a symbolism full of
tive ministration, such as the angel of fire, philosophical conceptions.
Mr. Gliddonsays in his OtiaEgyptiaca, (p.
of water, of earth, or of air. These doctrines
they learned from the Chaldean sages, who 94,) that "animal worship among the Egyphad probably derived them from Zoroaster tians was the natural and unavoidable conand the Zendavesta. In time these doc- sequence of the misconception, by the vultrines were borrowed by the Gnostics, and gar, of those emblematical figures invented
through them they have been introduced by the priests to record their own philoAs
into some of the high degrees; such, for in- sophical conception of absurd ideas.
stance, as the Knight of the Sun, in whose the pictures and effigies suspended in early

Animal

;;

ANKALES

ANOINTING

Christian churches, to commemorate a person or an event, became in time objects of

worship to the vulgar, so, in Egypt, the
esoteric or spiritual meaning of the emblems was lost in the gross materialism of
the beholder. This esoteric and allegorical
meaning was, however, preserved by the
priests, and communicated in the mysteries
alone to the initiated, while the uninstructed retained only the grosser conception."

Annates Cnronologiques,

Lite-

raires et Historiques de la Maconnerie de

la Pays-Bas, a dater de 1 Janvier, 1814, i.e.

Chronological, Literary, and Historical Annals of the Masonry of the Netherlands from
the year 1814.
This work, edited by Bros.
Melton and De Margny, "was published at
Brussels, in five volumes, during the years
1823-26.
It consists of an immense collection of French, Dutch, Italian, and English Masonic documents translated into
French. Kloss extols it highly as a work
which no Masonic library should be without. Its publication was unfortunately discontinued in 1826 by the Belgian revolution.
t

Annates Originis Magni Oalli-

arum

= 5620,
= 5621.

3760
1

71

and October, 1860

+ 3760 -f

Anno

Ordinis. In the Year of the

Order ; abbreviated A*. 0.\ The date used
by Knights Templars found by subtracting 1118 from the vulgar era thus, 1860
1118
742.
Annuaire. Some French Lodges publish annually a record of their most important proceedings for the past year, and
a list of their members. This publication
is called an Annuaire, or Annual.
Annual Communication. All the
Grand Lodges of the United States, except
those of Massachusetts, and Maryland, the
District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania,
hold only one annual meeting thus reviving the ancient custom of a yearly Grand
Assembly. The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, like that of England, holds Quarterly
Communications. At these annual communications it is usual to pay the representatives of the subordinate Lodges a per diem

allowance, which varies in different Grand

Lodges from one to three dollars, and also
their mileage or travelling expenses.

Annual

Proceedings.

Every

Orientis, etc. This history of Grand Lodge in the United States pubthe Grand Orient of France is, in regard to lishes a full account of its proceedings at
its subject, the most valuable of the works
its Annual Communication, to which is also
of C. A. Thory. It comprises a full account
of the rise, progress, changes, and revolutions of French Freemasonry, with numerous curious and inedited documents, notices of a great number of rites, a fragment
on Adoptive Masonry, and other articles of
an interesting nature. It was published at
Paris, in 1812, in 1 vol. of 471 pp., 8vo. See
Kloss,

No.

4,088.

AnniTersary.

See

Festivals.

Anno Depositionis.

In the Year of
the Deposite; abbreviated A.*. Dep.*.
The
date used by Royal and Select Masters,
is found by adding 1000 to the vulgar era; thus, 1860 -f 1000
2860.

which

Anno Hebraico.

Year ; abbreviated

A.*.

In

H.\

the

Hebrew

The same

as

Anno Mundi ; which see.

Anno In ventionis. In the Year of the
Discovery ; abbreviated A.*. I.*, or A. \ Inv.\
The date used by Royal Arch Masons.
Found by adding 530 to the vulgar era
thus, 1860
530
2390.
IiUCis. In the Year of Light
abbreviated A.*. L.\ The date used in ancient Craft Masonry found by adding 4000
to the vulgar era thus, 1860+4000
5860.
Mundi. In the Year of the
World. The date used in the Ancient and
Accepted Rite; found by adding 3760 to
the vulgar era until September. After September, add one year more this is because
the year used is the Hebrew one, which begins in September. Thus, July, 1860

Anno

Anno

almost always added a list of the subordinate Lodges and their members. Some of
these Annual Proceedings extend to a
considerable size, and they are all valuable
as giving an accurate and official account
of the condition of Masonry in each State
for the past year. They also frequently contain valuable reports of committees on questions of Masonic law. The reports of the
Committees of Foreign Correspondence are
especially valuable in these pamphlets. See
Correspondence, Committee on Foreign.
Annuities. In England, one of the
modes of distributing the charities of a
Lodge is to grant annuities to aged members or to the widows and orphans of those
who are deceased. In 1842 the "Royal
Masonic Benevolent Annuity Fund" was
established, which grants its charities in
this way.
Anointing. The act of consecrating
any person or thing by the pouring on
of oil. The ceremony of anointing was
emblematical of a particular sanctificaAs such
tion to a holy and sacred use.
it was practised by both the Egyptians
and the Jews, and many representations
are to be seen among the former of the performance of this holy Rite. Wilkinson informs us, (Anc. Egypt., iv. 280,) that with
the Egyptians the investiture to any sacred
office was confirmed by this external sign
and that priests and kings at the time of
their consecration were, after they had been

ANONYMOUS

72

ANTI-MASONIC

attired in their full robes, anointed

by the

.upon the head. The Jewish

Scriptures mention several instances in
which unction was administered, as in the
consecration of Aaron as high priest, and
of Saul and David, of Solomon and JoThe process of anointing
ash, as kings.
Aaron is fully described in Exodus (xxix.
After he had been clothed in all his
7).
robes, with the mitre and crown upon his
head, it is said, " then shalt thou take the
anointing oil and pour it upon his head, and

pouring of

oil

anoint him."

The ceremony is still used in some of the

high degrees of Masonry, and is always
recognized as a symbol of sanctification, or
the designation of the person so anointed
to a sacred use, or to the performance of a
particular function. Hence, it forms an
important part of the ceremony of installation of a high priest in the order of High
Priesthood as practised in America.
As to the form in which the anointing
oil was poured, Buxtorf {Lex. Talm., p. 267,)
quotes the Rabbinical tradition that in the
anointment of kings the oil was poured on
the head in the form of a crown, that is,
in a circle around the head while in the
anointment of the priests it was poured in
the form of the Greek letter X, that is, on
the top of the head, in the shape of a St.
Andrew's cross.
;

Anonymous

Society.

society

formerly existing in Germany, which consisted of 72 members, namely, 24 ApprenIt

tices, 24 Fellow Crafts, and 24 Masters.
distributed much charity, but its real object
was the cultivation of the occult sciences.
Its members pretended that its Grand
Master was one Tajo, and that he resided in
Spain.
Ansyreeh. sect found in the mountains of Lebanon, of Northern Syria. Like
the Druses, towards whom, however, they
entertain a violent hostility, and the Assassins, they have a secret mode of recognition
and a secret religion, which does not appear
" Howto be well understood by them.

tire results of

which are yet

be investi-

to

gated.

Antediluvian Masonry. Among

the traditions of Masonry, which, taken
literally, become incredible, but which, considered allegorically, may contain a profound meaning, not the least remarkable
are those which relate to the existence of a
Masonic system before the Flood. Thus,
Anderson (Const. 1st ed., p. 3,) says:
" Without regarding uncertain accounts, we
may safely conclude the old world, that
lasted 1656 years, could not be ignorant of
Masonry."
Dr. Oliver has devoted the
twenty-eighth lecture in his Historical Landmarks to an inquiry into " the nature and
design of Freemasonry before the Flood ; "
but he admits ttiat any evidence of the
existence at that time of such an Institution must be based on the identity of Freemasonry and morality.
may safely
assume," he says, " that whatever had for
its object and end an inducement to the
practice of that morality which is founded
on the love of God, may be identified with
primitive Freemasonry."
The truth is, that antediluvian Masonry
is alluded to only in what is called the
" ineffable degrees " and that its only important tradition is that of Enoch, who is
traditionally supposed to be its founder, or,
at least, its great hierophant.
See Enoch.

"We

Anthem.

The anthem was

originally

a piece of church music sung by alternate

The word afterwards, however,
voices.
came to be used as a designation of that
kind of sacred music which consisted of
certain passages taken out of the Scriptures,
and adapted to particular solemnities. In
the permanent poetry and music of Masonry the anthem is very rarely used. The
spirit of Masonic poetry is lyrical, and
therefore the ode is almost altogether used
(except on some special occasions) in the
solemnities and ceremonials of the Order.
There are really no Masonic anthems.

Anti-Masonic Books.

There

is

no

country of the civilized world where Freeever," says Rev. Mr. Lyde, who visited masonry has existed, in which opposition
them in 1852, " there is one in which they to it has not, from time to time, exhibited
itself; although it has always been overall seem agreed, and which acts as a kind
of Freemasonry in binding together the come by the purity and innocence of the
The earliest opposition by a
scattered members of their body, namely, Institution.
secret prayers which are taught to every government of which we have any record,
male child of a certain age, and are re- is that of 1425, in the third year of the
peated at stated times, in stated places, reign of Henry VI., of England, when the
and accompanied with religious rites. The Masons were forbidden to confederate in
Ansyreeh arose about the same time with chapters and congregations. This law was,
the Assassins, and, like them, their religion however, never executed, and since that
appears to be an ill-digested mixture of period Freemasonry has met with no perJudaism, Christianity, and Mohammedan- manent or important opposition in England.
ism. To the Masonic scholars these secret The Roman Catholic religion has always
sects of Syria present an interesting study, been anti-Masonic, and hence edicts have
because of their supposed connection with constantly been promulgated by popes and
the Templars during the Crusades, the en- sovereigns in Roman Catholic countries

ANTI-MASONIC

ANTI-MASONIC

against the Order. The most important of

these edicts is the bull of Pope Clement
XII., which was issued on the 28th of
April, 1738, the authority of which bull is
still in existence, and forbids any pious
Catholic from uniting with a Masonic
Lodge under the severest penalties of eccle-

the Institution and we should freely forgive him for what he has said against it,
when we know that his recognition of the
existence, in the seventeenth century, of a
society which was already of so much importance that he was compelled to acknowledge that he had " found persons of the
most eminent quality that did not disdain
to be of this fellowship," gives the most
ample refutation of those writers who assert that no traces of the Masonic Institution are to be found before the beginning of
triumphant reply
the eighteenth century.
to the attack of Dr. Plot is to be found
in the third volume of Oliver's Golden
Remains of the Early Masonic Writers.
still more virulent attack on the Order
was made in 1730, by Samuel Prichard,
which he entitled " Masonry dissected, being

excommunication.
In the United States, where there are
neither popes to issue bulls nor kings to
promulgate edicts, the opposition to Freemasonry had to take the form of a political
siastical

Such a party was organized in this

country in the year 1826, soon after the
disappearance of one William Morgan.
The object of this party was professedly to
put down the Masonic Institution as subversive of good government, but really for
the political aggrandizement of its leaders,
who used the opposition to Freemasonry
merely as a stepping-stone to their own
advancement to office. But the public virtue of the masses of the American people
repudiated a party which was based on such
corrupt and mercenary views, and its
ephemeral existence was followed by a total
party.

annihilation.
society which has been deemed of so
much importance as to be the victim of so
many persecutions, must needs have had its
enemies in the press. It was too good an
Institution not to be abused. Accordingly,

Freemasonry had no sooner taken its commanding position as one of the teachers of
the world, than a host of adversaries sprang
up to malign its character and to misrepresent its objects. Hence, in the catalogue of
a Masonic library, the anti-Masonic books
will form no small part of the collection.
Anti-Masonic works may very properly
1. Those
be divided into two classes.
written simply for the purposes of abuse,
in which the character and objects of the
Institution are misrepresented. 2. Those
written for the avowed purpose of revealing its ritual and esoteric doctrines. The
former of these classes is always instigated
by malignity, the latter by mean cupidity.

The former class alone comes strictly

within the category of " anti - Masonic
books," although the two classes are often
confounded; the attack on the principles
of Masonry being sometimes accompanied
with a pretended revelation of its mysteries, and, on the other hand, the pseudo
revelations are not unfrequently enriched by
the most liberal abuse of the Institution.
The earliest authentic work which contains anything in opposition to Freemasonry is The Natural History of Staffordshire, by Robert Plot, which was printed
at Oxford in the year 1686. It is only in
one particular part of the work that Dr.
Plot makes any invidious remarks against
K

73

an universal and genuine description of all

its branches from the original to the present
time." This work went through a great
many editions, and was at last, in 1738, replied to by the celebrated Dr. James Anderson, in a pamphlet entitled " A Defence of
Masonry, occasioned by a pamplet called
Masonry Dissected." It was appended to
the second edition of Anderson's ConstituIt is a learned production, well
tions.
worth perusal for the information that it
gives in reference to the sacred rites of the
ancients, independent of its polemic character.
About this time the English press
was inundated by pretended revelations of
the Masonic mysteries, published under
the queerest titles, such as "Jachin and
Boaz ; or, An authentic key to the door of
Freemasonry," published in 1762 " Hiram,
or the Grand Master Key to both Ancient
and Modern Freemasonry," which appeared in 1766; "The Three Distinct
Knocks," published in 1768, and a host of
others of a similar character, which were,
however, rather intended, by ministering
to a morbid and unlawful curiosity, to put
money into the purses of their compilers,
;

than to gratify any vindictive feelings

against the Institution.
Some, however, of these works were
amiable neither in their inception nor in
their execution, and appear to have been
dictated by a spirit that may be characterized as being anything else except Christian.
Thus, in the year 1768, a sermon
was preached, we may suppose, but certainly published, at London, with the following ominous title " Masonry the Way to
Hell; a Sermon wherein is clearly proved,
both from Eeason and Scripture, that all
who profess the Mysteries are in a State of
:

Damnation." This sermon appears to have

been a favorite with the ascetics, for in less
than two years it was translated into French
and German. But, on the other hand, it

74

ANTI-MASONIC

ANTI-MASONIC

gave offence to the liberal-minded, and many- Jacobinisme. The French Eevolution was
replies to it were written and published, at the time an accomplished fact.
The
among which was one entitled Masonry the Bourbons had passed away, and Barruel,
in
this Life, and as a priest and a royalist, was indignant at
Turnpike- Road to Happiness
Eternal Happiness Hereafter, which also the change, and, in the bitterness of his
rage, he charged the whole inception and
found its translation into German.
In 1797 appeared the notorious work of success of the political movement to the
John Eobison, entitled " Proofs of a Con- machinations of the Freemasons, whose
spiracy against all the Eeligions and Gov- Lodges, he asserted, were only Jacobinical
ernments of Europe, carried on in the secret clubs. The general scope of his argument
meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati, and was the same as that which was purReading Societies." Eobison was a gen- sued by Professor Eobison; but while
tleman and a scholar of some repute, a both were false in their facts and fallacious
professor of natural philosophy, and Secre- in their reasoning, the Scotchman was calm
tary of the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh. and dispassionate, while the Frenchman
Hence, although his theory is based on was vehement and abusive. No work, perpremises and his reasoning fallacious
and illogical, his language is more decorous
and his sentiments less malignant than

false

generally characterize the writers of antiMasonic books.

contemporary critic in
the Monthly Review (vol. xxv., p. 315,) thus
correctly estimates the value of his work
" On the present occasion," says the reviewer, " we acknowledge that we have felt
something like regret that a lecturer in
natural philosophy, of whom his country
is so justly proud, should produce any work
of literature by which his high character

for knowledge and for judgment is liable

Eobison's book
to be at all depreciated."
owes its preservation at this day from the
destruction of time only to the permanency and importance of the Institution
which it sought to destroy, Masonry,

which it villified, has alone saved it from

the tomb of the Capulets.
This work closed the labors of the antiMasonic press in England. No work abusive of the Institution of any importance
has appeared in that country since the
attack of Eobison. The Manuals of Eichard Carlile and the Theologico-astronomical sermons of the Eev. Eobert Taylor are
the productions of men who do not profess
to be the enemies of the Order, but who
have sought, by their peculiar views, to
give to Freemasonry an origin, a design,
and an interpretation different from that
which is received as the general sense of
the Fraternity. The works of these writers,
although erroneous, are not inimical.
The French press was prolific in the production of anti-Masonic publications. Commencing with La Grande Lumiere, which
was published at Paris, in 1734, soon after
the modern introduction of Masonry into
France, but brief intervals elapsed without
the appearance of some work adverse to
the Masonic Institution.
But the most
important of these was certainly the ponderous effort of the Abbe Barruel, published in four volumes, in 1797, under the
title of Memoires pour servir a Uhistoire du

haps, was ever printed which contains so

many deliberate misstatements as disgrace
the pages of Barruel. Unfortunately, the
work was, soon after its appearance, translated into English.
It is still to be found
on the shelves of Masonic students and
curious work collectors, as a singular specimen of the extent of folly and falsehood
to which one may be led by the influences
of bitter party prejudices.
The anti-Masonrc writings of Italy and
Spain have, with the exception of a few
translations from French and English authors, consisted only of bulls issued by
popes and edicts pronounced by the InquiThe anti-Masons of those counsition.
tries had it all their own way, and, scarcely
descending to argument or even to abuse,
contented themselves with practical persecution.

In Germany, the attacks on Freemasonry

were less frequent than in England or
France. Still there were some, and among
them may be mentioned one whose very
title would leave no room to doubt of its
anti-Masonic character. It is entitled, BeFreimaurer-Gesellschaft in
w., that is, " Proots that
the Society of Freemasons is in every coun-

weiss

dass

die

alien' Staaten, u,

s.

try not only useless, but, if not restricted,

dangerous, and ought to be interdicted."
This work was published at Dantzic, in
1764, and was intended as a defence of the

decree of the Council of Dantzic against

the Order. The Germans, however, have
given no such ponderous works in behalf
of anti-Masonry as the capacious volumes
of Barruel and Eobison. The attacks on
the Order in that country have principally
been by pamphleteers.
In the United States, anti-Masonic writings were scarcely known until they sprung
out of the Morgan excitement in 1826.
The disappearance and alleged abduction
of this individual gave birth to a rancorous
opposition to Masonry, and the country
was soon flooded with anti-Masonic works.
Most of these were, however, merely pam-

ANTI-MASONIC

ANTI-MASONIC

phlets, which had only an ephemeral existence, and have long since been consigned
to the service of the trunk-makers or suffered a literary metempsychosis in the

whole design and character of the Masonic

Institution.
The " oath " and " the murder
of Morgan " are the two bugbears which
seem continually to float before the excited
vision of the writer, and on these alone he
dwells from the first to the last page.
Except the letters of Stone and Adams,
I scarcely know another anti-Masonic book
published in America that can go beyond

paper-mill. Two only are worthy, from

their size, (their only qualification,) for a
place in a Masonic catalogue. The first of
these is entitled, "Letters on Masonry and
Anti-Masonry, addressed to the Hon. John
Quincy Adams. By William L. Stone."

This work, which was published at New

York in 1832, is a large octavo of 556
pages.

The work of Mr. Stone, it must be acknowledged, is not abusive. If his arguments are illogical, they are at least conducted without malignity. If his statements are false, his language is decorous.
He was himself a Mason, and he has been
compelled, by the force of truth, to make
many admissions which are favorable to
the Order. The book was evidently written
for a political purpose, and to advance the
It
interests of the anti -Masonic party.
presents, therefore, nothing but partisan
views, and those, too, almost entirely of a
local character, having reference only to
the conduct of the Institution as exhibited
"the Morgan affair."
Masonry, according to Mr. Stone, should
be suppressed because a few of its members are supposed to have violated the laws
in a village of the State of New York. As
well might the vices of the Christians of
Corinth have suggested to a contemporary
of St. Paul the propriety of suppressing

in what

is

called

Christianity.

The next anti -Masonic work of any

prominence published in this country is
also in the epistolary style, and is entitled,
" Letters on the Masonic Institution. By
John Quincy Adams." It is an octavo of
281 pages, and was published at Boston in
1847. Mr. Adams, whose eminent public
services have made his life a part of the

75

the literary dignity of a respectably-sized

pamphlet.
compilation of anti-Masonic
documents was published at Boston, in
1830, by James C. Odiorne, who has thus
in part preserved for future reference the
best of a bad class of writings. In 1831,
Henry Gassett, of Boston, a most virulent
anti-Mason, distributed, at his own expense, a great number of anti-Masonic
books, which had been published during
the Morgan excitement, to the principal
libraries of the United States, on whose
shelves they are probably now lying covered with dust; and, that the memory of his
good deed might not altogether be lost, he
published a catalogue of these donations in
1852, to which he has prefixed an attack on

Masonry.

party orAnti-Masonic Party.

ganized in this country soon after the commencement of the Morgan excitement, professedly, to put down the Masonic Institution as subversive of good government, but
really for the political aggrandizement of
its leaders, who used the opposition to
Freemasonry merely as a stepping-stone to
their

own advancement

to

party held several conventions

office.

The

endeavored,
sometimes successfully, but oftener unsuccessfully, to enlist prominent statesmen in
its ranks, and finally, in 1831, nominated
;

William Wirt and Amos Ellmaker as its

candidates for the Presidency and the VicePresidency of the United States. Each of
these gentlemen received but seven votes,
being the whole electoral vote of Vermont,
history of his country, has very properly which was the only State that voted for
been described as " a man of strong points them. So signal a defeat was the deathand weak ones, of vast reading and wonder- blow of the party, and from the year 1833
ful memory, of great credulity and strong it quietly withdrew from public notice, and
prejudice." In the latter years of his life, now is happily no longer in existence.
he became notorious for his virulent oppo- William L. Stone, the historian of antisition to Freemasonry.
Deceived and ex- Masonry, has with commendable imparticited by the misrepresentations of the anti- ality expressed his opinion of the character
Masons, he united himself with that party, of this party, when he says that " the fact
and threw all his vast energies and abilities is not to be disguised contradicted it caninto tire political contests then waging. not be
that anti-Masonry had become
The result was this series of letters, abusive thoroughly political, and its spirit was vinof the Masonic Institution, which he di- dictive towards the Freemasons without

rected to leading politicians of the country,

and which were published in the public
journals from 1831 to 1833. These letters,
which are utterly unworthy of the genius,
learning, and eloquence of the author, display a most egregious ignorance of the

distinction as to
guilt or innocence."
(Letters, xxxviii., p. 418.)
Notwithstanding the opposition that from time to time
has been exhibited to Freemasonry in

every country, America is the only one

where it assumed the form of a political

76

ANTIQUITY

ANTI-MASONRY

party.
This, however, may very justly be
attributed to the peculiar nature of our

With

occasion,

he guarded the avenues of the

Lodge from the

official

intrusion of

the ballotbox is considered the most potent engine

for the government of rulers as well as

commissary of police accompanied by a

band of soldiers.

people, and is, therefore, resorted to in

cases in which, in more despotic governments, the powers of the Church and State
Hence, the antiwould be exercised.
Masonic convention holden at Philadelphia, in 1830, did not hesitate to make
the following declaration as the cardinal
"The object of
principle of the party.
anti-Masonry, in nominating and electing
candidates for the Presidency and VicePresidency, is to deprive Masonry of the
support which it derives from the power
and patronage of the executive branch of
the United States Government. To effect
this object, will require that candidates,
besides possessing the talents and virtues
requisite for such exalted stations, be
known as men decidedly opposed to secret
societies."
This issue having been thus
boldly made was accepted by the people
and as principles like these were fundamentally opposed to all the ideas of liberty,
personal and political, into which the
citizens of the country had been indoctrinated, the battle was made, and the antiMasonic party was not only defeated for
the time, but forever annihilated.
Anti-Masonry. Opposition to Freemasonry. There is no country in which
Masonry has ever existed in which this
opposition has not from time to time exhibited itself; although, in general, it has
been overcome by the purity and innocence
of the Institution. The earliest opposition

name of the sixtieth

popular institutions.

us,

by a government, of which we have any

is that of 1425, in the third year
of the reign of Henry VI., of England,
when the Masons were forbidden to confederate in Chapters and Congregations.
This law was, however, never executed.
Since that period, Freemasonry has met
with no permanent opposition in England.
The Roman Catholic religion has always
been anti-Masonic, and hence edicts have
always existed in the Roman Catholic
countries against the Order.
But the antiMasonry which has had a practical effect in
inducing the Church or the State to interfere with the Institution, and endeavor to
suppress it, will come more properly under
the head of Persecutions, to which the
reader is referred.
Antin,
d\ Elected perpetual
Grand Master of the Masons of France, on
the 24th of June, 1738. He held the office

record,

Duke

until 1743, when he died, and was succeeded

by the Count of Clermond. Clavel (Hist.
Pittoresq., p. 141,) relates an instance of the
fidelity and intrepidity with which, on one

Antipodean^.

[Les Antipodiens.)

The

degree of the collection

of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
Antiquity, Lodge of. The oldest
Lodge in England, and one of the four
which concurred in February, 1717, in the
meeting at the Apple-Tree tavern, London,
in the formation of the Grand Lodge of
England. At that time, the Lodge of Antiquity met at the Goose and Gridiron, in
St. Paul's Church-yard.
This, with the
other three Lodges, did not derive their
warrants from the Grand Lodge, but " acted

by immemorable Constitution."

Antiquity Manuscript.

This

cele-

brated MS. is now, and has long been, in

the possession of the Lodge of Antiquity,
at London.
It is stated in the subscription
to have been written, in 1686, by " Robert
Padgett, Clearke to the Worshipful Society
of the Freemasons of the city of London."
The whole manuscript was first published
by W. J. Hughan in his Old Charges of
British Freemasons, (p. 64,) but a part
had been previously inserted by Preston
in his Illustrations, (b. ii., sect, vi.) And
here we have evidence of a criminal inaccuracy of the Masonic writers of the last
century, who never hesitated to alter or interpolate passages in old documents whenever it was required to confirm a pre-conceived theory. Thus, Preston had intimated
that there was before 1717 an Installation
ceremony for newly-elected Masters of
Lodges, (which is not true,) and inserts
what he calls, "the ancient Charges that
were used on this occasion," taken from
the MS. of the Lodge of Antiquity. To
confirm the statement, that they were used
for this purpose, he cites the conclusion of
the MS. in the following words: "These
be all the charges and covenants that
ought to be read at the instalment of Master,
or making of a Freemason or Freemasons." The words in italics are not to
be found in the original MS., but were inserted by Preston. Bro. E. Jackson Barron
had an exact transcript made of this MS.,
which he carefully collated, from which
copy it was published by Bro. Hughan.
Bro. Barron gives the following description
of the document:
" The MS. copy of the Charges of Freemasons is on a roll of parchment nine
feet long by eleven inches wide, the roll
being formed of four pieces of parchment
glued together and some few years ago it
was partially mounted (but not very skilfully) on a backing of parchment for its
;

better preservation.

ANTIQUITY

ANTIQUITY

" The Eolls are headed by an engraving

of the Eoyal Arms, after the fashion usual
the date of the
in deeds of the period
engraving in this case being fixed by the
initials at the top, I. 2, R.
" Under this engraving are emblazoned
in separate shields the Arms of the city of
London, which are too well known to require description, and the Arms of the
Masons of London, Sable on a chevron between three castles argent, a pair of compasses
of the first surrounded by appropriate mant-

they are known to have possessed, and in

which they were imitated by the mediaeval

ling.

" The writing is a good specimen of the

ordinary law writing of the times, interThere is a
spersed with words in text.
margin of about an inch on the left side,
which is marked by a continuous double
red ink line throughout, and there are similar double lines down both edges of the
is used throughparchment. The letter
out the MS. for V, with but two or three
exceptions."

Antiquity

of

Freemasonry.

Years ago, in writing an article on this

subject under the impressions made upon
me by the fascinating theories of Dr. Oliver, though I never completely accepted
his views, I was led to place the organization of Freemasonry, as it now exists, at
the building of Solomon's Temple. Many
years of subsequent research have led me
greatly to modify the views I had previously held. Although I do not rank my-

among those modern iconoclasts who

refuse credence to every document whose
authenticity", if admitted, would give to
the Order a birth anterior to the beginning
of the last century, I confess that I cannot
find any incontrovertible evidence that
would trace Masonry, as now organized,

self

beyond the Building Corporations of the

Middle Ages. In this point of view I speak
of it only as an architectural brotherhood,
distinguished by signs, by words, and by
brotherly ties which have not been essentially changed, and by symbols and legends
which have only been developed and extended, while the association has undergone
a transformation from an operative art to
a speculative science.
But then these Building Corporations did
not spring up in all their peculiar organization
different, as it was, from that of
other guilds
like Autochthones, from the
soil.
They, too, must have had an origin
and an archetype, from which they de-

rived their peculiar character. And I am

induced, for that purpose, to look to the
Roman Colleges of Artificers, which were
spread over Europe by the invading forces
of the empire. But these have been traced
to Numa, who gave to them that mixed
practical and religious character which

77

architects.

We must, therefore, look

at Freemasonry
distinct points of view First, as it
is
a society of Speculative Architects engaged in the construction of spiritual temples, and in this respect a development

in

two

from the Operative Architects of the tenth

and succeeding centuries, who were themselves offshoots from the Travelling Freemasons of Como, who traced their origin
to the Roman Colleges of Builders.
In
this direction, I think, the line of descent
is plain, without any demand upon our

credulity for assent to

its credibility.

But Freemasonry must be looked at also

from another stand-point. Not only does
it

present the appearance of a speculative

science, based on an operative art, but it

also very significantly exhibits itself as the
symbolic expression of a religious idea. In
other and plainer words, we see in it the
important lesson of eternal life, taught by

a legend which, whether true or false, is

used in Masonry as a symbol and an allegory.

But whence came this legend ? Was it

invented in 1717 at the revival of Freemasonry in England ? We have evidence
of the strongest circumstantial character,
derived from the Sloane Manuscript No.
3,329, recently exhumed from the shelves of
the British Museum, that this very legend
was known to the Masons of the seventeenth century at least.
Then, did the Operative Masons of the
Middle Ages have a legend also ? The evidence is that they did. The Compagnons
de la Tour, who were the offshoots of the
old Masters' Guilds, had a legend.
know what the legend was, and we know
that its character was similar to, although
not in all the details precisely the same as,
the Masonic legend. It was, however, connected with the Temple of Solomon.
Again Did the builders of the Middle
Ages invent their legend, or did they ob-

We

tain

it

from some old tradition?

question

is

interesting,

but

its

The

solution

either way would scarcely affect the anIt is not the form
tiquity of Freemasonry.

of the legend, but

design, with which

its spirit

we have

and symbolic
to do.

This legend of the third degree as we

now have

we have had it for a

two hundred and fifty
by a symbolic representeach the resurrection from death,
it,

and

as

certain period of
years, is intended,
tation, to

and the divine dogma of eternal life. All

Masons know its character, and it is neither
expedient nor necessary to dilate upon it.
But can we find such a legend elsewhere?
Certainly we can. Not indeed the sarnie

ANTON

ANTIQUITY

78

legend not the same personage as its hero

not the same details but a legend with the
same spirit and design a legend funereal
in character, celebrating death and resurrection, solemnized in lamentation and
terminating in joy. Thus, in the Egyptian
Mysteries of Osiris, the image of a dead
man was borne in an argha, ark or coffin,
by a procession of initiates; and this inclosure in the coffin or interment of the body
was called the aphanism, or disappearance,
and the lamentation for him formed the
first part of the Mysteries.
On the third
day after the interment, the priests and
initiates carried the coffin, in which was
also a golden vessel, down to the river
Into the vessel they poured water
Nile.
from the river and then with the cry of
;

~Evp?jiia/Liev

"

ayaXXofieday
us rejoice,"
Osiris, who

We

have

found

they declared that

him, let
the dead
had descended into
Hades, had returned from thence, and was
restored again to life and the rejoicings
which ensued constituted the second part
of the Mysteries. The analogy between
this and the legend of Freemasonry must
be at once apparent. Now, just such a
legend, everywhere differing in particulars,
but everywhere coinciding in general character, is to be found in all the old religions
in sun worship, in tree worship, in animal
;

worship. It was often perverted, it is true,

from the original design. Sometimes it was
applied to the death of winter and the birth
of spring, sometimes to the setting and the
subsequent rising of the sun, but always
indicating a loss and a recovery.
Especially do we find this legend, and in
a purer form, in the Ancient Mysteries.
in
At Samothrace, at Eleusis, at Byblos
all places where these ancient religions and
mystical rites were celebrated
we find the
same teachings of eternal life inculcated by
the representation of an imaginary death
and apotheosis. And it is this legend, and
this legend alone, that connects Speculative
Freemasonry with the Ancient Mysteries
of Greece, of Syria, and of Egypt.
The theory, then, that I advance on the
subject of the antiquity of Freemasonry is
this I maintain that, in its present peculiar organization, it is the successor, with
certainty, of the Building Corporations of
the Middle Ages, and through them, with
less certainty but with great probability, of
the Roman Colleges of Artificers. Its connection with the Temple of Sok>mon, as

its

birthplace,

may have

been accidental,

a mere arbitrary selection by invent and bears, therefore, only an

its

ors,

alle-

gorical meaning; or it may be historical,

and to be explained by the frequent communications that at one time took place
between the Jews and the Greeks and the

Romans.

This

is

a point

still

open

for dis-

cussion.
On it I express no fixed opinion.
The historical materials upon which to
base an opinion are as yet too scanty. But
I am inclined, I confess, to view the Temple
of Jerusalem and the Masonic traditions
connected with it as a part of the great
allegory of Masonry.
But in the other aspect in which Freemasonry presents itself to our view, and to
which I have already adverted, the question of its antiquity is more easily settled.
,

As a brotherhood, composed of symbolic

Masters and Fellows and Apprentices, derived from an association of Operative

Masters, Fellows, and Apprentices,

those
building spiritual temples as these built
material ones,
its age may not exceed
but as a secret
five or six hundred years
association, containing within itself the
symbolic expression of a religious idea,
it
connects itself with all the Ancient
Mysteries, which, with similar secrecy,
gave the same symbolic expression to the
same religious idea. These Mysteries were
not the cradles of Freemasonry they were
only its analogues. But I have no doubt
that all the Mysteries had one common
source, perhaps, as it has been suggested,
some ancient body of priests and I have
no more doubt that Freemasonry has derived its legend, its symbolic mode of instruction, and the lesson for which that
instruction was intended, either directly or
indirectly from the same source.
In this
view the Mysteries become interesting to
the Mason as a study, and in this view
only. An<| so, when I speak of the antiquity of Masonry, I must say, if I would
respect the axioms of historical science,
that its body came out of the Middle Ages,
but that its spirit is to be traced to a far

remoter period.

Anton, Dr. Carl Gottlob Ton. A

German Masonic writer of considerable reputation, who died at Gorlitz on the 17th of
November, 1818. He is the author of two
historical works on Templarism, both of
which are much esteemed. 1. Versuchs einer
i.e. HisEssays on the Order of Knights
Templars. Leipzig, 1779. And, 2. Untersuchung uber das Geheimnis und die Gebrduche der Tempelherren, i. e. An Inquiry
into the Mystery and Usages of the Knights
Templers. Dessau, 1728. He also published at Gorlitz, in 1805, and again in
1819, A brief essay on the Culdees, Ueber

Geschichte des Tempelherren or dens,

torical

die Culdeer.

Anton Hieronymus. In the examination of a German " steinmetz," or

stonemason, this is said to have been the
name of the first Mason. It is unquestionably a corruption of A don Hiram.

APE
Ape and

APOCALYPSE

Lion. Knight of the.

See Knight of the Ape and Lion.

Aphanism. In the Ancient Mysteries,
there was always a legend of the death or
disappearance of some hero god, and the
subsequent discovery of the body and its
resurrection. The concealment of this body
by those who had slain it, was called the
aphanism, from the Greek, acpavc^u, to conceal. As these Mysteries may be considered
as a type of Masonry, as some suppose, and
as, according to others, both the Mysteries
and Masonry are derived from one common
and ancient type, the aphanism, or concealing of the body, is of course to be found in
the third degree. Indeed, the purest kind
of Masonic aphanism is the loss or concealment of the word. See Mysteries, and
Euresis.

Apocalypse, Masonry of the.

ternity
a mystical association of speculative philosophers among the Jews, whose
organization very closely resembled that of
the Freemasons, and who are even supposed
by some to have derived their tenets and
their discipline from the builders of the
Temple. As Oliver observes, their institution " may be termed Freemasonry, retaining the same form but practised under
another name."
there is little doubt
that St. John was an Essene. Calmet positively asserts it
and the writings and life
of St. John seem to furnish sufficient internal evidence that he was originally of
that brotherhood.
But it seems to me that St. John was
more particularly selected as a patron of
Freemasonry in consequence of the mysterious and emblematic nature of the Apocalypse, which evidently assimilated the

Now

John the Evangelist

mode

as one of the patrons of our Lodges, has

given rise, among the writers on Freemasonry, to a variety of theories as to the
original cause of his being thus connected
with the Institution.
Several traditions

ist to

The adoption of

St.

have been handed down from remote

which claim him as a brother,
among which the Masonic student will be
familiar with that which represents him as
having assumed the government of the
Craft, as Grand Master, after the demise of
periods,

Baptist.
I confess that I am not
willing to place implicit confidence in the
correctness of this legend, and I candidly
subscribe to the prudence of Dalcho's remark, that *it is unwise to assert more
than we can prove, and to argue against
probability." There must have been, however, in some way, a connection more or

John the

between the Evangelist and the

he would
not from the earliest times have been so
universally claimed as one of its patrons.
If it was simply a Christian feeling
a religious veneration
which gave rise to this
general homage, I see no reason why St.
Matthew, St. Mark, or St. Luke might not
as readily and appropriately have been
selected as one of the "lines parallel."
But the fact is that there is something, both
in the life and in the writings of St. John
the Evangelist, which closely connects him
with our mystic Institution.
He may
not have been a Freemason in the sense
in which we now use the term; but it
will be sufficient, if it can be shown that
he was familiar with other mystical institutions, which are themselves generally
admitted to have been more or less intimately connected with Freemasonry by
deriving their existence from a common

less direct

institution of Freemasonry, or

origin.

Such a society was the Essenian Fra-

79

of teaching adopted by the Evangelthat practised by the Fraternity. If

any one who has investigated the ceremonies
performed in the Ancient Mysteries, the
Spurious Freemasonry as it has been called
of the Pagans, will compare them with the
mystical machinery used in the Book of
Revelations, he will find himself irresistibly led to the conclusion that St. John the
Evangelist was intimately acquainted with
the whole process of initiation into these
mystic associations, and that he has selected
its imagery for the ground-work of his prophetic book. Mr. Faber, in his Origin of
Pagan Idolatry, (vol. ii., b. vi., ch. 6,) has,
with great ability and clearness, shown
that St. John in the Apocalypse applies
the ritual of the ancient initiations to a
spiritual and prophetic purpose.
"The whole machinery of the Apocalypse," says Mr. Faber, " from beginning to
end, seems to me very plainly to have been
borrowed from the machinery of the Anand this, if we consider
cient Mysteries
;

the nature of the subject, was done with

the very strictest attention to poetical de-

corum.
" St.

John himself

is

made

to personate

an aspirant about to be initiated and, accordingly, the images presented to his

;

mind's eye closely resemble the pageants

of the Mysteries both in nature and in order
of succession.

"

The prophet

first

beholds a door opened

in the magnificent temple of heaven; and

into this he is invited to enter by the voice
of one who plays the hierophant. Here he
witnesses the unsealing of a sacred book,

and forthwith he

is

appalled by a troop of

ghastly apparitions, which flit in horrid sucAmong these are

cession before his eyes.

preeminently conspicuous a vast serpent,

the well-known symbol of the great father
and two portentous wild beasts, which
;

APOCALYPSE

APORRHETA

come up out of the sea and out

of the earth. Such hideous figures correspond with the canine phantoms of the
Orgies, which seem to rise out of the
ground, and with the polymorphic images
of the hero god who was universally deemed
the offspring of the sea.
" Passing these terrific monsters in safety,
the prophet, constantly attended by his
angel hierophant, who acts the part of an
interpreter, is conducted into the presence
of a female, who is described as closely resembling the great mother of pagan theology. Like Isis emerging from the sea and
exhibiting herself to the aspirant Apuleius,
this female divinity, upborne upon the
marine wild beast, appears to float upon
the surface of many waters. She is said to
be an open and systematical harlot, just as
the great mother was the declared female
principle of fecundity; and as she was
always propitiated by literal fornication
reduced to a religious system, and as the
initiated were made to drink a prepared
liquor out of a sacred goblet, so this harlot
is represented as intoxicating the kings of
the earth with the golden cup of her prostitution.
On her forehead the very name
of Mystery is inscribed; and the label
teaches us that, in point of character, she
is the great universal mother of idolatry.
" The nature of this mystery the officiating
hierophant undertakes to explain; and an
important prophecy is most curiously and
artfully veiled under the very language and
imagery of the Orgies. To the sea-born

didly-illuminated region, expressly adorned

with the characteristics of that Paradise
which was the ultimate scope of the ancient
aspirants
while without the holy gate of
admission are the whole multitude of the
profane, dogs, and sorcerors, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolators, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."
Such was the imagery of the Apocalypse.
In close resemblance to the machinery of
the Mysteries, and the intimate connection
between their system and that of Freemasonry, very naturally induced our ancient
brethren to claim the patronage of an
apostle so preeminently mystical in his

80
severally

great father was ascribed a threefold state

lie lived, he died, and he revived ; and these
changes of condition were duly exhibited
in the Mysteries.
To the sea-born wild
beast is similarly ascribed a threefold
he lives, he dies, he revives.
While
state
dead, he lies floating on the mighty ocean,
just like Horus or Osiris, or Siva or Vishnou. When he revives again, like those
kindred deities, he emerges from the waves
and, whether dead or alive, he bears seven
heads and ten horns, corresponding in number with the seven ark-preserved Rishis and
the ten aboriginal patriarchs. Nor is this
all
as the worshippers of the great father
bore his special mark or stigma, and were
distinguished by his name, so the worshippers of the maritime beast equally bear his
mark and are equally decorated by his ap-

pellation.
" At length, however, the first or doleful
part of these sacred Mysteries draws to a
close, and the last or joyful part is rapidly

approaching. After the prophet has beheld

the enemies of God plunged into a dreadful lake or inundation of liquid fire, which
corresponds with the infernal lake or deluge
of the Orgies, he is introduced into a splen-

and whose last and crowning

work bore so much of the appearance, in
in an outward form, of a ritual of initia-

writings,

tion.

Apocalypse, Order of the. An

Order instituted about the end of the seventeenth century, by one Gabrino, who
called himself the Prince of the Septenary

Number and Monarch

of the Holy Trinenrolled a great number of artizans in his ranks. According to Thory,
some of the provincial Lodges of France
made a degree out of Gabrino's system.
The jewel of the Order was a naked sword
and a blazing star. Reghellini (iii. 72)
thinks that this Order was the precursor
of the degrees afterwards introduced by the
Masons who practised the Templar system.
Apocalyptic Degrees. Those degrees which are founded on the Revelation of
St. John, or whose symbols and machinery
of initiation are derived from that work,
are called Apocalyptic degrees.
Of this
nature are several of the high degrees;
such, for instance, as the 17th, or Knight
of the East and West of the Scottish Rite.

ity.

He

Aporrheta. Greek, anoppriTa. The holy

things in the Ancient Mysteries which were
known only to the initiates, and were not to
be disclosed to the profane, were called the
aporrheta. What are the aporrheta of Freemasonry? what are the arcana of which
there can be no disclosure ? is a question
that for some years past has given rise to
much discussion among the disciples of the
If the sphere and number of
Institution.
these aporrheta be very considerably extended, it is evident that much valuable investigation by public discussion of the science of Masonry will be prohibited. On
the other hand, if the aporrheta are restricted to only a few points, much of the
beauty, the permanency, and the efficacy of
Freemasonry which are dependent on its
organization as a secret and mystical assomove between
ciation will be lost.
Scylla and Charybdis, and it is difficult for
a Masonic writer to know how to steer so as,
in avoiding too frank an exposition of the

We

APPEAL

APPRENTICE

principles of the Order, not to fall by too

much reticence into obscurity. The European Masons are far more liberal in their
views of the obligation of secrecy than the
English or the American. There are fewthings, indeed, which a French or German
Masonic writer will refuse to discuss with
the utmost frankness. It is now beginning
to be very generally admitted, and English
and American writers are acting on the admission, that the only real aporrheta of
Freemasonry are the modes of recognition,
and the peculiar and distinctive ceremonies
of the Order ; and to these last it is claimed
that reference may be publicly made for the
purpose of scientific investigation, provided
that the reference be so made as to be obscure to the profane, and intelligible only
to the initiated.
Appeal, Right of. The right of
appeal is an inherent right belonging to

Appeals from the Decisions of the

2.
Lodge. Appeals may be made to the Grand
Lodge from the decisions of a Lodge, on
any subject except the admission of
members, or the election of candidates but
these appeals are more frequently made in
reference to conviction and punishment

every Mason, and the Grand Lodge is the

appellate body to whom the appeal is to be

81

after trial.

When a Mason, in consequence of charges

preferred against him, has been tried, conand sentenced by his Lodge, he has
an inalienable right to appeal to the Grand
Lodge from such conviction and sentence.
His appeal may be either general or
That is, he may appeal on the
specific.
ground, generally, that the whole of the
proceedings have been irregular or illegal,
or he may appeal specifically against some
victed,

particular portion of the trial; or lastly,

admitting the correctness of the verdict,
and acknowledging the truth of the charges,
he may appeal from the sentence, as being
too severe or disproportionate to the offence.

Appendant

made.
Appeals are of two kinds 1st, from the
decision of the Master 2d]y, from the decision of the Lodge.
Each of these will
require a distinct consideration.
1. Appeals from the Decision of the Master. It is now a settled doctrine in Masonic
law that there can be no appeal from the
decision of a Master of a Lodge to the
Lodge itself. But an appeal always lies
from such decision to the Grand Lodge,
which is bound to entertain the appeal and

Orders. In the Templar system of the United States, the degrees of Knight of the Eed Cross, and
Knight of Malta, are called Appendant Orders because they are conferred as appendages to that of Knight Templar, which is
the principal degree of the Commandery.
Apple-Tree Tavern. The place
where the four Lodges of London met in
1717, and organized the Grand Lodge of
England. It was situated in Charles Street,

to inquire into the correctness of the decision.

Some writers have endeavored to
restrain the despotic authority of the Master to decisions in matters strictly relating
to the work of the Lodge, while they contend that on all questions of business an
appeal may be taken from his decision to
the Lodge. But it would be unsafe, and
often impracticable, to draw this distinc-

Apprenti. French for Apprentice.

Apprentice. See Apprentice, Entered.
Apprentice Architect. {Apprenti

Covent Garden.

Architecte.)

degree in the collection of

Fustier.

Apprentice Architect, Perfect.

{Apprenti Architecte Parfait.)
the collection of Le Page.

Apprentice

A degree in

Architect,

Prus-

and accordingly the highest Masonic sian. {Apprenti Architecte Prussien.)

A
authorities have rejected the theory, and degree in the collection of Le Page.
denied the power in a Lodge to entertain
Apprentice Cohen. {ApprentiCoen.)
an appeal from any decision of the pre- A degree in the collection of the Archives
siding officer.
of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic
The wisdom of this law must be appa- Rite.
rent to any one who examines the nature
Apprentice, Egyptian. {Apprenti,
of the organization of the Masonic institu- Egyptien. ) The first degree of the Egyptian
tion.
The Master is responsible to the Rite of Cagliostro.
Grand Lodge for the good conduct of his
Apprentice, Entered. The first
Lodge. To him and to him alone the su- degree of Freemasonry, in all the Rites, is
preme Masonic authority looks for the pre- that of Entered Apprentice. In French, it
servation of order, and the observance of is called apprenti; in Spanish, aprendiz
the Constitutions and the Landmarks of in Italian, apprendente; and in German,
the Order in the body over which he pre- lehrling : in all of which the radical meansides. It is manifest, then, that it would be ing of the word is a learner.
Like the
highly unjust to throw around a presiding lesser Mysteries of the ancient initiations,
officer so heavy a responsibility, if it were it is in Masonry a preliminary degree, inin the power of the Lodge to overrule his tended to prepare the candidate for the
decisions or to control his authority.
higher and fuller instructions of the sue
L
6

tion,

82

APPRENTICE

APPRENTICE

not represent their Lodge in the Quarterly

Communications of the Grand Lodge,
a
duty which could only be discharged by a
Master or Fellow,
yet they were always
permitted to be present at the grand feast,
and no General Regulation could be altered
or repealed without their consent and, of
course, in all the business of their particular
Lodges, they took the most prominent part,
for there were but few Masters or Fellows
in a Lodge, in consequence of the difficulty
and inconvenience of obtaining the degree,
which could only be done at a Quarterly
Communication of the Grand Lodge.
But as soon as the subordinate Lodges
were invested with the power of conferring
all the degrees, the Masters began rapidly
teenth century, describes a just and perfect to increase in numbers and in corresponding
"
Lodge as consisting of two Interprentices, influence. And now, the bulk of the Fratwo Fellow Crafts, and two Masters," which ternity consisting of Master Masons, the
shows that by that time the Apprentices legislation of the Order is done exclusively
had been elevated to a recognized rank in by them, and the Entered Apprentices and
the Fraternity. In the Manuscript signed Fellow Crafts have sunk into comparative
" Mark Kypling," which Hughan entitles obscurity, their degrees being considered
"Manuscript Constitutions, No. 4," the only as preparatory to the greater initiation
date of which is 1693, there is a still further of the Master's degree.
recognition in what is there called " the
Apprentice, Hermetic. [Apprenti
Apprentice Charge," one item of which is, Hermetique.) The thirteenth degree of the
that " he shall keepe councell in all things collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
spoken in Lodge or chamber by any Masons, France.
Fellows, or Freemasons." This indicates
Apprentice, Kabbalistic. [Apthat they were admitted to a closer com- prenti Cabalistique. ) A degree in the collecmunion with the members of the Craft. tion of the Archives of the Mother Lodge
But notwithstanding these recognitions, all of the Philosophic Rite.
the manuscripts up to 1704 show that only
Apprentice Mason. [Apprenti Ma" Masters and Fellows " were summoned to con.)
The Entered Apprentice of French
the assembly. During all this time, when Masonry.
ceeding degrees. It is therefore, although
supplying no valuable historical information, replete, in its lecture, with instructions on the internal structure of the Order.
Until late in the seventeenth century, Apprentices do not seem to have been considered as forming any part of the confraternity of Free and Accepted Masons for
although they are incidentally mentioned
in the Old Constitutions of the fifteenth,
sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, these
records refer only to Masters and Fellows
as constituting the Craft, and this distinction seems to have been one rather of posiThe Sloane Manution than of degree.
script, No. 3,329, which Findel supposes to
have been written at the end of the seven-

'

Masonry was in fact an operative art, there

was but one degree in the modern sense of

Apprentice Masoness.

[Apprentie

Maconne.) The first degree of the French

Rite of Adoption. The word Masoness is a
neologism but it is in accordance with the
genius of our language; and I know not
how else to translate into English the
French word Maconne, which means a
woman who has received the degrees of the
Rite of Adoption, unless by the use of the

the word. Early in the eighteenth century,

if not earlier, Apprentices must have been
admitted to the possession of this degree
for after what is called the revival of 1717,
Entered Apprentices constituted the bulk
of the Craft, and they only were initiated
in the Lodges, the degrees of Fellow Craft
and Master Mason being conferred by the awkward phrase, Female Mason. To exGrand Lodge. This is not left to conjecture. press this idea, we might introduce as a
The thirteenth of the General Regulations, technicality the word Masoness.
approved in 1721, says that " Apprentices
Apprentice Masoness^ Egypmust be admitted Masters and Fellow tian. [Apprentie Maconne Egyptienne.)
Crafts only in the Grand Lodge, unless by The first degree of Cagliosh's Egyptian
a dispensation." But this having been Rite of Adoption.
found very inconvenient, on the 22d NoApprentice, Mystic. [Apprenti
vember, 1725, the Grand Lodge repealed Mystique. )
degree in the collection of M.
the article, and decreed that the Master of Pyron.
a Lodge, with his Wardens and a compeApprentice of Paracelsus. {Aptent number of the Lodge assembled in due prenti de Paracelse.)
degree in the collecform, can make Masters and Fellows at tion of M. Peuvret. There existed a series
discretion.
Apprentice,
of these Paracelsian degrees
The mass of the Fraternity being at that Fellow Craft, and Master. They were all
time composed of Apprentices, they exer- most probably forms of Hermetic Masonry.
cised a great deal of influence in the legisApprentice of the Egyptian Selation of the Order for although they could crets. [Apprenti des secrets Egyptiens.) The
;

APRON

APPRENTICE
degree of the Order of African Archi-

first

Apprentice
the dumber
par

le

Nombre

3.)

Philosopher,

by

[Apprenti Philosophe
degree in the collection

3.

M. Peuvret.

of

Apprentice Philosopher, Hermetic.

{Apprenti Philosophe Hermetique.)

degree in the collection of M. Peuvret.

Apprentice Philosopher to the

Number

9.

Nombre 9.
M. Peuvret.
)

[Apprenti Philosophe au
degree in the collection of

Apprentice Pillar.

See Prentice

Pillar.

Apprentice, Scottish.

[Apprenti
This negree, and that of Trinitarian Scottish Apprentice, [Apprenti Ecossais Trinitaire,) are contained in the collection of Pyron.
Apprentice Theosophist. [Apprenti Thtosophe.) The first degree of the
Rite of Swedenborg.
Apron. There is no one of the symbols of Speculative Masonry more imporEcossais.)

tant in
its

its

teachings, or

history, than

more

interesting in

the lambskin, or white

Commencing its lessons at

leather apron.
an early period in the Mason's progress, it
is impressed upon his memory as the first
which he receives, the first symbol
which is explained to him, and the first
tangible evidence which he possesses of his
admission into the Fraternity. Whatever
may be his future advancement in the

gift

"royal art," into whatsoever deeper arcana

his devotion to the mystic Institution or
his thirst for knowledge may subsequently
lead him, with the lambskin apron
his
first investiture
he never parts. Changing, perhaps, its form and its decorations,
and conveying, at each step, some new but
still beautiful allusion, its substance is still
there, and it continues to claim the honored
title by which it was first made known to
him, on the night of his initiation, as " the

badge of a Mason."
If in less important portions of our ritual
there are abundant allusions to the manners
and customs of the ancient world, it is not
to be supposed that the Masonic rite of investiture
the ceremony of clothing the
newly-initiated candidate with this distinctive badge of his profession
is without its archetype in the times and practices
long passed away. It would, indeed, be

strange, while all else in Masonry is covered with the veil of antiquity, that the
apron alone, its most significant symbol,
should be indebted for its existence to the

invention of a modern mind.

On the contrary, we shall find the most
satisfactory evidence that the use of the
apron, or some equivalent mode of investi-

mystic symbol, was common to

the nations of the earth from the earliest

ture, as a
all

tects.

83

pariods.

Among the Israelites the girdle formed

a part of the investiture of the priesthood.
In the mysteries of Mithras, in Persia, the
candidate was invested with a white apron.
In the initiations practised in Hindostan,
the ceremony of investiture was preserved,
but a sash, called the sacred zennar, was
substituted for the aprou. The Jewish sect
of the Essenes clothed their novices with
a white robe.
The celebrated traveller
Ksempfer informs us that the Japanese,
who practise certain rites of initiation, invest their candidates with a white apron,
bound round the loins with a zone or girdle.
In the Scandinavian rites, the military genius of the people caused them to
substitute a white shield, but its presentation was accompanied by an emblematic
instruction not unlike that which is connected with the Mason's apron.
"The apron," says Dr. Oliver, [S. andS.,
Lect. X., p. 196,) " appears to have been in
ancient times an honorary badge of distincIn the Jewish economy none but the
tion.
superior orders of the priesthood were permitted to adorn themselves with ornamented girdles, which were made of blue,
purple, and crimson, decorated with gold,
upon a ground of fine white linen, while
the inferior priests wore only plain white.
The Indian, the Persian, the Jewish, the
Ethiopian, and the Egyptian aprons, though
equally superb, all bore a character distinct from each other.
Some were plain
white ones, others striped with blue, purple, and crimson; some were of wrought
gold, others adorned and decorated with
In a word,
superb tassels and fringes.
though the princij)al honor of the apron
may consist in innocence of conduct and
purity of heart, yet it certainly appears
through all ages to have been a most exIn primitive
alted badge of distinction.
times it was rather an ecclesiastical than a
civil decoration; although in some cases
the apron was elevated to great superiority
The royal 'standard
as a national trophy.
of Persia was originally an apron in form
and dimensions. At this day it is connected
with ecclesiastical honors; for the chief
dignitaries of the Christian church, wherever a legitimate establishment, with the
necessary degrees of rank and subordination is formed, are invested with aprons as
a peculiar badge of distinction, which is a
collateral proof of the fact that Masonry
was originally incorporated with the various
systems of divine worship used by every
people in the ancient world. Masonry retains the symbol or shadow it cannot have
renounced the reality or substance."
;

APRON

84

APRON

In the Masonic apron two things are ing of blue ribbon in the symbolic dedue preservation of its sym- grees, to denote the universal friendship
which constitutes the bond of the society,
its color and its material.
The color of a Mason's and of which virtue blue is the Masonic
1. As to its color.
apron should be pure unspotted white. emblem. But this undoubtedly is an innoThis color has, in all ages and countries, vation, for the ancient apron was without
been esteemed an emblem of innocence any edging or ornament. In the Royal
and purity. It was with this reference that Arch degree the lambskin is, of course, cona portion of the vestments of the Jewish tinued to be used, but, according to the
priesthood was directed to be white. In same modern custom, there is an edging of
the Ancient Mysteries the candidate was red, to denote the zeal and fervency which
always clothed in white. "The priests of should distinguish the possessors of that
the Romans," says Festus, "were accus- degree. All extraneous ornaments and detomed to wear white garments when they vices are in bad taste, and detract from the
sacrificed."
In the Scandinavian rites it symbolic character of the investiture. But
has been seen that the shield presented to the silk or satin aprons, bespangled and
The Druids painted and embroidered, which have been
the candidate was white.
changed the color of the garment pre- gradually creeping into our Lodges, have no
sort of connection with Ancient Craft Masented to their initiates with each degree
They are an innovation of our
white, however, was the color appropriated sonry.
And French brethren, who are never pleased
to the last, or degree of perfection.
with simplicity, ^,nd have, by their love of
it was, according to their ritual, intended
to teach the aspirant that none were ad- tinsel in their various newly-invented ceremitted to that honor but such as were monies, effaced many of the most beautiful
cleansed from all impurities both of body and impressive symbols of our Institution.
and mind. In the early ages of the Chris- A Mason who understands and appreciates
tian church a white garment was always the true symbolic meaning of his apron,
placed upon the catechumen who had been would no more tolerate a painted or emnewly baptized, to denote that he had been broidered satin one than an artist would a
By him, the lambskin, and
cleansed from his former sins, and was gilded statue.
thenceforth to lead a life of purity. Hence the lambskin alone, would be considered
it was presented to him with this solemn
as the badge " more ancient than the Golden
charge " Receive the white and undefiled Fleece, or Roman Eagle, and more honorgarment, and produce it unspotted before able than the Star and Garter."
the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
The Grand Lodge of England is precise

essential to the
bolic character

you may obtain eternal

life."

From

all

these instances we learn that white apparel

was anciently used as an emblem of purity,
and for this reason the color has been preserved in the apron of the Freemason.
2.

As

to its

material.

must be made of lambskin.

Mason's apron

No

other sub-

stance, such as linen, silk, or satin, could be

substituted without entirely destroying the

emblematic character of the apron, for the

material of the Mason's apron constitutes
one of the most important symbols of his
profession. The lamb has always been considered as an appropriate emblem of innocence.
And hence we are taught, in the
of the first degree, that, "by the
lambskin, the Mason is reminded of that
purity of life and rectitude of conduct
which is so essentially necessary to his gaining admission into the Celestial Lodge
above, where the Supreme Architect of the
Universe forever presides."
The true apron of a Mason must then be
of unspotted lambskin, from 14 to 16 inches
wide, from 12 to 14 deep, with a fall about
3 or 4 inches deep, square at the bottom, and
without device or ornament of any kind.
The usage of the Craft in this country has,
for a few years past, allowed a narrow edgritual

in its regulations for the decorations of the

apron, which are thus laid down in its

Constitution.
" Entered Apprentices.
plain white
lambskin, from fourteen to sixteen inches
wide, twelve to fourteen inches deep, square
at bottom, and without ornament; white

strings.

" Fellow Craft.

A plain white lambskin,
similar to that of the Entered Apprentices,
with the addition only of two sky-blue
rosettes at the bottom.
" Master Masons.
The same, with sky-

blue lining and edging, one and a half inch

deep, and an additional rosette on the fall
or nap, and silver tassels. No other color
or ornament shall be allowed, except to
officers and past officers of Lodges who
may have the emblems of their offices in
silver or white in the centre of the apron ;
and except as to the members of the Prince
of Wales' Lodge, No. 324, who are allowed
to wear a narrow internal border of garterblue in their aprons.
" Grand Stewards, present and past.
Aprons of the same dimensions lined with
crimson, edging of the same color three
and a half inches, and silver tassels. Provincial Grand Stewards, while in office, the

APRON

ARCHAEOLOGY

same, except that the edging is only two

The collars of the Grand
inches wide.
Steward's Lodge to be crimson ribbon, four
inches broad.
" Grand Officers of the United Grand
Aprons of the
Lodge, present and past.
same dimensions, lined with garter-blue,
edging three and a half inches, ornamented
with gold, and blue strings and they may
have the emblems of their offices, in gold
or blue, in the centre.
" Provincial Grand Officers, present and
Aprons of the same dimensions,
past.
lined with garter-blue, and ornamented
with gold and with blue strings they must
have the emblems of their offices in gold or
blue in the centre within a double circle, in
the margin of which must be inserted the
name of the province. The garter-blue
edging to the aprons must not exceed two
inches in width.
" The apron of the Deputy Grand Master
to have the emblem of his office in gold
embroidery in the centre, and the pomegranate and lotus alternately embroidered
in gold on the edging.
The apron of the Grand Master is ornamented with the blazing sun embroidered
in gold in the centre; on the edging the
pomegranate and lotus with the seven-eared
wheat at each corner, and also on the fall
all in gold embroidery
the fringe of gold

and in the color of

;

mysteries which

'

Grand Master the

The Masters and Past Masters of Lodges

to wear, in lieu and in the places of the

three rosettes on the Master Mason's apron,
perpendicular lines upon horizontal lines,

thereby forming three several sets of two

right angles the length of the horizontal
lines to be two inches and a half each, and
of the perpendicular lines one inch these
emblems to be of ribbon, half an inch
broad, and of the same color as the lining
and edging of the apron. If Grand. Officers,
similar emblems of garter-blue or gold."
In this country, although there is evidence in some old aprons, still existing,
that rosettes were formerly worn, there are
;

now no

distinctive

decorations for

the

aprons of the different symbolic degrees.

The only mark of distinction is in the
mode of wearing and this differs in the
different jurisdictions, some wearing the
Master's apron turned up at the corner, and
others the Fellow Craft's.
The authority
of Cross, in his plate of the Royal Master's
degree in the older editions of his Hiero;

glyphic Chart, conclusively shows that he

taught the former method although the
latter is now the more common usage.
As we advance to the higher degrees, w e
find the apron varying in its decorations
;

church.

of

into the primitive Christian

See Discipline of the Secret.

Arch, Antiquity of the. Writers

on architecture have, until within a few
years, been accustomed to suppose that the
invention of the arch and keystone was
not anterior to the era of Augustus. But
the researches of modern antiquaries have
traced the existence of the arch as far
back as 460 years before the building of
King Solomon's Temple, and thus rescued
Masonic traditions from the charge of anachronism. See Keystone.
Arch, Catenarian. See Catenarian
Arch.

same.
"

forbidden to reveal

Arcani Disciplina. The mode

of the pro

it is

Secrets.

initiation

bullion.

The apron

are advised, in all cases of dispute

or controversy, to submit to the arbitration
of the Masters and Fellows, rather than to
go to law.
Arcana. Latin. Secret things, or

See

"

border, which are,

Masons
(

its

however, always symbolical of some idea

taught in the degree.
Araunah. See Oman.
Arbitration. In the Old Charges,

Arch of Enoch. The 13th degree

of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
is sometimes so called.
See Knight of the
Ninth Arch.
Arch of Heaven. Job, xxvi. 11,
compares heaven to an arch supported by
pillars.
"The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astonished at his reproof." Dr.
Cutbush, on this passage, remarks, " The
arch in this instance is allegorical, not only
of the arch of heaven, but of the higher
degree of Masonry, commonly called the
Holy Royal Arch. The pillars which support the arch are emblematical of Wisdom
the former denoting the
and Strength
wisdom of the Supreme Architect, and the
Am,
latter the stability of the Universe."
Ed. Brewster's Encyc.
;

Arch of Solomon, Royal.

I

The

13th degree of the Ancient and Accepted

Rite is sometimes so called, by which it is
distinguished from the Royal Arch degree
of the English and American systems.
Arch of Steel. The grand honors
are conferred, in the French Rite, by two
ranks of brethren elevating and crossing
They call it voitte
their drawn swords.
deader.

Arch of Zernbbabel, Royal.

The

7th degree of the American Rite is sometimes so called to distinguish it from the
Royal Arch of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, which is called the Royal
Arch of Solomon.
Arch, Royal. See Royal Arch.
Archaeology. The science which is en-

ARCHETYPE

86

ARCHITECTURE

gaged in the study of those minor branches

of antiquities which do not enter into the
course of general history, such as national
genealogies,

architecture,

manners,

cus-

toms, heraldic subjects, and others of a simiThe archaeology of Freemalar nature.

sonry has been made, within a recent
period, a very interesting study, and is
much indebted for its successful pursuit to
the labors of Kloss and Findel in Germany, and to Thory and Ragon in France,
to Oliver, Lyon, Hughan, and many
living writers, in England. The scholars
of this science have especially directed their
attention to the collection of old records,
and the inquiry into the condition and organization of Masonic and other secret as-

{Architecte
Architect, Perfect.
The twenty-eighth degree of the
Rite of Mizraim. The twenty-fifth, twenty-

Parfait.)

sixth, twenty-seventh degrees of the same

Rite, are Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and

Master Perfect Architect.

Architect,

during the Middle Ages. In

America, the late William S. Rockwell was
a diligent student of Masonic archaeology,
and several others in this country have
labored assiduously in the same inviting

field.

Archetype. The principal type, figure,

example whereby and whereon
formed. In the science of sym-

pattern, or

a thing

is

bolism, the archetype is the thing adopted

as a symbol, whence the symbolic idea is
derived. Thus we say the Temple is the
archetype of the Lodge, because the former
is the symbol whence all the Temple symbolism of the latter is derived.
Architect. In laying the cornerstones of Masonic edifices, and in dedicating
them after they are finished, the architect
of the building, although he may be a profane, is required to take a part in the ceremonies. In the former case, the square,
level, and plumb are delivered to him with
a charge by the Grand Master and in the
latter case they are returned by him to that
;

officer.

Architect, African.

See African

Architects.

Architect by 3, 5, and 7, Grand.

Grande Architecte par 3, 5, et 7.) A degree
in the manuscript of Peuvret's collection.
(

Architect,

Or and.

{Architecte

Grande.) 1. The sixth degree of the Rite

of Martinism. 2. The fourth degree of the
Rite of Elect Cohens.
3. The twentythird degree of the Rite of Mizraim. 4.
The twenty-fourth degree in the collection
of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.

Architect,
Grand Master
1.

Orand Master.

See

Architect.

Architect, Little. {Architecte Petit.

The twenty-third degree of the collection

of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.

2. The twenty-second degree of the Rite
of Mizraim.

Architect of Solomon .
de Salomon.)
collection of

M.

A rchitecte

degree in the manuscript

Peuvret.

and Sub>

{Architecte,

Parfait

et

Sublime Grande.) A degree in the collection of the Loge des Amis Reunis at
Calais.

Architectonicns.

and

sociations

Perfect

lime Orand.

Latin.

Relating

architecture.
Thus, Vitruvius says,
"rationes architectonicse," the rules of
architecture.
But as Architecton signifies
a Master Builder, the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, in some Latin inscriptions, has

to

used the word architectonicns, to denote Masonic or relating to Freemasonry.

In the in-

on the corner-stone of the Royal

Exchange of Edinburgh, we find " fratres
architectonici " used for Freemasons; and in
the Grand Lodge diploma, a Lodge is called
scription

" societas architectonica;" but the usage of

the word in this sense has not been generally adopted.
Architecture. The art of constructing dwellings, as a shelter from the heat
of summer and the cold of winter, must
have been resorted to from the very first
moment in which man became subjected to
the power of the elements. Architecture
is, therefore, not only one of the most important, but one of the most ancient of
sciences.
Rude and imperfect must, however, have been the first efforts of the
human race, resulting in the erection of
huts clumsy in their appearance, and ages
must have elapsed ere wisdom of design
combined strength of material with beauty
of execution.
As Geometry is the science on whieh
Masonry is founded, Architecture is the art
from which it borrows the language of its
symbolic instruction. In the earlier ages
of the Order every Mason was either an
operative mechanic or a superintending
architect.
superficial

And something more than a

knowledge of the principles of

absolutely essential to the

either understand the
former history of the Institution or appreciate its present objects.
There are five orders of architecture the
Doric, the Ionic, the Corinthian, the Tuscan, and the Composite. The first three
are the original orders, and were invented
in Greece the last two are of later formation, and owe their existence to Italy.
Each of these orders, as well as the other
terms of architecture, so far as they are
architecture

is

Mason who would

connected with Freemasonry, will be found

under its appropriate head throughout this
work.

ARK

ARCHITECTURE
The Books of Constitutions, commenced
by Anderson and continued by Entick and
Noorthouck, contain, under the title of a
History of Freemasonry, in reality a history
of the progress of architecture from the
In the older manuscript
earliest ages.
Constitutions the science of geometry, as
well as architecture, is made identical with
Masonry; so that he who would rightly
understand the true history of Freemasonry must ever bear in mind the distinction between Geometry, Architecture, and
Masonry, which is constantly lost sight of
in these old records.

87

have had

its origin in the remotest ages of

the world.
In the lecture of the degree of Grand
Master Architect, the application of this
science to Freemasonry is made to consist
in its reminding the Mason that he is continually to add to his knowledge, never to
subtract anything from the character of his
neighbor, to multiply his benevolence to his

fellow-creatures, and to divide his means

with a suffering brother.
Ark. In the ritual of the American
Royal Arch degree three arks are referred
1. The Ark of Safety, or of Noah ; 2.
to
The Ark of the Covenant, or of Moses ; 3.
:

Architecture, Piece of. (Morgeau

The name given in French The
d' architecture.)
Lodges to the minutes.
Archives. This word means, properly,
a place of deposit for records but it means
;

the records themselves. Hence the

archives of a Lodge are its records and
other documents. The legend in the second
degree, that the pillars of the Temple were
made hollow to contain the archives of
Masonry, is simply a myth, and a very
also

modern

one.

Archives,
the.

An

Grand Guardian of

officer in

the

Grand Council of

Rites of Ireland who performs the duties

of Secretary General.

Substitute Ark, or the Ark of ZerubIn what is technically called " the
babel.
passing of the veils," each of these arks
has its commemorative illustration, and in
the order in which they have been named.
first was constructed by Shem, Ham,
and Japheth, the sons of Noah the second
by Moses, Aholiab, and Bezaleel and the
third was discovered by Joshua, Haggai,
and Zerubbabel.
Ark and Anchor. See Anchor and

The

Ark.

Ark and Dove. An

illustrative degree, preparatory to the Royal Arch, and

usually conferred, when conferred at all,

Archives, Grand Keeper of the. immediately

An

some of the bodies of the high

degrees whose duties are indicated by the
name. In the Grand Orient of France he
is called Grand Garde des timbres et Sceaux,
as he combines the duties of a keeper of
the archives and a keeper of the seals.
Archiviste. An officer in French
Lodges who has the charge of the archives.
The Germans call him Archivar.
Ardarel. A word in the high degrees,
officer in

used as the name of the angel of fire. It

is a distorted form of Adariel, the splendor
of God.
Arelini. A word used in some, of the
rituals of the high degrees.
It is found in
Isaiah, (xxxiii. 7,) where it is translated,
in the A. V., " valiant ones," and by Lowth,
" mighty men." It is a doubtful word, and
is probably formed from ariel, the lion of

D'Herbelot says that Mohammed

called his uncle Hamseh, on account of
his valor, the lion of God.
In the Kabbala, Arelim is the angelic name of the third
sephirah.
Areopagus. The third apartment in
a Council of Kadosh is so called. It represents a tribunal, and the name is derived
from the celebrated court of Athens.
Arithmetic. That science which is
engaged in considering the properties and

God.

powers of numbers, and which, from

its

manifest necessity in all the operations of

weighing, numbering, and measuring, must

before the solemn ceremony

The name of Noachite,
of exaltation.
sometimes given to it, is incorrect, as this
belongs to a degree in the Ancient Scottish
Rite.
It is very probable that the degree,
which now, however, has lost much of
its significance, was derived from a much
older one called the Royal Ark Mariners, to
which the reader is referred. The legend
and symbolism of the ark and dove formed
an important part of the spurious Freemasonry of the ancients.
Mariners. See Royal Ark
Mariners.
Ark, JXoah's, or the Ark of Safety,
constructed by Shem, Ham, and Japheth,
under the superintendence of Noah, and in
it, as a chosen tabernacle of refuge, the
patriarch's family took refuge. It has been
called by many commentators a tabernacle
of Jehovah; and Dr. Jar vis, speaking of the
word "in ^>, ZoHaR, which has been translated window, says that, in all other passages of Scripture where this word occurs,
it signifies the meridian light, the brightest
effulgence of day, and therefore it could
not nave been an aperture, but a source of
light itself.
He supposes it therefore to
have been the divine Shekinah, or Glory
of Jehovah, which afterwards dwelt between the cherubim over the Ark of the
Covenant in the tabernacle and the temple.
Church of the Redeemed, I., 20.

Ark

Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark

ARK

ARK

88

of the Covenant or of the Testimony was a

chest originally constructed by Moses at
God's command, (Exod. xxv. 16,) in which
were kept the two tables of stone, on which
were engraved the ten commandments. It
contained, likewise, a golden pot filled with
manna, Aaron's rod, and the tables of the
covenant. It was at first deposited in the
most sacred place of the tabernacle, and
afterwards placed by Solomon in the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple, and was
lost upon the destruction of that building
by the Chaldeans. The later history of
It is supthis ark is buried in obscurity.
posed that, upon the destruction of the first
Temple by the Chaldeans, it was carried to
Babylon among the other sacred utensils
which became the spoil of the conquerors.
But of its subsequent fate all traces have
been lost. It is, however, certain that it
was not brought back to Jerusalem by Zerubbabel. The Talmudists say that there
were five things which were the glory of
the first Temple that were wanting in the
second namely, the Ark of the Covenant,
the Shekinah or Divine Presence, the
Urim and Thummim, the holy fire upon
the altar, and the spirit of prophecy. The
Rev. Salem Towne, it is true, has endeavored to prove, by a very ingenious
argument, that the original Ark of the
Covenant was concealed by Josiah, or by
others, at some time previous to the destruction of Jerusalem, and that it was afterwards, at the building of the second Temple,
discovered and brought to light. But such
a theory is entirely at variance with all the
legends of the degree of Select Master and
of Royal Arch Masonry.
To admit it
would lead to endless confusion and contradictions in the traditions of the Order.
It is, besides, in conflict with the opinions
of the Rabbinical writers and every Hebrew scholar. Josephus and the Rabbins
allege that in the second Temple the Holy
of Holies was empty, or contained only the
Stone of Foundation which marked the
place which the ark should have occupied.
The ark was made of shittim wood,
overlaid, within and without, with pure
gold.
It was about three feet nine inches
long, two feet three inches wide, and of the
same extent in depth. It had on the side
two rings of gold, through which were
placed staves of shittim wood, by which,
when necessary, it was borne by the Levites.
Its covering was of pure gold, over which
were placed two figures called cherubim,
with expanded wings. The covering of the
ark was called kaphiret, from Jcaphar, " to
forgive sin," and hence its English name of
"mercy-seat," as being the place where the
;

intercession for sin was made.

The researches of archaeologists

in the

few years have thrown much light on

the Egyptian mysteries. Among the ceremonies of that ancient people was one
called the Procession of Shrines, which is
mentioned in the Rosetta stone, and depicted on the Temple walls. One of these
shrines was an ark, which was carried in
procession by the priests, who supported it
on their shoulders by staves passing through
metal rings. It was thus brought into the
Temple and deposited on a stand or altar,
that the ceremonies prescribed in the ritual
might be performed before it. The contents of these arks were various, but always
of a mystical character. Sometimes the ark
would contain symbols of Life and Stability sometimes the sacred beetle, the symbol
of the Sun and there was always a representation of two figures of the goddess
Theme or Truth and Justice, which overshadowed the ark with their wings. These
coincidences of the Egyptian and Hebrew
arks must have been more than accidental.
Ark, Substitute. The chest or coffer
which constitutes a part of the furniture,
and is used in the ceremonies of a Chapter
of Royal Arch Masons, and in a Council
of Select Masters according to the American system, is called by Masons the Substitute Ark, to distinguish it from the other
ark, that which was constructed in the
wilderness under the direction of Moses,
and which is known as the Ark of the
Covenant. This the Substitute Ark was
made to represent under circumstances that
are recorded in the Masonic traditions, and
especially in those of the Select Degree.
The ark used in Royal Arch and Cryptic
Masonry in this country is generally of
last

this

form

Prideaux, on the authority of Lightfoot,

contends that, as an ark was indispensable
to the Israelitish worship, there was in the
second Temple an ark which had been expressly made for the purpose of supplying
the place of the first or original ark, and
which, without possessing any of its prerogatives or honors, was of precisely the
same shape and dimensions, and was deposited in the same place. The Masonic
legend, whether authentic or not, is simple
and connected. It teaches that there was
an ark in the second Temple, but that it
was neither the Ark of the Covenant,
which had been in the Holy of Holies of
the first Temple, nor one that had been con-

AEK
a substitute for it after the
building of the second Temple. It was
that ark which was presented to us in the
Select Master's degree, and which being an
exact copy of the Mosaical ark, and intended to replace it in case of its loss, is
best known to Freemasons as the Substitute
Ark.
Lightfoot gives these Talmudic legends,
in his Prospect of the Temple, in the following language " It is fancied by the Jews,
that Solomon, when he built the Temple,
foreseeing that the Temple should be destroyed, caused very obscure and intricate
vaults under ground to be made, wherein
to hide the ark when any such danger
came that howsoever it went with the
Temple, yet the ark, which was the very
life of the Temple, might be saved.
And
they understand that passage in 2 Chron.
xxxv. 3, Josiah said unto the Levites, Put
the holy ark into the house which Solomon,
the son of David, did build/ etc., as if
Josiah, having heard by the reading of
Moses' manuscript, and by Huldah's prophecy of the danger that hung over Jerusalem, commanded to convey the ark into
this vault, that it might be secured; and
with it, say they, they laid up Aaron's rod,
the pot of manna, and the anointing oil.
For while the ark stood in its place upon
the stone mentioned
they hold that
Aaron's rod and the pot of manna stood
before it but, now, were all conveyed into
obscurity
and the stone upon which the
ark stood lay over the mouth of the vault.
But Rabbi Solomon, which useth not,
ordinarily, to forsake such traditions, hath
given a more serious gloss upon the place
namely, that whereas Manasseh and Amon
had removed the ark out of its habitation,
and set up images and abominations there
of their own
Joshua speaketh to the
priests to restore it to its place again.
What became of the ark, at the burning of
the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, we read
not; it is most likely it went to the fire
also. 'However it sped, it was not in the
second Temple; and is one of the five choice
things that the Jews reckon wanting there.
Yet they had an ark there also of their own
making, as they had a breastplate of judgment; which, though they both wanted
the glory of the former, which was giving
of oracles, yet did they stand current as to
the other matters of their worship, as the
former breastplate and ark had done."
The idea of the concealment of an ark
structed as

'

and

its accompanying treasures always prevailed in the Jewish church. The account
given by the Talmud ists is undoubtedly
mythical but there must, as certainly, have
been some foundation for the myth, for
every myth has a substratum of truth.
;

ARMS

89

The Masonic

tradition differs from the rabbut is in every way more reconcilable with truth, or at least with probability.
The ark constructed by Moses, Aholiab,
and Bezaleel was burnt at the destruction
of the first Temple but there was an exact
representation of it in the second.
Arkite Worship. The almost universal prevalence among the nations of
antiquity of some tradition of a long past
deluge, gave rise to certain mythological

binical,

doctrines

and

religious ceremonies, to

which

has been given the name of arkite worship, which was very extensively diffused.
The evidence of this is to be found in the
sacred feeling which was entertained for
the sacredness of high mountains, derived,
it is supposed, from recollections of an
Ararat, and from the presence in all the
Mysteries of a basket, chest, or coffer,
whose mystical character bore apparently
a reference to the ark of Noah. On the
subject of this arkite worship, Bryant,
Faber, Higgins, Banier, and many other
writers, have made learned investigations,
which may be consulted with advantage by
the Masonic archaeologist.
Arineiibiisehe. The poor-box; the
name given by German Masons to the box
in which collections of money are made at
a Table-Lodge for the relief of poor brethren and their families.
corrupted form of Hermes,
Arines.
found in the Landsdowne and some other
old manuscripts.
bearer of arms. The
Ariniger. 1.
title given by heralds to the esquire who
waited on a knight. 2. The sixth degree
of the Order of African Architects.
Arinory. An apartment attached to
the asylum of a Commandery of Knights
Templars, in which the swords and other
parts of the costume of the knights are deposited for safe keeping.
of Masonry. Stow says
that the Masons were incorporated as a
company in the twelfth year of Henry IV.,
Their arms were granted to them, in
1412.

Arms

1472, by William Hawkesloe, Clarenceux

King-at-Arms, and are azure on a chevron
between three castles argent; a pair of com-

passes somewhat extended, of the first.

Crest a castle of the second. They were
adopted, subsequently, by the Grand Lodge
The "Athol Grand Lodge
of England.
objected to this as an unlawful assumption
by the Modern Grand Lodge of Speculative
Freemasons of the arms of the Operative
Masons. They accordingly adopted another
coat, which Dermott blazons as follows:
Quarterly per squares, counterchanged vert.
In the first quarter, azure, a lion rampant,
or.
In the second quarter, or, an ox passant
sable.
In the third quarter, or, a man with

:
;

ARRAS

ASHE

hands erect proper, robed crimson and

ermine. In the fourth quarter, azure, an

"And that credit maybe given to our

present bull, we have signed it with our
hand and caused to be affixed thereunto the
secret seal, and countersigned by the secretary of our cabinet, Thursday, 15th of
the second month of the year of the incar

90

eagle displayed or. Crest, the holy ark of the

covenant proper, supported by cherubim.
Motto, Kodes la Adonai, that is, Holiness to
the, Lord.
These arms are derived from the " tetrarchical" (as Sir Thos. Browne calls them), or
general banners of the four principal tribes
for it is said that the twelve tribes, during
their passage through the wilderness, were
encamped in a hollow square, three on each
Judah, Zebulun, and Isside, as follows
sachar, in the east, under the general banner of Judah Dan, Asher, and Naphtali,
in the north, under the banner of Dan
Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, in the
and
west, under the banner of Ephraim
Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, in the south,
under Reuben. See Banners.
:

Arras, Primordial Chapter

of.

a town in the north-western part

of France, where, in the year 1747, Charles
Edward Stuart, the Pretender, established
a Sovereign Primordial and Metropolitan
porChapter of Rosicrucian Freemasons.
tion of the charter of this body is given by
Ragon in his Orthodoxie Maconique. In
1853, the Count de Ham el, prefect of the
department, discovered an authentic copy,
in parchment, of this document bearing the
date of April 15, 1747, which he deposited
in the departmental archives. This document is as follows
" We, Charles Edward, king of England,
France, Scotland, and Ireland, and as such
Substitute Grand Master of the Chapter of
H., known by the title of Knight of the
Eagle and Pelican, and since our sorrows
and misfortunes by that of Rose Croix,
wishing to testify our gratitude to the Masons of Artois, and the officers of the city
of Arras, for the numerous marks of kindness which they in conjunction with the
officers of the garrison of Arras have lavished upon us, and their attachment to our
person, shown during a residence of six
months in that city,
"
have in favor of them created and
erected, and do create and erect by the
present bull, in the aforesaid city of Arras,
a Sovereign Primordial Chapter of Rose
Croix, under.the distinctive title of Scottish
Jacobite, (Ecosse Jacobite,) to be ruled and
governed by the Knights Lagneau and
Robespierre Avocats Hazard, and his two
sons, physicians J. B. Lucet, our upholsterer, and Jerome Cellier, our clock-maker,
giving to them and to their successors the
power not only to make knights, but even
to create a Chapter in whatever town they
may think fit, provided that two Chapters
shall not be created in the same town however populous it may be.

Arras

is

We

nation, 1747.

"Charles Edward Stuart.

" Countersigned,
Berkley."
This Chapter created a few others, and
in 1780 established one in Paris, under the
distinctive title of Chapter of Arras, in the
valley of Paris.
It united itself to the
Grand Orient of France on the 27th December, 1801. It was declared First Suffragan of the Scottish Jacobite Chapter,
with the right to constitute others. The
Chapter established at Arras, by the Pretender, was named the "Eagle and Pelican," and Oliver ( Orig. ofR. A., p. 22,) from
this seeks to find, perhaps justifiably, a
connection between it and the R. S. Y. C. S.
of the Royal Order of Scotland.
Arrest of Charter. To arrest the
charter of a Lodge is a technical phrase by
which is meant to suspend the work of a

Lodge, to prevent it from holding its

usual communications, and to forbid it to
transact any business or to do any work.
Grand Master cannot revoke the warrant
of a Lodge; but if, in his opinion, the
good of Masonry or any other sufficient
cause requires it, he may suspend the operation of the warrant until the next communication of the Grand Lodge, which body
is alone competent to revise or approve of

his action.

Arthusius, Gotthardns.

A learned

Dane, Rector of the Gymnasium at Frankfort- on -the-Main, who wrote many works
on Rosicrucianism, under the assumed
name of Irenseus Agnostus. See Agnostus.
Art Royal. See Royal Art.
Arts. In the Masonic phrase, "arts,
parts, and points of the Mysteries of Masonry ;" arts means the knowledge or things
made known, parts the degrees into which
Masonry is divided, and points the rules
and usages. See Parts, and also Points.
Arts, Iiiberal. See Liberal Arts and
Sciences.

Ascension Day. Also called Holy

Thursday.
A festival of the Christian
church held in commemoration of the ascension of our Lord forty days after Easter.
It is celebrated as a feast day by Chapters
of Rose Croix.
Ashe, I>. I>..

A literary

plagiarist

Rot. Jonathan.
who

resided in Bristol,

England. In 1813 he published The Masonic

Manwl ; or, Lectures on Freemasonry. Ashe
does not, it is true, pretend to originality,
but abstains from giving credit to Hutchinson, from whom he has taken at least

ASHER

ASHMOLE

two-thirds of his book. In 1843 an edition was published by Spencer, with valuable notes by Dr. Oliver.

the fellows afternamed Mr. Thomas Wife,

Master of the Masons' company this present year
Mr. gliomas Shorthofe, Mr.
Thomas Shadbolt,
Waidsford, Esq.,
Mr. Nicholas Young, Mr. John Shorthofe,
Mr. William Hamon, Mr. John Thompson,
and Mr. William Stanton. We all dined at
the Half-Moon-Tavern in Cheapside, at a
noble dinner prepared at the charge of the
new Accepted Masons."
It is to be regretted that the intention
expressed by Ashmole to write a history of
Freemasonry was never carried into effect.
His laborious research as evinced in his
exhaustive work on the Order of the Garter,
would lead us to have expected from his
antiquarian pen a record of the origin and
early progress of our Institution more valuable than any that we now possess. The
following remarks on this subject, contained in a letter from Dr. Knipe, of Christ
Church, Oxford, to the publisher of Ashmole's Life, while it enables us to form
some estimate of the loss that Masonic

Aslier, Dr. Carl

Wilhelm. The

translator into German of the Halliwell MS., which he published at Hamburg,

in 1842, under the title of Aelteste Urkunde
der Freimaurerei in England. This work
contains both the original English document and the German translation.
Ashlar. "Freestone as it comes out
Bailey.
In Speculative
of the quarry."
Masonry we adopt the asjilar in two different states, as symbols in the Apprentice's
degree. The Rough Ashlar, or stone in its
rude and unpolished condition, is emblematic of man in his natural state
ignorant,
But when eduuncultivated, and vicious.
cation has exerted its wholesome influence
in expanding his intellect, restraining his
passions, and purifying his life, he then is
represented by' the Perfect Ashlar, which,
under the skilful hands of the workmen,
has been smoothed, and squared, and fitted
for its place in the building.
In the older
lectures of the eighteenth century the Perfect Ashlar is not mentioned, but its place
was supplied by the Broached Thurnel.
celebrated antiAshmole, Elias.
quary, and the author* of, among other
works, the well-known History of the Order
of the Garter, and founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. He was born at
Litchfield, in England, on the 23d May,
1617, and died at London on the 18th May,
1692. He was made a Freemason on the
16th October, 1646, and gives the following account of his reception in his Diary,
p. 303.
" 1646. October 16. 4 Hor., 30 minutes
post merid., I was made a Freemason at
Warrington, in Lancashire, with Colonel
Henry Mainwaring, of Karticham, in
the names of them who were
Cheshire
then at the Lodge, Mr. Richard Penket
first

Warden, Mr. James Collier, Mr. Richard

Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam, and
Hugh Brewer."
In another place he speaks of his being
admitted into the Fellowship, {Diary, p.
362,) for thirty-six years afterwards

the following entry

" 1682. March 10.

About 5

makes

Hor., post

merid., I received a summons to appear at

a Lodge to be held the next day at Masons'
Hall, in London.

"11.

Accordingly, I went, and about

noon was admitted into the Fellowship of
Freemasons, by Sir William Wilson, knight,
Capt. Richard Borthwick, Mr. William
Wodman, Mr. William Wife.
" I was the senior fellow among them,
(it being thirty-five years since I was admitted;) there was present besides myself

91

literature has suffered, supplies interesting

particulars

which are worthy of preserva-

tion.

" As to the ancient society of Freemasons,

concerning whom you are desirous of knowing what may be known with certainty, I
shall only tell you, that if our worthy
Brother, E. Ashmole, Esq., had executed
his intended design, our Fraternity had
been as much obliged to him as the Brethren of the most noble Order of the Garter.
I would not have you surprised at this expression, or think it all too assuming. The
sovereigns of that Order have not disdained
our fellowship, and there have been times
when emperors were also Freemasons.
What from Mr. E. Ashmole's collection I
could gather was, that the report of our
society's taking rise from a bull granted by
the Pope, in the reign of Henry III., to
some Italian architects to travel over all
Europe, to erect chapels, was ill-founded.
Such a bull there was, and those architects
were Masons but this bull, in the opinion
of the learned Mr. Ashmole, was confirmative only, and did not by any means create
our Fraternity, or even establish them in
this kingdom.
But as to the time and
manner of that establishment, something I
St.
shall relate from the same collections.
Alban the Proto- Martyr of England, established Masonry here and from his time it
flourished more or less, according as the
world went, down to the days of King
Athelstan, who, for the sake of his brother
Edwin, granted the Masons a charter under our Norman princes. They frequently
received extraordinary marks of royal favor.
There is no doubt to be made, that
the skill of Masons, which was always
;

ASIA

ASSASSINS

transcendent, even in the most barbarous

times,
their wonderful kindness and attachment to each other, how different soever in condition, and their inviolable

shall find knock, and it shall be opened

unto you/' Dr. Clarke says " These three
ask, seek, knock
words
include the ideas

92

keeping religiously their secret,

must expose them in ignorant, troublesome,
and suspicious times to a vast variety of
adventures, according to the different fate
of parties and other alterations in government. By the way, I shall note that the
Masons were always loyal, which exposed
them to great severities when power wore
fidelity in

the trappings of justice, and those who

committed treason punished true men as
traitors.
Thus, in the third year of the
reign of Henry VI., an act of Parliament
was passed to abolish the society of Masons,
and to hinder, under grievous penalties, the
holding Chapters, Lodges, or other regular
assemblies.
Yet this act was afterwards
repealed, and even before that, King Henry
VI., and several of the principal lords of his
court, became fellows of the Craft."

Knights and

Asia, Initiated

Brothers

This Order was introduced in Berlin, or, as some say, in Vienna,

in the year 1780, by a schism of several
members of the German Rose Croix. They
adopted a mixture of Christian, Jewish,
of.

and Mohammedan ceremonies, to indicate,

as Eagon supposes, their entire religious
tolerance.
Their object was the study of
the natural sciences and the search for the
universal panacea to prolong life. Thory
charges them with this; but may it not
have been, as with the Alchemists, merely
a symbol of immortality? They forbade
the art of transmutation
of metals. The Grand Synedrion, properly
the Grand Sanhedrim, which consisted of
seventy- two members and was the head of
the Order, had its seat at Vienna. The
Order was founded on the three symbolic
degrees, and attached to them nine others,
all inquiries into

as follows 4. Seekers 5. Sufferers ; 6. Initiated Knights and Brothers of Asia in

;

Europe;

Masters and Sages; 8. Royal

True Brothers of Rose Croix;
Melchizedek.
The Order no longer
7.

Priests, or
9.

exists.

Many

details of

in Luchet's Essai sur

les

it will be
Illumines.

found

Asia, Perfect Initiates of.

of very little importance, consisting

of seven degrees, and said to have been
invented at Lyons.
A very voluminous
manuscript, translated from the German,
rite

was sold at Paris, in 1821, to M. Bailleul,

and came into the possession of Ragon,

who reduced

its size, and, with the assistance of Des Etangs, modified it. I have
no knowledge that it was ever worked.
Ask, Seek, Knock. In referring
to the passage of Matthew vii. 7, " Ask,
and it shall be given you seek, and you
;

of want, loss, and earnestness." The application made to the passage theologically is
equally appropriate to it in a Masonic
Lodge. You ask for acceptance, you seek for
light, you knock for initiation, which includes the other two.
Aspirant. One who eagerly seeks to
know or to attain something. Thus, Warburton speaks of " the aspirant to the MysIt is applied also to one about to
teries."
be initiated into Masonry. There seems,
however, to be a shade of difference in
meaning between the words candidate and
aspirant.
The candidate is one who asks
for admission
and the term, from candidus, white, refers to the purity of characThe aspirant is one already
ter required.
elected and in process of initiation, and
coming from aspiro, to seek eagerly, refers
to the earnestness with which he prosecutes
his search for light and truth.
Assassins. The Ishmaelians or Assassins constituted a sect or confraternity,
;

which was founded by Hassan Sabah, about

the year 1090, in Persia. The name is derived, it is supposed, from their immoderate
use of the plant* haschish, or henbane,
which produced a delirious frenzy. The
title given to the chief of the Order was
Sheikh-el-Jebel, which has been translated
the " Old Man of the Mountain," but which
Higgins has shown ( Anacal., i. 700,) to mean
literally, " The Sage of the Kabbala or Traditions." Von Hammer has written a History of the Assassins, but his opposition to
secret societies has led him to speak with so
much prejudice that, although his historical
statements are interesting, his philosophical
deductions have to be taken with many
grains of allowance. Godfrey Higgins has
probably erred on the other side, and by a
too ready adherence to a preconceived theory has, in his Anacalypsis, confounded
them with the Templars, whom he considers as the precursors of the Freemasons.
In this, as in most things, the middle course
appears to be the most truthful.
The Assassins were a secret society, that
is to say, they had a secret esoteric doctrine, which was imparted only to the iniHammer says that they had a
tiated.
graduated series of initiations, the names
of which he gives as Apprentices, Fellows,
and Masters; they had, too, an oath of
passive obedience, and resembled, he asserts, in many respects, the secret societies
that subsequently existed in Europe. They
were governed by a Grand Master and
Priors, and had regulations and a special
religious code, in all of which Von Hammer finds a close resemblance to the Tem-

ASSEMBLY

ASSASSINS

93

and the Teutonic Speculative Masonry to the ancient solar

Between the Assassins and the worship, of whom Ragon may be conTemplars history records that there were sidered as the exponent, find in this legend
several amicable transactions not at all a symbol of the conspiracy of the three
consistent with the religious vows of the winter months to destroy the life-giving
heat of the sun. Those who, like the dislatter and the supposed religious faith of
the former, and striking coincidences of ciples of the Rite of Strict Observance, trace
feeling, of which Higgins has not been Masonry to a Templar origin, explain the
plars, the Hospitallers,

Knights.

slow to avail himself in his attempt to

prove the close connection, if not absolute
It is most
identity, of the two Orders.
probable, as Sir John Malcolm contends,
that they were a race of Sons, the teachers
of the secret doctrine of Mohammed. Von
Hammer admits that they produced a great
number of treatises on mathematics and
jurisprudence; and, forgetting for a time
his bigotry and his prejudice, he attributes
to Hassan, their founder, a profound knowledge of philosophy and mathematical and
metaphysical sciences, and an enlightened
spirit, under whose influence the civilization of Persia attained a high degree so
that during his reign of forty-six years the
Persian literature attained a point of excellence beyond that of Alexandria under the
Ptolemies, and of France under Francis I.
The old belief that they were a confederacy
of murderers
whence we have taken our
English word assassins
must now be abandoned as a figment of the credulity of past
centuries, and we must be content to look
upon them as a secret society of philosophers, whose political relations, however,
merged them into a dynasty. If we interpret Freemasonry as a generic term, signifying a philosophic sect which teaches
truth by a mystical initiation and secret
symbols, then Higgins was not very far in
error in calling them the Freemasons of
the East.
;

Assassins of the Third Degree.

There is in Freemasonry a legend of certain unworthy Craftsmen who entered into
a conspiracy to extort from a distinguished
brother a secret of which he was the possessor.

The legend

is

altogether symbolic,

legend as referring to the conspiracy of the

three renegade knights who falsely accused
the Order, and thus aided King Philip and

Pope Clement to abolish Templarism, and

Grand Master. Hutchinson and

to slay its

Oliver, who labored to give a Christian interpretation to all the symbols of Masonry,
referred the legend to the crucifixion of the
Messiah, the type of which is, of course,
the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain.
Others, of whom the Chevalier Ramsay was
the leader, sought to give it a political sigand, making Charles the First
nificance
the type of the Builder, symbolized Cromwell and his adherents as the conspirators.
The Masonic scholars whose aim has been
to identify the modern system of Freemasonry with the Ancient Mysteries,
and especially with the Egyptian, which
they supposed to be the germ of all the
others, interpret the conspirators as the
symbol of the Evil Principle, or Typhon,
slaying the Good Principle, or Osiris or,
when they refer to the Zoroastic Mysteries
of Persia, as Ahriman contending against
Ormuzd. And lastly, in the Philosophic
degrees, the myth is interpreted as signify;

ing the war of Falsehood, Ignorance, and

Superstition against Truth. Of the supposed names of the three Assassins, there is
hardly any end of variations, for they materially differ in all the principal Rites.
Thus, we have the three JJJ. in the York
and American Rites. In the Adonhiramite
system we have Romvel, Gravelot, and
Abiram. In the Scottish Rite we find the
names given in the old rituals as Jubelum
Akirop, sometimes Abiram, Jubelo Romvel,
and Jubela Gravelot. Schterke and Oterfut are in some of the German rituals,
while Other Scottish rituals have Abiram,
Romvel, and Hobhen. In all these names
there is manifest corruption, and the patience
of many Masonic scholars has been wellnigh exhausted in seeking for some plausi-

and when its symbolism is truly comprehended, becomes surpassingly beautiful.

By those who look at it as having the pretension of an historical fact, it is sometimes
treated with indifference, and sometimes
considered an absurdity. But it is not thus
that the legends and symbols of Masonry ble and satisfactory derivation.
must be read, if we would learn their true
Assembly. The meetings of

To behold

the goddess in all her

glorious beauty, the veil that conceals her
spirit.

statue

must be withdrawn.

Masonic writers

who have sought to interpret the symbolism

of the legend of the conspiracy of the three
assassins, have not agreed always in the interpretation, although they have finally arrived at the same result, namely, that it has
a spiritual signification.
Those who trace

the
Craft during the operative period in the
Middle Ages, were called "assemblies,"

which appear to have been tantamount

to

the modern Lodges, and they are constantly

spoken of in the Old Constitutions. The

word assembly was also often used in these

documents to indicate a larger meeting of
the whole Craft, and which was equivalent
to the modern Grand Lodge, which was

94

ATELIER

ASSISTANCE

held annually. The York MS., about the

year 1600, says, "that King Athelstan gave
the Masons a charter and commission to
hold every year an assembly wheresoever
they would in the realm of England," and
this statement,

whether true or
'

false, is re-

Preston
peated in all the old records.
says, speaking of that mediaeval period,
that " a sufficient number of Masons met
together within a certain district, with the
consent of the sheriff or chief magistrate
of the place, were empowered at this time
To this assembly,
to make Masons," etc.
every Mason was bound, when summoned,
Thus, in the Harleian MS.,
to appear.
1650, it is ordained that "every Master
and Fellow come to the Assembly, if it be
within five miles about him, if he have any
warning." The term, " General Assembly,"
to indicate the annual meeting, is first used
in the MS. of 1663, as quoted by Preston.
In the Old Constitutions, printed in 1722
by Roberts, and which claims to be taken
from a MS. of the eighteenth century, the
term used is "Yearly Assembly."
Anderson speaks of an Old Constitution
which used the word " General " but his
quotations are not always verbally accu;

rate.

Astronomy. The

science which inus in the laws that govern the

heavenly bodies. Its origin is lost in the
mists of antiquity ; for the earliest inhabitants of the earth must have been attracted
by the splendor of the glorious firmament
above them, and would have sought in the
motions of its luminaries for the readiest
and most certain method of measuring time.
With astronomy the system of Freemasonry is intimately connected. From
that science many of our most significant
emblems are borrowed. The Lodge itself
is a representation
of the world; it is
adorned with the images of the sun and
moon, whose regularity and precision furnish a lesson of wisdom and prudence ; its
pillars of strength and establishment have
been compared to the two columns which
the ancients placed at the equinoctial
points as supporters of the arch of heaven
the blazing star, which was among the
Egyptians a symbol of Anubis, or the dogstar, whose rising foretold the overflowing
of the Nile, shines in the east
while
the clouded canopy is decorated with the
The connection bebeautiful Pleiades.
structs

tween our Order and astronomy is still

more manifest in the spurious Freemasonry

Assistance. See Aid and Assistance. of antiquity, where, the pure principles of
Associates of the Temple. Dur- our system being lost, the symbolic instrucing the Middle Ages, many persons of rank, tion of the heavenly bodies gave place to
who were desirous of participating in the the corrupt Sabean worship of the sun,
spiritual advantages supposed to be enjoyed
by the Templars in consequence of the good

and moon, and

works done by the Fraternity, but who

were unwilling to submit to the discipline

Paganism.

of the brethren, made valuable donations

to the Order, and were, in consequence, admitted into a sort of spiritual connection
with it. These persons were termed " AsThe custom was
sociates of the Temple."
most probably confined to England, and
many " of these Associates " had monuments and effigies erected to them in the

Temple Church

London.
Association. Although an association is properly the union of men into a
society for a common purpose, the word is
scarcely ever applied to the Order of Freemasonry. Yet its employment, although unusual,would not be incorrect, for Freemasonry is an association of men for a common purpose. Washington uses the term when he
calls Freemasonry "an association whose
principles lead to purity of morals, and are
at

beneficial of action."
So. Ca.

Letter to G. L. of

Astrsea. The Grand Lodge established

on the 30th August, 1815, assumed the title of the Grand Lodge of
Astrsea.
It held its Grand East at St.
Petersburg, and continued in existence
in Russia,

until 1822.

stars

a worship whose in-

fluences are seen in all the mysteries of

Asylum.

During the session of a

of Knights Templars, a part
of the room is called the asylum; the word
has hence been adopted, by the figure synecdoche, to signify the place of meeting of
a Commandery.

Commandery

Asylum for Aged Freemasons.

The Asylum for Worthy, Aged and Decayed
Freemasons is a magnificent edifice at
Croydon in Surrey, England. The charity
was established by Dr. Crucefix, after sixtoil, such as few
but himself could have sustained. He
did not live to see it in full operation, but
breathed his last at the very time when the
cope-stone was placed on the building.
Since the death of Dr. Crucefix, it has been
amalgamated with the Provident Annuity
and Benevolent Association of the Grand
Lodge.
Atelier. The French thus call the
place where the Lodge meets or the Lodge
room. The word signifies a workshop or
place where several workmen are assembled
under the same master. The word is applied in French Masonry not only to the
place of meeting of a Lodge, but also to
that of a Chapter, Council, or any other

teen years of herculean

men

AUDITOR

ATHEIST
Masonic body.

Bazot says {Man. Macon,

more

particularly applied
to the table - Lodge, or Lodge when at
banquet, but that the word is also used to
designate any reunion of the Lodge.
Atheist. One who does not believe
in the existence of God. Such a creed can
only arise from the ignorance of stupidity
or a corruption of principle, since the
65,) that atelier is

is filled with the moral and

physical proofs of a Creator. He who
does not look to a superior and superintending power as his maker and his judge,
is without that coercive principle of salutary fear which should prompt him to do
good and to eschew evil, and his oath can,
of necessity, be no stronger than his word.
Masons, looking to the dangerous tendency
of such a tenet, have wisely discouraged it,
by declaring that no atheist can be admitted
to participate in their Fraternity and the
better to carry this law into effect, every
candidate, before passing through any of
the ceremonies of initiation, is required,
publicly and solemnly, to declare his trust

whole universe

in God.

Athelstan. The grandson of the

great Alfred ascended the throne of England in 924, and died in 940. The Old Constitutions describe him as a great patron of
Masonry. Thus, one of them, the Roberts
MS., printed in 1722, and claiming to be five
hundred years old, says: "He began to
build many Abbies, Monasteries, and other
religious houses, as also castles and divers
Fortresses for defence of his realm.
He
loved Masons more than his father; he
greatly study'd Geometry, and sent into
many lands for men expert in the science.
He gave them a very large charter to hold
a yearly assembly, and power to correct
offenders in the said science and the king
himself caused a General Assembly of all
Masons in his realm, at York, and there
;

were made many Masons, and gave them a

deep charge for observation of all such
articles as belonged unto Masonry, and delivered

them the said Charter

to keep."

Athol Masons. The Duke

having been elected Grand

of Athol
Master by the

Grand Lodge

in London, which
" Ancients," an office
held in his family until 1813, the body has
been commonly styled the " Athol Grand

schismatic

was known as the

Lodge," and those who adhered to it

" Athol Masons."
See Ancient Masons.
Attendance. See Absence.
Attouchement. The name given by
the French Masons to what the English

Attributes.

The

collar and jewel

appropriate to an officer are called his attributes.
The working tools and implements of Masonry are also called its attri.

The word in these senses is much

more used by French than by English Ma-

butes.
sons.

Henry C

At one time of
Atwood,
considerable notoriety in the Masonic history of New York.
He was born in Connecticut about the beginning of the present
century, and removed to the city of New
York about 1825, in which year he organized a Lodge for the purpose of introducing the system taught by Jeremy L. Cross,
of whom Atwood was a pupil. This system
met with great opposition from some of the
most distinguished Masons of the State,
who favored the ancient ritual, which had
existed before the system of Webb, from
whom Cross received his lectures, had been
invented. Atwood, by great smartness and
untiring energy, succeeded in making the
system which he taught eventually popular.
He took great interest in Masonry,
and being intellectually

clever,

although

not learned, he collected a great number of

admirers, while the tenacity with which
he maintained his opinions, however unpopular they might be, secured for him as
many enemies. He was greatly instrumental in establishing, in 1837, the schismatic body known as the St. John's Grand
Lodge, and was its Grand Master at the
time of its union, in 1850, with the legitimate Grand Lodge of New York. Atwood
edited a small Masonic periodical called
The Sentinel, which was remarkable for the
virulent and unmasonic tone of its articles.
He was also the author of a Masonic MoniHe died in 1860.
tor of some pretensions.
Atys. The Mysteries of Atys in Phrygia, and those of Cybele his mistress, like
their worship, much resembled those of
Adonis and Bacchus, Osiris and Isis. Their
Asiatic origin is universally admitted, and
was with great plausibility claimed by
Phrygia, which contested the palm of antiquity with Egypt. They, more than any
other people, mingled allegory with their
religious worship, and were great inventors
of fables and their sacred traditions as to
Cybele and Atys, whom all admit to be
Phrygian gods, were very various. In all,
as we learn from Julius Firmicus, they
represented by allegory the phenomena of
nature, and the succession of physical facts
under the veil of a marvellous history.
Their feasts occurred at the equinoxes,
commencing with lamentation, mourning,
groans, and pitiful cries for the death of
Atys, and ending with rejoicings at his
;

restoration to

life.

An officer in the Supreme

Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite
for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United
States.
His duty is, with the Committee
on Finance, to examine and report on the
Auditor.

call the grip.

95

AUFSEHER

AUSTRIA

account of the Inspector and other officers.

This duty of auditing the accounts of the
Secretary and Treasurer is generally in-

fled, they chose the name of Freemasons, and thus founded Freemasonry.
The society thus formed, instead of conquering or rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem, was to erect symbolical temples.
This is one of the forms of the Templar
theory of the origin of Freemason.

96

Masonic bodies, to a special committee appointed for the purpose. In the

Grand Lodge of England, the auditing
committee consists of the Grand Officers
for the year, and twenty-four Masters of
Lodges in the London district, taken by
trusted, in

rotation.

Aufseher. The German name

for the

of a Lodge. The Senior Warden

is called Erste Aufseher, and the Junior
Warden, Zweite Aufseher. The word liter-

Warden

ally means an overseer. Its

cation is technical.

Augustine,

See

St.

Masonic appliSaint Augus-

tine.

Auui. A mystic syllable among the

Hindus, signifying the Supreme God of
Gods, which the Brahmans, from its awful
and sacred meaning, hesitate to pronounce
aloud, and in doing so place one of their
hands before the mouth so as to deaden the
sound. This tri-literal name of God, which
is as sacred among the Hindus as the Tetragrammatam is among the Jews, is composed of three Sanskrit letters, sounding
AUM. The first letter, A, stands for the
Creator the second, U, for the Preserver

had

Auserwahlter. German

for

Elu or

Austin. See Saint Augustine.

Australasia. Masonry was

intro-

Elect.

duced into this remote region at a very

early period after its settlement, and Lodges
were first established at Sidney, by the
Grand Lodge of England, about the year
1828. There are now over one hundred
and fifty Lodges at work in different parts
of Australasia, under warrants from the
Provincial Grand Lodges of Victoria at
Melbourne, New South Wales at Sidney,
Queensland at Brisbane, South Australia
at Adelaide, and New Zealand at Auckland.
All of these bodies derive their original authority from the Grand Lodges of England
and Ireland, and the Lodges work in the

York Rite.
Austria. Freemasonry was introduced
into Austria, in 1742, by the establishment
at Vienna of the Lodge of the Three

Cannons. But it was broken up by the

and the third, M, for the Destroyer, or government in the following year, and
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. Benfey, in his thirty of its members were imprisoned for
/Sanskrit - English Dictionary, defines the having met in contempt of the authorities.
word as "a particle of reminiscence;" and Maria Theresa was an enemy of the Instithis may explain the Brahmanical say- tution, and prohibited it in 1764.
Lodges,
ing, that a Brahman beginning or ending however, continued to meet secretly in
the reading of a part of the Veda or Sacred Vienna and Prague. In 1780, Joseph II.
Books, must always pronounce, to himself, ascended the throne, and under his liberal
;

the syllable

AUM

for unless that syllable

precede, his learning will slip away from
him, and unless it follow, nothing will be
An old passage in the
long retained.
Parana says, "All the rites ordained in
the Vedas, the sacrifices to fire, and all
sacred purifications, shall pass away, but
shall never pass away, for
the word
it is the symbol of the Lord of all things."
;

AUM

The word has been

indifferently spelled,

and AUM but the last is evidently the most proper, as the second letter

O'M,
is

AOM,

00 = U in the Sanskrit alphabet.

Aumont. Said to have been the

successor of Molay as Grand Master, and

hence called the Eestorer of the Order of
the Templars. There is a tradition, altogether fabulous, however, whioh states that
he, with seven other Templars, fled, after
the dissolution of the Order, into Scotland,
disguised as Operative Masons, and there
secretly and under another name founded
a new Order and to preserve as much as
possible the ancient name of Templars, as
well as to retain the remembrance of the
clothing of Masons, in which disguise they
;

administration Freemasonry, if not actually encouraged, was at least tolerated, and

many new Lodges were

established in AusHungary, Bohemia, and Transylvania, under the authority of the Grand
Lodge of Germany, in Berlin. Delegates
from these Lodges met at Vienna in 1784,
and organized the Grand Lodge of Austria,
electing the Count of Dietrichstein, Grand
Master. The attempt of the Grand Lodge
at Berlin to make this a Provincial Grand
Lodge was successful for only a short time,
and in 1785 the Grand Lodge of Austria

tria,

again proclaimed its independence.

During the reign of Joseph II., Austrian

Masonry was prosperous.

Notwithstanding

the efforts of its enemies, the monarch

could never be persuaded to prohibit it. But
in 1785 he was induced to issue instructions by which the number of the Lodges
was reduced, so that not more than three
were permitted to exist in each city and he
ordered that a list of the members and a
note of the times of meeting of each Lodge
should be annually delivered to the magis;

trates.

AUTHENTIC

AZARIAH

On the death of Joseph, he was succeeded by Francis II., who yielded to the
machinations of the anti-Masons, and dissolved the Lodges. In 1801, he issued a
decree which forbade the employment of
any one in the public service who was attached to any secret society. Austria has
since been closed to Freemasonry, and its
Institution has now no recognized existence
there.

Authentic. Formerly, in the science

of Diplomatics, ancient manuscripts were
termed authentic when they were originals,
and in opposition to copies. But in modern times the acceptation of the word has
been enlarged, and it is now applied to instruments which, although they may be
copies, bear the evidence of having been
executed by proper authority. So of the
old records of Masonry, the originals of
many have been lost, or at least have not
yet been found. Yet the copies, if they
can be traced to unsuspected sources within
the body of the Craft and show the internal marks of historical accuracy, are to be
But if their origin
is altogether unknown, and their statements

reckoned as authentic.

or style conflict with the known character

of the Order at their assumed date, their
authenticity is to be doubted or denied.

Authenticity of the Scriptures.

belief in the authenticity of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as a
religious qualification of initiation does not
constitute one of the laws of Masonry, for
such a regulation would destroy the universality of the Institution, and under its
action none but Christians could become
eligible for admission.
But in 1856 the

Grand Lodge of Ohio declared "that a

avowal of a belief in the divine
authority of the Holy Scriptures should be
required of every one who is admitted to
the privileges of Masonry, and that a denial of the same is an offence against the
distinct

Institution,
pline."
It

calling for

exemplary

disci-

hardly necessary to say that

the enunciation of this principle met with
the almost universal condemnation of the
Grand Lodges and Masonic jurists of this
country.

is

The Grand Lodge

of Ohio subse-

quently repealed the regulation. In 1857,

the Grand Lodge of Texas adopted a similar resolution but the general sense of the
Fraternity has rejected all religious tests
except a belief in God.
Autopsy. (Greek, avrotpia, a seeing ivith
one's own eyes.)
The complete communication of the secrets in the Ancient Mysteries,
when the aspirant was admitted into the
sacellum, or most sacred place, and was invested by the hierophant with all the apor;

rheta, or sacred things, which constituted

the perfect knowledge of the initiate.

97

similar ceremony in Freemasonry is called

the Rite of Intrusting. See Mysteries,

Auxiliary Degrees.
Oliver,

According to
(Landm. ,ii. 345,) the SupremeCoun-

cil of France, in addition to the thirtythree regular degrees of the Rite, confers six
,c
others, which he calls Auxiliary Degrees."
They are, 1. Elu de Perignan. 2. Petit
Architect. 3. Grand Architecte, or Compagnon Ecossais. 4. Maitre Ecossais. 5.
Knight of the East. 6. Knight Rose Croix.
I cannot trace Oliver's authority for this
statement, and doubt it, at least as to the
names of the degrees.

Avenue. Forming

avenue

is

a cere-

mony sometimes

practised in the lower degrees, but more generally in the higher

ones, on certain occasions of paying honors
to superior officers.
The brethren form in
two ranks facing each other. If the degree is one in which swords are used, these
are drawn and elevated, being crossed each
with the opposite sword. The swords thus
crossed constitute what is called " the arch

of steel." The person to whom honor is

be paid passes between the opposite
ranks and under the arch of steel.
Avignon, Illumiiiati of. {Illumines d' Avignon.) A Rite instituted by
Pernetti at Avignon, in France, in 1770,
and transferred in the year 1778 to Montpellier, under the name of the Academy
of True Masons. The Academy of Avignon
consisted of only four degrees, the three of
symbolic or St. John's Masonry, and a
fourth called the True Mason, which was
made up of instructions, Hermetical and
Swedenborgian. See Pernetti.
Avouchment. See Vouching.
Award. In law, the judgment pronounced by one or more arbitrators, at the
request of two parties w ho are at variance.
" If any complaint be brought " say the
Charges published by Anderson, "the
brother found guilty shall stand to the
award and determination of the Lodge."
Noes. It is not according
Ayes
to Masonic usage to call for the ayes and
noes on any question pending before a
Lodge.
to

and

Aynon.
Dyon

Aynon, Agnon, Ajuon, and

are all used in the old manuscript Con-

stitutions for

one

whom they call the son of

the king of Tyre, but

Hiram

it is

evidently meant

Abif.
Each of these words is
most probably a corruption of the Hebrew
Adon or Lord, so that the reference would
clearly be to Adon Hiram or Adoniram,with
whom Hiram was often confounded ; a confusion to be found in later times in the
Adonhiramite Rite.
Azariah. The old French rituals have
name in the high degrees sigAzarias.
nifying, Helped of God.
for

BAAL

BABYLON

B.
Baal. Hebrew, ^3. He was
divinity
naanites,

among the

the chief
Phoenicians, the Ca-

The word

and the Babylonians.

Hebrew

lord or master. It was

among the orientalists a comprehensive
term, denoting divinity of any kind without reference to class or to sex. The Sabaists understood Baal as the sun, and Baalim,
in the plural, were the sun, moon, and stars,
" the host of heaven." Whenever the Israelites made one of their almost periodical deflections to idolatry, Baal seems to
have been the favorite idol to whose worsignifies in

ship they addicted themselves. Hence he

especial object of denunciation
with the prophets. Thus, in 1 Kings (xviii.,)
we see Elijah showing, by practical demonstration, the difference between Baal and

became the

Jehovah. The idolators, at his instigation,

called on Baal, as their sun-god, to light the
sacrificial fire, from morning until noon,
because at noon he had acquired his greatAnd after noon, no fire havest intensity.
ing been kindled on the altar, they began
to cry aloud, and to cut themselves in token
of mortification, because as the sun descended there was no hope of his help. But
Elijah, depending on Jehovah, made his
sacrifice towards sunset, to show the greatest contrast between Baal and the true God.
And when the people saw the fire come
down and consume the offering, they acknowledged the weakness of their idol, and
falling on their faces cried out, Jehovah hu
hahelohim
" Jehovah, he is the God."
And Hosea afterwards promises the people
that they shall abandon their idolatry, and
that he would take away from them the
Shemoth hahbaalim, the names of the Baalim, so that they should be no more remembered by their names, and the people should
in that day " know Jehovah."
Hence we see that there was an evident
antagonism in the orthodox Hebrew mind
between Jehovah and Baal. The latter was,
however, worshipped by the Jews, whenever they became heterodox, and by all the
Oriental or Shemitic nations as a supreme
divinity, representing the sun in some of

his modifications as the ruler of the day.

In Tyre, Baal was the sun, and Ashtaroth,
the moon. Baal-peor, the lord of priapism,
was the sun represented as the generative
principle of nature, and identical with the

writer of Genesis connects with S1?^, balal,

" to confound," in reference to the confusion of tongues but the true derivation is
"
probably from BAB-EL, " the gate of El
or the "gate of God," because perhaps a
temple was the first building raised by the
primitive nomads. It is the name of that
celebrated tower attempted to be built on
the plains of Shinar, a. m. 1775, about one
hundred and forty years after the deluge,
and which, Scripture informs us, was destroyed by a special interposition of the
Almighty. The Noachite Masons date the
commencement of their order from this destruction, and much traditionary information on this subject is preserved in the
At
degree of "Patriarch Noachite."
Babel, Oliver says that what has been
;

called Spurious Freemasonry took its origin. That is to say, the people there aban-

doned the worship of the true God, and by

their dispersion lost all knowledge of his
existence, and of the principles of truth

Hence
is founded.
that the rituals speak of the lofty tower
of Babel as the place where language was
See Oman.
confounded and Masonry lost.
This is the theory first advanced by Anderson in his Constitutions, and subsequently developed more extensively by Dr.
Oliver in all his works, but especially in
his Landmarks.
As history, the doctrine is
of no value, for it wants the element of
authenticity.
But in a symbolic point of
view it is highly suggestive. If the tower
of Babel represents the profane world of
ignorance and darkness, and the threshingfloor of Oman the Jebusite is the symbol
of Freemasonry, because the Solomonic
Temple, of which it was the site, is the prototype of the spiritual temple which Masons are erecting, then we can readily
understand how Masonry and the true use
of language is lost in one and recovered
the other, and how the progress of the candidate in his initiation may properly be
compared to the progress of truth from the
confusion and ignorance of the Babel
builders to the perfection and illumination
of the temple builders, which temple builders all Freemasons are. And so, when
in the ritual the neophyte, being asked

upon which Masonry

it is

" whence he comes

travelling," replies, "

and whither is he
from the lofty tower
phallus of other religions. Baal-gad was of Babel, where language was confounded
the lord of the multitude, (of stars,) that is, and Masonry lost, to the threshing-floor of
the sun as the chief of the heavenly host. Oman the Jebusite, where language was
In brief, Baal seems to have been wherever restored and Masonry found," the queshis cultus was established, a development tions and answers become intelligible from
or form of the old sun worship.
this symbolic point of view.
Babel. In Hebrew, SlO which the
Babylon. The ancient capital of
;

BACON

BABYLON
Chaldea, situated on both sides of the Euand once the most magnificent
It was here
city of the ancient world.
that, upon the destruction of Solomon's
Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in the year of
the world 3394, the Jews of the tribes of
Judah and Benjamin, who were the inhabitants of Jerusalem, were conveyed and
detained in captivity for seventy-two years,
until Cyrus, king of Persia, issued a decree
for restoring them, and permitting them to
rebuild their temple, under the superintendence of Zerubbabel, the Prince of the
Captivity, and with the assistance of Joshua
the High Priest and Haggai the Scribe.
Babylon the Great, as the prophet Dan-

conferred

Templars

phrates,

was situated four hundred and

seventy-five miles in a nearly due east diIt stood in the
rection from Jerusalem.
midst of a large and fertile plain on each
side of the river Euphrates, which ran
through it from north to south. It was
surrounded with walls which were eightyseven feet thick, three hundred and fifty in
height, and sixty miles in compass. These
were all built of large bricks cemented
together with bitumen. Exterior to the
walls was a wide and deep trench lined
with the same material. Twenty-five gates
on each side, made of solid brass, gave
admission to the city. From each of these
gates proceeded a wide street fifteen miles
in length, and the whole was separated by
means of other smaller divisions, and contained six hundred and seventy-six squares,
each of which was two miles and a quarter
in circumference. Two hundred and fifty
towers placed upon the walls afforded the
means of additional strength and proteciel calls it,

in
in

99

Commanderies of Knights
America as a preparatory

degree.

Back. Freemasonry, borrowing its

symbols from every source, has not negI

lected to make a selection of certain parts

of the human body. From the back an

important lesson is derived, which is fittingly developed in the third degree.

Hence, in reference to this symbolism,
Oliver says " It is a duty incumbent on
every Mason to support a brother's character in his absence equally as though he
were present not to revile him behind his
back, nor suffer it to be done by others,
without using every necessary attempt to
prevent it." And Hutchinson, referring to
the same symbolic ceremony, says " The
most material part of that brotherly love
which should subsist among Masons is that
of speaking well of each other to the
world; more especially it is expected of
every member of this Fraternity that he
should not traduce a brother. Calumny
:

and slander are detestable crimes against

Nothing can be viler than to trasociety.
duce a man behind his back ; it is like the
villany of an assassin who has not virtue
enough to give his adversary the means of
self-defence, but, lurking in darkness, stabs
him whilst he is unarmed and unsuspicious
of an enemy." See Five Points of Fellowship.

Bacon, Francis. Baron of Verulam, commonly called Lord Bacon. Nicolai thinks that a great impulse was exercised
upon the early history of Freemasonry by
the New Atlantis of Lord Bacon. In this
learned romance Bacon supposes that a
tion.
Within this immense circuit were to vessel lands on an unknown island, called
be found palaces and temples and other Bensalem, over which a certain King Soledifices of the utmost magnificence, which omon reigned in days of yore.
This king
have caused the wealth, the luxury, and had a large establishment, which was
splendor of Babylon to become the favorite called the House of Solomon, or the college
theme of the historians of antiquity, and of the workmen of six days, namely, the
which compelled the prophet Isaiah, even days of the creation. He afterwards dewhile denouncing its downfall, to speak of scribes the immense apparatus which was
it as " the glory of kingdoms, the beauty
there employed in physical researches.
of the Chaldees' excellency."
There were, says he, deep grottoes and
Babylon, which, at the time of the de- towers for the successful observation of
struction of the Temple of Jerusalem, con- certain phenomena of nature; artificial
stituted a part of the Chaldean empire, was mineral waters
large buildings, in which
subsequently taken, B. C. 538, after a siege meteors, the wind, thunder, and rain were
of two years, by Cyrus, king of Persia.
imitated extensive botanic gardens entire
Babylon,
Cross of. Another fields, in which all kinds of animals were
name for the degree of Babylonish Pass, collected, for the study of their instincts and
which see.
habits; nouses filled with all the wonders
Babylonish Captivity. See Cap- of nature and art a great number of learned
tivity.
men, each of whom, in his own country,
Babylonisb Pass. A degree given had the direction of these tnings they
in Scotland by the authority of the Grand made journeys and observations they wrote,
Royal Arch Chapter. It is also called the they collected, they determined results, and
Red Cross of Babylon, and is almost iden- deliberated together as to what was proper
to be published and what concealed.
tical with the Knight of the Red Cross
;

Red

BACON

100

BACULUS

This romance became at once very popand everybody's attention was attracted by the allegory of the House of
Solomon. But it also contributed to spread
Bacon's views on experimental knowledge,
and led afterwards to the institution of the
ular,

Boyal Society,

to

which Nicolai

attributes

a common object with that of the Society

of Freemasons, established, he says, about
the same time, the difference being only
that one was esoteric and the other exoteric
in its instructions.
But the more immediate effect of the romance of Bacon was the
institution of the Society of Astrologers, of
which Elias Ashmole was a leading member.
Of this society Nicolai, in his work

on the Origin and History of Rosicrucianism

and Freemasonry, says
"Its object was to build the House of
of the New Atlantis, in the
sense, but the establishment was
to remain as secret as the island of Bensalem
that is to say, they were to be engaged in the study of nature
but the
instruction of its principles was to remain
in the society in an esoteric form. These
philosophers presented their idea in a
strictly allegorical method. First, there

Solomon,
literal

were the ancient columns of Hermes, by

which Iamblichus pretended that he had
enlightened all the doubts of Porphyry.
You then mounted, by several steps, to a
chequered floor, divided into four regions,
to denote the four superior sciences after
which came the types of the six days' work,
which expressed the object of the society,
;

and which were the same as those found on

an engraved stone in my possession. The
sense of all which was this God created
the world, and preserves it by fixed principles, full of wisdom; he who seeks to
:

know

that to say, the

approximates to God,

these principles

interior of nature

is

and he who thus approximates to God

obtains from his grace the power of commanding nature."
This society, he adds, met at Masons' Hall
in Basinghall Street, because many of its
members were also members of the Masons'
Company, into which they all afterwards
entered and assumed the name of Free and
Accepted Masons, and thus he traces the
origin of the Order to the New Atlantis
and the House of Solomon of Lord Bacon.
It is only a theory, but it seems to throw
some light on that long process of incubation which terminated at last, in 1717, in
the production of the Grand Lodge of
England.
The connection of Ashmole
with the Masons is a singular one, and has
led to some controversy. The views of
Nicolai, if not altogether correct, may
suggest the possibility of an explanation.
Certain it is that the eminent astrologers

of England, as we learn from Ash mole's

Diary, were on terms of intimacy with the
Masons in the seventeenth century.
Bacillus. The staff of office borne
by the Grand Master of the Templars. In
ecclesiology, baculus is the name given to
the pastoral staff carried by a bishop or an
abbot as the ensign of his dignity and
authority. In pure Latinity, baculus means
a long stick or staff, which was commonly

carried by travellers, by shepherds, or by

infirm and aged persons, and afterwards,
from affectation, by the Greek philosophers.
In early times, this staff, made a little
longer, was carried by kings and persons in
authority, as a mark of distinction, and
was thus the origin of the royal sceptre.
The Christian church, borrowing many of
its usages from antiquity, and
alluding
also, it is said, to the sacerdotal power
which Christ conferred when he sent the
apostles to preach, commanding them to
take with them staves, adopted the pastoral staff, to be borne by a bishop, as symbolical of his power to inflict pastoral correction and Darandus says, " By the pastoral staff is likewise understood the authority of doctrine. For by it the infirm
are supported, the wavering are confirmed,
those going astray are drawn to repentance."
Catalin also says, " That the baculus, or
episcopal staff, is an ensign not only of
honor, but also of dignity, power, and pas;

toral jurisdiction."

Honorius, a writer of the twelfth century, in his treatise De Gemma Animoz.

gives to this pastoral staff the names both
of baculus and virga.
Thus he says,
" Bishops bear the staff (baculum), that by
their teaching they may strengthen the
weak in their faith; and they carry the
rod (virgam), that by their power they may
correct the unruly." And this is strikingly
similar to the language used by St. Bernard
in the Rule which he drew up for the
government of the Templars. In Art. lxviii.,
he says, "the Master ought to hold the
staff and the rod {baculum et virgam) in his
hand, that is to say the staff {baculum), that
he may support the infirmities of the weak,
and the rod {virgam), that he may with the
zeal of rectitude strike down the vices of
delinquents."
The transmission of episcopal ensigns

from bishops to the heads of ecclesiastical

associations was not difficult in the Middle
Ages and hence it afterwards became one
of the insignia of abbots, and the heads of
confraternities connected with the Church,
as a token of the possession of powers of
;

ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
Now, as the Papal bull,

Omne datum Optimum, invested the Grand Master of the

Templars with almost episcopal jurisdiction

EACULUS

BADGE

over the priests of his Order, he bore the

baculus, or pastoral staff, as a mark of that
jurisdiction, and thus it became a part of
the Grand Master's insignia of office.
The baculus of the bishop, the abbot, and
the confraternities, was not precisely the
same in form. The earliest episcopal staff
terminated in a globular knob, or a tau
This was, however, soon replaced
cross.
by the simple-curved termination, which
resembles and is called a crook, in allusion
to that used by shepherds to draw back and
recall the sheep of their flock which have
gone astray, thus symbolizing the expression of Christ, " I am the good Shepherd,
and know my sheep, and am known of

which is a cross of the Order, surmounting

an orb or globe." {Stat, xxviii., art. 358.)
But of all these names, baculus is the one
more commonly used by writers to designate the Templar pastoral staff.
In the year 1859 this staff of office was
first adopted at Chicago by the Templars
of the United States, during the Grand
Mastership of Sir William B. Hubbard.
But, unfortunately, at that time it received
the name of abacus, a misnomer, which has
continued to the present day, on the authority of a literary blunder of Sir Walter Scott,
so that it has fallen to the lot of American
Masons to perpetuate,, in the use of this
word, an error of the great novelist, resulting from his too careless writing, at which
he would himself have been the first to

mine."

The baculus of the abbot does not differ

in form from that of a bishop, but as the
bishop carries the curved part of his staff
pointing forward, to show the extent of his
episcopal jurisdiction, so the abbot carries
his pointing backward, to signify that his
authority is limited to his monastery.
The baculi, or staves of the confraternities, were surmounted by small tabernacles,
with images or emblems, on a sort of carved
cap, having reference to the particular guild
or confraternity by whom they were borne.
The baculus of the Knights Templars,
which was borne by the Grand Master as
the ensign of his office, in allusion to his
quasi episcopal jurisdiction, is described
and delineated in Miinter, Burnes, Addison, and all the other authorities, as a staff,
on the top of which is an octagonal figure,
surmounted with a cross patee. The cross,
of course, refers to the Christian character
of the Order, and the octagon alludes, it is
said, to the eight beatitudes of our Saviour
in his Sermon on the Mount.
The pastoral staff is variously designated,
by ecclesiastical writers, as virga, ferulu,
cambutta, crocia, and pedum. From crocia,
whose root is the Latin crux, and the Italian
croce, a cross, we get the English crozier.
Pedum, another name of the baculus, signifies, in pure Latinity, a shepherd's crook,

smile,

and thus

strictly carries out the symbolic

idea of a pastoral charge. Hence, looking
to the pastoral jurisdiction of the Grand
Master of the Templars, his staff of office
is described under the title of "pedum magistrate seu patriarchate" that is, a " magisterial or patriarchal staff," in the Statuta
CommilitonumOrdinis Templi," or the " Statutes of the Fellow-soldiers of the Order
of the Temple," as a part of the investiture of the Grand Master, in the following

words
"

Pedum

magistrate seu patriarchate, aureum, in cacumine cujus crux Ordinis super

orbem exaltatur;" that is, "a magisterial
or patriarchal staff of gold, on the top of

101

had

his attention been called to

it.

Abacus, in mathematics, denotes an instrument or table used for calculation, and

in architecture an ornamental part of a
column; but it nowhere, in English or
Latin, or any known language, signifies
any kind of a staff.
Sir Walter Scott, who, undoubtedly was
thinking of baculus, in the hurry of the moment and a not improbable confusion of
words and thoughts, wrote abacus, when, in
his novel oflvanhoe, he describes the Grand
Master, Lucas Beaumanoir,as bearing in his
hand "that singular abacus, or staff office,"
committed a very gross, but not very
uncommon, literary blunder, of a kind that
is quite familiar to those who are conversant with the results of rapid composition,
where the writer often thinks of one word
and writes another.
Baden. Freemasonry was introduced
at an early period into the Grand Duchy
of Baden, and was for a long time popular.
An electoral decree in 1785 abolished all
secret societies, and the Masons suspended
their labors.
These were revived in 1805,
by the establishment of a new Lodge, and
eventually, in 1809, of the Grand Orient of
Baden at Manheim. In 1813, the meetings
were again prohibited bv Grand Ducal authority. In 1846 and 1847, by the liberality
of the sovereign, the Masons were permitted to resume their labors, and three
Lodges were formed, namely, at Manheim,
Carlsruhe, and Breiburg, which united with
the Grand Lodge of Bayreuth.
Badge. A mark, sign, token, or thing,
says Webster, by which a person is distinguished in a particular place or employment, and designating his relation to a
person or to a particular occupation. It is
in heraldry the same thing as a cognizance:
thus, the followers and retainers of the bouse
of Percy wore a silver crescent as a badge
of their connection with that family the
white lion borne on the left arm was the

BADGE

BALDWYN

badge of the house of Howard, Earl of

Surrey the red rose that of the house of
Lancaster; and the white rose, of York.
So the apron, formed of white lambskin, is
worn by the Freemason as a badge of his
profession and a token of his connection
with the Fraternity. See Apron.
Badge of a Mason. The lambskin
apron is so called. See Apron.
Badge, Royal Arch. The Eoyal
Arch badge is the triple tau, which see.
Bafomet. See Baphomet.

writers to the canopy over the Master's

102

chair.

name

The German Masons give

this

the covering of the Lodge, and

reckon it therefore among the symbols.
portion of military
Baldrick.
dress, being a scarf passing from the
shoulder over the breast to the hip. In
the dress regulations of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templars of the
United States, adopted in 1862, it is called
a "scarf," and is thus described: "Five
inches wide in the whole, of white bordered
Bag. The insignia, in the Grand with black, one inch on either side, a strip
Lodge of England, of the Grand Secretary. of navy lace one-fourth of an inch wide at
Thus Preston, describing a form of Masonic the inner edge of the black. On the front
procession, says " The Grand Secretary, centre of the scarf, a metal star of nine
with his bag." The bag is supposed.to con- points, in allusion to the nine founders of
tain the seal of the Grand Lodge, of which the Temple Order, inclosing the Passion
the Grand Secretary is the custodian and Cross, surrounded by the Latin motto, In
the usage is derived from that of the Lord hoc signo vinces
the star to be three
Chancellors preserving the Great Seal of and three-quarter inches in diameter. The
the kingdom in a richly embroidered bag. scarf to be worn from the right shoulder
The custom also existed in America many to the left hip, with the ends extending six
years ago, and Dalcho, in his Ahiman inches below the point of intersection."
Eezon of South Carolina, published in
II. The successor of God1807, gives a form of procession, in which frey of Bouillon as king of Jerusalem. In
he describes the Grand Secretary with his his reign the Order of Knights Templars
bag. In 1729, Lord Kingston, being Grand was instituted, to whom he granted a place
Master, provided at his own cost " a fine of habitation within the sacred inclosure
velvet bag for the Secretary."
of the Temple on Mount Moriah. He besignificant word in the stowed on the Order other marks of favor,
Bagulkal.
high degrees. Lenning says it is a cor- and, as its patron, his name has been reruption of the Hebrew Begoal-kol, " all is tained in grateful remembrance, and often
Pike says, Bagulkol, with a adopted as a name of Commanderies of
revealed."
similar reference to a revelation. Bock- Masonic Templars.
well gives in his MS., Bekalkel, without any
An
meaning. The old rituals interpret as sig- original Encampment of Knights Templars
nifying "the faithful guardian of the at Bristol, in England, said to have been
sacred ark," a derivation clearly fanciful.
established from time immemorial, and refusing to recognize the authority of the
Bahrclt, Karl Friederich.
German doctor of theology, who was born, Grand Conclave of England. Four other
in 1741, at Bischofswerda, and died in Encampments of the same character are
1792.
He is described by one of his biog- said to have existed in London, Bath, York,
raphers as being " notorious alike for his and Salisbury. From a letter written by
bold infidelity and for his evil life." I Davyd W. Nash, Esq., a prominent memknow not why Thory and Lenning have ber of the Bristol Encampment, in 1853,
given his name a place in their vocabu- and from a circular issued by the body in
laries, as his literary labors bore no rela1857, I derive the following information.
tion to Freemasonry, except inasmuch as
The Order of Knights Templars had exthat he was a Mason, and that in 1787, with isted in Bristol from time immemorial,
several other Masons, he founded at Halle and the Templars had large possessions in
a secret society called the " German Union," that ancient city. About the beginning of
or the " Two and Twenty," in reference to this century, Bro. Henry Smith introduced
the original number of its members. The from France three degrees of the Ancient
object of this society was said to be the en- and Accepted Eite, which, with the degree
lightenment of mankind. It was dissolved of Eose Croix, long previously connected
in 1790, by the imprisonment of its founder with the Encampment, were united with
for having written a libel against the Prus- the Templar degrees into an Order called
sian Minister Woellner. It is incorrect to the Eoyal Order of Knighthood, so that the
call this system of degree a Masonic Rite.
Encampment conferred the following seven
degrees: 1. Masonic Knight Templar; 2.
See German Union.
Baldachin. In architecture, a canopy Knight.of St. John of Jerusalem 3. Knight
5.
supported by pillars over an insulated altar. of Palestine; 4. Knight of Ehodes
6. Knight Eose Croix
In Masonry, it has been applied by some Knight of Malta
to

'

'

Baldwyn

Baldwyn

Encampment.

BALDWYN

BALLOT

of Heredom; 7. Grand Elected Knight

candidate for admission
of Kadosh.
must be a Royal Arch Mason but the degrees are not necessarily taken in the order
in which they have been named, the candidate being permitted to commence at any

should be treated with the consideration it

is believed they deserve."*
In 1857 the Baldwyn Encampments at
Bristol and Bath sought a reconciliation
with the Grand Conclave of England, but
were repulsed and consequently in the same
year they established or, to use their own
word, "revived" the "Ancient Supreme

point.

Nash gives the following account of the

nature of the difficulties with the Grand
Conclave of England
"The Duke of Sussex having been installed a Knight Templar at Paris, I believe by Sir Sidney Smith, then Grand
Master, was created Grand Master of the

103

Grand and Royal Encampment of Masonic

Knights Templars," with a constituency of

seven bodies, and elected Nash, Grand
Master. But this body did not have a long
or a prosperous existence, and in 1860 the
" Camp of Baldwyn " surrendered its inKnights Templars in England. From some dependence, and was recognized as a concause or other, he never would countenance stituent, but with immemorial existence, of
the Christian degrees connected with Ma- the Grand Conclave of England and Wales.
sonry, and would not permit a badge of one
Balkis. The name given by the oriof these degrees to be worn in a Craft entalists to the Queen of Sheba, who visited
Lodge. In London, of course, he ruled King Solomon, and of whom they relate a
supreme, and the meetings of Knights crowd of fables. See Sheba, Queen of.
Templars there, if they continued at all,
Ballot. In the election of candidates,
were degraded to the mere level of public- Lodges have recourse to a ballot of white
house meetings. On the death of the Duke and black balls. Unanimity of choice, in
of Sussex, it was resolved to rescue the this case, is always desired and demanded
Order from its degraded position, and the one black ball only being required to reject
Grand Conclave of England was formed, a candidate. This is an inherent privilege
some of the officers of the Duke of Sussex's not subject to dispensation or interference
original Encampment, which he held once, of the Grand Lodge, because as the Old
and I believe, once only, being then alive. Charges say, " The members of a particular
" In the meantime, of the three original Lodge are the best judges of it and beEncampments of England, the genuine cause, if a turbulent member should be imrepresentatives of the Knights of the Tem- posed upon them, it might spoil their
ple, two had expired, those of Bath and harmony or hinder the freedom of their
York, leaving Bristol the sole relic of the communications, or even break and disOrder, with the exception of the Encamp- perse the Lodge, which ought to be avoided
ments that had been created in various parts by all true and faithful."
of the country, not holding under any
In balloting for a candidate for initiation,
legitimate authority, but raised by knights every member is expected to vote. No one
who had, I believe, without exception, been can be excused from sharing the responsicreated in the Encampment of Baldwyn, bility of admission or rejection, except by
the unanimous consent of the Lodge.
at Bristol.
" Under these circumstances the Knights Where a member has himself no personal
of Baldwyn felt that their place was at the or acquired knowledge of the qualifications
head of the Order; and though willing for of the candidate, he is bound to give faith
the common good to submit to the autho- to the recommendation of his brethren of
rity of Col. Tynte or any duly elected the reporting committee, who, he is to preGrand Master, they could not yield prece- sume, would not make a favorable report on
dence to the Encampment of Observance, the petition of an unworthy applicant.
The most correct usage in balloting for
(the original Encampment of the Duke of
Sussex,) derived from a foreign, and spuri- candidates is as follows
The committee of investigation having
ous source, the so-called Order of the Temple in Paris; nor could they consent to reported favorably, the Master of the
forego the privileges which they held from Lodge directs the Senior Deacon to prepare
an immemorial period, or permit their an- the ballot-box. The mode in which this is
cient and well-established ceremonies, cos- accomplished is as follows: The Senior
tume, and laws to-be revised by persons Deacon takes the ballot-box, and, opening
for whose knowledge and judgment they it, places all the white and black balls inentertained a very reasonable and well- discriminately in one compartment, leaving
grounded want of respect. The Encamp- the other entirely empty. He then proment of Baldwyn, therefore, refused to send
* See letter of Davyd W. Nash to the author
representatives to the Grand Conclave of of An Historical Sketch of the Order of Knights
England, or to acknowledge its authority Templars, by Theo. S. Gourdin. Charleston, S.
in Bristol, until such time as its claims C, 1853, p. 21.
:

BALLOT

BALLOT

box to the Junior and Senior

Wardens, who satisfy themselves by an inspection that no ball has been left in the
compartment in which the votes are to be
deposited.
The box in this and the other
instance to be referred to hereafter, is presented to the inferior officer first, and then
to his superior, that the examination and
decision of the former may be substantiated
and confirmed by the higher authority of
the latter. Let it, indeed, be remembered,
that in all such cases the usage of Masonic
circumambulation is to be observed, and that,
therefore, we must first pass the Junior's
station before we can get to that of the
Senior Warden.
These officers having thus satisfied them-

one or more black balls, that " the box is

foul in the South."
The Deacon then

104
ceeds with the

selves that the box is in a proper condition

for the reception of the ballots, it is then
placed upon the altar by the Senior Deacon,
who retires to his seat. The Master then
directs the Secretary to call the roll, which

done by commencing with the Worshipand proceeding through all the

officers down to the youngest member. As

is

ful Master,

a matter of convenience, the Secretary

generally votes the last of those in the
room, and then, if the Tiler is a member
of the Lodge, he is called in, while the
Junior Deacon tiles for him, and the name
of the applicant having been told him, he
is directed to deposit his ballot, which he
does and then retires.
As the name of each officer and member
is called, he approaches the altar, and having made the proper Masonic salutation to
the Chair, he deposits his ballot and retires
The roll should be called slowto his seat.
ly, so that at no time should there be more
than one person present at the box, for the
great object of the ballot being secrecy, no
brother should be permitted so near the
member voting as to distinguish the color
of the ball he deposits.
The box is placed on the altar, and the
ballot is deposited with the solemnity of a
Masonic salutation, that the voters may be
duly impressed with the sacred and responsible nature of the duty they are called on
to discharge.
The system of voting thus
described,

is,

therefore, far better

on

this

account than that sometimes adopted in

Lodges, of handing round the box for the

members

to deposit their ballots

from their

seats.

The Master having inquired of the

Wardens if all have voted, then orders the
Senior Deacon to "take charge of the
ballot-box." That officer accordingly repairs to the altar, and taking possession of
the box, carries

it,

as before, to the Junior

carries it to the Senior Warden, and afterwards to the Master, who, of course, make

the same report, according to the circumstance, with the necessary verbal variations
of "West" and "East."
If the box is clear
that is, if all the
ballots are white
the Master then announces that the applicant has been duly
elected, and the Secretary makes a record
of the fact. But if the box is foul, the
Master inspects the number of black balls
if he finds only one, he so states the fact
to the Lodge, and orders the Senior Deacon
again to prepare the ballot-box. Here the
same ceremonies are passed through that
have already been described. The balls
are removed into one compartment, the box
is
submitted to the inspection of the
Wardens, it is placed upon the altar, the
roll is called, the members advance and
deposit their votes, the box is scrutinized,
and the result declared by the Wardens and
Master. If again one black ball be found,
or if two or more appeared on the first
ballot, the Master announces that the petition of the applicant has been rejected,
and directs the usual record to be made by
the Secretary and the notification to be
given to the Grand Lodge.
Balloting for membership or affiliation is
subject to the same rules. In both cases
" previous notice, one month before," must
be given to the Lodge, " due inquiry into
the reputation and capacity of the candidate " must be made, and " the unanimous
consent of all the members then present"
must be obtained. Nor can this unanimity
be dispensed with in one case any more
than it can in the other. It is the inherent
privilege of every Lodge to judge of the
qualifications of its own members, " nor is
this inherent privilege subject to a dispen-

sation."

Ballot-Box.

The box

in

which the

ballots or little balls used in voting for a

candidate are deposited. It should be divided into two compartments, one of which
is to contain both black and white balls, from
which each member selects one, and the
other, which is closed with an aperture, to
is to be deposited.
Various methods have been devised by
which secrecy may be secured, so that a
voter may select and deposit the ball he
desires without the possibility of its being
seen whether it is black or white. That
now most in use in this country is to have
the aperture so covered by a part of the
box as to prevent the hand from being seen

receive the ball that

Warden, who examines the

ballot, and rea

ports, if all the balls are white, that
the

when the ball is deposited.

Ballot, Reconsideration of the.

box

See Reconsideration of

is

clear in the South," or, if there is

the Ballot.

BALLOT

BALTIMORE

The
Ballot, Secrecy of tlie.
secrecy of the ballot is as essential to its
perfection as its unanimity or its independence. If the vote were to be given viva
voce, it is impossible that the improper influences of fear or interest should not sometimes be exerted, and timid members be
thus induced to vote contrary to the dictates
of their reason and conscience. Hence, to
secure this secrecy and protect the purity
of choice, it has been wisely established as
a usage, not only that the vote shall in
these cases be taken by a ballot, but that
there shall be no subsequent discussion of
the subject. Not only has no member a
right to inquire how his fellows have voted,
but it is wholly out of order for him to explain his own vote. And the reason of
this is evident.
If one member has a right
to rise in his place and announce that he
deposited a white ball, then every other
member has the same right; and in a
Lodge of twenty members, where an application has been rejected by one black
ball, if nineteen members state that they
did not deposit it, the inference is clear
that the twentieth Brother has done so, and
thus the secrecy of the ballot is at once destroyed.
The rejection having been announced from the Chair, the Lodge should at
once proceed to other business, and it is the
sacred duty of the presiding officer peremptorily and at once to check any rising discussion on the subject. Nothing must be
done to impair the inviolable secrecy of the

edition of the Constitutions, under the

head of New Regulations, (p. 155,) that "it
was found inconvenient to insist upon
unanimity in several cases and, therefore,
the Grand Masters have allowed the Lodges
to admit a member if not above three ballots are against him
though some Lodges
desire no such allowance."
And accord-

ballot.

Ballot,

Unanimity of the.

nimity in the choice of candidates

is

105

Grand
Lodge of England, says " No person can
be made a Mason in or admitted a member
ingly, the present constitution of the
:

if, on the ballot, three black

appear against him. Some Lodges
wish for no such indulgence, but require
the unanimous consent of the members
present; some admit one black ball, some
two: the by-laws of each Lodge must,
therefore, guide them in this respect but
if there be three black balls, such person
cannot, on any pretence, be admitted."

of a Lodge,

balls

The Grand Lodge

of Ireland prescribes
unanimity, unless there is a by-law of the
subordinate Lodge to the contrary. The
constitution of Scotland is indefinite on
this subject, simply requiring that the
brethren shall " have expressed themselves
satisfied by ballot in open Lodge," but it
does not say whether the ballot shall be
or not be unanimous. In the continental
Lodges, the modern English regulation prevails.
It is only in the Lodges of the
United States that the ancient rule of

unanimity

is strictly

enforced.

Unanimity in the ballot is necessary to

secure the harmony of the Lodge, which
may be as seriously impaired by the ad-

Una- mission of a candidate contrary to the

con- wishes of one member as of three or more
;

sidered so essential to the welfare of the

Fraternity, that the Old Regulations have
expressly provided for its preservation in
the following words
" But no man can be entered a Brother

in any particular Lodge, or admitted to be

a member thereof, without the unanimous
consent of all the members of that Lodge
then present when the candidate is proposed, and their consent is formally asked
by the Master; and they are to signify
their consent or dissent in their own prudent way, either virtually or in form, but
with unanimity nor is this inherent privilege subject to a dispensation because the
members of a particular Lodge are the best
judges of it
and if a fractious member
;

should be imposed on them, it might spoil

their harmony, or hinder their freedom or
even break and disperse the Lodge, which
ought to be avoided by all good and true
;

brethren."
The rule of unanimity here referred to
is, however, applicable only to this country,
in all of whose Grand Lodges it is strictly
enforced.
Anderson tells us, in the second

man

has his friends and his influence.

Besides, it is unjust to any member,
however humble he may be, to introduce
among his associates one whose presence
might be unpleasant to him, and whose
admission would probably compel him to
withdraw from the meetings, or even altogether from the Lodge. Neither would
any advantage really accrue to a Lodge by
such a forced admission for while receiving a new and untried member into its
For
fold, it would be losing an old one.
for every

these reasons, in this country, in every

one of its jurisdictions, the unanimity of
the ballot is expressly insisted on and it is
evident, from what has been here said, that
any less stringent regulation is a violation
of the ancient law and usage.
;

Balsamo, Joseph. See Cagliostro.

Baltimore Convention. A Masonic Congress which met in the city of
Baltimore on the 8th of May, 1843, in
consequence of a recommendation made by
a preceding convention which had met in
Washington city in March, 1842. It consisted of delegates from the States of New
.

BALUSTER

106

BANNERS

Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, the devices on these banners are a lion, an
Maryland, District of Columbia, North ox, a man, and an eagle but the doubt is
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Ala- constantly arising as to the relation between
bama, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, these devices and these colors, and as to
and Louisiana. Its professed objects were which of the former is to be appropriated
The question, it is
to produce uniformity of Masonic work and to each of the latter.
to recommend such measures as should tend true, is one of mere ritualism, but it is impor;

to the elevation of the Order. It continued

in session for nine days, during which time
it

was principally occupied in an attempt

to perfect the ritual, and in drawing up articles for the permanent organization of a

Triennial Masonic Convention of the United

States, to consist of delegates from all the
Grand Lodges. In both of these efforts it
failed, although several distinguished Masons took part in its proceedings the body
was too small, (consisting, as it did, of only
twenty- three members,) to exercise any decided popular influence on the Fraternity.
Its plan of a Triennial Convention met with
very general opposition, and its proposed
ritual, familiarly known as the " Baltimore
;

work," has almost become a myth.

Its

only

practical result was the preparation and

publication of Moore's Trestle Board, a
Monitor which has, however, been adopted
only by a limited number of American

The "Baltimore work" did not

materially differ from that originally established by Webb. Moore's Trestle Board professes to be an exposition of its monitorial
part a statement which, however, is denied
by Dr. Dove, who was the President of the
Convention, and the controversy on this
point at the time between these two eminent Masons was conducted with too much
Lodges.

bitterness.

tant that the ritual should be always uniform

and hence the object of the present article is
to attempt the solution of this question.
The banners used in a Royal Arch Chapter are derived from those which are supposed to have been borne by the twelve
tribes of Israel during their encampment
in the wilderness, to which reference is
made in the second chapter of the Book of
Numbers, and the second verse: "Every
man of the children of Israel shall pitch
by his own standard." But as to what
were the devices on the banners, or what
were their various colors, the Bible is absolutely silent.
To the inventive genius of
the Talmudists are we indebted for all that
we know or profess to know on this subject.
These mystical philosophers have given to
us with wonderful precision the various devices which they have borrowed from the
death-bed prophecy of Jacob, and have
sought, probably in their own fertile imaginations, for the appropriate colors.

The English Royal Arch Masons, whose

differs very much from that of their
American Companions, display in their

system

Chapters the twelve banners of the tribes

and

colors.

rately described
torical

small column or pilaster,

Baluster.
corruptly called a bannister; in French,
balustre. Borrowing the architectural idea,
the Scottish Rite Masons apply the word
baluster to any official circular or other
document issuing from a Supreme Council.

Talmudic devices
These have been very elabo-

in accordance with the

plified

by Dr.

Oliver, in his His-

Landmarks, and beautifully exemby Companion Harris, in his Royal

Arch Tracing Boards.

But our American Royal Arch Masons,
as we have seen, use only four banners,
being those attributed by the Talmudists to
the four principal tribes
Judah, EphJSalsac, liOuis Charles. A French raim, Reuben, and Dan. The devices on
architect of some celebrity, and member of these banners are respectively a lion, an ox,
the Institute of Egypt. He founded the a man, and an eagle. As to this there is
Lodge of the Great Sphinx at Paris. He was no question all authorities, such as they
But, as has
also a poet of no inconsiderable merit, and are, agreeing on this point.
was the author of many Masonic canticles been before said, there is some diversity of
in the French language, among them the opinion as to the colors of each, and neceswell-known hymn entitled, i( Taisons nous, sarily as to the officers by whom they should
plus de bruit" the music of which was com- be borne.
posed by M. Riguel. He died March 31,
Some of the Targu mists, or Jewish bibli1820, at which time he was inspector of the cal commentators, say that the color of the
public works in the prefecture of the Seine. banner of each tribe was analogous to that
Banners, Royal Arch. Much of the stone which represented that tribe in
If this
difficulty has been experienced by ritualists the breastplate of the high priest.
in reference to the true colors and proper were" correct, then the colors of the banners
arrangements of the banners used in an of the four leading tribes would be red and
American Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. green, namely, red for Judah, Ephraim,
It is admitted that they are four in number, and Reuben, and green for Dan; these
and that their colors are blue, purple, scar- being the colors of the precious stones sarand it is known, too, that donyx, ligure, carbuncle, and chrysolite,
let and white

;:

BANQUET

BAPTISM

by which these tribes were represented in

Such an
the high priest's breastplate.
arrangement would not, of course, at all
suit the symbolism of the American Royal
Arch banners.
Equally unsatisfactory is the disposition
of the colors derived from the arms of speculative Masonry, as first displayed by Der-

ivisdom, and thence suprepresented the admission of

the initiated into the secret mysteries of
the Order. From this gratuitous assumption he deduces his theory, set forth even
in the very title of his work, that the Templars were convicted, by their own monuments, of being guilty as Gnostics and
Ophites, of apostasy, idolatry, and impurity.
Of this statement he offers no other
historical testimony than the Articles of
Accusation, themselves devoid of proof,
but through which the Templars were
made the victims of the jealousy of the
pope and the avarice of the king of France.
Others again have thought that they
could find in Baphomet a corruption of
Mahomet, and hence they have asserted
that the Templars had been perverted from
their religious faith by the Saracens, with
whom they had so much intercourse, sometimes as foes and sometimes as friends.
Nicolai, who wrote an Essay on the Accusations brought against the Templars, published
at Berlin, in 1782, supposes, but doubtingly,
that the figure of the Baphomet, "figura
Baffometi," which was depicted on a bust
representing the Creator, was nothing else
but the Pythagorean pentagon, the symbol
of health and prosperity, borrowed by the
Templars from the Gnostics, who in turn
had obtained it from the School of Pythag-

mott in his Ahiman Rezon, which is familiar to all American Masons, from the
copy published by Cross, in his Hieroglyphic
Chart.
In this piece of blazonry, the two
fields occupied by Judah and Dan are azure,
or blue, and those of Ephraim and Reuben
are or, or golden yellow an appropriation
of colors altogether uncongenial with Royal
;

Arch symbolism.

We

must, then, depend on the Talmudic

writers solely for the disposition and arrangement of the colors and devices of these
banners. From their works we learn that
the color of the banner of Judah was white
that of Ephraim scarlet; that of Reuben
purple and that of Dan blue ; and that the
devices of the same tribes were respectively
the lion, the ox, the man, and the eagle.
;

Hence, under this arrangement

and it
the only one upon which we can depend
the four banners in a Chapter of Royal
Arch Masons, working in the American
Rite, must be distributed as follows among
the banner-bearing officers
1st. An eagle, on a blue banner.
This
represents the tribe of Dan, and is borne
by the Grand Master of the first veil.
2d. A man, on a purple banner.
This
represents the tribe of Reuben, and is borne
by the Grand Master of the second veil.
3d. An ox, on a scarlet banner.
This
represents the tribe of Ephraim, and is borne
by the Grand Master of the third veil.
4th. A lion, on a white banner.
This
represents the tribe of Judah, and is borne
by the Royal Arch Captain.
Banquet. See Table-Lodge.
Bapnomet. The imaginary idol, or,
rather, symbol, which the Knights Templars were accused of employing in their
is

mystic rights.
The forty-second of the
charges preferred against them by Pope
Clement is in these words " Item quod
ipsi per singulas provincias habeant idola
:

videlicet

capita

quorum

tres facies, et alia

humanum

unum

aliqua habebant
et aliqua

cranium

habebant." Also, that in all of

the provinces they have idols, namely,
heads, of which some had three faces, some
one, and some had a human skull. Von
Hammer, a bitter enemy of the Templars,
in his book entitled, The Mystery of Baphomet Revealed, (see Hammer,) revived this
old accusation, and attached to the Baphomet an impious signification.
He derived the name from the Greek words fiafyri,

baptism,

and

posed that

101

ixijriq,

it

oras.

King, in his learned work on the Gnosthinks that the Baphomet may have
been a symbol of the Manicheans, with
whose wide-spreading heresy in the Middle
Ages he does not doubt that a large portion
tics,

of the inquiring spirits of the

Temple had

been intoxicated.

Amid these conflicting views, all merely

speculative, it will not be uncharitable or
unreasonable to suggest that the Baphomet,
or skull of the ancient Templars, was, like
the relic of their modern Masonic representatives, simply an impressive symbol teaching the lesson of mortality, and that the latter has really been derived from the former.
Baptism. Masonic. The term " Masonic Baptism " has been recently applied
by some authorities to that
ceremony which is used in certain of the
high degrees, and which, more properly,
in this country

It has
should be called "Lustration."
been objected that the use of the term is

calculated to give needless offence to scru-

pulous persons

an

who might suppose

it

to be

imitation of a Christian sacrament.

But, in fact, the Masonic baptism has no
allusion whatsoever, either in form or deIt
sign, to the sacrament of the Church.
is simply a lustration or purification by
water, a ceremony which was common to
all the ancient initiations.
See Lustration.

BABD

BARKUEL

of great dignity and

the ancient Britons,
which was conferred only upon men of
distinguished rank in society, and who
It was the third or
filled a sacred office.
lowest of the three degrees into which
Druidism was divided. See Druidism.
Bastard. The question of the ineligibility of bastards to be made Freemasons
was first brought to the attention of the
Craft by Brother Chalmers T. Patton,
who, in several articles in The London Freemason, in 1869, contended that they were
excluded from initiation by the Ancient
Regulations. Subsequently, in his compilation entitled Freemasonry and its Jurisprudence, published in 1872, he cites several of
the Old Constitutions as explicitly declaring
that the men made Masons shall be " no
bastards." This is a most unwarrantable
interpolation not to be justified in any
for on a careful
writer on jurisprudence
examination of all the old manuscript
copies which have been published, no
such words are to be found in any one of
them. As an instance of this literary disingenuousness, (to use no harsher term,) I
quote the following from his work, (p. 60 :)
" The charge in this second edition [of Anderson's Constitutions] is in the following
The men made Maunmistakable words
sons must be freeborn, no bastard, (or no
bondmen,) of mature age and of good report, hale and sound, not deformed or dismembered at the time of their making.'"
Now, with a copy of this second edition
lying open before me, I find the passage thus
printed " The men made Masons must be
freeborn, (or no bondmen,) of mature age
and of good report, hale and sound, not
deformed or dismembered at the time of
The words " no bastard "
their making."
are Patton's interpolation.
Again, Patton quotes from Preston the
Ancient Charges at makings,in these words
" That he that be made be able in all degrees that is, freeborn, of a good kindred,

hibition did exist. Thus, in all the old

manuscripts, we find such expressions as
these
he that shall be made a Mason
"must be freeborn and of good kindred"
(Sloane MS.,) or "come of good kindred,"

108

Sard.

importance

title

among

'

(Edinburgh Kilwinning MS.,) or, as the

Eoberts MS. more definitely has it, " of
honest parentage."
It is not, I therefore think, to be doubted
that formerly bastards were considered as
ineligible for initiation, on the same principle that they were, as a degraded class,
excluded from the priesthood in the Jewish and the primitive Christian church.
But the more liberal spirit of modern times
has long since made the law obsolete, because it is contrary to the principles of justice to punish a misfortune as if it was a
crime.

Barefeei. See Discalceation.

Barruel, Abbe. Augustin

Barruel,
generally known as the Abbe Barruel, who
was born, October 2, 1741, at Villeneuve de
Berg, in France, and who died October 5,
1820, was an implacable enemy of Free-

masonry.
owes his

He

was a

reputation

writer,

but

principally to

the

prolific

work

entitled Memoires pour servir a L? Histoire du Jacobinisme, 4 vols., 8vo, published

in London in 1797. In this work he charges
the Freemasons with revolutionary principles in politics and with infidelity in religion.
He seeks to trace the origin of the
Institution first to those ancient heretics
the Manicheans, and through them to the
Templars, against whom he revives the old

true,

accusations of Philip the Fair and Clement

the Fifth. His theory of the Templar origin of Masonry is thus expressed (ii. 377).
" Your whole school and all your Lodges are
derived from the Templars. After the extinction of their Order, a certain number
of guilty knights, having escaped the proscription, united for the preservation of
their horrid mysteries.
To their impious
code they added the vow of vengeance
against the kings and priests who destroyed
their Order, and against all religion which

have."

anathematized their dogmas. They made

adepts, who should transmit from genera-

and no bondsman or bastard, and that

he have his right limbs as a man ought to

But on
and

referring to Preston, (edition of

all subsequent editions,) we find
the passage to be correctly thus " That he
that be made be able in all degrees ; that is,
freeborn, of a good kindred, true, and no
bondsman, and that he have his limbs as a
man ought to have."
Positive law authorities should not be
1775,

thus cited, not merely carelessly, but with

designed inaccuracy to support a theory.
But although there is no regulation in
the Old Constitutions which explicitly prohibits the initiation of bastards, it may be
implied from their language that such pro-

tion to generation the same mysteries of

iniquity, the same oaths, and the same
hatred of the God of the Christians, and
of kings, and of priests. These mysteries
to you, and you continue
to perpetuate their impiety, their vows, and
their oaths. Such is your origin. The lapse

have descended

of time and the change of manners have

varied a part of your symbols and your
but the essence of them
frightful systems
remains, the vows, the oaths, the hatred,
and the conspiracies are the same." It is
not astonishing that Lawrie (Hist, p. 50,)
should have said of the writer of such
;

BASKET

BAY

statements, that " that charity and forbearance which distinguish the Christian
character are never exemplified in the
work of Barruel and the hypocrisy of his
pretensions are often betrayed by the fury
of his zeal. The tattered veil behind which
he attempts to cloak his inclinations often
discloses to the reader the motives of the
man and the wishes of his party." Although the attractions of his style and the
boldness of his declamation gave Barruel at
one time a prominent place among anti- Masonic writers, his work is now seldom read
and never cited in Masonic controversies,
for the progress of truth has assigned their
just value to its extravagant assertions.
Basket. The basket or fan was among
the Egyptians a symbol of the purification
of souls. The idea seems to have been
adopted by other nations, and hence, " in-

the honor of his native land, to love and

honor it himself, and, if necessary, to
place his life and fortune at its disposal
internationally, a Freemason is bound to
go still further he must consider himself
as a member of that one great family,
the
whole human race,
who are all children
of one and the same Father, and that it is
in this sense, and with this spirit, that the
Freemason ought to work if he would appear worthily before the throne of Eternal
Truth and Justice." The Congress appears

itiations in the Ancient Mysteries," says

Mr. Rolle (Culte de Bacch., i. 30), "being
the commencement of a better life and the

II. it

perfection of it, could not take place till

the soul was purified.
The fan had been
accepted as the symbol of that purification
because the mysteries purged the soul of
sin, as the fan cleanses the grain."
John
the Baptist conveys the same idea of purification when he says of the Messiah, "His
fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly
purge his floor." The sacred basket in the
Ancient Mysteries was called the liknon, and
the one who carried it was termed the liknophoj'os, or basket-bearer.
Indeed, the
sacred basket, containing the first fruits and
offerings, was as essential in all solemn
processions of the mysteries of Bacchus and
other divinities as the Bible is in the
Masonic procession. As lustration was the
symbol of purification by water, so the
mystical fan or winnowing-basket was, according to Sainte Croix, {Myst. du Pag., t.
ii., p. 81,) the symbol in the Bacchic rites
of a purification by air.

Basle, Congress of. A Masonic

Congress was held Sept. 24, 1848, at Basle,
in Switzerland, consisting of one hundred
and six members, representing eleven
Lodges, under the patronage of the Swiss
Grand Lodge Alpina. The Congress was
principally engaged upon the discussion
of the question, "What can and what ought
Freemasonry to contribute towards the welfare of mankind locally, nationally, and
internationally ? " The conclusion to which
the Congress appeared to arrive upon this
question was briefly this " Locally, Freemasonry ought to strive to make every brother a good citizen, a good father, and a
good neighbor, whilst it ought to teach him
to perform every duty of life faithfully
nationally, a Freemason ought to strive to
promote and to maintain the welfare and
:

109

to

have accomplished no practical result.

truncheon or staff of a
Grand Marshal, and always carried by him

to

Baton. The

in processions as the ensign of his office.

wooden rod about eighteen inches

In the military usage of England,
the baton of the Earl Marshal was originally of wood, but in the reign of Richard

It is a

long.

him

was made of gold, and delivered to

at his creation, a custom which is still

continued. In the patent or commission

granted by that monarch to the Duke of
Surrey the baton is minutely described as
"baculum aureum circa utramque finem
de nigro annulatum," a golden wand, having
black rings around each end,
a description
that will very well suit for a Masonic baton.
Bat Parliament. The Parliament
which assembled in England in the year
1425, during the minority of Henry VI.,
to settle the disputes between the Duke of
Gloucester, the Regent, and the Bishop of
Winchester, the guardian of the young

king's person, and which was so called because of the bats or clubs with which the
servants of the contending factions, who
were stationed at the entrances of the Parliament House, were armed. This Parliament passed the celebrated Act restraining
the meeting of Masons in Chapters. See
Laborers, Statutes of.
Bavaria. Freemasonry was introduced into Bavaria, from France, in 1737.
The meetings of the Lodges were suspended in 1784 by the reigning duke,
Charles Theodore, and the Act of suspension was renewed in 1799 and 1804 by
Maximilian Joseph, the king of Bavaria.
The Order was subsequently revived in
1812 and in 1817. The Grand Lodge of
Bayreuth was constituted under the appellation of the " Grand Lodge zu Sonne."
In 1868 a Masonic conference took place
of the Lodges under its jurisdiction, and a
constitution was adopted, which guarantees
to every confederated Lodge perfect freedom of ritual and government, provided
the Grand Lodge finds these to be Masonic.
Bay-Tree. An evergreen plant, and
a symbol in Freemasonry of the immortal
nature of Truth. By the bay-tree thus referred to in the ritual of the Knight of the

BAZOT

BEAUSEANT

Cross, is meant the laurel, which, as an

evergreen, was among the ancients a symbol
of immortality. It is, therefore, properly

irremovable Masters of the Ancient Grand

Lodge of France. He had established his
Lodge at the " Golden Sun," an inn in the

110

Bed

compared with truth, which Josephus Bue St. Victor, Paris, where he slept, and
makes Zerubbabel say is "immortal and for six francs conferred all the degrees of
Freemasonry. On August 17, 1747, he oreternal."

Bazot,

Etieme Francois.

French Masonic

writer,

March

He

born at Nievre,

published at Paris, in
Vocabulaire des Francs - Magons,

31, 1782.

ganized the Order of Fendeurs, or Woodcutters, at Paris.

Beauseant.

The vexillum

belli, or

war banner of the ancient Templars, which

which was translated into Italian, and in is also used by the
1811 a Manuel du Franc-Magon, which is modern Masonic Or- Ht
one of the most judicious works of the kind der. The upper half
published in France.
He was also the of the banner was
author of Morale de la Franc- Magonnerie, black, and the lower
and the Tuileur Expert des 33 degres, which half white; black to
is a complement to his Manuel.
Bazot was typify terror to foes,
distinguished for other literary writings on and white fairness to
It bore the
subjects of general literature, such as two friends.
volumes of Tales and Poems, A Eulogy on pious inscription, Non
the Abbe de VEp'ee, and as the editor of the nobis, Domine non no1810,

Biographie Nouvelle des Contempor aires, in

20 volumes.
B. . $. P. H. G. F. In the French
rituals of the Knights of the East and
West, these letters are the initials of Beaute,
Divinite, Sagesse, Puissame, Honneur,
Gloire, Force, which correspond to the
letters of the English rituals, B. D. W. P.
H. G. S., which are the initials of equivalent words.
Beadle. An officer in a Council of
Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, corresponding to the Junior Deacon of a symbolic
Lodge. The beadle, bedellus, (DuCange,)
is one, says Junius, who proclaims and executes the will of superior powers.
Beaton, Mrs. One of those fortunate females who is said to have obtained
possession of the Masons' secrets. The following account of her is given in A General
History of the County of Norfolk, published
in 1829, (vol. 2, p. 1304.) Mrs. Beaton, who
was a resident of Norfolk, England, was
commonly called the Freemason, from the
circumstance of her having contrived to
conceal herself, one evening, in the wainscoting of a Lodge- room, where she learned
the secret
at the knowledge of which
thousands of her sex have in vain attempted to arrive. She was, in many respects, a very singular character, of which
one proof adduced is that the secret of the
Freemasons died with her. She died at

St.

John Maddermarket, Norwich, July,

1802, aged eighty-five.

Beaucenifer.

From

The

officer

fero, to carry.

Beauseant, and
the old

among

Knights Templars whose duty it was to

carry the Beauseant in battle. The office
is still retained in some of the high degrees
which are founded on Templarism.
Beaueliaine. The Chevalier Beauchaine was one of the most fanatical of the

bis, sed nomini tuo da

gloriam.
It is frequently, says Barrington,
{Intro, to Her., p. 121,) introduced among
the decorations in the Temple Church,
and on one of the paintings on the wall,

Henry I. is represented with this banner in his hand. As to the derivation of

the word, there is some doubt among
Bauseant or Bausant was, in old
writers.
French, a pie-bald or party-colored horse
and the word Bawseant is used in the Scottish dialect with a similar reference to two
Thus, Burns says
colors.
" His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face,"

where Dr. Currie, in his Glossary of Burns,

explains bawsent as meaning, " having a
white stripe down the face." It is also
supposed by some that the word bauseantmay be only a form, in the older language, of the modern French word bienseant,
which signifies something decorous or handsome ; but I much prefer the former derivation, where beauseant would signify simply
a parti - colored banner. With regard to
the double signification of the white and
black banner, the orientalists have a
legend of Alexander the Great, which may
be appropriately quoted on the present occasion, as given by Weil in his Biblical
Legends, p. 70.
Alexander was the lord of light and
darkness when he went out with his army
the light was before him, and behind him
was the darkness, so that he was secure
against all ambuscades and by means of a
miraculous white and black standard he
had also the power to transform the clearest
day into midnight and darkness, or black
night into noon-day, just as he unfurled
the one or the other. Thus he was unconquerable, since he rendered his troops in:

BEAUTY

BEHAVIOR

111

and came down sud- having established in 1813, at Paris, under

Might there not the partly real and partly pretended auhave been some connection between the thority of Lechangeur, the inventor of
mythical white and black standard of the Rite, a Supreme Puissance for France,
Alexander and the Beauseant of the Tem- and organized a large number of Lodges.
visible at his pleasure,
denly upon his foes.

We

know that the latter were

plars ?
familiar with oriental symbolism.
Beauseant was also the war-cry of the
Ancient Templars.
Beauty, Said to be symbolically one
of the three supports of a Lodge. It is
represented by the Corinthian column, because the Corinthian is the most beautiful
of the ancient orders of Architecture and
by the Junior Warden, because he symbolthe most beautiful
izes the meridian sun
Hiram Abif is also
object in the heavens.
said to be represented by the column of
Beauty, because the Temple was indebted
;

skill for its splendid decorations.

idea of Beauty as one of the supports
of the Lodge is found in the earliest rituals
of the eighteenth century, as well as the
symbolism which refers it to the Corinthian
column and the Junior Warden. Preston
first introduced the reference to the Corinthian column and to Hiram Abif. Beauty,
tiphiret, was the sixth of the
Kabbalistic Sephiroth, and, with Justice and
Mercy, formed the second Sephirotic triad
and from the Kabbalists the Masons most
probably derived the symbol. See Supports
of the Lodge.

to his

The

fONDD*

Beauty and Bands.

The names

of the two rods spoken of by the prophet

Zechariah as symbolic of his pastoral office.
This expression was in use in portions of
the old Masonic ritual in England but in
the system of Dr. Hemming, which was
adopted at the union of the two Grand
Lodges in 1813, this symbol, with all reference to it, was expunged, and, as Dr. Oliver
says, (Sym. Die.,) "it is nearly forgotten,
except by a few old Masons, who may perhaps recollect the illustration as an incidental subject of remark among the Fraternity of that period."
Becker. See Johnson.
;

Becker, Rudolph Zacharias.

very zealous

lished, in 1786,

Mason of Gotha, who puban

historical essay

on the

Bavarian Illuminati, under the

title of
Grundsatze Verfassung und Schicksale des
llluminatens Ordeu in Baiern. He was a
very popular writer on educational subjects; his Instructive Tales of Joy and Sorrow were so highly esteemed, that a
half million copies of it were printed in
German and other languages. He died in

1802.

Bedarride, The Brothers. The

Brothers Marc, Michel, and Joseph Bedarride were Masonic charlatans, notorious
for their propagation of the Rite of Mizraim,

Of these
Michel,

three brothers,

who were

Israelites,

who assumed

the most prominent

the numerous controversies

position in
which arose in French Masonry on account of their Rite, died February 16, 1856.
Marc died ten years before, in April, 1846.

Of Joseph, who was never very prominent,

we have no record as to the time of his
See Mizraim, Rite of.
The bee was among the
Egyptians the symbol of an obedient people, because, says Horapollo,of all animals,
the bee alone had a king. Hence, looking
at the regulated labor of these insects when
congregated in their hive, it is not surprising that a beehive should have been deemed
an appropriate emblem of systemized industry. Freemasonry has therefore adopted
the beehive as a symbol of industry, a virtue taught in the ritual, which says that a
Master Mason "works that he may receive
wages, the better to support himself and
family, and contribute to the relief of a
worthy, distressed brother, his widow and orphans " and in the Old Charges, which tell
us that " all Masons shall work honestly on
working days, that they may live creditably on holidays." There seems, however,
to be a more recondite meaning connected
with this symbol. The ark has already
been shown to have been an emblem common to Freemasonry and the Ancient Mysof the
teries, as a symbol of regeneration
second birth from, death to life. Now, in the
Mysteries, a hive was the type of the ark.
"Hence," says Faber, ( Orig. of Pag. Idol.,
vol. ii., 133,) " both the diluvian priestesses
and the regenerated souls were called bees
hence, bees were feigned to be produced from
the carcase of a cow, which also symbolized the ark and hence, as the great father
was esteemed an infernal god, honey was
much used both in funeral rites and in the
death.

Beehive.

Mysteries."

"Behavior. The subject of a Mason's behavior is one that occupies much

attention in both the ritualistic and the
monitorial instructions of the Order. In
" the Charges of a Freemason," extracted
from the ancient records, and first published in the Constitutions of 1723, the
sixth article is exclusively appropriated to
the subject of " Behavior." It is divided
into six sections, as follows 1. Behavior
2. Bein the Lodge while constituted.
:

havior after the Lodge is over and the

3. Behavior when
Brethren not gone.
Brethren meet without strangers, but not
4. Behavior in presin a Lodge formed.

BEHOLD

BENDEKAR

ence of strangers not Masons. 5. Behavior

at home and in your neighborhood. 6. Behavior towards a strange brother. The
whole article constitutes a code of moral
ethics remarkable for the purity of the

Belenus, like those of Abraxas and Mithras, all representatives of the sun, amounts
to 365, the exact number of the days in a
solar year.
See Abraxas.
Belgium. Soon after the separation
of Belgium from the Netherlands, an independent Masonic jurisdiction was demanded by the former. Accordingly, in
May, 1833, the Grand Orient of Belgium
was established, which has under its jurisdiction about sixty Lodges.
There is also
a Supreme Council of the Ancient and
Accepted Rite, which, Findel says, was
constituted in the year 1817.

112

principles it inculcates, and is well worthy

of the close attention of every Mason. It
is a complete refutation of the slanders of
anti-Masonic revilers. As these charges are
to be found in all the editions of the Book
of Constitutions, and in many recent Masonic works, they are readily accessible to
every one who desires to read them.
Master. When, in
the installation services, the formula is
used, " Brethren, behold your master," the

Behold Your

expression is not simply exclamatory, but

is intended, as the original use of the word
behold implies, to invite the members of
the Lodge to fix their attention upon the

new relations which have sprung up between them and him who has just been
elevated to the Oriental Chair, and to impress upon their minds the duties which
they owe to him and which he owes to
them. In like manner, when the formula
is continued, " Master, behold your brethren," the Master's attention is impressively
directed to the same change of relations
and duties. These are not mere idle words,

but convey an important lesson, and should

never be omitted in the ceremony of installation.

Bel.

/3, Bel, is the contracted form of

Baal, and was worshipped by the Babylonians as their chief deity. The Greeks
and Bomans so considered and translated
the word by Zeus and Jupiter. It has,
with Jah and On, been introduced into the
Boyal Arch system as a representative of
the Tetragrammeton, which it and the
accompanying words Jiave sometimes ignorantly been made to displace. At the session of the General Grand Chapter of the

h]?2,

United
rected;

was corand while the Tetragrammeton was

States, in 1871, this error

declared to be the true omnific word, the

other three were permitted to be retained
as merely explanatory.
Belenus. Belenus, the Baal of the
Scripture, was identified with Mithras and
with Apollo, the god of the sun.
forest
in the neighborhood of Lausanne is still
known as Sauvebelin, or the forest of Belenus, and traces of this name are to be
found in many parts of England.
The

custom of kindling

about midnight on
the eve of the festival of St. John the Bapfires

Belief, Religious. The fundamenlaw of Masonry contained in the first

tal

of the Old Charges collected in 1723, and

inserted in the Book of Constitutions published in that year, sets forth the true doctrine as to what the Institution demands
of a Mason in reference to his religious
"
Mason
belief in the following words
is obliged, by his tenure, to obey the moral
law and if he rightly understands the art,
he will never be a stupid atheist nor an
irreligious libertine.
But though in ancient times Masons were charged in every
country to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now
thought more expedient only to oblige
them to that religion in which all men
agree, leaving their particular opinions to
themselves." Anderson, in his second edition, altered this article, calling a Mason a
true Noachida, and saying that Masons
"all agree in the three great articles of
Noah," which is incorrect, since the Precepts of Noah were seven. See Religion
:

of Masonry.

Bells.

The use of a

bell in the cere-

monies of the third degree, to denote the

hour, is, manifestly, an anachronism, for
bells were not invented until the fifth century.
But Freemasons are not the only
people who have imagined the existence of
bells at the building of the Temple. Henry
Stephen tells us [Apologie pour Heroolote,
ch. 39,) of a monk who boasted that when
he was at Jerusalem he obtained a vial

which contained some of the sounds of

King Solomon's bells. The blunders of a
ritualist and the pious fraud of a relicmonger have equal claims to authenticity.
The Masonic anachronism is, however, not
worth consideration, because it is simply
intended for a notation of time
a method
of expressing intelligibly the hour at which
a supposed event occurred.

at the moment of the summer solstice,

Benac. A significant word in Symwhich was considered by the ancients a bolic Masonry, obsolete in many of the
season of rejoicing and of divination, is a modern systems, and whose derivation is
vestige of Druidism in honor of this deity. uncertain. See Maebenac.
It is a significant coincidence that the nuBendekar. A significant word in
merical value of the letters of the word the high degrees. One of the Princes or

tist,

BENEDICT

BENGAL

lntendants of Solomon, in whose quarrytraitors spoken of in the third

degree were found. He is mentioned in
the catalogue of Solomon's princes, given

Louisville, Kentucky, organized a society

under the title of the " Friendly Sons of
St. John."
It was constructed after the
model of the English society already men-

some of the

in 1

Kings

TpTD,

iv.

the son of

The Hebrew word

9.

him who

is

divides or pierces.

tioned.
No member was received after
forty-five years of age, or who was not a

In some old rituals we find Bendaca a cor-

contributing

ruption.

diem

Benedict XIV.

A Roman

pontiff

whose family name was Prosper Lambertini.

He was born at Bologna in 1675,
succeeded Clement XII. as Pope in 1740,
and died in 1758. He was distinguished for
his learning and was a great encourager of
the Arts and Sciences. He was, however, an
implacable enemy of secret societies, and
issued on the 18th of May, 1751, his celebrated bull, renewing and perpetuating
that of his predecessor which excommunicated the Freemasons. For an account of
it,

see Bull.

Benediction. The solemn

invoca-

tion of a blessing in the ceremony of closing a Lodge is called the benediction. The
usual formula is as follows
" May the blessing of Heaven rest upon
us, and all regular Masons
may brotherly
love prevail, and every moral and social
virtue cement us." The response is, "So

113

member

of a Lodge

the per

sick
members was
seventy-five cents; fifty dollars were appropriated to pay the funeral expenses of a
deceased member, and twenty-five for those

allowance

to

of a member's wife; on the death of a

member a gratuity was give i to his family
ten per cent, of all fees ano. dues was appropriated to an orphan func
and it was
contemplated, if the funds woi Id justify, to
pension the widows of deceased members,
if their circumstances required it.
I am convinced that the establishment
in Lodges of such benefit funds A s in opposition to the pure system of Masonic
charity.
They have, therefore, been very
properly discouraged by several Grand
Lodges.
;

Benevolence.
On

the

Passions,

Cogan, in his work

defines Benevo-

thus

Those who are entitled to these benefits are

affiliated Masons, their wives or widows,
their widowed mothers, and their minor
sons and unmarried daughters. Unaffiliated Masons cannot become the beneficiaries of a Lodge, but affiliated Masons
cannot be deprived of its benefits on
account of non-payment of dues. Indeed,
as this non-payment often arises from

lence " When our love or desire of good

goes forth to others, it is termed good- will
or benevolence.
Benevolence embraces all
beings capable of enjoying any portion of
good ; and thus it becomes universal benevolence, which manifests itself by being
pleased with the share of good every creature enjoys, in a disposition to increase it,
in feeling an uneasiness at their sufferings,
and in the abhorrence of cruelty under
every disguise or pretext."
This spirit
should pervade the hearts of all Masons,
who are taught to look upon mankind as
formed by the Grand Architect of the universe for the mutual assistance, instruction,
and support of each other.

poverty, it thus furnishes a stronger claim

for fraternal charity.
In 1798, a society
Benefit
was established in London, under the
patronage of the Prince of Wales, the Earl
of Moira, and all the other acting officers
of the Grand Lodge, whose object was " the

established by the Grand Lodge of England,

which is intrusted to a committee or Lodge
of Benevolence, consisting of all the present
and past Grand Officers, all actual Masters
of Lodges, and twelve Past Masters. The
object of this fund is to relieve such indi-

it be.
Amen " which should always
be audibly pronounced by all the brethren.
Beneficiary. One who receives the
support or charitable donations of a Lodge.

mote

Fund.

Benevolence,

Fund

of.

fund

and imprisoned breth- gent Masons as may be recommended by

and the protection of their widows, their respective Lodges. The opportunity
children, and orphans."
The payment of for imposition, afforded by application to
one guinea per annum entitled every separate Lodges, is thus avoided. Several
member, when sick or destitute, or his similar associations, under the name of
widow and orphans in case of his death, Boards of Relief, have been organized in
relief of sick, aged,

ren,

to a fixed contribution.

several of the cities of this country.

Benefit funds of this kind have been generally unknown to the Masons of America,
although some Lodges have established
a fund for the purpose. The Lodge of
Strict Observance in the city of New York,
and others in Troy, Ballston, Schenectady,
etc., some years ago, adopted benefit funds.
In 1844, several members of the Lodges in

Board of

See

Relief.

Bengabee. Found in some old rituals

of the high degrees for Bendekar, as the
name of an Intendant of Solomon. It is
Bengaber in the catalogue of Solomon's
officers, 1 Kings iv. 13, the son of Geber, or
the son of the strong man.
Bengal. Masonry was introduced

BENJAMIN

BIBLE

Bengal in the year 1729, by the establishment of a Lodge under a dispensation

granted by Lord Kingston, the Grand
Master of England. In the succeeding
year, the Duke of Norfolk granted a dispensation for a Provincial Grand Master
of East India, at Bengal. There are now
in the province of Bengal a District Grand
Lodge, situated at Calcutta, with twentyone subordinate Lodges a District Grand
Chapter, with nine subordinate Chapters; a
Provincial Grand Conclave of Knights
Templars, with three subordinate Encampments and a provincial Grand Lodge of
Mark Master Masons, with two subordinate
working Lodges.

the influence of Bernard and his untiring

of kindness, the Templars were
greatly indebted for their rapid increase in
wealth and consequence. He died in the
year 1153.
precious
Beryl. Heb., JJnf|.
stone, the first in the fourth row of the highpriest's breastplate. Its color is bluish-green.
It was ascribed to the tribe of Benjamin.

114
into

Benjamin.

significant word in
which refer to the

oflices

Beyerle, Francois Louis de. A

French Masonic writer of some promi^
nence towards the close of the eighteenth
century.
He was a leading member of the
Rite of Strict Observance, in which his
He
adopted name was Egnes a Flore.
wrote a criticism on the Masonic Congress
of Wilhelmsbad, which was published

under the title of Oratio de Conventu gen*

was only the erali Latomorum -apud aquas Wilhelminas,
tribes of Judah and Benjamin that re- prope Hanauviam.
He also wrote an Essai
turned from the captivity to rebuild it. sur la Franc- Magonnerie, on du but essentielet
Hence, in the Masonry of the second Tem- fondamentale de la Franc- Magonnerie ; transple, Judah and Benjamin have superseded lated the second volume of Frederic Nicothe columns of Jachin and Boaz a change lai's essay on the crimes imputed to the Temthe more easily made because of the iden- plars, and was the author of several other
tity of the initials.
Masonic works of less importance. He was a
Benkhuriin. Corruptly spelled ben- member of the French Constitutional Conchorim in most of the old rituals. A sig- vention of 1792. He wrote also some
nificant word in the high degrees, probably political essays on finances, and was a consignifying one that isfreeborn, from D'HFTp, tributor on the same subject to the Encyseveral of the degrees

second Temple, because

it

son of thefreebom.
or Beniah. Lenning gives
The son of Jah, a sigthis form, Benayah.
nificant word in the high degrees.

Benyah,
Berith.

significant
degrees.

Heb., j"V")3> a covenant.

word in several of the high

Berlin . The capital of the kingdom of

and the seat of three Grand Lodges,
namely the Grand National Mother Lodge,
founded in 1744; the Grand Lodge of
Germany, founded in 1770 and the Grand
Lodge of Boyal York of Friendship,
Prussia,

founded in 1798.

See Germany.

Bernard, David. An expelled Maunder whose name was published, in

the year 1829, a pretended exposition entitled, Light on Masonry.
It was one of
the fruits of the anti-Masonic excitement
of the day. It is a worthless production,
intended as a libel on the Institution.
Bernard, Saint. St. Bernard, born
in France, in 1091, was the founder of the
Order of Cistercian Monks. He took great
interest in the success of the Knights Templars, whose Order he cherished throughout
his whole life. His works contain numerous letters recommending them to the
favor and protection of the great. In
1128, he himself drew up the Rule of the
Order, and among his writings is to be found
a Serrno exhortatorius ad Milites Templi, or
an Exhortation to the Soldiers of the Temple, a production full of sound advice.
To
son,

clopedic Methodique.

Bezaleel. One of the builders of the

Ark of the Covenant. See Aholiab.
Bible. The Bible is properly called a
greater light of Masonry, for from the centre of the Lodge it pours forth upon the
East, the West, and the South its refulgent
rays of Divine truth. The Bible is used
among Masons as the symbol of the will
of God, however it may be expressed. And,
therefore, whatever to any people expresses
that will may be used as a substitute for
the Bible in a Masonic Lodge. Thus, in a
Lodge consisting entirely of Jews, the Old
Testament alone may be placed upon the
altar, and Turkish Masons make use of
the Koran. Whether it be the Gospels to
the Christian, the Pentateuch to the Israelite, the Koran to the Mussulman, or the
Vedas to the Brahman, it everywhere Mathat of
sonically conveys the same idea
the symbolism of the Divine Will revealed

man.

to

history of the Masonic symbolism

of the Bible is interesting. It is referred
to in the manuscripts before the revival as
the book upon which the covenant was
taken, but it was never referred to as a
great light. In the oldest ritual that we
a copy of
have, which is that of 1724,
which from the Royal Library of Berlin is
given by Krause, {Drei alt. Kunsturk, i. 32,)
there is no mention of the Bible as one
of the lights. Preston made it a part of

The

BLACK

BIBLE
the furniture of the Lodge but in rituals
of about 1760 it is described as one of the
In the American systhree great lights.
tem, the Bible is both a piece of furniture
and a great light.
Bible-Bearer. In Masonic processions the oldest Master Mason present is
generally selected to carry the open Bible,
Square, and Compasses on a cushion before
the Chaplain. This brother is called the
Bible-Bearer.
Bibliography. Of the bibliography
of Freemasonry very little, in comparison
with the importance of the subject, has
been published. In this country we have
only William Gowan's Catalogue of Books
on Freemasonry and Kindred Subjects, New
York, 1858, which contains the titles of
very few rare works and no foreign ones.
The catalogue of books in the library of
Pythagoras Lodge, published some years
ago, is really valuable but not extensive.
Garrett's Catalogue of Books on the Masonic
Institution, Boston, 1852, is full of scurrility
and falsehood, by no means atoned for by
the account of anti- Masonic literature
which it contains. To the Masonic student it is utterly worthless. In French,
we have a Bibliographic des Ouvrages, Opuscules Encycliques ou ecrits les plus remarquables, publics sur Vhistoire de la FrancMaconnerie depuis, 1723, jusques en 1814.
It is by Thory, and is contained in the first
volume of his Acta Latomorum. Though
not full, it is useful, especially in respect
to French works, and it is to be regretted
that it stops at a period anterior to the
Augustan age of Masonic literature. But
the most valuable contribution to Masonic
bibliography is the German work of Dr.
Georg Kloss, entitled Bibliographic der
Freimaurerei, published at Frankfort in
1844. Up to the date of its publication, it
is an almost exhaustive work, and contains
the titles of about six thousand volumes.
Nothing has since appeared of any value
on the subject.
;

Bielfeld,

Jaeob

Frederick.

Baron Bielfeld was born March 31, 1717,

and died April 5, 1770. He was envoy
from the court of Prussia to the Hague,
and a familiar associate of Frederick the
Great in the youthful days of that prince
before he ascended the throne. He was
one of the founders of the Lodge of the
Three Globes in Berlin, which afterwards
became a Grand Lodge. Through his influence Frederick was induced to become
a Mason. In Bielfeld's Freundschaftlicher
Briefe, or Familiar Letters, are to be found
an account of the initiation of the prince,
and other curious details concerning Freemasonry.

Birkkead, Mattkew.

Mason

who owes

115

his reputation to the fact that

he was the author of the universally-known

Entered Apprentice's song, beginning
"

Come

We

let

us prepare,

Brothers that are

Assembled on merry occasions

Let's drink, laugh, and sing;
Our wine has a spring.
Here 's a health to an Accepted Mason."

This song was first published in the Book

of Constitutions, in 1723, but must have
been composed at an earlier date, as Birkhead is there spoken of as being deceased.
He is supposed to have been a player, but
nothing more is known of his life.

Blaek.

Black, in the Masonic ritual,

constantly the symbol of grief. This is
perfectly consistent with its use in the
world, where black has from remote antiquity been adopted as the garment of
is

mourning.
In Masonry this color is confined to
but a few degrees, but everywhere has
the single meaning of sorrow. Thus in
the French Eite, during the ceremony
of raising a candidate to the Master's
degree, the Lodge is clothed in black
strewed with tears, as a token of grief for
the loss of a distinguished member of the
Fraternity, whose tragic history is commemorated in that degree. This usage is
not, however, observed in the York Rite.
The black of the Elected Knights of Nine,
the Illustrious Elect of Fifteen, and the
Sublime Knights Elected, in the Scottish
Rite, has a similar import.
In the degree of Noachite, black appears
to have been adopted as a symbol of grief,
tempered with humility, which is the virtue
principally dilated on in the degree.
The garments of the Knights Templars
were originally white, but after the death
of their martyred Grand Master, James de
Molay, the modern Knights assumed a
black dress as a token of grief for his loss.
The same reason led to the adoption of
black as the appropriate color in the Scottish
Rite of the Knights of Kadosh and the Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret. The
modern American modification of the Templar costume destroys all reference to this
historical fact.

One exception

to this symbolism of black

to be found in the degree of Select Master, where the vestments are of black boris

the combination of the two

showing that the degree is properly
placed between the Royal Arch and Templar degrees, while the black is a symbol
of silence and secrecy, the distinguishing

dered with red

colors

virtues of a Select Master.

Ball. The ball used in a Masonic ballot by those who do not wish the

Black

BLACK-BOARD

BLAZING

candidate to be admitted. Hence, when an

applicant is rejected, he is said to be
" black balled."
The use of black balls
may be traced as far back as to the ancient
Eomans. Thus, Ovid says [Met. xv. 41),
that in trials it was the custom of the
ancients to condemn the prisoner by black
pebbles or to acquit him by white ones.

midst of darkness. The star is, therefore,

in this degree, a symbol of truth.
In the fourth degree of the same Rite, the
star is again said to be a symbol of the light
of Divine Providence pointing out the way

116

"

Mos

erat antiquis niveis atrisque lapillis,

His damnare

reos, illis absolvere culpa."

Clack-board. In German Lodges the

Schwartze Tafel, or Black Board, is that on
which the names of applicants for admission are inscribed, so that every visitor may
make the necessary inquiries whether they
are or are not worthy of acceptance.

Black Brothers, Order of the.

Lenning says that the Schwartzen Briider was
one of the College Societies of the German
Universities.

The members of the Order,

this, and claimed an origin

Thory (Act. Lat., i. 313,)
as early as 1675.
says that it was largely spread through Germany, having its seat for a long time at
Giessen and at Marburg, which in 1783
was removed to Frankfort on the Oder. The
same writer asserts that at first the members observed the dogmas and ritual of the
Kadosh, but that afterwards the Order, becoming a political society, gave rise to the
Free Corps, which in 1813 was commanded

however, denied

by Major Lutzow.
Blazing Star. The Blazing Star,
which is not, however, to be confounded
with the Five-Pointed Star, is one of the
most important symbols of Freemasonry,
and makes its appearance in several of the
degrees.
first

" It is," says Hutchinson, " the

and most exalted object that demands

our attention in the Lodge." It undoubtedly derives this importance, first, from the
repeated use that is made of it as a Masonic emblem and secondly, from its great
antiquity as a symbol derived from other
and older systems.
Extensive as has been the application of
this symbol in the Masonic ritual, it is not
surprising that there has been a great difference of opinion in relation to its true
signification. But this difference of opinion
has been almost entirely confined to its use
in the first degree.
In the higher degrees,
where there has been less opportunity of
innovation, the uniformity of meaning attached to the star has been carefully preserved.
In the twenty-eighth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, the explanation
given of the Blazing Star, is, that it is symbolic of a true Mason, who, by perfecting
himself in the way of truth, that is to say,
;

by advancing in knowledge, becomes like a

blazing star, shining with brilliancy in the

of truth.
In the ninth degree, this symbol is called
" the star of direction " and while it primitively alludes to an especial guidance given
for a particular purpose expressed in the
degree, it still retains, in a remoter sense,
its usual signification as an emblem of Divine Providence guiding and directing the
pilgrim in his journey through life.
;

When, however, we descend

Ancient

to

Craft Masonry, we shall find a considerable

diversity in the application of this symbol.
In the earliest rituals, immediately after
the revival of 1717, the Blazing Star is not
mentioned, but it was not long before it
was introduced. In the ritual of 1735 it
is detailed as a part of the furniture of a
Lodge, with the explanation that the " Mo-

Pavement is the Ground Floor of the

Lodge, the Blazing Star the Centre, and the
Indented Tarsel the Border round about
In a primitive Tracing Board of the
it "
Entered Apprentice, copied by Oliver, in
his Historical Landmarks, (i. 133,) without
other date than that it was "published
early in the last century/'" the Blazing Star
occupies a prominent position in the centre of the Tracing Board. Oliver says that
saic

represented Beauty, and was called

" the glory in the centre."
In the lectures subsequently prepared by

it

Dunckerley, and adopted by the Grand

Lodge, the Blazing Star was said to represent " the star which led the wise

men

to

Bethlehem, proclaiming to mankind the

nativity of the Son of God, and here conducting our spiritual progress to the Author
of our redemption."
In the Prestonian lecture, the Blazing
Star, with the Mosaic Pavement and the
Tasselated Border, are called the Ornaments of the Lodge, and the Blazing Star
is thus explained
" The Blazing Star, or glory in the centre,
reminds us of that awful period when the
Almighty delivered the two tables of stone,
containing the ten commandments, to his
faithful servant Moses on Mount Sinai,
when the rays of his divine glory shone so
bright that none could behold it without
It also reminds us of
fear and trembling.
the omnipresence of the Almighty, overshadowing us with his divine love, and dispensing his blessings amongst us and by
its being placed in the centre, it further reminds us, that wherever we may be assembled together, God is in the midst of us,
seeing our actions, and observing the secret
intents and movements of our hearts."
;

BLAZING

BLAZING

In the lectures taught by Webb, and

very generally adopted in this country, the
Blazing Star is said to be " commemorative
of the star which appeared to guide the
wise men of the East to the place of our
Saviour's nativity," and it is subsequently
explained as hieroglyphically representing
divine Providence. But the commemorative allusion to the Star of Bethlehem
seeming to some to be objectionable, from
its peculiar application to the Christian
religion, at the revision of the lectures
made in 1843 by the Baltimore Convention,
this explanation was omitted, and the allusion to divine Providence alone retained.
In Hutchinson's system, the Blazing Star
" It
is considered a symbol of Prudence.
is

placed," says he, " in the centre, ever to

be present to the eye of the Mason, that

his heart may be attentive to the dictates
and steadfast in the laws of Prudence
for Prudence is the rule of all virtues;
Prudence is the path which leads to every
degree of propriety Prudence is the chan;

whence self-approbation flows forever

she leads us forth to worthy actions, and, as
nel

a Blazing Star, enlighteneth us through the

dreary and darksome paths of this life."
{Sp. of Mas., Lect. V., p. 68.)
Hutchinson
also adopted Dunckerley's allusion to the
Star of Bethlehem, but only as a secondary

symbolism.
In another series of lectures formerly in
use in America, but which I believe is now
abandoned, the Blazing Star is said to be
"emblematical of that Prudence which
ought to appear conspicuous in the conduct
of every Mason and is more especially
commemorative of the star which appeared
in the east to guide the wise men to Bethlehem, and proclaim the birth and the
presence of the Son of God."
The Masons on the Continent of Europe,
" It is no
speaking of the symbol, say
matter whether the figure of which the
Blazing Star forms the centre be a square,
triangle, or circle, it still represents the
sacred name of God, as an universal spirit
who enlivens our hearts, who purifies our
reason, who increases our knowledge, and
;

who makes

us wiser and better men."

revised by
the Grand
Lodge of England at the union in 1813,
and now constituting the authorized lectures
of that jurisdiction, we find the following

And lastly, in the lectures

Dr. Hemming and adopted by

definition
" The Blazing Star, or glory in the centre,
refers us to the sun, which enlightens the
earth with its refulgent rays, dispensing its
blessings to mankind at large, and giving
light and life to all things here below."
Hence we find that at different times the
Blazing Star has been declared to be a sym-

'

117

bol of divine Providence, of the Star of

Bethlehem, of Prudence, of Beauty, and
of the Sun. Before we can attempt to decide upon these various opinions, and adopt
the true signification, it is necessary to extend our investigations into the antiquity
of the emblem, and inquire what was the
meaning given to it by the nations who
first established it as a symbol.
Sabaism, or the worship of the stars, was
one of the earliest deviations from the true
system of religion. One of its causes was
the universally established doctrine among
the idolatrous nations of antiquity, that
each star was animated by the soul of a
hero god, who had once dwelt incarnate
upon earth. Hence, in the hieroglyphical
system, the star denoted a god. To this
signification, allusion is made by the prophet Amos, when he says to the Israelites,
while reproaching them for their idolatrous
habits " But ye have borne the tabernacle
of your Moloch and Chiun your images,
the star of your god, w hich ye made to
yourselves."
Amos v. 26.
This idolatry was early learned by the
Israelites from their Egyptian taskmasters
and so unwilling were they to abandon it,
that Moses found it necessary strictly to
forbid the worship of anything "that is in
heaven above " notwithstanding w hich we
:

find the Jews repeatedly committing the

sin which had been so expressly forbidden.
Saturn was the star to whose worship they
wT ere more particularly addicted under the

names of Moloch and Chiun, already mentioned in the passage quoted from Amos.
The planet Saturn was worshipped under
the names of Moloch, Malcom or Milcom by
the Ammonites, the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, and the Carthaginians, and under that
of Chiun by the Israelites in the desert. Saturn was worshipped among the Egyptians
under the name of Raiphan, or, as
called in the Septuagint, Kemphan.

it

is

St

Paul, quoting the passage of Amos, says,

" ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch and
the star of your god Bemphan."
Hale, in his Analysis of Chronology, says,
in alluding to this passage of St. Paul,
" There is no direct evidence that the Israelites worshipped the dog-star in the wilderbut the indirect
ness, except this passage
is very strong, drawn from the general prohibition of the worship of the sun, moon,
and stars, to which they must have been
prone. And this w as peculiarly an Egyptian idolatry, where the dog-star was worshipped, as notifying by his heliacal rising,
or emersion from the sun's rays, the regular commencement of the periodical inunAnd the Israelite
dation of the Nile.
sculptures at the cemetery of Kibroth-Hattaavah, or graves of lust, in the neighbor;

BLAZING

118

hood of

Sinai,

remarkably abound in hie-

roglyphics of the dog-star, represented as a

human figure with a dog's head. That
they afterwards sacrificed to the dog-star,
there is express evidence in Josiah's description of idolatry, where the Syriac
Mazaloth (improperly termed planets) denotes the dog-star in Arabic, Mazaroth."
Fellows, in his Exposition of the Mysteries, says that this dog-star, the Anubis
of the Egyptians, is the Blazing Star of
Masonry, and supposing that the latter is
a symbol of Prudence, which indeed it was
in some of the ancient lectures, he goes on
to remark: "What connection can possibly
exist between a star and prudence, except
allegorically in reference to the caution
that was indicated to the Egyptians by the
first appearance of this star, which warned
them of approaching danger." But it will
hereafter be seen that he has totally misapprehended the true signification of the Masonic symbol. The work of Fellows, it
may be remarked, is an unsystematic compilation of undigested learning; but the
student who is searching for truth must
carefully eschew all his deductions as to
the genius and spirit of Freemasonry.
Notwithstanding a few discrepancies may
have occurred in the Masonic lectures, as
arranged at various periods and by different
authorities, the concurrent testimony of the
ancient religions, and the hieroglyphic language, prove that the star was a symbol of
God. It was so used by the prophets of
old in their metaphorical style, and it has
so been generally adopted by Masonic inThe application of the Blazing
structors.
Star as an emblem of the Saviour, has
been made by those writers who give a
Christian explanation of our emblems, and
to the Christian Mason such an application will not be objectionable. But those
who desire to refrain from anything that
may tend to impair the tolerance of our
system, will be disposed to embrace a more
universal explanation, which may be received alike by all the disciples of the
Order, whatever may be their peculiar religious views. Such persons will rather accept the expression of Dr. Oliver, who,
though much disposed to give a Christian
character to our Institution, says, "the
great Architect of the Universe is therefore symbolized in Freemasonry by the
Blazing Star, as the herald of our salva(Symb. Glory, p. 292.)
tion."
Before concluding, a few words may be
said as to the form of the Masonic symbol.
It is not an heraldic star or estoille, for that
always consists of six points, while the Masonic star is made with five points. This,
perhaps, was with some involuntary allusion to the five Points of Fellowship. But
;

BLOW
the error has been committed in all our
modern Tracing Boards of making the star
with straight points, which form, of course,
does not represent a blazing star. Guillim
" All stars should
(JDisp. of Herald) says
be made with waved points, because our
eyes tremble at beholding them."
In the early Tracing Board already referred to, the star with five straight points
is superimposed upon another of five waving points. But the latter are now abandoned, and we have in the representations
of the present day the incongruous symbol
of a blazing star with five straight points.
In the centre of the star there was always
placed the letter G> which, like the Hebrew yod, was a recognized symbol of
God, and thus the symbolic reference of
the Blazing Star to divine Providence is
greatly strengthened.
:

Blazing Star, Order of the. The

Baron Tschoudy was the author of a work
entitled The Blazing Star. (See Tschoudy.)
On the principles inculcated in this work,
he established, says Thory, at Paris, in 1766,
an order called " The Order of the Blazing

Star," which consisted of degrees of chivalry ascending to the Crusades, after the
Templar system of Bamsay. It never,
however, assumed the prominent position
of an active Rite.
Blessing. See Benediction.

Blind. A blind man cannot be initiated into Masonry under the operation of
the old regulation, which requires physical
perfection in a candidate.
Blindness. Physical blindness in
Masonry, as in the language of the Scriptures, is symbolic of the deprivation of
moral and intellectual light. It is equivalent to the darkness of the Ancient Mysteries in which the neophytes were enshrouded
for periods varying from a few hours to many
days. The Masonic candidate, therefore,
represents one immersed in intellectual
darkness, groping in the search for that
Divine light and truth which are the obSee Darkness.
jects of a Mason's labor.
Blow. The three blows given to the
Builder, according to the legend of the
third degree, have been differently interpreted as symbols in the different systems
of Masonry, but always with some reference
to adverse or malignant influences exercised
on humanity, of whom Hiram is considered
as the type/ Thus, in the symbolic degrees
of Ancient Craft Masonry, the three blows
are said to be typical of the trials and temptations to which man is subjected in youth
and manhood, and to death, whose victim
he becomes in old age. Hence the three
Assassins are the three stages of human life.
In the high degrees, such as the Kadoshe3,
which are founded on the Templar system

BLUE

BLUE

of Eamsay, the reference is naturally made

to the destruction of the Order, which was
effected by the combined influences of
Tyranny, Superstition, and Ignorance,
which are therefore symbolized by the three
blows while the three Assassins are also
said sometimes to be represented by Squire
de Floreau, Naffodei, and the Prior of
Montfaucon, the three perjurers who swore
away the lives of De Molay and his
Knights. In the astronomical theory of
Freemasonry, which makes it a modern
modification of the ancient sun-worship, a
theory advanced by Eagon, the three blows
are symbolic of the destructive influences
of the three winter months, by which Hiram,
or the Sun, is shorn of his vivifying power.
Des Etangs has generalized the Templar
theory, and, supposing Hiram to be the symbol of eternal reason, interprets the blows
as the attacks of those vices which deprave
and finally destroy humanity. However
interpreted for a special theory, Hiram the
Builder always represents, in the science of
Masonic symbolism, the principle of good;
and then the three blows are the contending principles of evil.
Blue. This is emphatically the color
of Masonry. It is the appropriate tincture
of the Ancient Craft degrees. It is to the
Mason a symbol of universal friendship and
benevolence, because, as it is the color of
the vault of heaven, which embraces and
covers the whole globe, we are thus reminded that in the breast of every brother
these virtues should be equally as extensive.
It is therefore the only color, except white,
which should be used in a Master's Lodge.
Decorations of any other color would be
highly inappropriate.
Among the religious institutions of the
Jews, blue was an important color. The
robe of the high priest's ephod, the ribbon
for his breastplate, and for the plate of the
mitre, were to be blue.
The people were
directed to wear a ribbon of this color above
the fringe of their garments and it was the
color of one of the veils of the tabernacle,
where, Josephus says, it represented the
element of air. The Hebrew word used on
these occasions to designate the color blue

the symbol of truth, and the candidate, in

the initiation into the sacred rites of Druidism, was invested with a robe composed of
the three colors white, blue, and green.
The Egyptians esteemed blue as a sacred
color, and the body of Amun, the princi-j
pal god of their theogony, was painted light
blue, to imitate, as Wilkinson remarks,
" his peculiarly exalted and heavenly
nature."
The ancient Babylonians clothed their
idols in blue, as we learn from the prophet
Jeremiah. The Chinese, in their mystical
philosophy, represented blue as the symbol
of the deity, because, being, as they say,
compounded of black and red, this color is
a fit representation of the obscure and
brilliant, the male and female, or active
and passive principles.
The Hindoos assert that their god,Vishnu,
was represented of a celestial blue, thus indicating that wisdom emanating from God
was to be symbolized by this color.
Among the mediaeval Christians blue
was sometimes considered as an emblem of
immortality, as red was of the divine love.
Portal says that blue was the symbol of
" The
perfection, hope, and constancy.
color of the celebrated dome, azure," says
Weale, in his treatise on Symbolic Colors,
"was in divine language the symbol of
eternal truth in consecrated language, of
immortality and in profane language, of

is

rhjn,

tehelet;

and

this

word seems

to

have

a singular reference to the symbolic character of the color, for it is derived from a
root signifying perfection ; now it is wellknown that, among the ancients, initiation
into the mysteries and perfection were synonymous terms and hence the appropriate
color of the greatest of all the systems of
initiation may well be designated by a word
;

which

also signifies perfection.

This color also held a prominent position

in the symbolism of the Gentile nations of
antiquity.
Among the Druids, blue was

119

fidelity."

Besides the three degrees of Ancient

Craft Masonry, of which blue is the appropriate color, this tincture is also to be found
in several other degrees, especially of the
Scottish Bite, where it bears various symbolic significations all, however, more or
less related to its original character, as representing universal friendship and benevo;

lence.

In the degree of Grand Pontiff, the nineteenth of the Scottish Bite, it is the predominating color, and is there said to be.
symbolic of the mildness, fidelity, and gentleness which ought to be the characteristics of every true and faithful brother.
In the degree of Grand Master of all
Symbolic Lodges, the blue and yellow,
which are its appropriate colors, are said
to refer to the appearance of Jehovah to
Moses on Mount Sinai in clouds of azure
and gold, and hence in this degree the
color is rather an historical than a moral
symbol.
The blue color of the tunic and apron,
which constitutes a part of the investiture
of a Prince of the Tabernacle, or twentyfourth degree in the Scottish Rite, alludes to
the whole symbolic character of the degree,
whose teachings refer to our removal from
this tabernacle of clay to " that house not

120

BODE

BLUE

made with

hands, eternal in the heavens."

in this degree is, therefore, a
symbol of heaven, the seat of our celestial
tabernacle.

The blue

Blue Blanket. The Lodge of Jourcity of Edinburgh, is in

possession of a blue blanket, which is used
as a banner in Masonic processions. The
history of it is thus given in the London

neymen, in the

Magazine:

number of Scotch mechanics followed

Allan, Lord Steward of Scotland, to the
holy wars in Palestine, and took with them
a banner, on which were inscribed the following words from the 51st Psalm, viz.
"In bona voluntate tua edificentur muri
Fighting under the banner, these valiant Scotchmen were present
at the capture of Jerusalem, and other
towns in the Holy Land and, on their return to their own country, they deposited
the banner, which they styled " The Banner of the Holy Ghost," at the altar of St.
Eloi, the patron saint of the Edinburgh
Tradesmen, in the church of St. Giles. It
was occasionally unfurled, or worn as a
mantle by the representatives of the trades
in the courtly and religious pageants that
in former times were of frequent occurrence
In 1482, James
in the Scottish capital.
III., in consequence of the assistance which
he had received from the Craftsmen of
Edinburgh, in delivering him from the
castle in which he was kept a prisoner, and
paying a debt of 6,000 marks which he

was repaired by lining it with blue silk, so

it can be exposed without subjecting it

that

much

to

The first three degrees of Freemasonry are so called from

the blue color which is peculiar to them.
symbolic Lodge, in
IiOdge.
which the first three degrees of Masonry
are conferred, is so called from the color of
its decorations.
Masonry. The degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master
Mason are called Blue Masonry.
Master. In some of the high
degrees, these words are used to designate

had contracted in making preparations

for

the marriage of his son, the Duke of Rothsay, to Cecil, daughter of Edward IV., of
England, conferred on the good town
several valuable privileges, and renewed
to the Craftsmen their favorite banner of
"The Blue Blanket." James's queen, Margaret of Denmark, to show her gratitude
and respect to the Crafts, painted on the
banner, with her own hands, a St. Andrew's
cross, a crown, a thistle, and a hammer,
with the following inscription " Fear God
and honor the king grant him a long life
and a prosperous reign, and we shall ever
pray to be faithful for the defence of his
sacred majesty's royal person till death."
The king decreed that in all time coming,
this flag should be the standard of the
Crafts within burgh, and that it should be
unfurled in defence of their own rights,
and in protection of their sovereign. The
privilege of displaying it at the Masonic
procession was granted to the journeymen,
in consequence of their original connection with the Masons of Mary's Chapel,
one of the fourteen incorporated trades of
the city.
" The Blue Blanket " was long in a very
tattered condition but some years ago it
:

Blue

Blue

Blue

a Master Mason.

Board of General Purposes.

Hierosolymae."

injury.

Blue Degrees.

An

organization attached to the Grand

Lodge of England, consisting of a President and twenty-four other members, with
the Grand Master, Pro Grand Master,
Deputy Grand Master, and the Grand
Wardens. The President and ten of the
twenty-four members are annually nominated by the Grand Master, and the remaining fourteen are elected by the Grand
Lodge from the Masters and Past Masters

This board has authority

all subjects of Ma-

of the Lodges.
to hear

and determine

sonic complaints, or irregularity respecting

Lodges or individual Masons, when regularly brought before it, and generally to
take cognizance of all matters relating to
the Craft.

Board of Relief.

See

Belief,

Board

of

Boaz. The name

of the

left

hand

pil-

lar that stood at the porch of King Solomon's Temple. It is derived from the Hebrew 2, b, " in," and \ty, oaz, " strength,"
and signifies " in strength." See Pillars of
the Porch.

Bode, Johann Joaehim Christoph.

Born

ary, 1730.

in Brunswick, 16th of Janu-

One

of the most distinguished

Masons of

In his youth he was

his time.
a professional musician, but in 1757 he
established himself at Hamburg as a bookseller, and was initiated into the Masonic

He obtained much reputation by the

translation of Sterne's Sentimental Journey,
and Tristram Shandy ; of Goldsmith's Vicar
of Wakefield ; Smollett's Humphrey Clinker;
and of Fielding's Tom Jones, from the English
and of Montaigne's works from the
French. To Masonic literature he made
many valuable contributions among others, he translated from the French Bonneville's celebrated work entitled Les Jesuites
Order.

chassis de la Maconnerie et leur poignard brise

par les Macons, which contains a comparison of Scottish Masonry with the Templarism of the fourteenth century. Bode was
at one time a zealous promoter of the Bite

BOEBER

BONAIM

of Strict Observance, but afterwards became

one of its most active opponents. In 1790
he joined the Order of the Illuminati, obtaining the highest degree in its second
class, and at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad
he advocated the opinions of Weishaupt.
No man of his day was better versed
than he in the history of Freemasonry, or
possessed a more valuable and extensive
library no one was more diligent in increasing his stock of Masonic knowledge, or
more anxious to avail himself of the rarest
sources of learning. Hence, he has always
held an exalted position among the Masonic
scholars of Germany. The theory which he
had conceived on the origin of Freemasonry,
a theory, however, which the investigations of subsequent historians have proved
to be untenable,
was, that the Order
was invented by the Jesuits, in the seventeenth century, as an instrument for the reestablishment of the Roman Church in England, covering it for their own purposes under the mantle of Templarism. Bode died
at Weimar on the 13th of December, 1793.
;

Boeber, Johann. A

Royal Coun-

of State and Director of the School of

Cadets at St. Petersburg during the reign
of Alexander I. In 1805 he induced the
emperor to revoke the edicts made by Paul
I. and himself against the Freemasons.
His representations of the true character
of the Institution induced the emperor to
seek and obtain initiation. Boeber may
be considered as the reviver of Masonry in
the Russian dominions, and was Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge from 1811
cillor

most

cele-

brated of the Mystics of the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries, born near Gorlitz,
in 1575, and died in 1624.
His system
attracted, and continued to attract long
after his death, many disciples in Germany.
Among these, in time, were several Freemasons, who sought to incorporate the
mystical dogmas of their founder with the
teachings of Freemasonry, so as to make
the Lodges merely schools of theosophy.
Indeed, the Theosophic Rites of Freemasonry, which prevailed to a great extent
about the middle of the last century in
Germany and France, were indebted for
most of their ideas to the mysticism of

Jacob Boehmen.

Bohemann, Karl

Adolf. Born in
1770, in Denmark, where he was the possessor of a large estate.
The character of
having " performed many charitable deeds,"
bestowed upon him by Findel, is
probably based on the statement of Lenning, that he gave 300,000 thalers to the
Orphan Asylum at Stockholm. Lenning,
however, says that it was given in 1767

which

is

was three years before Bohethe error is obvious. Thory

attributes the gift to a M. Bohman, and
the similarity of names may have given
rise to the mistake.
Bohemann was a very
zealous member of the Order of Asiatic
Brethren, and was an active promulgator
of the high degrees. Invited into Sweden,
in 1802, by the Duke of Sudermania, who
was an ardent inquirer into Masonic science, he was appointed Court Secretary.
as that

mann was born,

He attempted to introduce his system of

high degrees into the kingdom, but having
been detected in the effort to intermingle
revolutionary schemes with his high degrees, he was first imprisoned and then
banished from the country, his society being
He returned to Germany, but
interdicted.
is not heard of after 1815, when he published at Pyrmont a justification of himFindel [Hist., p. 560,) calls him an
self.
imposter, but I know not why. He was
rather a Masonic fanatic, who was ignorant
of or had forgotten the wide difference that
there is between Freemasonry and political
intrigue.

Bohemia.

Freemasonry was

insti-

tuted in Bohemia, in 1749, by the Grand

Lodge of Scotland. In 1776 it was highly
prosperous, and continued so until the
commencement of the French Revolution,
when it was suppressed by the Austrian

government.

Bombay.

Under a deputation from

Grand Lodge of England, the District
Grand Lodge of Bombay was established
Masonry is in an excellent conin 1861.

the

dition in the District.

to 1814.

Boehmeii, Jacob. The

and

121

Bonaim.
ers,

The Hebrew word for build-

and used in

Kings

v. 18, to desig-

nate a portion of the workmen on the

" And Solomon's builders and
Temple
:

Hiram's builders did hew them." Oliver,

in his Dictionary and in his Landmarks,
gives a mythical account of them as Fellow Crafts, divided into Lodges by King
Solomon, but, by a grammatical blunder,
he calls them Benai, substituting the Hebrew constructive for the nominative case,
and changing the participial o into e. The
Bonaim seem to be distinguished, by the
author of the Book of Kings, from the
Gibalim, and the translators of the authorized version have called the former builders
and the latter stone-squarers. It is probable
that the Bonaim were an order of workmen inferior to the Gibalim. Anderson, in
both of his editions of the Book of Constitutions, blunders grammatically, like Oli-

and calls them Bonai, saying that they

were " setters, layers, or builders, or light
Fellow Crafts, in number 80,000." Thia
idea seems to have been perpetuated in the

ver,

modern

rituals.

BONDMAN

122

BOOK

Bondman.

In the fourth article of

the Halliwell MS., which is supposed to contain the old Gothic or York Constitutions,
it is said that the Master shall take good
care that he make no
prentice, or, as it is in

guage
1

"

bondman an

apthe original lan-

The fonrthe

artycul thys moste be,

That the Mayster hymn wel-be-se,
That he no bondman prentys make."

The regulation is repeated in all the

subsequent regulations, and is still in force.
See Freeborn.
Bone. This word, which is now corruptly pronounced in one syllable, is the
Hebrew word boneh, T\^X2, " builder," from
the verb banah, nii3>
It was
to build."
peculiarly applied, as an epithet, to Hiram
Abif, who superintended the construction
of the Temple as its chief builder. Master
Masons will recognize it as the terminal
portion of a significant word. Its true pronunciation would be, in English letters,
bonay ; but the corruption into one syllable
as bone has become too universal ever to be

in 1828.

Book of Charges.

There seems, if
the references in the
old records of Masonry, to have formerly
existed a book under this title, containing
the Charges of the Craft equivalent, probably, to the Book of Constitutions.
Thus,
the Matthew Cooke MS. of the latter part
of the fifteenth century (An. 533) speaks
of " other charges mo that ben wryten in
the Boke of Chargys."

we may judge from

corrected.

Bone

Box. In the early lectures of

the last century, now obsolete, we find the
following catechism
" Q. Have you any key to the secrets of a
Mason ?

"X

Yes.
" Q. Where do you keep it?
" A. In a bone box, that neither opens
nor shuts but with ivory keys."
The bone box is the mouth, the ivory
keys the teeth. And the key to the secrets
is afterwards said to be the tongue.
These
questions were simply used as tests, and
were subsequently varied. In a later lecture it is called the " bone-bone box."

Bonneville, Chevalier de.

On

the 24th of November, 1754, he founded

the Chapter of the high degrees known
All the
as the Chapter of Clermont.
authorities assert this except Eebold (Hist.
de trois G. L., p. 46), who says that he was
not its founder but only the propagator of
its degrees.
Lenning (Eneycl.) has confounded him with Nicolas de Bonneville,
who was born six years after the foundation of the Chapter.

Bonneville, Nicolas de.

An

historian and literateur, born at Evreux,

in France, March 13, 1760.
He was
the author of a work, published in 1788,
entitled, Les Jesuites chasses de la Magonnerie et leur

pagnie de S. Ignale, et des quatre grades de la

Magonnerie de S. Jean, He also translated
into French, Thomas Paine's Essay on the
Origin of Freemasonry; a work, by the way,
which was hardly worth the trouble of
translation. De Bonneville had an exalted
idea of the difficulties attendant upon writing a, history of Freemasonry, for he says
that, to compose such a work, supported by
dates and authentic facts, it would require a
period equal to ten times the age of man
a statement which, although exaggerated,
undoubtedly contains an element of truth.
His Masonic theory was that the Jesuits
had introduced into the symbolic degrees
the history of the life and death of the
Templars, and the doctrine of vengeance for
the political and religious crime of their
destruction; and that they had imposed
upon four of the higher degrees the four
vows of their congregation. De Bonneville
was imprisoned as a Girondist in 1793. He
was the author of a History of Modern Europe, in 3 vols., published in 1792, and died

poignard

brise

par

les

Afagons,

divided into two parts, of the first of which

the sub-title was, La Magonnerie Zcossoise
comparee avec les trois professions et le Secret
des Templiers de 14e Siecle ; and of the second, Mimete des quatre voeux de la Com-

Book of Constitutions.

The Book

of Constitutions is that work in which is

contained the rules and regulations adopted
for the government of the fraternity of

Undoubtedly, a society so
orderly and systematic must always have
been governed by a prescribed code of laws
but, in the lapse of ages, the precise regulations which were adopted for the direction
of the Craft in ancient times have been lost.
The earliest record that we have of any
such Constitutions is in a manuscript, first
published, in 1723, by Anderson, and which
he said was written in the reign of Edward
IV. Preston quotes the same record, and
adds, that "it is said to have been in the
possession of the famous Elias Ashmole,
and unfortunately destroyed," a statement
which had not been previously made by
Freemasons.

Anderson.

To Anderson,

therefore,

we

must look in our estimation of the authenticity of this document; and that we cannot
too much rely upon his accuracy as a transcriber is apparent, not only from the internal
evidence of style, but also from the fact
that he made important alterations in his
copy of it in his edition of 1738. Such as
it is, however, it contains the following particulars.

BOOK

BOOK

123

"Though the ancient records of the found to be very erroneous and defective
brotherhood in England were, many of probably from carelessness or ignorance in
in Septemthem, destroyed or lost in the wars of the their frequent transcription
Saxons and Danes, yet King Athelstane ber, 1721, the Duke of Montagu, who was
(the grandson of King Alfred the Great, a then Grand Master, ordered Brother James
mighty architect), the first anointed king Anderson to digest them " in a new and
of England, and who translated the Holy better method."
Anderson having accordingly accomBible into the Saxon tongue (a. d. 930),
when he had brought the land into rest and plished the important task that had been
peace, built many great works, and encour- assigned him, in December of ^ the same
aged many Masons from France, who were year a committee, consisting of fourteen
appointed overseers thereof, and brought learned brethren, was appointed to examine
with them the charges and regulations of the book and they, in the March commuthe Lodges, preserved since the Boman nication of the subsequent year, having retimes who also prevailed with the king to ported their approbation of it, it was, after
improve the Constitution of the English some amendments, adopted by the Grand
Lodges, according to the foreign model, and Lodge, and published, in 1723, under the
title of "The Constitutions of the Freeto increase the wages of working Masons.
" The said king's brother, Prince Edwin, masons, containing the History, Charges,
being taught Masonry, and taking upon Regulations, etc., of that Most Ancient and
him the charges of a Master Mason, for the Right Worshipful Fraternity. For the use
love he had to the said Craft and the hon- of the Lodges."
A second edition was published in 1738,
orable principles whereon it is grounded,
purchased a free charter of King Athelstane under the superintendence of a committee
But this edition confor the Masons having a correction among of Grand Officers.
themselves (as it was anciently expressed), tained so many alterations, interpolations,
or a freedom and power to regulate them- and omissions of the Charges and Regulaselves, to amend what might happen amiss, tions as they appeared in the first, as to
and to hold a yearly communication and show the most reprehensible inaccuracy in
general assembly.
its composition, and to render it utterly
" Accordingly, Prince Edwin summoned worthless except as a literary curiosity. It
all the Masons in the realm to meet him in
does not seem to have been very popular,
a congregation at York (a. d. 926), who for the printers, to complete their sales, were
came and composed a general Lodge, of compelled to commit a fraud, and to prewhich he was Grand Master; and having sent what they pretended to be a new edibrought with them all the writings and tion in 1746, but which was really only the
records extant, some in Greek, some in edition of 1738, with a new title-page
Latin, some in French, and other lan- neatly pasted in, the old one being can^
guages, from the contents thereof, that as- celled. Of this literary fraud, I have a
sembly did frame the Constitutions and copy in my library, and have recently seen
Charges of an English Lodge, and made a another one in the possession of a Mason
law to preserve and observe the same in all of Washington city.
time coming."
In 1754, Bro. Jonathan Scott presented
Other records have from time to time a memorial to the Grand Lodge, "showing
been discovered, most of them recently, the necessity of a new edition of the Book
which prove beyond all doubt that the Fra- of Constitutions." It was then ordered that
ternity of Freemasons were, at least in the the book "should be revised, and neces14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, in pos- sary alterations and additions made consistsession of manuscript Constitutions con- ent with the laws and rules of Masonry; "
taining the rules and regulations of the all of which would seem to show the dissatisCraft.
faction of the Fraternity with the errors of
In the year 1717, Freemasonry, which the second edition. Accordingly, a third
had somewhat fallen into decay in the edition was published in 1756, under the
south of England, was revived by the or- editorship of John Entick. He also pubganization of the Grand Lodge at "London
lished the fourth edition in 1767.
and, in the next year, the Grand Master
In 1784, John Noorthouck published by
having desired, says Anderson, " any breth- authority the fifth edition. This was well
ren to bring to the Grand Lodge any old printed in quarto, with numerous notes, and
writings and records concerning Masons is considered as the most valuable edition.
and Masonry, in order to show the usages
The sixth and seventh editions were
of ancient times, several old copies of the edited by William Williams, and published
Gothic Constitutions were produced and in 1815 and in 1827. The eighth edition

collated."

But these Constitutions

having

been

was published, in 1841, by William Henry

White, who was the Grand Secretary. In

;;

BOOK

BOOK

each of these last three editions the historical part was omitted, and nothing was
given but the Charges, Regulations, and
Laws.
The Book of Constitutions was republished in America and in Ireland but these

should be requisite to render it obligatory.

To commemorate this circumstance, it has
been customary for the Master of the oldest
Lodge to attend every grand installation,
and, taking precedence of all present, the
Grand Master excepted, to deliver the
Book of Constitutions to the newly installed
Grand Master, on his promising obedience
to the ancient charges and general regula-

124

eight editions, enumerated above, are the

only original editions of the Book of Constitutions which were officially authorized
by the Grand Lodge of England.
The Book is carried in all processions
before the Grand Master, on a velvet cushion, and the right of so carrying it is vested
a privin the Master of the oldest Lodge
ilege which arose from the following circumstances. During the reign of Queen
Anne, Freemasonry was in a languishing
condition, in consequence of the age and
infirmities of the Grand Master, Sir Christopher Wren. On his death, and the accession of George the First to the throne,
the four old Lodges then existing in London
determined to revive the Grand Lodge,
which had for some years been dormant,
and to renew the quarterly communications

and the annual feast. This measure they

accomplished, and resolved, among other
things, that no Lodge thereafter should be
permitted to act, (the four old Lodges excepted,) unless by authority of a charter
granted by the Grand Master, with the approbation and consent of the Grand Lodge.
In consequence of this, the old Masons in
the metropolis vested all their inherent
privileges as individuals in the four old
Lodges, in trust, that they would never
suffer the ancient landmarks to be infringed
while on their part these bodies consented
to extend their patronage to every Lodge
which should thereafter be regularly constituted, and to admit their Masters and
Wardens to share with them all the privileges of the Grand Lodge, that of precedence only excepted. The extension of the
Order, however, beginning to give to the
new Lodges a numerical superiority in the
Grand Lodge, it was feared they would at
length be able, by a majority, to subvert
the privileges of the original Masons of
England, which had been centred in the
four old Lodges. On this account, a code
of articles was drawn up, with the consent
of all the brethren, for the future government of the society. To this was annexed
a regulation binding the Grand Master and
his successors, and the Master of every
newly constituted Lodge, to preserve these
regulations inviolable and declaring that
no new regulation could be proposed, except at the third quarterly communication,
and requiring it to be publicly read at the
annual feast to every brother, even to the
youngest Apprentice, when the approbation
of at least two-thirds of those present
;

tions.

Book of Constitutions Guarded

by the

Tiler's

Sword. An emblem

painted on the Master's carpet, and intended to admonish the Mason that he
should be guarded in all his words and
actions, preserving unsullied the Masonic
virtues of silence and circumspection.
Such is Webb's definition of the emblem,
which is a very modern one, and I am inclined to think was introduced by that
lecturer.
The interpretation of Webb is a
very unsatisfactory one. The Book of Constitutions is rather the symbol of constituted
law than of silence and circumspection, and
when guarded by the Tiler's sword it
would seem properly to symbolize regard
for and obedience to law, a prominent

Masonic duty.

Book of Gold. In the Ancient and

Accepted Scottish Rite, the book in which
the transactions, statutes, decrees, balusters, and protocols of the Supreme Council or a Grand Consistory are contained.

Book of the Iiaw.

The Holy

Bible,

always open in a Lodge as a symbol that its light should be diffused among
the brethren. The passages on which it is
opened differ in the different degrees. See
Scriptures, Reading of the.

which

is

Masonically, the Book of the Law is that

sacred book which is believed by the Mason
of any particular religion to contain the
revealed will of God; although, technically,
among the Jews the Torah, or Book of the
Law, means only the Pentateuch or five
books of Moses. Thus, to the Christian
Mason the Book of the Law is the Old and
New Testaments; to the Jew, the Old
Testament ; to the Mussulman, the Koran
to the Brahman, the Vedas; and to the
Parsee, the Zendavesta.
The Book of the Law is an important
symbol in the Eoyal Arch degree, concerning which there was a tradition among the
Jews that the Book of the Law was lost
during the captivity, and that it was among
the treasures discovered during the building of the second Temple. The same opinion was entertained by the early Christian
fathers, such, for instance, as Irenseus,
Tertullian, and Clemens Alexandrinus
"for," says Prideaux, " they (the Christian
fathers) hold that all the Scriptures were
lost and destroyed in the Babylonish cap-

BRAZIL

BOOKS
tivity,

and that Ezra restored them

all

again by Divine revelation." The truth of

the tradition is very generally denied by
biblical scholars, who attribute its origin
to the fact that Ezra collected together the

125

The
Vedas are the Brahmanical Book of the
Law, although the older hymns springing
out of the primitive Aryan religion have
blended with the basest superstitions.

a date far anterior to that of comparatively

The " Laws of
modern Brahmanism.
Menu" are really the text-book of Brahmanism yet in the Vedic hymns we find
the expression of that religious thought
that has been adopted by the Brahmans
and the rest of the modern Hindus. The
learned Brahmans have an esoteric faith,
in which they recognize and adore one
God, without form or quality, eternal, unchangeable, and occupying all space but
confining this hidden doctrine to their interior schools, they teach, for the multitude,
an open or esoteric worship, in which the
incomprehensible attributes of the supreme
Border, Tesselated. See Tessel- and purely spiritual God are invested with
sensible and even human forms. In the
ated Border.
Bourn. A limit or boundary a word Vedic hymns all the powers of nature are
familiar to the Mason in the Monitorial personified, and become the objects of worInstructions of the Fellow Craft's degree, ship, thus leading to an apparent, polythewhere he is directed to remember that we ism. But, as Mr. J. F. Clarke ( Ten Great
are travelling upon the level of time to that Religions, p. 90,) remarks, "behind this
undiscovered country from whose bourn no incipient polytheism lurks the original
traveller returns; and to the reader of monotheism
for each of these gods, in
Shakespeare, from whom the expression is turn, becomes the Supreme Being." And
borrowed, in the beautiful soliloquy of Max Muller says, [Chips, i. 2,) that "it
Hamlet
would be easy to find in the numerous
" Who would fardels bear,
hymns of the Veda passages in which
To grunt and sweat under a weary life ;
almost every important deity is repreBut that the dread of something after death
This
sented as supreme and absolute."
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
believed in by onemost ancient religion
No traveller returns puzzles the will."
seventh of the world's population, that
Act III., Scene 1.
fountain from which has flowed so much
Box-Master. In the Lodges of Scot- of the stream of modern religious thought,
land the Treasurer was formerly sometimes abounding in mystical ceremonies and
so called. Thus, in the minutes of the ritual prescriptions, worshipping, as the
Lodge of Journeymen of Edinburgh, it was Lord or all, "the source of golden light,"
resolved, in 1726, that the Warden be in- having its ineffable name, its solemn
structed " to uplift and receive for the use methods of initiation, and its symbolic rites
of the society all such sums of money
is well worth the serious study of the
which are due and indebted to them or Masonic scholar, because in it he will find
their former Box-masters or predecessors much that will be suggestive to him in the
in office."
investigations of the dogmas of his Order.
Boys' School. The Royal Masonic
Brazen Serpent. See Serpent and
Institution for Boys is a charity of the Cross.
Masons of England. It was founded in
Brazen Serpent, Knight of the.
the year 1798, for clothing and educating See Knight of the Brazen Serpent.
the sons of indigent and deceased brethren,
Brazil. The first organized Masonic
according to the situation in life they are authority at Brazil, the Grande Oriente do
most probably destined to occupy, and in- Brazil, was established in Rio de Janeiro,
culcating such religious instruction as may in the year 1821, by the division of one
be conformable to the tenets of their pa- Lodge into three.
rents, and ultimately apprenticing them to
The Emperor, Dom Pedro I., was soon
suitable trades.
It is still existing in a after initiated in one of these Lodges, and
flourishing condition.
Similar schools immediately proclaimed Grand Master; but
have been established by the Masons of finding that the Lodges of that period were
France and Germany.
nothing else but political clubs, he ordered
The religious system them to be closed in the following year,
practised by the Hindus. It presents a pro- 1822. After his abdication in 1831, Mafound and spiritual philosophy, strangely sonic meetings again took place, and a new

copies of the law, expurgated them of the

errors which had crept into them during
the captivity, and arranged a new and corBut the truth or falsity of
rect edition.
the legend does not affect the Masonic symbolism. The Book of the Law is the will
of God, which, lost to us in our darkness,
must be recovered as precedent to our
learning what is TRUTH. As captives to
error, truth is lost to us ; when freedom is
restored, the first reward will be its discovery.
Books, Anti-Masonic. See AntiMasonic Books.

Brahmanism.

BREAD

BREASTPLATE

authority, under the title of " Grande Oriente Brazileiro," was established.
Some of the old members of the "Grande
Oriente do Brazil " met in November of the
same year and reorganized that body; so
that two supreme authorities of the French
Rite existed in Brazil.
In 1832, the Visconde de Jequitinhonha,
having received the necessary powers from
the Supreme Council of Belgium, established a Supreme Council of the Ancient
and Accepted Rite; making thus a third
contending body, to which was soon added
a fourth and fifth, by the illegal organizations of the Supreme Councils of their own,
by the contending Grand Orientes. In
1835, disturbances broke out in the legitimate Supreme Council, some of its Lodges
having proclaimed the Grand Master of the
Grand Orient of Brazil their Grand Commander, and thus formed another Supreme
Council. In 1842, new seeds of dissension
were planted by the combination of this
revolutionary faction with the Grande Oriente Brazileiro, which body then abandoned
the French Rite, and the two formed a new
Council, which proclaimed itself the only
legitimate authority of the Scotch Rite in
Brazil.
But it would be useless as well as
painful, to continue the record of these dissensions, which like a black cloud darkened
for years the Masonic sky of Brazil.
Things are now in a better condition, and
Freemasonry in Brazil is united under the
one head of the Grand Orient and Supreme Council.

Breast. In one of the Old Lectures,

quoted by Dr. Oliver, it is said, " A Mason's breast should be a safe and sacred repository for all your just and lawful secrets.

126

Bread, Consecrated. Consecrated

bread and wine, that is to say, bread and
wine used not simply for food, but made
sacred by the purpose of symbolizing a
bond of brotherhood, and the eating and
drinking of which are sometimes called
the

"Communion

of the

Brethren,"

is

found in some of the higher degrees, such

as the Order of High Priesthood in the
American Rite, and the Rose Croix of the
French and Scottish Rites.
It was in ancient times a custom religiously observed, that those who sacrificed
to the gods should unite in partaking of a

part of the food that had been offered.

And in the Jewish church it was strictly
commanded that the sacrificers should " eat
before the Lord," and unite in a feast of
joy on the occasion of their offerings. By
this common partaking of that which had
been consecrated to a sacred purpose, those
who partook of the feast seemed to give an
evidence and attestation of the sincerity with
which they made the offering; while the
feast itself was, as it were, the renewal of the
covenant of friendship between the parties.

Breadth of the
of the Lodge,

JLodge. See Form

A brother's

secrets, delivered to me as such,

I would keep as my own ; as to betray that
trust might be doing him the greatest injury he could sustain in this mortal life
nay, it would be like the villany of an assassin who lurks in darkness to stab his adversary when unarmed and least prepared
to meet an enemy."
It is true, that the secrets of a Mason,
confided as such, should be as inviolate in
the breast of him who has received them
as they were in his own before they were
confided.
But it would be wrong to conclude that in this a Mason is placed in a
position different from that which is occu-

pied by every honorable man. No man of

honor is permitted to reveal a secret which
he has received under the pledge of secrecy.
But it is as false as it is absurd, to charge
that either the man of honor or the Mason
is bound by any such obligation to protect
the criminal from the vindication of the
law. It must be left to every man to determine by his own conscience whether he
is at liberty to betray a knowledge of facts
with which he could not have become acquainted except under some such pledge.
No court of law would attempt to extort a
communication of facts made known by a
penitent to His confessor or a client to his
lawyer; for such a communication would
make the person communicating it infamous. In this case, Masonry supplies no
other rule than that which is found in the
acknowledged codes of Moral Ethics.
Called in Hebrew
Breastplate.
flDK'D |K>n, chosen mishJtt'n, chosen, or
pet, the breastplate of judgment, because
through it the high priest received divine
responses, and uttered his decisions on all
matters relating to the good of the commonwealth. It was a piece of embroidered
cloth of gold, purple, scarlet, and fine
It was a span, or
white, twined linen.
about nine inches square, when doubled,
and made thus strong to hold the precious
It had a gold
stones that were set in it.
ring at each corner, to the uppermost of
which were attached golden chains, by
which it was fastened to the shoulder-pieces
of the ephod while from the two lowermost
went two ribbons of blue, by which it was
attached to the girdle of the ephod, and
thus held secure in its place. In the breastplate were set twelve precious jewels, on each
of which was engraved the name of one of
the twelve tribes. The stones were arranged
in four rows, three stones in each row. As to
the order of arrangement and the names of
the stones, there has been some difference
;

BREASTPLATE
among

the

BREASTPLATE

The authorized

authorities.

version of the Bible gives them in this

order Sardius, topaz, carbuncle, emerald,
sapphire, diamond, ligure, agate, ameThis is the patthyst, beryl, onyx, jasper.
tern generally followed in the construction
of Masonic breastplates, but modern researches into the true meaning ofthe Hebrew
names of the stones have shown its inaccuracy. Especially must the diamond be
rejected, as no engraver could have cut a
name on this impenetrable gem, to say nothing of the pecuniary value of a diamond
of a size to match the rest of the stones.
Josephus [Ant. III., vii.,) gives the stones
in the following order: Sardonyx, topaz,
carbuncle,
jasper,
sapphire
emerald
chrysolite, onyx,
ligure, amethyst, agate
Kalisch, in his Commentary on Exberyl.
odus, gives a still different order: Cornelian, (or sardius,) topaz, smaragdus; carbuncle, sapphire, emerald; ligure, agate,
:

127

The differences made by different w riters

in the order of the names of the stones
arises only from their respective translations of the Hebrew words.
These original
names are detailed in Exodus, (xxviii.,)
and admit of no doubt, whatever doubt
there may be as to the gems which they
were intended to represent. These Hebrew
names are as follows
r

mtDS

DTK

PlTDAH.

Odem.

*
Baeeket.

1*

dSit

amethyst; chrysolite, onyx, jasper.- But

perhaps the Vulgate translation is to be
preferred as an authority, because it was
made in the fifth century, at a time when
the old Hebrew names of the precious
stones were better understood than now.
The order given in that version is shown
in the following diagram

Yahalom.

Saphie.

!Nopech.

"DP
*
ACHLAMAH.

Shebo.

Leshem.

Yashpah.

Shoham.

Taeshish.

Emeeald.

Topaz.

Saedius.

Jaspee.

Sapphtee.

CaEBUNCLE.

The breastplate which was used in the

Temple does not appear to have been

first

returned after the Captivity, for it is not

mentioned in the list of articles sent back
by Cyrus. The stones, on account of their
great beauty and value, w ere most probably removed from their original arrangement and reset in various ornaments by
T

Amethyst.

Agate.

Ligtjee.

Beeyl.

Onyx.

Cheysolite.

A description of each of these stones,

with its symbolic signification, will be
found under the appropriate head.
On the stones were engraved the names
of the twelve tribes, one on each stone.
The order in which they were placed, according to the Jewish Targums, was as
follows, having a reference to the respective
ages of the twelve sons of Jacob

new one was made for

their captors.
the services of the second Temple, which,
according to Josephus, w7 hen worn by the
high priest, shot forth brilliant rays of
fire that manifested the immediate presence
But he adds that two hunof Jehovah.
dred years before his time this miraculous
power had become extinct in consequence
of the impiety of the nation. It w7 as subsequently carried to Rome together with
Of the
the other spoils of the Temple.
subsequent fate of these treasures, and
among them the breastplate, there are two
accounts one, that they were conveyed to
Carthage by Genseric after his sack of
:

Levi.

Simeon.

Beuben.

Zebultjn.

ISSACHAE.

JlJDAH.

Gad.

Naphtali.

Dan.

Rome, and that the ship containing them

on the voyage the other, and, as
thinks, [Ant. Gems, 137,) the more
probable one, that they had been transferred long before that time to Byzantium,
and deposited by Justinian in the treasury

was

Benjamin.
i

Joseph.

Ashee.

lost

King

of St, Sophia.
The breastplate is worn in American
Chapters of the Royal Arch by the High
Priest as an essential part of his official

BRIDGE

BREAST

128
vestments.

The symbolic

reference of

it,

as given by Webb, is that it is to teach him

always to bear in mind his responsibility
to the laws and ordinances of the Institution, and that the honor and interests of
his Chapter should be always near his
heart. This does not materially differ from
the ancient symbolism, for one of the names

given to the Jewish breastplate was the

"memorial," because it was designed to
remind the high priest how dear the tribes
whose names it bore should be to his heart.
The breastplate does not appear to have
been original with or peculiar to the Jewish ritual. The idea was, most probably,
Diodorus
derived from the Egyptians.
Siculus says, (1. i., c. 75,) that among them
the chief judge bore about his neck a chain
of gold, from which hung a figure or image,
(fadiov,) composed of precious stones, which
was called Truth, and the legal proceedings only commenced when the chief judge
had assumed this image. JElian (lib. 34)
confirms this account by saying that the
image was engraved on sapphire, and hung
about the neck of the chief judge with a
golden chain. Peter du Val says that he
saw a mummy at Cairo, round the neck of
which was a chain, to which a golden plate
was suspended, on which the image of a bird
was engraved. See TJrim and Thummim.
Faithful. One of the
Breast,
three precious jewels of a Fellow Craft. It
symbolically teaches the initiate that the
lessons which he has received from the instructive tongue of the Master are not to
be listened to and lost, but carefully treasured in his heart, and that the precepts of
the Order constitute a covenant which he

The

is faithfully to

observe.

Breast to Breast.

See Five Points

of Fellowship.

Brethren.

This word, being

the

plural of Brother in the solemn style, is

more generally used in Masonic language,
instead of the common plural, Brothers.
Thus, Masons always speak of " The Brethren of the Lodge," and not of " The Brothers of the

See

Bridge Builders of the Middle Ages.

Brethren of the Mystic Tie.

The term by which Masons distinguish
themselves as the members of a confraternity or brotherhood united

See Mystic

by a mysti-

Tie.

Bridge Builders of the Middle

Ages.

Before speaking of the Pontifices,

the "Fraternity of Bridge Builders,"
whose history is closely connected with
that of the Freemasons of the Middle
Ages, it will be as well to say something
of the word which they assumed as the
title of their brotherhood.
or

its

equiva-

Romans, the management of all the sacred

rites, and the government of the priesthood, was under the control and direction
of the College of Pontiffs, of which the Ponti*
fex Maximus, or High Priest, was the presiding officer and the organ through which
its decrees were communicated to the people.
Hence, when the Papal Church established its seat at the city of Rome, its
Bishop assumed the designation of Pontifex
Maximus as one of his titles, and Pontiff
and Pope are now considered equivalent
terms.

The question naturally arises as to what

connection there was between religious
rites and the building of bridges, and why
a Roman priest bore the name which literally denoted a bridge builder.
Etymologists have in vain sought to solve the problem, and, after all their speculation, fail
to satisfy us.
One of the most tenable
theories is that of Schmitz, who thinks the
Pontifices were so called because they superintended the sacrifices on a bridge, alluding to the Argean sacrifices on the Sublician
bridge.
But Varro gives a more probable
explanation when he tells us that the Sublician bridge was built by the Pontifices
and that

it was deemed, from its historic

association, of so sacred a character, that no
repairs could be made on it without a previous sacrifice, which was to be conducted
by the Chief Pontiff in person. The true

etymology

Lodge."

Brethren of the Bridge.

cal bond.

The Latin word pontifex, with

lent English pontiff, literally signifies, " the

builder of a bridge," frompons, "abridge,"
and facere, " to make." But this sense,
which it must have originally possessed, it
seems very speedily to have lost, and we,
as well as the Romans, only recognize pontifex or pontiff as significant of a sacerdotal
character.
Of all the colleges of priests in ancient
Rome, the most illustrious was that of the
Pontiffs.
The College of Pontiffs was
established by Numa, and originally consisted of five, but was afterwards increased
to sixteen. The whole religious system of the

yet

tive,

is,

may be
to know

it

however, undoubtedly lost;

interesting, as well as suggesthat in old

Rome

there was,

even in a mere title, supposing that it was

nothing more, some sort of connection
between the art or practice of bridge
building and the mysterious sacerdotal rites
established by Numa, a connection which
was subsequently again developed in the

Masonic association which is the subject of

the present article. Whatever may have
been this connection in pagan Rome, we
the establishment of Christianity
Middle Ages, a secret Fraternity
organized, as a branch of the Travelling
Freemasons of that period, whose members

find, after

and

in the

BRIDGE

BRIDGE

were exclusively devoted to the building of

bridges, and who were known as Pontifices,
or " Bridge Builders," and styled by the
French les Freres Pontifes, or Pontifical
Brethren, and by the Germans BruckenIt is
bruder, or " Brethren of the Bridge."
of this Fraternity that, because of their association in history with the early corporations of Freemasons, it is proposed to give a
brief sketch.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
the methods of intercommunication between different countries were neither safe
nor convenient. Travellers could not avail
themselves of the comforts of either macadamized roads or railways. Stage-coaches
who was compelled
wT ere unknown.
by the calls of business to leave his home,
trudged as a pedestrian wearily on foot, or as
an equestrian, if his means permitted that
mode of journeying ; made his solitary ride
through badly-constructed roads, where he
frequently became the victim of robbers,
who took his life as well as his purse, or
submitted to the scarcely less heavy exactions of some lawless Baron, who claimed
it as his high prerogative to levy a tax on
every wayfarer who passed through his domains. Inns were infrequent, incommodious, and expensive, and the weary traveller

and of constructing bridges for the transportation of travellers and their goods.
All the architectural labors of the period
were, as is well known, intrusted to the
gilds or corporations of builders who, under the designation of " Travelling Freemasons," passed from country to country, and,
patronized by the Church, erected those magnificent cathedrals, monasteries, and other
public edifices, many of which have long
since crumbled to dust, but a few of which
still remain to attest the wondrous ability
of these operative brethren. Alone skilled
in the science of architecture, from them
alone could be derived workmen capable
of constructing safe and enduring bridges.
Accordingly, a portion of these " Freema-

He

sons," withdrawing from the general body,

united, under the patronage of the Church,
into a distinct corporation of Freres Pontifes,
or Bridge Builders. The name which they
received in Germany was that of Bruchenbruder, or Brethren of the Bridge.
legend of the Church attributes their
foundation to Saint Benezet, who accordingly became the patron of the Order, as
Saint John was of the Freemasons proper.
Saint Benezet was a shepherd of Avilar, in
France, who was born in the year 1165.
"He kept his mother's sheep in the
country," says Butler, the historian of the
saints, " being devoted to the practices of
piety beyond his age; when moved by
charity to save the lives of many poor persons, who were frequently drowned in
crossing the Rhone, and, being inspired by
God, he undertook to build a bridge over
that rapid river at Avignon.
He obtained
the approbation of the Bishop, proved his
mission by miracles, and began the work
in 1177, which he directed during seven
years.
He died when the difficulty of the
undertaking was over, in 1184. His body

could hardly have appreciated Shenstone's

declaration, that
" Whoe'er has travelled

life's

dull round,

Where'er his stages may have been,

May sigh to think he still has found
His warmest welcome at an inn."

But one of the greatest embarrassments

which the traveller in this olden time
was exposed occurred when there was a
necessity to cross a stream of water. The
noble bridges of the ancient Greeks and
Romans had been destroyed by time or
war, and the intellectual debasement of the
dark ages had prevented their renewal.
Hence, when refinement and learning began
to awaken from that long sleep which followed the invasion of the Goths and Vandals and the decline and fall of the Roman
to

was buried upon the bridge itself, which

was not completely finished till four years
after his decease, the structure whereof was
attended with miracles from the first laying
of the foundations till it was completed, in
1188."

Empire, the bridgeless rivers could only be

crossed by swimming through the rapid
current, or by fording the shallow places.
The earliest improvement towards a re-

Divesting this account, which Butler has

drawn from the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, of the miraculous, the

difficulties consisted in the

adoption of rafts or boats, and gilds or
corporations of raftsmen and boatmen,
under the names of Linuncularii, Lintrarii,
and Utricularii, were formed to transport

and merchandise across rivers.

But the times were lawless, and these water-

travellers

men

improba-

and the legendary, the naked fact remains that Benezet was engaged, as the

ble,

moval of these

oftener plundered than assisted their

patrons.
Benevolent persons, therefore,
saw the necessity of erecting hostelries on
the banks of the rivers at frequented places,

129

principal conductor of the work, in the

construction of the magnificent bridge at
Avignon, with its eighteen arches. As
this is the most ancient of the bridges of
Europe built after the commencement of
the restoration of learning, it is most probable that he was, as he is claimed to have
been, the founder of that Masonic corporation of builders who, under the name of
Brethren of the Bridge, assisted him in the

"

undertaking, and who, on the completion

of their task, were engaged in other parts
of France, of Italy, and of Germany, in
similar labors.
After the death of Saint Benezet, he
was succeeded by Johannes Benedictus, to
whom, as " Prior of the Bridge," and to his
brethren, a charter was granted in 1187, by
which they obtained a chapel and cemetery,
with a chaplain.
In 1185, one year after the death of Saint
Benezet, the Brethren of the Bridge commenced the construction of the Bridge of
Saint Esprit, over the Rhone at Lyons.
The completion of this work greatly extended the reputation of the Bridge Builders, and in 1189 they received a charter
from Pope Clement III. The city of Avignon continued to be their headquarters, but
they gradually entered into Italy, Spain,

Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. The

Swedish chronicles mention one Benedict,
between the years 1178 and 1191, who was
a Bishop and bridge builder at Skara, in
that kingdom. Could he have been the
successor, already mentioned, of Benezet,
who had removed from Avignon to Sweden ?
As late as 1590 we find the Order existing
at Lucca, in Italy, where, in 1562, John de
Medicis exercised the functions of its chief
under the title of Magister, or Master. How
the Order became finally extinct is not
known but after its dissolution much of
the property which it had accumulated
passed into the hands of the Knights Hospitallers or Knights of Malta.
The gild or corporation of Bridge Build;

ers, like the corporation of Travelling Freemasons, from which it was an offshoot, was
a religious institution, but admitted laymen
into the society. In other words, the workmen, or the great body of the gild, were
of course secular, but the patrons were dignitaries of the Church. When by the multiplication of bridges the necessity of their

employment became less urgent, and when

the numbers of the workmen were greatly
increased, the patronage of the Church was
withdrawn, and the association was dissolved, or soon after fell into decay; its
members, probably, for the most part, reuniting with the corporations of Masons

whom

they had originally been deNothing has remained in modern

Masonry to preserve the memory of the
former connection of the Order with the
bridge builders of the Middle Ages, except
the ceremony of opening a bridge, which

from

rived.

is to

tury

BROACHED

BRIDGE

130

be found in the rituals of the last cenbut even this has now almost become

obsolete.

Lenning,

who has

appropriated a brief

article in his Encyclopadie der Freimaurerei

to the Briickenbruder, or Brethren of the

them an Order of
he says, vows of celi-

Bridge, incorrectly calls

Knights.

They

took,

bacy and poverty, and also 'to protect trav-

upon the sick, and to build

and hospitals. Several of
the inventors of high degrees have, he
thinks, sought to revive the Order in some
of the degrees which they have established,
and especially in the Knights of the Sword,
which appears in the Ancient and Accepted
ellers, to attend
bridges, roads,

Rite as the fifteenth degree, or Knights of

the East; but I can find no resemblance
except that in the Knights of the Sword
there is in the ritual a reference to a river
and a bridge. I am more inclined to believe that the nineteenth degree of the
same Rite, or Grand Pontiff, was once connected with the Order we have been considering; and that, while the primitive
ritual has been lost or changed so as to
leave no vestige of a relationship between
the two, the name which is still retained
may have been derived from the Frlres
Pontifes of the twelfth century.
This, however, is mere conjecture, without any means of proof. All that we do
positively know is, that the bridge builders
of the Middle Ages were a Masonic association, and as such are entitled to a place in
all

Masonic

histories.

The diploma or certificate in

some of the high degrees is so called.
Bright. A Mason is said to be " bright

Brief.

who

is well acquainted with the ritual, the

forms of opening and closing and the cerThis expression
emonies of initiation.
does not, however, in its technical sense,
appear to include the superior knowledge
of the history and science of the Institu-

tion,

and many bright Masons

are, there-

not necessarily learned Masons and,

on the contrary, some learned Masons are
not well versed in the exact phraseology
of the ritual. The one knowledge depends
on a retentive memory, the other is derived from deep research. It is scarcely
necessary to say which of the two kinds of
knowledge is the more valuable. The Mason whose acquaintance with the Institution is confined to what he learns from its
esoteric ritual will have but a limited idea
of its science and philosophy. And yet
a knowledge of the ritual as the foundation of higher knowledge is essential.
Broached Thurnel. In the Andersonian lectures of the early part of the
eighteenth century the Immovable Jewels
of the Lodge are said to be "the Tarsel
Board, Rough Ashlar, and Broached Thurfore,

nel

"

and in describing their uses

it is

taught that " the Rough Ashlar is for the

Fellow Crafts to try their jewels on, and the
Broached Thurnel for the Entered Apprentices to learn to work upon." Much difficulty

;:

BROTHERLY

BROKEN
has been met with in discovering what the
Broached Thurnel really was. Dr. Oliver,
most probably deceived by the use to which
it was assigned, says {Diet. Symb. Mas.)
that it was subsequently called the Rough
Ashlar. This is evidently incorrect, because a distinction is made in the original
lecture between it and the Rough Ashlar,
the former being for the Apprentices and
the latter for the Fellow Crafts. Krause
{Kunsturhunden, i. 73,) has, by what authority I know not, translated it by Drehbanh, which means a turning-lathe, an

implement not used by Operative Masons.

is the real meaning of the word?
If we inspect an old tracing board of the Appren-

Now what
tice's

degree of the date

i. e. when the firm supporters of

right and good have perished. So
the passage in Isaiah xix. 10 should read
"her (Egypt's) columns are broken down,"
that is, the nobles of her state. In Freemasonry, the broken column is, as Master
Masons well know, the emblem of the fall
of one of the chief supporters of the Craft.
The use of the column or pillar as a monument erected over a tomb was a very ancient custom, and was a very significant
symbol of the character and spirit of the
person interred. See Monument.

thrown,"

what

is

Brother.

The term which Freema-

sons apply to each other. Freemasons are

brethren, not only by common participation of the human nature, but as professing
the same faith as being jointly epgaged in
the same labors, and as being united by a
mutual covenant or tie, whence they are
also emphatically called " Brethren of the
;

when th e Broached Thurnel was in use, we shall

on it three
symbols, two of which
will at once be recognized
as the Tarsel, or Trestle
Board, and the Rough
Ashlar, just as we have
them at the present day while the third
symbol will be that depicted in the margin,
namely, a cubical stone with a pyramidal
apex. This is the Broached Thurnel. It
is the symbol which is still to be found,
with precisely the same form, in all French
tracing boards, under the name of the
pierre cubique, or cubical stone, and which
has been replaced in English and American tracing boards and rituals by the Perfect Ashlar.
For the derivation of the
words, we must go to old and now almost
obsolete terms of architecture. On inspection, it will at once be seen that the Broached
Thurnel has the form of a little square
turret with a spire springing from it. Now,
broach, or broche, says Parker, ( Gloss, of
Terms in Architect, p. 97,) is "an old English term for a spire, still in use in some
parts of the country, as in Leicestershire,
where it is said to denote a spire springing
from the tower without any intervening
parapet.
Thurnel is. from the old French
tournette, a turret or little tower.
The
Broached Thurnel, then, was the Spired
Turret.
It was a model on which apprentices might learn the principles of their
art, because it presented to them, in its
various outlines, the forms of the square and
the triangle, the cube and the pyramid."
Column. Among the Hebrews, columns, or pillars, were used metaphorically to signify princes or nobles, as
if they were the pillars of a state.
Thus,
in Psalm xi. 3, the passage, reading in our
translation, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" is, in
the original, " when the columns are overfind depicted

Broken

131

Mystic Tie."

See Companion.

Brotherhood.

When

our Saviour

designated his disciples as his brethren, he

implied that there was a close bond of union
existing between them, which idea was
subsequently carried out by St. Peter in
his direction to "love the brotherhood."
Hence the early Christians designated
themselves as a brotherhood, a relationship unknown to the Gentile religions;
and the ecclesiastical and other confraternities of the Middle Ages assumed the
same title to designate any association of
men engaged in the same common object,
governed by the same rules, and united by
an identical interest. The association or
fraternity of Freemasons is, in this sense,
called a brotherhood.

Brotherly Kiss. See Kiss, Fraternal.

Brotherly liOve. At a very early
period in the course of his initiation,
a candidate for the mysteries of Freemasonry is informed that the great tenets
of the Order are Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth. These virtues are illustrated, and their practice recommended to
the aspirant, at every step of his progress
and the instruction, though continually varied in its mode, is so constantly repeated,
as infallibly to impress upon his mind
their absolute necessity in the constitution
of a good Mason.
Brotherly Love might very well be
supposed to be an ingredient in the organization of a society so peculiarly constituted as that of Freemasonry. But the
brotherly love which we inculcate is not a
mere abstraction, nor is its character left
to any general and careless understanding
of the candidate, who might be disposed to
give much or little of it to his brethren,
according to the peculiar constitution of
his own mind, or the extent of his own

BROTHERS

132
generous or

selfish feelings.

contrary, closely defined

its

BRUCE
It

on the

is,

object plain-

and the very mode and manner

ly denoted ;

practice detailed in words, and illustrated by symbols, so as to give neither

cause for error nor apology for indifference.
Every Mason is acquainted with the Five
he knows their
Points of Fellowship
he can never forget
symbolic meaning
the interesting incidents that accompanied
their explanation; and while he has this
knowledge, and retains this remembrance,
he can be at no loss to understand what are
his duties, and what must be his conduct,
in relation to the principle of Brotherly
Love. See Five Points of Fellowship and

of

its

Tenets of Freemasons.

Brothers of the Rosy Cross.

See

Rosicrucians.

Browne, John.

In 1798 John
London, a work entitled "The Master Key through all the
Degrees of a Freemason's Lodge, to which
is added, Eulogiums and Illustrations upon
Freemasonry." In 1802, he published a
second edition under the title of " Browne's
Masonic Master Key through the three
degrees, by way of polyglot. Under the

Browne published,

in

sanction of the Craft in general, containing the exact mode of working, initiation,
passing and raising to the sublime degree
of a Master. Also, the several duties of
the Master, officers, and brethren while in
the Lodge, with every requisite to render
the accomplished Mason an explanation of
The whole interall the hieroglyphics.
spersed with illustrations on Theology,
Astronomy, Architecture, Arts, Sciences,
&c, many of which are by the editor."
Browne had been, he says, the Past Master
of six Lodges, and wrote his work not as
an offensive exposition, but as a means of
giving Masons a knowledge of the ritual.
It is considered to be a very complete representation of the Prestonian lectures, and
as such was incorporated by Krause in his
" drei altesten Kunsturkunden." The work
is printed in a very complicated cipher, the
key to which, and without which the book
is Wholly unintelligible, was, by way of
caution, delivered only personally, and to
none but those who had reached the third
The explanation of this " mystical
degree.
key," as Browne calls it, is as follows. The
word Browne supplies the vowels, thus,

Much therefore is left to the shrewdness of

the decipherer. The initial sentence of
the work may be adduced as a specimen.
TJbs Rplrbsrt wbss ostm
ronwprn Pongth
Mrlwdgr, which is thus deciphered Please
to assist me in opening the Lodge. The work
is now exceedingly rare.
See Vielle.Bru, Bite of.
Bruce, Robert. The introduction
of Freemasonry into Scotland has been attributed by some writers to Robert, King
of Scotland, commonly called Robert Bruce,
who is said to have established in 1314 the
Order of Herodem, for the reception of
those Knights Templars who had taken
refuge in his dominions from the persecutions of the pope and the king of France.
Thory (Act. Lat., i. 6,) copies the following
from a manuscript in the library of the
Mother Lodge of the Philosophical Rite
"Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, under
the name of Robert Bruce, created, on the
24th June, 1314, after the battle of Bannockburn ? the Order of St. Andrew of the
Thistle, to which has been since united
that of Herodem, for the sake of the Scotch
Masons, who composed a part of the thirty
:

Bm.

thousand men with whom he had conquered

an army of a hundred thousand Englishmen. He reserved, in perpetuity, to himself

and

his successors, the title of

Grand

He

founded the Royal Grand

Lodge of the Order of Herodem at Kilwinning, and died, crowned with glory and
Master.

honor, the 9th of July, 1329."

Dr. Oliver, (Landm., ii. 13,) referring
to the abolition of the Templar Order in
England, when the Knights were compelled
to enter the Preceptories of the Knights
of St. John, as dependants, says
" In Scotland, Edward, who had overrun
the country at the time, endeavored to pursue the same course but, on summoning
the Knights to appear, only two, Walter
de Clifton, the Grand Preceptor, and anOn their examinaother, came forward.
tion, they confessed that all the rest had
fled
and as Bruce was advancing with his
army to meet Edwardr nothing further was
done. The Templars, being debarred from
taking refuge either in England or Ireland,
had no alternative but to join Bruce, and
give their active support to his cause.
Thus, after the battle of Bannockburn,
in 1314, Bruce granted a charter of lands
to Walter de Clifton, as Grand Master of
,
,
the Templars, for the assistance which they
these six vowels in turn
and x1
Hence the
rendered on that occasion.
a e i o u y
_
Royal Order of H. R. D. M. was frequenly
T
-,
Inithus,
six
letters,
represent
r
practised under the name of Templary."
k co 1 nu
Lawrie, or the author of Lawrie's Book,
tial capitals are of no value, and supernumerary letters are often inserted. The words are who is excellent authority for Scottish Makept separate, but the letters of one word sonry, does not appear, however, to give
are often divided between two or three. any credit to the narrative. Whatever

browne

..,

'

aeiouy
-,

'

BULL

BRUN
Bruce

may have done

for the higher de-

no doubt that Ancient Craft

grees, there is

Masonry was introduced into Scotland at

an earlier period. But it cannot be denied
that Bruce was one of the patrons and encouragers of Scottish Freemasonry.

BrAm. Abraham Van. A

wealthy

of Hamburg, who died at an advanced age in 1768. For many years he

had been the soul of the Society of True
and Ancient Eosicrucians, which soon after
his death was dissolved.
Brunswick, Congress of. It was
convoked, in 1775, by Ferdinand, Duke of
Brunswick. Its object was to effect a fusion
of the various Bites but it terminated its
labors, after a session of six weeks, without

Mason

success.

Bnenos Ayres.

There

is

much un-

certainty of detail in the early history of

Freemasonrv in the Argentine Republic.

To Brother" A. G. Goodall, of New York,

who visited the South American States
some years ago, are we indebted for the
most authentic accounts of the introducHe
tion of Masonry into those countries.
says that Lodges were in existence in
Buenos Ayres about the year 1846, but in
consequence of the unsettled state of society
their labors were suspended, and it was not
until 1853 that the Order commenced a
permanent career in the Bio de Plata.
January 19, 1854, Excelsior Lodge was
established at Buenos Ayres by a Warrant of the Grand Lodge of England. It
worked in the York Bite and in the Eng-

133

Philosophy in the University of

GottingeD, who, not being himself a Mason,
published, in 1804, a work entitled, Ueber
den TJraprung unci die vornehmsten Schicksale
des Or dens der Rosenkreuzer und Freimaurer, that is, " On the Origin and the Principal Events of the Orders of Rosicrucianism
fessor of

and Freemasonry."

This work, illogical

arguments, false in many of its statements, and confused in its arrangement,
was attacked by Frederick Xicolai in a
critical review of it in 1806, and is spoken
of very slightingly even by De Quincey,
himself no very warm admirer of the Masonic
in

its

who

published, in 1824, in the

(vol. ix.,) a loose translation of it, " abstracted, re-arranged, and
improved," under the title of Historicocritical Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons.
Buhle's
theory was that Freemasonry was invented
in the year 1629, by John Valentine Andrea.
Buhle was born at Brunswick in
1753, became Professor of Philosophy at
Gottingen in 1787, and, having afterwards
taught in his native city, died there in 1821.
Builder. The chief architect of the
Temple of Solomon is often called "the
Builder." But the word is also applied
generally to the Craft ; for every speculative Mason is as much a builder as was
his operative predecessor.
An American
writer (F. S. Wood) thus alludes to this
symbolic idea. " Masons are called moral
Institution,

London Magazine,

In their

builders.

rituals,

they declare

more noble and glorious purpose

lish language.
Two other Lodges were than squaring stones and hewing timbers
subsequently established by the same au- is theirs, fitting immortal nature for that
thority, one working in English and one in spiritual building not made with hands,
German. In 1856 there was an irregular eternal in the heavens." And he adds,
body working in the Ancient and Accepted "The builder builds for a century; Masons
Bite, which claimed the prerogatives of a for eternity."
In this sense, " the builder"
Grand Lodge, but it was never recognized, is the noblest title that can be bestowed
and soon ceased to exist. In September upon a Mason.
13, 1858, a Supreme Council and Grand
Builder, Smitten. See Smitten
Orient was established by the Supreme Builder.
Council of Paraguay. This body is still in
Builders, Corporations of. See
active operation under the title of The Su- Stone-Masons of the Middle Ages.
preme Council of the Argentine Republic,
Bui. Oliver says that this is one of
Orient of Buenos Ayres. In 1801 the Grand the names of God among the ancients. I
Lodge of England issued a Warrant for the can find no such word in any oriental lanestablishment of a Provincial Grand Lodge, guage. It is really a Masonic mutilation
which is in fraternal alliance with the Su- of the word Bel. See Buh.
preme Council, and by the consent of the
Bull, Papal. An edict or proclamathat a

latter is authorized to establish

symbolic

Lodges.

Bull.

monstrous corruption, in the

American Royal Arch, of the word Bel.

Up to a recent period, it was combined
with another corruption, Lun, in the mutilated form of Buh-Lun, under which disguise the words Bel and On were presented
to the neophyte.
Buhle, Johann Gottlieb. Pro-

tion issued from the Apostolic Chancery,

with the seal and signature of the pope,
written in Gothic letters and upon coarse
parchment. It derives its name from the
leaden seal which is attached to it by a
cord of hemp or silk, and which in mediaeval Latin is called bulla. Several of these
bulls have from time to time been fulminated against Freemasonry and other secret
societies, subjecting them to the heaviest

BURNING

BULLETIN

134

ecclesiastical punishments, even to the

greater excommunication. According to
these bulls, a Freemason is ipso facto ex-

communicated by continuing his membership in the society, and is thus deprived

of all spiritual privileges while living,
and the rites of burial when dead.
Of these bulls, the first was promulgated
by Clement XII., on the 27th of April,
1788 this was repeated and made perpetual
by Benedict XIV., on the 18th of May,
On the 13th of August, 1814, an
1775.
edict continuing these bulls was issued by
the Cardinal Gonsalvi, Secretary of State of
Pius VII. and lastly, similar denunciatory
edicts have within recent years been uttered
by Pius IX. Notwithstanding these reiterated denunciations and attempts at Papal
suppression, the Mason may say of his
Order as Galileo said of the earth, h pur si
muove.
Bulletin. The name given by the
Grand Orient of France to the monthly
publication which contains the official
record of its proceedings.
similar work
is issued by the Supreme Council of the
Ancient and Accepted Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of
America, and by several other Supreme
Councils and Grand Orients.
John. " The well-known
;

Bnnyan,

author of the Pilgrim''s Progress" He lived

in the seventeenth century, and was the
most celebrated allegorical writer of EngHis work entitled Solomon's Temple
land.
Spiritualized will supply the student of
Masonic symbolism with many valuable

which prohibited any Mason from attending a funeral or other procession clothed in
any of the jewels or badges of the Craft,
except by dispensation of the Grand Master or his deputy.
There are no further regulations on this
subject in any of the editions of the Book
of Constitutions previous to the modern
code which is now in force in the Grand
Lodge of England. But Preston gives us
the rules on this subject, which have now
been adopted by general consent as the law
of the Order, in the following words
"No Mason can be interred with the
formalities of the Order unless it be at his
own special' request communicated to the
Master of the Lodge of which he died a
member
foreigners and sojourners excepted; nor unless he has been advanced
to the third degree of Masonry, from which
restriction there can be no exception.
Fellow Crafts or Apprentices are not entitled to the funeral obsequies."
The only restrictions prescribed by Preston are, it will be perceived, that the deceased must have been a Master Mason,
that he had himself made the request, and
that he was affiliated, which is implied by
the expression that he must have made the
request for burial of the Master of the
Lodge of which he was a member. Fellow
Crafts and Entered Apprentices are not
permitted to join in a funeral procession ;
and, accordingly, we find that in the form
of procession laid down by Preston no
place is assigned to them, in which he has
been followed by all subsequent monitorial

writers.

Burdens, Bearers

The regulation of 1754, which requires a

Temple mentioned in 2 dispensation from the Grand Master for a
Chron. ii. 18, and referred to by Masonic funeral procession, is not considered of
force in this country, and accordingly, in
writers as the Ish Sabal, which see.
Burial. The right to be buried with America, Masons have generally been per-

workmen

of.

class of

at the

the ceremonies of the Order is one that,

under certain restrictions, belongs to every

Burning

Master Mason.

None
tain

mitted to bury their dead without the

necessity of such dispensation.
Bush. In the third chapter of Exodus it is recorded that, while
Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro on

of the ancient Constitutions con-

any law upon* this

subject,

nor can

the exact time be now determined when

funeral processions and a burial service
were first admitted as regulations of the
Order.
The celebrated caricature of a mock procession of the " Scald Miserable Masons,"
as it was called, was published in 1742, and
This
represented a funeral procession.
would seem to imply that Masonic funeral
processions must have been familiar at that
time to the people for a caricature, however distorted, must have an original for
its foundation.
The first official notice, however, that we
have of funeral processions is in NovemA regulation was then adopted
ber, 1754.
;

Mount Horeb, "the angel of

appeared unto him in a flame

the Lord
of fire out
of the midst of a bush," and there communicated to him for the first time his
Ineffable Name. This occurrence is commemorated in the " Burning Bush " of the
Boyal Arch degree. In all the systems of
antiquity, fire is adopted as a symbol of
Deity; and the "Burning Bush," or the
bush filled with fire which did not consume,
whence came forth the Tetragrammaton,
the symbol of Divine Light and Truth, is
considered, in the higher degrees of Masonry, like the " Orient " in the lower, as
the great source of true Masonic light
wherefore Supreme Councils of the 33d

BY-LAWS

BURNES
degree date their balustres, or official documents, "near the B/. B.\," or "Burning
Bush," to intimate that they are, in their
own Rite, the exclusive source of all Ma-

Mason

135

familiar with that noble farewell

to his brethren of Tarbolton

Lodge com-

mencing,
Adieu a heart- warm, fond adieu
Dear brothers of the mystic tie

sonic instruction.

Bur ne, James.

is

distinguished
Mason, and formerly Provincial Grand
Master of Western India. He is the author
of an interesting work entitled a "Sketch of
By
the History of the Knights Templars.
James Burnes, LL.D., F.R.S., Knight of the

Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order;" published at London, in 1840, in 74

in small quarto.

+ 60 pages

Burns, Robert. The celebrated

Scottish poet, of whose poetry William
Pitt has said " that he could think of none
since Shakespeare's that had so much the
appearance of sweetly coming from nature; " was born at Kirk Alloway, near the
town of Ayr, on the 25th of January, 1759,
and died on the 22d of July, 1796. He
was initiated into Freemasonry in the town
of Irvine, in 1781, and was at one time the
Master of a Lodge at Mauchline, where he
presided with great credit to himself, as
appears from the following remarks of the

"In the
philosophic Dugald Stewart.
course of the same season, I was led by
curiosity to attend for an hour or two a
Masonic Lodge in Mauchline, where Burns
presided.
He had occasion to make some
short, unpremeditated compliments to different individuals from whom he had no
reason to expect a visit, and everything he
said was happily conceived and forcibly as
well as fluently expressed."

The

slander-

ous charge that he acquired the habits of

dissipation, to which he was unfortunately
addicted, at the festive meetings of the Masonic Lodges, has been triumphantly refuted by a writer in the London Freemason's Magazine, (vol. v., p. 291,) and by
the positive declarations of his brother
Gilbert, who asserts that these habits were
the result of his introduction, several years
after his attendance on the Lodges, to the
hospitable literary society of the Scottish

metropolis.

Burns consecrated some portion of his

wonderful poetic talent to the service of
the Masonic Order, to which he appears
always to have been greatly attached.
Among his Masonic poetic effusions every

On

the 25th of January, 1820, a

monument

was erected to his memory, by public subat his birthplace; the cornerstone of which was laid with appropriate
Masonic honors by the Deputy Grand
Master of the Ancient Mother Lodge Kilwinning, assisted by all the Masonic Lodges
in Ayrshire.
Business. Everything that is done
in a Masonic Lodge, relating to the initiation of candidates into the several degrees,
is called its work or labor; all other transactions such as are common to other associations come under the head of business,
and they are governed with some peculiar
differences by rules of order, as in other
societies.
See Order, Rules of.
Byblos. ,An ancient city of Phoenicia,
celebrated for the mystical worship of
Adonis, who was slain by a wild boar. It
was situated on a river of the same name,
whose waters, becoming red at a certain
season of the year by the admixture of the
clay which is at its source, were said by the
celebrants of the mysteries of Adonis to
be tinged with the blood of that god. This
city, so distinguished for the celebration of
these mysteries, was the Gebal of the Hebrews, the birthplace of the Giblemites, or
stone- squarers, who wrought at the building
of King Solomon's Temple and thus those
who have advanced the theory that Freemasonry is the successor of the Ancient
Mysteries, think that they find in this
identity of Byblos and Gebal another point
of connection between these Institutions.
By-I^aws. Every subordinate Lodge
is permitted to make its own by-laws, provided they do not conflict with the regulations of the Grand Lodge, nor with the
ancient usages of the Fraternity. But of
this, the Grand Lodge is the only judge,
and therefore the original by-laws of every
Lodge, as well as all subsequent alterations
of them, must be submitted to the Grand
Lodge for approval and confirmation before
scription,

they can become valid.

136

CABALA

CABUL

C.
Cabala.

Now more

correctly

generally written Kabbala, which see.

and
Its

derivatives also, such as Cabalist, Cabalistic

Mason, etc., will be found under the titles
Kabbalist, Kabbalistic Mason, etc.

Cabiric

Mysteries.

The

Cabiri

were gods whose worship was first established in the island of Samothrace, where
the Cabiric Mysteries were practised. The
gods called the Cabiri were originally two,
and afterwards four, in number, and are
supposed by Bryant {Anal. Ant. Myth., iii.
342,) to have referred to Noah and his three
sons, the Cabiric Mysteries being a modification of the arkite worship. In these
mysteries there was a ceremony called the
" Cabiric Death," in which was represented,
amid the groans and tears and subsequent
rejoicings of the initiates, the death and
restoration to life of Cadmillus, the youngest
of the Cabiri. The legend recorded that he
was slain by his three brethren, who afterwards fled with his virile parts in a mystic
His body was crowned with flowbasket.
ers, and was buried at the foot of Mount
Olympus. Clement of Alexandria speaks
of the legend as the sacred mystery of a brother slain by his brethren, " frater
atus a fratribus."

trucid-

There is much perplexity connected with

the subject of these mysteries, but it is generally supposed that they were instituted in
honor of Atys, the son of Cybele or Demeter, of whom Cadmillus was but another
name. According to Macrobius, Atys was
one of the appellations of the sun, and we
know that the mysteries were celebrated at
the vernal equinox. They lasted three
days, during which they represented in the
person of Atys, or Cadmillus, the enigmatical death of the sun in winter, and his regeneration in the spring. In all probability, in the initiation, the candidate passed
through a drama, the subject of which was
the violent death of Atys. The " Cabiric
Death " was, in fact, a type of the Hiramic,
and the legend, so far as it can be understood from the faint allusions of ancient
authors, was very analogous in spirit and
design to that of the third degree of Freemasonry.

Many persons annually resorted to Samothrace to be initiated into the celebrated

mysteries, among whom are mentioned Cadmus, Orpheus, Hercules, and Ulysses.
Jamblichus says, in his life of Pythagoras,
that from those of Lemnos that sage derived much of his wisdom. The mysteries
of the Cabiri were much respected among
the common people, and great care was
taken in their concealment. The priests

made use of a language

peculiar to the

rites.

The mysteries were in existence at Samothrace as late as the eighteenth year of the
Christian era, at which time the Emperor
Germanicus embarked for that island, to be
initiated,

but was prevented from accom-

by adverse winds.
word " tow " signifies, properly, a line wherewith to draw.
Richardson [Diet.) defines it as "that which
tuggeth, or with which we tug or draw."
A cable tow is a rope or line for drawing
or leading.
The word is purely Masonic,
and in some of the writers of the early part
plishing his purpose

Cable Tow. The

of the last century we find the expression

" cable rope." Prichard so uses it in 1730.
The German word for a cable or rope is
cabeltau, and thence our cable tow is probably derived.
In its first inception, the cable tow seems
to have been used only as a physical means
of controlling the candidate, and such an
interpretation is still given in the Entered
Apprentice's degree. But in the second and
third degrees a more modern symbolism
has been introduced, and the cable tow is
in these grades supposed to symbolize the
covenant by which all Masons are tied, thus
reminding us of the passage in Hosea (xi.
4), "I drew them with cords of a man,
with bands of love."
Cable Tow's Length. G'adicke
says that, " according to the ancient laws
of Freemasonry, every brother must attend
his Lodge if he is within the length of his
cable tow." The old writers define the
length of a cable tow, which they sometimes
called " a cable's length," to be three miles
But the exfor an Entered Apprentice.
pression is really symbolic, and, as it was
defined by the Baltimore Convention in
1842, means the scope of a man's reasonable
ability.

Cabul. A

district containing

twenty

to Hiram, king
of Tyre, for his assistance in the construccities

which Solomon gave

tion of the Temple. Clark (Comm.) thinks

it likely that they were not given to Hiram
so that they should be annexed to his Tyrian dominions, but rather to be held as
security for the money which he had advanced. This, however, is merely conject-

The district containing them is

ural.
placed by Josephus in the north-west part
of Galilee, adjacent to Tyre. Hiram does
not appear to have been satisfied with the
gift
why, is uncertain. Kitto thinks because they were not situated on the coast.
A Masonic legend says because they were
ruined and dilapidated villages, and in
;

CADET

OEMENTAKIUS

token of his dissatisfaction, Hiram called

the district Cabul. The meaning of this
word is not known. Josephus, probably
by conjecture from the context, says it
means " unpleasing." Hiller (Onomast.)
and, after him, Bates (Diet.) suppose that
Sl33 is derived from the particle *) ow, and
73, nothing. The Talmudic derivation from
CBL, tied with fetters, is Talmudically childish.
The dissatisfaction of Hiram and its
results constitute the subject of the legend
of the degree of Intimate Secretary in the
Scottish Bite.

And Statius, imitating this passage, makes

the same allusion in his Thebaid, (I. 314,)
thus translated by Lewis.
" He grasps the wand which draws from hollow

Cadet

Charles

Gassicourt,

Or

graves,
drives the trembling shades

137

to Stygian

waves
With magic power seals the watchful eye
slumbers
soft or causes sleep to fly."
In

The

history of this Caduceus, or magic

will lead us to its symbolism.
Mercury, who had invented the lyre, making it
out of the shell of the tortoise, exchanged
it with Apollo for the latter's magical wand.

wand,

The author of the celebrated This wand was simply an olive branch
work entitled Le Tombeau de Jacques Mo- around which were placed two fillets of
lay, which was published at Paris, in 1796,
ribbon. Afterwards, when Mercury was in
liOuis.

and in which he attempted, like Barruel Arcadia, he encountered two serpents enand Robison, to show that Freemasonry gaged in deadly combat. These he sepawas the source and instigator of all the rated with his wand hence the olive wand
political revolutions which at that time became the symbol of peace, and the two
were convulsing Europe. Cadet-Gassicourt fillets were replaced by the two serpents,
was himself the victim of political perse- thus giving to the Caduceus its well-known
cution, and, erroneously attributing his form of a staff, around which two serpents
sufferings to the influences of the Masonic are entwined.
Lodges in France, became incensed against
Such is the legend but we may readily
the Order, and this gave birth to his libel- see that in the olive, as the symbol of imlous book.
But subsequent reflection led mortality, borne as the attribute of Merhim to change his views, and he became an cury, the giver of life to the dead, we
ardent admirer of the Institution which he have a more ancient and profounder symhad formerly maligned. He sought initi- bolism. The serpents, symbols also of imation into Freemasonry, and in 1805 was mortality, are appropriately united with
elected as Master of the Lodge PAbeille in the olive wand. The legend also accounts
Paris.
He was born at Paris, Jan. 23, 1769, for a later and secondary symbolism that
and died in the same city Nov. 21, 1821.
of peace.
The Caduceus then
Cadniillus. The youngest of the
the original meanCabiri, and as he is slain in the Cabiric ing of which word is a herald's staff
as
Mysteries, he becomes the analogue of the the attribute of a life-restoring God, is in
Builder in the legend of Freemasonry.
its primary meaning the symbol of immorCaduceus. The Caduceus was the tality so in Freemasonry the rod of the
magic wand of the god Hermes. It was Senior Deacon, or the Master of Ceremoan olive staff twined with fillets, which nies, is but an analogue of the Hermean
were gradually converted to wings and ser- Caduceus. This officer, as leading the aspents.
Hermes, or Mercury, was the mes- pirant through the forms of initiation into
senger of Jove. Among his numerous attri- his new birth or Masonic regeneration, and
butes, one of the most important was that of teaching him in the solemn ceremonies of
;

conducting disembodied spirits to the other

world, and, on necessary occasions, of bringing them back. He was the guide of souls,
and the restorer of the dead to life. Thus,
Horace, in addressing him, says
:

" Unspotted spirits you consign

To blissful seats and joys divine,

And

powerful with your golden

The

fight unburied

wand

crowd command."

Virgil also alludes to this attribute of

the magic wand when he is describing the
flight of Mercury on his way to bear Jove's

warning message
u

to

iEneas

His wand he takes; with this pale ghost he calls

From Pluto's realms, or sends to Tartarus
shore."

the third degree the lesson of eternal life,

may well use the magic wand as a representation of it, which was the attribute of that
ancient deity, who brought the dead into life.
Cseinentarius. Latin.
builder of
walls, a mason from ccementa, rough unhewn stones as they come from the quarry.
In mediaeval Latin, the word is used to designate an operative mason.
Du Cange
cites Magister Cozmentariorum as used to designate him who presided over the building
of edifices, that is, the Master of the works.

has been adopted by some modern writers

as a translation of the word Freemason. Its
employment for that purpose is perhaps
more correct than that of the more usual
word latomus, which owes its use to the auIt

thority of Thory.

CAGLIOSTRO

CAGLIOSTRO

Cagliostro. Of all the Masonic charlatans who nourished in the eighteenth century the Count Cagliostro was most prominent, whether we consider the ingenuity of
his schemes of deception, the extensive
field of his operations through almost every
country of Europe, or the distinguished
character and station of many of those whose
credulity made them his victims. The history of Masonry in that century would not
be complete without a reference to this
prince of Masonic impostors. To write the
history of Masonry in the eighteenth century and to leave out Cagliostro, would be
like enacting the play of Hamlet and leaving out the part of the Prince of Denmark.
And yet Carlyle has had occasion to
complain of the paucity of materials for
such a work. Indeed, of one so notorious
as Cagliostro comparatively but little is to
be found in print. The only works upon
which he who would write his life must dedepend are a Life of him published in London, 1787 ; Memoirs, in Paris, 1786 and
Memoirs Authentiques, Strasburg, 1786; a
Life, in Germany, published at Berlin, 1787;
another in Italian, published at Rome in
1791 and a few fugitive pieces, consisting
chiefly of manifestoes of himself and his

they succeeded in collecting a considerable

amount of money. Their next appearance
is in the island of Malta, where
they
worked for some time in the laboratory of
the Grand Master Pinto. There Altotas
died, and Balsamo, or
as I shall henceforth call him by the name which he subsequently assumed
Cagliostro, proceeded
to visit Naples, under the protection of a
Knight of Malta, to whom he had been recommended by the Grand Master. He subsequently united his fortunes to a Sicilian
prince, who was addicted to the study of

138

disciples.

Joseph Balsamo, subsequently known as

Count Cagliostro, was the son of Peter Balsamo and Felicia Braconieri, both of mean
extraction, who was born on the 8th of June,
1743, in the city of Palermo. Upon the death
of his father, he was taken under the protection of his maternal uncles, who caused
him to be instructed in the elements of religion and learning, by both of which he
profited so little, that he eloped several
times from the Seminary of St. Roch, near
Palermo, where he had been placed for his
instruction.
At the age of thirteen he was
carried to the Convent of the Good Brotherhood at Castiglione. There, having assumed the habit of a novice, he was placed
under the tuition of the apothecary, from
whom he learned the principles of chemistry and medicine. His brief residence at
the convent was marked by violations of
many of its rules and finally, abandoning
it
altogether, he returned to Palermo.
There he continued his vicious courses, and
was frequently seized and imprisoned for
infractions of the law.
At length, having
cheated a goldsmith, named Marano, of a
large amount of gold, he was compelled to
flee from his native country.
He then repaired to Messina, where he
became acquainted with one Altotas, who
pretended to be a great chemist. Together
they proceeded to Alexandria in Egypt,
where, by means of certain chemical, or
perhaps rather by financial, operations,
;

who carried him to visit his

estates in Sicily.
took this opportunity
of revisiting Messina, where he deserted
his princely patron, and became the associate of a dissolute priest, with
he
went to Naples and Rome. In the latter
place, which he visited for the first time, he
assumed several characters, appearing
sometimes in an ecclesiastical, and sometimes in a secular habit. His principal
occupation at this period was that of fillchemistry, and

He

whom

ing up outlines of copperplate engravings

with India ink, which he sold for pen-andink drawings. Cagliostro could do nothing
without a mingling of imposture.
About this time he made the acquaintance of a young woman, Lorenza Feliciani,
whom he married, and to whom her parents
gave a trifling dower, but one which was
proportioned to her condition. This woman subsequently made a principal figure
in his history, partaking of his manifold
adventures, aiding

him

in his impostures,

and finally betraying his confidence, by becoming the chief witness against him on
his trial at Rome.
I shall say nothing here or hereafter of
the domestic life of this well-assorted couple, except that, by the woman's own confession, it

was guided by the most immoral

most licen-

principles, and marked by the

tious practices.
Soon after his marriage he

became

ac-

his
quainted with a notorious adventurer
called the Marquis Agliata,
countryman
whose character strongly resembled his
own, and with one Ottavio Nicastro, an accomplished villain, who subsequently fin-

ished his career on the gibbet.

This triumvirate of rogues occupied
themselves in the manufacture of forged
notes and bonds, with which they amassed
But the
considerable sums of money.
course of roguery, like that of true love,
" never does run smooth " and, having
quarrelled about a division of the spoils,
Nicastro, finding himself cheated by his
comrades, betrayed them to the police, who
sought to arrest them. But Cagliostro and
his wife, accompanied by the Marquis Agliata, learning the design, made their es;

CAGLIOSTRO

CAGLIOSTRO

139

and travelled towards Venice. They for the extension of his Rite, and anxious
stopped a short time at Bergamo, for the for the greater income which it promised,
purpose of replenishing their exhausted he again passed over to the Continent,
where he justly anticipated abundant sucpurses by a resumption of their forgeries
the municipal authorities however, discov- cess in its propagation.
As this Egyptian Masonry constituted
ering their project, banished them from the
The marquis fled alone, carrying the great pursuit of the rest of his life,
city.
with him the funds, and leaving Cagliostro and was the instrument which he used for
and his wife in so destitute a condition, many years to make dupes of thousands of
that they were compelled to beg their way credulous persons, among whom not a few
as pilgrims through Sardinia and Genoa. princes, nobles, and philosophers are to be
At length they arrived at Antibes, in Spain. counted, it is proper that, in any biography
Here, by the practice of a little of his usual of this great charlatan, some account should
chicanery, the count was enabled to recruit be given of the so-called Masonic scheme
Thence they of which he was the founder. ^This achis impoverished fortunes.
travelled to Barcelona, where they re- count is to be derived, as all accounts
mained six months, living upon those hitherto published on the same subject
whom they could delude, and finally re- have been, from the book which came into
tired to Lisbon, whence they subsequently the possession of the Inquisition at the
trial of Cagliostro, and which purports to
went to England.
In the year 1772 we find Cagliostro in contain the rituals of his degrees. Of this
London, where he remained about twelve work, which Carlyle calls in his rough
months. During this period he attempted style a " certain expository Masonic orderbook of Cagliostro's," the author of the
to practise his chemical secrets, but not, it
appears, with much success; as he was Italian biography,* who writes, however, in
compelled to sell some of his jewels to ob- the interest of the Church, and with the
tain the means of subsistence, and was at sanction of the Apostolic Chamber, says,
length thrown into the King's Bench prison that the style is so elegant, that it could
by his creditors. Being released from con- not have been composed by himself; but he
finement, he passed over into France, and admits that the materials were furnished
was engaged for some years in visiting the by Cagliostro, and put into form by some
different capitals of Europe, where he pro- other person of greater scholarship.
Be
fessed to be in possession of the Hermetic this as it mav, this book furnishes us with
the only authentic account of the Masonry
secrets for restoring youth, prolonging life,
and transmuting the baser metals into gold. of Cagliostro, and to its contents we must
Dupes were not wanting, and Cagliostro resort, as very fully extracted in the Comseems to have been successful in his schemes pendio detta Vita.
for enriching himself by " obtaining money
Cagliostro states that in England he purunder false pretences." In 1776 Cagliostro chased some manuscripts from one George
again repaired to London. Here he ap- Coston, which treated of Egyptian Mapeared'with renovated fortunes, and, taking sonry, but with a system somewhat magical
a house in a fashionable neighborhood, at- and superstitious. Upon this plan, howtracted attention by the splendor of his ever, he resolved to build up a new ritual
domestic establishment.
of Masonry. Assuming the title of Grand
In London, during this visit, Cagliostro Cophta,
a title derived from that of the
became connected with the Order of Free- high priests of Egypt,
Cagliostro prommasonry.
In the month of April he re- ised his followers to conduct them to perceived the degrees in Esperance Lodge, No. fection by means of moral and physical
289, which then met at the King's Head regeneration: By the first, to make them
Tavern. Cagliostro did not join the Order find the primal matter, or philosopher's
with disinterested motives, or at least he stone, and the acacia, which consolidates
determined in a very short period after his in man the powers of the most vigorous
initiation to use the Institution as an in- youth and renders him immortal by the
strument for the advancement of his per- second, to teach him how to procure the
sonal interests. Here he is said to have in- pentagon, which restores man to his primvented, in 1777, that grand scheme of im- itive state of innocence, forfeited by the
posture under the name of "Egyptian original sin. He supposes Egyptian MaMasonry," by the propagation of which he sonry was instituted by Enoch and Elias,
subsequently became so famous as the great who propagated it in different parts of the
Masonic charlatan of his age.
world, but that with time it lost much of
London did not fail to furnish him with its purity and splendor. All Masonry but
a fertile field for his impositions, and the
* Compendio della Vita e delle Gesta di GuisEnglish Masons seemed noways reluctant
seppe Balsamo denominate il Conte Cagliostro,
to become his dupes
but, being ambitious Roma, 1791, p. 87.
cape,

140

CAGLIOSTEO

CAGLIOSTRO

own he called mere buffoonery, and

Adoptive Masonry he declares to have
been almost destroyed. The object, therefore, of Egyptian Masonry was to restore

In the admission of a man to the degree

his

to its original lustre the Masonry of either

The ceremonies were conducted with
sex.
great splendor. The Grand Cophta was
supposed to be invested with the faculty of

commanding angels; he was invoked on

all occasions, and everything was supposed
to be accomplished through the force of
his power, imparted to him by the Deity.
Egyptian Masonry was very tolerant ; men
of all religions were admitted, provided

they acknowledged the existence of God

and the immortality of the soul, and had
been previously initiated into the ordinary

Masonry. There were three degrees, as in

Ancient Craft Masonry, and men elevated
to the rank of Masters took the names of
the ancient prophets, while women assumed those of the Sybils. The oath exacted from the former was in the following
words: "I promise, I engage, and I swear
never to reveal the secrets which shall be
imparted to me in this temple, and blindly
to obey my superiors." The Oath of the

women

slightly from this: "I

swear, before the eternal God of the Grand
Mistress, and of all who hear me, never to
write, or cause to be written, anything that
shall pass under my eyes, condemning myself, in the event of imprudence, to be
punished according to the laws of the Grand
I likeFounder and of all
superiors.
differed

my

wise promise the exact observance of the

other six commandments imposed on me,
that is to say, love of God, respect for my
sovereign, veneration for religion and the
laws, love of my fellow- creatures, an attachment without bounds for our Order, and
the blindest submission to the rules and code
of our ritual, such as they may be communicated to me by the Grand Mistress."
In the ceremonial of admitting a woman
to the degree of Apprentice, the Grand
Mistress breathed upon the face of the recipiendary from the forehead to the chin,
saying, " I thus breathe upon you to cause
the truths possessed by us to germinate and
penetrate within your heart; I breathe
upon you to fortify your spiritual part I
breathe upon you to confirm you in the
faith of your brothers and sisters, according
to the engagements that you have contracted.
create you a legitimate daughter of the true Egyptian adoption and of
the Lodge N. we will that you be recognized as such by all the brothers and sisters of the Egyptian ritual, and that you
enjoy the same prerogatives with them.
Lastly, we impart to you the supreme
pleasure of being, henceforth and forever,
;

We

a Freemason."

of

Companion

or Fellow-Craft, the

Grand

Master addressed the candidate in the following words " By the power that I hold
from the Grand Cophta, the founder of our
Order, and by the grace of God, I confer
upon you the degree of Companion, and
constitute you a guardian of the new
science, in which we are preparing to make
you a participator, by the sacred names
of Helios, Mene, Tetragrammaton."
In the admission of a disciple into the
:

degree of Master, Cagliostro was careful to

adopt a ceremonial which might make an
impression of his own powers and those of
his Eite upon the recipiendary.
The inquisitorial biographer is lavish of the
charges of immorality, sacrilege, and blasphemy, in his account of these ceremonies.
Such charges were to be expected when the
Church was dealing with Masonry, either in
its pure, or its spurious form ; for Masons
had long before been excommunicated
in a mass by repeated papal bulls. It is
not surprising, therefore, that the description of the ritual gives no color to these
charges.

We

find there, indeed, extrava-

gant pretensions to powers not possessed,

gaudy trappings, and solemn pageantry,
which might impress the imaginations of
the weak, and unfulfilled promises, which
could only deceive the too confiding but
everything was done under the cloak of
;

morality and religion for Cagliostro was

careful to declare in his patents, that he
labored only, and wished his disciples to
labor, "for the glory of the Eternal and
for the benefit of humanity."
This might
have been, nay, undoubtedly was, hypocrisy ; but it was certainly neither sacrilege
:

nor blasphemy.
We proceed now to give a specimen from
this " Inquisition biographer," to use a
Carlylism, of the ritual of admission into
the degree of Master.
A young girl (sometimes it was a boy)'
was taken in a state of innocence, who was
called pupil or dove. Then the Master of
the Lodge imparted to this child the power
that he had received before the first fall, a

power which more particularly consisted in

commanding the pure spirits. These spirits
were seven in number they were said to
surround the throne of the Deity, and to
:

their names, according to Cagliostro's book, being Asael,

Michael, Eaphael, Gabriel, Uriel, Zobiachel, and Anachiel. The dove was brought
before the Master. The members addressed
a prayer to Heaven, that it would vouchsafe the exercise of that power which it had
granted to the Grand Cophta. The pupil,
or dove, also prayed to obtain the grace of
working according to the behests of the

govern the seven planets

CAGLIOSTRO

CAGLIOSTRO

Grand Master, and of serving as a mediator

between him and the spirits, who on that

ception finally, the presence of the Grand

Cophta was invoked, that he might bless
and confirm it; after which the Lodge was

account are called intermediates. Clothed

in a long white robe, ornamented with blue
ribbon and a red scarf, and, having received
the sufflation, she was inclosed in the tabernacle, a place hung with white. It had an
entrance door, a window through which the
dove made herself heard, and within was a
bench and a little table, whereon burned
three tapers. The Master repeated his
prayer, and began to exercise the power
that he pretended to have received from
the Grand Cophta, in virtue of which he
summoned the seven angels to appear beWhen she anfore the eyes of the pupil.
nounced that they were present, he charged
her, by the power granted by God to the
Grand Cophta, and by the Grand Cophta
imparted to himself, that she ask the angel
N. whether the candidate had the qualities
and the merits requisite for the degree of
Master. After having received an affirmative answer, he proceeded to the other ceremonies for completing the reception of the
candidate.

There is but little in the ceremony of

admitting women to the degree of Mistress.
The dove being placed as we have just described, she was ordered to make one of the
seven angels appear in the tabernacle, and
to ask him whether it was permitted to lift
the black veil with which the initiate was
covered. Other superstitious ceremonies
followed, and the Venerable ordered the
dove to command the presence of the six
other angels, and to address to them the fol" By the power
lowing commandment
which the Grand Cophta has given to my
Mistress, and by that which I hold from
her, and by my innocence, I command you,
primitive angels, to consecrate the ornaments, by passing them through your
hands." These ornaments were the garments, the symbols of the Order, and a
crown of artificial roses. When the dove
had attested that the angel had performed
the consecration, she was desired to cause
Moses to appear, in order that he also
might bless the ornaments, and might hold
the crown of roses in his hand during the
rest of the ceremonies; she afterwards
passed through the window of the tabernacle the garments, the symbols, and the
:

whereon was written, " I am man,"

and all were presented to the initiate.
Other questions were now put to the dove
but above all to know whether Moses had
held the crown in his hand the whole time,
and when she answered "yes," it was
placed upon the head of the initiate. Then,
after other rites equally imposing, the dove
was questioned anew, to learn if Moses and
the seven angels had approved of this regloves,

141

closed.

Cagliostro professed that the object of his

Masonry was the perfecting of his disciples

by moral and physical regeneration, and
the ceremonies used to produce these results
were of a character partly mesmeric and
partly necromantic. They are too long for
detail.
It is sufficient to say, that they
showed the ingenuity of their inventor,
and proved his aptitude for the profession
of a charlatan.
He borrowed, however, a great deal from
ordinary Masonry.
Lodges were consecrated with great solemnity, and were dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist, because,
as he said, of the great affinity that exists
between the Apocalypse and the working
of his ritual.
The principal emblems used in the Eite
were the septangle, the triangle, the trowel,
the compass, the square, the gavel, the
death's head, the cubical stone, the rough
stone, the triangular stone, the wooden
bridge, Jacob's ladder, the phoenix, the
globe, Time, and others, similar to those

which have always been used in Ancient

Craft Masonry.

Having

instituted this new Rite, out of

as a never-failing mine,
to extract a fortune, he passed over from
London to the Hague, and thence to Italy,
assuming at Venice the title of Marquis de
Pellegrini, and afterwards into Germany,
everywhere establishing Lodges and gain-

which he expected,

ing disciples, many of whom are found in

the highest ranks of the nobility and thus
he may be traced through Saxony, Germany, and Poland, arriving in the spring
of 1780 at St. Petersburg, in Russia;
whence, however, he was soon driven out
by the police, -and subsequently visited
Vienna, Frankford, and Strasburg. In
all these journeys, he affected a magnificence of display which was not without its
effect upon the weak minds of his deluded
followers.
His Italian biographer thus
describes the style of his travelling and
:

living
" The train he commonly took with him
corresponded to the rest he always travelled post, with a considerable suit: couriers, lackeys, body-servants, domestics of
all sorts, sumptuously dressed, gave an air
of reality to the high birth vaunted. The
very liveries which were made in Paris cost
twenty louis each. Apartments furnished
in the height of the fashion, a magnificent
table opened to numerous guests, rich
dresses for himself and wife, corresponded
to his luxurious way of life.
His feigned
generosity likewise made a great noise:
;

CAGLIOSTKO

142

CAGLIOSTKO

Marie Antoinette was affixed,

and through the guarantee afforded by the
at Strasburg, cardinal,
who, however, claimed that he
making converts, relieving the poor, and was himself deceived,
Boehmer was ingiving his panacea, the " Extract of Sat- duced to surrender the necklace to the
urn," to the hospitals. Here he found the countess for the queen, as he supposed, on
Cardinal Prince de Kohan, who expressed terms of payment in instalments.
But
a wish to see him. Cagliostro's insolent the first instalment, and then the second,
reply is an instance of that boastful assur- remaining unpaid, the jeweller, becoming
ance which he always assumed, with the impatient for his money, made a personal
often he gratuitously doctored the poor,

signature of

and even gave them alms."

In 1783, Cagliostro was

intention of forcing men into a belief of

" If Monseigneur the
his lofty pretension
:

cardinal is sick, let him come to me, and I

will cure him if he is well, he has no need
of me, I none of him." This reply had
the desired effect, and the imbecile cardinal sought the acquaintance which the
charlatan had seemed so indifferent to cul;

tivate.

Shortly

after,

Cagliostro visited Paris,

application to the queen, when for the first

time the fraud was discovered.
In the
meantime the necklace had disappeared.
But it was known that the countess, from
a state of indigence, had suddenly risen to
the possession of wealth; that her husband, de la Motte, had been in England
selling diamonds,
for the necklace, too
costly to be sold as a whole, could be more
readily disposed of when taken to pieces,

where he became involved with the Cardinal de Eohan and the Countess de la

and that Cagliostro, too, was in possession

of funds, for which hardly the income of
Motte-Valois,. in the celebrated swindling his Egyptian Masonry would account. The
transaction of the diamond necklace, which Cardinal de Rohan alone appears to have
attracted at the time the attention of all derived no pecuniary advantage from the
Europe, and still excites great interest transaction.
He was, however, arrested
among the learned.
and placed in the Bastile, whither he was
The history, or, rather, the romance of speedily followed by his two accomplices,
this diamond necklace, is worth telling in the countess and Cagliostro. The cardinal,
brief words. Boehmer, the king's jeweller either because no evidence could be found
at Paris, had exhausted all his skill and of his guilt,
for he stoutly asserted his
resources in the construction of a diamond innocence,
or because of his ecclesiastical
necklace, which he hoped to dispose of to character, was soon liberated. But as a
the Duchess du Barry, one of the royal suspicion still hovered over him, he was
mistresses.
But the necklace, when com- banished from the court. The countess
pleted, was of such exorbitant value
not and Cagliostro endured a longer imprisonless than seventy thousand pounds, or ment, but were subsequently released from
almost half a million Of dollars
as to be confinement and ordered to leave the kingbeyond the purchasing power of even a dom. The countess proceeded to England,
king's favorite. The necklace, therefore, where she printed her vindication, and
remained on the jeweller's hands for three attempted to expose the queen.
Count
years, as so much dead and locked-up cap- Cagliostro also repaired to England, to
ital.
In vain did he attempt to excite the resume his adventures.
There he published the memoirs of his life, in which he
cupidity of the queen, Marie Antoinette
she felt that it was a luxury in which she also seeks to vindicate himself in the affair
dared not indulge in the crippled condition of the diamond necklace. And hence, acof the French finances. But there were cording to the account of the actors, noothers who had seen and longed for the body was guilty for the queen asseverated
possession of the costly gaud. The Count- her innocence as strongly as any, and peress de Valois, an adventuress about the haps with greater truth. Nothing is certain
court, resolved upon a stupendous course in the whole story except that Boehmer
of fraud, through which she might obtain lost his necklace and his money, and the
the coveted prize and convert its gems into obscurity in which the transaction has been
ready money. She invited to her assist- left has afforded an ample field of speculaance Cagliostro, who was then in Paris tion for subsequent inquirers.
working at his Egyptian Masonry, and,
During Cagliostro's residence in Engthrough his influence over the Cardinal land, on this last visit, he was attacked by
Rohan, secured the complicity, innocent the editor Morand, in the Courier de

or guilty as
prince.

it

may

A woman

be, of the credulous

named d'Oliva

some

say it was Valois herself, of whose name

Oliva was most probably the anagram
was engaged to personate the queen, and
through a contract, to which the forged

V Europe, in a series of abusive articles, to

letter to the
English people. But, although he had a
few Egyptian Lodges in London under his
government, he appears, perhaps from Morand's revelations of his character and life,

which Cagliostro replied in a

CALENDAR

CAHIER
have lost his popularity, and he left
England permanently in May, 1787.
He went to Savoy, Sardinia, and other
places in the south of Europe, and at last, in
May, 1789, by an act of rash temerity, proceeded to Rome, where he organized anEgyptian Lodge under the very shadow oftheYatican. But this was more than the Church,
which had been excommunicating Freemasonry for fifty years, was willing to enOn the 27th of December of that
dure.
year, on the festival of St. John the Evanto whom he had dedicated his
gelist,
Lodges, the Holy Inquisition arrested him,
and locked him up in the Castle of San Anto

There, after such a trial as the Inquisition is wont to give to the accused
in which his wife is said to have been the
he was
principal witness against him
convicted of having formed " societies and
conventicles of Freemasonry." His manuscript, entitled Maeonnerie Egyptienne, was
ordered to be burned by the public executioner, and he himself was condemned to
death; a sentence which the pope subsequently commuted for that of perpetual
imprisonment. Cagliostro appealed to the
French Constituent Assembly, but of course
Thenceforth no more is seen of
in vain.
him. For four years this adventurer, who
had filled during his life so large a space'
in the world's history,
the associate of
princes, prelates, and philosophers the inventor of a spurious Rite, which had, howlanguished
ever, its thousands of disciples,
within the gloomy walls of the prison of
St. Leo, in the Duchy of Urbino, and at
length, in the year 1795, in a fit of apoplexy, bade the world adieu. Ir
Cahier. French. A number of sheets
of parchment or paper fastened together by
one end. The word is used by French Masons to designate a small book printed, or
in manuscript, containing the ritual of a
degree. The word has been borrowed from
French history, where it denotes the reports and proceedings of certain assemblies, such as the clergy, the States-Gengelo.

eral, etc.

Cairns. Celtic, earns. Heaps of stones

of a conical form erected by the Druids.
Some suppose them to have been sepulchral monuments, others
altars.
They
were undoubtedly of a religious character,
since sacrificial fires were lighted upon
them, and processions were made around
them. These processions were analogous
to the circumambulations in Masonry, and
were conducted, like them, with reference to
the apparent course of the sun. Thus, Toland, in his Letters on the Celtic Religion,
(Let. II., xvii.,) says of these mystical processions, that the people of the Scottish
islands " never come to the ancient sacri-

143

and fire-hallowing Cams but they

walk three times round them from east to
ficing

west, according to the course of the sun.

This sanctified tour, or round by the south,
is called Deaseal, as the unhallowed contrary
one by the north, Tuapholl;" and he says
that Deaseal is derived from " Deas, the right

(understanding hand), and soil, one of the

ancient names of the sun, the right hand in
this round being ever next the heap."
In
all this the Mason will be reminded of the
Masonic ceremony of circumambulation
around the altar and the rules which govern it.
distinguished
Calcott, Wellins.
Masonic writer of the eighteenth century,
and the author of a work published in 1769,
under the title of "
Candid Disquisition
of the Principles and Practices of the
Most Ancient and Honorable Society of
Free and Accepted Masons, together with
some Strictures on the Origin, Nature, and
Design of that Institution," in which he
has traced Masonry from its origin, explained its symbols and hieroglyphics, its
social virtues and advantages, suggested
the propriety of building halls for the peculiar and exclusive practice of Masonry,
and reprehended its slanderers with great
but judicious severity. This was the first
extended effort to illustrate philosophically
the science of Masonry, and was followed,
a few years after, by Hutchinson's admirable work so that Oliver justly says that
" Calcott opened the mine of Masonry,

and Hutchinson worked

it."

Calendar.

Freemasons, in affixing
dates to their official documents, never
make use of the common epoch or vulgar
era, but have one peculiar to themselves,
which, however, varies in the different
rites.
Era and epoch are, in this sense,
synonymous.
Masons of the York, American, and
Rites, that is to say, the Masons
Scotland, Ireland, France,
Germany, and America date from the creation of the world, calling it " Anno Lucis," which they abbreviate A.*. L.\, signifying in the Year of Light Thus with them
the year 1872 is A.*. L.\ 5872. This they
do, not because they believe Freemasonry
to be coeval with the creation, but with
a symbolic reference to the light of Ma-

French

of England,

sonry.

In the Scotch Rite, the epoch also begins

from the date of the creation, but Masons
of that Rite, using the Jewish chronology,
would call the year 1872 A.'. M.\ or Anno
Mundi (in the Year of the World) 5632. They
sometimes use the initials A.'. H.\, signifying Anno Hebraico, or, in the Hebrew year.
They have also adopted the Hebrew months,
and the year, therefore, begins with them

CALENDAR

144

in the middle of September.

CALLING
See Months,

Hebrew.

Masons of the York and American Eites

begin the year on the first of January, but
in the French Eite it commences on the
of March, and instead of the months
receiving their usual names, they are designated numerically, as first, second, third,
Thus, the 1st of January, 1872, would
etc.

first

be styled, in a French Masonic document,

the " 1st day of the 11th Masonic month,
Anno Lucis, 5872." The French sometimes, instead of the initials A.*. L.\, use
Van de la V.'. L.'., or Vraie Lumiere, that
is, Year of True Light.

Eoyal Arch Masons commence their

epoch with the year in which Zerubbabel
began to build the second Temple, which
was 530 years before Christ. Their style
for the year 1872 is, therefore, A.*. Inv.\,
that is, Anno Inventionis, or, in the Year of
the Discovery, 2402.
Eoyal and Select Masters very often
make use of the common Masonic date,
Anno Lucis, but properly they should date
from the year in which Solomon's Temple

and their style

;
Depositionis, or, in the

was completed
be,

Anno

would then
Year of the

Deposite, and they would date the year

1872 as 2872.
Knights Templars use the epoch of the
organization of their Order in 1118. Their
style for the year 1872 is A.\ O.'., Anno
Ordinis, or, in the Year of the Order, 754.
I subjoin, for the convenience of reference, the rules for discovering these different dates.
1. To find the Ancient Craft date.
Add
4000 to the vulgar era. Thus 1872 and
4000 are 5872.
2. To find the date of the Scotch Rite. Add
3760 to the vulgar era. Thus 1872 and
3760 are 5632. After September add one

year more.
3. To find the date of Royal Arch Masonry.
Add 530 to the vulgar era. Thus
530 and 1872 are 2402.
4. To find the Royal and Select Masters'
date.
Add 1000 to the vulgar era. Thus
1000 and 1872 are 2872.
5.
To find the Knights Templars' date.
Subtract 1118 from the vulgar era. Thus
1118 from 1872 is 754.
The following will show, in one view, the
date of the year 1872 in all the branches
of the Order
Year of the Lord, A.D. 1872 Vulgar
era.

Year of Light, A.'. L.\ 5872

Ancient
Craft Masonry.
Year of the World, A.*. M.\ 5632

Scotch Eite.

Year of the Discovery,

Eoyal Arch Masonry.

A.'.

I.*.

2402

Year of the Deposite, A.*. Dep.\ 2872

Eoyal and Select Masters.
Year of the Order, A.'. 0.\ 754 Knights
Templars.

California. The Grand Lodge of

California was organized on the 19th of
April, 1850, in the city of Sacramento, by
the delegates of three legally constituted
Lodges working, at the time, under charters from the Grand Lodges of the District
of Columbia, Connecticut, and Missouri.
Its present seat is at San Francisco, and
there are 215 Lodges under its jurisdiction.
The Grand Chapter and Grand Commandery were organized in 1854.
technical
Calling Off.

Masonry, which

term in

the temporary
suspension of labor in a Lodge without
passing through the formal ceremony of
The full form of the expression
closing.
is

to call

from

signifies

labor

to

refreshment,

and

it

took its rise from the former custom of dividing the time spent in the Lodge between
the work of Masonry and the moderate enjoyment of the banquet. The banquet
formed in the last century an indispensable
part of the arrangements of a Lodge meet" At a certain hour of the evening,"
ing.
says Brother Oliver, "with certain ceremonies, the Lodge was called from labor to
refreshment, when the brethren enjoyed
themselves with decent merriment." That
custom no longer exists and although in
England almost always, and in this country occasionally, the labors of the Lodge
are concluded with a banquet; yet the
Lodge is formally closed before the brethren proceed to the table of refreshment.
Calling off in American Lodges is now only
used, except in a certain ceremony of the
;

third degree, when it is desired to have another meeting at a short interval, and the
Master desires to avoid the tediousness of
closing and opening the Lodge. Thus, if
the business of the Lodge at its regular
meeting has so accumulated that it cannot
be transacted in one evening, it has become the custom to call off until a subsequent evening, when the Lodge, instead of
being opened with the usual ceremony, is
simply "called on," and the latter meeting
is considered as only a continuation of the
former. This custom is very generally
adopted in Grand Lodges at their Annual
Communications, which are opened at the
beginning of the session, called off from
day to day, and finally closed at its end. I
do not know that any objection has ever
been advanced against this usage in Grand
Lodges, because it seems necessary as a
substitute for the adjournment, which is
resorted to in other legislative bodies, but
which is not admitted in Masonry. But
much discussion has taken place in refer-

"
;

CALVARY

CALLING

eminence, situated due west from

the Temple of

ence to the practice of calling off in Lodges,

hill or

some authorities sustaining and others condemning it. Thus, twenty years ago, the
Committee of Correspondence of the Grand
Lodge of Mississippi proposed this ques-

Mount Moriah, on which

" In case of excess of business, cannot the unfinished be laid over until the
next or another'day, and must the Lodge
be closed in form, and opened the next, or
the day designated for the transaction of
that business?" To this question some
authorities, and among others Brother C.
W. Moore, {Mag., Vol. XII., No. 10,) reply
in the negative, while other equally good
jurists differ from them in opinion.
The difficulty seems to be in this, that if
the regular meeting of the Lodge is closed
in form, the subsequent meeting becomes a
special one, aud many things which could
be done at a regular communication cease
tion

The recommendation,
to be admissible.
therefore, of Brother Moore, that the Lodge

145

Solomon was

built.
It was originally a
hillock of notable eminence, but has, in
more modern times, been greatly reduced
by the excavations made in it for the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There are several coincidences which
identify Mount Calvary with the small hill
where the " newly-made grave," referred to
in the third degree, was discovered by the
weary brother. Thus, Mount Calvary was
a small hill it was situated in a westward
;

from the Temple, and near Mount

Moriah; and it was on the direct road from
Jerusalem to Joppa, and is the very spot
where. a weary brother, travelling on that
road, would find it convenient to sit down
to rest and refresh himself; it was outside the
direction

gate of the

Temple

it

has at least one

cleft

which was the place

which subsequently became the sepulchre
in the rock, or cave,

of our Lord. Hence Mount Calvary has

always retained an important place in the
legendary history of Freemasonry, and
there are many traditions connected with it
that are highly interesting in their import.
One of these traditions is, that it was the
burial-place of Adam, in order, says the old
of a preceding regular one.
As, then, the mode of briefly closing by legend, that where he lay, who effected the
adjournment is contrary to Masonic law and ruin of mankind, there also might the Sausage, and cannot, therefore, be resorted to, viour of the world suffer, die, and be buried.
as there is no other way except by calling off Sir R. Torkington, who published a pilto continue the character of a regular meet- grimage to Jerusalem in 1517, says that
ing, and as, during the period that the Lodge " under the Mount of Calvary is another
chapel of our Blessed Lady and St. John
is called off, it is under the government of
the Junior Warden, and Masonic discipline the Evangelists, that was called Golgotha
is thus continued, I am clearly of opinion
and there, right under the mortise of the
that calling off from day to day for the cross, was found the head of our forefather,
purpose of continuing work or business is, Adam." Golgotha, it will be remembered,
as a matter of convenience, admissible. means, in Hebrew, "the place of a skull
The practice may indeed be abused. But and there may be some connection between
there is a well-known legal maxim which this tradition and the name of Golgotha, by
" No which, the Evangelists inform us, in the
says, Ex abusu non arguitar in usum.
argument can be drawn from the abuse of time of Christ Mount Calvary was known.
a thing against its use." Thus, a Lodge Calvary, or Calvaria, has the same significacannot be called off except for continuance tion in Latin.
of work and business, nor to an indefinite
Another tradition states that it was in
day, for there must be a good reason for the bowels of Mount Calvary that Enoch
the exercise of the practice, and the breth- erected his nine-arched vault, and deposited
ren present must be notified before dispers- on the foundation-stone of Masonry that
ing of the time of re-assembling nor can Ineffable Name, whose investigation, as a
a Lodge at one regular meeting be called symbol of divine truth, is the great object
off until the next, for no regular meeting of Speculative Masonry.
of a Lodge is permitted to run into another,
third tradition details the subsequent
but each must be closed before its successor discovery of Enoch's deposit, by King Solocan be opened.
mon, whilst making excavations in Mount
Calling On. When a Lodge that is Calvary during the building of the Temple.
called off at a subsequent time resumes
On this hallowed spot was Christ the
work or business, it is said to be " called Eedeemer slain and buried. It was there
on." The full expression is "called on that, rising on the third day from his sepfrom refreshment to labor."
ulchre, he gave, by that act, the demonstraCalnmny. See Back.
tive evidence of the resurrection of the
Calvary. Mount Calvary is a small body and the immortality of the soul.

should be closed, and, if the business be unfinished, that the Master shall call a special meeting to complete it, does not meet
the difficulty, because it is a well-settled
principle of Masonic law that a special
meeting cannot interfere with the business

10

146

CAMP

CANDLESTICK

And it is this spot that has been selected,

in the legendary history of Freemasonry, to
teach the same sublime truth, the development of which by a symbol evidently forms
the design of the third or Master's degree.
portion of the paraphernalia decorated with tents, flags, and pennons
of a Consistory of Sublime Princes of the
Royal Secret, or thirty-second degree of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite.
It constitutes the tracing board, and is worn
on the apron of the degree. It is highly
symbolic, and represents an imaginary Masonic camp. Its symbolism is altogether

Camp. A

esoteric.

Campe, Joachim

Heinricli.

Doctor of Theology, and Director of Schools

in Dessau and Hamburg, who was born in

and died Oct. 22, 1818. He was the

many works on philosophy and
education, and was a learned and zealous
Mason, as is shown in his correspondence
1746,

author of

with Lessing.

Canada. The Grand Lodge of Canada

was formed out of the Provincial Grand
Lodge by a Convention of Lodges in the
year 1855. It is formed upon the model
of the Grand Lodge of England, having
a Board of General Purposes, and similar
regulations as to representation.
Candidate. An applicant for admission into Masonry is called a candidate.
The Latin candidatus means clothed in
white, candidis vestibus indutus. In ancient
Rome, he who sought office from the people wore a white shining robe of a peculiar
construction, flowing open in front, so as to
exhibit the wounds he had received in his
breast.
From the color of his robe or toga.
Candida, he was called candidatus, whence
the word candidate. The derivation will
serve to remind the Mason of the purity of
conduct and character which should distinguish all those who are candidates for
admission into the order. The qualifications of a candidate in Masonry are somewhat peculiar.
He must be freeborn,
under no bondage, of at least twenty-one
years of age, in the possession of sound
senses, free from any physical defect or dismemberment, and of irreproachable manners, or, as it is technically termed, "under
the tongue of good report." No atheist,
eunuch, or woman can be admitted. The
requisites as to age, sex, and soundness of
body have reference to the operative character of the Institution.
can only expect able workmen in able-bodied men.

We

The mental and

religious qualifications
refer to the duties and obligations which a
Freemason contracts.
idiot could not
understand them, and an atheist would not

An

Even those who possess all

respect them.
these necessary qualifications can be ad-

mitted only under certain regulations. Not

five candidates can be received
at one time, except in urgent cases, when a
dispensation may be granted by the Grand
Master, and no applicant can receive more
than two degrees on the same day. To the
last rule there can be no exception.
Candidates, Advancement of.
See Advancement, Hurried.
Candlestick, Golden. The golden
candlestick of seven branches, which is a
part of the furniture of a Royal Arch
Chapter, is derived from "the holy candlestick " which Moses was instructed to construct of beaten gold for the use of the
tabernacle.
Smith [Diet, of the Bible) thus
abbreviates Lightfoot's explanation of the
description given in Exodus.
"The foot
of it was gold, from which went up a shaft
straight, which was the middle light. Near
the foot was a golden dish wrought almondwise and a little above that a golden knop,
and above that a golden flower. Then two
branches one on each side bowed, and
coming up as high as the middle shaft. On
each of them were three golden cups placed
almondwise, in sharp, scallop-shell fashion;
above which was a golden knop, a golden
flower, and the socket.
Above the branches
on the middle shaft was a golden boss,

more than

above which rose two shafts more

above

the coming out of these was another boss

and two more shafts, and then on the shaft
upwards were three golden scallop-cups, a
knop, and a flower so that the heads of
the branches stood an equal height." In
the tabernacle, the candlestick was placed
opposite the table of shew-bread, which it
was intended to illumine, in an oblique
position, so that the lamps looked to the
What became of the
east and south.
candlestick between the time of Moses and
that of Solomon is unknown but it does
not appear to have been present in the first
Temple, which was lighted by ten golden
candlesticks similarly embossed, and which
were connected by golden chains and
formed a sort of railing before the veil.
These ten candlesticks became the spoil
of the Chaldean conqueror at the time of
the destruction of the Temple, and could
not have been among the articles afterwards restored by Cyrus for in the second
Temple, built by Zembbabel, we find only
a single candlestick of seven branches, like
that of the tabernacle. Its form has been
perpetuated on the Arch of Titus, on which
it was sculptured with other articles taken
;

by that monarch, and carried to Rome as

spolia opima, after he had destroyed the
Herodian Temple. This is the candlestick
which is represented as a decoration in a
Royal Arch Chapter.
In Jewish symbolism, the seven branches

CANOPY

CAPITULAR

work under the head of Covering of the

were supposed by some to refer to the

this

seven planets, and by others to the seventh

day or Sabbath. The primitive Christians
made it allusive to Christ as the "light of
the world," and in this sense it is a favorite
symbol in early Christian art. In Masonry
it seems to have no symbolic meaning,
unless it be the general one of light but
is used in a Koyal Arch Chapter simply to
indicate that the room is a representation
of the tabernacle erected near the ruins
of the first Temple, for the purpose of temporary worship during the building of the
second, and in which tabernacle this candlestick is supposed to have been present.
Canopy. Oliver says that in the Masonic processions of the Continent the
Grand Master walks under a gorgeous
canopy of blue, purple, and crimson silk,
with gold fringes and tassels, borne upon
staves, painted purple and ornamented with
gold, by eight of the oldest Master Masons
present and the Masters of private Lodges
walk under canopies of light blue silk with

Lodge, which

and fringes, borne by four

members of their own respective companies.
The canopies are in the form of an oblong
square, and are in length six feet, in breadth

silver tassels

and height three

feet, having a semicircular

covering.
The framework should be of
cedar, and the silken covering ought to

hang down two

feet on each side.

This is,
properly speaking, a Baldachin. See that
word.
Canopy, Clouded. The clouded
canopy, or starry-decked heaven, is a symbol
of the first degree, and is of such important
significance that Lenning calls it a " fundamental symbol of Freemasonry." In the lectures of the York Rite, the clouded canopy is
described as the covering of the Lodge, teadhing us, as Krause says, "that the primitive
Lodge is confined within no shut up building,
but that it is universal, and reaches to heaven,
and especially teaching that in every clime
under heaven Freemasonry has its seat."

And Gadicke

says, " Every Freemason

knows that by the clouded canopy we mean
the heavens, and that it teaches how widely

extended

147

Canzler,

see.

Carl

Christian.

librarian of Dresden, born Sept. 30, 1733,

died Oct. 16, 1786. He was an earnest, learned Freemason, who published in a literary
journal, conducted by himself and A. G.
Meissner at Leipsic, in 1783-85, under the
title of Fur dltere Litteratur und neuere Lecture, many interesting articles on the subject of Freemasonry.
Cape-Stone, or, as it would more correctly be called, the cope-stone, (but the

former word has been consecrated

to us by
universal Masonic usage,) is the topmost
stone of a building.
To bring it forth,
therefore, and to place it in its destined
position, is significative that the building is
completed, which event is celebrated, even
by the operative Masons of the present day,
with great signs of rejoicing. Flags are
hoisted on the top of every edifice by the
builders engaged in its construction, as soon
as they have reached the topmost post, and
thus finished their labors.
This is the
" celebration of the cape-stone,"
the. celebration of the completion of the building,
when tools are laid aside, and rest and refreshment succeed for a time to labor. This
is the event in the history of the Temple
which is commemorated in the degree of
Most Excellent Master, the sixth in the
American Rite. The day set apart for the
celebration of the cape-stone of the Temple is
the day devoted to rejoicing and thanksgiving for the completion of that glorious
structure.
Hence there seems to be an impropriety in the ordinary use of the Mark
Master's keystone in the ritual of the Most
Excellent Master. That keystone was deposited in silence and secrecy while the
cape-stone, as the legend and ceremonies
tell us, was placed in its position in the
presence of all the Craft.
Capitular Degrees. The degrees
conferred under the charter of an American
Royal Arch Chapter, which are Mark
Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master,
and Royal Arch Mason. The capitular
degrees are almost altogether founded on
and composed of a series of events in Masonic history. Each of them has attached

is our sphere of usefulness. There

no portion of the inhabited world in
which our labor cannot be carried forward, as there is no portion of the globe to it some tradition or legend which it is
without its clouded canopy." Hence, then, the design of the degree to illustrate, and
the German interpretation of the symbol is the memory of which is preserved in its
that it denotes the universality of Free- ceremonies and instructions. Most of these
masonry, an interpretation that does not legends are of symbolic signification. But
precisely accord with the English and this is their interior sense. In their outAmerican systems, in which the doctrine ward and ostensible meaning, they appear
of universality is symbolized by the form before us simply as legends. To retain
and extent of the Lodge. The clouded these legends in the memory of Masons apcanopy as the covering of the Lodge seems pears to have been the primary design in
is

rather to teach the doctrine of aspiration

for a higher sphere
it is thus defined in
;

the establishment of the higher degrees

as the information intended to be com-

and

'

CAPITULAR

CAPTIVITY

municated in these degrees is of an historical character, there can of course be but

little room for symbols or for symbolic instruction the profuse use of which would
rather tend to an injury than to a benefit,
by complicating the purposes of the ritual
and confusing the mind of the aspirant.
These remarks refer exclusively to the Mark
and Most Excellent Master's degree of the

nezzar, and their detention at Babylon

until the reign of Cyrus, which alone is
connected with the history of Masonry,

148

American Eite, but are not so applicable to

the Koyal Arch, which is eminently symThe legends of the second Temple,
bolic.
and the lost word, the peculiar legends of
that degree, are among the most prominent
symbols of the Masonic system.

Capitular Masonry. The Masonry

and

is

commemorated in the Eoyal Arch

degree.

Between that portion of the ritual of the

Eoyal Arch which refers to the destruction
of the first Temple, and that subsequent
part which symbolizes the building of the
second, there is an interregnum (if we may
be allowed the term) in the ceremonial of the
degree, which must be considered as a long
interval in history, the filling up of which,
like the interval between the acts of a play,
must be left to the imagination of the spectator. This interval represents the time passed
in the captivity of the Jews at Babylon.
That captivity lasted for seventy years,

Arch Chapter of the

Eites.
There are
Chapters in the Ancient and Accepted, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar until that
although but fifty-two of these
Scottish, and in the French and other of Cyrus,
Eites but the Masonry therein conferred is years are commemorated in the Eoyal Arch
conferred in a Eoyal

York and American

This event took place in the year

588 B. c. It was not, however, the begincer in a Commandery of Knights Tem- ning of the "seventy years' captivity,"
plars.
He presides over the Commandery which had been foretold by the prophet
in the absence of his superiors, and is one Jeremiah, which commenced eighteen years
The captives were conducted to
of its representatives in the Grand Com- before.
mandery. His duties are to see that the Babylon.
What was the exact number
council chamber and asylum are duly pre- removed we have no means of ascertainpared for the business of the meetings, and ing. We are led to believe, from certain
to communicate all orders issued by the passages of Scripture, that the deportation
Grand Council. His station is on the left was not complete. Calmet says that Nebuof the Grand Commander, and his jewel is chadnezzar carried away only the principal
inhabitants, the warriors and artisans of
a level surmounted by a cock. See Cock.
Captain of the Guard. The sixth every kind, and that he left the "husbandofficer in a Council of Eoyal and Select men, the laborers, and, in general, the
Masters. In the latter degree he is said to poorer classes, that constituted the great
represent Azariah, the son of Nathan, who body of the people. Among the prisoners
liad command of the twelve officers of the of distinction, Josephus mentions the high
king's household, (1 Kings iv. 7.)
His priest, Seraiah, and Zephaniah, the priest
duties correspond in some measure with that was next to him, with the three rulers
those of a Senior Deacon in the primary that guarded the Temple, the eunuch who
His post is, therefore, on the was over the armed men, seven friends of
degrees.
right of the throne, and his jewel is a Zedekiah, his scribe, and sixty other rulers.
Zedekiah, the king, had attempted to escape
trowel and battle-axe within a triangle.
Captain of the Host. The fourth previous to the termination of the siege,
officer in a Eoyal Arch Chapter.
He rep- but being pursued, was captured and carresents the general or leader of the Jewish ried to Eiblah, the headquarters of Nebutroops who returned from Babylon, and chadnezzar, where, having first been comwho was called " Sar el hatzaba" and was pelled to behold the slaughter of his
equivalent to a modern general. The word children, his eyes were then put out, and
Host in the title means army. He sits on he was conducted in chains to Babylon.
the right of the Council in front, and wears
A Masonic tradition informs us that the
a white robe and cap or helmet, with a red captive Jews were bound by their conquersash, and is armed with a sword.
His ors with triangular chains, and that this
jewel is a triangular plate, on which an was done by the Chaldeans as an additional
armed soldier is engraved.
insult, because the Jewish Masons were
Captivity. The Jews reckoned their known to esteem the triangle as an emblem
national captivities as four,
the Babylo- of the sacred name of God, and must have
nian, Medean, Grecian, and Eoman.
The considered its appropriation to the form of
present article will refer only to the first, their fetters as a desecration of the Tetrawhen there was a forcible deportation of grammaton.
the inhabitants of Jerusalem by NebuNotwithstanding the ignominious mode
zaradan, the general of King Nebuchad- of their conveyance from Jerusalem, and
not called capitular.

degree.

Captain General. The

third

offi-

CARBOXARISM

CAPTIVITY
the vindictiveness displayed by their conqueror in the destruction of their city and
Temple, they do not appear, on their arrival
at Babylon, to- have been subjected to any
They
of the extreme rigors of slavery.
were distributed into various parts of the
empire, some remaining in the city, while
others were sent into the provinces. The

probably devoted themselves to agricultural pursuits, while the former were

engaged in commerce or in the labors of
Smith says that the captives
architecture.
were treated not as slaves but as colonists.
They were permitted to retain their personal property, and even to purchase lands
and erect houses. Their civil and religious
government was not utterly destroyed, for
latter

they kept up a regular succession of kings

and high priests, one of each of whom
returned with them, as will be seen hereafter, on their restoration.
Some of the
principal captives were advanced to offices
of dignity and power in the royal palace,
and were permitted to share in the councils
of state.
Their prophets, Daniel and Ezekiel, with their associates, preserved among
their countrymen the pure doctrines of
their religion.
Although they had neither
place nor time of national gathering, nor
temple, and therefore offered no sacrifices,
yet they observed the Mosaic laws with
respect to the rite of circumcision. They
preserved their tables of genealogy and the
true succession to the throne of David. The
rightful heir being called the Head of the
Captivity,* Jehoiachin, who was the first
king of Judea carried captive to Babylon,
was succeeded by his son Shealtiel, and he
by his son Zerubbabel, who was the Head
of the Captivity, or nominal prince of
Judea at the close of the captivity. The
due succession of the high priesthood was
also preserved, for Jehosadek, who was the
high priest carried by Nebuchadnezzar
to Babylon, where he died during the captivity, was succeeded by his eldest son,
Joshua. The Jewish captivity terminated
in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, B. c.
536.
Cyrus, from his conversations with
Daniel and the other Jewish captives of
learning and piety, as well as from his
perusal of their sacred books, more especially the prophecies of Isaiah, had become
imbued with a knowledge of true religion,
and hence had even publicly announced to
his subjects his belief in the God " which

the nation of the Israelites worshipped."

He was consequently impressed with an
earnest desire to fulfil the prophetic declarations of which he was the subject, and

-So says the Talmud, but Smith {Diet, of the

Bible) affirms that the assertion is unsupported
by proof. The Masonic legends conform to the
Tahnudic statement.

to rebuild the

149

Temple of Jerusalem.

Cy-

rus therefore issued a decree by which the

Jews were permitted to return to their
country. According to Milman, 42,360 besides servants availed themselves of this
permission, and returned to Jerusalem
under Zerubbabel their prince and Joshua
their high priest, and thus ended the first
or Babylonian captivity, the only one

which has any connection with the legends

of Freemasonry as commemorated in the
Royal Arch degree.

Carausius.

A Roman

assumed the purple

who
Of him

emperor,

A. d. 287.

Preston gives the following account, which

may or may not be deemed apocryphal, according to the taste and inclination of the
" By assuming the character of a
reader.
Mason, he acquired the love and esteem of
the most enlightened part of his subjects.
He possessed real merit, encouraged learning and learned men, and improved the
country in the civil arts. In order to establish an empire in Britain, he brought
into his dominions the best workmen and
artificers from all parts
all of whom, under his auspices, enjoyed peace and tranquillity. Among the first class of his favorfor their
ites he enrolled the Masons:
tenets he professed the highest veneration,
and appointed Albanus, his steward, the
principal superintendent of their assemUnder his patronage, Lodges and
blies.
conventions of the Fraternity were formed,
and the rites of Masonry regularly prac;

tised.
To enable the Masons to hold a
general council, to establish their own gov-

ernment and correct errors among themhe granted to them a charter, and
commanded Albanus to preside over them
Anderson
in person as Grand Master."
selves,

also gives the legend of Carausius in the

second edition of his Constitutions, and adds

that " this is asserted by all the old copies

of the Constitutions, and the old English
Masons firmly believed it." But the fact is
that Anderson himself does not mention
the tradition in his first edition, published
in 1723; nor is any reference to Carausius
to be found in any of the old manuscripts
now extant. The legend is, it is true, inbut this
serted in Krause's Manuscript
document is of very little authority, having been, most probably, a production of the
early part of the eighteenth century, and
of a cotemporary of Anderson, written perhaps between 1723 and 1738, which would
account for the omission of it in the first
edition of the Book of Constitutions, and
The reader
its insertion in the second.
may hence determine for himself what authenticity is to be given to the Carausian
legend.
;

Carbouarisiu. A

secret political so-

150

CARBUNCLE

CASSIA

which sprang up in Italy in the be- South, Beauty; and the North, Darkginning of the nineteenth century. It is ness.
Cardinal Virtues. The pre-eminent
entitled to no place in a Masonic Encyclopaedia, except that the word affords an op- or principal virtues on which all the others
portunity of repudiating the theory that it hinge or depend. They are temperance,
was in any way connected .with Freema- fortitude, prudence, and justice. They are
sonry, although the Carbonari appear to referred to in the ritual of the first degree,
have borrowed many of their forms from and will be found in this work under their
the Freemasons. The members called each respective heads. Oliver says [Revelation of
a Square, ch. i.,) that in the eighteenth cenother " cousins."
Carbuncle. In Hebrew, DVM, bara- tury the Masons delineated the symbols of
keth, the third stone in the first row of the the four cardinal virtues by an acute angle
high priest's breastplate, according to the variously disposed. Thus, suppose you
authorized version, but the first stone in face the east, the angle symbolizing temIt was
the second row, according to the Septua- perance will point to the south,
gint.
Braun, a writer on the sacerdotal called a Guttural. Fortitude was denoted
vestments of the Hebrews, (Amsterdam, by a saltire, or St. Andrew's Cross, X This
1680,) supposes that the baraketh was a was the Pectoral. The symbol of prudence
smaragdus or emerald, which view is sus- was an acute angle pointing towards the
tained by Kalisch, and is in accordance south-east, ~J, and was denominated a
with the Septuagint translation. The Tal- Manual and justice had its angle towards
mudists derive baraketh from a word signi- the north, <, and was called a Pedestal or
fying "to shine with the brightness of Pedal.
ciety

>.

printer and
which would seem to indicate some
Carlile, Richard.
stone of a coruscant color, and would ap- bookseller of London, who in 1819 was
ply to the bright green of the emerald as fined and imprisoned for the publication
well as to the bright red of the carbuncle. of Paine's Age of Reason, and Palmer's
The stone, whatever it was, was referred to Light of Nature. He also wrote and pubthe tribe of Judah. The carbuncle in lished several pretended expositions of
Christian iconography signifies blood and Masonry, which, after his death, were collected, in 1845, in one volume, under the
suffering, and is symbolical of the Lord's
passion. Five carbuncles placed on a cross title of a Manual of Freemasonry, in three
parts.
Carlile was a professed Atheist,
symbolize the five wounds of Christ.
Cardinal Points. The north, west, and, although a fanatical reformer of what
he supposed to be the errors of the age, was
east, and south are so called from the
Latin cardo, a hinge, because they are the a man of some ability. His Masonic works
principal points of the compass on which are interspersed with considerable learning,
all the others hinge or hang.
Each of and are not as abusive of the Order as exthem has a symbolic signification in Ma- positions generally are. He was born in
sonry, which will be found under their re1790, and died in 1843, in London. For
Dr. Brinton, in an inter- ten years before his death his religious
spective heads.
opinions had been greatly modified.
esting Treatise on the /Symbolism and Mythology of the Bed Race of America, has a
Carpet. The chart or tracing board
chapter on the sacred number four the only on which the emblems of a degree are deone, he says, that has any prominence in picted for the instruction of a candidate.
the religions of the red race, and which " Carpets " were originally drawn on the
he traces to the four cardinal points. The floor with chalk or charcoal, and at the
reason, he declares, is to be " found in the close of the Lodge obliterated. To avoid this
adoration of the cardinal points ;" 'and he trouble, they were subsequently painted on
attributes to this cause the prevalence of
cloth, which was laid on the floor hence
the cross as a symbol among the aborigines they were called carpets.
Carpets, or
of America, the existence of which so sur- charts, as they are at the present time comprised the Catholic missionaries that they monly designated, are now generally sus" were in doubt whether to ascribe the fact pended from the wall, or from a framework
to the pious labors of St. Thomas or the in the Lodge.
sacrilegious subtlety of Satan." The arms
Casniaran. The angel of air. Beof the cross referred to the cardinal points, ferred to in the degree of Scottish Knight
and represented the four winds, the bringers of St. Andrew. The etymology is uncerof rain. The theory is an interesting one, tain.
and the author supports it with many incorruption of acacia, which
Cassia.
genious illustrations. In the symbolism undoubtedly arose from the common habit,
of Freemasonry each of the cardinal points among illiterate people, of sinking the
has a mystical meaning. The East repre- sound of the letter
in the pronunciation
sents Wisdom
the West, Strength
the of anv word of which it constitutes the inifire,"

CASTELLAN
tial syllable,

apothecary

prentice for apprentice.

CATHARINE

for apothecary,

and

The word prentice,

is almost altogether used in the

old records of Masonry, which were, for
the most part, the productions of uneducated men. Unfortunately, however, the corruption of acacia into cassia has not always
been confined to the illiterate but the long
employment of the corrupted form has at
length introduced it, in some instances,
among a few of our writers. Even Dr.
Oliver has sometimes used the objectionable corruption, notwithstanding he has
written so much upon the symbolism of the

by the way,

'

acacia.

There is a plant which was called by the

ancients cassia, but it is entirely different
from the acacia. The acacia was a sacred
plant the cassia an ignoble plant, having
no sacred character. The former is in Ma;

sonry profoundly symbolic the latter has

no symbolism whatever. The cassia is only
three times mentioned in Scripture, but
always as an aromatic plant forming a portion of some perfume. There is, indeed,
strong reason for believing that the cassia
was only a coarse kind of cinnamon, and
that it did not grow in Palestine, but was
imported from the East. Cassia, therefore,
has no rightful place in Masonic language,
and its use should be avoided as a vulgar
;

corruption.

Castellan. In Germany, the Superintendent or Steward of a Lodge building,

in which he resides.
He is either a serving
brother or an actual member of the Lodge,
and has the care of the building and its
contents.

Casting Voice or Vote.

The

twelfth of the thirty -nine General Regulations prescribes that " all matters are to be
determined in the Grand Lodge by a majority of votes.
Each member having one
vote and the Grand Master having two
votes."
From this law has arisen the universal usage of giving to the Master of the
Lodge a casting vote in addition to his own
when there is a tie. The custom is so universal, and has been so long practised, that,
although I can find no specific law on the
subject, the right may be considered as
established by prescription. It may be remarked that the Masonic usage is probably
derived from the custom of the London
Livery Companies or Gilds, where the casting vote has always been given by the presiding officers in all cases of equality, a rule
that has been recognized by Act of Parlia-

ment.

Catafalque.
temporary structure
of wood, appropriately decorated with
funereal symbols and representing a tomb
or cenotaph. It forms a part of the decorations of a Sorrow Lodge, and is also

151

used in the ceremonies of the third degree

in Lodges of the French Rite.
Catch Questions. Questions not included in the Catechism, but adopted from
an early period to try the pretensions of a.
stranger, such as this used by American
Masons " Where does the Master hang his
hat? " and by the French, " Comment etesvous entre dans le Temple de Salomon?"
Such as these are of course unsanctioned by
authority.
But Dr. Oliver, in an essay on
this subject preliminary to the fourth volume of his Golden Remains, gives a long
list of these " additional tests," which had
been reduced to a kind of system, and were
practised by the English Masons of the
eighteenth century.
Among them were
such as these. What is the punishment of
a cowan ? What does this stone smell of?
If a brother were lost, where would you look
for him? How blows a Mason's wind? and
many others of the same kind. Of these
tests or catch questions, Dr. Oliver says,
" that they were something like the conundrums of the present day difficult of comprehension admitting only of one answer,
which appeared to have no direct correspondence with the question, and applicable
only in consonance with the mysterious
terms and symbols of the Institution."
:

Catch questions in this country, at least,

seem to be getting out of use, and some of
the most learned Masons at the present day
would find it difficult to answer them.

Catechism. From .the earliest times

the oral instructions of Masonry have been
communicated in a catechetical form. Each
degree has its peculiar catechism, the knowledge of which constitutes what is called a
" bright Mason." The catechism, indeed,
should be known to every Mason, for every
aspirant should be thoroughly instructed
in that of the degree to which he has attained before he is permitted to make further progress. The rule, however, is not
rigidly observed and many Masons, unfortunately, are very ignorant of all but the rudimentary parts of their catechism, which
they derive only from hearing portions of
it communicated at the opening and closing of the Lodge.
Catenarian Arch. If a rope be
suspended loosely by its two ends, the
curve into which it falls is called a catenarian curve, and this inverted forms the
catenarian arch, which is said to be the
strongest of all arches. As the form, of a
symbolic Lodge is an oblong square, that
of a Royal Arch Chapter, according to the
English ritual, is a catenarian arch.
Catharine II. Catharine the Great,
Empress of Russia, in 1762, prohibited by
an edict all Masonic meetings in her doBut subsequently better sentiminions.
;

CAUTION

152

CEDARS

ments prevailed, and having learned the

true character of the Institution, she not
only revoked her order of prohibition, but
invited the Masons to re-establish their
Lodges and to constitute new ones, and
went so far as to proclaim herself the Protectress of the Lodge of. Clio, at Moscow.
During the remainder of her reign Freemasonry was in a flourishing condition in
Eussia, and many of the nobles organized
Lodges in their palaces. She died November 6, 1796, and the persecutions against
the Order were renewed by her successor.
Caution. It was formerly the custom
to

bestow upon an Entered Apprentice, on

his initiation, a new name, which was

" caution." The custom is now very generally discontinued, although the principle

which

it

inculcated should never be for-

gotten.

The Old Charges of 1723 impress upon a

Mason the necessity, when in the presence
of strangers not Masons, to be " cautious in
his words and carriage, that the most penetrating stranger shall not be able to discover or find out what is not proper to be
intimated ; " as these Charges were particularly directed to Apprentices, who then constituted the great body of the Fraternity, it
is evident that the " new name " gave rise
to the Charge, or, more likely, that the
Charge gave rise to the " new name."

Cavern. In the Pagan mysteries of

antiquity the initiations were often performed in caverns, of which a few, like the
cave of Elephanta in India, still remain to
indicate by their form and extent the
character of the rites that were then performed. The cavern of Elephanta, which
was the most gorgeous temple in the world,
is one hundred and thirty feet square, and
eighteen feet high. It is supported by four
massive pillars, and its walls are covered
with statues and carved symbolic decorations. The sacellum, or sacred place, which
contained the phallic symbol, was in the
western extremity, and accessible only to
the initiated.
The caverns of Salsette,
greatly exceeded in magnitude that of Elephanta, being three hundred in number,
all

adorned with symbolic

figures,

were always in some manner or other connected with caverns " and
he mentions, among other instances, the
cave Zirinthus, within whose dark recesses
the most mysterious Kites of the Samothracian Cabiri were performed.
Maurice, (Ind. Ant., iii. 536,) speaking
of the subterranean passages of the Temple of Isis, in the island of Phile in the
practised, they

river Nile, says, "

it was in these gloomy

caverns that the grand and mystic arcana
of the goddess were unfolded to the adoring
aspirant, while the solemn hymns of initiation resounded through the long extent of
these stony recesses."
Many of the ancient oracles, as, for instance, that of Trophonius in Bceotia, were
delivered in caves. Hence, the cave subterranean, dark, and silent was mingled in
the ancient mind with the idea of mystery.
In the ceremonies of Masonry, we find
the cavern or vault in what is called the
Cryptic Masonry of the American Rite,
and also in the high degrees of the French
and Scottish Rites, in which it is a symbol
of the darkness of ignorance and crime
impenetrable to the light of truth.
In reference to the practical purposes of
the cavern, as recorded in the legend of
these degrees, it may be mentioned that
caverns, which abounded in Palestine in
consequence of the geological structure of
the country, are spoken of by Josephus as
places of refuge for banditti
and Mr.
Phillott says, in Smith's Dictionary, that it
was the caves which lie beneath and around
so many of the Jewish cities that formed
the last hiding-places of the Jewish leaders
in the war with the Romans.

Cedars of Lebanon. In scriptural

symbology, the cedar-tree, says Wemyss,
(Symb. Lang. Scrip.,) was the symbol of
eternity, because its substance never decays
nor rots. Hence, the Ark of the Covenant
was made of cedar; and those are said to
utter things worthy of cedar who write
that which no time ought to obliterate.
The Cedars of Lebanon are frequently
referred to in the legends of Masonry, especially in the higher degrees ; not, however,

among on account

which the phallic emblems were predominant, which were placed in the most secret
caverns, accessible only by private entrances.
In every cavern was a basin to
contain .the consecrated water of ablution,
on the surface of which floated the sacred
lotus flower.
All these caverns were places
of initiation into the Hindu mysteries,
and every arrangement was made for the
performance of the most impressive ceremonies.
Faber (Mys. Cab., ii. 257,) says that
"wherever the Cabiric Mysteries were

of any symbolical signification,

but rather because of the use made of them
by Solomon and Zerubbabel in the construction of their respective Temples. Mr.
Phillott (Smith's Diet. Bible) thus describes
the grove so celebrated in scriptural and
Masonic history

of

The grove of trees known as the Cedars

Lebanon consists of about four hundred

standing quite alone in a depression

of the mountain with no trees near, about
six thousand four hundred feet above the
sea, and three thousand below the summit.
About eleven or twelve are very large and
trees,

CELEBKATION

CENTAINE

middle size,
and more than three hundred younger and
smaller ones. The older trees have each
several trunks and spread themselves widely round, but most of the others are of
cone-like form, and do not send out wide,
In 1550, there were
lateral branches.
twenty-eight old trees; in 1739, Pococke
counted fifteen, but the number of trunks
makes the operation of counting uncertain.
They are regarded with much reverence by

cave of Machpelah for a burial-place for

old, twenty-five large, fifty of

153

his people.

It is not, then, surprising that Masons,

actuated by this spirit, should have been
desirous to consecrate certain spots as resting-places for themselves and for the strange
brethren who should die among them.
writer in the London Freemason's Magazine
for 1858 complained that there was not in
England a Masonic cemetery, nor portion
of an established cemetery especially dedithe native inhabitants as living records of cated to the interment of the brethren of
Solomon's power, and the Maronite patri- the Craft. This neglect cannot be charged
arch was formerly accustomed to celebrate against the Masons of America, for there
there the festival of the Transfiguration at is scarcely a city or town of considerable
size in which the 'Masons have not puran altar of rough stones.
Celebration. The third degree of chased and appropriated a suitable spot as
See Fessler's Bite.
a cemetery to be exclusively devoted to the
Fessler's Rite.
Celestial Alphabet. See Alphabet use of the Fraternity. These cemeteries
are often, and should always be, dedicated
of Angels.
with impressive ceremonies ; and it is to be
Celtic Mysteries. See Druidism.
Celts. The early inhabitants of Italy, regretted that our rituals have provided no
Gaul, Spain, and Britain. They are sup- sanctioned form of service for these occaposed to have left Asia during one of the sions.
small vessel of metal fitted
Aryan emigrations, and, having travelled in
Censer.
a westerly direction, to have spread over to receive burning coals from the altar, and
The Celtic on which the incense for burning was sprinthese countries of Europe.
Mysteries or the Sacred Bites which they kled by the priest in the Temple. Among
instituted are known as Druidism, which the furniture of a Boyal Arch Chapter is to
see.
be found the censer, which is placed upon
Cement. The cement which in Oper- the altar of incense within the sanctuary,
ative Masonry is used to unite the various as a symbol of the pure thoughts and
parts of a building into one strong and grateful feelings which, in so holy a place,
durable mass, is borrowed by Speculative should be offered up as a fitting sacrifice to
Masonry as a symbol to denote that the great I AM. In a similar symbolic
brotherly love which binds the Masons of sense, the censer, under the name of the
all countries in one common brotherhood.
"poi of incense," is found among the emAs this brotherhood is recognized as being blems of the third degree. See Pot of
perfected among Master Masons only, the Incense.
The censer also constitutes a
symbol is very appropriately referred to the part of the Lodge furniture in many of the
third degree.
high degrees.
Cemeteries, Masonic. The desire
Censor. G'adicke says this is not an
to select some suitable spot wherein to de- officer, but is now and then introduced into
posit the remains of our departed kindred some of the Lodges of Germany.
He is
and friends seems almost innate in the commonly found where the Lodge has its
human breast. The stranger's field was own private house, in which, on certain
bought with the accursed bribe of betrayal days,, mixed assemblies are held of Freeand treason, and there is an abhorrence to masons and their families and friends.
depositing our loved ones in places whose Of those assemblies the Censor has the
archetype was so desecrated by its purchase- superintendence.
money. The churchyard, to the man of
Censure. In Masonic law, the mildsentiment, is as sacred as the church itself. est form of punishment that can be inThe cemetery bears a hallowed character, flicted, and may be defined to be a formal
and we adorn its graves with vernal flowers expression of disapprobation, without other
or with evergreens, to show that the dead, result than the effect produced upon the
though away from our presence visibly, feelings of him who is censured. It is
still live and bloom in our memories.
The adopted by a resolution of the Lodge on a
oldest of all the histories that time has motion made at a regular communication
saved to us contains an affecting story of it requires only a bare majority of votes for
this reverence of the living for the dead, its passage, does not affect the Masonic
when it tells us how Abraham, when Sarah, standing of the person censured, and may
his beloved wife, had died in a strange be revoked at any subsequent regular comland, reluctant to bury her among stran- munication.
gers, purchased from the sons of Heth the
mystical
Centaine, Order of.

CENTENNIAL

154

society of the last century which admitted

It was organized at Bordeaux, in
females.
1735. Lenning says that at a later period
some of its adherents attempted to engraft

CERTIFICATE
Ceremonies, Master of.

Bee Master

of Ceremonies.

Among

Ceres.

dess of agriculture
poetic Greeks she

the Romans, the godbut among the more

was worshipped under

upon Freemasonry, but without effect.
Centennial. That which happens the name of Demeter, as the symbol of the
every hundred years. Masonic bodies that prolific earth. To her is attributed the

it

for that period very generally

celebrate the occasion by a commemorative
On the 4th of November, 1852,
festival.

have lasted

of the Lodges of the United

States celebrated the centennial anniversary
of the initiation of George Washington as
a Freemason.
society which existed
Centralists.
in Europe from 1770 to 1780. It made use
of Masonic forms at its meeting simply to
conceal its secrets. Lenning calls it an alchemical association, but says that it had
religious and political tendencies. G'adicke
thinks that its object was to propagate
Jesuitism.
Central Point. See Point within a

almost

all

Circle.

Centre, Opening on the. In the

English ritual, a Master Mason's Lodge is
said to be opened on the centre, because the
brethren present, being all Master Masons,
are equally near and equally distant from
that imaginary central point which among
Masons constitutes perfection. Neither of
the preliminary degrees can assert the same
conditions, because the Lodge of an Entered
Apprentice may contain all the three classes,
and that of a Fellow Craft may include
some Master Masons; and therefore the
doctrine of perfect equality is not carried
out in either. An attempt was made, but
without success, in the Trestle Board,
published under the sanction of the Baltimore Masonic Convention, to introduce the
custom into the American Lodges.
Cephas. A word which in the Syriac
signifies a rock or stone, and is the name
which was bestowed by Christ upon Simon,
when he said to him, " Thou art a rock,"
which the Greeks rendered by Uerpog, and
the Latins by Petrus, both words meaning
"a rock." It is used in the degree of
Eoyal Master, and there alludes to the
Stone of Foundation.

Ceremonies. The outer garments

which cover and adorn Freemasonry as
clothing does the human body. Although
ceremonies give neither

life nor truth to

doctrines or principles, yet they have an
admirable influence, since by their use
certain things are made to acquire a sacred
character which they would not otherwise
have had and hence, Lord Coke has most
wisely said, that " prudent antiquity did,
for more solemnity and better memory and
observation of that which is to be done,
express substances under ceremonies."
;

institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries in

Greece, the most popular of all the ancient
initiations.

Cerneau, Joseph. A

French jewborn at Villeblerin, in 1763, and who

in the beginning of the nineteenth century
removed to the city of New York, where
in 1807 he established a spurious body
under the title of " Sovereign Grand Consistory of the United States of America, its
Territories and Dependencies." This Masonic charlatan, who claimed the right to
organize bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, was expelled and his
pretensions denounced, in 1813, by the
legal Supreme Council sitting at Charleston, South Carolina. Cerneau and his adherents gave much trouble in the Scottish
Rite for many years, and the bodies which
he had formed were not entirely dissolved
until long after the establishment of a
legal Supreme Council for the Northern
eller,

Jurisdiction.

Certificate. A diploma issued by a

Grand Lodge, or by a subordinate Lodge
under

authority,

its

testifying

that

the

holder thereof is a true and trusty brother,

and recommending him to the hospitality
of the Fraternity abroad. The character
of this instrument has sometimes been
much misunderstood. It is by no means
intended to act as a voucher for the bearer,
nor can it be allowed to supersede the neA stranger,
cessity of a strict examination.
however, having been tried and proved by
a more unerring standard, his certificate
then properly comes in as an auxiliary testimonial, and will be permitted to afford
good evidence of his correct standing in his
Lodge at home for no body of Masons,
true to the principles of their Order, would
grant such an instrument to an unworthy
brother, or to one who, they feared, might
make an improper use of it. But though
the presence of a Grand Lodge certificate
be in general required as collateral evidence
of worthiness to visit, or receive aid, its ac;

cidental absence,

which may

arise in vari-

ous ways, as from fire, captivity, or shipwreck, should not debar a strange brother
from the rights guaranteed to him by our
Institution, provided he can offer other evidence of his good character. The Grand
Lodge of New York has, upon this subject,
taken the proper stand in the following
" That no Mason be admitted
regulation
to any subordinate Lodge under the juris:

CHAILLOU

CHALDEA

diction of this Grand Lodge, or receive the

charities of any Lodge, unless he shall, on
such application, exhibit a Grand Lodge
certificate, duly attested by the proper authorities, except he is known to the Lodge to
be a worthy brother."

holding each other by the hands, as in surrounding a grave, etc. Each brother crosses
his arms in front of his body, so as to give
his right hand to his left hand neighbor, and
his left hand to his right hand neighbor.
The French call it chaine oVunion. It is a
symbol of the close connection of all Masons in one common brotherhood.
Chain of Flowers. In French Masonry, when a Lodge celebrates the day of
its foundation, or the semi-centennial membership of one of the brethren, or at the
initiation of a louveteau, the room is decorated with wreaths of flowers called " chaine
de fleurs."
Chain of Union. See Chain, Mystic.
Chain, Triangular. One of the
legends of Freemasonry tells us that when
the Jewish Masons were carried as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, they were bound by triangular chains, which was intended as an additional insult, because to them the triangle,
or delta, was a symbol of the Deity, to be
used only on sacred occasions. The legend
is of course apocryphal, and is worth nothing except as a legendary symbol.
Chair. A technical term signifying the
Thus, " he is
office of Master of a Lodge.
eligible to the chair " is equivalent to " he
The
is eligible to the office of Master."
word is applied in the same sense to the
presiding office in other Masonic bodies.
Chairman. The presiding officer of
a meeting or committee. In all committees
of a Lodge, the Worshipful Master, if he
chooses to attend, is ex-officio chairman as
is the Grand Master of any meeting of the

The

certificate

discussed by the

system has been warmly

Grand Lodges of the

United States, and considerable opposition

it has been made by some of them on
the ground that it is an innovation. If it
is an innovation, it certainly is not one of
the present day, as we may learn from the
Regulations made in General Assembly of
the Masons of England, on St. John the
Evangelist's day, 1663, during the Grand
Mastership of the Earl of St. Albans, one
of which reads as follows
" That no person hereafter who shall be
accepted a Freemason shall be admitted
into any Lodge or Assembly, until he has
brought a certificate of the time and place
of his acceptation from the Lodge that accepted him, unto the Master of that limit
or division where such Lodge is kept."
Chaillou de Joinville. He played
an important part in the Freemasonry of
France about the middle of the last century, especially during the schisms which
at that time existed in the Grand Lodge.
In 1761, he was an active me*mber of the
Council of Emperors of the East and West,
or Rite of Perfection, which had been established in 1758. Under the title of " Substitute General of the Order, Ven. Master

to

of the First Lodge in France, called St.

Anthony's, Chief of the Eminent Degrees,
Commander, and Sublime Prince of the
Royal Secret, etc., etc., etc.," he signed the
Patent of Stephen Morin, authorizing him
to extend the Royal Order in America,
which was the first step that subsequently
led to the establishment of the Ancient, and
Accepted Rite in the United States. In
1762, the Prince of Clermont, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, removed
the dancing-master Lacorne, whom he had
previously appointed his Substitute General, and who had become distasteful to the
respectable members of the Grand Lodge,
and put Chaillou de Joinville in his place.
This action created a schism in the Grand
Lodge, during which De Joinville appears
to have acted with considerable energy,
but eventually he became almost as notorious as his predecessor, by issuing irregular
charters and deputations.
On the death of
the Prince of Clermont, in 1771, the Lacornists regained much of their influence,
and De Joinville appears quietly to have

passed away from the field of French Masonry and Masonic intrigues.
Chain, Mystic, To form the mystic
chain is for the brethren to make a circle,

155

Craft

when he

is

present.

Chair, Master in the. The German Masons call the Worshipful Master,
" der Meister
the Chair.

im Stuhl,"

or the Master in

Chair, Oriental. The seat or office

of the Master of a Lodge is thus called
sometimes, more fully, the " Oriental Chair
of King Solomon."

Chair, Passing the. The ceremony

of inducting the Master elect of a Lodge
into his office is called " passing the chair."
He who has once presided over a Lodge as
its Master, is said to have "passed the
chair," hence the title " Past Master."
large tract of country,
Chaldea.
lying in a nearly north-west and southeast direction for a distance of four hundred miles along the course of the rivers
Euphrates and Tigris, with an average
width of one hundred miles. The kingdom
of Chaldea, of which Babylon was the
chief city, is celebrated in Masonic history
as the place where the Jewish captives were
conducted after the destruction of Jerusalem. At that time Nebuchadnezzar was

CHALDEANS

CHAPEAU

His successors, during the capwere Evilmerodach, Neriglissar,

Labosordacus, and Belshazzar. In the

of the chalice should be about four inches

high, and the diameter from three to six.

seventeenth year of his reign, the city of

Babylon was taken, and the Chaldean
kingdom subverted by Cyrus, king of Persia, who terminated the captivity of the
Jews, and restored them to their native
country.

these three substances are beautifully symbolized the three qualifications for the servitude of an Entered Apprentice freedom,
fervency, and zeal. Chalk is the freest of
all substances, because the slightest touch
leaves a trace behind. Charcoal, the most
fervent, because to it, when ignited, the
most obdurate metals yield and clay, the
most zealous, because it is constantly employed in man's service, and is as constantly reminding us that from it we all came,
and to it we must all return. In the earlier
lectures of the last century, the symbols,
with the same interpretation, were given
as " Chalk, Charcoal, and Earthen Pau."

156
the king.
tivity,

Chaldeans or Chaldees.

The

ancient Diodorus Siculus says the " most

ancient " inhabitants of Babylonia. There
was among them, as among the Egyptians,
a true priestly caste, which was both exclusive and hereditary ; for although not every
Chaldean was a priest, yet no man could
be a priest among them unless he were a
Chaldean." "At Babylon," says Dr. Smith,
{Anc. Hist, of the East, p. 398,) " they were in
all respects the ruling order in the body politic, uniting in themselves the characters of
the English sacerdotal and military classes.
They filled all the highest offices of state
under the king, who himself belonged to
The Chaldean priests were
the order."
famous for their astronomical science, the
study of which was particularly favored by
the clear atmosphere and the cloudless
skies of their country, and to which they
were probably urged by their national
worship of the sun and the heavenly hosts.
Diodorus Siculus says that they passed
their whole lives in meditating questions of
philosophy, and acquired a great reputation
They were addicted
for their astrology.
especially to the art of divination, and
framed predictions of the future. They
sought to avert evil and to insure good by

purifications, sacrifices, and enchantments.

They were versed in the arts of prophesying and explaining dreams and prodigies.
All this learning among the Chaldeans was
a family tradition the son inheriting the
profession and the knowledge of the priesthood from his father, and transmitting it
The Chaldeans were
to his descendants.
settled throughout the whole country, but
there were some special cities, such as
;

Borsippa, Ur, Sippera, and Babylon, where

they had regular colleges. The reputation
of the Chaldeans for prophetic and magical
knowledge was so great, that astrologers,
and conjurers in general, were styled Babylonians and Chaldeans, just as the wandering fortune-tellers of modern times are
called Egyptians or gypsies, and Ars Chaldceorum was the name given to all occult
sciences.

Chalice.

A cup used in religious rites.

It forms a part of the furniture of a

Com-

mandery of Knights Templars, and of

some of the higher degrees of the French
and Scottish Rites. It should be made
either of silver or of gilt metal.
The stem

Chalk, Charcoal, and Clay. By

Chamber, Middle.
Chamber.

See Middle

Chamber of Reflection.

In the

French and Scottish

Rites, a small room

adjoining the Lodge, in which, preparatory
to initiation, the candidate is enclosed for
the purpose of indulging in those serious

meditations which its sombre appearance,

and the gloomy emblems with which it is
furnished, are calculated to produce.
It is
also used in some of the high degrees for a
similar purpose. Its employment is very
appropriate, for, as G'adicke well observes,
" it is only in solitude that we can deeply
reflect upon our present or future undertakings, and blackness, darkness, or solitariness, is ever a symbol of death. A man who
has undertaken a thing after mature reflection seldom turns back."
Chancellor. An officer in a Council
of Knights of the Red Cross, corresponding in some respects to the Senior Warden
of a Symbolic Lodge.

Chancellor, Grand.

An

officer in

the Supreme Councils and Grand Consistories of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish

whose duties are somewhat similar to

those of a Corresponding Secretary.
confused and shapeless
Chaos.
mass, such as is supposed to have existed
before God reduced creation into order. It
is a Masonic symbol of the ignorance and
intellectual darkness from which man is
rescued by the light and truth of Masonry.
Hence, ordo ab chao, or, "order out of
chaos," is one of the mottoes of the InstiRite,

tution.

Chaos Disentangled. One

names formerly given

of the

to the twenty-eighth

degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or Knight of the Sun. It is likewise found in the collection of M. Pyron.
Discrete and Wise Chaos are the forty-ninth
and fiftieth degrees of the Rite of Mizraim.
Chapeau. The cocked hat worn in
The
this country by Knights Templars.

CHARGES

CHAPEL

157

regulations of the Grand Encampment of

the United States, in 1862, prescribes that it
shall be " the military chapeau, trimmed
with black binding, one white and two
black plumes, and appropriate cross on the

and Chapters of Rose Croix Masons

Ancient and Accepted.

left side."

ter.

The closets and anterooms

and convenient to a Lodge for
various purposes, are dignified by German
Masons with the title of "Capelan, or

Chapel.

in the

Chapter, General Grand.

See

General Grand Chapter.

Chapter, Grand.

Chapter Mason.

See Grand Chap-

colloquialism

so necessary

denoting a Royal Arch Mason.

chapels."

ism intended to denote the degrees conferred in a Royal Arch Chapter.

Chapter, Rose Croix. See Pose

St. Mary's. The oldest

in Edinburgh, Scotland, whose minutes, according to Lawrie, extend as far
back as the year 1598. They show that
Thomas Boswell, Esq., of Auchinleck, was
made a Warden of the Lodge in the year
1600, and that the Hon. Eobert Moray,
Quartermaster-General of the Army in
Scotland, was created a Master Mason in
These facts show that at that early
1641.

Chapel,

Lodge

persons who were not operative

Masons by profession were admitted into
the Order.
Chapiter. The uppermost part of a
column, pillar, or pilaster, serving as
the head or crowning, and placed immediately over the shaft and under the entablature. The pillars which stood in front
of the porch of King Solomon's Temple
were adorned with chapiters of a peculiar
construction, which are largely referred to,
and their symbolism explained, in the FelSee Pillars of the
low Craft's degree.
Porch.
Chaplain. The office of Chaplain of
a Lodge is one which is not recognized in
the ritual of this country, although often
conferred by courtesy. The Master of a
Lodge in general performs the duties of a
Chaplain.
Chaplain, Grand. An office in a
Grand Lodge of very modern date. It was
first instituted on the 1st of May, 1775, on
the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone of the Freemasons' Hall in London.
This office is now universally recognized by
the Grand Lodges of this country. His
duties are confined to offering up prayer at
the communications of the Grand Lodge,
and conducting its devotional exercises on
public occasions.
Chapter. In early times the meetings
of Masons were called not only Lodges, but
Chapters and Congregations.
Thus, the
statute enacted in the third year of the
reign of Henry VI., of England, A. D.
1425, declares that " Masons shall not confederate in Chapters and Congregations."
The word is now exclusively appropriated
%o designate the bodies in "which degrees
higher than the symbolic are conferred.
Thus, there are Chapters of Royal Arch
Masons in the York and American Rites

period

Chapter Masonry. A

Croix, Prince

colloquial-

of.

Chapter, Royal Arch. A

convo-

Arch Masons is called a

Chapter. In Great Britain, Royal Arch
Masonry is connected with and under the
government of the Grand Lodge but in
cation of Royal

America, the jurisdictions are separate.

Here, a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons is

empowered to give the preparatory degrees

of Mark, Past, and Most Excellent Master
although, of course, the Chapter, when
meeting in either of these degrees, is called
a Lodge. In some Chapters, the degrees
of Royal and Select Master are also given
as preparatory degrees but in most of the
States, the control of these is conferred
upon separate bodies, called " Councils of
Royal and Select Masters."
The presiding officers of a Chapter are
the High Priest, King, and Scribe, who
are, respectively, representatives of Joshua,
Zerubbabel, and Haggai. In the English
Chapters, these officers are generally styled
either by the founders' names, as above, or
In
as First, Second, and Third Principals.
the Chapters of Ireland the order of the
;

King, High Priest, and Scribe.

Chapters of Royal Arch Masons in this
country are primarily under the jurisdiction of State Grand Chapters, as Lodges
officers is

and secondly,
are under Grand Lodges
under the General Grand Chapter of the
United States, whose meetings are held triennially, and which exercises a general
supervision over this branch of the Order
throughout the Union. See Poyal Arch.
Chapters, Irish. See Irish Chapters.
Characteristic Xame. See Order
Name.
Charcoal. See Chalk, Charcoal, and
;

Charge. So called from the "Old

Charges," because, like them, it contains
an epitome of duty. It is the admonition
which is given by the presiding officer, at
the close of the ceremony of initiation, to
the candidate, and which the latter receives
standing, as a token of respect. There is
a charge for each degree, which is to be
found in all the monitors and manuals from
Preston onwards.
Changes. The "Masons' Constitu-

CHAKGES

CHARITY

tions " are old records, containing a history,

very often somewhat apocryphal, of the
origin and progress of Masonry, and regulations for the government of the Craft.
These regulations are called " Charges,"
and are generally the same in substance,
although they differ in number, in the difThese charges are diferent documents.
,;
alvided into "Articles" and " Points
though it would be difficult to say in what
the one section differs in character from the
other, as each details the rules which should
govern a Mason in his conduct towards his
"lord," or employer, and to his brother
workmen. The oldest of these charges is
to be found in the York Constitutions, (if
they are authentic,) and consists of Fifteen
It was reArticles and Fifteen Points.

tongues of men and of angels, and have not

charity, I am become as sounding brass, or
a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and have all faith, so
that I could remove mountains, and have
not charity, I am nothing." (1 Corinth,
xiii. 1, 2.)
Such was the language of an
eminent apostle of the Christian church,
and such is the sentiment that constitutes
the cementing bond of Freemasonry. The
apostle, in comparing it with faith and
hope, calls it the greatest of the three, and
hence in Masonry it is made the topmost
round of its mystic ladder. We must not

158

quired by the Constitutions of the time of

Edward III., " that, for the future, at the
making or admission of a brother, the constitutions and charges should be read."
This regulation is still preserved in form,
in modern Lodges, by the reading of " the
charge" by the Master to a candidate at
the close of the ceremony of his reception
into a degree.
Charges of 1722. The Fraternity
had long been in possession of many
records, containing the ancient regulations
of the Order; when, in 1722, the Duke of
Montague 'being Grand Master of England,
the Grand Lodge finding fault with their
antiquated arrangement, it was directed
that they should be collected, and after being properly digested, be annexed to the
Book of Constitutions, then in course of
publication under the superintendence of
Dr. James Anderson. This was accordingly done, and the document now wellknown under the title of The Old Charges
of the Free and Accepted Masons, constitutes,
by universal consent, a part of the fundamental law of our Order. The charges are
divided into six general heads of duty, as
follows

1.

Concerning God and

religion.

Of

the civil magistrate, supreme and

subordinate. 3. Of Lodges. 4. Of Masters, Wardens, Fellows, and Apprentices.
5. Of the management of the Craft in working.
6. Of behavior under different circumstances, and in various conditions.
These charges contain succinct directions
for the proper discharge of a Mason's duties, in whatever position he may be placed,
and are, as modern researches have shown,
a collation of the charges contained in the
Old Records, and from them have been
abridged, or by them suggested, all those
well-known directions found in our monitors, which Masters are accustomed to read
to candidates on their reception.
See
2.

Records, Old.

Charity.

"

Though

speak with the

fall

common

into the too

error that charity

only that sentiment of commiseration

which leads us to assist the poor with pecuniary donations. Its Masonic, as well as
its Christian application is more noble and
more extensive. The word used by the
apostle is, in the original, 'aya-rj, or love, a
word denoting that kindly state of mind
which renders a person full of good-will
and affectionate regard towards others.
John Wesley expressed his regret that the
Greek had not been correctly translated as
love instead of charity, so that the apostolic
triad of virtues would have been, not "faith,
hope, and charity," but " faith, hope, and
Then w ould we have understood
love."
the comparison made by St. Paul, when he
said, "Though I bestow all my goods to
feed the poor, and though I give my body
to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth
me nothing." Guided by this sentiment,
the true Mason will "suffer long and be
kind." He will be slow to anger and easy
to forgive. He will stay his falling brother
by gentle admonition, and warn him with
kindness of approaching danger. He will not
is

open his ear to his slanderers, and will close

his lips against all reproach. His faults
and his follies will be locked in his breast,
and the prayer for mercy will ascend to
Jehovah for his brother's sins. Nor will
these sentiments of benevolence be confined
to those who are bound to him by ties of
kindred or worldly friendship alone but,
extending them throughout the globe, he
will love and cherish all who sit beneath
the broad canopy of our universal Lodge.
For it is the boast of our Institution, that
a Mason, destitute and worthy, may find in
every clime a brother, and in every land a
;

home.

Charity, Committee on.

See Com-

mittee on Charity.

Charity Fund.

Many Lodges and

Grand Lodges have a fund

especially appropriated to charitable purposes, and

which is not used for the disbursement of
the current expenses, but which is appropriated to the relief of indigent brethren,

CHAKLATAN
their

widows and orphans.

CHARTER
The

charity

fund of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania,

which was bequeathed to it by Stephen
Girard, and which is the largest in this
country, considerably exceeds fifty thou-

Charles

I.,

and

159
For

II.

their sup-

posed connection with the origin of Freemasonry, see Stuart Masonry.

Charles XIII. The Duke

of Siider-

manland was distinguished for his attachment to Masonry. In 1809 he ascended the
sand dollars.
Charlatan. A charlatan is a babbling throne of Sweden under the title of Charles
Having established the Masonic
mountebank, who imposes on the populace XIII.
by large pretensions and high sounding order of knighthood of that name, he abwords. A charlatan in Masonry is one who dicated in favor of Charles John Bernaseeks by a display of pompous ceremonial, dotte, but always remained an active and
and often by claims to supernatural powers, zealous member of the Order. There is no
to pervert the institution of Masonry to king on record so distinguished for his atthe acquisition of gain, or the gratification tachment to Freemasonry as Charles XIIL,
of a paltry ambition. Every man, says a of Sweden, and to him the Swedish Masons
is a charlatan who exare in a great measure indebted for the
money by charging for sixpenny trash high position that the Order has maintained
the amount that should only be paid for during the present century in that country.
works of science, and that, too, under the
Charles XIII., Order of. An order

distinguished writer,
torts

plea of conveying knowledge that cannot

otherwise be obtained [Lond. Freem. Mag.,
1844, p. 505). The eighteenth century presented many examples of these Masonic
charlatans, of whom by far the greatest
was Cagliostro; nor has the nineteenth
century been entirely without them.
Charlemagne. The great Charles,
King of France, who ascended the throne
in the year 768, is claimed by some Masonic
writers as a patron of Masonry.
This is
perhaps because architecture flourished in

France during his reign, and because he

encouraged the arts by inviting the architects and travelling Freemasons, who were
then principally confined to Italy, to visit
France and engage in the construction of
important edifices.
Charles Martel. He was the founder
of the Carlovingian dynasty, and governed
France with supreme power from 716 to 741,
under the title of Duke of the Franks. He
is claimed by the authors of the Old Records
as one of the patrons of Masonry.
Thus,
the Landsdowne manuscript says " There
was one of the Royall Line of France called
Charles Marshall, and he was a man that
loved well the said Craft and took upon
him the Rules and Manners, and after that
By the Grace of God he was elect to be
the King of France, and when he was in
his Estate he helped to make those Masons
that were now, and sett them on Work and
gave them Charges and Manners and good
pay as he had learned of other Masons, and
confirmed them a Charter from yeare to
yeare to hold their Assembly when they
would, and cherished them right well, and
thus came this Noble Craft into France."
Rebold {Hist. Gen.) has accepted this
legend as authentic, and says
"In 740,
Charles Martel, who reigned in France
under the title of Mayor of the Palace, at
the request of the Anglo-Saxon kings, sent
many workmen and Masters into England."
:

of knighthood instituted in 1811 by Charles

XIIL, King of Sweden, and which was to
be conferred only on the principal dignitaries of the Masonic institution in his dominions.
In the manifesto establishing
" To give to
the Order, the king says
this society (the Masonic) a proof of our
gracious sentiments towards it, we will and
ordain that its first dignitaries to the
number which we may determine, shall in
future be decorated with the most intimate
proof of our confidence, and which shall be
for them a distinctive mark of the highest
The number of Knights are
dignity."
twenty-seven, all Masons, and the King of
Sweden is the perpetual Grand Master.
The color of the ribbon is red, and the
jewel a maltese cross pendent from an imperial crown.
city in the United
Charleston.
States of America, and the metropolis of
the State of South Carolina. It was there
that the first Supreme Council of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was
established in 1801, whence all other Supreme Councils have emanated, directly or
Hence, it has assumed the
indirectly.
title of "Mother Council of the world."
Its seat was removed in 1870 to the city of
:

Washington.

See Scottish Bite.

Charms, Magical. See Talisman.

Chart. 1. A map on which is delineated
the emblems of a degree, to be used for the
instruction of candidates, formerly called a
2. The title given by
carpet, which see.
Jeremy L. Cross to his Hieroglyphic
Monitor, which acquired on its first appearance in the Lodges of America a popularity that it has not yet entirely lost.
Hence the word chart is still sometimes

used colloquially and improperly to designate any other Masonic manual of monitorial instruction.

Charter.
Constitution,

Often used for Warrant of

which

see.

CHARTERED

160

CHEREAU

Chartered Lodge. A Lodge working under the authority of a Charter or

Warrant of Constitution issued by a Grand
Lodge as distinguished from a Lodge working under a dispensation issued by a Grand
Master. Chartered Lodges only are entitled
to representation in the Grand Lodge.
They alone can make by-laws, elect mem-

They
bers, or have their officers installed.
are the constituent bodies of a jurisdiction,
and by their representatives compose the
Grand Lodge.

Charter Member. A Mason

whose

name is

attached to the petition upon which

a Charter or Warrant of Constitution has
been granted to a Lodge, Chapter, or other
subordinate body.

Charter of Cologne.
Charter

See Cologne,

of.

Charter of Transmission.
Transmission, Charter

Chasidim.

In

See

of.

Hebrew,

the Temple of Jekusalem, who bound

themselves to adorn the porches of that
magnificent structure, and to preserve it
from injury and decay. This association
was composed of the greatest men of Israel,
who were distinguished for their charitable
and peaceful dispositions, and always signalized themselves by their ardent zeal for
the purity and preservation of the Temple."

Chastanier, Benedict. A French

Mason, who in the year 1767 introduced
into England a modification of the Rite
of Pernetty, in nine degrees, and estabtished a Lodge in London under the name
of the "Illuminated Theosophists;" which,
however, according to Lenning, soon abandoned the Masonic forms, and was converted into a mere theosophic sect, intended
to propagate the religious system of Swedenborg. Mr. White, in his Life of Emanuel
Swedenborg, (Lond., 1868, p. 683,) gives an
account of

"The Theosophical

Society, in-

promoting the
Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem
by translating, printing, and publishing
the theological writings of Emanuel SweThis society was formed in
denborg."
stituted for the purpose of

and met on Sundays and Thursdays

New

at chambers in
Court, Middle Temple,
for the discussion of Swedenborg's writings.

Among

the twenty-five persons mentioned

by White as having either joined the society or sympathized with its object, we
of " Benedict Chastanier,
Court."
The nine degrees of Chastanier's Rite of
Illuminated Theosophists are as follows:
4, 5, 6, The1, 2, and 3, Symbolic degrees
osophic Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and
Master 7, Sublime Scottish Mason, or Celestial Jerusalem
and 9,
8, Blue Brother
Ked Brother.
Chastity. In the Halliwell MS. of
the Constitutions of Masonry, written not
later than the latter part of the fourteenth
century, and purporting to be a copy of the
Eegulations adopted at York in 926, the
seventh point is in these words

find the

name

French Surgeon, 62 Tottenham

D'TDJT

saints.
The name of a sect which
existed in the time of the Maccabees, and
which was organized for the purpose of opposing innovations upon the Jewish faith.
Their essential principles were to observe
all the ritual laws of purification, to meet
frequently for devotion, to submit to acts
of self-denial and mortification, to have all
things in common, and sometimes to withdraw from society and to devote themselves
Lawrie, who seeks to
to contemplation.
connect them with the Masonic institution
as a continuation of the Masons of the Solomonic era, describes them as " a religious
Fraternity, or an order of the Knights of

meaning

1784,

"

schal not by thy maystres wyf ly,

Ny by thy felows yn no manner wyse,
Lest the Craft wolde the despyse
Ny by thy felows concubyne,

Thou

No more thou

woldest be dede by thyne."

Again, in the Constitutions

known

as the

Matthew Cooke MS., the date of which

is

about the latter part of the fifteenth century,

the same regulation is enforced in these
words: "The 7th Point. That he covet
not the wyfe ne the daughter of his
masters, neither of his fellows but if [unSo all through
less] it be in marriage."
the Old Constitutions and Charges, we find
this admonition to respect the chastity of
our brethren's wives and daughters; an admonition which, it is scarcely necessary to
say, is continued to this day.
Chasufrle. The outer dress worn by
the priest at the altar service, and is an
imitation of the old Eoman toga. It is a
circular cloth, which falls down over the
body so as completely to cover it, with an
aperture in the centre for the head to pass
through. It is used in the ceremonies of
the Kose Croix degree.
Checkered Floor. See Mosaic Pavement.
Chef-d'oeuvre. It was a custom
among many of the gilds, and especially
among the Compagnons du Devoir, who
sprung up in the sixteenth century in
France, on the decay of Freemasonry in
that kingdom, and as one of its results, to
require every Apprentice, before he could
be admitted to the freedom of the gild,
to present a piece of finished work as a
proof of his skill in the art in which he had
been instructed. The piece of work was
called his chef-d'oeuvre, or masterpiece.

Chereau, Antoine Gnillinnme.

A" painter in Paris,

who

published, in 1806,

CHERUBIM

CHINA

two hermetico-philosophical brochures enExplication de la Pierre Cubique, and

Explication de la Croix Philosophique ; or
Explanations of the Cubical Stone and of
the Philosophical Cross. These works are
brief, but give much interesting information on the ritualism and symbolism of the
high degrees. They have been republished
by Tessier in his Manuel General, without,
however, any acknowledgment to the original author.
Cherubim. The second order of the
angelic hierarchy, the first being the seraphim. The two cherubim that overtopped
the mercy- seat or covering of the ark, in
the holy of holies, were placed there by
Moses, in obedience to the orders of God
"And thou shalt make two cherubim of
gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them,
in the two ends of the mercy-seat.
And
the cherubim shall stretch forth their
wings on high, covering the mercy -seat
with their wings, and their faces shall look
one to another; towards the mercy -seat
shall the faces of the cherubim be." (Exod.
xxv. 17, 19.) It was between these cherubim that the Shekinah or divine presence
rested, and from which issued the Bathkol
or voice of God. Of the form of these
cherubim, we are ignorant. Josephus says,
that they resembled no known creature,
but that Moses made them in the form in
which he saw them about the throne of
God others, deriving their ideas from what
is said of them by Ezekiel, Isaiah, and St.
John, describe them as having the face and
breast of a man, the wings of an eagle, the
belly of a lion, and the legs and feet of an
ox, which three animals, with man, are the
symbols of strength and wisdom. But all
agree in this, that they had wings, and that
these wings were extended. The cherubim
were purely symbolic. But although there
is great diversity of opinion as to their exact signification, yet there is a very general
agreement that they allude to and symbolize the protecting and overshadowing
power of the Deity. Reference is made to
the extended wings of the cherubim in the
degree of Royal Master.
titled,

Chesed. A word which

is

most gen-

erally corrupted into Hesed.

It is the Hebrew "lDn> an(i signifies mercy. Hence,
it very appropriately refers to that act of

kindness and compassion which is commemorated in the degree of Select Master

of the American system. It is the fourth
of the Kabbalistic Sephiroth, and is combined in a triad with Beauty and Justice.
Chevalier. Employed by the French
Masons as the equivalent of Knight in the
name of any degree in which the latter
word is used by English Masons, as Chevalier du Soleil, for the Knight of the Sun, or

11

161

Chevalier de V Orient for Knight of the

East. The German word is Bitter.
significant word used
Chibbelum.
in the rituals of the last century, which de-

fine it to

mean "a worthy Mason."

It is a

corruption of Giblim.

Chicago, Congress

of.

conven-

tion of distinguished Masons of the United

States, held at the city of Chicago in September, 1859, during the session of the

Grand Encampment and General Grand

Chapter, for the purpose of establishing a
General Grand Lodge, or a Permanent Masonic Congress. Its results were not of a
successful character and the death of its
;

moving

Cyril Pearl, which occurred

soon after, put an end to all future attempts to carry into effect any of its preliminary proceedings.
spirit,

Chief of the Tabernacle. The

twenty-third degree in the Ancient and

Accepted Scottish Rite.

It

commemorates

the institution of the order of the priesthood in Aaron and his sons Eleazar and
Ithamar. Its principal officers are three,
a Sovereign Sacrificer and two High Priests,
now called by the Supreme Councils of
America the Most Excellent High Priest
and Excellent Priests, and the members of
the " Hierarchy" or " Court," as the Lodge
is

now

styled,

are

called Levites.

The

apron is white, lined with deep scarlet and

bordered with red, blue, and purple ribbon.
A golden chandelier of seven branches is
painted or embroidered on the centre
of the apron. The jewel, which is a
thurible, is worn from a broad yellow,
purple, blue, and scarlet sash from the left
shoulder to the right hip.

Chief of the Twelve Tribes.

Chef des douze Tribus. ) The eleventh degree of the Chapter of Emperors of the
East and West. It is also called Illustrious
(

Elect.

Chiefs of Masonry.

title

for-

merly given in the Ancient and Accepted

Scottish Rite to Princes of Jerusalem.

It

seems now to be more appropriate to Inspectors General of the thirty-third degree.

Chili. Freemasonry was introduced
into Chili, in 1841, by the Grand Orient of
France. Lodges were subsequently organized in 1850 and 1851 by the Grand Lodges
of Massachusetts and California. On the
20th of April a Grand Lodge was formed,
and a Grand Chapter soon after.
China. Masonry was introduced manyyears ago into China by the Grand Lodge
of England. A Provincial Grand Lodge
exists at Hong-Kong, and several Lodges.
These are mainly supported by the foreign
population. There are also Chapters and an
Encampment of Knights Templars, under
the English authority.

CHINESE

162

CHRISTIANIZATION

Chinese Secret Societies.

In

the Arabians; Pinkerton, Mallet, and

Percy, to the Scandinavians. Clavel derives it from the secret societies of the
Persians, which were the remains of the
mysteries of Mithras. In Christendom, it
gave rise to the orders of knighthood, some
analogy between them and Freemasonry of which have been incorporated into the
These societies have in Masonic system. See Knighthood.
is a mistaken one.
general been of a political character, with
Christ, Order of. After the overrevolutionary tendencies, and as such have throw of the Order of Knights Templars
been prohibited by the government, some- throughout Europe, Dennis I., King of
times under the penalty of the death or Portugal, in 1317 solicited of Pope John
banishment of their members. Their simi- XXII. permission to re-establish the Order
larity to Masonry consists only in these of the Temple in his dominions under the
points that they have forms of initiation, name of the Order of Christ, and to restore
an esoteric instruction, and secret modes of to it the possessions which had been wrested
recognition.
Beyond these all further re- from the Templars. The pope consented,
approved the statutes which had been subsemblance fails.
Chisel. In the American Eite the mitted to him, and, in 1319, confirmed the
chisel is one of the working tools of a institution, reserving to himself and to his
Mark Master, and symbolizes the effects of successors the right of creating knights,
education on the human mind. For as the which has given rise to the pontifical
artist, by the aid of this instrument, gives
branch of the Order which exists at Eome.
form and regularity to the shapeless mass The knights follow the rule of St. Beneof stone, so education, by cultivating the dict, and conform in all points to the statThe
ideas and by polishing the rude thoughts, utes of the Order of the Temple.
transforms the ignorant savage into the Grand Mastership is vested in the king of
civilized being.
Portugal, and the Order having been secuIn the English ritual, the chisel is one larized in 1789, the members were divided
of the working tools of the Entered Ap- into the three classes of six Grand Crosses,
prentice, with the same reference to the four hundred and fifty Commanders, and
advantages of education. Preston (B. II., an unlimited number of knights. It was
Sect, vi.,) thus elaborates its symbolism as designated the Most Noble Order, and none
one of the implements of Masonry "The but those nobly descended, of unsullied charThat the grandchisel demonstrates the advantages of disacter, could be admitted.
The mind, like the father had been a mechanic was an impedicipline and education.
diamond in its original state, is unpolished; ment to the exaltation even of knights of
but as the effects of the chisel on the ex- the third class. The Grand Crosses and Comternal coat soon presents to view the latent manders had generally valuable grants and
beauties of the diamond, so education dis- great privileges the latter were also enjoyed
covers the latent virtues and draws them by the knights, with pensions with reverforth to range the large field of matter and sion to their wives.
space, in order to display the summit of
Christianization of
human knowledge, our duty to God and sonry. The interpretation of the symBut the idea is not original bols of Freemasonry from a Christian
to man."
with Preston. It is found in Hutchin- point of view is a theory adopted by some
son, who, however, does not claim it as of the most distinguished Masonic writers
his own.
It formed, most probably, a por- of England and this country, but one
tion of the lectures of the period.
In the which I think does not belong to the anFrench system, the chisel is placed on the cient system. Hutchinson, and after him
tracing board of the Fellow Craft as an Oliver,
profoundly philosophical as are
have,
implement with which to work upon and the Masonic speculations of both,
polish the Eough Ashlar. It has, there- I am constrained to believe, fallen into a
fore, there the same symbolic signification.
great error in calling the Master Mason's
Chivalry. The origin of chivalry is degree a Christian institution. It is true
involved in very great obscurity. Almost that it embraces within its scheme the great
every author who has written on this sub- truths of Christianity upon the subject of
ject has adopted an hypothesis of his own. the immortality of the soul and the resurSome derive the institution from the eques- rection of the body; but this was to be
trian order of ancient Eome, while others presumed, because Freemasonry is truth,
trace it to the tribes who, under the name and all truth must be identical.
But the
of Northmen, about the ninth century, origin of each is different their histories
invaded the southern parts of Europe. are dissimilar.
The principles of FreeWarburton ascribes the origin of chivalry masonry preceded the advent of Chris-

China, as in

to

other countries, secret societies have existed, such as the Tien-teewhee, or Association of Heaven and Earth,
and the Tien-lee, or Society of Celestial
But the attempt* to trace any
Eeason.
all

Freema-

CHURCH

CIPHER

Its symbols and its legends are

derived from the Solomonic Temple and
from the people even anterior to that. Its
religion comes from the ancient priesthood;
its faith was that primitive one of Noah
and his immediate descendants. If Masonry were simply a Christian institution,
the Jew and the Moslem, the Brahman and
the Buddhist, could not conscientiously
partake of its illumination. But its uni-

tianity.

versality is its boast.

In

its

language

citi-

zens of every nation may converse at its

to
altar men of all religions may kneel
its creed disciples of every faith may sub;

scribe.

Yet it cannot be denied that since the

advent of Christianity a Christian element
has been almost imperceptibly infused into
the Masonic system, at least among ChrisThis has been a necessity
tian Masons.
for it is the tendency of every predominant religion to pervade with its influence
all that surrounds it or is about it, whether
This arises
religious, political, or social.
from a need of the human heart. To the
man deeply imbued with the spirit of his
religion, there is an almost unconscious
desire to accommodate and adapt all the
business and the amusements of life,
the
labors and the employments of his everyday existence,
to the in-dwelling faith of

his soul.

The Christian Mason, therefore, while

acknowledging and appreciating the great
doctrines taught in Masonry, and also while
grateful that these doctrines were preserved
in the bosom of his ancient Order at a time
when they were unknown to the multitudes
of the surrounding nations, is still anxious
to give to them a Christian character; to
invest them, in some measure, with the peculiarities of his own creed, and to bring
the interpretation of their symbolism more
nearly home to his own religious senti-

ments.

The feeling is an instinctive one, belonging to the noblest aspirations of our human
nature and hence we find Christian Masonic writers indulging in it to an almost
unwarrantable excess, and, by the extent
of their sectarian interpretations, materially
affecting the cosmopolitan character of the
;

Institution.

This tendency to Christianization has, in

instances, been so universal, and has
prevailed for so long a period, that certain
symbols and myths have been, in this way,
so deeply and thoroughly imbued with the
Christian element as to leave those who
have not penetrated into the cause of this
peculiarity, in doubt whether they should
attribute to the symbol an ancient or a

some

modern and Christian

origin.

Church, Freemasons of the.

163

An

Architectural College was organized in

London, in the year 1842, under the name
of " Freemasons of the Church for the Recovery, Maintenance, and Furtherance of
the True Principles and Practice of Architecture." The founders announced their objects to be " the rediscovery of the ancient
principles of architecture the sanction of
good principles of building, and the condemnation of bad ones the exercise of
scientific and experienced judgment in the
choice and use of the most proper materials
the infusion, maintenance, and advancement of science throughout architecture; and eventually, by developing the
powers of the College upon a just and
beneficial footing, to reform the whole practice of architecture, to raise it from its present vituperated condition, and to bring
around it the same unquestioned honor
which is at present enjoyed by almost every
other profession."
The Builder, vol. i.,
;

p. 23.

One of their own members has said that

" the title was not intended to express any
conformity with the general body of Freemasons, but rather as indicative of the professed views of the College, namely, the recovery, maintenance, and furtherance of
the free principles and practice of architecture."
And that, in addition, they made
it an object of their exertions to preserve
or effect the restoration of architectural remains of antiquity threatened unnecessarily with demolition or endangered by
decay. But it is evident, from the close
connection of modern Freemasonry with
the building gilds of the Middle Ages, that
any investigations into the condition of
mediaeval architecture must throw light onMasonic

history.

Cipher Writing.

Cryptography, or
the art of writing in cipher, so as to conceal the meaning of what is written from
all except those who possess the key, may
be traced to remote antiquity.
De la
Guilletiere (Lacedcemon) attributes its origin to the Spartans, and Polybius says that
more than two thousand years ago iEneas
Tacitus had collected more than twenty
different kinds of cipher which were then
in use.
Kings and generals communicated
their messages to officers in distant provinces, by means of a preconcerted cipher;
and the system has always been employed
wherever there was a desire or a necessity
to conceal from all but those who were entitled to the knowledge the meaning of a
written document.
The Druids, who were not permitted by
the rules of their Order to commit any part
of their ritual to ordinary writing, preserved the memory of it by the use of the
letters of the Greek alphabet.
The Kab-

164

CIPHER

balists concealed

them backwards

CIPHER

many words by
a method which

pursued by the French Masons.

writing
is

still

The

old
alchemists also made use of cipher writing,
in order to conceal those processes the
knowledge of which was intended only for
the adepts. Thus Roger Bacon, who discovered the composition of gunpowder, is
said to have concealed the names of the ingredients under a cipher made by a transposition of the letters.
Cornelius Agrippa tells us, in his Occult
Philosophy, that the ancients accounted it
unlawful to write the mysteries of God
with those characters with which profane
and vulgar things were written ; and he
cites Porphyry as saying that the ancients
desired to conceal God, and divine virtues,
by sensible figures which were visible, yet
signified invisible things, and therefore delivered their great mysteries in sacred
letters,

and explained them by symbolical

representations. Porphyry here, undoubtedly, referred to the invention and use of

hieroglyphics by the Egyptian priests; but

these hieroglyphic characters were in fact
nothing else but a form of cipher intended
to conceal their instructions from the uninitiated profane.
Peter Aponas, an astrological writer of
the thirteenth century, gives us some of the
old ciphers which were used by the Kabbalists, and among others one alphabet called
" the passing of the river," which is referred to in some of the high degrees of

Masonry.
But we obtain from Agrippa one alphabet in cipher which is of interest to Masons,
and which he says was once in great esteem
among the Kabbalists, but which has now,
he adds, become so common as to be placed

among

profane things.

He

describes this
cipher as follows, {Philos. Occult, lib. iii.,
cap. 3.)
The twenty-seven characters (in-

cluding the finals) of the Hebrew alphabet

were divided into three classes of nine in
each, and these were distributed into nine
squares, made by the intersection of two
horizontal and two vertical lines, forming,
the following figure

In each of these compartments three

were placed; as, for instance, in the
first compartment, the
first, tenth, and
nineteenth letters of the alphabet; in the
letters

second compartment, the second, eleventh,

and

twentieth,

and

so

The

on.

three

each compartment were distinguished from each other by dots or accents.

Thus, the first compartment, or L> represented the first letter, or fr$ the same compartment with a dot, thus, li represented
the tenth letter, or 3 or with two dots,
thus, |^, it represented the nineteenth letter,
or p; and so with the other compartments
the ninth or last representing the ninths
eighteenth, and twenty-seventh letters, JJ,
y, or J/, accordingly as it was figured
H, "H or ^|, without a dot in the centre or
with one or two.
About the middle of the last century, the
French Masons adopted a cipher similar to
this in principle, but varied in the details,
among which was the addition of four
compartments, made by the oblique intersection of two lines in the form of a St.
Andrew's Cross. This cipher was never
officially adopted by the Masons of any
other country, but was at one time assumed
by the American Royal Arch although it
letters in

now becoming obsolete there.

It is, however, still recognized in all the " Tuilleurs"

of the French Rite. It has become so
common as to be placed, as Agrippa said
is

of the original scheme, "among profane

things."
Its use would certainly no longer
subserve any purpose of concealment.
Rockwell openly printed it in his Ahiman
Rezon of Georgia ; and it is often used by
those who are not initiated, as a means of

amusement.
There is, therefore, really no recognized
cipher in use in Ancient Craft Masonry.
Brown and Finch, who printed rituals intended only for the use of Masons, and not
as expositions, invented ciphers for their
own use, and supplied their initiated readers with the key.
Without a key, their
works are unintelligible, except by the art

of the decipherer.
Although not used in symbolic Masonry,
the cipher is common in the high degrees,
of which there is scarcely one which has not
its peculiar cipher.
But for the purposes
of concealment, the cipher is no longer of
any practical use. The art of deciphering
has been brought to so great a state of perfection that there is no cipher so complicated as to bid defiance for many hours to
the penetrating skill of the experienced decipherer.
Hence, the cipher has gone out
of use in Masonry as it has among diplomatists, who are compelled to communicate with their respective countries by
'methods more secret than any that can be
supplied by a despatch written in cipher.
Edgar A. Poe has justly said, in his story
of The Gold Bug, that " it may well be
doubted whether human ingenuity can con-

CIRCUMAMBULATION

CIRCLE
struct

man

an enigma of the kind, which humay not, by proper appli-

ingenuity

cation, resolve."

Circle. The circle being a figure which

returns into itself, and having therefore
neither beginning nor end, it has been
adopted in the symbology of all countries
and times as a symbol sometimes of the
universe and sometimes of eternity. With
this idea in the Zoroasteric mysteries of
Persia, and frequently in the Celtic mysteries of Druidism, the temple of initiation
was circular. In the obsolete lectures of
the old English system, it was said that
" the circle has ever been considered symbolical of the Deity ; for as a circle appears
to have neither beginning nor end, it may
be justly considered a type of God, without
either beginning of days or ending of years.
It also reminds us of a future state, where
we hope to enjoy everlasting happiness and
joy." But whatever refers especially to
the Masonic symbolism of the circle will be
more appropriately contained in the article
on the Point within a Circle.

Circular Temples. These were used

in the initiations of the religion of Zoroaster.
Like the square temples of Masonry,
and the other mysteries, they were symbolic of the world; and the symbol was
completed by making the circumference of
the circle a representation of the zodiac.
In the mysteries of Druidism also, the

temples were sometimes circular.

Circumambulatioii,Riteof.
cumambulation

is

the

Cir-

name given by sacred

archaeologists to that religious rite in the

ancient initiations which consisted in a

formal procession around the altar, or

other holy and consecrated object. The
same Rite exists in Freemasonry.
In ancient Greece, when the priests were
engaged in the rite of sacrifice, they and
the people always walked three times round
the altar while singing a sacred hymn. In

making

procession, great care was

taken to move in imitation of the course
of the sun. For this purpose, they commenced at the east, and passing on by the
way of the south to the west and thence by
the north, they arrived at the east again.*
By this means, as it will be observed, the
right hand was always placed to the altar.f
This ceremony the Greeks called moving
sk det-ia ev Set; la, from the right to the right,
this

* The strophe of the ancient hymn was sung in

going from the east to the west the antistrophe
in returning to the east, and the epode while
standing still.
"
f After this," says Potter, " they stood about
the altar, and the priest, turning towards the
right hand, went round it and sprinkled it with
meal and holy water."
Antiquities of Greece.
B. II., ch. iv., p. 206.
;

165

which was the direction of the motion, and

the Romans applied to it the term dextrovorsum, or dextrorsum, which signifies the
same thing. Thus, Plautus ( Curcul. I., i. 70,
makes Palinurus, a character in his comedy
of Curculio, say "If you would do reverence to the gods, you must turn to the
right hand." Si deos salutas dextroversum
Gronovius, in commenting on this
censeo.
passage of Plautus, says " In worshipping
and praying to the gods, they were accustomed to turn to the right hand."
hymn of Callimachus has been pre:

which

is said to have been chanted

priests of Apollo at Delos, while
performing this ceremony of circumambulation, the substance of which is "we

served,

by the

imitate the example of the sun, and follow

his benevolent course."
Among the Romans, the ceremony of
circum ambulation was always used in the
rites of sacrifice, of expiation or purification.
Thus Virgil {Mi., vi. 229,) describes
Chorinseus as purifying his companions at
the funeral of Misenus, by passing three
times around them while aspersing them
with the lustral waters and to do so conveniently, it was necessary that he should
have moved with his right hand towards
;

them.
" Idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda,
Spargens rore levi et ramo felicis olivse."

That

is

Thrice with pure water compass'd he the crew,

Sprinkling, with olive branch, the gentle dew.

In fact, so common was it to unite the

ceremony of circumambulation with that
of expiation or purification, or, in other
words, to make a circuitous procession in
performing the latter rite, that the term
lustrare, whose primitive meaning is "to
purify," came at last to be synonymous
with circuire, to walk round anything, and
hence a purification and a circumambulation were often expressed by the same
word.
Among the Hindus, the same rite of circumambulation has always been practised.
As an instance, we may cite the ceremonies
which are to be performed by a Brahman,
upon first rising from bed in the morning,
an accurate account of which has been
given by Mr. Colebrooke in the sixth volume of the Asiatic Researches. The priest
having first adored the sun, while directing
his face to the east, then walks towards the
west by the way of the south, saying, at
the same time, " I follow the course of the
sun," which he thus explains: "As the
sun in his course moves round the world
by way of the south, so do I follow that

CIRCUMSPECTION

CIVILIZATION

luminary, to obtain the benefit arising from

a journey round the earth by the way of
the south."
Lastly, we may refer to the preservation
of this Eite among the Druids, whose
"mystical dance" around the cairn, or
sacred stones, was nothing more nor less
than the Eite of circumambulation. On
these occasions, the .priest always made
three circuits from east to west, by the
right hand, around the altar or cairn, accompanied by all the worshippers. And so
sacred was the rite once considered, that we
learn from Toland {Celt. Eel. and Learn.,
II., xvii.,) that in the Scottish Isles, once a
principal seat of the Druidical religion, the
people " never come to the ancient sacrificing and fire-hallowing cairns, but they walk
three times around them, from east to west,
according to the course of the sun." This
sanctified tour, or round by the south, he

Those who investigate in the proper spirit

the history of Speculative Masonry, will

166

observes, is called Deaseal, as the contrary,

or unhallowed one by the north, is called
Tuapholl.
And, he further remarks, that
this word Deaseal was derived " from Deas,
the right (understanding hand) and soil,
one of the ancient names of the sun ; the
right hand in this round being ever next

the heap."
This Eite of circumambulation undoubtedly refers to the doctrine of sun-worship,
because the circumambulation was always
made around the sacred place, just as the
sun was supposed to move around the
earth; and although the dogma of sunworship does not of course exist in Freemasonry, we find an allusion to it in the
Eite of circumambulation, which it preserves, as well as in the position of the
ofiicers of a Lodge and in the symbol of a
point within a circle.
Circumspection. necessary watchfulness is recommended to every man, but
in a Mason it becomes a positive duty, and
the neglect of it constitutes a heinous
crime. On this subject, the Old Charges
of 1722 (vi. 4,) are explicit. "You shall
be cautious in your words and carriage,
that the most penetrating stranger shall
not be able to discover or find out what is
not proper to be imitated ; and sometimes
you shall divert a discourse and manage it
prudently for the honor of the Worshipful
Fraternity."
section in the
City of David.
southern part of Jerusalem, embracing
Mount Zion, where a fortress of the Jebusites stood, which David reduced, and where
he built a new palace and city, to which he

gave his own name.

City of the Great King.

lem, so called in Psalm xlviii.
the Saviour in Matt. v. 35.

Civilization

2,

Jerusa-

and by

and Freemasonry.

be strongly impressed with the peculiar

relations that exist between the history of

Masonry and that of

civilization.

They

find these facts to be patent: that

Freemasonry has ever been the result of
civilization; that in the most ancient times

will

the spirit of Masonry and the spirit of

civilization have always gone together;
that the progress of both has been with
equal strides; that where there has been
no appearance of civilization there has
been no trace of Masonry; and, finally,
that wherever Masonry has existed in any
of its forms, there it has been surrounded
and sustained by civilization, which social
condition it in turn elevated and purified.
Speculative Masonry, therefore, seems
to have been a necessary result of civilization.
It is, even in its primitive and most
simple forms, to be found among no barbarous or savage people. Such a state of
society has never been capable of intro-

ducing or maintaining
ples of Divine truth.

its

abstract princi-

But while Speculative Masonry

is

the

result of civilization, existing only in its

bosom and never found among barbarous

or savage races, it has, by a reactionary
law of sociology, proved the means of extending and elevating the civilization to
which it originally owed its birth. Civilization has always been progressive.
That
of Pelasgic Greece was far behind that
which distinguished the Hellenic period
of the same country. The civilization of
the ancient world was inferior to that of
the modern, and every century shows an
advancement in the moral, intellectual, and
social condition of mankind.
But in this
progress from imperfection to perfection
the influence of those speculative systems
that are identical with Freemasonry has
always been seen and felt. Let us, for an
example, look at the ancient heathen world
and its impure religions. While the people
of Paganism bowed, in their ignorance, to
a many-headed god, or, rather, worshipped
at the shrines of many gods, whose mythological history and character must have
exercised a pernicious effect on the moral
purity of their worshippers, Speculative
Philosophy, in the form of the "Ancient
Mysteries," was exercising its influence
upon a large class of neophytes and disciples, by giving this true symbolic interpreIn the
tation of the old religious myths.
adyta of their temples in Greece and Eome
and Egypt, in the sacred caves of India,
and in the consecrated groves of Scandinavia and Gaul and Britain, these ancient
sages were secretly divesting the pagan faith
of its polytheism and of its anthropomor-

'

CLANDESTINE

CLAY

deities, and were establishing a pure

monotheism in its place, and illustrating,
by a peculiar symbolism, the great dogmas
of the
since taught in Freemasonry
unity of God and the immortality of the
soul. And in modern times, when the religious thought of mankind, under a better

intelligence in Masonry, and made several

improvements in the ritual. He translated
into English a work which had been published the preceding year, in Dublin, under

phic

dispensation, has not required this purifiMasonry still, in other ways, exerts
its influence in elevating the tone of civilization for through its working the social
feelings have been strengthened, the amenities and charities of life been refined and
extended, and, as we have had recent reason to know and see, the very bitterness of
strife and the blood-guiltiness of war have
been softened and oftentimes obliterated.
then arrive at these conclusions,
namely, that Speculative Masonry is a
result of civilization, for it exists in no
savage or barbarous state of society, but
has always appeared with the advent in
any country of a condition of civilization,
" grown with its growth and strengthened
cation,

We

with

strength " and, in return, has

proved, by a reactionary influence, a potent
instrument in extending, elevating, and
refining the civilization which gave it
birth, by advancing its moral, intellectual,
and religious character.
Clandestine. The ordinary meaning
of this word is secret, hidden. The French
word clandestin, from which it is derived, is
defined by Boiste to be something " fait en
cachette et contre les lois," done in a hidingplace and against the laws, which better
suits the Masonic signification, which is
illegal, not authorized.
body of
Clandestine Lodge.
Masons uniting in a Lodge without the
its

consent of a Grand Lodge,

or,

although

originally legally constituted, continuing

to work after its charter has been revoked,
"is styled a " Clandestine Lodge."
Neither

Anderson nor Entick employ the word. It

was first used in the Book of Constitutions
in a note by Noorthouck, on page 239 of
his edition.

Clandestine Mason.

One made

in or affiliated with a clandestine Lodge.

With clandestine Lodges or Masons, regular Masons are forbidden to associate or

converse on Masonic subjects.

Clare, Martin.
celebrated Mason
of England in the last century. He was a
man of some distinction in literary circles,
for he was a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1732 he was appointed by the Grand
Lodge to revise the system of lectures,
which at this time was the one that had
been prepared by Anderson and Desaguliers.
In 1735 he was appointed Junior

Grand Warden, and

Master.

He

167

the title of Relation Apologique et Historique

de la Societt des Franc-Magons. In 1735, he
delivered an address before the Grand
Lodge, which was translated into French
and German. Clare's lectures were a great
improvement on those which preceded
them, and continued to be a standard of
English ritualism until superseded in or
about 1770 by the still better system of

Dunckerley.

Classification of Masons. Oliver

says, in his Landmarks and in his Dictionary, that ancient Masonic tradition in-

forms us that the speculative and operative

Masons who were assembled at the building of the Temple were arranged in nine
classes, under their respective Grand Masviz., 30,000 Entered Apprentices, under their Grand Master Adoniram 80,000
Fellow Crafts, under Hiram Abif 2000
Mark Men, under Stolkyn 1000 Master
Masons, under Mohabin; 600 Mark Masters, under Ghiblim
24 Architects, under
Joabert 12 Grand Architects, under Adoniram 45 Excellent Masons, under Hiram
Abif; 9 Super- Excellent Masons, under
Tito Zadok besides the Ish Sabbal, or laborers.
The tradition is, however, rather
apocryphal.
Clay Ground. In the clay ground
between Succoth and Zeredatha, Hiram
Abif cast all the sacred vessels of the Temple, as well as the pillars of the porch.
This spot was about thirty-five miles in a

ters

north-east direction from Jerusalem and it

supposed that Hiram selected it for his
foundry, because the clay which abounded
there was, by its great tenacity, peculiarly
;

is

fitted

for

making moulds.

The Masonic

on

this subject is sustained by the

authority of Scripture. See 1 Kings vii. 46,
and 2 Chron. iv. 17. Morris, in his Freemasonry in the Holy Land, gives the following
interesting facts in reference to this locality.
"
singular fact came to light under the
investigations of
assistant at Jerusa-

tradition

my

lem. He discovered that the jewellers of

that city, at the present day, use a particular species of brown, arenaceous clay in
making moulds for casting small pieces in
Inquiring whence this clay
brass, etc.

comes, they reply,

'From

Seihoot,

about

two days' journey north-east of Jerusalem.'

Here, then,

is a satisfactory reply to the

question, Where was the ' clay ground
of Hiram's foundries ? It is the best matrix-clay existing within reach of Hiram
Abif, and it is found only in 'the clay

in 1741, Deputy Grand ground between Succoth and Zeredatha;'

was distinguished for zeal and and considerable as was the distance, and

CLEAN

CLERKS

extremely inconvenient as was the locality,

important did that master-workman
deem it, to secure a sharp and perfect

sonic Baptism" is nothing else but tha

symbolizing, by a ceremony, this doctrine
of clean hands as the sign of a pure heart.
Cleave. The word to cleave is twice
used in Masonry, and each time in an opposite sense. First, in the sense of adhering,
where the sentence in which it is employed
is in the Past Master's degree, and is taken
from the 37th Psalm " Let my tongue cleave
;
to the roof of my mouth " second, in the
Master's degree, where, in the expression, "The flesh cleaves from the bone,"
it has the intransitive meaning of to separate, and is equivalent to " the flesh parts,

168

so

mould

for his castings, that, as the Biblical

record informs us, he established his furnaces there."
Clean Hands. Clean hands are a
symbol of purity. The psalmist says, " that
he only shall ascend into the hill of the
Lord, or shall stand in his holy place, who
hath clean hands and a pure heart."
Hence, the washing of the hands is an outward sign of an internal purification and
the psalmist says in another place, " I will
wash my hands in innocence. And I will
encompass thine altar, Jehovah." In the
Ancient Mysteries the washing of the
hands was always an introductory ceremony
to the initiation ; and, of course, it was used
symbolically to indicate the necessity of
purity from crime as a qualification of those
who sought admission into the sacred rites
and hence, on a temple in the Island of
Crete, this inscription was placed: " Cleanse
your feet, wash your hands, and then enter."
Indeed, the washing of hands, as
symbolic of purity, was among the ancients
a peculiarly religious rite. No one dared
to pray to the gods until he had cleansed
his hands. Thus, Homer makes Hector
say:
;

" Xepal

3' avi-troKTiv

Mopai."

Ait Xeiffeiv aidma otvov

Iliad, vi. 266.

" I dread with unwashed hands to bring

My incensed wine to Jove an offering."

In a similar spirit of religion, iEneas,

leaving burning Troy, refuses to en-

when

Temple of Ceres until his hands,

polluted by recent strife, had been washed
in the living stream.

ter the

"

Me bello e tanto digressum et coede recenti,

Attractare nefas, donee me flumine vivo
Abluero."

{Mn. y

ii.

718.)

" In me, now fresh from war and recent strife,

'T is impious the sacred things to touch,
Till in the living stream myself I bathe."

The same practice prevailed among the

Jews, and a striking instance of the symbolism is exhibited in that well-known action of Pilate, who, when the Jews clamored for Jesus that they might crucify him,
appeared before the people, and, having
taken water, washed his hands, saying at
the same time, "I am innocent of the
blood of this just man, see ye to it."
The white gloves worn by Masons as a
part of their clothing, alluded to this symbolizing of clean hands and what in some
of the high degrees has been called " Ma;

or separates, itself from the bone." In this

latter use the word is obsolete, and used

only technically as a Masonic term.

Clefts of the

Rocks. The

whole

very mountainous, and these

mountains abound in deep clefts or caves,
which were anciently places of refuge to
the inhabitants in time of war, and were
often used as lurking places for robbers. It
is, therefore, strictly in accordance with
geographical truth that the statement, in
relation to the concealment of certain persons in the clefts of the rocks, is made in
the third degree. See the latter part of the
of Palestine

is

article Caverns.

Clement XII. A

pope who assumed

the pontificate on the 12th of August, 1730,

and died on the 6th of February, 1740.
On the 28th of April, 1738, he published
his celebrated bull of excommunication,
entitled in Eminenti Apostolatus Specula, in
which we find these words, "For which
reason the temporal and spiritual communities are enjoined, in the name of holy
obedience, neither to enter the society of
Freemasons, to disseminate its principles,
to defend it, nor to admit nor conceal it
within their houses or palaces, or elsewhere, under pain of excommunication
*
ipso facto, for all acting in contradiction to
this, and from which the pope only can
absolve the dying." Clement was a bitter
persecutor of the Masonic Order, and hence
he caused his Secretary of State, the Cardinal Firrao, to issue on the 14th of January, 1739, a still more stringent edict for
the Papal States, in which death and confiscation of property, without hope of
mercy, was the penalty, or, as the original
has it, " sotto Pena della morte, e confiscazione de beni da incorressi, irremissibilmente senz a speranza di grazia."

Clerks of Strict Observance.

Known also as the Spiritual Branch of
the Templars, or Clerici Ordinis Templarii.
This was a schism from the Order or Rite
of Strict Observance, and was founded
by Starck in 1 767. The members of this
Rite established it as a rival of the latter
system. They claimed a pre-eminence not

CLERMONT

CLOSING

only over the Rite of Strict Observance, but

also over all the Lodges of ordinary Masonry, and asserted that they alone possessed the true secrets of the Order, and
knew the place where the treasures of the
Templars were deposited. For a further
history of this Rite, see the word Starch.
The Rite consisted of seven degrees, viz.,
4. Junior
1, 2, and 3. Symbolic Masonry.
Scottish Mason, or Jungschotte. 5. Scottish Master, or Knight of St. Andrew.
6. Provincial Capitular of the Red Cross.
7. Magus, or Knight of Purity and Light.
This last was subdivided into five sections,
as follows I. Knight Novice of the third
II. Knight Novice of the fifth year.
year.
III. Knight Novice of the seventh year.
IV. LevTte, and V. Priest. Ragon errs
in calling this the Rite of Lax Observance.
Clermont, Chapter of. On the
24th of November, 1754, the Chevalier de
Bonneville established in Paris a Chapter
of the high degrees under this name, which
was derived from the Jesuitical Chapter of
Clermont. This society was composed of
many distinguished persons of the court
and city, who, disgusted with the dissensions of the Parisian Lodges, determined
They adopted the
to separate from them.
Templar system, which had been created at
Lyons, in 1743, after the reform of Ramsay,
and their Rite consisted at first of but six
degrees, viz., 1, 2, 3. St. John's Masonry.
5. Illustrious
4. Knight of the Eagle.

the Lodges, and new disorders arose. He

still, however, retained the Grand Mastership, and died in 1771, being succeeded by
his nephew, the Duke of Chartres.
distinguished
Clinton,
Witt.
statesman, who was born at Little Britain,
New York, March 2, 1769, and died on
the 11th February, 1828. He entered the
Masonic Order in 1793, and the next year
was elected Master of his Lodge. In 1806,
he was elevated to the position of Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of New York, and
in 1814, to that of Grand Master of the Grand
Encampment.
In 1816, he was elected
General Grand High Priest of the General
Grand Chapter of the United States. In
1813, he became unwittingly complicated
with the Spurious Consistory, established
by Joseph Cerneau in the city of New
York, but he took no active part in its proceedings, and soon withdrew from all connection with it. When the anti-Masonic
excitement arose in this country in 1826, in
consequence of the affair of William Morgan,
whom the Masons were accused of having
put to death, Mr. Clinton was Governor of
the State of New York, and took all the necessary measures for the arrest of the supposed criminals. But, although he offered a

De

169

reward for their detection, he was

charged by the anti-Masons with official

liberal

charges which
malicious.
Spenser, the special attorney of the State,
employed for the prosecution of the
neglect and

were

indifference,

undoubtedly

false

and

Knight or Templar. 6. Sublime Illustrious

Knight.
But soon after the number of offenders, went so far as to resign his office,
these degrees was greatly extended. The and to assign, as a reason for his resignation,
Baron de Hund received the high degrees the want of sympathy and support on the
But all of the acin this Chapter, and derived from them the part of the Executive.
idea of the Rite of Strict Observance, which cusations and insinuations are properly to
be attributed to political excitement, antihe subsequently established in Germany.
Clermont, College of. A college Masonry having been adopted soon after
of Jesuits in Paris, where James II., after its origin by the politicians as an engine
Clinton
his flight from England, in 1688, resided for their advancement to office.
until his removal to St. Germains. During was an honorable man and a true patriot.
his residence there, he is said to have He was also an ardent and devoted Mason.
sought the establishment of a system of
Freemasonry, the object of which should
be the restoration of the House of Stuart to
the throne of England. Relics of this attempted system are still to be found in
many of the high degrees, and the Chapter
of Clermont, subsequently organized in
Paris, appears to have had some reference
to

it.

Clermont, Count

of. Louis of
Bourbon, prince of the blood and Count
of Clermont, was elected by sixteen of the
Paris Lodges perpetual Grand Master, for
the purpose of correcting the numerous
abuses which had crept into French Masonry. He did not, however, fulfil the expectations of the French Masons for the
next year he abandoned the supervision of
;

Closing.

The duty of

closing the

as imperative, and the ceremony

as solemn, as that of opening ; nor should it

Lodge

is

ever be omitted through negligence, nor

hurried over with haste, but everything
should be performed with order and precision, so that no brother shall go away
From the very nature of our
dissatisfied.
constitution, a Lodge cannot properly be
adjourned. It must be closed either in due
form, or the brethren called off to refreshment. But an adjournment on motion, as
in other societies, is unknown to the Order.
The Master can alone dismiss the brethren,
and that dismission must take place after
a settled usage. In Grand Lodges which
meet for several days successively, the session is generally continued from day to

CLOTHED

COCK

day, by calling to refreshment at the termination of each day's sitting.

Mason is said to be
Clothed.
properly clothed when he wears white
leather gloves, a white apron, and the jewel
of his Masonic rank. The gloves are now
often, but improperly, dispensed with, ex" No Mason is
cept on public occasions.
permitted to enter a Lodge or join in its
labors unless he is properly clothed."
Lenning, speaking of Continental Masonry,
under the article Kleidung in his Lexicon,
says, that the clothing of a Freemason conIn
sists of apron, gloves, sword, and hat.
the York and American Rites, the sword
and hat are used only in the degrees of
In the earliest code of lectures
chivalry.
arranged by Anderson and Desaguliers, at
the revival in 1717, the symbolical clothing
of a Master Mason was said to be " skull-

trade had its club, and " whatever might be

a man's character or disposition," says
Oliver, " he would find in London a club
that would square with his ideas." Addison, in his paper on the origin of clubs
" Man is said
(Spectator No. 9), remarks
to be a social animal, and as an instance of
it we may observe that we take all occasions and pretences of forming ourselves
into those little nocturnal assemblies which
are commonly known by the name of clubs.
When a set of men find themselves agree
in any particular, though never so trivial,
they establish themselves into a kind of
fraternity and meet once or twice a week,
upon the account of such a fantastic resemblance." Hard drinking was characteristic
of those times, and excesses too often
marked the meetings of these societies. It
was at this time that the institution of
Freemasonry underwent its revival commonly known as the revival of 1717, and
it is not strange that its social character
was somewhat affected by the customs of
the day. The Lodges therefore assumed
at that time too much of a convivial character, derived from the customs of the existing clubs and coteries but the moral and
religious principles upon which the Institution was founded prevented any undue
indulgence; and although the members
were permitted the enjoyment of decent refreshment, there was a standing law which
provided against all excess.

170

cap and jacket yellow, and nether garments

blue," in allusion to the brass top and steel
legs of a pair of compasses.
After the
middle of the century, he was said to be
" clothed in the old colors, viz., purple,
crimson, and blue " and the reason assigned
for it was, " because they are royal, and
such as the ancient kings and princes used
to wear."
The actual dress of a Master
Mason was, however, a full suit of black,
with white neckcloth, apron, gloves, and
stockings ; the buckles being of silver, and
the jewels being suspended from a white
ribbon by way of collar. For the clothing
and decorations of the different degrees,
see Regalia.
Clothing the Lodge. In the " Gen;

approved by the Grand

Lodge of England in 1721, it is provided
in article seven that " Every new Brother
eral Regulations,"

making

decently to cloath the

the Brethren present;
and to deposit something for the relief of
indigent and decayed Brethren." By "clothing the Lodge" was meant furnishing the
Brethren with gloves and aprons.
The
regulation no longer exists. It is strange
that Oliver should have quoted as the authority for this usage a subsequent regulation of 1767.
Clouded Canopy. See Canopy,
at

his

Lodge, that

is,

is

all

Clouded.

Cloud, Pillar

of.

See Pillar of Fire

and Cloud.

Cloudy. A word

sometimes improperby the Wardens of a Lodge when

reporting an unfavorable result of the ballot.

ly used

The proper word is foul.

Clubs. The eighteenth century was
distinguished in England by the existence
of numerous local and ephemeral associations under the name of clubs, where men
of different classes of society met for amusement and recreation. Each profession and

Coat of the Tiler.

In olden times
was deemed proper that the Tiler of a
whose
Lodge, like the beadle of a parish,
functions were in some respects similar,
should be distinguished by a tawdry dress.
In a schedule of the regalia, records, etc.,
of the Grand Lodge of all England, taken
at York in 1779, to be found in Hughan's
Masonic Sketches and Reprints, (p. 33,) we
it

the following item: "a blue cloth

coat with a red collar for the Tyler."
very corrupt word in
Cochleus.
the fourth degree of the Scottish Rite; there
said to signify in the form of a screw, and to
find

be the name of the winding staircase which

led to the middle chamber. The true Latin
word is cochlea. But the matter is so historically absurd that the word ought to be

and

is

rejected in the

modern

rituals.

ancients made the cock a

symbol of courage, and consecrated him to
Mars, Pallas, and Bellona, deities of war.
Some have supposed that it is in reference
to this quality that the cock is used in the
jewel of the Captain-General of an Encampment of Knights Templars.
Reghellini, however, gives a different
explanation of this symbol. He says that
the cock was the emblem of the sun and
of life, and that as the ancient Christians

Coek. The

COCKADE

COLLAR

allegorically deplored the death of the solar

orb in Christ, the cock recalled its life and
The cock, we know, was a
resurrection.
symbol among the early Christians, and is
repeatedly to be found on the tombs in the

London, in 1728, and again in 1731, the

Old Constitutions, engraved on thirty copper plates, under the title of A Book of the
Ancient Constitutions of the Free and Accepted Masons.
In 1751, Cole printed a

catacombs of Eome. Hence I am induced

we should give a Christian
interpretation to the jewel of a Knight
Templar as symbolic of the resurrection.
Cockade. Some few of the German
Lodges have a custom of permitting their
members to wear a blue cockade in the hat
a
as a symbol of equality and freedom
symbolism which, as Lenning says, it is
difficult to understand, and the decoration
is inappropriate as a part of the clothing
Yet it is probable that it was
of a Mason.
a conception of this kind that induced Cagliostro to prescribe the cockade as a part of
the investiture of a female candidate in the
Clavel says the
initiation of his Lodges.
Venerable or Master of a French Lodge
wears a black cockade.

third edition, with the title of "The Ancient Constitutions and Charges of Freemasons, with a true representation of their
noble Art in several Lectures or Speeches."
Subsequent editions were published up to
Brother Richard Spencer, the well1794.
known Masonic bibliographer, says that
Cole engraved his plates from a MS. which
he calls the " Constitutions of 1726," or
from a similar MS. by the same scribe.
Brother Hughan published in 1869, in a
limited edition of seventy copies, a lithograph fac-simile of the 1729 edition of
Cole.

to believe that

Cole, Samuel.

He

171

was

at

one time

the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge

of Maryland, and the author of a work entitled The Freemason's Library, or General
Ahiman Eezon, the first edition of which
appeared in 1817, and the second in 1826.
It is something more than a mere monitor
or manual of the degrees, and greatly excels in literary 'pretensions the contemporary works of Webb and Cross.

Cockle Shell. The cockle shell was

worn by pilgrims in their hats as a token
of their profession now used in the ceremonies of Templarism. See Scollop Shell.
Coitus. Latin. An assembly. .It is
incorrectly used in some old Latin Masonic
diplomas for a Lodge. It is used by Laurence Dermott in a diploma dated Sept.
10, 1764, where he signs himself "Sec.
M. Coetus," or Secretary of the Grand
;

Cole's Manuscript.
which Cole

is

The MS. from

supposed to have made his

engraved Constitutions. It is in the possession of Bro. Richard Spencer, who pubBooh

lished it 1871, under the title of
of the Ancient Constitutions of the Free
and Accepted Masons. Anno Dom., 1726.
The sub-title is "The Beginning and First

Lodge.

Coffin.

In the Ancient Mysteries the

aspirant could not claim a participation

in the highest secrets until he had been
placed in the Pastos, bed or coffin. The
placing him in the coffin was called the
symbolical death of the mysteries, and his
deliverance was termed a raising from the
dead. Hence arose a peculiarity in the
Greek verb teleutao, which, in the active
voice, signified " I die," and in the middle

Foundation of the Most Worthy Craft of

Masonry, with the charges thereunto belonging." In 1739, a tract was published
by Mrs. Dodd with this latter title, to
which is added, " By a deceased Brother,
Spencer,
for the benefit of his widow."
who has a copy of it, thinks that it is the
voice, "I am initiated."
"The mind," same as the MS. of 1726, from which Cole
says an ancient writer, quoted by Stobaeus, took his engraved work.
"is affected in death just as it is in the
Collar. An ornament worn around
initiation into the mysteries.
And word the neck by the officers of Lodges, to which
answers to word, as well as thing to thing
suspended a jewel indicative of the
is
for relevrav is to die, and rsleiadat, to be ini- wearer's rank.
The color of the collar
tiated."
The coffin in Masonry is found on varies in the different grades of Masonry.
tracing boards of the early part of the last That of a symbolic Lodge is blue; of a
century, and has always constituted a part Past Master, purple of a Royal Arch Maof the symbolism of the third degree, where son, scarlet of a Secret Master, white borthe reference is precisely the same as that dered with black; of a Perfect Master,
of the Pastos in the Ancient Mysteries.
green, etc. These colors are not arbitrary,
Cohen. p2- A Hebrew word signify- but are each accompanied with a symbolie
ing a priest. The French Masonic writers, signification.
indulging in a Gallic custom of misspelling
In the United States, the collar worn by
all names derived from other languages,
Grand officers in the Grand Lodge is, prouniversally spell it coen.
perly, purple edged with gold. In the Grand
Cohens, Elected. See Pascalis, Mar- Lodge of England, the Grand officers wear
;

tin.

Cole,

Benjamin. He

published at

chains of gold or metal gilt instead of colbut on other occasions, collars of rib-

lars,

COLOGNE

COLLEGES

172

bon, garter blue, four inches broad, embroidered or plain.

The use of the collar in Masonry, as an
It
official decoration, is of very old date.
is a regulation that its form should be triangular that is, that it should terminate
on the breast in a point. The symbolical
;

The Masonic

true Masonic spirit of charity, which

bond of peace."

is

the

Collegia Artificum. Colleges of

See Roman Colleges of Artificers,
Collegium. In Eoman jurisprudence,

Artificers.

a collegium, or college, expressed the idea

of several persons united together in any

office or for any common purpose.

It required not less than three to constitute a
college, according to the law maxim, "Tres
faciunt collegium," and hence, perhaps, the
Masonic rule that not fewer than three
their investiture.
Master Masons can form a Lodge.
Colleges, Masonic. There was at
Cologne, Cathedral of. The city
one time a great disposition exhibited by of Cologne, on the banks of the Rhine, is
the Fraternity of the United States to memorable in the history of Freemasonry
establish colleges, to be placed under the for the connection of its celebrated Cathesupervision of Grand Lodges. The first dral with the labors of the Steinmetzen of
one ever endowed in this country was that Germany in the Middle Ages, whence it beat Lexington, in Missouri, established by came the seat of one of the most important
the Grand Lodge of that State, in October, Lodges of that period. It has been asserted
1841, which for some time pursued a pros- that Albertus Magnus designed the plan,
perous career. Other Grand Lodges, such and that he there also altered the Constituas those of Kentucky, Mississippi, Ar- tion of the Fraternity, and gave it a new
kansas, North Carolina, Florida, and a few code of laws. It is at least clear that in
others, subsequently either actually organ- this Cathedral the symbolic principles of
ized or took the preliminary steps for or- Gothic architecture, the distinguishing style
ganizing Masonic colleges In their respec- of the Travelling Freemasons, were carried
tive jurisdictions.
But experience has out in deeper significance thai^ in any other
shown that there is an incongruity between building of the time. Whether the docuthe official labors of a Grand Lodge as the ment known as the Charter of Cologne be
Masonic head of the Order, and the su- authentic or not, the fact that it is claimed
perintendence and support of a college. to have emanated from the Lodge of that
Hence, these institutions have been very place, gives to the Cathedral an importance
generally discontinued, and the care of pro- in the views of the Masonic student.
viding for the education of indigent chilThe Cathedral of Cologne is one of the
dren of the Craft has been wisely com- most beautiful religious edifices in the
mitted to the subordinate Lodges.
world, and the vastest construction of
The late Thomas Brown, the distinguished Gothic architecture. The primitive CatheGrand Master of Florida, thus expressed dral, which was consecrated in 873, was
the following correct views on this subject. burned in 1248. The present one was com"
question if the endowment of menced in 1249. and the work upon it conBut during that long
colleges and large seminaries of learning, tinued until 1509.
under the auspices and patronage of Ma- period the labors were often interrupted by
sonic bodies, be the wisest plan for the ac- the sanguinary contests which raged becomplishment of the great design, or is in tween the city and its archbishops, so that
accordance with the character and princi- only the choir and the chapels which surSuch institutions rounded it were finished. In the eighteenth
ples of the Fraternity.
savor more of pageantry than utility; and century it suffered much from the ignorance
as large funds, amassed for such purposes, of its own canons, who subjected it to unmust of necessity be placed under the con- worthy mutilations, and during the French
trol and management of comparatively few, revolution it was used as a military depOt.
it will have a corrupting influence, promote
In 1 820, this edifice, ravaged by men and mudiscord, and bring reproach upon the Craft. tilated by time, began to excite serious anxiThe principles of Masonry do not sympathize eties for the solidity of its finished portions.
with speculations in stock and exchange The debris of the venerable pile were even
brokerage. Such, we fear, will be the evils about to be overthrown, when archseologic
attendant on such institutions, to say noth- zeal and religious devotion came to the
ing of the questionable right and policy of rescue. Societies were formed for its restodrawing funds from the subordinate Lodges, ration by the aid of permanent subscripwhich could be appropriated by their pro- tions, which were liberally supplied; and it
per officers more judiciously, economically, was resolved to finish the gigantic strucand faithfully to the accomplishment of ture according to the original plans which
the same great and desirable object in the had been conceived by Gerhard de Saint

reference

is

evident.

collar

derived from the practices of heraldry

collars are worn not only by municipal
officers and officers of State, but also by
knights of the different orders as a part of
is

We

"

COLOGNE

COLOGNE

Trond, the ancient master of the works.

The works were renewed under the direction of M. Zwiner. The building is not
yet completed but even in its unfinished
condition is, says Mr. Seddon {Ramb. on
the Rhine, -p. 16), "without question, one
of the most stupendous structures ever con-

There is another version of the history

which states that these documents had long
been in the possession of the family of Wassenaer Van Opdem, by a member of which
they were presented to Van Boetzelaer,

ceived."

Cologne, Charter

of.

This

is

an

interesting Masonic document, originally

written in Latin, and purporting to have
been issued in 1535. Its history, as given
by those who first offered it to the public,
and who claim that it is authentic, is as
follows. From the year 1519 to 1601, there
existed in the city of Amsterdam, in Holland, a Lodge whose name was Het Vreden-

The Valley of Peace. In the latter

year, circumstances caused the Lodge to be
closed, but in 1637 it was revived, by four

dall, or

of

its

surviving members, under the

name

of Frederick's Vredendall, or Frederick's

Valley of Peace. In this Lodge, at the time
of its restoration, there was found a chest,
bound with brass arid secured by three
locks and three seals, which, according to
a protocol published on the 29th of January, 1637, contained the following docu-

ments

l.The original warrant of constitution

of the Lodge Het Vredendall, written in
the English language. 2.
roll of all the
members of the Lodge from 1519 to 1601.
3. The original charter given to the brotherhood at the city of Cologne, and which is

now known among Masonic

historians as

the Charter of Cologne.

It is not known how long these documents remained in possession of the Lodge
at Amsterdam. But they were subsequently
remitted to the charge of Bro. James Van
Vasner, Lord of Opdem, whose signature
is appended to the last attestation of the
Hague register, under the date of the 2d
of February, 1638. After his death, they
remained among the papers of his family
until 1790, when M. Walpenaer, one of his
descendants, presented them to Brother
Van Boetzelaer, who was then the Grand
Master of the Lodges of Holland. Subsequently they fell into the hands of some
person whose name is unknown, but who, in
1816, delivered them to Prince Frederick.
There is a story that the prince received
these documents accompanied by a letter,
written in a female hand, and signed " C,
child of V. J."
In this letter the writer
states that she had found the documents
among the papers of her father, who had
received them from Mr. Van Boetzelaer.
It is suspected that the authoress of the
letter was the daughter of Brother Van
Jeylinger, who was the successor of Van
Boetzelaer as Grand Master of Holland.

173

to Van Jeylinger, with strict injunctions to preserve

them until the restitution of the Orange
regency. The originals are now, or were

who subsequently gave them

very lately, deposited in the archives of a

Lodge at Namur, on the Meuse but copies
of the charter were given to the Fraternity
under the following circumstances
In the year 1819, Prince Frederick of
Nassau, who was then the Grand Master of
the National Grand Lodge of Holland, contemplating a reformation in Masonry, addressed a circular on this subject to all the
Lodges under his jurisdiction, for the purpose of enlisting them in behalf of his pro;

ject, and accompanied this circular with

copies of the charter, which he had caused
to be taken in facsimile, and also of the

register of the Amsterdam Lodge, Valley

of Peace, to which I have already referred
as contained in the brass-mounted chest.
transcript of the charter in the original

Latin, with all its errors, was published,

The
in 1818, in the Annales Magonniques.
document was also presented to the public
in a German version, in 1819, by Dr. Fred.
Heldmann; but his translation has been
proved, by Lenning and others, to be exceedingly incorrect. In 1821, Dr. Krause
published it in his celebrated work entitled,
The Three Oldest Masonic Documents. It
has been frequently published since in a
German translation, in whole or in part, but
is accessible to the English reader only in
Burnes' Sketch of the History of the Knights
Templars: London, 1840, in D. Murray
Lyons' translation of Findel's History of
Freemasonry, and in the American Quarterly

Review of Freemasonry, where it was published with copious notes by the author
of the present work. P. J. Schouten, a

Dutch writer on the history of Freemasonry, who had undoubtedly seen the original document, describes it as being written
on parchment in Masonic cipher, in the
Latin language, the characters uninjured
by time, and the subscription of the names
not in cipher, but in the ordinary cursive
character. The Latin is that of the Middle
Ages, and is distinguished by many incorrectly spelled words, and frequent grammatical solecisms. Thus, we find "bagistri
for "tricesifor
magistri," " tngesimo
mo," "ad nostris ordinem" for ad nostrum ordinem,"

Of

etc.

the authenticity of this document, it

is but fair to say that there are well-founded
doubts among many Masonic writers. The
learned antiquaries, of the University of

COLOGNE

COLUMBIA

Leyden have testified that the paper on

which the register of the Lodge at the
Hague is written, is of the same kind that
was used in Holland at the commencement
of the seventeenth century, which purports
to be its date, and that the characters in
which it is composed are of the same period.

Institution, known as the Charter of CoWhether this Congress was ever

logne.

174

This register, it will be remembered, refers

to the charter of Cologne as existing at
that time; so that if the learned men of
Leyden have not been deceived, the
fraud
supposing that there is one in the
charter
must be more than two centuries

old.

Dr. Burnes professes to have no faith in

the document, and the editors of the Hermes
at once declare it to be surreptitious.
But
the condemnation of Burnes is too sweeping in its character, as it includes with the
charter all other German documents on
Freemasonry and the opinion of the editors of the Hermes must be taken with some
grains of allowance, as they were at the
time engaged in a controversy with the
Grand Master of Holland, and in the defence of the high degrees, whose claims to
antiquity this charter would materially impair. Dr. Oliver, on the other hand, quotes
it unreservedly, in his Landmarks, as an
historical document worthy of credit;
and Eeghellini treats it as authentic. In
Germany, the Masonic authorities of the
highest reputation, such as Heldermann,
Morsdorf, Kloss, and many others, have repudiated it as a spurious production, most
probably of the beginning of the present
century. Kloss objects to the document,
that customs are referred to in it that were
not known in the rituals of initiation until
1731 that the higher degrees were nowhere
known until 1725 that none of the eighteen
copied documents have been found; that
the declaimer against Templar Masonry
was unnecessary in 1535, as no Templar
degrees existed until 1741 that some of the
Latin expressions are not such as were
likely to have been used and a few other
objections of a similar character.
Bobrik,
who published, in 1840, the Text, Translation, and Examination of the Cologne Document, also advances some strong critical
arguments against its authenticity. On the
whole, the arguments to disprove the genuineness of the charter appear to be very
convincing, and are strong enough to throw
at least great doubt upon it as being anything else but a modern forgery.
Cologne, Congress of. A Congress
which is said to have been convened in
1525, by the most distinguished Masons of
the time, in the city of Cologne, as the
representatives of nineteen Grand Lodges,
and who issued the celebrated manifesto, in
defence of the character and aims of the
;

a mooted point among Masonic

most of them contending that it
never was, and that it is simply an invenheld

is

writers,

tion of the early part of the present century. See Cologne, Charter of.

Colonial Lodges. Lodges in the

colonies of Great Britain are under the
immediate supervision and jurisdiction of
Provincial Grand Lodges, to which title
the reader

is

referred.

Colorado.

Freemasonry was introduced into the territory of Colorado in

1860, in which year the Grand Lodge of
Kansas chartered Golden City Lodge at
Golden City. In 1861 two other Lodges,

Bocky Mountain at Gold Hill and Summit

Lodge at Parkville, were chartered by the
Grand Lodge of Nebraska. On August
1861, representatives from these three
Lodges met in convention at Golden City,
and organized the Grand Lodge of Colorado, the Grand East of which was placed
at Denver.
J. M. Chivington was elected
first Grand Master.
Chapters of Boyal
Arch Masons and a Commandery of
Knights Templars were subsequently in2,

troduced.

Colors,

Symbolism

of.

Wemyss,

" Color, which

is outwardly seen on the habit of the body,
is symbolically used to denote the true
state of the person or subject to which it
is applied, according to its nature/'
This
definition may appropriately be borrowed
on the present occasion, and applied to the
system of Masonic colors. The color of a
vestment or of a decoration is never arbitrarily adopted in Freemasonry.
Every
color is selected with a view to its power
in the symbolic alphabet, and it teaches the
initiate some instructive moral lesson, or
refers to some important nistorical fact in
the system.
Frederic Portal, a French archaeologist,
has written a valuable treatise on the symin his Clavis Symbolica, says

bolism of colors, under the title of Des

Couleurs Symboliques dans I'antiquite, le
moyen age et les temps modernes, which is
well worth the attention of Masonic students. The Masonic colors are seven in
number, namely: 1. blue; 2, purple; 3,
red 4, white 5, black 6, green 7, yellow 8, violet. See those respective titles.
;

Columbia, British. Freemasonry

was introduced into British Columbia by
the Grand Lodges of England and Scotland.
On October 21st, 1871, a convention
was held, with the consent of the Provincial Grand Master, for the purpose of preliminary action. On the 26th of December
following, a Lodge of Master Masons was

opened, and an independent Grand Lodge

COLUMBIA

COMMANDERY

organized, with the title of "The Grand

Lodge of Ancient> Free, and Accepted Masons for the Province of British Columbia."

other by, and to assist one another against

being impressed, and not to work unless
Hence they
free and on their own terms.

Columbia, District of. The Grand

called themselves

Freemasons

175

and

Columbia was orby Lodges having

warrants from Maryland and Virginia, and
Valentine Reintzel was elected Grand MasThe Grand Chapter formed, originally,
ter.
a component part of the Grand Chapter of
Maryland and the District of Columbia;
but the connection was dissevered in 1867,
and an independent Grand Chapter formed,
which has now five Chapters under its
There is neither a Grand
jurisdiction.
Commandery nor Grand Council in the
Territory, but several Commanderies subordinate to the Grand Encampment of the
United States, and a Council of Royal and
Select Masters chartered by the Grand

this

combination continued during the carrying

on of these buildings for several years. The
wars between the two Houses coming on in
the next reign, the discontented herded
together in the same manner, and the gentry also underhand supporting the malcontents, occasioned several Acts of Parliament
against the combination of masons and
other persons under that denomination, the
titles of which Acts are still to be seen in
the printed statutes of those reigns." Ashmole, in his History 'of the Order of the
Garter, (p. 80,) confirms the fact of the impressment of workmen by King Edward
and the combination that followed seems
but a natural consequence of this oppresCouncil of Massachusetts.
The Scottish sive act; but the assertion that the origin
Rite, has also been successfully cultivated, of Freemasonry as an organized institution
and there are in operation a Lodge of Per- of builders is to be traced to such a combifection and a Chapter of Rose Croix.
nation, is not supported by the facts of
Column. A round pillar made to history, and, indeed, the writer himself
support as well as to adorn a building, admits that the Masons denied its truth.

Lodge of the

District of
ganized Dec. 11th, 1810,

whose construction varies in the different

orders of architecture. In Masonry, columns have a symbolic signification as the
supports of a Lodge, and are known as the
Columns of Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty.
The broken column is also a symbol in
Masonry. See the titles Supports of a Lodge,
and Broken Column.

Combination of Masons.
combination of the

Freemasons

The

in the
centuries to de-

Commander.

The

presiding ofof Knights Templars.

His style is " Eminent," and the
jewel of his office is a cross, from which
2. The Superintenissue rays of light.
dent of a Commandery, as a house or residence of the Ancient Knights of Malta, was
ficer in

1.

Commandery

so called.

Commander, Grand.

See Grand

Commander.

fourteenth and fifteenth

Commander-in-Chief. The premand a higher rate of wages, which even- siding officer in a Consistory of Sublime
tually gave rise to the enactment of the Princes of the Royal Secret in the Ancient
Statutes of Laborers, is thus described by a and Accepted Scottish Rite.
His style is
writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, (Jan. " Illustrious."
In a Grand Consistory the
1740, p. 17:) "King Edward III. took so presiding officer is a Grand Commander-ingreat an affection to Windsor, the place of Chief, and he is styled " Very Illustrious."
his birth, that he instituted the Order of
1. In the United
the Garter there, and rebuilt and enlarged States all regular assemblies of Knights
the castle, with the church and chapel of Templars are called Commanderies, and
St. George.
This was a great work and must consist of the following officers Emirequired a great many hands and for the nent Commander, Generalissimo, Captain
carrying of it on writs were directed to the General, Prelate, Senior Warden, Junior
sheriffs of several counties to send thither,
Warden, Treasurer, Recorder, Warder,
under the penalty of 100 each, such a Standard Bearer, Sword Bearer, and Sennumber of masons by a day appointed. tinel. These Commanderies derive their
London sent forty, so did Devon, Somerset, warrants of Constitution from a Grand
and several other counties; but several Commandery, or, if there is no such body
dying of the plague, and others deserting in the State in which they are organized,
the service, new writs were issued to send from the Grand Encampment of the United
up supplies. Yorkshire sent sixty, and States. They confer the degrees of Knight
other counties proportionably, and orders of the Red Cross, Knight Templar, and
were given that no one should entertain Knight of Malta.
any of these runaway masons, under pain
In a Commandery of Knights Templars,
of forfeiture of all their goods. Hereupon, the throne is situated in the East. Above
the masons entered into a combination not it are suspended three banners the centre
to work, unless at higher wages.
They one bearing a cross, surmounted by a glory
agreed upon tokens, etc., to know one an- the left one having inscribed on it the em-

Commandery.

COMMANDERY

COMMITTEE

blems of the Order, and the right one, a

year, to which, in general, applications for

relief are referred by the Lodge.
In cases

176

paschal lamb. The Eminent Commander

is seated on the throne the Generalissimo,
Prelate, and Past Commanders on his right;
the Captain General on his left the Treasurer and Recorder, as in a Symbolic Lodge
the Senior Warden at the south-west angle
of the triangle, and upon the right of the
the Junior Warden at the
first division
north-west angle of the triangle, and on
the left of the third division the Standard
Bearer in the West, between the Sword
Bearer on his right, and the Warder on his
left
and in front of him is a stall for the
initiate.
The Knights are arranged in
equal numbers on each side, and in front
of the throne.
2. The houses or residences of the Knights
of Malta were called Commanderies, and
the aggregation of them in a nation was
called a Priory or Grand Priory.
;

where the Lodge does not itself take immediate action, the committee is also invested
with the power to grant relief to a limited

amount during the

recess of the Lodge.

Committee of Finance.

In many
Lodges the Master, Wardens, Treasurer,
and Secretary constitute a Committee of
Finance, to which is referred the general
supervision of the finances of the Lodge.

Committee on Foreign Correspondence.

In none of the Grand

Lodges of this country, forty years ago,
was such a committee as that on foreign
correspondence ever appointed.

them had corresponding

A few

secretaries,

of
to

whom

were intrusted the duty of attending

to the correspondence of the body a duty
which was very generally neglected. A re:

or

port on the proceedings of other bodies

was altogether unknown. Grand Lodges
met and transacted the local business of

State, they

their

Commandery, Grand. When three

more Commanderies are instituted in a
may unite and form a Grand
Commandery, under the regulations prescribed by the Grand Encampment of the
United States. They have the superintendence of all Commanderies of Knights
Templars that are holden in their respec-

own jurisdictions without any reference to what was passing abroad."

But within the last twenty or thirty
years, improvements in this respect began
Intelligent Masons
to show themselves.
saw that it would no longer do to isolate

themselves from the Fraternity in other

tive jurisdictions.

Grand Commandery meets, at least, countries, and that, if any moral or intelannually, and its officers consist of a Grand lectual advancement was to be expected, it
Commander, Deputy Grand Commander, must be derived from the intercommunicaGrand Generalissimo, Grand Captain Gen- tion and collision of ideas and the first
eral, Grand Prelate, Grand Senior and step towards this advancement was the apJunior Warden, Grand Treasurer, Grand pointment in every Grand Lodge of a comRecorder, Grand Warder, Grand Standard mittee, whose duty it should be to collate
Bearer, and Grand Sword Bearer.
the proceedings of other jurisdictions, and
Committee. To facilitate the trans- to eliminate from them the most important
action of business, a Lodge or Grand Lodge items. These committees were, however,
often refers a subject to a particular com- very slow in assuming the functions which
mittee for investigation, and report. By devolved upon them, and in coming up to
the usages of Masonry, committees of this the full measure of their duties. At first
character are always appointed by the pre- their reports were little more than " residing officer; and the Master of a Lodge, ports of progress." No light was derived
when present at the meeting of a committee, from their collation, and the bodies which
may act, if he thinks proper, as its chair- had appointed them were no wiser after
man; for the Master presides over any as- their reports had been read than they
semblage of the Craft in his jurisdiction.
were before.
As a specimen of the first condition and
Committee, General. By the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England, subsequent improvement of these com;

all matters of business to be brought under

the consideration of the Grand Lodge
must previously be presented to a General
Committee, consisting of the Present and
Past Grand Officers, and the Master of
every regular Lodge, who meet on the
Wednesday immediately preceding each
quarterly communication. No such regulation exists in any of the Grand Lodges
of this country.

Committee of Charity.

In most

a standing Committee of
Charity, appointed at the beginning of the

Lodges there

is

mittees on foreign correspondence, let us

take at random the transactions of any
Grand Lodge old enough to have a history

and

intelligent

enough

to

have made any

progress; and, for this purpose, the proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, two
volumes of which lie conveniently at hand,
will do as well as any other.
The Grand Lodge of Ohio was organized
From that time to 1829,
in January, 1808.
its proceeding"' contain no reference to a
committee on correspondence; and except,
I think, a single allusion to the Wash-

COMMITTEE

COMMITTEE
ington Convention, made in the report of
a special committee, the Masons of Ohio
seem to have had no cognizance, or at
least to have shown no recognition, of any
Masonry which might be outside of their

own jurisdiction.
But in the year 1830, for the first time, a
committee was appointed to report on the
foreign correspondence of the Grand Lodge.
This committee bore the title of the " Committee on Communications from Foreign
Grand Lodges," etc., and made during the
session a report of eight lines in length,
which contained just fhe amount of information that could be condensed in that
In 1831, the rebrief space, and no more.
in 1832, ten
port was fifteen lines long
;

lines; in 1833, twelve lines; and so on for

several years, the reports being sometimes

a little longer and sometimes a little shorter

but the length being always measured by
lines, and not by pages, until, in 1837,
there was a marked falling off, the report
consisting only of one line and a half. Of
this report, which certainly cannot be accused of verbosity, the following is an exact copy " Nothing has been presented for
the consideration of your committee requiring the action of the Grand Lodge."
In 1842, the labors of the committee
began to increase, and their report fills a
page of the proceedings. Things now rapIn 1843, the report was
idly improved.
three pages long; in 1845, four pages; in
184G, seven; in 1848, nearly thirteen; in
:

1853, fourteen; in 1856, thirty ; and in

Thenceforward there is no
1857, forty-six.
more fault to be found. The reports of the
future committees were of full growth,

177

ing the published proceedings of

all

the

Grand Lodges in correspondence with their

own, have become thoroughly conversant
with the contemporary history of the Order,
while a great many of them have extended
their studies in its previous history.
The " reportorial corps," as these hardlaboring brethren are beginning to call
themselves, exercise, of course, a not trifling influence in the Order. These committees annually submit to their respective
Grand Lodges a mass of interesting information, which is read with great avidity by
their brethren.
Gradually
for at first it
was not their custom
the) have added to
the bare narration of facts their comments
on Masonic law and their criticisms on the
decisions made in other jurisdictions. These
comments and criticisms have very naturally
their weight, sometimes beyond their actual
worth and it will not therefore be improper to take a glance at what ought to be
the character of a report on foreign corres-

7"

pondence.
In the first place, then, a reporter of foreign correspondence should be, in the most
literal sense of Shakespeare's words, "a
His report
brief chronicler of the times."
should contain a succinct account of everything of importance that is passing in the
Masonic world, so far as his materials supply him with the information. But, remembering that he is writing for the instruction of hundreds, perhaps thousands,
many of whom cannot spare much time,

and many others who have no inclination

to spare it, he should eschew the sin of tediousness, never forgetting that "brevity is
the soul of wit." He should omit all deand we do not again hear such an unmean- tails that have no special interest should
"
nothing requiring the ac- husband his space for important items, and
ing phrase as
tion of the Grand Lodge."
be exceedingly parsimonious in the use of
The history of these reports in other unnecessary expletives, whose only use is
Grand Lodges is the same as that in Ohio. to add to the length of a line. In a word,
Beginning with a few lines, which an- he should remember that he is not an
nounced the absence of all matters worthy orator, but an historian.
rigid adherence
of consideration, they have grown up to to these principles would save the expense
the full stature of elaborate essays, extend- of many printed pages to his Grand Lodge,
ing to one hundred and sometimes to one and the waste of much time to his readers.
hundred and fifty pages, in which the most These reports will form the germ of future
important and interesting subjects of Ma- Masonic history. The collected mass will
sonic history, philosophy, and jurispru- be an immense one, and it should not be
dence are discussed, generally with much unnecessarily enlarged by the admission of
ability.
trivial items.
At this day the reports of the commitIn the next place, although I admit
tees on foreign correspondence in all the that these "brethren of the reportorial
Grand Lodges of this country constitute an corps" have peculiar advantages in readimportant portion of the literature of the ing the opinions of their contemporaries
Institution.
The chairmen of these com- on subjects of Masonic jurisprudence, they
mittees
for the other members fill, for would be mistaken in supposing that these
the most part, only the post of " sleeping advantages must necessarily make them
partners"
are generally men of educa- Masonic lawyers. Ex quovis ligno non fit
tion and talent, who, by the very occupa- Mercurius.
It is not every man that will
tion in which they are employed, of read- make a lawyer.
peculiar turn of mind
;

12

COMMITTEE

178

and a habit of

COMMUNICATION

close reasoning, as well as

a thorough acquaintance with the law itself, are required to fit one for the investigation of questions of jurisprudence. Reporters, therefore, should assume the task
of adjudicating points of law with much
They should not pretend to
diffidence.
make a decision ex cathedra, but only to express an opinion and that opinion they
should attempt to sustain by arguments
;

Dogmathat may convince their readers.

tism is entirely out of place in a Masonic
report on foreign correspondence.
But if tediousness and dogmatism are
displeasing,

how much more

offensive

must

be rudeness aud personality. Courtesy is

a Masonic as well as a knightly virtue, and
the reporter who takes advantage of his
official position to speak rudely of his

makes his report the vehicle

of scurrility and abuse, most strangely forgets the duty and respect which he owes to
the Grand Lodge which he represents and
the Fraternity to which he addresses him-

brethren, or

self.

And, lastly, a few words as to style.

These reports, I have already said, constitute an important feature of Masonic literIt should be, then, the object and
aim of every one to give to them a tone and
character which shall reflect honor on the

ature.

society whence they emanate, and enhance

the reputation of their authors. The style
cannot always be scholarly, but it should al-

ways be chaste;

it

may sometimes want

should never be marked

by vulgarity. Coarseness of language and
slang phrases are manifestly out of place in
a paper which treats of subjects such as
naturally belong to a Masonic document.
Wit and humor we would not, of course,
exclude. The Horatian maxim bids us
sometimes to unbend, and old Menander
thought *it would not do always to appear
Even the solemn Johnson could
wise.
sometimes perpetrate a joke, and Sidney
Smith has enlivened his lectures on moral
philosophy with numerous witticisms.
There are those who delight in the stateliness of Coleridge but for ourselves we do
not object to the levity of Lamb, though
we would not care to descend to the vuleloquence, but

it

Committee,

Committee, Report

of.

See Re-

port of a Committee.

Common Gavel.

See Gavel.
meeting of
There is a peculiar

Communication. The
a Lodge

is so called.
" To communisignificance in this term.
cate," which, in the Old English form, was
" to common," originally meant to share in
common with others. The great sacrament
of the Christian church, which denotes a
participation in the mysteries of the religion
and a fellowship in the church, is called a

"communion," which is fundamentally the

same as a " communication," for he who
partakes of the

communion

is

said " to

communicate." Hence, the meetings of

Masonic Lodges are called communications,
to signify that it is not simply the ordinary
meeting of a society for the transaction of
business, but that such meeting is the fellowship of men engaged in a common pursuit, and governed by a common principle,
and that there is therein a communication
or participation of those feelings and sentiments that constitute a true brotherhood.
The communications of Lodges are regular or stated and special or emergent.
Regular communications are held under
the provision of the by-laws, but special
communications are called by order of the
Master. It is a regulation that no special
communication can alter, amend, or rescind
the proceedings of a regular communication.

Communication, Grand.

The

meeting of a Grand Lodge.

Communication of Degrees.
When

garity of Rabelais.

To sum up the whole matter

in a few

words, these reports on foreign correspondence should be succinct, and, if you please,
elaborate chronicles of all passing events
in the Masonic world they should express
the opinions of their authors on points of
Masonic law, not as judicial dicta, but simply as opinions, not to be dogmatically enforced, but to be sustained and supported
by the best arguments that the writers can
produce they should not be made the ve;

hicles of personal abuse or vituperation ;

and, lastly, they should be clothed in language worthy of the literature of the Order.
Private. The wellknown regulation which forbids private
committees in the Lodge, that is, select
conversations between two or more members, in which the other members are not
permitted to join, is derived from the Old
Charges " You are not permitted to hold
private committees or separate conversation, without leave from the Master, nor to
talk of anything impertinent or unseemly,
nor to interrupt the Master or Wardens, or
any brother speaking to the Master-"

the peculiar mysteries of a degree

are bestowed upon a candidate by mere
verbal description of the bestower, without
his being made to pass through the constituted ceremonies, the degree is technically

This mode is,

said to be communicated.
however, entirely confined in this country
to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The degrees may in that Rite be thus conferred in any place where secrecy is secured; but the prerogative of communicating is restricted to the presiding officers

OOMPAGNONAGE

COMMUNICATION
of bodies of the Rite, who may communicate
certain of the degrees upon candidates who
have been previously duly elected, and to
Inspectors and Deputy Inspectors General
of the thirty-third degree, who may communicate all the degrees of the Rite, except
the last, to any persons whom they may
deem qualified to receive them.

C oiiimuni ea t ion. Quarter ly .

Grand Lodges, which were then

Anciently,

called General Assemblies of the Craft,

were held annually. But it is said that the
Grand Master Inigo Jones instituted quarterly communications at the beginning of
the seventeenth century, which were continued by his successors, the Earl of Pembroke and Sir Christopher "Wren, until the
infirmities of the latter compelled him to
neglect them. On the revival in 1717, provision was made for their resumption; and
in the twelfth of the thirty-nine Regulations of 1721 it was declared that the Grand
Lodge must have a quarterly communication about Michaelmas, Christmas, and
Lady-Day. These quarterly communica-

by the Grand Lodge

of England, and in this country by the
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, but all
other American Grand Lodges have adopted
the old system of annual communications.

tions are still retained

Communion

of the Brethren.

See Bread, Consecrated.

Conio, A city of Lombardy, which
was the principal seat of that body of
architects who, under the name of Travelling Freemasons, wandered over Europe
during the Middle Ages, and constructed
cathedrals, monasteries, and other religious
edifices.
school of architecture was established at Como which obtained so much
renown that, according to Muratori, the
masons and bricklayers of that place, in
consequence of their superiority in their
art, received the appellation of Magistri
Comacini, or Masters of Como, a title which
became generic to all those of the profession.
To the school of Como, architects of

all nations flocked for instruction.

Rebold
intimates that it was the successor of the
Roman Colleges of Builders, and that, like
them, it had its secret teachings and mysteries.

Compagnon.
Fellow Craft

Compagnon

is

In French Masonry, a
and the grade du
the degree of Fellow Craft.

is

so called,

Compagnonage.
which

is

This is the name

given in France to certain mysti-

cal associations

formed between workmen

of the same or an analogous handicraft,

whose

object is to afford mutual assistance

to the members.
It was at one time considered among handicraftsmen as the second

degree of the novitiate, before arriving at

the maitrise, or mastership, the first being,

179

of course, that of apprentice; and workadmitted into it only after five

years of apprenticeship, and on the production of a skilfully constructed piece of work,

men were

which was called their

chef-d'aiuvre.

Tradition gives to Compagnonage a Hebraic origin, which to some extent assimilates it to the traditional history of Freemasonry as springing out of the Solomonic
Temple. It is, however, certain that it
arose, in the twelfth century, out of a part
of the corporation of workmen. These,
who prosecuted the labors of their craft
from province to province, could not shut
their eyes to the narrow policy of the gilds
or corporations, which the masters were
constantly seeking to make more exclusive.
Thence they perceived the necessity of
forming for themselves associations or confraternities, whose protection should accompany them in all their laborious wanderings, and secure to them employment
and fraternal intercourse when arriving in
strange towns.
The Compagnons de la Tour, which is the
title assumed by those who are the members of the brotherhoods of Compagnonage,

have legends, which have been traditionally

transmitted from age to age, by which, like
the Freemasons, they trace the origin of
their association to

the

Temple of King

Solomon. These legends are three in number, for the different societies of Compagnonage recognize three different founders,

and hence made three

which are

different associations,

The Children of Solomon.

The Children of Maitre Jacques.
The Children of Pere Soubise.

1.

2.
3.

societies or classes of the

are irreconcileable enemies,
and reproach each other with the imaginary contests of their supposed founders.
The Children of Solomon pretend that
King Solomon gave them their devoir, or
gild, as a reward for their labors at the
Temple, and that he had there united them
into a brotherhood.
The Children of Maitre Jacques say that
their founder, who was the son of a celeJacquain, or
brated architect named
Jacques, was one of the chief Masters of
Solomon, and a colleague of Hiram. He
was born in a small city of Gaul named
Carte, and now St. Romille, but which we
should in vain look for on the maps.
From the age of fifteen he was employed
He travelled in Greece,
in stone-cutting.
where he learned sculpture and architecture afterwards went to Egypt, and thence
to Jerusalem, where he constructed two pillars with so much skill that he was immediately received as a Master of the Craft.
Maitre Jacques and his colleague Pere Sou-

These three

Compagnons

COMPAGNONAGE

COMPAGNONAGE

the labors of the Temple were

completed, resolved to go together to Gaul,
swearing that they would never separate
but the union did not last very long in
consequence of the jealousy excited in
Pere Soubise by the ascendency of Maitre
Jacques over their disciples. They parted,
and the former landed at Bordeaux, and
the latter at Marseilles.
One day, Maitre Jacques, being far away
from his disciples, was attacked by ten of
those of Pere Soubise. To save himself, he
fled into a marsh, where he sustained himself from sinking by holding on to the reeds,
and was eventually rescued by his disciples.
He then retired to Saint Baume, but
being soon after betrayed by a disciple,
named, according to some, Jeron, and according to others, Jamais, he was assassinated by five blows of a dagger, in the
forty-seventh year of his age, four years and
nine days after his departure from Jerusalem. On his robe was subsequently found
a reed which he wore in memory of his
having been saved in the marsh, and thenceforth his disciples adopted the reed as the
emblem of their Order.
Pere Soubise is not generally accused of
having taken any part in the assassination.
The tears which he shed over the tomb of
his colleague removed in part the suspicions which had at first rested on him.
The traitor who committed the crime subsequently, in a moment of deep contrition,
cast himself into a well, which the disciples of Maitre Jacques filled up with stones.
The relics of the martyr were long preserved in a sacred chest, and, when his disciples afterwards separated into different
crafts, his hat was given to the hatters, his
tunic to the stone-cutters, his sandals to the
locksmiths, his mantle to the joiners, his
girdle to the carpenters, and his staff to the

Compagnonage reminds one very strongly

of the somewhat similar organization of
the stone-masons of Germany and of other
countries in the Middle Ages. To one of

180

bise, after

cartwrights.

According to another tradition, Maitre

Jacques was no other than Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Templars,
who had collected under his banner some
of the Children of Solomon that had separated from the parent society, and who,
about 1268, conferred upon them a new
devoir or gild. Pere Soubise is said, in the
same legend, to have been a Benedictine
monk, who gave to the carpenters some
special statutes.
This second legend is
generally recognized as more truthful than
the first. From this it follows that the
division of the society of Compagnonage
into three classes dates from the thirteenth
century, and that the Children of Maitre
Jacques and of Pere Soubise are more
modern than the Children of Solomon, from
whom they were a dismemberment.
The organization of these associations of

these classes every handicraftsman in

France was expected to attach himself.
There was an initiation, and a system of
degrees which were four in number: the
Accepted Companion, the Finished Companion, the Initiated Companion, and,
lastly, the Affiliated Companion.
There
were also signs and words as modes of recognition, and decorations, which varied in

the different devoirs; but to all, the square

and compasses w as a common symbol.
As soon as a Craftsman had passed
through his apprenticeship, he joined one
of these gilds, and commenced his journey
over France, which was called the tour de
France, in the course of which he visited
the principal cities, towns, and villages,
stopping for a time wherever he could secure employment. In almost every town
there was a house of call, presided over
always by a woman, who was affectionately
called " la Mere," or the Mother, and the
same name was given to the house itself.
There the Compagnons held their meetings
and annually elected their officers, and travelling workmen repaired there to obtain
food and lodging, and the necessary information which might lead to employment.
When two Companions met on the road,
one of them addressed the other with the
topage, or challenge, being a formula of
words, the conventional reply to which
would indicate that the other was a member
of the same devoir. If such was the case,
friendly greetings ensued. But if the reply
was not satisfactory, and it appeared that
they belonged to different associations, a war
of words, and even of blows, was the result.
Such was formerly the custom, but through
the evangelic labors of Agricol Perdiquier,
a journeyman joiner of Avignon, who travelled through France inculcating lessons of
brotherly love, a better spirit now exists.
In each locality the association has a
chief, who is annually elected by ballot at
the General Assembly of the Craft. He is
called the First Compagnon of Dignity.,
He presides over the meetings, which ordinarily take place on the first Sunday of
every month, and represents the society in
its intercourse with other bodies, with the
Masters, or with the municipal authorities.
Compagnonage has been exposed, at various periods, to the persecutions of the
Church and the State, as well as to the opposition of the Corporations of Masters, to
which, of course, its designs were antagonistic, because it opposed their monopoly. Unlike them, and particularly the Corporation
of Freemasons, it was not under the protecr

CONCORDATS

COMPAGXONS
tion of the Church. The practice of its mystical receptions was condemned by the Faculty
of Theology at Paris, in 1655, as impious.
But a hundred years before, in 1541, a defree of Francis I. had interdicted the Com-

pagnons de la Tour from binding themselves

by an oath, from wearing swords or canes,
from assembling in a greater number than
of their Masters'

houses, or
from having banquets on any occasion.
During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and
eighteenth centuries, the parliaments were
continually interposing their power against
the associations of Compagnonage, as well
The effects
as against other fraternities.
of these persecutions, although embarrassIn
ing, were not absolutely disastrous.
spite of them, Compagnonage was never
entirely dissolved, although a few of the
trades abandoned their devoirs; some of
such as that of the shoewhich, however,
five outside

makers,

were subsequently renewed.

And

at this day, the gilds of the workmen still

exist in France, having lost, it is true, much
of their original code of religious dogmas

and symbols, and, although not recognized

by the law, always tolerated by the municipal authorities and undisturbed by the
police. To the Masonic scholar, the history
of these devoirs or gilds is peculiarly interIn nearly all of them the Temple
of Solomon prevails as a predominant symbol, while the square and compass, their
favorite and constant device, would seem,
in some way, to identify them with Freemasonry so far as respects the probability
of a common origin.
esting.

Companions de
title

la Tour.

The

assumed by the workmen in France

who belong to the different gilds of Compagnonage, which see.

Companion. A title bestowed by
Royal Arch Masons upon each other, and
equivalent to the word brother in symbolic
Lodges. It refers, most probably, to the
companionship in exile and captivity of the
ancient Jews, from the destruction of the
Temple by Nebuchadnezzar to its restoration by Zerubbabel, under the auspices of
Cyrus. In using this title in a higher degree, the Masons who adopted it seem to
have intimated that there was a shade of
difference between its meaning and that of
brother.

The

latter refers to the universal

fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man; but the former represents
a companionship or common pursuit of one
object
the common endurance of suffering
or the common enjoyment of happiness.
Companion represents a closer tie than
brother. The one is a natural relation shared
by all men the other a connection, the result
of choice and confined to a few. All men
are our brethren, not all our companions.

181

Compasses. As in Operative Masonry, the compasses are used for the admeasurement of the architect's plans, and
to enable him to give those just proportions
which will insure beauty as well as stability
to his work so, in Speculative Masonry, is
this important implement symbolic of that
even tenor of deportment, that true standard of rectitude which alone can bestow
;

happiness here and felicity hereafter. Hence

are the compasses the most prominent emblem of virtue, the true and only measure
of a Mason's life and conduct. As the
Bible gives us light on our duties to God,
and the square illustrates our duties to our
neighborhood and brother, so the compasses
give that additional light which is to instruct us in the duty we owe to ourselves
the great, imperative duty of circumscribing our passions, and keeping our de" It is ordained,"
sires within due bounds.
says the philosophic Burke, " in the eternal
constitution of things, that men of intemperate passions cannot be free their pasThose brethren
sions forge their fetters."
who delight to trace our emblems to an astronomical origin, find in th*e compasses a
symbol of the sun, the circular pivot representing the body of the luminary, and
the diverging legs his rays.
In the earliest rituals of the last century,
the compasses are described as a part of the
furniture of the Lodge, and are said to belong to the Master. Some change will be
found in this respect in the ritual of the
present day. See Square and Compasses.
Composite. One of the five orders
of architecture introduced by the Komans,
and compounded of the other four, whence
Although it combines
it derives its name.
strength with beauty, yet, as it is a comparatively modern invention, it is held in

little

esteem

among Freemasons.

Concealment of the Body.

See

Aphanism.

Conclave.

Commanderies of Knights
England and Canada are
called Conclaves, and the Grand Encampment the Grand Conclave. The word is
also applied to the meetings in some other
of the high degrees. The word is derived
from the Latin con, " with," and clavis, " a

Templars in

key," to denote the idea of being locked

up in seclusion, and in this sense was first
applied to the apartment in which the cardinals are literally locked up when met to
elect a pope.
secret order estabCoiicorclists.
lished in Prussia, by M. Lang, on the wreck
of the Tugendverein, which latter body
was instituted in 1790 as a successor of the
Illuminati, and suppressed in 1812 by the
Prussian government, on account of its sup-

posed political tendencies.

182

CONFEDERACIES

CONSERVATORS

title given to the

Confederacies.
yearly meetings of the Masons in the time of
Henry VI., of England, and used in the
celebrated statute passed in the third year
of his reign, and which begins thus:
" Whereas, by yearly congregations and
confederacies made by the Masons in their
General Assemblies, etc." See Laborers,

Statutes of.

Conference ^Lodges.

Assemblies

members of a Lodge sometimes held

Their object is the discussion
in Germany.
of the financial and other private matters
of the

of the Lodge. Lodges of this kind held

France are said to be "en famille."
There is no such arrangement in English
or American Masonry.
Conferring Degrees. When a candidate is initiated into any degree of Masonry in due form, the degree is said to
have been conferred, in contradistinction to
the looser mode of imparting its secrets by
communication.
in

of Tongues.

Confusion
Tower of Babel

The

referred to in the ritual

of the third degree as the place where
is

language was confounded and Masonry lost

Hence, in Masonic symbolism, as Masonry
professes to possess a universal language,
the confusion of tongues at Babel is a symbol of that intellectual darkness from which
the aspirant is seeking to emerge on his
passage to that intellectual light which is
imparted by the Order. See ThreshingFloor of Oman the Jebusite.
Congregations. In the Old Records
and Constitutions of Masonry, the yearly
meetings of the Craft are so called. Thus,
in the Halliwell MS. it is said, "Every
Master that is a Mason must be at the
General Congregation." What are now
called " Communications of a Grand Lodge"
were then called " Congregations of the
Craft." See Assembly, General.
Congresses, Masonic. At various
times in the history of Freemasonry conferences have been held, in which, as in
the General Councils of the Church, the
interests of the Institution have been made
the subject of consideration. These conferences have received the name of Masonic Congresses. Whenever a respectable
number of Masons, invested with deliberative powers, assemble as the representatives of different countries and jurisdictions, to take into consideration matters
relating to the Order, such a meeting will
be properly called a Congress. Of these

Congresses some have been productive of

little or no effect, while others have undoubtedly left their mark nor can it be
doubted, that if a General or Ecumenical
Congress, consisting of representatives of
all the Masonic powers of the world, were
;

to meet,
ject of

with an eye single to the great obMasonic reform, and were to be

guided by a liberal and conciliatory spirit

of compromise, such a Congress might at
the present day be of incalculable advantage.

The most important Congresses that

have met since the year 926 are those of
York, Strasburg, Ratisbon, Spire, Cologne,
Basle, Jena, Altenberg, Brunswick, Lyons, Wolfenbuttel, Wilhelmsbad,
Paris,
Washington, Baltimore, Lexington, and
Chicago. See them under their respective
titles.

Consecration. The appropriating or

dedicating, with certain ceremonies, anything to sacred purposes or offices by separating it from common use. Hobbes, in his
Leviathan, (p. iv., c. 44,) gives the best definition of this ceremony.
"To consecrate
is, in Scripture, to offer, give, or dedicate,
in pious and decent language and gesture,
a man, or any other thing, to God, by separating it from common use." Masonic
Lodges, like ancient temples and modern
churches, have always been consecrated.
The rite of consecration is performed by
the Grand Master, when the Lodge is said
to be consecrated in ample form ; by the
Deputy Grand Master, when it is said to be
consecrated in due form ; or by the proxy
of the Grand Master, when it is said to be
consecrated in form. The Grand Master,
accompanied by his officers, proceeds to the
hall of the new Lodge, where, after the
performance of those ceremonies which are
described in all manuals and monitors, he
solemnly consecrates the Lodge with the
elements of corn, wine, and oil, after which
the Lodge is dedicated and constituted,
and the officers installed.

Consecration,

Elements

of.

Those things, the use of which in the ceremony as constituent and elementary parts
of it, are necessary to the perfecting and
legalizing of the act of consecration.
In
Freemasonry, these elements are corn, wine,
and oil, which see.

Conservators of Masonry. About

Mason of some distinction
in this country professed to have discovered, by his researches, what he called
"the true Preston-Webb Work," and attempted to introduce it into various jurisdictions, sometimes in opposition to the
the year 1859, a

wishes of the Grand Lodge and leading

To aid in the propState.
agation of this ritual, he communicated it
to several persons, who were bound to use
to some, indeed, of questionall efforts
to secure its adoption by
able propriety
These
their respective Grand Lodges.
Masons were called by him " Conservators," and the order or society which they

Masons of the

CONSERVATORS

CONSTITUTIONS

constituted was called the "Conservators'

This association, and the
Association."
efforts of its chief to extend his ritual, met
with the very general disapproval of the
Masons of the United States, and in some
jurisdictions led to considerable disturb-

appropriate ceremonies, consists the constitution of the Lodge.

Until a Lodge is
thus legally constituted, it forms no component of the constituency of the Grand
Lodge, can neither elect officers nor members, and exists only as a Lodge under dispensation at the will of the Grand Master.

ance and bad feeling.

Conservators, Grand.

See Grand

Conservators.

Consistory.

The meetings of mem-

bers of the thirty-second degree, or Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret in the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, are

The elective officers

called Consistories.
are, according to the ritual of the Southern
Jurisdiction of the United States, a Commander-in-Chief, Seneschal, Preceptor,
Chancellor, Minister of State, Almoner,
Registrar, and Treasurer. In the Northern
Jurisdiction it is slightly different, the
second and third officers being called Lieutenant-Commanders.
Consistory confers
the thirty-first and thirty-second degrees
of the Rite.

Consistory, Grand.

Grand

See

Consistory.

Constable, Grand. The fourth officer in a

Grand

Consistory.

It is the title

which was formerly given to the leader of

the land forces of the Knights Templars.

Constantine.
and

See Bed Cross of Rome

Constantine.

Constituted, Legally. The

phrase,

a legally-constituted Lodge, is often used

Masonically to designate any Lodge working under proper authority, which necessarily includes Lodges working under dispensation; although, strictly, a Lodge
cannot be legally constituted until it has
received its warrant or charter from the
Grand Lodge. But so far as respects the
regularity of their work, Lodges under dispensation and warranted Lodges have the

same standing.

Constitution of a Lodge.
number of Master Masons, not

Any

less

than

seven, being desirous of forming a

new

Lodge, having previously obtained a dispensation from the Grand Master, must
apply by petition to the Grand Lodge of
the State in which they reside, praying for
a Charter, or Warrant of Constitution, to
enable them to assemble as a regular Lodge.
Their petition being favorably received, a
warrant is immediately granted, and the
Grand Master appoints a day for its consecration

and

for the installation of its offi-

183

See Dispensation, Lodges under.

Constitutions of 1763. This is the

name of one of that series of Constitutions,
or Regulations, which have always been
deemed of importance in the history of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; although the Constitutions of 1762 have
really nothing to do with that Rite, having
been adopted long before its establishment.
In the year 1758, there was founded at
Paris a Masonic body which assumed the
title of the Chapter, or Council, of Emperors of the East and West, and which body
organized a Rite known as the Rite of Perfection, consisting of twenty-five degrees,
and in the same year the Rite was carried
to Berlin by the Marquis de Bernez.
Iu
the following year, a Council of Princes
of the Royal Secret, the highest degree conferred in the Rite, was established at Bordeaux. On Sept. 21, 1762, nine Commissioners met and drew up Constitutions for
the government of the Rite of Perfection,
which have been since known as the " Constitutions of 1762."
Of the place where
the Commissioners met, there is some
doubt. Of the two copies, hereafter to be
noticed, which are in the archives of the
Southern Supreme Council, that of Delahogue refers to the Orients of Paris and
Berlin, while that of Aveilhe' says that they
were made at the Grand Orient of Bordeaux. Thory also (Act. Lot., i. 79,) names
Bordeaux as the place of their enactment,
and so does Ragon, (Orthod. Mag., 133;) although he doubts their authenticity, and
says that there is no trace of any such
document at Bordeaux, nor any recollection there of the Consistory which is said
To
to have drawn up the Constitutions.
this it may be answered, that in the
Archives of the Mother Supreme Council
at Charleston there are two manuscript
one written
copies of these Constitutions
by Jean Baptiste Marie Delahogue in
1798, and which is authenticated by Count
de Grasse, under the seal of the Grand
Council of the Princes of the Royal Secret,
then sitting at Charleston ; and another,
written by Jean Baptiste Aveilhe in 1797.

The Lodge having been consecrated, This copy is authenticated by Long, Delathe Grand Master, or person acting as such, hogue, De Grasse, and others. Both docucers.

declares the brethren " to be constituted

formed into a regular Lodge of Free
'

and
and

Accepted Masons," after which the officers

of the Lodge are installed. In this declaration of the Master, accompanied with the

ments are written in French, and are almost substantially the same. The translated title of Delahogue's copy is as follows
"Constitutions and Regulations drawn
:

CONSTITUTIONS

CONSTITUTIONS

up by nine Commissioners appointed by

the Grand Council of the Sovereign Princes
of the Royal Secret at the Grand Orients
of Paris and Berlin, by virtue of the deliberation of the fifth day of the third week
of the seventh month of the Hebrew Era,
5662, and of the Christian Era, 1762. To be
ratified and observed by the Grand Councils
of the Sublime Knights and Princes of Ma-

Grasse, and that under its provisions he

organized the Supreme Council in that
place. They were accepted by the Southern
Supreme Council, and are still regarded
by the Northern Council as the only au-.
thentic Constitutions. But there is abundant internal evidence of the incompleteness and incorrectness of the French Constitutions, of whose authenticity there is no
proof, nor is it likely that they were made
at Berlin and approved by Frederick, as they

184

sonry as well as by the particular Councils

and Grand Inspectors regularly constituted

in the two Hemispheres." The title of
Aveilhe's manuscript differs in this, that it
says the Constitutions were enacted " at the
Grand Orient of Bordeaux," and that they
were " transmitted to our Brother Stephen
Morin, Grand Inspector of all the Lodges in
the New World." I am inclined to think
that this is a correct record, and that the
Constitutions were prepared at Bordeaux.
The Constitutions of 1762 consist of
thirty-five articles, and are principally occupied in providing for the government of
the Rite established by the Council of Emperors of the East and West and of the
bodies under it.
The Constitutions of 1762 were published at Paris, in 1832, in the Recueil des
Actes du Supreme Conseil de France. They
were also published, in 1859, in this
country; but the best printed exemplar
of them is that published in French and
English in the Book of Grand Constitutions, edited by Bro. Albert Pike, which is
illustrated with copious and valuable annotations by the editor, who is the Sovereign
Grand Commander of the Southern Supreme Council.
Constitutions of 1786. These are
regarded by the members of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite as the fundamental law of their Rite. They are said
to have been established by Frederick II.,
of Prussia, in the last year of his life a
statement, however, that has been denied
by some writers, and the controversies as to
their authenticity have made them a subject
of interest to all Masonic scholars. Bro.
Albert Pike, the Grand Commander of the
Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, published
them, in 1872, in Latin, French, and English ; and I avail myself of his exhaustive
annotations, because he has devoted to the
investigation of their origin and their authenticity more elaborate care than any
other writer.
Of these Constitutions, there are two examplars, one in French and one in Latin,
between which there are, however, some
material differences. For a long time the
French examplar only was known in this
country. It is supposed by Bro. Pike that
it was brought to Charleston by Count de
;

profess.

The Latin Constitutions were probably

known in France until after the Revo-

not

lution.

In 1834, they were accepted as au-

by the Supreme Council of France,

and published there in the same year. A
copy of this was published in America, in
1859, by Bro. Pike. These Latin Constitutions of 1786 have been recently accepted
by the Supreme Council of the Southern
Jurisdiction in preference to the French verMost of the other Supreme Councils
sion.
those, namely, of England and Wales,
of Italy, and of South America,
have
adopted them as the law of the Rite, repudiating the French version as of no au-

thentic

thority.
The definite and well authorized conclusions to which Bro. Pike has arrived on

subject of these Constitutions have

been expressed by that eminent Mason in
the following language
" We think we may safely say, that the
charge that the Grand Constitutions were
forged at Charleston is completely dis*
proved, and that it will be contemptible

the

hereafter to repeat it. No set of speculating Jews constituted the Supreme Council
established there; and those who care for
the reputations of Colonel Mitchell, and
Doctors Dalcho, Auld, and Moultrie, may
well afford to despise the scurrilous libels
of the Ragons, Clavels, and Folgers.
"And, secondly, that it is not by any
means proven or certain that the Constitutions were not really made at Berlin, as
they purport to have been, and approved
think that the preponby Frederick.
derance of the evidence, internal and external, is on the side of their authenticity,
apart from the positive evidence of the certificate of 1832.
" And, thirdly, that the Supreme Council
at Charleston had a perfect right to adopt
them as the law of the new Order; no
matter where, when, or by whom they
were made, as Anderson's Constitutions
were adopted in Symbolic Masonry; that
they are and always have been the law of
the Rite, because they were so adopted
and because no man has ever lawfully received the degrees of the Rite without

We

swearing to maintain them as

its

supreme

COOKE'S

CONSTITUTIONS
law for as to the articles themselves, there
is no substantial difference between the
French and Latin copies.
"And, fourthly, that there is not one
particle of proof of any sort, circumstantial or historical, or by argument from improbability, that they are not genuine and
In law, documents of great
authentic.
age, found in the possession of those interested under them, to whom they rightfully belong, and with whom they might
naturally be expected to be found, are admitted in evidence without proof, to estabThey prove themselves,
lish title or facts.
and to be avoided must be disproved by
evidence.
There is no evidence against the
;

genuineness of these

Grand

Constitutions."

Constitutions, Old.

See Records,

Old.

Constitutions, Secret.

See Secret

Constitutions.

Consummatum

est. Latin. It is
phrase used in some of the
higher degrees of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Kite. It is borrowed from the expression used by our Lord when he said,
on the cross, "It is finished," meaning that
the work which had been given him to do
had been executed. It is, therefore, appropriately used in the closing ceremonies to
indicate that the sublime work of the definished.

grees is finished, so that all

peace.

may

retire in

Contemplative. To contemplate

is,

watch and inspect the Temple.

The augur among the Komans, having
taken his stand on the Capitoline Hill,
marked out with his wand the space in the
heavens he intended to consult. This space
he called the templurn. Having divided
his templurn into two parts from top to
bottom, he watched to see what would
occur.
The watching of the templurn was
called contemplating ; and hence those who
literally, to

devoted themselves to meditation upon sacred subjects assumed this title.

Thus,
among the Jews, the Essenes and the
Therapeutists, and, among the Greeks, the
school of. Pythagoras, were contemplative
sects.
Among the Freemasons, the word
speculative is used as equivalent to contemplative.
See Speculative Masonry.
Continental Lodges. This expression is used throughout this work, as it
constantly is by English writers, to designate the Lodges on the continent of Europe
which retain many usages which have either
been abandoned by, or never were observed
in, the Lodges of England, Ireland, and
Scotland, as well as the United States of
America. The words Continental Masonry
are employed in the same sense.
Contumacy. In civil law, it is the refusal or neglect of a party accused to appear

185

and answer

to a charge preferred against

In Masonic
a court of justice.
jurisprudence, it is disobedience of or re-

him

in

bellion against superior authority, as when

a Mason refuses to obey the edict of his
Lodge, or a Lodge refuses to obey that of

Grand Master or the Grand Lodge.

The punishment, in the former case, is genthe

erally suspension or expulsion

in the latter, arrest of charter or forfeiture of warrant.
;

Convention. In a State or Territory

where there is no Grand Lodge, but three
or more Lodges holding their Warrants of
Constitution from Grand Lodges outside
of the Territory, these Lodges may meet
who
together by their representatives,

should properly be the first three officers

and take the necessary
of each Lodge,
steps for the organization of a Grand Lodge
in that State or Territory. This preparatory
meeting is called a Convention. A President and Secretary are chosen, and a Grand
Lodge is formed by the election of a Grand
Master and other proper officers, when the
old warrants are returned to the Grand
Lodges, and new ones taken out from the
newly-formed Grand Lodge. Not less than
three Lodges are required to constitute a
Convention. The first Convention of this
kind ever held was that of the four old
Lodges of London, which met at the AppleTree Tavern, in February, 1717, and formed
the Grand Lodge of England.
Convention Xiglit. A title sometimes given in the minutes of English
Lodges to a Lodge of emergency. Thus,
in the minutes of Constitution Lodge, No.
390, (London,) we read: "This being a
Convention Night to consider the state of
the Lodge," etc.
Conversation. Conversation among
the brethren during Lodge hours is forbidden by the Charges of 1722 in these
words " You are not to hold private committees or separate conversation without
leave from the Master."
Convocation. The meetings of Chapters of Royal Arch Masons are so called
from the Latin convocatio, a calling toIt seems very properly to refer to
gether.
the convoking of the dispersed Masons at
Jerusalem to rebuild the second Temple,
of which every Chapter is a representation.
Convocation, Grand. The meeting of a Grand Chapter is so styled.

Cooke's Manuscript.

The

old

document commonly known among Masonic scholars as " Matthew Cooke's Manuscript," because it was first given to the
public by that distinguished brother, was
published by him, in 1861, from the original
in the British Museum, which institution
purchased it, on the 14th of October, 1859,
from Mrs. Caroline Bakef. Its principal

value

CORNER

COPE

186

derived from the

is

fact, as

Brother

Cooke remarks, that until its appearance

"there was no prose work of such undoubted antiquity known to be in existence on the subject."
Brother Cooke gives the following account of the MS. in his preface to its republication

"By

permission of the Trustees of the

British Museum, the following little work
has been allowed to be copied and published in its entire form. The original is
to be found among the additional manuscripts in that national collection, and is

vited to give dignity to the occasion

and

purpose Freemasonry has provided

an especial ritual which is to govern the
proper performance of that duty.
Among the ancients the corner-stone of
important edifices was laid with impressive
ceremonies. These are well described by
for this

Tacitus in the history of the rebuilding

of the Capitol. After detailing the preliminary ceremonies, which consisted in a
procession of vestals, who with chaplets of
flowers encompassed the ground and consecrated it by libations of living water, he
adds that, after solemn prayer, Helvidius,
to whom the care of rebuilding the Capitol
had been committed, " laid his hand upon

numbered 23,198.
"Judging from the character of the
handwriting and the form of contractions the fillets that adorned the foundation
employed by the scribe, it was most proba- stone, and also the cords by which it was to
bly written in the latter portion of the fif- be drawn to its place. In that instant the
teenth century, [about 1490, says Hughan,] magistrates, the priests, the senators, the
and may be considered a very clear speci- Roman knights, and a number of citizens,
all acting with one effort and general demen of the penmanship of that period.
" By whom or for whom it was originally monstrations of joy, laid hold of the ropes
and dragged the ponderous load to its despenned there is no means of ascertaining
They then threw in ingots of
but, from the style, it may be conjectured tined spot.
to have belonged to some Master of the gold and silver, and other metals which had
Craft, and to have been used in assemblies never been melted in the furnace, but still
of Masons as a text-book of the traditional retained, untouched by human art, their
first formation in the bowels of the earth."
history and laws of the Fraternity."
The symbolism of the corner-stone when
Cope-Stone. See Cape-Stone.

Cord,

Hindu

Sacred.

See Zen-

naar.

Cord, Silver. See Silver Cord.

Cord, Threefold. See Threefold
Cord.

Cordon. The Masonic decoration,

which in English is called the collar, is
styled by the French Masons the cordon.
Corinthian Order.

This

is

the

lightest and most ornamental of the pure

orders, and possesses the highest degree of
richness and detail that architecture attained under the Greeks. Its capital is its
great distinction, and is richly adorned
with leaves of acanthus, olive, etc., and

other ornaments. The column of Beauty

which supports the Lodge is of the Corinthian order, and its appropriate situation
and symbolic officer are in the South.
Corner, North-East. See NorthEast Corner.

Corner-Stone,

Symbolism of

The corner-stone

the.

is

the stone which

lies at the corner of two walls, and forms

the corner of the foundation of an edifice.
In Masonic buildings it is now always
placed in the north-east but this rule was
not always formerly observed. As the
foundation on which the entire structure is
supposed to rest, it is considered by Operative Masons as the most important stone in
the edifice. It is laid with impressive ceremonies the assistance of Speculative Ma;

sons

is

often,

and ought always

to be, in-

duly laid with Masonic rites is full of significance, which refers to its form, to its
situation, to its permanence, and to its consecration.
As to its form, it must be perfectly square
on its surfaces, and in its solid contents

Now the square is a symbol of

morality, and the cube of truth. In its
situation it lies between the north, the
place of darkness, and the east, the place
of light; and hence this position symbolizes the Masonic progress from darkness
a cube.

to light,

and from ignorance

The permanence and

to

knowledge.

durability of

the

corner-stone, which lasts long after the

building in whose foundation it was placed
has fallen into decay, is intended to remind
the Mason that, when this earthly house
of his tabernacle shall have passed away,
he has within him a sure foundation, of
eternal life a corner-stone of immortality
an emanation from that Divine Spirit
which pervades all nature, and which,
therefore, must survive the tomb, and rise,
triumphant and eternal, above the decaying dust of death and the grave.
The stone, when deposited in its appropriate place, is carefully examined with the

necessary implements of Operative Mathe square, the level, and the

sonry,
plumb, themselves all symbolic in meanand is then declared to be "well
ing,
formed, true, and trusty." Thus the Mason is taught that his virtues are to be

CORYBANTE3

CORN
tested by temptation and trial, by suffering
and adversity, before they can be pronounced by the Master Builder of souls to
be materials worthy of the spiritual build-

ing of eternal life, fitted, " as living stones,

for that house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens."
And lastly, in the ceremony of depositing
the corner-stone, the elements of Masonic
consecration are produced, and the stone is
solemnly set apart by pouring corn, wine,
and oil upon its surface, emblematic of the

Nourishment, Refreshment, and Joy which

are to be the rewards of a faithful performance of duty.
The corner-stone does not appear to have
been adopted by any of the heathen nations, but to have been as the ebenpinah, peculiar to the Jews, from whom it descended
In the Old Testament, it
to the Christians.
seems always to have denoted a prince or
high personage, and hence the Evangelists
constantly use it in reference to Christ, who
In Macalled the " chief corner-stone."
sonic symbolism, it signifies a true Mason,
and therefore it is the first character which
the Apprentice is made to represent after
his initiation has been completed.
Corn of Nourishment. One of
the three elements of Masonic consecration.
See Corn, Wine, and Oil.
Corn, Wine,
Oil. Corn, wine,
and oil are the Masonic elements of conThe adoption of these symbols
secration.
supported by the highest antiquity.
is
Corn, wine, and oil were the most important productions of Eastern countries
they constituted the wealth of the people,
and were esteemed as the supports of life
and the means of refreshment.
David
enumerates them among the greatest blessings that we enjoy, and speaks of them as
" wine that maketh glad the heart of man,
and oil to make his face shine, and bread
which strengtheneth man's heart."
Ps.
is

and

civ. 14.

In devoting anything to religious

purposes, the anointing with oil was considered as a necessary part of the ceremony,
a rite which has descended to Christian nations.
The tabernacle in the wilderness,
and all its holy vessels, were, by God's express command, anointed with oil
Aaron
and his two sons were set apart for the
priesthood with the same ceremony and
the prophets and kings of Israel were consecrated to their offices by the same rite.
Hence, Freemasons' Lodges, which are but
temples to the Most High, are consecrated
to the sacred purposes for which they were
built by strewing corn, wine, and oil upon
the "Lodge," the emblem of the Holy Ark.
Thus does this mystic ceremony instruct
us to be nourished with the hidden manna
of righteousness, to be refreshed with the
;

187

Word

of the Lord, and to rejoice with joy

unspeakable in the riches of divine grace.
"Wherefore, my brethren," says the venerable Harris, {Disc. iv. 81,) "wherefore do
you carry corn, wine, and oil in your processions, but to remind you that in the
pilgrimage of human life you are to impart a portion of your bread to feed the
hungry, to send a cup of your wine to cheer
the sorrowful, and to pour the healing oil
of your consolation into the wounds which
sickness hath made in the bodies, or affliction rent in the hearts, of your fellow-travellers ?

"

In processions, the corn alone is carried

in a golden pitcher, the wine and oil are
placed in silver vessels, and this is to re-

mind us

that the first, as a necessity and

the "staff of life," is of more importance
and more worthy of honor than the others,
which are but comforts.
Cornucopia. The horn of plenty.
The old pagan myth tells us that Zeus was
nourished during his infancy in Crete by
the daughters of Melissus, with the milk of
the goat Amalthea. Zeus, when he came
to the empire of the world, in gratitude
placed Amalthea in the heavens as a constellation, and gave one of her horns to his
nurses, with the assurance that it should
furnish them with a never failing supply
of whatever they might desire. Hence it
is a symbol of abundance, and as such has
been adopted as the jewel of the Stewards
of a Lodge, to remind them that it is their
duty to see that the tables are properly furnished at refreshment, and that every brother is suitably provided for. Among the
deities whose images are to be found in
the ancient Temples at Elora, in Hindustan, is the goddess Ana Puma, whose name
is compounded of Ana, signifying corn,
and Puma, meaning plenty. She holds a
corn measure in her hand, and the whole
therefore very clearly has the same allusion
as the

Masonic Horn of

plenty.

Correspondence.

See Committee on

Foreign Correspondence.

Corresponding Grand SecreAn officer of a Grand Lodge to

whom was formerly intrusted, in some

tary.

Grand Lodges, the Foreign Correspondence of the body. The office is now disused, being retained only in the Grand
Lodge of Massachusetts.

Corybantes, Mysteries

of.

Rites

instituted in Phrygia in honor of Atys, the

lover of Cybele. The goddess was supposed first to bewail the death of her lover,
and afterwards to rejoice for his restoration
The ceremonies were a scenical
to life.
representation of this alternate lamentation
and rejoicing, and of the sufferings of Atys,
who was placed in an ark or coffin during

COSMOPOLITE

188

COUSTOS

the mournful part of the orgies. If the deCourtesy. Politeness of manners, as

scription of these rites, given by Sainte- the result of kindness of disposition, was
Croix from various ancient authorities, be one of the peculiar characteristics of the
" No other human laws
correct, they were but a modification of the knights of old.
enforced," says M. de St. Palaye, " as chivEleusinian mysteries.
Cosmopolite. The third degree of alry did, sweetness and modesty of temper,
and that politeness which the word courtesy
the Rite of African Architects.
find,
Council. In several of the high de- was meant perfectly to express."
grees of Masonry the meetings are styled therefore, in the ritual of Templarism, the
"
Councils as a Council of Royal and Se- phrase a true and courteous knight " and
lect Masters, or Princes of Jerusalem, or Knights Templars are in the habit of closing their letters to each other with the exKnights of the Red Cross.
Council Chamber. A part of the pression, Yours in all knightly courtesy.
room in which the ceremonies of the Courtesy is also a Masonic virtue, because
it is the product of a feeling of kindness; but
Knights of the Red Cross are performed.
Council, Grand. See Grand Council. it is not so specifically spoken of in the sym-

We
;

Council of Knights of the

Cross.

A body in which the first

Red

degree
of the Templar system in this country is
conferred. It is held under the Charter of
aCommandery of Knights Templars, which,
when meeting as a council, is composed
Sovereign
of the following officers:
Master, Chancellor, Master of the Palace,
Prelate, Master of Despatches, Master of
Cavalry, Master of Infantry, Standard
Bearer, Sword Bearer,Warder, and Sentinel.

Council of Royal and Select

The united body in which the
Royal and Select degrees are conferred.
In some jurisdictions this Council confers

Masters.

also the degree of Super-Excellent Master.

Council of Royal Masters. The

body in which the degree of Royal Master,
the eighth in the American Rite, is conferred.
It receives its Charter from a
Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters, and has the following officers Thrice

bolic degrees, where brotherly love assumes

its place, as it is in the orders of knighthood.
Coustos, John. The sufferings inflicted, in 1743, by the Inquisition at Lisbon,
en John Coustos, a Freemason, and the
Master of a Lodge in that city; and the
fortitude with which he endured the severest
tortures, rather than betray his trusts and
reveal the secrets that had been confided to
him, constitute an interesting episode in
the history of Freemasonry. Coustos, after
returning to England, published, in 1746,
a book, detailing his sufferings, from which
the reader is presented with the following
abridged narrative.
John Coustos was born at Berne, in
Switzerland, but emigrated, in 1716, with
his father to England, where he became a

naturalized subject. In 1743 he removed

to Lisbon, in Portugal, and began the practice of his profession, which was that of a
lapidary, or dealer in precious stones.
Illustrious
Grand Master, Illustrious
In consequence of the bull or edict of
Hiram of Tyre, Principal Conductor of Pope Clement XII. denouncing the Masonic
the Works, Master of the Exchequer, Mas- institution, the Lodges at Lisbon were not
ter of Finances, Captain of the Guards,
held at public houses, as was the custom in
Conductor of the Council, and Steward.
England and other Protestant countries,
Council of Select Masters. The but privately, at the residences of the
body in which the degree of Select Mas- members. Of one of these Lodges, Cousters, the ninth in the American Rite, is
tos, who was a zealous Mason, was elected
conferred.
It receives its Charter from a the Master.
female, who was cognizant
Grand Council of Royal and Select Mas- of the existence of the Lodge over which
ters.
Its officers are: Thrice Illustrious
Coustos presided, revealed the circumstance
Grand Master, Illustrious Hiram of Tyre, to her confessor, declaring that, in her
Principal Conductor of the Works, Treas- opinion, the members were "monsters in
urer, Recorder, Captain of the Guards, nature, who perpetrated the most shocking
Conductor of the Council, and Steward.
crimes. " In consequence of this informaCouncil of the Trinity. An inde- tion, it was resolved, by the Inquisition,
pendent Masonic jurisdiction, in which are that Coustos should be arrested and subconferred the degrees of Knight of the jected to the tender mercies of the " Holy
Christian Mark, and Guard of the Con- Office." He was accordingly seized, a few
the
clave, Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, and nights afterwards, in a coffee-house
the Holy and Thrice Illustrious Order of public pretence of the arrest being that he
the Cross. They are conferred after the was privy to the stealing of a diamond, of
Encampment degrees. They are Christian which they had falsely accused another
degrees, and refer to the crucifixion.
jeweller, the friend and Warden of Coustos,
Council, Supreme. See Supreme whom also they had a short time previously
:

Council.

arrested.

COUSTOS

COUSTOS

Coustos was then carried to the prison of

the Inquisition, and after having been
searched and deprived of all his money,
Eapers, and other things that he had about
im, he was led to a lonely dungeon, in
which he was immured, being expressly
forbidden to speak aloud or knock against
the walls, but if he required anything, to
beat with a padlock that hung on the outward door, and which he could reach by
thrusting his arm through the iron grate.
" It was there," says he, " that, struck with
the horrors of a place of which I had
heard and read such baleful descriptions, I
plunged at once into the blackest melancholy ; especially when I reflected on the
dire consequences with which my confinement might very possibly be attended."
On the next day he was led, bare-headed,
before the President and four Inquisitors,
who, after having made him reply on oath
to several questions respecting his name,
his parentage, his place of birth, his religion, and the time he had resided in Lisbon,
exhorted him to make a full confession of
all the crimes he had ever committed in
the whole course of his life but, as he refused to make any such confession, declaring that, from his infancy, he had been
taught to confess not to man but to God,

threatening me, in case I did not comply."

But Coustos firmly and fearlessly refused to

he was again remanded to his dungeon.

Three days after, he was again brought
before the Inquisitors, and the examination
was renewed. This was the first occasion
on which the subject of Freemasonry was
introduced, and there Coustos for the first
time learned that he had been arrested and
imprisoned solely on account of his connection with the forbidden Institution.

The result of this conference was, that

Coustos was conveyed to a deeper dungeon,
and kept there in close confinement for
several weeks, during which period he was
taken three times before the Inquisitors.
In the first of these examinations they
again introduced the subject of Freemasonry, and declared that if the Institution was as virtuous as their prisoner contended that it was, there was no occasion for
concealing so industriously the secrets of it.
Ooustos did not reply to this objection to the
Inquisitorial satisfaction, and he was reto his dungeon, where a few

manded back
days after he

fell sick.

After his recovery, he was again taken

before the Inquisitors, who asked him several new questions with regard to the tenets
of Freemasonry
among others, whether
he, since his abode in Lisbon, had received
any Portuguese into the society ? He replied that he had not.

When

he was next brought before them,

" they insisted," he says, " upon

letting
them into the secrets of Freemasonry;

my

189

violate his obligations.

After several other interviews, in

which

the effort was unavailingly made to extort

from him a renunciation of Masonry, he
was subjected to the torture of which he
gives the following account:
" I was instantly conveyed to the tortureroom, built in form of a square tower,
where no light appeared but what two candles gave and to prevent the dreadful cries
and shocking groans of the unhappy victims
from reaching the ears of the other prisoners,
the doors are lined with a sort of quilt.
" The reader will naturally suppose that
;

must be

seized with horror, when, at

my

entering this infernal place, I saw myself,

on a sudden, surrounded by six wretches,
who, after preparing the tortures, stripped
me naked, (all to linen drawers,) when,
laying me on my back, they began to lay
hold of every part of my body. First, they
put round my neck an iron collar, which
was fastened to the scaffold they then fixed
a ring to each foot and this being done,
they stretched my limbs with all their
might. They next wound two ropes round
each arm, and two round each thigh, which
ropes passed under the scaffold, through
holes made for that purpose, and were all
drawn tight at the same time, by four men,
upon a signal made for this purpose.
" The reader will believe that my pains
;

intolerable, when I solemnly declare that these ropes, which were of the size
of one's little finger, pierced through
flesh quite to the bone, making the blood
gush out at eight different places that were
thus bound. As I persisted in refusing to

must be

my

discover any more than what has been seen

in the interrogatories above, the ropes were
thus drawn together four different times.
At my side stood a physician and a surgeon, who often felt my temples, to judge
by which
of the danger I might be in
means my tortures were suspended, at intervals, that I might have an opportunity

of recovering myself a little.

" Whilst I was thus suffering, they were
so barbarously unjust as to declare, that,
were I to die under the torture, I should be
guilty, by my obstinacy, of self-murder. In
fine, the last time the ropes were drawn
tight, I grew so exceedingly weak, occasioned by the blood's circulation being
stopped, and the pains I endured, that I
fainted quite away insomuch that I was
;

carried back to my dungeon, without perceiving it.

" These barbarians, finding that the tortures above described could not extort any
further discovery from me; but that, the
more they made me suffer, the more fer-

190

COVENANT

COUSTOS

vently I addressed my supplications, for patience, to heaven they were so inhuman,

six weeks after, as to expose me to another
kind of torture, more grievous, if possible,
than the former. They made me stretch
arms in such a manner that the palms
;

my
my

of

hands were turned outward

when,

by the help of a rope that fastened them

together at the wrist, and which they turned
by an engine, they drew them gently nearer
to one another behind, in such a manner
that the back of each hand touched, and

London, where he published the account

of his sufferings in a book entitled " The
Sufferings of John Coustos for Freemasonry,
and his refusing to turn Catholic, in the
Inquisition at Lisbon, &c, &c." London,
1746
Such a narrative
8vo, 400 pages.
is well worthy of being read. John Coustos
has not, by his literary researches, added
anything to the learning or science of our
Order yet, by his fortitude and fidelity
under the severest sufferings, inflicted to
extort from him a knowledge he was bound
to conceal, he has shown that Freemasonry
makes no idle boast in declaring that its
secrets " are locked up in the depository of
;

exactly parallel one to another;

whereby both my shoulders were dislocated, and a considerable quantity of blood
This torture was faithful breasts."
issued from my mouth.
repeated thrice; after which I was again
Couvreur. The title of an officer in a
taken to my dungeon, and put into the French Lodge, equivalent to the English
hands of physicians and surgeons, who, in Tiler.
setting my bones, put me to exquisite pain.
Couvrir le Temple. A French ex"Two months after, being a little re- pression for the English one to close .the
But it has also another significacovered, I was again conveyed to the torture- Lodge.
room, and there made to undergo another tion. "To cover the Temple to a broThe reader ther," means, in French Masonic language,
kind of punishment twice.
may judge of its horror, from the following to exclude him from the Lodge.
stood

description thereof.
" The torturers turned twice around my
body a thick iron chain, which, crossing
upon my stomach, terminated afterwards at
my wrists. They next set my back against
a thick board, at each extremity whereof
was a pulley, through which there ran a
rope, that catched the ends of the chains at
my wrists. The tormentors then stretched
these ropes, by means of a roller, pressed
or bruised my stomach, in proportion as the
means were drawn tighter. They tortured
me on this occasion to such a degree, that
my wrists and shoulders were put out ofjoint.
" The surgeons, however, set them presently after; but the barbarians not yet
having satiated their cruelty, made me
undergo this torture a second time, which
I did with fresh pains, though with equal
constancy and resolution. I was then remanded back to my dungeon, attended by
the surgeons, who dressed my bruises and
here I continued until their auto-da-fe, or
gaol delivery."
On that occasion, he was sentenced to
work at the galleys for four years. Soon,
;

however, after he had commenced the

degrading occupation of a galley slave,
the injuries which he had received during
his inquisitorial tortures having so much
impaired his health, that he was unable to
undergo the toils to which he had been
condemned, he was sent to the infirmary,

where he remained until October, 1744,

when he was released upon the demand of
the British minister, as a subject to the
He was, however,
king of England.
ordered to leave the country. This, it may
be supposed, he gladly did, and repaired to

Covenant of Masonry. As a covenant is defined to be a contract or agreement between two or more parties on certain
terms, there can be no doubt that when a
man is made a Mason he enters into a covenant with the Institution. On his part
he promises to fulfil certain promises and
to discharge certain duties, for which, on
the other part, the Fraternity bind themselves by an equivalent covenant of friendship, protection, and support.
This covenant must of course be repeated and modified with every extension of the terms of
agreement on both sides. The covenant of
an Entered Apprentice is different from
that of a Fellow Craft, and the covenant
of the latter from that of a Master Mason.
As we advance in Masonry our obligations
increase, but the covenant of each degree
is not the less permanent or binding because that of a succeeding one has been superadded. The second covenant does not
impair the sanctity of the first.
This covenant of Masonry is symbolized
and sanctioned by the most important and
essential of all the ceremonies of the InstiIt is the very foundation stone
tution.
which supports the whole edifice, and, unless it be properly laid, no superstructure
can with any safety be erected. It is indeed the covenant that makes the Mason.
A matter so important as this, in establishing the relationship of a Mason with
this baptism, so to speak, by
the Craft,
which a member is inaugurated into the
must of course be attended
Institution,
with the most solemn and binding ceremonies.
Such has been the case in all countries.
Covenants have always been solem-

COWAN

COVENANT
nized with certain solemn forms and religious observances which gave them a sacred
sanction in the minds of the contracting
The Hebrews, especially, invested
parties.
their covenants with the most imposing
ceremonies.
The first mention of a covenant in form
that is met with in Scripture is that recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis,
where, to confirm it, Abraham, in obedience to the Divine command, took a heifer,
a she-goat, and a ram, "and divided them in
the midst, and laid each piece one against
another." This dividing a victim into two
parts, that the covenanting parties might
pass between them, was a custom not confined to the Hebrews, but borrowed from
them by all the heathen nations.
In the book of Jeremiah it is again alluded
to, and the penalty for the violation of the

covenant

is also expressed.
I will give the men that have
transgressed my covenant, which have not

"

And

performed the words of my covenant which

they have made before me, when they cut
the calf in twain, and passed between the

191

Covering of the Lodge. As

the

lectures tell us that our ancient brethren

met on the highest hills and lowest vales,

from this it is inferred that, as the meetings
were thus in the open air, the only covering
must have been the over-arching vault of
heaven. Hence, in the symbolism of Masonry, the covering of the Lodge is said to
be "a clouded canopy or starry -decked
heaven." The terrestrial Lodge of labor
is thus intimately connected with the ce-

Lodge of

eternal refreshment. The

farther extended to remind us that the whole world is a Mason's
Lodge, and heaven its sheltering cover.
lestial

symbolism

Cowan,

is

still

This

term, and signifies in

is
its

a purely Masonic
technical

meaning

an intruder, whence it is always coupled

with the word eavesdropper. It is not found
in any of the old manuscripts of the English Masons anterior to the eighteenth century, unless we suppose that lowen, met
with in many of them, is a clerical error of
the copyists. It occurs in the Schaw manu-

script, a Scotch record which bears the

date of 1598, in the following passage
" That no Master nor Fellow of Craft reparts thereof,
" The princes of Judah, and the princes of ceive any cowans to work in his society or
Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and company, nor send none of his servants to
all the people of the land, which passed work with cowans."
In the second edition
between the parts of the calf;
of Anderson's Constitutions, published in
" I will even give them into the hand of 1738, we find the word in use among the
" But Free and Actheir enemies, and into the hand of them English Masons, thus
that seek their life and their dead bodies cepted Masons shall not allow cowans to
shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, work with them, nor shall they be emand to the beasts of the earth." Jeremiah ployed by cowans without an urgent necesxxxiv. 18, 19, 20.
sity
and even in that case they shall not
These ceremonies, thus briefly alluded to teach cowans, but must have a separate
in the passages which have been quoted, were communication."
There can, I think, be
performed in full, as follows. The attentive but little doubt that the word, as a Masonic
Masonic student will not fail to observe the term, comes to us from Scotland, and it is
analogies to those of his own Order.
therefore in the Scotch language that we
The parties entering into a covenant first must look for its signification.
selected a proper animal, such as a calf or
Now, Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictiona kid among the Jews, a sheep among the ary, gives us the following meanings of the
Greeks, or a pig among the Romans. The word
"
throat was then cut across, with a single
Cowan, s. 1. A term of contempt;
blow, so as to completely divide the wind- applied to one who does the work of a Mapipe and arteries, without touching the son, but has not been regularly bred.
" 2. Also used to denote one who builds dry
bone. This was the first ceremony of the
covenant. The second was to tear open walls, otherwise denominated a dry-diker.
" 3. One unacquainted with the secrets
the breast, to take from thence the heart
and vitals, and if on inspection the least im- of Freemasonry."
perfection was discovered, the body was
And he gives the following examples as
considered unclean, and thrown aside for his authorities
"
another. The third ceremony was to diA boat-carpenter, joiner, cowan (or
vide the body in twain, and to place the builder of stone without mortar), get Is. at
two parts to the north and south, so that the minimum and good maintenance.' P.
the parties to the covenant might pass Morven, Argyles. Statistic. Acct., X., 267. N.
" Cowans.
between them, coming from the east and
Masons who build dry-stone
going to the west. The carcass was then dikes or walls.' P. Halkirk, Carthn. Staleft as a prey to the wild beasts of the tistic. Acct., XIX., 24. N."
field and the vultures of the air, and thus
In the Rob Roy of Scott, the word is used
the covenant was ratified.
by Allan Inverach, who says
:

'

"

CREED

OEAFT

192

" She does not value a Cawmil mair as a

be created a knight. The word " dub

also the same meaning.
The word
created is used in Commanderies of Knights
Templars to denote the elevation of a candidate to that degree. See Dub.
Creation. Preston (Must., B. I., Sect. 3,^

to

had

cowan."

The word has therefore, I think, come to

the English Fraternity directly from the
Operative Masons of Scotland, among whom
it was used to denote a pretender, in the
exact sense of the first meaning of Jamieson. says, " From the commencement of the
There is no word that has given Masonic world, we may trace the foundation of
scholars more trouble than this in tracing Masonry. Ever since symmetry began,
Many years ago, I sought and harmony displayed her charms, our
its derivation.
Language like
to find its root in the Greek kvuv, huon, a Order has had a being."
dog; and referred to the fact that in the this has been deemed extravagant, and justearly ages of the Church, when the myste- ly, too, if the words are to be taken in their
The idea that the Order of
ries of the new religion were communicated literal sense.
only to initiates under the veil of secrecy, Masonry is coeval with the creation, is so
absurd, that the pretension cannot need
infidels were called "dogs," a term probably
suggested by such passages as Matthew refutation. But the fact is, that Anderson, Preston, and other writers who have
vii. 6, "Give not that which is holy to
dogs " or, Philip, iii. 2, " Beware of dogs, indulged in such statements, did not mean
beware of evil workers, beware of the con- by the word Masonry anything like an orThis derivation has been adopted ganized Order or Institution bearing any
cision."
by Oliver, and many other writers; and resemblance to the Freemasonry of the
although I am not now inclined to insist present day. They simply meant to indiupon it, I still think it a very probable one, cate that the great moral principles on
which may serve until a better shall be pro- which Freemasonry is founded, and by
posed. Jamieson's derivations are from the which it professes to be guided, have alold Swedish hujon, Jcuzhjohn, a silly fellow, ways formed a part of the divine governand the French coion, coyon, a coward, a ment, and been presented to man from his
base fellow. No matter how we get the first creation for his acceptance. The words
word, it seems always to convey an idea of quoted from Preston are unwise, because
contempt. The attempt to derive it from the they are liable to misconstruction. -But the
chouans of the French revolution is mani- symbolic idea which they intended to convey, namely, that Masonry is truth, and
festly absurd, for it has been shown that
the word was in use long before the French that truth is co-existent with man's creation, is correct, and cannot be disputed.
revolution was even meditated.
Creed,
Craft. It is from the Saxon crceft,
Mason's. Although Freewhich indirectly signifies skill or dexterity masonry is not a dogmatic theology, and is
tolerant in the admission of men of every
in any art. In reference to this skill, therereligious faith, it would be wrong to supfore, the ordinary acceptation is a trade or
mechanical art, and collectively, the per- pose that it is without a creed. On the
sons practising it. Hence, " the Craft," in contrary, it has a creed, the assent to which
Speculative Masonry, signifies the whole it rigidly enforces, and the denial of which
is absolutely incompatible with memberbody of Freemasons, wherever dispersed.
Craft Masonry, Ancient. See ship in the Order. This creed consists of
Ancient Craft Masonry.
two articles: First, a belief in God, the
Crafted. A word sometimes collo- Creator of all things, who is therefore requially used, instead of the Lodge term cognized as the Grand Architect of the
"passed," to designate.the advancement of Universe; and secondly, a belief in the
a candidate to the second degree. It is not eternal life, to which this present life is
only a colloquialism, but I think also an but a preparatory and probationary state.
Americanism.
To the first of these articles assent is exCraftsman.
Mason. The word plicitly required as soon as the threshold
originally meant any one skilful in his of the Lodge is crossed.
The second is exart, and is so used by our early writers.
pressively taught by legends and symbols,
Thus Chaucer, in his Knights' Tale, v. and must be implicitly assented to by every
Mason, especially by those who have re1889, says
ceived the third degree, which is altogether
" For in the land there was no craftesman,
founded on the doctrine of the resurrection
That geometry or arsmetrike can,
to a second life.
Nor pour tray or, nor carver of images,
At the revival of Masonry in 1717, the
That Theseus ne gave him meat and wages.
Grand Lodge of England set forth the law,
The theatre to make and to devise."
as to the religious creed to be required of a
Create. In chivalry, when any one re- Mason, in the following words, to be found
ceived the order of knighthood, he was said in the charges approved by that body.
;

CREUZER

CROMWELL

" In ancient times, Masons were charged

in every country to be of the religion of
that country or nation, whatever it was
yet it is now thought more expedient only
to oblige them to that religion in which all
men agree, leaving their particular opinions
to themselves."
This is now considered universally as the
recognized law on the subject.

the moral law, because they deny its validity and contemn its sanctions
and hence
they are to be classed as Masonic crimes.
Again the moral law inculcates love of
God, love of our neighbor, and duty to ourEach of these embraces other inselves.
cidental duties which are obligatory on
every Mason, and the violation of any one
of which constitutes a Masonic crime.
The love of God implies that we should
abstain from all profanity and irreverent
use of his name. Universal benevolence is
the necessary result of love of our neighbor.
Cruelty to one's inferiors and dependents,
uncharitableness to the poor and needy, and
a general misanthropical neglect of our
duty as men to our fellow-beings, exhibiting itself in extreme selfishness and indifference to the comfort or happiness of all
others, are offences against the moral law,
and therefore Masonic crimes. Xext to
violations of the moral law, in the category
of Masonic crimes, are to be considered the
transgressions of the municipal law, or the
law of the land. Obedience to constituted
authority is one of the first duties which is
impressed upon the mind of the candidate
and hence he who transgresses the laws of
the government under which he lives violates the teachings of the Order, and is
But the Order
guilty of a Masonic crime.
will take no cognizance of ecclesiastical or
And this arises from the
political offences.
very nature of the society, which eschews
all controversies about national religion or
Hence apostasy, heresy, and
state policy.
schisms, although considered in some gov-

Creuzer,

Georg

Friederich.

George Frederick Creuzer, who was born

in Germany in 1771, and was a professor at
the University of Heidelberg, devoted himstudy of the ancient religions,
and, with profound learning, established a
peculiar system on the subject. His theory
was, that the religion and mythology of the
ancient Greeks were borrowed from a far
a body of priests
more ancient people,
who received them
coming from the East,
The myths and traditions
as a revelation.
of this ancient people were adopted by
Hesiod, Homer, and the later poets, alself to the

though not without some misunderstanding

of them; and they were finally preserved
in the Mysteries, and became subjects of
investigation for the philosophers. This
theory Creuzer has developed in his most
important work, entitled Symbolik und
Mythologie der alien Volker, besonders der
Greichen, which was published at Leipsic
in 1819. There is no translation of this
work into English; but Guigniaut published at Paris, in 1824, a paraphrastic
translation of it, under the title of Religions de VAntiquite considerdes pHncipalement dans leur Formes Symboliques et Mythologiques. Creuzer's views throw much light
on the symbolic history of Freemasonry.
He died in 1858.

Crimes, Masonic.

In

Masonry,

every offence is a crime, because, in every

violation of a Masonic law, there is not
only sometimes an infringement of the
rights of an individual, but always, superinduced upon this, a breach and violation
of public rights and duties, which affect
the whole community of the Order considered as a community.
The first class of crimes which are laid
down in the Constitutions, as rendering
their perpetrators liable to Masonic jurisdiction, are offences against the moral law.
-'Every Mason," say" the old Charges of
1722, " is obliged by his tenure to obey the
moral law." The same charge continues
the precept by asserting, that if he rightly
understands the art, he will never be a
stupid atheist, nor an irreligious libertine.

Atheism, therefore, which is a rejection of

a supreme, superintending Creator, and irreligious libertinism, which, in the language of that day, signified a denial of all
moral responsibility, are offences against
Z
13

193

ernments as heinous offences, and subject

punishment, are not viewed as
Masonic crimes. Lastly, violations of the
Landmarks and Regulations of the Order
are Masonic crimes. Thus, disclosure of

to severe

any of the

secrets

which a Mason has pro-

mised to conceal; disobedience and want

of respect to Masonic superiors the bringing of" private piques or quarrels " into the
Lodge; want of courtesy and kindness to
the brethren ; speaking calumniously of a
Mason behind his back, or in any other way
attempting to injure him, as by striking
;

him except

in self-defence, or violating his

domestic honor, is each a crime in Masonry.

Indeed, whatever is a violation of fidelity
to solemn engagements, a neglect of prescribed duties, or a transgression of the cardinal principles of friendship, morality, and
brotherly love, is a Masonic crime.
large stone resting on
Cromlech.
two or more stones, like a table. Cromlechs are found in Brittany, Denmark,
Germany, and some other parts of Europe,
and are supposed to have been used in the
Celtic mysteries.

Cromwell. The Abbe Larudan

pub-

CROMWELL

CROSS

lished at Amsterdam, in 1746, a book entitled Les Francs- Magons Ecrases, of which
Kloss says (Bibliog. der Freimaurerei, No.
1874,) that it is the armory from which all

men, and opposition to all monarchical,

government. Such is the theory of the
Abbe Larudan, who, although a bitter
enemy of Masonry, writes with seeming
fairness and mildness.
But it is hardly

194

the abuse of Freemasonry by its enemies

has been derived. Larudan was the first
to advance in this book the theory that
Oliver Cromwell was the founder of Freemasonry. He says that Cromwell established the Order for the furtherance of his
political designs ; adopting with this view,
as its governing principles, the doctrines of

necessary to say that this theory of the

origin of Freemasonry finds no support
either in the legends of the Institution, or
in the authentic history that is connected

with

its rise

Cross.

and

progress.
find no

We can

symbolism of
the cross in the primitive degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry. It does not appear
among the symbols of the Apprentice, the
Fellow Craft, the Master, or the Royal

and equality, and bestowed upon its

members the title of Freemasons, because
his object was to engage them in the building of a new edifice, that is to say, to re- Arch. This is undoubtedly to be attriform the human race by the extermination buted to the fact that the cross was conof kings and all regal powers. He selected sidered, by those who invented those deliberty

purpose the design of rebuilding

the Temple of Solomon. This Temple,
erected by divine command, had been the
sanctuary of religion. After years of glory
and magnificence, it had been destroyed by
a formidable army. The people who there
worshipped had been conveyed to Babylon,
whence, after enduring a rigorous captivity,
they had been permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. This history of the Solomonic Temple Cromwell
adopted, says Larudan, as an allegory on
which to found his new Order. The Temple in its original magnificence was man in
his primeval state of purity; its destruction and the captivity of its worshippers
typified pride and ambition, which have
abolished equality and introduced dependence among men; and the Chaldean destroyers of the glorious edifice are the
kings who have trodden on an oppressed

for this

people.
It was, continues the Abb6, in the year
1648 that Cromwell, at an entertainment
given by him to some of his friends, proposed to them, in guarded terms, the estab-

grees, only in reference to its character as

a Christian sign. The subsequent archaeological investigations that have given to the
cross a more universal place in iconography were unknown to the rituals. It is
true, that it is referred to, under the name
of the rode or rood, in the manuscript of the

fourteenth century, published by Halliwell

one of the Constitutions
of the Operative Freemasons, who were
fond of the symbol, and were indebted for

this was, however,

it

to their ecclesiastical origin,

and

to their

connection with the Gnostics, among whom

the cross was a much used symbol. But on
the revival in 1717, when the ritual was
remodified, and differed very greatly from
that meagre one in practice among the
mediaeval Masons, all allusion to the cross
was left out, because the revivalists laid
down the principle that the religion of
Speculative Masonry was not sectarian but
universal.
And although this principle
was in some points, as in the "lines parallel," neglected, the reticence as to the
Christian sign of salvation has continued
to the present day ; so that the cross cannot
be considered as a symbol in the primary
and original degrees of Masonry.
But in the high degrees, the cross has been
introduced as an important symbol. In some
those which are to be traced to
of them,
it is to be
the Temple system of Ramsay,

lishment of a new society, which should

secure a true worship of God, and the deliverance of man from oppression and tyranny. The proposition was received with
unanimous favor and a few days after, at a
house in King Street, and at six o'clock in
the evening, (for the Abbe is particular as viewed with reference to its Christian
Thus, in the original
to time and place,) the Order of Freema- origin and meaning.
sonry was organized, its degrees established, Rose Croix and Kadosh,
no matter what
its ceremonies and ritual prescribed, and
may be the modern interpretation given to
several of the adherents of the future Pro- it,
it was simply a representation of the
tector initiated.
The Institution was used cross of Christ In others of a philosophiby Cromwell for the advancement of his cal character, such as the Ineffable degrees,
projects, for the union of the contending the symbolism of the cross was in all probparties in England, for the extirpation ability borrowed from the usages of anof the monarchy, and his own subsequent tiquity, for from the earliest times and in
elevation to supreme power. It extended almost all countries the cross has been a
It is depicted on the
from England into other countries, but sacred symbol.
was always careful to preserve the same oldest monuments of Egypt, Assyria, Perdoctrines of equality and liberty among sia, and Hindustan. It was, says Faber,
;

CKOSS

CROSS

(Cabir., ii. 390,) a symbol throughout the

pagan world long previous to its becoming
an object of veneration to Christians. In
ancient symbology it was a symbol of eter-

would have in the cruciform temple as

much a symbolism of the world, of which

nal life. M. de Mortillet, who in 1866

published a work entitled Le Signe de la
Oroix avant le Christianisme, found in the
very earliest epochs three principal symbols
of universal occurrence: viz., the circle,
the pyramid, and the cross. Leslie, (Man's
Origin and Destiny, p. 312,) quoting from
him in reference to the ancient worship of
the cross, says, " It seems to have been a
worship of such a peculiar nature as to exclude the worship of idols." This sacredness of the crucial symbol may be one
reason why its form was often adopted,
especially by the Celts, in the construction
of their temples.
Of the Druidical veneration of the cross,
Higgins quotes from the treatise of Schedius, De Moribus Germanorum, (xxiv.,) the
following remarkable paragraph.
" The Druids seek studiously for an oak-

and handsome, growing up with

two principal arms in the form of a cross,
beside the main, upright stem. If the two
horizontal arms are not sufficiently adapted

tree, large

to the figure, they fasten a cross beam to it.

This tree they consecrate in this manner.

Upon the right branch they cut in the

in fair characters, the

the

word

HESUS

bark,

upon

middle or upright stem, the word

TARAMIS upon the left branch, BELENUS over this, above the going off of the
arms, they cut the name of God, THAU.
Under all the same repeated, THAU. This
;

tree, so inscribed,

they

make their
summer

kebla in

church,
towards which they direct their faces in the
offices of religion."
Mr. Brinton, in his interesting work entitled Symbolism; The Myths of the New
World, has the following remarks
" The symbol that beyond all others has
fascinated the human mind, the cross, finds
here its source and meaning. Scholars have
pointed out its sacredness in many natural
religions, and have reverently accepted it
as a mystery, or offered scores of conflicting, and often debasing, interpretations.
It is but another symbol of the four cardinal
points, the four winds of heaven.
This will
luminously appear by a study of its use
and meaning in America." (P. 95.) And
Mr. Brinton gives many instances of the
religious use of the cross by several of the
aboriginal tribes of this continent, where
the allusion, it must be confessed, seems
evidently to be to the four cardinal points,
or the four winds, or four spirits of the
earth.
If this be so, and if it is probable
that a similar reference was adopted by the
Celtic and other ancient peoples, then we
the grove, cathedral, or

195

the four cardinal points constitute the

boundaries, as we have in the square, the
cubical, and the circular.

Cross, Double.

See

Cross,

Patri-

archal.

Cross, Jerusalem.
between four

crosslets.

It

A Greek cross
was adopted by

Baldwyn as the arms

of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and has since
been deemed a symbol
of the Holy Land. It
is

also the jewel of the

Knights of the Holy

Sepulchre.
Symbolically,

the

four small

crosses typify the four

wounds of the Saviour

and feet, and the large central

in the hands

cross shows forth his death for that world

to which the four extremities point.
cross of eight
Cross, Maltese.
points, worn by the
Knights of Malta. It
heraldically deis
scribed as "a cross

but the extremity of each pattee notched at a deep

angle."
The eight
points are said to
refer symbolically to
the eight beatitudes.
patte'e,

Cross of Constantine.

See La-

barum.

Cross of Salem. Called also the

Pontifical Cross, because it is borne before
the pope. It is a cross, the
upright piece being crossed
lines, the upper and
lower shorter than the mid-

by three
dle one.

It isthe insignia

Grand ^Master and

Past Grand Masters of the
of
Encampment
Grand
of the

Knights Templars of the

United States, and also of
the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

Cross, Passion. The cross on which
Jesus suffered crucifixion. It is the most
common form of the cross.
When rayonnant, or having rays
issuing from the point of intersection of the limbs, it is the insignia of the Commander of a

Commandery

of Knights

plars, according to the

Tem-

American

system.

cross, the
Cross, Patriarchal.
upright piece being twice crossed, the up-

CKOSS

CROSS

per arms shorter than the lower. It is

so called because it is borne before a Patriarch in the Roman
Church. It is the insignia of the officers of
Encampthe Grand
ment of Knights Templars of the United
States, and of all possessors of the thirtythird degree in the

the limbs deeply notched so as to make a

cross of eight points. Sir Walter Scott, with
his not unusual heraldic inaccuracy, and
Higgins, who is not often inaccurate, but
only fanciful at times, both describe the
Templar cross a^ having eight points, thus
confounding it with the cross of Malta.
In the statutes of the Order of the Temple,
,the cross prescribed is that depicted in the
Charter of Transmission, and is a cross

196

patt6e.

Cross, Teutonic.

Ancient and Accepted

Cross, St. Andrew's.

cross

saltier or

is in the form of
the letter X. Said to be
the form of cross on which

whose decussation

St.

Andrew suffered marAs he is the pa-

tyrdom.

tron saint of Scotland, the

St. Andrew's cross forms a
part of the jewel of the
Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge of Scotland, which
is " a brilliant star, having
in the centre a field, azure, charged with a
St. Andrew on the cross, gold; pendant
therefrom the Compasses extended, with
the Square and Segment of a Circle of 90
the points of the Compasses resting on the
Segment. In the centre, between the
Square and Compasses, the Sun in full
glory." The St. Andrew's cross is also the
jewel of the twenty-ninth degree of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or
Grand Scottish Knight of St. Andrew.

Cross, Tau.
Anthony is said

is

cross on which St.

to have suffered martyrdom. It is in the form of
the letter T. See Tau.

Templar.

Andre Favin, a French heraldic writer, says

original
badge

that the
of
the

cross

Templars wore a white mantle without any

But in 1146 Pope Eugenius III.
cross.
prescribed for them a red cross on the
breast, as a symbol
of the martyrdom to
which they were constantly exposed. The
cross of the Hospitallers was white on a
black mantle, and
that of the Templars

"a

for-

It

cross po-

charged with another

cross double potent or,
(gold,) and surcharged
with an escutcheon ar| gent (silver,) bearing
-= a double-headed eagle
(sable).
It has been
adopted as the jewel

(black,)

=|

of the Kadosh of the

Ancient and Accepted

Scottish Rite in the
United States, but the original jewel of the
degree was a Latin or Passion Cross.

Cross, Thrice Illustrious Order

of the.

degree formerly conferred in

on Knights Templars, but now

meetings were called Councils,
and under the authority of a body which
styled itself the Ancient Council of the
Trinity.
The degree is no longer con-

this country
extinct. Its

ferred.

Cross, Triple.

See Cross of Salem.

Cross-Bearing Men.

(Viri Cruci-

name sometimes assumed by

the
Thus, in the Miracula Natures, (Anno 1619,) there is a letter addressed
to the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, which
" Philosophi Fratres, Viri Crucibegins
geri,"
Brother Philosophers, Cross-Bearing
Men.
geri.)

Rosicrucians.

Crossing the River.

Knights Templars was

a
Cross,
and
Patriarchal
Clarke, in his History of
Knighthood, states the same
At first, the
fact; but this is an error.

described in heraldry as

tent, sable,

The

Cross,

The

merly worn by the Teutonic Knights.

Scottish Eite.

lists

have an alphabet so

The Kabba-

called, in allusion

to the crossing of the river Euphrates by

the Jews on their return from Babylon to
Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. It has
been adopted in some of the high degrees
which refer to that incident. Cornelius
Agrippa gives a copy of the alphabet in
his Occult Philosophy.

Cross,

Jeremy

Ii.

teacher of the

Masonic ritual, who, during his lifetime,

was extensively known, and for some time
very popular. He was born June 27, 1783,
at Haverhill, New Hampshire, and died
Cross was adat the same place, in 1861.
mitted into the Masonic Order in 1808, and
was different in color soon afterwards became a pupil of Thomas
but of the same form, Smith Webb, whose modifications of the
namely, a cross patt6e. In this it differed Preston lectures and of the higher degrees
from the true Maltese cross, worn by the were generally accepted by the Masons of
Knights Of Malta, which was a cross patte'e, the United States. Cross, having acquired

CRUCEFIX

CROSS-LEGGED

The allusion is evidently to the funeral posture of the Templars, so that a

" cross-legged Mason " must have been at
the time synonymous with a Masonic

a competent knowledge of Webb's system,

began to travel and disseminate it throughIn 1819 he published
out the country.
The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic
Monitor, in which he borrowed liberally
from the previous work of Webb. In fact,

land.

the Chart of Cross is, in nearly all its parts,

a mere transcript of the Monitor of Webb,
the first edition of which was published in

cities

Knight Templar.

Crotona.

One of the most prominent

of the Greek colonists in Southern
Italy, where, in the sixth century, Pythagoras established his celebrated school. As
the early Masonic writers were fond of
citing Pythagoras as a brother of theirCraft,
Crotona became connected with the history
of Masonry, and was often spoken of as
one of the most renowned seats of the Institution. Thus, in the Leland MS., whose
authenticity is now, however, doubted, it is
said that Pythagoras "framed a grate Lodge
at Groton, and maked many Maconnes,"
in which sentence Groton, it must be remarked, is an evident corruption of Cro-

Webb, it is true, took the same

1797.
liberty with Preston, from whose IllustraThe
tions of Masonry he borrowed largely.
engraving of the emblems constituted, however, an entirely new and original feature
in the Hieroglyphic Chart, and, as furnishing aids to the memory, rendered the book
of Cross at once very popular ; so much so,
indeed, that for a long time it almost altogether superseded that of Webb. In 1820
Cross published The Templars^ Chart, which,
as a monitor of the degrees of chivalry,
Both of these
met with equal success.

tona.

Crow. An

iron implement used to

raise heavy stones.
It is one of the working-tools of a Royal Arch Mason, and symbolically teaches him to raise his thoughts

works have passed through numerous editions.

Cross received the appointment of Grand

Lecturer from many Grand Lodges, and
travelled for many years very extensively
through the United States, teaching his
system of lectures to Lodges, Chapters,

above the corrupting influence of worldlymindedness.

Crown. A portion of Masonic regalia
worn by officers who represent a king, more
In Ancient
especially King Solomon.
Craft Masonry, however, the crown is dispensed with, the hat having taken its place.
Crown, Knight of the. See Knight
of the Crown.

Councils, and Encampments.

He possessed little or no scholarly attainments, and his contributions to the literature of Masonry are confined to the two
compilations already cited. In his latter
years he became involved in a schismatic
effort to establish a spurious Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
But
he soon withdrew his name, and retired to
the place of his nativity, where he died at
the advanced age of seventy-eight.

Although Cross was not a

Crown, Princesses of the.

(Princesses de la Couronne.)

Crowned Martyrs.

See

Four

Crowned Martyrs.

Crowning of Masonry.

Le

cou-

ronnement de la Maconnerie. The sixtyfirst degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
Crncefix, Robert T. An English
Mason, distinguished for his services to the
Robert Thomas Crucefix, M.D.,
Craft.
LL.D., was born in Holborn, Eng., in the
year 1797, and received his education at Merchant Tailors' School. After leaving school,
he became the pupil of Mr. Chamberlayne,
a general and celebrated practitioner of his
day, at Clerkenwell he afterwards became
a student at St. Bartholomew's Hospital,
and was a pupil of the celebrated Abernethy.
On receiving his diploma as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, in
1810 he went out to India, where he remained but a short time upon his return
he settled in London, and he continued to
reside there till the year 1845, when he removed to Milton-on-Thames, where he
spent the rest of his life till within a few
;

name

given to the Knights Templars who in the

sixteenth century united themselves with
the Masonic Lodge at Sterling, in Scot-

species of

period.

Cross-legged Masons.

androgynous Masonry established at Saxony in 1770. It existed for only a brief

man

of any
very original genius, yet a recent writer has
announced the fact that the symbol of the
monument in the third degree, unknown to
the system of either Preston or Webb, was
invented by him. See Monument.
Cross-legged Knights. In the Middle Ages it was the custom to bury the body
of a Knight Templar with one leg crossed
over the other and on many monuments in
the churches of Europe, the effigies of these
knights are to be found, often in England,
of a diminutive size, with the legs placed
in this position.
The cross-legged posture
was not confined to the Templars, but was
appropriated to all persons who had assumed the cross and taken a vow to fight in
defence of the Christian religion. The posture, of course, alluded to the position of
the Lord while on the cross.

197

CRUCIFIX

CRUX

weeks before his decease, when he removed,

knights to Europe, and subsequently, on

the establishment by Ramsay and his contemporaries and immediate successors of
Templar Masonry, were incorporated into
the high degrees, and still exhibit their
influence.
Indeed, it is scarcely to be
doubted that many of these degrees were
invented with a special reference to the
events which occurred in Syria and Palestine.
Thus, for instance, the Scottish degree of Knights of the East and West

198

for the benefit of his declining health, to

Bath, where he expired February 25, 1850.
Dr. Crucefix was initiated into Masonry in
1829, and during the greater part of his life

discharged the duties of important offices

in the Grand Lodge of England, of which he
was a Grand Deacon, and in several subordinate Lodges,- Chapters, and Encampments.
He was an earnest promoter of all the Masonic charities of England, of one of which,
the " Asylum for Aged and Decayed Freemasons," he was the founder. In 1834, he established the Freemason's Quarterly Review,
and continued to edit it for six years, during
which period he contributed many valuable
articles to its pages.

In 1840, through the machinations of his

enemies, (for he was too great a man not to
have had some,) he incurred the displeasure
of the ruling powers; and on charges which,
undoubtedly, were not sustained by sufficient evidence, he was suspended by the

Grand Lodge

months, and retired

But he never
lost the respect of the Craft, nor the affection of the leading Masons who were his
for six

from active Masonic

life.

contemporaries.
On his restoration, he
again began to labor in behalf of the Institution, and spent his last days in advancing its interests. To his character, his
long-tried friend, the venerable Oliver, pays
this tribute. "Dr. Crucefix did not pretend
to infallibility, and, like all other public
men, he might be sometimes wrong but
his errors were not from the heart, and always leaned to the side of virtue and beneficence.
He toiled incessantly for the
benefit of his brethren, and was anxious
that all inestimable blessings should be
conveyed by Masonry on mankind. In
sickness or in health he was ever found at
his post, and his sympathy was the most
active in behalf of the destitute brother,
the widow, and the orphan. His perseverance never flagged for a moment and he
;

acted as though he had made up his mind to

live and die in obedience to the calls of duty."
Crucifix.
cross with the image of
the Saviour suspended on it.
part of the
furniture of a Commandery of Knights
Templars and of a Chapter of Princes of
Rose Croix.

Crusades. There was

between Free-

masonry and the Crusades a much more

intimate relation than has generally been
supposed. In the first place, the communications frequently established by the
Crusaders, and especially the Knights
Templars, with the Saracens, led to the
acquisition, by the former, of many of the
dogmas of the secret societies of the East,
such as the Essenes, the Assassins, and
the Druses. These were brought by the

must have originally alluded, as its name

imports, to the legend which teaches a
division of the Masons after the Temple
was finished, when the Craft dispersed,
part remaining in Palestine, as the Assideans, whom Lawrie, citing Scaliger, calls
the " Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem,"
and another part passing over into Europe,
whence they returned on the breaking out
of the Crusades. This, of course, is but a
legend, yet the influence is felt in the invention of the higher rituals.
But the influence of the Crusades on the
Freemasons and the architecture of the
Middle Ages is of a more historical character.
In 1836, Mr. Westmacott, in a course
of lectures on art before the Royal Academy, remarked that the two principal causes
which materially tended to assist the restoration of literature and the arts in Europe
were Freemasonry and the Crusades. The
adventurers, he said, who returned from
the Holy Land brought back some ideas
of various improvements, particularly in
architecture, and, along with these, a strong
desire to erect castellated, ecclesiastical,
and palatial edifices, to display the taste
they had acquired and in less than a century from the first Crusade above six hundred buildings of the above description
had been erected in southern and western
Europe. This taste was spread into almost
all countries by the establishment of the
Fraternity of Freemasons, who, it appears,
had, under some peculiar form of brotherhood, existed for an immemorial period in
Syria and other parts of the East, from
whence some bands of them migrated to
Europe, and after a time a great efflux of
Italian, German,
these ingenious men
had spread themFrench, Spanish, etc.

communities through all civilized

Europe; and in all countries where they

selves in

we find the same style of architecture from that period, but differing in some
points of treatment, as suited the climate.
Ansata. This signifies, in Latin,
the cross with a handle. It is formed by a tau
cross surmounted by a circle or, more propsettled

Crux

was one of the most sigsymbols of the ancient

is depicted repeatedly on
their monuments borne in the hands of
erly,

an

oval.

It

of the
Egyptians, and

nificant

CUNNING

CRYPT
and especially Phtha.
was the symbol of
life, and with that meaning it
has been introduced into some
of the higher degrees of Masonry.
The crux ansata, surrounded by a
serpent in a circle, is the symbol
their deities,

them

Among

it

of immortality, because the cross

was the symbol of life, and the
serpent of eternity.
Crypt. From the Greek,
KpvnT?/.
concealed place, or subterranean
vault. The caves, or cells under ground, in
which the primitive Christians celebrated

their secret worship,were called cryptae ; and

the vaults beneath our modern churches receive the name of crypts. The existence of
crypts or vaults under the Temple of Solomon is testified to by the earliest as well
as by the most recent topographers of Jerusalem. Their connection with the legendary history of Masonry is more fully noticed
under the head of Secret Vault
Cryptic Degrees. The degrees of
Eoyal and Select Master. Some modern
ritualists have added to the list the degree
of Super- Excellent Master; but this, although now often conferred in a Cryptic
Council, is not really a Cryptic degree,
since its legend has no connection with the
crypt or secret vault.
Cryptic Masonry. That division
of the Masonic system which is directed to
the investigation and cultivation of the
Cryptic degrees. It is, literally, the Masonry of the secret vault.
Cteis. Greek, K-elg. The female personification of the productive principle.
It generally accompanied the phallus, as
the Indian yoni did the lingam and as a
symbol of the prolific powers of nature,
was extensively venerated by the nations
of antiquity. See Phallus.
;

199

ing the natives to Christianity, he found

the country already occupied by a body of
priests

and their

disciples,

who were

dis-

tinguished for the pure and simple apostolic religion which they professed.
These
were the Culdees, a name said by some to
be derived from Cultores Dei, or worshippers of God but by others, with, perhaps,
more plausibility, from the Gaelic, Guildich,
which means a secluded corner, and evidently alludes to their recluse mode of life.
The Culdees are said to have come over
into Britain with the Eoman legions and
thus it has been conjectured that these
primitive Christians were in some way connected with the Eoman Colleges of Architects, branches of which body, it is well
known, everywhere accompanied the legionary armies of the empire. The chief
seat of the Culdees was in the island of
Iona, where St. Columba, coming out of
Ireland, with twelve brethren, in the year
563, established their principal monastery.
At Avernethy, the capital of the kingdom
of the Picts, they founded another in the
year 600, and subsequently other principal
seats at Dunkeld, St. Andrew's, Brechin,
Dunblane, Dumferline, Kirkaldy, Melrose,
and many other places in Scotland.
writer in the London Freemasons' Quarterly Review (1842, p. 36,) says they were
;

architectural structures, but sought chiefly to civilize and socialize mankind by imparting to them the

little solicitous to raise

knowledge of those pure principles which

they taught in their Lodges. Lenning and
G'adicke, however, both state that the Culdees had organized within themselves, and
as a part of their social system, Corporations of Builders and that they exercised
the architectural art in the construction
of many sacred edifices in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and even in other countries of Northern Europe.
G'adicke also
claims that the York Constitutions of the
:

Cubical Stone. This symbol is called

by the French Masons, pierre cubique, and
by the German, cubik stein. It is the Per- tenth century were derived from them.
fect Ashlar of the English and American But neither of these German lexicographers
has furnished us with authorities upon
systems. See Ashlar, Perfect.
"
Cubit. A measure of length, origi- which these statements are founded. It is,
nally denoting the distance from the elbow however, undeniable, that Masonic writers
to the extremity of the middle Auger, or have always claimed that there was a conit might be only a mythical one
the fourth part of a well-proportioned man's nection
between these apostolic Christians and
stature.
The Hebrew cubit, according to
the early Masonry of Ireland and Scotland.
Bishop Cumberland, was twenty-one inches
but only eighteen according to other au- The Culdees were opposed and persecuted
thorities.
There were two kinds of cubits, by the adherents of St. Augustine, and were
the former equal eventually extinguished in Scotland. But
the sacred and profane,
to thirty-six, and the latter to eighteen their complete suppression did not take
inches.
It is by the common cubit that place until about the fourteenth century.
the dimensions of the various parts of the
Cunning. Used by old English writers in the sense of skilful. Thus, in 1 Kings
Temple are to be computed.
Culdees. When St. Augustine came viii. 14, it is said of the architect who was
over, in the beginning of the sixth cen- sent by the king of Tyre to assist King
tury, to Britain, for the purpose of convert- Solomon in the construction of his Temple,

DA COSTA

CUP

200

that he was " cunning to

in brass."

work

Cup of Bitterness.
A

in all works

Calice

d'Amer-

ceremony in the first degree of

the French Eite. It is a symbol of the
misfortunes and sorrows that assail us in
the voyage of life, and which we are taught
to support with calmness and resignation.
tume.)

Curetes.

Priests

of ancient

Crete,

whose mysteries were celebrated in honor

of the Mother of the Gods, and bore, therefore, some resemblance to the Eleusinian
rites.
The neophyte was initiated in a
cave, where he remained closely confined
for thrice nine days.
Porphyry tells us
that Pythagoras repaired to Crete to receive initiation into their rites.
Curiosity. It is a very general opinion among Masons that a candidate should
not be actuated by curiosity in seeking
admission into the Order. But, in fact,
there is no regulation nor landmark on the
subject. An idle curiosity is, it is true, the
characteristic of a weak mind.
But to be
influenced by a laudable curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of an Institution venerable for its antiquity and its universality,
is to be controlled by a motive which is
not reprehensible. There are, indeed, in
legends of the high degrees, some instances
where curiosity is condemned but the curiosity, in these instances, led to an, intrusion into forbidden places, and is very different from the curiosity or desire for
knowledge which leads a profane to seek
;

and openly an acquaintance with

mysteries which he has already learned to
fairly

An

archaic expression for careful.

Masonic language, which abounds

in archaisms, an evidence, indeed, of its
antiquity, Hiram Abif is described as a
" curious and cunning workman," that is to
say, " careful and skilful."
in

Customs, Ancient.
Cynocephalus. The

See Usages.
figure of a man

Latin, curiosus, from cura,

with the head of a dog. A very general

and important hieroglyphic among the ancient Egyptians.
It was with them a symbol of the sun and moon and in their mysteries they taught that it had indicated to
Isis the place where the body of Osiris lay
concealed.
The possessor of the high degrees of Masonry will be familiar with the
symbol of a dog, which is used in those degrees because that animal is said to have
pointed out on a certain occasion an important secret. Hence the figure of a dog
is sometimes found engraved among the
symbols on old Masonic diplomas.
Cyrus. Cyrus, king of Persia, was a
great conqueror, and after having reduced
nearly all Asia, he crossed the Euphrates,
and laid siege to Babylon, which he took
;

by diverting the course of the river,

which ran through it. The Jews, who
had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar on the destruction of the Temple,
were then remaining as captives in BabyThese Cyrus released A. M. 3466, or
and sent them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of God, under the
care of Joshua, Zerubbabel, and Haggai.
Hence, from this connection of Cyrus with
the history of Masonry, he plays an imlon.

B. c. 538,

portant part in the rituals of

respect.

Curious.

care.

Thus

many

of the

high degrees.

D.
I>a Costa Hyppolito, Jose.

Portuguese who was initiated into Masonry

in the beginning of this century, and was
subsequently persecuted by the Inquisition,
and was rescued only in time to save his
life by the aid of English brethren who got
him under the protection of the English
flag.
He then passed over into England,
where he lived for several years, becoming
a zealous Mason and devoting himself to
Masonic literature. In 1811, he published
in London a Narrative of his persecution
in Lisbon, by the Inquisition, for the pretended crime of Freemasonry, in 2 vols.,
8vo.
He wrote also a History of the Dio-

nysian Artificers, in which he attempts to

connect Freemasonry with the Dionysian
and other mysteries of the ancients. He
begins with the Eleusinian mysteries, assuming that Dionysus, Bacchus, Adonis,
Thammuz, and Apollo were all various
names for the sun, whose apparent movements are represented by the death and
resurrection referred to in the ceremonies.
But as the sun is typified as being dead or
hidden for three months under the horizon,
he thinks that these mysteries must have
originated in a cold climate as far north as
latitude 66, or among a people living near
the polar circle. He therefore attributes

DALCHO

DADUCHOS

201

On the 12th June, 1818, Dr. Dalcho was

the invention of these mysteries to the
ancient Scythians or Massagetae, of whom admitted to the priesthood of the ProtestOn the 23d of
he confesses that we know nothing. He ant Episcopal Church.
afterwards gives the history of the Diony- February, he was elected assistant minister
siac or Orphic mysteries of Eleusis, and of St. Michael's Church, in Charleston.
draws a successful parallel between the ini- He died on the 21th of November, 1836, in
tiation into these and the Masonic initia- the sixty-seventh year of his age, and the
His disquisitions are marked by seventeenth of his ministry in St. Michael's
tion.
much learning, although his reasoning may Church.
The principal published work of Dr.
not always carry conviction.
torch - bearer.
The Dalcho is, An Historical Account of the
Daduchos.
title given to an officer in the Eleusinian Protestant Episcopal Church in South Caromysteries, who bore a torch in commemo- lina. He also published a work entitled
ration of the torch lit by Ceres at the fire The Evidence from Prophecy for the Truth
of Mt. Etna, and carried by her through of Christianity and the Divinity of Christ
besides several sermons and essays, some
the world in her search for her daughter.
Dagger. In the high degrees a symbol of which were the result of considerable
of Masonic vengeance, or the punishment labor and research. He was also the projector, and for a long time the principal
of crime.. See Vengeance.
Dais. From the French dais, a canopy. conductor, of the Gospel Messenger, then
The raised floor at the head of a banquet- the leading organ of the Episcopal Church
ing-room, designed for guests of distinction
in South Carolina.
The Masonic career of Dr. Dalcho closely
so called because it used to be decorated
with a canopy. In Masonic language, the connects him with the history of York Madais is the elevated portion of the eastern sonry in South Carolina, and with that of
part of the Lodge room, which is occupied the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite
by Past Masters and the dignitaries of the Or- throughout the United States.
der. This should beelevated three steps above
He was initiated in a York or Athol
the floor. The station of the Junior Warden Lodge at the time when the jurisdiction of
is raised one, and that of the Senior two.
South Carolina was divided by the existDalclio, Frederick, M. I>. One ence and the dissensions of two Grand
of the founders of the Supreme Council of Lodges, the one deriving its authority from
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted
for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United Masons of England, and the other from the
States.
He was born in the city of London spurious or Athol Grand Lodge of York
in the year 1770, of Prussian parents. His Masons.
father had been a distinguished officer
His constant desire appears, however, to
under Frederick the Great, and, having have been to unite these discordant elebeen severely wounded, was permitted to ments, and to uproot the evil spirit of Maretire to England for his health.
He was sonic rivalry and contention which at that
a very earnest Mason, and transmitted his time prevailed
a wish which was hapsentiments to his son. At his death, this pily gratified, at length, by the union of
son was sent for by an uncle, who had a the two Grand Lodges of South Carolina in
few years before emigrated to Baltimore. 1817, a consummation to which he himself
Here he obtained a good classical education, greatly contributed.
after which he devoted himself successfully
In 1801 Dr. Dalcho received the thirtyto the study of medicine, including a more third and ultimate degree, or Sovereign
extensive course of botany than is common Grand Inspector of the Ancient and Acin medical schools.
cepted Scottish Eite and May 31, 1801, he
Having received his degree of Doctor of became instrumental in the establishment
Medicine, he took a commission in the at Charleston of the Supreme Council for
medical department of the American army. the Southern Jurisdiction of the United
With his division of the army he came to States, of which body he was appointed
South Carolina, and was stationed at Fort Grand Secretary, and afterwards Grand
Johnson, in Charleston harbor. Here some Commander which latter position he ocdifficulty arose between Dr. Dalcho and his cupied until 1823, when he resigned.
brother officers, in consequence of which
September 23, 1801, he delivered an orahe resigned his place in the army in 1799. tion before the Sublime Grand Lodge in
He then removed to Charleston, where he Charleston. This and another delivered
formed a partnership in the practice of March 21, 1803, before the same body, acphysic with Isaac Auld, and he became a companied by a learned historical appenmember of the Medical Society, and a dix, were published in the latter year untrustee of the Botanic Garden, established der the general name of Dalcho 's Orations.
through its influence.
The work was soon after republished in

'

202

DANGER

DAMASCUS

Dublin by the Grand Council of Heredom,

or Prince Masons of that city and McCosh
says that there were other editions issued
in Europe, which, however, I have never
The oration of 1803 and the appenseen.
;

dix furnish the best information that up to

that day, and for many years afterwards, was
accessible to the Craft in relation to the history of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Eite in this country.
In 1807, at the request of the Grand
Lodge of York Masons of South Carolina,
he published an " Ahiman Kezon," which
was adopted as the code for the government
of the Lodges under the jurisdiction of that
body. This work, as was to be expected
from the character of the Grand Lodge
which it represented, was based on the previous book of Laurence Dermott.
In 1808 he was elected Corresponding
Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of
Ancient York Masons, and from that time
directed the influences of his high position to
the reconciliation of the Masonic difficulties in

South Carolina.

In 1817 the Grand Lodge of Free and

Accepted Masons and that of Ancient York
Masons of South Carolina became united
under the name of " The Grand Lodge of
Ancient Freemasons of South Carolina."
Dr. Dalcho took a very active part in this
reunion, and at the first annual communication he was elected Grand Chaplain.
The duties of this office he faithfully performed, and for many years delivered a
public address or sermon on the Festival
of St. John the Evangelist.
In 1822 he prepared a second edition of
the "Ahiman Rezon," which was published
the following year, enriched with many
notes.
Some of these notes he would have
hardly written, with the enlarged experience
of the present day but on the whole the
second edition was an improvement on the
first. Although retaining the peculiar title
which had been introduced by Dermott, it
ceased in a great measure to follow the
principles of the " Ancient Masons."
;

In 1823 Dalcho became involved in an

unpleasant controversy with some of his
Masonic associates, in consequence of difficulties and dissensions which at that time
existed in the Scottish Rite and his feelings were so wounded by the unmasonic
spirit which seemed to actuate his antagonists and former friends, that he resigned
the office of Grand Chaplain, and retired
for the remainder of his life from all participation in the active duties of Masonry.
Damascus. An ancient and important city of Syria, situated on the road
between Babylon and Jerusalem, and said
in Masonic tradition to have been one of
the resting-places of the Masons who,
;

under the proclamation of Cyrus, returned

from the former to the latter city to rebuild
the Temple. An attempt was made in
1868 to introduce Freemasonry into Damascus, and a petition, signed by fifteen
applicants, for a charter for a Lodge was
sent to the Grand Lodge of England but
the petition was rejected on the ground
that all the petitioners were members of
Grand Lodges under other Grand Lodge
;

jurisdictions.

Dame.

In one of the York and some

of the other old manuscripts, we find the
direction to the Apprentice that he shall
not so act as to bring harm or shame, during
his apprenticeship, "either to his Master
or Dame." It is absurd to suppose that
this gives any color to the theory that in
the ancient Masonic gilds women were admitted. The word was used in the same
sense as it still is in the public schools of
England, where the old lady who keeps the
house at which the pupils board and lodge,

The Compagnons
called "the dame."
de la Tour in France called her " la mere,"
or the mother. It must, however, be acknowledged, that women, under the title of
sisters, were admitted as members, and given
the freedom of the company, in the old
a custom
Livery Companies of London,
which Herbert (Hist. Liv. Comp., i. 83,)
thinks was borrowed, on the reconstitution
of the companies by Edward III., from
the religious gilds. See this subject discussed under the title Sisters.
is

Dames of

Mt. Tabor.

An

an-

drogynous Masonic society, established

about the year 1818, under the auspices
of the Grand Orient of France. Its design
was to give charitable relief to destitute
females.

Dames of the Order of St. John.

Religious ladies who, from
tion,

had been admitted

its first institu-

into the Fraternity

of Knights Hospitallers of St. John of JeThe rules for their reception

rusalem.
were similar to those for the Knights, and
the proofs of noble descent which were
required of them were sometimes more
They had many conventual estabrigid.
lishments in France, Italy, and Spain.
name given in the
Damoisel.
times of chivalry to a page or candidate

for

knighthood.

Dan. One of the twelve tribes of Israel,

whose blue banner, charged with an eagle,
is borne by the Grand Master of the First
Veil in a Royal Arch Chapter.

Danger.

In

all

the old Constitutions

and Charges, Masons are taught to exercise

brotherly love, and to deal honestly and
truly with each other, whence results the
duty incumbent upon every Mason to warn
That
his brother of approaching danger.

DANNEBKOG
this

Daimebrog.

The banner

of Denmark containing a red cross. It is founded

upon the tradition, which reminds us of
that of Constantine, ftiat Waldemar II.,
of Denmark, in 1219 saw in the heavens
a fiery cross, which betokened his victory
over the Esthonians.
Dantzic. In the year 1768, on the
3d of October, the burgomaster and magistrates of the city of Dantzic commenced
a persecution against Freemasonry, which
Institution they charged with seeking to
undermine the foundations of Christianity,
and to establish in its place the religion of
nature. Hence, they issued a decree forbidding every citizen, inhabitant, and even
stranger sojourning in the city, from any
attempt to re-establish the society of Freemasons, which was thenceforth to be regarded " as forever abolished," under penalties of fine and imprisonment.
Darius. The successor of Cyrus on
the throne of Persia, Babylon, and Medea.
He pursued the friendly policy of his predecessor in reference to the Jews, and confirmed the decrees of that monarch by a
new edict. In the second year of his reign,
Haggai and Zechariah, encouraged by this

induced their countrymen to resume

work of restoring the Temple, which

edict,

the

203

may never be neglected, it is im- ies the feelings which gave origin
upon every Master Mason by a debasing worship of darkness

significant ceremony.

was finished four years afterwards.

Darius

referred to in the degrees of Princes of

Jerusalem, the sixteenth of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Bite, and of Knight
of the Bed Cross in the American Bite.
Darkness. Darkness has, in all the

is

systems of initiation, been deemed a symbol of ignorance, and so opposed to light,

which is the symbol of knowledge. Hence
the rule, that the eye should not see until
the heart has conceived the true nature of
those beauties which constitute the mysteries of the Order.
In the Ancient Mysteries, the aspirant was always shrouded in
darkness, as a preparatory step to the reception of the full light of knowledge.
The
time of this confinement in darkness and
solitude varied in the different mysteries.
Among the Druids of Britain the period
was nine days and nights in the Grecian
Mysteries it was three times nine days;
while among the Persians, according to
;

Porphyry,

it

was extended

to the almost

incredible period of fifty days of darkness,

solitude,

and

D'ASSIGNY

duty

pressed

fasting.

Because, according to all the cosmogonies, darkness existed before light was created, darkness was originally worshipped
as the first-born, as the progenitor of day
and the state of existence before creation.
The apostrophe of Young to Night embod-

to this

" O majestic night

Nature's great ancestor day's elder born
And fated to survive the transient sun
By mortals and immortals seen with awe "
!

Freemasonry has restored darkness to its

proper place as a state of preparation the
symbol of that antemundane chaos from
whence light issued at the divine command
of the state of nonentity before birth, and
of ignorance before the reception of knowledge. Hence, in the Ancient Mysteries,
the release of the aspirant from solitude
and darkness was called the act of regeneration, and he was said to be born again,
or to be raised from the dead. And in
Masonry, the darkness which envelops the
mind of the uninitiated being removed by
the bright effulgence of Masonic light,
Masons are appropriately called " the sons
of light. 5
In Dr. Oliver's Signs and Symbols there
is a lecture " On the Mysterious Darkness
of the Third Degree." This refers to the
ceremony of enveloping the room in darkness when that degree is conferred
a ceremony once always observed, but now, in
this country at least, frequently but improThe darkness here is a
perly omitted.
symbol of death, the lesson taught in the
degree, while the subsequent renewal of
light refers to that other and subsequent
;

'

lesson of eternal

life.

Darmstadt, Grand Lodge

of.

The Grand Lodge

of Darmstadt, in Germany, under the distinctive appellation of

the Grand Lodge zur Eintracht, was established on the 23d of March, 1846, by three
Lodges, in consequence of a dissension between them and the Eclectic Union. The
latter body had declared that the religion
of Freemasonry was universal, and that
Jews could be admitted into the Order.
Against this liberal declaration a Lodge at

Frankfort had protested, and had been

erased from the roll for contumacy. Two
other Lodges, at Mainz and at Darmstadt,
espoused its cause, and united with it in
forming a new Grand Lodge for southern
Germany, founded on the dogma " that
Christian principles formed the basis on
which they worked." It was, in fact, a
dispute between tolerance and intolerance.
Nevertheless, the body was taken under the
patronage of the Grand Duke of Hesse,
and was recognized by most of the Grand
Lodges of Germany.

D'Assigny, Doctor Fifield.

Mason

who

published,
in 1744, at Dublin,
Serious and Impartial
Enquiry into the Cause of the present Decay of
Freemasonry in the Kingdom of Ireland. It

of Dublin, Ireland,

DATES

DEAF

contained an abstract of the history of

Freemasonry, and several allusions to the
Royal Arch degree, on account of which
it has been cited by Dermott in his Ahiman
Rezon. Bro. Hughan, who is the possessor
of a copy of this exceedingly scarce book,
also quotes a passage from it of some im"I am informed," says D'Asportance.
signy, " that in that city (York) is held an
assembly of Master Masons, under the title
If true, this
of Royal Arch Masons."
would settle an important point in relation
to the history of the Royal Arch degree.
Hughan doubts its accuracy and, indeed,
D'Assigny
if Ave may judge from other
does not seem to
remarks in his Enquiry
have been acquainted with the true character of the Royal Arch.
Hates, Masonic. See Calendar.
Dathan. A Reubenite who, with Korah
and Abiram, revolted against Moses and
unlawfully sought the priesthood. In the
first chapter of the Book of Numbers, where
the whole account is given, it is said that
as a punishment the earth opened and
swallowed them up. The incident is referred to in the Order of High Priesthood,
an honorary degree of the American Rite,
which is conferred upon the installed High
Priests of Royal Arch Chapters.
Daughter, Mason's. See Mason's
Wife and Daughter.

ject among the Kabbalists and the Mussulmans, who relate many curious traditions
concerning him, he is not alluded to in the
legends or symbolism of Masonry, except
incidentally as the father of Solomon.
David, Shield of. See Shield of
David.

204

Daughter of a Mason.

The daugh-

ter of a Mason is entitled to certain peculiar privileges and claims upon the Fra-

ternity arising from her relationship to a

member

of the Craft. There has been some

difference of opinion as to the time and
manner in which the privileges cease.

Masonic jurists, however, very generally

in-

cline to the opinion that they are termi-

nated by marriage. If a Mason's daughter

marries a profane, she absolves her connection with the Fraternity. If she marries
a Mason, she exchanges her relation of a
Mason's daughter for that of a Mason's
wife.

David. David has

no place in Masonic
history, except that which arises from the
fact that he was the father of King Solomon,
and his predecessor on the throne of Israel.
To him, however, were the Jews indebted
for the design of a Temple in Jerusalem,
the building of which was a favorite object
with him. For this purpose he purchased
Mount Moriah, which had been the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite but David
had been engaged in so many wars, that it
did not seem good to the Lord that he
should be permitted to construct so sacred
an edifice. This duty, therefore, he left to
his son, whom, before dying, he furnished
with plans and with means to accomplish
the task. Though David is a favorite sub;

at

Dazard, Michel Francois. Born

Chateaudun, in France, May 2, 1781. He

was a devoted student of Masonry, and

much

occupied in the investigation of the

high degrees of all the Rites. He was an
opponent of the Supreme Council, against
which body he wrote, in 1812, a brochure
of forty- eight pages entitled Extrait des
colonnes gravees du Pere de Famille, vallee d'
Angers. Kloss calls it an important and
exhaustive polemic document. It attempts
to expose, supported by documents, what
the author and his party called the illegal
pretensions of the Supreme Council, and
the arrogance of its claim to exclusive jurisdiction in France. Dazard was the author
of several other interesting discourses on

Masonic

subjects.

Deacon.

In every Symbolic Lodge,

who are called the

Senior and Junior Deacons. The former
is appointed by the Master, and the latter
by the Senior Warden. It is to the Deacons
that the introduction of visitors should be
properly intrusted. Their duties comprehend, also, a general surveillance over the
security of the Lodge, and they are the
proxies of the officers by whom they are
appointed.
Hence their jewel, in allusion to the necessity of circumspection
and justice, is a square and compasses.
In the centre, the Senior Deacon wears
a sun, and the Junior Deacon a moon,

there are two officers

which serve

to distinguish their respecranks. In the English system, the

jewel of the Deacons is a dove, in allusion
In the
to the dove sent forth by Noah.
Rite of Mizraim, the Deacons are called
tive

acolytes.

The office of Deacons in Masonry appears to have been derived from the usages
In the Greek
of the primitive church.
church, the Deacons were always the nvlupoi,
pylori or doorkeepers, and in the Apostolical Constitutions the Deacon was ordered to
stand at the men's door, and the sub-Deacon
at the women's, to see that none came in or
went out during the oblation.
In the earliest rituals of the last century,
there is no mention of Deacons, and the
duties of those officers were discharged
partly by the Junior Warden and partly by
the Senior and Junior Entered Apprentices.
Deacon's Rod. See Rod, Deacons.
Deaf mutes, as imperfect men, come under the provisions of the
Old Constitutions, and are disqualified for

Deaf and Dumh.

"

DEATH

DECALOGUE

Some years ago, however, a Lodge

in Paris, captivated by the eclat of the proceeding, and unmindful of the ancient landmark, initiated a deaf mute, who was an intelAsyligent professor in the Deaf and
All the instructions were given
lum.

representing the death, by violence, of the

deity to whom it was dedicated, and his subsequent resurrection or restoration to life.
Hence, the first part of the ceremonies of
initiation was solemn and lugubrious in
character, while the latter part was cheerful
and joyous. These ceremonies and this
legend were altogether symbolical, and the
great truths of the unity of God and the
immortality of the soul were by them intended to be dramatically explained.
This representation of death, which finds
its analogue in the third degree of Masonry,
has been technically called the Death of
the Mysteries. It is sometimes more precisely defined, in reference to any special
one of the Mysteries, as "the Cabiric death "
or " the Bacchic death," as indicating the
death represented in the Mysteries of the
Cabiri or of Dionysus.
Debate. Debates in a Masonic Lodge
must be conducted according to the fraternal principles of the Institution. In the
language of Dr. Oliver, " the strictest courtesy should be observed during a debate, in
a Mason's Lodge, on questions which elicit
a difference of opinion and any gross violation of decorum and good order is sure to
be met by an admonition from the chair."
It must be always remembered that the
object of a Masonic discussion is to elicit
truth, and not simply to secure victory.
When, in a debate, a brother desires to
speak, he rises and addresses the chair.
The presiding officer calls him by his name,
and thus recognizes his right to the floor.
While he is speaking, he is not to be interrupted by any other member, except on a
point of order. If called to order by any

initiation.

Dumb

through the medium of the language of the

deaf mutes. It scarcely need be said that
this cannot be recognized as a precedent.
Death. The Scandinavians, in their
Edda, describing the residence of Death in
Hell, where she was cast by her father,
Loke, say that she there possesses large
apartments, strongly built, and fenced with
gates of iron. Her hall is Grief; her table,
Famine; Hunger, her knife; Delay, her
servant; Faintness, her porch; Sickness
and Pain, her bed; and her tent, Cursing and Howling. But the Masonic idea
of death, like the , Christians, is accompanied with no gloom, because it is represented only as a sleep, from whence we
awaken into another life. Among the ancients, sleep and death were fabled as twins.
Old Gorgias, when dying, said, " Sleep is
;
about to deliver me up to his brother
but the death-sleep of the heathen was a
sleep from which there was no awaking.
The popular belief was annihilation, and
the poets and philosophers fostered the
people's ignorance, by describing death as
the total and irremediable extinction of life.
and he was too philoThus Seneca says
sophic not to have known better "that after
death there comes nothing " while Virgil,
who doubtless had been initiated into the
mysteries of Eleusis, nevertheless calls death
" an iron sleep, an eternal night " yet the
Ancient Mysteries were based upon the
dogma of eternal life, and their initiations
were intended to represent a resurrection.
Masonry, deriving its system of symbolic
teachings from these ancient religious associations, presents death to its neophytes as
the gate or entrance to eternal existence.
To teach the doctrine of immortality is the
great object of the third degree. In its
ceremonies we learn that life here is the
time of labor, and that, working at the
construction of a spiritual temple, we are
worshipping the Grand Architect, for whom
we build that temple. But we learn also
that, when that life is ended, it closes only
to open upon a newer and higher one,
where, in a second temple and a purer Lodge,
the Mason will find eternal truth. Death,
therefore, in Masonic philosophy, is the
symbol of initiation completed, perfected,

and consummated.

Heath of the Mysteries.

Each

of the ancient religious Mysteries, those

quasi Masonic associations of the heathen
world, was accompanied by a legend,
which was always of a funereal character,

205

member, the speaker is immediately

to take
his seat until the point is stated, when the
Master will make his decision without deThe speaker will then rise and rebate.
sume his discourse, if not ruled out by the

During the time that he is speakEvery

no motion is permissible.
member is permitted to speak once on the
subject under discussion nor can he speak
a second time, except by permission of the
Master, unless there is a more liberal provision in the by-laws of the Lodge. There
are to this rule two exceptions, namely,
when a member rises to explain, and when
the mover of the resolution closes the debate by a second speech to which he is entitled by parliamentary law.
Master.

ing,

Decalogue. The ten commandments

of the Masonic law, as delivered from
Mount Sinai and recorded in the twentieth
chapter of Exodus, are so called. They
are not obligatory upon a Mason as a Mason, because the Institution is tolerant and
cosmopolite, and cannot require its members to give their adhesion to any religious

DECITJS

DEDICATION

precepts, excepting those which

express a belief in the existence of God,
and the immortality of the soul. No partial law prescribed for a particular religion
can be properly selected for the government
of an Institution whose great characteristic

courteous to your brethren, and faithful to

your Lodge? 8. Do you promise to respect
genuine and true brethren, and to discountenance impostors and all dissenters from
the Ancient Landmarks and Constitutions

206

dogmas or

See Moral Law.

The nom de plume of C. L.

is its universality.

Decius.

Eeinhold, a distinguished Masonic writer.

See Reinhold.

of Masonry? 9 Do you promise, according to the best of your abilities, to promote

the general good of society, to cultivate the
social virtues, and to propagate the knowledge of the mystic art, according to our

Declaration of Candidates. statutes ? 10. Do you promise to pay homEvery candidate for initiation is required age to the Grand Master for the time being,
to make, " upon honor/' the following dec- and to his officers when duly installed and
laration before an appropriate officer or strictly to conform to every edict of the
committee. That, unbiassed by the impro- Grand Lodge or General Assembly of
per solicitation of friends and uninfluenced Masons that is not subversive of the prinby mercenary motives, he freely and volun- ciples and groundwork of Masonry? 11.
tarily offers himself as a candidate for the Do you admit that it is not in the power of
mysteries of Masonry that he is prompted any man, or body of men, to make innovato solicit the privileges of Masonry by a tions in the body of Masonry ? 12. Do you
favorable opinion conceived of the Institu- promise a regular attendance on the comtion and a desire of knowledge and that he mittees and communications of the Grand
will cheerfully conform to all the ancient Lodge, on receiving proper notice, and to
usages and established customs of the Fra- pay attention to all the duties of Masonry,
This form is very old. It is to be on convenient occasions ? 13. Do you adternity.
found in precisely the same words in the mit that no new Lodge can be formed withearliest edition of Preston.
It is required out permission of the Grand Lodge; and
by the English Constitution, that the can- that no countenance ought to be given to
didate should subscribe his name to the any irregular Lodge, or to any person clandeclaration which is made before the Stew- destinely initiated therein, as being conards.
But in this country the declaration trary to the ancient charges of the Order ?
is made orally, and usually before the
14. Do you admit that no person can be
regularly made a Freemason in, or admitted
Senior Deacon.
Declaration of the Master. Every a member of, any regular Lodge, without
Master of a Lodge, after his election and previous notice, and due inquiry into his
before his installation, is required to give, character ? 15. Do you agree that no visin the presence of the brethren, his assent itors shall be received into your Lodge withto the following fifteen charges and regula- out due examination, and producing proper
tions.
vouchers of their having been initiated
in a regular Lodge ?
1. Do you promise to be a good man and
true, and strictly to obey the moral law ?
Decorations. A Lodge room ought,
besides its necessary furniture, to be orna2. Do you promise to be a peaceable citizen,
and cheerfully to conform to the laws of mented with decorations which, while they
the country in which you reside ? 3. Do adorn and beautify it, will not be unsuityou promise not to be concerned in plots able to its sacred character. On this suband conspiracies against the government of ject, Dr. Oliver, in his Book of the Lodge,
the country in which you live, but patiently (ch. v., p. 70,) makes the following judito submit to the decisions of the law and cious remarks. " The expert Mason will be
convinced that the walls of a Lodge room
the constituted authorities ?
4. Do you
promise to pay proper respect to the civil ought neither to be absolutely naked nor
magistrates, to work diligently, live credit- too much decorated. A chaste disposal of
ably, and act honorably by all men? 5. Do symbolical ornaments in the right places,
you promise to hold in veneration the orig- and according to propriety, relieves the
inal rulers and patrons of the Order of dulness and vacuity of a blank space, and,
Freemasonry, and their regular successors, though but sparingly used, will produce a
supreme and subordinate, according to their striking impression, arid contribute to the
stations and to submit to the awards and general beauty and solemnity of the scene."
resolutions of your brethren in Lodge conDedication of a Lodge. Among
;

vened, in every case consistent with the

constitutions of the Order? 6. Do you
promise, as much as in you lies, to avoid
private piques and quarrels, and to guard
against intemperance and excess? 7. Do
you promise to be cautious in your behavior,

the ancients every temple, altar, statue, or

sacred place was dedicated to some divinity.
The Komans, during the Republic, confided
this duty to their consuls, praetors, censors,

or other chief magistrates, and afterwards

to the emperors. According to the Papirian

DEDICATION

DEDICATION

law, the dedication must have been authorized by a decree of the senate and the people, and the consent of the college of augurs.
The ceremony consisted in surrounding the
temple or object of dedication with garlands of flowers, whilst the vestal virgins
poured on the exterior of the temple the
The dedication was comlustral water.
pleted by a formula of words uttered by the
pontiff, and the immolation of a victim,
whose entrails were placed upon an altar
The dedication of a temple was
of turf.
always a festival for the people, and was

annually commemorated. While the Pagans dedicated their temples to different

deities,
sometimes to the joint worship
the monotheistic Jews dediof several,
cated their religious edifices to the one
supreme Jehovah. Thus, David dedicated
with solemn ceremonies the altar which he
erected on the threshing-floor of Oman
the Jebusite, after the cessation of the
plague which had afflicted his people and
Calmet conjectures that he composed the

thirtieth

Psalm on

The Jews

this occasion.

extended this ceremony of dedication even

to their private houses, and Clarke tells us,
in reference to a passage on this subject in
the book of Deuteronomy, that " it was a
custom in Israel to dedicate a new house to
God with prayer, praise, and thanksgiving
and this was done in order to secure the
divine presence and blessing, for no pious
or sensible man could imagine he could
dwell safely in a house that was not under
the immediate protection of God."
According to the learned Selden, there
was a distinction among the Jews between
consecration and dedication, for sacred
things were both consecrated and dedicated,
while profane things, such as private dwelling-houses, were only dedicated. Dedication was, therefore, a less sacred ceremony
than consecration.
This distinction has
also been preserved among Christians,
many of whom, and, in the early ages, all,
consecrated their churches to the worship
of God, but dedicated them to, or placed
them under, the especial patronage of some
particular saint.
similar practice prevails in the Masonic institution and therefore, while we consecrate our Lodges " to
the honor of God's glory," we dedicate
them to the patrons of our Order.
Tradition informs us that Masonic Lodges
were originally dedicated to King Solomon,

because he was our first Most Excellent

Grand Master. In the sixteenth century
St. John the Baptist seems to have been
considered as the peculiar patron of Freemasonry but subsequently this honor was
divided between the two Saints John, the
Baptist and the Evangelist; and modern
Lodges, in this country at least, are uni;

207
and
In the

versally erected or consecrated to God,

dedicated to the

Holy Saints John.

Hemming lectures, adopted in 1813, at the

time of the union of the two Grand Lodges
of England, the dedication was changed
from the Saints John to King Solomon,
and this usage now prevails very generally
in England but the ancient dedication to
the Saints John has never been abandoned
by the American Lodges.
The formula in Webb which dedicates
the Lodge "to the memory of the Holy
Saint John," was, undoubtedly, an inadvertence on the part of that lecturer, since
in all his oral teachings he adhered to the
;

more general system, and described a Lodge

in his esoteric work as being " dedicated to
the Holy Saints John." This is now the
universal practice, and the language used
by Webb becomes contradictory and absurd
when compared with the fact that the festivals of

both saints are equally celebrated

by the Order, and that the 27th of December is not less a day of observance in the
Order than the 24th of June.
In one of the old lectures of the last
century, this dedication to the two Saints

John

thus explained

is

" Q. Our Lodges being finished, furnished, and decorated with ornaments,
furniture, and jewels, to whom were they

consecrated ?

"A. To God.
" Q.
tell

me

Thank
to

you, brother and can you

they were first dedicated?
Noah, who was saved in the
;

whom

"A. To
ark.

" Q. And by what name were the Masons

then known ?
" A. They were called Noachidse, Sages,

Wise Men.

or

To whom were the Lodges dedicated

during the Mosaic dispensation ?
"A. To Moses, the chosen of God, and
Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel,
who was an eminent patron of the Craft.
" Q. And under what name were the
Masons known during that period ?
11
A. Under the name of Dionysiacs,
Geometricians, or Masters in Israel.
" Q. But as Solomon was a Jew, and
died long before the promulgation of Christianity, to whom were they dedicated under
" Q.

the Christian dispensation ?

"A. From Solomon the patronage of
Masonry passed to St. John the Baptist.
" Q. And under what name were they

known

after the

promulgation of Christi-

anity ?
" A.

Under the name of Essenes, Archi-

tects, or

" Q.

Freemasons.
were the Lodges dedicated to

Why

John the Baptist ?

" A. Because he was the forerunner of

St.

DEDICATION

208

DEDICATION

our Saviour, and, by preaching repentance

and humiliation, drew the first parallel of
the Gospel.
" Q. Had St. John the Baptist anyequal ?
" A. He had St. John the Evangelist.
" Q. Whv is he said to be equal to the
;

Baptist?

was symbolized by Osiris, the principal object of their rites, and whose name, according to Plutarch and Macrobius, signified
the prince and leader, the soul of the universe and the governor of the stars. Macrobius (Saturn.,

1. i., c. 18,) says that the

Egyptians worshipped the sun as the only
divinity and they represented him under
different forms, according to the different
;

"1, Because he finished by his learning

what the other began by his zeal, and thus
drew a second line parallel to the former
ever since which time Freemasons' Lodges,
in all Christian countries, have been dedicated to the one or the other, or both, of
these worthy and worshipful men."
There is another old lecture, adopted into
the Prestonian system, which still further
developed these reasons for the Johannite
dedication, but with slight variations in
some of the details.
" From the building of the first Temple
at Jerusalem to the Babylonish captivity,
Freemasons' Lodges were dedicated to King
Solomon from thence to the coming of the
Messiah, they were dedicated to Zerubbabel, the builder of the second Temple
and from that time to the final destruction
of the Temple by Titus, in the reign of
Vespasian, they were dedicated to St. John
the Baptist but owing to the many massacres and disorders which attended that memorable event, Freemasonry sunk very much
into decay
many Lodges were entirely
broken up, and but few could meet in suf;

phases, of his infancy at the winter solstice

in December, his adolescence at the vernal
equinox in March, his manhood at the
summer solstice in June, and his old age
at the autumnal equinox in September.
Among the Phoenicians, the sun was
adored under the name of Adonis, and in
Persia, under that of Mithras. In the Grecian mysteries, the orb of day was represented by one of the officers who superintended the ceremony of initiation ; and in
the Druidical rites his worship was introduced as the visible representative of the
invisible, creative, and preservative principle of nature. In short, wherever the spurious Freemasonry existed, the adoration
of, or, at least, a high respect for, the solar
orb constituted a part of its system.
In Freemasonry, the sun is still retained
as an important symbol.
This fact must
be familiar to every Freemason of any intelligence.
It occupies, indeed, its appropriate position, simply as a symbol, but,

ficient

nevertheless, it constitutes an essential part

of the system. "As an emblem of God's
power," says Hutchinson, (Sp. of Mas., led.

and

iv.,

numbers to constitute their legality ;

at a general meeting of the Craft, held
in the city of Benjamin, it was observed
that the principal reason for the decline of

p. 53,)

"his goodness, omnipresence,

and eternity, the Lodge is adorned with the

image of the sun, which he ordained to
Masonry was the want of a Grand Master rise from the east and open the day thereto patronize it.
They therefore deputed by calling forth the people of the earth to
seven of their most eminent members to their worship and exercise in the walks of
wait upon St. John the Evangelist, who virtue."
" The government of a Mason's Lodge,"
was at that time Bishop of Ephesus, requesting him to take the office of Grand says Oliver, (Signs and Sym., 1. xi.,) "is
;

He

Master.

returned

for

answer,

that

though well stricken in years (being upwards of ninety), yet having been initiated
into

Masonry in the

early part of his

life,

he would take upon himself that office.

He thereby completed by his learning what
the other St. John effected by his zeal, and
thus drew what Freemasons term a line
parallel
ever since which time Freema'

'

sons'

Lodges, in

all

Christian countries,

have been dedicated both to St. John the

Baptist and St. John the Evangelist."
So runs the tradition, but, as it wants
every claim to authenticity, a more philosophical reason may be assigned for this
dedication to the two Saints John.
One of the earliest deviations from the
pure religion of the Noachidse was distinguished by the introduction of sun worship.
The sun, in the Egyptian mysteries,

vested in three superior officers, who are

seated in the East, West, and South, to
represent the rising, setting, and meridian
sun."
The sun, obedient to the all-seeing eye,
is an emblem in the ritual of the third degree, and the sun displayed within an extended compass constitutes the jewel of the
Past Master in the American system, and
that of the Grand Master in the English.
But it is a needless task to cite authorities or multiply instances to prove how
intimately the sun, as a symbol, is connected with the whole system of Freemasonry.
It is then evident that the sun, either as
an object of worship, or of symbolization,
has always formed an important part of
what has been called the two systems of
Freemasonry, the Spurious and the Pure.

DEDICATION

DEDICATION

209

To the ancient sun worshippers, the propriated two days near those solstitial
movements of the heavenly bodies must periods to the memory of two eminent
have been something more than mere as- saints, incorporated these festivals by the
tronomical phenomena; they were the lapse of a few days into the Masonic calactions of the deities whom they adored, endar, and adopted these worthies as patand hence were invested with the solem- rons of our Order. To this change, the
But, above earlier Christian Masons were the more
nity of a religious character.
persuaded by the peculiar character of
all, the particular periods when the sun
reached his greatest Northern and Southern these saints. St. John the Baptist, by andeclination, at the winter and summer sol- nouncing the approach of Christ, and by
the mystic ablution to which he subjected
stices, by entering the zodaical signs of Cancer and Capricorn, marked as they would his proselytes, and which was afterwards
be by the most evident effects on the sea- adopted in the ceremony of initiation into
sons, and on the length of the days and Christianity, might well be considered as
nights, could not have passed unobserved, the Grand Hierophant of the Church while
but, on the contrary, must have occupied the mysterious and emblematic nature of
;

an important place in their ritual. Now

these important days fall respectively on
the 21st of June and the 21st of December.
Hence, these solstitial periods were among
the principal festivals observed by the Pagan nations. Du Pauw (Diss, on Egyp.
and Chinese, ii. 159,) remarks of the Egyptians, that " they had a fixed festival at
each new moon one at the summer, and
one at the winter solstice, as well as the
vernal and autumnal equinoxes."
;

The Druids always observed the festivals

midsummer and midwinter in June
and December. The former for a long
time was celebrated by the Christian descendants of the Druids. " The eve of St.
John the Baptist," says Chambers, (Inf.
of

for the People, No. 89,) "variously called

eve, was formerly a time of
high observance amongst the English, as it
still is in Catholic
countries.
Bonfires
were everywhere lighted, round which the
people danced with joyful demonstrations,
occasionally leaping through the flame."
Higgins (Celt. Druids, p. 165,) thus alludes
to the celebration of the festival of midwinter in the ancient world.
" The festival of the 25th of December
was celebrated, by the Druids in Britain
and Ireland, with great fires lighted on the
tops of the hills
On the 25th
of December, at the first moment of the
day, throughout all the ancient world, the
birthday of the god Sol was celebrated.
This was the moment when, after the supposed winter solstice and the lowest point
of his degradation below our hemisphere,
he began to increase and gradually to ascend. At this moment, in all the ancient
religions, his birthday was kept; from India
to the Ultima Thule, these ceremonies partook of the same character: everywhere
the god was feigned to be born, and his
festival was celebrated with great rejoic-

midsummer

ings."

Our ancestors finding that the Church,

according to its usage of purifying Pagan
festivals by Christian application, had ap2

14

the Apocalypse assimilated the mode of

instruction adopted by St. John the Evangelist to that practised by the Fraternity.
are thus led to the conclusion that
the connection of the Saints John with the
Masonic institution is rather of a symbolic
than of an historical character. In dedicating our Lodges to them, we do not so
much declare our belief that they were eminent members of the Order, as demonstrate
our reverence for the great Architect of the
Universe in the symbol of his most splendid creation, the great light of day.
In conclusion it may be observed that
the ceremony of dedication is merely the
enunciation of a form of words, and this
having been done, the Lodge is thus, by
the consecration and dedication, set apart
as something sacred to the cultivation of
the principles of Masonry, under that peculiar system which acknowledges the two
Saints John as its patrons.
Royal Arch Chapters are dedicated to
Zerubbabel, Prince or Governor of Judah,
and Commanderies of Knights Templars to

We

Mark Lodges
St. John the Almoner.
should be dedicated to Hiram the Builder
Past Masters' to the Sts. John, and Most
Excellent Masters' to King Solomon.
;

of

Dedication

the

Temple.

There are five dedications of the Temple

of Jerusalem which are recorded in Jewish history.

1.

monic Temple,

The

dedication of the Solo2. The dedica-

b. c. 1004.

tion in the time of Hezekiah, when it was

purified from the abominations of Ahaz,
3. The dedication of Zerubb. c. 726.
4. The dedicababel's Temple, b. c. 513.
tion of the Temple when it was purified
after

Judas Maccabseus had driven out the

The

dedication of
fourth of
these is still celebrated by the Jews in their
" Feast of the Dedication." The first only
is connected with the Masonic ritual, and
is commemorated in the Most Excellent
Master's degree of the American Rite as
the "Celebration of the Cape -Stone."
Syrians, b.

c.

164.

Herod's Temple,

5.

B. c. 22.

The

DEFAMATION

DEGREES

This dedication was made by King Solomon in the year of the world 3000, and

This question has been fully discussed in

the author's Text Book of Masonic Jurisprudence, pp. 96-113.
Degrees. The word degree, in its primitive meaning, signifies a step.
The degrees of Freemasonry are then the steps by
which the candidate ascends from a lower
to a higher condition of knowledge.
It is
now the opinion of the best scholars, that
the division of the Masonic system into degrees was the work of the revivalists of the
beginning of the eighteenth century that
before that period there was but one degree, or rather one common platform of
ritualism and that the division into Masters, Fellows, and Apprentices was simply
a division of ranks, there being but one initiation for all.
In 1717 the whole body of
the Fraternity consisted only of Entered
Apprentices, who were recognized by the
thirty-nine Regulations, compiled in 1720,
as among the law-givers of the Craft, no
change in those Regulations being allowed
unless first submitted " even to the youngest Apprentice."
In the old Charges, col-

210

lasted eight days, commencing in the month

of Tisri, 15th day, during the Feast of TabThe dedication of the Temple
ernacles.
is called, in the English system of Lectures,
" the third grand offering which consecrates

the floor of a Mason's Lodge." The same

Lectures contain a tradition that on that
occasion King Solomon assembled the
nine Deputy Grand Masters in the holy
place, from which all natural light had been
carefully excluded, and which only received
the artificial light which emanated from the
east, west, and south, and there made the
necessary arrangements. The legend must
be considered as a myth but the inimitable
prayer and invocation which were offered
up by King Solomon on the occasion are
recorded in the eighth chapter of the first
Book of Kings, which contains the scriptural account of the dedication.
I>efamation. See Back.
;

Definition
"

of

Freemasonry.

The definitions of Freemasonry,"

says Oli-

Landmarks of Freemasonry, "have been numerous; but they

ver, in his Historical

unite in declaring it to be a system of

morality, by the practice of which its members may advance their spiritual interest,
and mount by the theological ladder from
the Lodge on earth to the Lodge in heaven.
It is a mistake, however, to suppose that
all

Freemasonry is a system of religion. It is

but the handmaiden to religion, although
it largely and effectually illustrates one
great branch of it, which is practice."
The definition in the English Lectures is
most often quoted, which says that " Freemasonry is a beautiful system of morality
veiled in allegory

and

illustrated

by sym-

bols."

But a more comprehensive and exact defis, that it is a science which is engaged in the search after Divine Truth, and
which employs symbolism as its method of

inition

instruction.

Deformity. The old Constitutions

declare that the candidate for Masonry
must be a " perfect youth, having no maim
or defect in his body." The Masonic law
of physical qualifications is derived from
the Mosaic, which excluded from the priesthood a man having any blemishes or deformities. The regulation in Masonry constitutes one of the landmarks, and is illustrative of the symbolism of the Institution.
The earliest of the old Constitutions, that
of the Halliwell MS., has this language on
the subject
:

"

To the Craft it were great shame

To make a halt man and a lame,
For an imperfect man of such blood
Should do the Craft but little good."

lected

by Anderson and approved in 1722,

the degree of Fellow Craft is introduced as

being a necessary qualification for Grand
Master, although the word degree is not
Grand
used. " No brother can be a ...
Master unless he has been a Fellow Craft
"
Manbefore his election." And in the
ner of constituting a New Lodge" of the
same date, the Master and Wardens are
taken from " among the Fellow Crafts,"
which Dermott explains by saying that
"they were called Fellow Crafts because
the Masons of old times never gave any
man the title of Master Mason until he
had first passed the chair." In the thirteenth of the Regulations of 1720, approved
in 1721, the orders or degrees of Master and
Fellow Craft are recognized in the following Words " Apprentices must be admitted
Masters and Fellow Crafts only in the
Grand Lodge." Between that period and
1738, the system of degrees had been perfected; for Anderson, who, in that year,
published the second edition of the Book
of Constitutions, changed the phraseology
of the old Charge to suit the altered condition of things, and said, " a Prentice,
when of age and expert, may become an
Enter'd Prentice or a Free-Mason of the
lowest degree, and upon his due improvement a Fellow-Craft and a Master-Mason." No such words are found in the
Charges as printed in 1723 and if at that
time the distinction of the three degrees
had been as well defined as in 1738, Anderson would not have failed to insert the
.

That
in his first edition.
he did not, leads to the fair presumption
that the ranks of Fellow Craft and Master

same language

DEGREES

DEISM

were not then absolutely recognized as

tinctive degrees.

The

earliest

ritual

dis-

ex-

which is contained in the Gfrand

Mystery, published in 1725, makes no
reference to any degrees, but gives only
what I suppose was the common initiation
The division of
in use about that time.
the Masonic system into three degrees must
have grown up between 1717 and 1730,
but in so gradual and imperceptible a manner that we are unable to fix the precise
date of the introduction of each degree.
In 1717 there was evidently but one degree,
or rather one form of initiation, and one
catechism. Perhaps about 1721 the three
degrees were introduced, but the second
and third were not perfected for many
tant,

Even as late as 1735 the Entered

Apprentice's degree contained the most
prominent form of initiation, and he who
was an Apprentice was, for all practical
purposes, a Freemason. It was not until
repeated improvements, by the adoption of
new ceremonies and new regulations, that
the degree of Master Mason took the place
which it now occupies having been confined at first to those who had passed the
years.

chair.

Degrees, Ancient Craft.

cient Craft

See An-

Masonry.

Degrees, Androgynous.

Degrees

that are conferred on females as well as

males. See Androgynous Masonry.

Degrees, Apocalyptic.

See Apoc-

alyptic Degrees.

Degrees, Higli. See Hautes Grades.

Degrees, Honorary. See Honorary Degrees.

Degrees, Ineffable.

See Ineffable

Degrees.

Degrees of ChiTalry.

The

reli-

gious and military orders of knighthood

which existed in the Middle Ages, such as the
Knights Templars and Knights of Malta,
which were incorporated into the Masonic
system and conferred as Masonic degrees,
have been called Degrees of Chivalry.
They are Christian in character, and seek to
perpetuate in a symbolic form the idea on
which the original Orders were founded.
The Knight of the Bed Cross, although conferred, in this country, in a Commandery
of Knights Templars, and as preliminary
to that degree, is not properly a degree of
chivalry.

Degrees of Knowledge.

Fessler

211

497,) " consisted of a regular detailed course

of instruction in each system of the Lodges,
whether extinct or in full activity, and
were to end with a complete critical re-

modelling of the history of Freemasonry,

and of the Fraternity of Freemasons from
the most ancient period to our own day."
See Fessler's Rite.
Degrees, Philosophical.
See
Philosophical Degrees.

Degrees, Symbolic.

See Symbolic

Degrees.

Deism. In an abstract sense, Deism,

or Theism, is the belief in God, but the
word is generally used to designate those
who, believing in God, reject a belief in
the Scriptures as a revelation. The sect
of Deists
which, in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, enrolled among its
followers many great intellects, such as
Toland, Collins, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Hume, Gibbon, and Voltaire
is said
by Findel [Hist, p. 126,) to have "necessarily exercised an important influence on
the Fraternity of Masons;" and, he adds,
that " we cannot doubt that it contributed
essentially to its final transformation from
an operative to a universal speculative society."
The refutation of this remarkable
assertion is best found in the first of the
Charges adopted at the revival in 1717,
and which was published in the Constitutions of 1723:
Mason is obliged, by
his tenure, to obey the moral law and if
he rightly understands the art, he will
never be a stupid atheist nor an irreligious
libertine," where the words irreligious libertine refer to the freethinkers or deists of
that period. It ie evident, then, that the
Deists could have had no influence at that
time in moulding the Masonic organization.
There is still better evidence to be found in
the old records of Freemasonry during
several preceding centuries, when the Operative was its dominant character, and when
the dogmas of Christianity were fully recognized, which must necessarily have been
the case, since Freemasonry during that
period was under the patronage of the
Church. There is, in fact, no evidence to
sustain Findel's theory, that in the transition stage from the operative to the speculative, when such men as the deeply-religious Ashmole were among its members,
the Deists could have infused any of their
principles into its organization or exercised
any influence in changing its character.
Freemasonry, at that time sectarian, demanded almost a Christian belief at all
from its
events, a Christian allegiance

"A

was desirous of abolishing all the high degrees, but being unable to obtain the consent of the Eoyal York Grand Lodge, he
composed out of them a new system of five
degrees which he called Degrees of Knowl- disciples.
It is now more tolerant, and
edge, Erkenntnissstufen, to each of which Deism presents no disqualification for iniwas annexed a form of initiation. " The tiation. An atheist would be rejected, but
Degrees of Knowledge," says Findel, {Hist., none would now be refused admission oo

DENMARK

DEITY

212

religious grounds who subscribed to the

dogmas of a belief in God and a resurrection to eternal life.
Deity, See Grand Architect of the Uni-

gular form, derives

verse.

name.

Delalande, Charles Florent

Jacques. A French litterateur of this
century, who was the author of many didactic and poetic articles on Masonry
inserted in the Miroir de la Veritt, the

Annales Magonniques, and other collections.

He was also the author of the Defense et
Apologie de la Franche-Magonnerie, ou Re-

its

name from

the Greek

It is also the title given, in

letter A, delta.

the t'rench and Scottish Rites, to the luminous triangle which encloses the Ineffable

See Triangle.

Demeter. The
which

Greek name of

Ceres,

see.

Demit. A Mason

is

said to demit from

Lodge when he withdraws his membership and a demit is a document granted by

the Lodge which certifies that that demission has been accepted by the Lodge, and
his

that the demitting brother is clear of the

books and in good standing as a Mason.
a differentes Epoques et par divers Autems, To demit, which is the act of the member, is
a prize essay before a Lodge in Leghorn, then to resign and to grant a demit, which
published in 1814.
He founded the ar- is the act of the Lodge, is to grant a certifichives of the Lodge of the Philosophic cate that the resignation has been accepted.
Kite at Douay, France.
It is derived from the French reflective verbse
Delalande, Joseph Jerdrae demettre, which, according to the dictionary
Francois. One of the most distin- of the Academy, means " to withdraw from
guished French astronomers of the eigh- an office, to resign an employment." Thus it
teenth century. He was born in 1732 and gives as an example, " II s'est demis de sa
died in 1807. He was one of the founders charge en faveur d'un tel," he resigned (de*
of the Grand Orient of France, and pub- mitted) his office in favor of such a one.
lished, in 1774, an able memoir upon the
The application for a demit is a matter

futation des Accusations dirigees contre

elle

History of Freemasonry, which was subsequently incorporated in the twentieth

volume of the Encyclopedic Methodique.

Delaunay, Francois H. Stanislaus. A French litterateur and historian,

and author of many works on Masonry, the
principal of which is the Tuileur des trente
trois degres de V Ecossisme du Rite Ancien et
Accepte.
This is a work of great erudition,
and of curious research in reference to the
etymology of the words of the Eite. These
etymologies, however, are not always correct and, indeed, some of them are quite
absurd, betraying a want of the proper appreciation of the construction of Hebrew,
from which language all of the words are
derived.
Delaware. The Grand Lodge of
Delaware was organized on the 7th of
June, 1806. Its seat is at Wilmington. The
Grand Chapter was instituted in 1818, but
having suspended labor for many years, a
new organization was established by the
General Grand High Priest of the United
States in 1869.
Delegates. Past Masters, or others
sent by a Lodge to represent it in the Grand
Lodge, in place of the Master and Wardens,
if these are absent, are in some of the
American jurisdictions called delegates.
The word is a modern one, and without good
authority. Those who represent a Lodge
in the Grand Lodge, whether the Master
and Wardens or their proxies, are properly
;

representatives.

Delta.

triangle.

piece of furniture in a

The name of a
Commandery of

Knights Templars, which, being of a

trian-

of form, and there is no power in the Lodge

it, if the applicant has paid all his
It is
dues and is free of all charges.
true that a regulation of 1722 says that no
number of brethren shall withdraw or separate themselves from the Lodge in which
they were made, without a dispensation;
yet I do not see how the law can be enforced, for Masonry being a voluntary association, there is no power in any Lodge
to insist on any brother continuing a connection with it which he desires to sever.
See, on this subject, the author's Text Book
of Masonic Jurisprudence, book iii., chap,

to refuse

iii.,

sect. vi.

The usual

object in applying for a demit

to enable the brother to join some other
Lodge, into which he cannot be admitted
without some evidence that he wr as in good
standing in his former Lodge. This is in
accordance with an old law found in the
Regulations of 1663 in the following w ords
" No person hereafter who shall be accepted
a Freemason, shall be admitted into any
Lodge or Assembly until he has brought a
certificate of the time and place of his ac-

is

ceptation from the Lodge that accepted him,

unto the Master of that limit or division
where such Lodge is kept." See the corrupt word Dimit.

Denmark.
in

The first Masonic Lodge

Denmark was opened in Copenhagen, by

Baron G. O. Munich, on the 11th of November, 1743, under a charter, as he claimed,

from the Lodge of the Three Globes in
Berlin.
In the next year a new Lodge
named Zorobabel was formed by members
who separated from the former Lodge. Both

DEPOSITE

DEPUTY

of these bodies, however, appear to have

been imperfect in their constitution. This
imperfection was subsequently rectified.
The first Lodge, having changed its name
to St. Martin, received in 1749 a warrant
from Lord Byron, who was then Grand
Master of England. Lord Cranstoun had

oldest definition was that the depth extended " to the centre of the earth," which,
says Dr. Oliver, is the greatest extent that
can be imagined. See Form of the Lodge.
Deputation. The authority granted
by the Grand Master to a brother to act
as Provincial Grand Master was formerly
called a deputation.
Thus, in Anderson's

previously, in October, 1745, granted a

warrant to the second Lodge. Preston says
that Lord Byron issued a Provincial Patent
for Denmark, in other words, established a
Provincial Grand Lodge. Calcott says he

appointed Count Denneskiold Laurwig

Provincial Grand Master for Denmark and
Norway. The Provincial Grand Lodge of
Denmark must then have been established
but a writer in the London Freein 1749
mason's Quarterly Magazine for September,
1853, places its date at 1745, and the Grand
Lodge of Denmark is said in the recent
calendars to have been organized in 1747.
;

The Grand
Lodge of Denmark was actually founded
in 1792. A Lodge had been established at
Copenhagen, by the Grand Lodge of Scotland, under the name of "Le petit Nombre ;"
and in 1753 its Master was elevated by that
body to the rank of a Provincial Grand
These dates are irreconcilable.

Master. The vicinity of Denmark to Germany caused the introduction of many of

the Eites which agitated the latter country.
But the primitive Lodges worked in the
York Eite. On January 6th,- 1855, King
Christian VIII., who, when crowned Prince,
had assumed the Protectorship of the
Danish Lodges, and who was distinguished
for his Masonic zeal, introduced the Eite
of Zinnendorf according to the Swedish
system, which was adopted as the national
Rite of Denmark.
Deposite. The deposite of the substitute ark is celebrated in the degree of
Select Master, and is supposed to have taken
place in the last year of the building of
Solomon's Temple, or 1000 B. c. This is
therefore adopted as the date in Cryptic

213

Constitutions, (2d edition, 1738, p. 191,) it is

Grand Master, granted a deputation to Sir Edward Matthews to be Provincial Grand Master of Shropshire." It
was also used in the sense in which dispensation is now employed to denote the Grand

said, " Lovel,

Master's authority for opening a Lodge.

In German Masonry, a deputation is a committee of one Lodge appointed to visit and
confer with some other Lodge.

Depute Grand Master.

Depute

a Scotticism used in the " Laws and Eegulations of the Grand Lodge of Scotland " to
designate the officer known in England and
America as Deputy Grand Master.
In French Masonry, the
officers who represent a Lodge in the
Grand Orient are called its deputies. The
word is also used in another sense. When
two Lodges are affiliated, that is, have
adopted a compact of union, each appoints
a deputy to represent it at the meetings
of the other. He is also called garant
d'amitie, and is entitled to a seat in the
is

Deputy.

East.

Grand

Chapter. In the
Deputy
Constitution adopted in January, 1798, by
the "Grand Eoyal Arch Chapter of the
Northern States of America," which afterwards became the " General Grand Chapwas provided that Grand Bodies of
the system should be established in the different States, which should be known as
"Deputy Grand Eoyal Arch Chapters."
But in the succeeding year, on the adoption of a new Constitution, the title was
changed to " State Grand Chapters." Master," it

sachusetts,

Ehode

Island,

and

New York

Masonry.
are the only States in which Deputy Grand
,
In the legendary history of Freemasonry Chapters were organized.
as preserved in the Cryptic degrees, two
Deputy Grand Master. The asdeposites are spoken of; the deposite of the sistant and, in his absence, the representasubstitute Ark, and the deposite of the tive of the Grand Master.
The office
Word, both being referred to the same year originated in the year 1721, when the Duke
and being different parts of one transac- of Montagu was authorized by the Grand
tion.
They have, therefore, sometimes Lodge to appoint a Deputy. The object
been confounded. The deposite of the Ark evidently was to relieve a nobleman, who
was made by the three Grand Masters that was Grand Master, from troublesome deof the Word by Hiram Abif alone.
The Constitutions give a
tails of office.
Deposite, Year of. See Anno De- Deputy Grand Master no other prerogapositionis.
tives than those which he claims in the
Depth of the Lodge. This is said Grand Master's right. He presides over
to be from the surface to the centre, and is the Craft in the absence of the Grand Masthe expression of an idea connected with the ter, and, on the death of that officer, sucsymbolism of the form of the Lodge as in- ceeds to his position until a new election.
dicating the universality of Masonry. The In England, and in a few States of Ameri;

DEPUTY

214

DESAGULIERS

he is appointed by the Grand Master

but the general usage in this country is to
elect him.
Deputy Lodge. In Germany, a
Deputations-Loge, or Deputy Lodge, was
formed by certain members of a Lodge who
lived at a remote distance from it, and who
met under the name and by the authority
of the mother Lodge, through whom alone
it was known to the Grand Lodge, or the
other Lodges. Such bodies are not known
in England or America, and are not now
so common in Germany as formerly.
ca,

Deputy Master. In England, when

the Grand Master is also Master of a private Lodge, his functions are performed by
an officer appointed by him, and called a
Deputy Master, who exercises all the prerogatives and enjoys all the privileges of a
regular Master. In Germany, the Master
of every Lodge is assisted by a Deputy Mas-^
ter, who is either appointed by the Master,
or elected by the members, and who exercises the powers of the Master in the absence of that officer.
Dermott, ^Laurence. He

was

at

Grand Secretary, and afterwards

the Deputy Grand Master, of that body of
Masons who, in 1739, seceded from the
Grand Lodge of England, and called themselves " Ancient York Masons," stigmatizing the regular Masons as "moderns."
In 1756, Dermott published the Book of
Constitutions of his Grand Lodge, under
the title of " Ahiman Rezon or a help to
all that are or would be Free and Accepted

first

the

Masons, containing the quintessence of all

that has been published on the subject of
Freemasonry." This work passed through
several editions,
edited, in 1813,

the last of which was

by Thomas Harper, the

Deputy Grand Master of the Ancient Masons, under the title of " The Constitutions
of Freemasonry, or

Ahiman Rezon."

Dermott was undoubtedly the moving

and sustaining spirit of the great schism
which, from the middle of the eighteenth
to the beginning of the nineteenth century,
divided the Masons of England; and his

character has not been spared by the adherents of the constitutional Grand Lodge.
Lawrie (Hist., p. 117,) says of him: "The
unfairness with which he has stated the
proceedings of the moderns, the bitterness
with which he treats them, and the quackery
and vainglory with which he displays his
own pretensions to superior knowledge, deserve to be reprobated by every class of
Masons who are anxious for the purity of
their Order and the preservation of that
charity and mildness which ought to characterize all their proceedings." I am afraid
that there is much truth in this estimate of
Dermott's character. As a polemic, he was

uncompromising, and not

But in intellectual attainments he was inferior to none
of his adversaries, and in a philosophical

sarcastic, bitter,

altogether sincere or veracious.

appreciation of the character of the Masonic institution he was in advance of the

spirit of his age.
Doubtless he dismembered the third degree, and to him we owe
the establishment of English Royal Arch
Masonry. He had the assistance of Ramsay, but he did not adopt Ramsay's Scottish

Royal Arch Masonry, as we now

came from the fertile brain and intrepid heart of Dermott. It was finally
adopted by his opponents in 1813, and it is

degree.

have

it,

now a question that the change efby him in the organization of the
York Rite in 1740 has been of evident advantage to the service of Masonic sym-

hardly
fected

bolism.

Derwentwater.

Charles Radcliffe,
Earl of Derwentwater, which title
he assumed on the death of the unmarried
son of his brother, James Radcliffe, Earl
of Derwentwater, who was executed for

titular

rebellion in 1716, in

London, was the

first

Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of

France, to which office he was elected on
the organization of the Grand Lodge in
Charles Radcliffe was arrested with
1725.
his brother, Lord Derwentwater, in 1715,
for having taken part in the rebellion of
that year to restore the house of Stuart to
the throne. Both were convicted of treason, and the Earl suffered death, but his
brother Charles made his escape to France,
and thence to Rome, where he received a
After
trifling pension from the Pretender.
a residence of some years, he went to Paris,
where, with the Chevalier Maskelyne, Mr.
Heguetty, and some other Englishmen, he
established a Lodge in the Rue des Boucheries, which was followed by the organization of several others, and Radcliffe, who
had taken the title of Earl of Derwentwater on the death of his youthful nephew,
the son of the last Earl, was elected Grand
Master. Leaving France for a time, in
1733 he was succeeded in the Grand MasRadcliffe
tership by Lord Harnouester.
made many visits to England after that
time in unsuccessful pursuit of a pardon.
Finally, on the attempt of the young Pretender to excite a rebellion in 1745, he
sailed from France to join him, and the

vessel in which he had embarked having

been captured by an English cruiser, he was
carried to London and decapitated De-

cember

8,

1746.

Desaguliers, John Theophilus.

Of those who were engaged in the revival
of Freemasonry in the beginning of the
eighteenth century, none performed a more
important part than he to whom may be

DESAGULIERS

DESAGULIERS

well applied the epithet of the Father of

Modern Speculative Masonry, and to whom,
perhaps, more than any other person, is the
present Grand Lodge of England indebted
sketch of his life,
for its existence.
drawn from the scanty materials to be found
in Masonic records, and in the brief notices
of a few of his contemporaries, cannot fail
to be interesting to the student of Masonic

a Mason in the Lodge meeting at

Goose and Gridiron, in St. Paul's churchyard, which subsequently took the name of

history.

The Kev. John Theophilus Desaguliers,

LL. D., F. K. S., was born on the 12th of
March, 1683, at Rochelle, in France. He
was the son of a French Protestant clergyman and, his father having removed to
England as a refugee on the revocation of
the edict of Nantes, he was educated at
Christ Church, Oxford,where he took lessons
;

of the celebrated Keill in experimental philosophy. In 1713 he received the degree

of Master of Arts, and in the same year
succeeded Dr. Keill as a lecturer on experimental philosophy at Hart Hall. In
the year 1714 he removed to Westminster,
where he continued his course of lectures,
being the first one, it is said, who ever lectured upon physical science in the metropolis.
At this time he attracted the notice
and secured the friendship of Sir Isaac
Newton. His reputation as a philosopher
obtained for him a fellowship in the Royal
He was also about this time adSociety.
mitted to clerical orders, and appointed by
the Duke of Chandos his chaplain, who
also presented him to the living of Whitchurch. In 1718 he received from the University of Oxford the degree of Doctor of
Laws, and was presented by the Earl of
Sunderland to a living in Norfolk, which
he afterwards exchanged for one in Essex.
He maintained, however, his residence in
London, where he continued to deliver his
lectures until his death.
His contributions to science consist of a
Treatise on the Construction of Chimneys,
translated from the French, and published
in 1716 ;
Course of Experimental Philosophy, in two volumes, 4to, published in
1734 and in 1735 he edited an edition of
Gregory's Elements of Catoptrics and Dioptrics.
He also translated from the Latin
Gravesandes' Mathematical Elements of
Natural Philosophy.
In the clerical profession he seems not to
have been an ardent worker, and his theological labors were confined to the publication of a single sermon on repentance. He
was in fact more distinguished as a scientist
than as a clergyman, and Priestly calls him
"an indefatigable experimental philosopher."
It is, however, as a Mason that Dr. Desaguliers will most attract our attention.
Soon after his arrival in London he was

215

made

the " Lodge of Antiquity." " The peculiar

principles of the Craft," says Dr. Oliver,
"struck him as being eminently calculated
to contribute to the benefit of the community at large, if they could be redirected
into the channel from which they had been
diverted by the retirement of Sir Christopher Wren." It is said that he visited
that veteran architect, and from his conversations with him was induced to inaugurate those measures which led in 1717 to
the revival of Freemasonry in the south
of England.
The reputation of Desaguliers as a man of science enabled him to secure the necessary assistance of older Masons to carry the design of revival into
effect, and, supported by the activity and
zeal of many brethren, he succeeded in obtaining a meeting of the four London Lodges
in 1717 at the Apple-Tree Tavern, where
the Grand Lodge was constituted in due
form, and at a subsequent meeting, on St.
John the Baptist's day, Antony Sayer was
elected Grand Master. In 1719 Desaguliers
was elevated to the throne of the Grand
Lodge, succeeding George Payne, and being
thus the third Grand Master after the
He paid much attention to the
revival.
interests of the Fraternity, and so elevated
the character of the Order, that the records
of the Grand Lodge show that during his
administration several of the older brethren
who had hitherto neglected the Craft resumed their visits to the Lodges, and many
noblemen were initiated into the Institution.

Dr. Desaguliers was peculiarly zealous in

the investigation and collection of the old
records of the society, and to him we are
principally indebted for the preservation
of the " Charges of a Freemason " and the
preparation of the " General Regulations,"
which are found in the first edition of the
Constitutions ; which, although attributed
to Dr. Anderson, were undoubtedly compiled under the supervision of Desaguliers.
Anderson, we suppose, did the work, while
Desaguliers furnished much of the material and the thought. One of the first controversial works in favor of Freemasonry,
Detection of Dr. Plots' Account
namely,
of the Freemasons, was also attributed to his
pen ; but he is said to have repudiated the
credit of its authorship, of which indeed
the paper furnishes no internal evidence.
In 1721 he delivered before the Grand
Lodge what the records call " an eloquent
oration about Masons and Masonry." It
does not appear that it was ever published,
at least no copy of it is extant, although
Kloss puts the title at the head of his Cata-

DESAGULIERS

216

DES

logue of Masonic Orations.

It is, indeed, one of the most learned and distinguished

Masonic address of which we have men of his day."
In 1713, Desaguliers had married a
any notice, and would be highly interesting,
because it would give us, in all probability, daughter of William Pudsey, Esq., by
as Kloss remarks, the views of the Masons whom he had two sons,
Alexander, who
of that day in reference to the design of the was a clergyman, and Thomas, who went
into the army, and became a colonel of
Institution.
After his retirement from the office of artillery and an equerry to George III.
The latter days of Dr. Desaguliers are
Grand Master, in 1720, Desaguliers was
three times appointed Deputy Grand Mas- said to have been clouded with sorrow and
in poverty.
De Feller, in the Biographic
ter in 1723, by the Duke of Warton
1724, by the Earl of Dalkeith; in 1725, by Universelh, says that he became insane,
Lord Paisly; and during this period of dressing sometimes as a harlequin, and
service he did many things for the benefit sometimes as a clown, and that in one of
of the Craft among others, initiating that these fits of insanity he died. And Cawscheme of charity which was subsequently thorn, in a poem entitled The Vanity of
developed in what is now known in the Human Enjoyments, intimates, in the folGrand Lodge of England as the Fund of lowing lines, that Desaguliers was in very

the

first

Benevolence.
After this, Dr. Desaguliers passed over
to the Continent, and resided for a few
years in Holland. In 1731 he was at the
Hague, and presided as Worshipful Master
of a Lodge organized under a special deputation for the purpose of initiating and
passing the Duke of Lorraine, who was
subsequently Grand Duke of Tuscany, and
The duke
then Emperor of Germany.
was, during the same year, made a Master

Mason

in England.
his return to England, Desaguliers
was considered, from his position in Masonry, as the most fitting person to confer

On

the degrees on the Prince of Wales, who

was accordingly entered, passed, and raised
in an occasional Lodge, held on two occasions at Kew, over which Dr. Desaguliers
presided as Master.
Dr. Desaguliers was very attentive to his
Masonic duties, and punctual in his attendance on the communications of the Grand
Lodge. His last recorded appearance by
name is on the 19th of March, 1741, but a
few years before his death.
Of Desagulier's Masonic and personal
character, Dr. Oliver gives, from tradition,
the following description
" There were many traits in his charac-

redound to his immortal praise.

was a grave man in private life, almost
but he could
approaching to austerity

ter that

He

relax in the private recesses of a tiled

Lodge, and in company with brothers and
fellows, where the ties of social intercourse
are not particularly stringent. He considered the proceedings of the Lodge as strictly
confidential and being persuaded that his
brothers by initiation actually occupied the
same position as brothers by blood, he was
undisguisedly free and familiar in the mutual interchange of unrestrained courtesy.
In the Lodge he was jocose and freehearted, sang his song, and had no objection to his share of the bottle, although
;

necessitous circumstances at the time of

his death
"

How poor, neglected Desaguliers fell

How he who taught two gracious kings

to

view

All Boyle ennobled and all Bacon knew,

Died in a cell, without a friend to save,
Without a guinea, and without a grave."

But the accounts of the French biographer and the English poet are most probably both apocryphal, or, at least, much
exaggerated for Nichols, who knew him
personally, and has given a fine portrait
of him in the ninth volume of his Literary
Anecdotes, says that he died on the 29th
of February, 1744, at the Bedford Coffee
House, and was buried in the Savoy.
To few Masons of the present day, except
to those who have made Freemasonry a
;

is the name of
Desaguliers very familiar. But it is well
they should know that to him, perhaps,
more than to any other man, are we indebted for the present existence of Freemasonry as a riving institution for when,
in the beginning of the eighteenth century,
Masonry had fallen into a state of decadence which threatened its extinction, it
was Desaguliers who, by his energy and
enthusiasm, infused a spirit of zeal into
his contemporaries, which culminated in
the revival of the year 1717 and it was
his learning and social position that gave
a standing to the Institution, which brought
to its support noblemen and men of influence, so that the insignificant assemblage
of four London Lodges at the Apple-Tree
Tavern has expanded into an association
which now overshadows the entire civilized
And the moving spirit of all this
world.

subject of especial study,

was John Theophilus Desaguliers.

Des Etangs,

Xicliolas Charles.

Masonic reformer, who was born at Allichamps, in France, on the 7th of September,
1766, and died at Paris on the 6th of May,
1847.
He was initiated, in 1797, into Ma-

'

DEUCHAR

DESIGN

217

sonry in the Lodge L'Heureuse Rencontre. must encounter in their progress from ignoHe subsequently removed to Paris, where, rance to the acquisition of this truth.
Destruction of the Temple. The
in 1822, he became the Master of the Lodge
of Trinosophs, which position he held for Temple of King Solomon was destroyed
nine years. Thinking that the ceremonies by Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Chaldees,
of the Masonic system in France did not during the reign of Zedekiah, A. M. 3416,
respond to the dignity of the Institution, B. c. 588, and just four hundred and sixteen
but were gradually being diverted from its years after its dedication. Although the
original design, he determined to com- city was destroyed and the Temple burnt,
mence a reform in the recognized dogmas, the Masonic legends state that the deep
legends, and symbols, which he proposed to foundations of the latter were not affected.
present in new forms more in accord with Nebuchadnezzar caused the city of Jerusathe manners of the present age. There lem to be levelled to the ground, the royal
was, therefore, very little of conservation palace to be burned, the Temple to be pilIt was, how- laged as well as destroyed, and the inhabiin the system of Des Etangs.
ever, adopted for a time by many of the tants to be carried captive to Babylon.
Parisian Lodges, and Des Etangs was These events are symbolically detailed in
loaded with honors. His Rite embraced the Royal Arch, and, in allusion to them,
five degrees, viz., 1, 2, 3, the Symbolic de- the passage of the Book of Chronicles which
grees; 4, the Rose Croix rectified; 5, the records them is appropriately read during
Grand Elect Knight Kadosh. He gave to the ceremonies of this part of the degree.
his system the title of " Masonry Restored
Detached Degrees. Side or honoto its True Principles," and fully developed rary degrees outside of the regular succession of degrees of a Rite, and which, being
it in his work entitled Veritable Lien des
Peuples, which was first published in 1823. conferred without the authority of a suDes Etangs also published in 1825 a very preme controlling body, are said to be to
able reply to the calumnies of the Abbe the side of or detached from the regular
Barruel, .under the title of La Franc-Ma- regime. The word detached is peculiar to
gonnerie justifee de toute les calomnies repan- the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
In the system of Des Thus, in the circular of the Southern Sudues contre elks.
Etangs, the Builder of the Temple is sup- preme Council, October 10, 1802, is the folposed to symbolize the Good -Genius of Hu- lowing: "Besides those degrees which are
manity destroyed by Ignorance, Falsehood, in regular succession, most of the Inspecand Ambition; and hence the third degree tors are in possession of a number of detached degrees, given in different parts of
is supposed to typify the battle between libIn the same spirit, the the world, and which they generally comerty and despotism.
justness of destroying impious kings is con- municate, free of expense, to those brethsidered the true dogma of the Rose Croix. ren who are high enough to understand
In fact, the tumults of the French revolution, them."
in which Des Etangs took no inconsiderDeuehar Charters. Warrants some
able share, had infected his spirit with a of which are still in existence in Scotland,
political temperament, which unfortunately and which are used to authorize the workappears too prominently in many portions ing of the Knights Templars degree by
of his Masonic system. Notwithstanding certain Encampments in that country.
that he incorporated two of the high de- They were designated "Deuehar Charters,"
grees into his Kite, Des Etangs considered on account of Alexander Deuehar, an enthe three Symbolic degrees as the only legi- graver and heraldic writer, having been
timate Masonry, and says that all other the chief promoter of the Grand Conclave
degrees have been instituted by various and its first Grand Master. To his exerassociations and among different peoples tions, also, the Supreme Grand Royal Arch
on occasions when it was desired to re- Chapter of Scotland may be said to have
venge a death, to re-establish a prince, or owed its origin. He appears to have beto give success to a sect.
come acquainted with Knight Templarism
Design of Freemasonry. It is early in the present century through brethneither charity nor almsgiving, nor the cul- ren who had been dubbed under a warrant
tivation of the social sentiment for both emanating from Dublin, and which was
of these are merely incidental to its organ- held by Fratres serving in the Shropshire
ization but it is the search after truth, Militia.
This corps was quartered in Edinand that truth is the unity of God and the burgh in 1798; and in all probability it
immortality of the soul. The various de- was through the instrumentality of its
grees or grades of initiation represent the members that the first Grand Assembly
various stages through which the human of Knights Templars was first set up in
mind passes, and the many difficulties Edinburgh. Subsequently, this gave place
which men, individually or collectively, to the Grrand Assembly of High Knights
;

2C

DEUS

DEVICE

Templars in Edinburgh, working under a

charter, No. 31, of the Early Grand Encampment of Ireland, of which in 1807
Deuchar was Grand Master. The Deuchar

material for thought. But it is not until

the entire volume lies unrolled before him,
in the highest degree, and the whole speculative system of its philosophy is lying outspread before him, that he can pretend to
claim a thorough comprehension of its
plan.
It is then only that he has solved
the problem, and can exclaim, "the end
has crowned the work." The Mason who
looks only on the ornamental covering of
the roll knows nothing of its contents.
Masonry is a scheme of development and
he who has learned nothing of its design,
and who is daily adding nothing to his
stock of Masonic ideas, is simply one who
is not unrolling the parchment.
It is a
custom of the Jews on their Sabbath, in the
synagogue, that a member should pay for the
privilege of unrolling the Sacred Law. So,
too, the Mason, who would uphold the law
of his Institution, must pay for the privilege, not in base coin, but in labor and research, studying its principles, searching
out its design, and imbibing all of its symbolism and the payment thus made will
purchase a rich jewel.
term in heraldry signifyDevice.
ing any emblem used to represent a family,
person, nation, or society, and to distinguish such from any other. The device is
usually accompanied with a suitable motto
applied in a figurative sense, and its essence
consists in a metaphorical similitude between the thing representing and that repThus, the device of a lion repreresented.
sents the courage of the person bearing it.
The oak is the device of strength; the
palm, of victory the sword, of honor and
the eagle, of sovereign power. The several
sections of the Masonic sodality are distinguished by appropriate devices.
Besides the
1. Ancient Craft Masonry.
arms of Speculative Masonry, which are described in this work under the appropriate
head, the most common device is a square
and compass.
The device is
2. Royal Arch Masonry.
a triple tau within a triangle.
Templarism.
The ancient
3. Knight
device, which was borne on the seals and
banners of the primitive Order, was two
knights riding on one horse, in allusion to
the vow of poverty taken by the founders.
The modern device of Masonic Templarism

218

Charters authorized

Encampments to install

"Knights Templars and Knights of St.

one condition on
John of Jerusalem,"
which these warrants were held being
" that no communion or intercourse shall
be maintained with any Chapter or Encampment, or body assuming that name,
holding meetings of Knights Templars
In
under a Master Mason's Charter."
1837 the most of these warrants were forfeited,, and the Encampments erased from
the roll of the Grand Conclave, on account
of not making the required returns.
Dens Meumque Jus. God and
my right. The motto of the thirty-third
degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite, and hence adopted as that also
of the Supreme Council of the Eite. *It is

a Latin translation of the motto of the

royal arms of England, which is "Dieu
et mon droit," and concerning which we
have the following tradition. Eichard Coeur

de Leon, besieging Gisors, in Normandy, in

1198, gave, as a parole, "

Dieu

et

mon droit,"

because Philip Augustus, king of France,

had, without right, taken that city, which
then belonged to England. Eichard, having been victorious with that righteous
parole, hence adopted it as his motto and
it was afterwards marshalled in the arms
of England.
;

Development.

The

ancients often

wrote their books on parchment, which

were made up into a roll, hence called a volume, from volvere, " to roll up." Thus, he
who read the book commenced by unrolling
it, a custom still practised by the Jews in
reading their Sacred Law, and it was not
until the whole volume was unrolled and read
that he became the master of its contents.
Now, in the Latin language, to unfold or to
unroll was devolvere, whence we get our
English word to develop. The figurative
signification thus elicited from etymology
may be well applied to the idea of the development of Masonry.
The system of
Speculative Masonry is a volume closely
folded from unlawful eyes, and he who
would understand its true intent and meaning must follow the old proverb, and " commence at the beginning." There is no
royal road of arriving at this knowledge.
It can be attained only by laborious research.
The student must begin as an Apprentice, by studying the rudiments that
are unfolded on its first page. Then as a
Fellow Craft still more of the precious
writing is unrolled, and he acquires new
ideas.
As a Master he continues the operation, and possesses himself of additional

is

a cross pattee.

The device is
Scottish Eite Masonry.
a double-headed eagle crowned, holding in his
claws a sword.
The device
5. Royal and Select Masters.
is a troivel suspended within a triangle, in
which the allusion is to the tetragrammaton
symbolized by the triangle or delta, and
the workmen at the first Temple symbolized
by the trowel.
4.

DEVOIR

DIMIT

219

Rose Croix Masonry. The device is a

charged with a rose ; at its foot an eagle
and a pelican.
This old degree of
7. Knight of the Sun.
philosophical Masonry has for its device
rays of light issuing from a triangle inscribed
withina circle of efar&/im,which "teaches us,"
says Oliver, " that when man was enlight-

mandery of Knights Templars are

ened by the Deity with reason, he became

enabled to penetrate the darkness and obscurity which ignorance and superstition
have spread abroad to allure men to their

seven liberal arts and sciences.

Diamond. A precious stone in Hebrew, D^Hl. It was the third stone in the
second row of the high priest's breastplate,
according to the enumeration of Aben Ezra,
and corresponded to the tribe of Zebulun.
But it is doubtful whether the diamond
was known in the time of Moses and if it
was, its great value and its insusceptibility
to the impression of a graving-tool would
have rendered it totally unfit as a stone in
the breastplate. The Vulgate more properly gives the jasper.
Dieseal. A term used by the Druids
to designate the circumambulation around
the sacred cairns, and is derived from two
words signifying " on the right of the sun,"
because the circumambulation was always
in imitation of the course of the sun, with
the right hand next to the cairn or altar.
See Circumambulation.
Dieu et nion Droit. See Deus Meunique Jus.

6.

cross

destruction."
Each of these devices is accoupanied by
a motto which properly forms a part of it.
These mottoes will be found under the
head of Motto.
The Italian heralds have paid peculiar
attention to the subject of devices, and have
established certain laws for their construction, which are generally recognized in
other countries. These laws are, 1. That
there be nothing extravagant or monstrous
in the figures.
2. That figures be never
joined together which have no relation or
affinity with one another.
3. That the
human body should never be used. 4. That
the figures should be few in number, and 5,
That the motto should refer to the device,
and express with it a common idea. According to P. Bouhours, the figure or emblem was called the body, and the motto
the soul of the device.
Devoir. The gilds or separate communities in the system of French compagnonage are called devoirs. See Compagnonage.
Devoir of Knight. The original
meaning of devoir is duty; and hence, in'
the language of chivalry, a knight's devoir
comprehended the performance of all those
duties to which he was obligated by the
laws of knighthood and the vows taken at

technically called the devotions of the knights.

Dialectics. That branch of logic
which teaches the rules and modes of reasoning. Dialecticke and dialecticus are used
as corruptions of the Latin dialectica in

some of the old manuscript Constitutions,

instead of logic, in the enumeration of the
;

Dien

le Veut.

God

wills

it.

The

war-cry of the old Crusaders, and hence

adopted as a motto in the degrees of Templarism.

Dignitaries.

The Master, the War-

dens, the Orator,

and the Secretary in a

French Lodge are

called dignitaries.

The

the Grand Orient

are called Grand Dignitaries. In English
and American Masonic language the term
is usually restricted to high officers of the

corresponding

officers in

Grand Lodge.

These were the defence of

widows and orphans, the maintenance of
justice, and the protection of the poor and

Dimit. A modern, American, and

wholly indefensible corruption of the tech-

weak

rupt form

his creation.

against the oppressions of the strong

and great. Thus, in one of Beaumont and
Fletcher's plays, the knight says to the
lady
" Madame, if any service or devoir
errant knight may right your wrongs,

Of a poor

Command

it; I am prest to give you succor,

For to that holy end I bear my armor."
Knight of the Burning Pestle. Act II., Scene

1.

The devoir of a Knight Templar was

originally to protect pilgrims on their visit
to the Holy Land, and to defend the holy
places.
The devoir of a modern Knight
Templar is to defend innocent virgins, destitute widows, helpless orphans, and the

Christian religion.

Devotions.

The prayers

in a

Com-

nical

word Demit.
is

As

the use of this cor-

beginning to be very prevalent

among American Masonic writers,

proper that we should inquire which

it
is

is

the

Demit or Dimit.
For almost a century and a half the
Masonic world has been content, in its
technical language, to use the word demit.
But within a few years, a few admirers of
correct word,

men who are always ready to

neologisms
believe that what is old cannot be good,
and that new fashions are always the best
have sought to make a change in the
well-established word, and, by altering the
e in the first syllable into an i, they make

another word dimit, which they assert is

the right one. It is simply a question of
orthography, and must be settled first by
reference to usage, and then to etymology,

DIMIT

DIMIT

to discover which of the words sustains, by

its derivation, the true meaning which is
intended to be conveyed.
It is proper, however, to premise that
although in the seventeenth century Sir
Thomas Browne used the word demit as a
verb, meaning " to depress," and Bishop
Hall used dimit as signifying to send away,

In instituting the inquiry which of these

two words is the true one, we must first
look to the general usage of Masonic writers for, after all, the rule of Horace holds
good, that in the use of words we must be
governed by custom or usage,

yet both words are omitted by all the early

lexicographers. Neither of them is to be
found in Phillips, in 1706, nor in Blunt, in
Johnson and
1707, nor in Bailey, in 1732.
Sheridan, of a still later date, have inserted in their dictionaries demit, but not
dimit; but Walker, Richardson, and Webster give both words, but only as verbs.
The verb to demit or to dimit may be found,
but never the noun a demit or a dimit. As
a noun substantive, this word, however it

Words and the forms

may be

in the second edition of Anderson's Constitutions, Anno 1732, p. 153. There it is said
that on the 25th of November, 1723, " it
was agreed that if a Master of a particular
Lodge is deposed, or demits, the Senior
Warden shall forthwith fill the Master's

220

spelled, is unknown to the general

language, and is strictly a technical expression peculiar to Freemasonry.

As a Masonic technicality we must then

discuss it.
And, first, as to its meaning.
Dr. Oliver, who omits dimit in his Dictionary of Symbolical Masonry, defines demit
thus
Mason is said to demit from the
:

"A

Order when he withdraws from

connection with it."

It will be seen that he
speaks of it here only as a verb, and makes
no reference to its use as a noun.
Macoy, in his Oyclopcedia, omits demit,
but defines dimit thus " From the Latin
dimitto, to permit to go.
The act of withdrawing from membership." To say nothing of the incorrectness of this definition, to
all

which reference

will hereafter be made,

there is in it a violation of the principles
of language which is worthy of note. No
rule is better settled than that which makes
the verb and the noun derived from it have
the same relative signification. Thus, " to

discharge" means "to dismiss;" "a discharge " means " a dismission " " to approve " means " to express liking " " an
approval " means "an expression of liking;"
" to remit " means " to relax " "a remission " means " a relaxation," and so with a
thousand other instances. Now, according
to this rule, if " to demit " means " to permit to go," then " a dimit " should mean
" a permission to go." The withdrawal is
something subsequent and consequent, but
it may never take place.
According to
Macoy's definition of the verb, the granting of " a dimit " does not necessarily lead
;

to the conclusion that the

Mason who

re-

it has left the Lodge.

He has only
been permitted to do so. This is contrary

ceived

universally accepted definition of

the word. Accordingly, when he comes to
define the word as a noun, he gives it the
true meaning, which, however, does not
agree with his previous definition as a verb.
to the

" whose arbitrary sway

of language

must obey."

If we shall find that the universal usage

of Masonic writers until a very recent date
has been to employ the form demit, then
we are bound to believe that it is the correct form, notwithstanding a few writers
have very recently sought to intrude the

form dimit upon

us.

Now, how stands the case? The first

time that we find the word demit used is

Chair."

The word continued in use as a technical

in the Masonry of England for many

word

In the editions of the Constitutions

published in 1756, p. 310, the passage just
quoted is again recited, and the word demit
is again employed in the fourth edition of
the Constitutions published in 1769, p. 358.
In the second edition of Dermott's
"Ahiman Rezon," published in 1764, (I
have not the first,) p. 52, and in the third
edition, published in 1778, p. 58, the word
demit is employed. Oliver, it will be seen,
uses it in his Dictionary, published in 1853.
But the word seems to have become obsolete in England, and to resign is now constantly used by English Masonic writers in
the place of to demit.
In America, however, the word has been
and continues to be in universal use, and
has always been spelled, until very recently,
years.

demit.
it used by Taunehill, Man59 Morris, Code of Masonic
Law, 1856, p. 289 by Hubbard, in 1851
by Chase, Digest, 1859, p. 104 by Mitchell, Masonic History, vol. ii., pp. 556, 592,
and by all the Grand Lodges whose proceedings I have examined up to the year
1860, and probably beyond that date.

Thus we

find

ual, 1845, p.

On the contrary, the word dimit is of

very recent origin, and has been used only
within a few years. Usage, therefore, both
English and American, is clearly in favor
of demit, and dimit must be considered as
an interloper, and ought to be consigned
to the tomb of the Capulets.
And now we
usage

is

are to inquire whether this

sustained by the principles of ety-

DIMIT

DIMIT

First, let us obtain a correct definition of the word.

To demit, in Masonic language, means
simply to resign. The Mason who demits
from his Lodge resigns from it. The word
is used in the exact sense, for instance, in
the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of
Wisconsin, where it is said: "No brother
shall be allowed to demit from any Lodge
unless for the purpose of uniting with some
other." That is to say " No brother shall
be allowed to resign from any Lodge."
Now what are the respective meanings
of demit and dimit in ordinary language ?
There the words are found to be entirely
different in signification.
To demit is derived first from the Latin
demittere through the French demettre.
In
Latin the prefixed particle de has the

"
mission.
demit " is altogether a Masonic technicality, and is, moreover, an

mology.

221

Americanism of very recent usage.

It is then evident that to demit is the

proper word, and that to use to dimit is to
speak and write incorrectly. When a Mason "demits from a Lodge," we mean that
he " resigns from a Lodge," because to demit
means to resign. But what does any one
mean when he says that a Mason " dimits
from a Lodge " ? To dimit means, as we
have seen, to send away, therefore " he dimits from the Lodge " is equivalent to saying " he sends away from the Lodge," which
of course is not only bad English, but sheer
nonsense. If dimit is to be used at all, as
it is an active, transitive verb, it must be
used only in that form, and we must either
say that " a Lodge dimits a Mason," or that
weight of down; added to the verb mittere, "a Mason is dimitted by his Lodge."
I think that I have discovered the way
to send, it signifies to let down from an
elevated position to a lower. Thus, Caesar in which this blunder first arose. Robert
used it in this very sense, when, in describ- Morris, in his Code of Masonic Law, p. 289,
ing the storming of Avaricum, (Bel. Gal., has the following passage
vii. 28,) he says that the Eoman soldiers
"A demit/ technically considered, is
did not let themselves down, that is, de- the act of withdrawing, and applies to the
scend from the top of the wall to the level Lodge and not to the individual. A Mason
ground. The French, looking to this ref- cannot demit, in the strict sense, but the
erence to a descent from a higher to a Lodge may demit (dismiss) him."
lower position, made their verb se demettre,
It is astonishing how the author of this
used in a reflective sense, signify to give up passage could have crowded into so brief a
a post, office, or occupation, that is to say, space so many violations of grammar, law,
to resign it.
And thence the English use and common sense. First, to demit means
of the word is reducible, which makes to to withdraw, 'and then this withdrawal is
demit signify to resign. We have another made the act of the Lodge and not of the
word in our language also derived from de- individual, as if the Lodge withdrew the
mettre, and in which the same idea of resig- member instead of the member withdrawnation is apparent.
It is the word demise, ing himself. And immediately afterwards,
which was originally confined to express seeing the absurdity of this doctrine, and to
a royal death. The old maxim was that make the demission the act of the Lodge,
" the king never dies."
So, instead of say- he changes the] signification of the word,
ing "the death of the king," they said and makes to demit mean to dismiss. Cer" the demise of the king," thereby meaning tainly it is impossible to discuss the law of
his resignation of the crown to his succes- Masonic demission when such contrary
sor.
The word is now applied more gene- meanings are given to the word in one and
rally, and we speak of the demise of Mr.
the same paragraph.
Pitt, or any other person.
But certain wiseacres, belonging probTo dimit is derived from the Latin dimit- ably to that class who believe that there is
tere.
The prefixed particle di or dis has always improvement in change, seizing
the effect of off from, and hence dimittere upon this latter definition of Morris, that to
means to send away. Thus, Terence uses it demit meant to dismiss, and seeing that this
to express the meaning of dismissing or was a meaning which the word never had,
sending away an army.
and, from its derivation from demittere,
Both words are now obsolete in the Eng- never could have, changed the word from
lish language.
They were formerly used, demit to dimit, which really does have the
but in the different senses already indicated. meaning of sending away or dismissing.
Thus, Hollinshed employs demit to signi- But as the Masonic act of demission does
fy a surrender, yielding up or resignation not mean a dismissal from the Lodge, beof a franchise.
cause that would be an expulsion, but
Bishop Hall uses dimit to signify a send- simply a resignation, the word dimit cannot
ing away of a servant by his master.
properly be applied to the act.
Demit, as a noun, is not known in good
A Mason demits from the Lodge he reEnglish the correlative nouns of the verbs signs. He takes out his demit, (a strictly
to demit and to dimit are demission and ditechnical expression and altogether con:

'

DIOCESAN

DIONYSIAN

fined to this country;) he asks for and receives an acceptance of his resignation.

Lawrie, Oliver, and our best writers; and

although this connection between the
Dionysian Architects and the builders of
King Solomon may not be supported by
documentary evidence, the traditionary
theory is at least plausible, and offers nothing which is either absurd or impossible.
If accepted, it supplies the necessary link
which connects the Pagan with the Jewish

222

Diocesan. The fifth degree of Bahrdt's

German Union.

Dionysian Architects. The priests

of Bacchus, or, as the Greeks called him,

Dionysus, having devoted themselves to

architectural pursuits, established about
1000 years before the Christian era a society or fraternity of builders in Asia
Minor, which is styled by the ancient
writers the Fraternity of Dionysian Archi-

and to this society was exclusively

confined the privilege of erecting temples
and other public buildings.
The members of the Fraternity of Dionysian Architects were linked together by the
secret ties of the Dionysian mysteries, into

tects,

which they had

all

been

initiated.

Thus

constituted, the Fraternity was distinguished

by many peculiarities that strikingly assimilate it to our Order. In the exercise
of charity, the "more opulent were sacredly bound to provide for the exigencies

of the poorer brethren." For the facilities

of labor and government, they were divided
into communities called cwoiniai, each of
which was governed by a Master and Wardens. They held a general assembly or
grand festival once a year, which was solemnized with great pomp and splendor.
They employed in their ceremonial observances many of the implements which are
to be found among Freemasons, and
used, like them, a universal language, by
still

which one brother could distinguish another

in the dark as well as in the light, and
which served to unite the members scattered over India, Persia, and Syria, into

common brotherhood. The existence

of this order in Tyre, at the time of the
building of the Temple, is universally admitted; and Hiram, the widow's son, to
whom Solomon intrusted the superintendence of the workmen, as an inhabitant of
Tyre, and as a skilful architect and cunning
and curious workman, was, very probably,
one of its members. Hence, we may legitimately suppose that the Dionysians were
sent by Hiram, king of Tyre, to assist
King Solomon in the construction of the
house he was about to dedicate to Jehovah,
and that they communicated to their Jewish fellow-laborers a knowledge of the advantages of their Fraternity, and invited
them to a participation in its mysteries and
privileges.
In this union, however, the
apocryphal legend of the Dionysians would
naturally give way to the true legend of
the Masons, which was unhappily furnished by a melancholy incident that occurred at the time. The latter part of this
statement is, it is admitted, a mere speculation, but one that has met the approval of
one

mysteries.
The history of this association subsequently to the Solomonic era has been detailed by Masonic writers, who have derived
their information sometimes from conjectural and sometimes from historical authority.
About 300 years b. c, they were
incorporated by the kings of Pergamos at
Teos, which was assigned to them as a settlement, and where they continued for centuries as an exclusive society engaged in the
erection of works of art and the celebration of their mysteries.
Notwithstanding
the edict of the Emperor Theodosius which
abolished all mystical associations, they
are said to have continued their existence
down to the time of the Crusades, and

during the constant communication which

was kept up between the two continents
passed over from Asia to Europe, where
they became known as the "Travelling
Freemasons " of the Middle Ages, into
whose future history they thus became
merged.

Dionysian Mysteries.

These myswere celebrated throughout Greece

and Asia Minor, but principally at Athens,
where the years were numbered by them.
They were instituted in honor of Bacchus,
or, as the Greeks called him, Dionysus, and
were introduced into Greece from Egypt.
In these mysteries, the murder of Dionysus
by the Titans was commemorated, in which
legend he is evidently identified with the
Egyptian Osiris, who was slain by his brother Typhon. The aspirant, in the ceremonies through which he passed, represented the murder of the god and his
restoration to life, which, says the Baron de
Sacy, (Notes on Sainte- Croix, ii. 86,) were
teries

the subject of allegorical explanations altogether analogous to those which were given
to the rape of Proserpine and the murder
of Osiris.
The commencement of the mysteries was
signalized by the consecration of an egg, in
allusion to the mundane egg from which
all things were supposed to have sprung.
The candidate having been first purified by
water, and crowned with a myrtle branch,
was introduced into the vestibule, and
there clothed in the sacred habiliments.
He was then delivered to the conductor,
who, after the mystic warning, eme, ekcis,
eare pefaloi, "Depart hence, all ye pro-

DISCALCEATION

DIONYSIAN
fane

" exhorted the candidate to exert all

and courage in the dangers

his fortitude

through which he was about to

He was then led through a series of
pass.
dark caverns, a part of the ceremonies
which Stobaeus calls " a rude and fearful
march through night and darkness." During this passage he was terrified by the
howling of wild beasts, and other fearful
thunder reverberated
artificial
noises;
through the subterranean apartments, and

and

trials

transient flashes of lightning revealed monIn this

strous apparitions to his sight.
state of darkness and terror he was kept
for three days and nights, after which he
commenced the aphanism or mystical death

of Bacchus. He was now placed on the

pastos or couch, that is, he was confined in
a solitary cell, where he could reflect seriously on the nature of the undertaking in
which he was engaged. During this time,
he was alarmed with the sudden crash of
waters, which was intended to represent
the deluge. Typhon, searching for Osiris,
or Dionysus, for they are here identical, discovered the ark in which he had been secreted, and, tearing it violently asunder,
scattered the limbs of his victim upon the
The aspirant now heard the lawaters.
mentations which were instituted for the
death of the god. Then commenced the
search of Rhea for the remains of Dionysus.

The apartments were

filled

with

shrieks and groans the initiated mingled

with their howlings of despair the frantic
dances of the Corybantes everything was
a scene of distraction, until, at a signal
;

from the
changed
;

hierophant, the whole

the mourning was turned

drama
to joy
the as-

the mangled body was found and

pirant was released from his confinement,
amid the shouts of ~Evp7jmuev, ~Evyx aL Pl1v
"
have found it; let us rejoice together."
The candidate was now made to descend
into the infernal regions, where he beheld
the torments of the wicked and the rewards of the virtuous. It was now that he
received the lecture explanatory of the
Rites, and was invested with the tokens
which served the initiated as a means of
recognition.
He then underwent a lustration, after which he was introduced into
the holy place, where he received the name
of epopt, and was fully instructed in the
doctrine of the mysteries, which consisted
in a belief in the existence of one God and
a future state of rewards and punishments.
These doctrines were inculcated by a variety of significant symbols.
After the
performance of these ceremonies, the aspirant was dismissed, and the Rites concluded
with the pronunciation of the mystic words,
Knox Ompax. Sainte-Croix (Myst. du Pag.,
ii. 90,) says that the murder of Dionysus
;

We

223

by the Titans was only an allegory of the

physical revolutions of the world but these
were in part, in the ancient initiations, significant of the changes of life and death
;

and resurrection.

Dionysus. The Greek name

chus.

of Bac-

See Dionysian Mysteries.

Diploma.
folded.

From

Literally

the Greek,

means something
The word

diiz'Aorj.

is applied in Masonry to the certificates

granted by Lodges, Chapters, and Commanderies to their members, which should
always be written on parchment. The more
usual word, however, is Certificate, which see.
In the Scottish Rite they are called Patents.

Director of Ceremonies,
Grand. An

the Grand Lodge

the care of the regalia, clothing, insignia, and jewels belonging to the Grand Lodge. His jewel is two
batons crossed in saltire.
Directory. In German Lodges, the
Master and other officers constitute a council of management, under the name of Directorium or Directory.
of England,

officer in

who has

Roman Helvetic.

Directory,

The name assumed

in 1739 by the Suat Lausanne, in

Switzerland. See Switzerland.

preme Masonic authority

Discalceation, Rite of. The ceremony of taking off the shoes, as a token of
respect, whenever we are on or about to
approach holy ground. It is referred to in
iii. 5,
where the angel of the
Lord, at the burning bush, exclaims to
Moses: "Draw not nigh hither; put off
thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place
whereon thou standest is holy ground." It
is again mentioned in Joshua v. 15, in the
following words " And the captain of the
Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy
shoe from off thy foot for the place whereon
thou standest is holy." And lastly, it is alluded to in the injunction given in Ecclesiastes v. 1 " Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God."
The Rite, in fact, always was, and still is,
used among the Jews and other Oriental
nations when entering their temples and
other sacred edifices. It does not seem to
have been derived from the command given
to Moses
but rather to have existed as a
religious custom from time immemorial,
and to have been borrowed, as Mede supposes, by the Gentiles, through tradition,
from the patriarchs.
The direction of Pythagoras to his disciples was in these words
Awtv66?jto^ 6ve
ml TrpbcTKvvei
that is, " Offer sacrifice and
worship with thy shoes off."
Justin Martyr says that those who came
to worship in the sanctuaries and temples
of the Gentiles were commanded by their
priests to put off their shoes.

Exodus

DISCIPLINA

224

DISCIPLINE

Drusius, in his Notes on the Booh of

Joshua, says that among most of the Eastern nations it was a pious duty to tread the
pavement of the temple with unshod feet.
Maimonides, the great expounder of the
Jewish law, asserts [Beth Habbechirah, c.
vii.,) that "it was not lawful for a man to
come into the mountain of God's house
with his shoes on his feet, or with his staff,
or in his working garments, or with dust on
his feet."

Rabbi Solomon, commenting on the comin Leviticus xix. 30, " Ye shall revmy sanctuary," makes the same remark in relation to this custom. On this
subject, Oliver (Hist. Landm., ii. 481,) observes " Now the act of going with naked
feet was always considered a token of humility and reverence and the priests, in
temple worship, always officiated with feet
uncovered, although it was frequently injurious to their health."
Mede quotes Zago Zaba, an Ethiopian
bishop, who was ambassador from David,
king of Abyssinia, to John III., of Portu"
gal, as saying
are not permitted to
enter the church except barefooted."
The Mohammedans, when about to perform their devotions, always leave their
slippers at the door of the mosque. The
Druids practised the same custom whenever they celebrated their sacred rites and
the ancient Peruvians are said always to
have left their shoes at the porch when
they entered the magnificent temple consecrated to the worship of the sun.

mand

erence

is to subject him to punishment.

Jurisdiction and Punishment.

son

Discipline of the Secret.

See

There

existed in the earlier ages of the Christian

church, a mystic and secret worship, from
which a portion of the congregation was
peremptorily excluded, and whose privacy
was guarded, with the utmost care, from
the obtrusive eyes of all who had not been
duly initiated into the sacred rites that
qualified them to be present.
This custom of communicating only to a
portion of the Christian community, the
more abstruse doctrines and more sacred
ceremonies of the church, is known among
ecclesiastical writers by the name of " Disciplina Arcani," or " The Discipline of

the Secret."

Converts were permitted to attain a

knowledge of all the doctrines, and participate in the sacraments of the church,
only after a long and experimental probation.
The young Christian, like the disciple of Pythagoras, was made to pass

through a searching ordeal of time and

patience, by which his capacity, his fidelity,
and his other qualifications were strictly
tested.
For this purpose, different ranks
were instituted in the congregation. The
lowest of these were the Catechumens.
These were occupied in a study of the elementary principles of the Christian religion.
Their connection with the church was not
consummated by baptism, to which rite
they were not admitted, even as spectators,
but
it being the symbol of a higher degree
Adam Clarke (Comm. on Exod.) thinks their initiation was accompanied with
that the custom of worshipping the Deity solemn ceremonies, consisting of prayer,
barefooted, was so general among all na- signing with the cross, and the imposition
The next degree
tions of antiquity, that he assigns it as one of hands by the priest.
of his thirteen proofs that the whole hu- was that of the Competentes, or seekers.
When a Catechumen had exhibited satman race have been derived from one

We

family.
Finally, Bishop Patrick, speaking of the
origin of this Rite, says, in his Commentaries : " Moses did not give the first begin-

ning to this Rite, but it was derived from

the patriarchs before him, and transmitted
to future times from that ancient, general
tradition

for

law of Moses

we

find

no command in the

for the priests

performing the

service of the temple without shoes, but it

is certain they did so from immemorial custom and so do the Mohammedans and
other nations at this day."
Discipline. Arcani. See Discipline
;

of the Secret.

Discipline.
Masons, in

its

its

is

used by

of the laws by which a

infliction of the
against offenders who
not being members, live
jurisdiction.
To discipline a Ma-

nify the execution

Lodge is governed,
penalties enjoined
are its members, or,

within

This word

ecclesiastical sense, to sig-

and the

isfactory evidences of his proficiency in religious knowledge, he petitioned the Bishop

His name
for the Sacrament of baptism.
was then registered in the books of the
church. After this registration, the can-

didate underwent the various ceremonies

appropriate to the degree upon which he
was about to enter. He was examined by
the bishop as to his attainments in Christianity, and, if approved, was exorcised for

twenty days, during which time he was

subjected to rigorous fasts, and, having
made confession, the necessary penance was
prescribed.
He was then, for the first time,
instructed in the words of the Apostles'
creed, a symbol of which the Catechumens
were entirely ignorant.
Another ceremony peculiar to the Competentes, was that of going about with
St. Augustine explains
their faces veiled.
the ceremony by saying that the Competentes went veiled in public as an image of

DISCIPLINE

DISCIPLINE
the slavery of

Adam

after his expulsion

from Paradise, and that, after baptism, the

veils were taken away as an emblem of the
liberty of the spiritual life which was obtained by the sacrament of regeneration.
Some other significant ceremonies, but of
a less important character, were used, and
the Competent, having passed through them
all, was at length admitted to the highest
degree.

The Fideles, or Faithful, constituted the

Baptism was the
third degree or order.
ceremony by which the Competentes, after
an examination into their proficiency, were
admitted into this degree. "They were
thereby,'' says Bingham, "made complete
and perfect Christians, and were, upon that
account, dignified with several titles of
honor and marks of distinction above the
Catechumens." They were called Illuminati, or Illuminated, because they had been
enlightened as to those secrets which were
concealed from the inferior orders. They
were also called Initiati, or Initiated, because they were admitted to a knowledge
of the sacred mysteries and so commonly
was this name in use, that, when Chrysostom and the other ancient writers spoke of
their concealed doctrines, they did so in
ambiguous terms, so as not to be understood by the Catechumens, excusing themselves for their brief allusions, by saying,
" the Initiated know what we mean." And
so complete was the understanding of the
ancient Fathers of a hidden mystery, and
an initiation into them, that St. Ambrose has written a book, the title of which
is, Concerning those who are Initiated into
the
Mysteries.
They were also called
the Perfect, to intimate that they had attained to a perfect knowledge of all the
doctrines and sacraments of the church.
There were certain prayers, which none
but the Faithful were permitted to hear.
Among these was the Lord's prayer, which,
for this reason, was commonly called Oratio Fidelium, or, " The Prayer of the Faith;

They were

also admitted to hear dis-

courses upon the

of the church, to

most profound mysteries

which the Catechumens

ful."

were strictly forbidden to listen. St. Ambrose, in the book written by him to the
Inititated, says that sermons on the subject
of morality were daily preached to the
Catechumens; but to the Initiated they
gave an explanation of the Sacraments,
which, to have spoken of to the unbaptized,
would have rather been like a betrayal of
mysteries than instruction. And St. Augustine, in one of his sermons to the Faithful,

says:

"Having now dismissed the

Catechumens, you alone have we retained

to hear

us, because, in addition to those

things which belong to all Christians in

2D

15

225

common, we are now about to speak in an

especial manner of the Heavenly Mysteries,
which none can hear except those who,
by the gift of the Lord, are able to comprehend them."
The mysteries of the church were divided, like the Ancient Mysteries, into the
lesser and the greater.
The former was
called " Missa Catechumenorum," or the
Mass of the Catechumens, and the latter,
" Missa Fidelium," or the Mass of the
Faithful. The public service of the church
consisted of the reading of the Scripture,
and the delivery of a sermon, which was
entirely of a moral character. These being
concluded, the lesser mysteries, or mass of
the Catechumens, commenced. The deacon
proclaimed in a loud voice, " Ne quis audientium, ne quis injidelium" that is, " Let
none who are simply hearers, and let no
infidels be present."
All then who had not
acknowledged their faith in Christ by placing themselves among the Catechumens,
and all Jews and Pagans, were caused to
that the Mass of the Catechumens
might begin. And now, for better security,
a deacon was placed at the men's door and
retire,

a sub-deacon at the women's, for the deacons were the door-keepers, and, in fact,
received that name in the Greek church.
The Mass of the Catechumens which consisted almost entirely of prayers, with the
was then perEpiscopal benediction
formed.
This part of the service having been
concluded, the Catechumens were dismissed
by the deacons, with the expression, " Catechumens, depart in peace." The Competentes, however, or those who had the
second or intermediate degree, remained
until the prayers for those who were possessed of evil spirits, and the supplications
After
for themselves, were pronounced.
this, they too were dismissed, and none
now remaining in the church but the
Faithful, the Missa Fidelium, or greater
mysteries, commenced.
The formula of dismission used by the
deacon on this occasion was: "Holy
things for the holy, let the dogs depart,"
Sancta Sanctis, foris canes.
The Faithful then all repeated the creed,
which served as an evidence that no intruder or uninitiated person was present;
because the creed was not revealed to the
Catechumens, but served as a password to
prove that its possessor was an initiate.
which,
After prayers had been offered up,
however, differed from the supplications in
the former part of the service, by the introduction of open allusions to the most
abstruse doctrines of the church, which
were never named in the presence of the
Catechumens,
the oblations were made,

DISCOVERY

226

DISPENSATIONS

and the Eucharistical Sacrifice, or Lord's

Supper, was celebrated. Prayers and invocations followed, and at length the service
was concluded, and the assembly was dismissed by the benediction, "Depart in
peace."

Bingham

records the following rites as

having been concealed .from the Catechumens, and intrusted, as the sacred mysteonly to the Faithful the manner of
receiving baptism the ceremony of confirmation; the ordination of priests; the
mode of celebrating the Eucharist; the
and the docliturgy, or divine service
trine of the Trinity, the creed, and the
Lord's prayer, which last, however, were
begun to be explained to the Competentes.
Such was the celebrated Discipline of the
Secret in the early Christian church. That
its origin, so far as the outward form was
concerned, is to be found in the Mysteries
of Paganism, there can be no doubt, as has
been thus expressed by the learned Mosheim " Religion having thus, in both its
branches, the speculative as well as the
practical, assumed a twofold character,
the one public or common, the other private or mysterious, it was not long before
a distinction of a similar kind took place
also in the Christian discipline and form
of divine worship; for, observing that in
Egypt, as well as in other countries, the
heathen worshippers, in addition to their
to which
public religious ceremonies,

ries,

every one was admitted without distinchad certain secret and most sacred
tion,
rites, to which they gave the name of
'mysteries/ and at the celebration of
which none but persons of the most approved faith and discretion were permitted
to be present, the Alexandrian Christians
first, and after them others, were beguiled
into a notion that they could not do better
than make the Christian discipline accom-

modate

itself to this

model/'

Discovery of the Body.

See Eu-

resis.

Discovery? Year of the.

"

Anno

Inventionis," or " in the Year of the Discovery," is the style assumed by the Royal
Arch Masons, in commemoration of an
event which took place soon after the commencement of the rebuilding of the Temple

by Zerubbabel.

permission to do
Dispensation.
that which, without such permission, is
forbidden by the Constitutions and usages
of the Order.

Du Cange ( Glossarium) defines a dispensation to be a prudent relaxation of a geneProvida juris communis relaxatio.
ral law.
While showing how much the ancient ecclesiastical authorities were opposed to the
granting of dispensations, since they pre-

ferred to pardon the offence after the law

violated, rather than to give a
previous license for its violation, he adds,
" but however much the Roman Pontiffs

had been

and pious Bishops

felt of reverence for the

ancient Regulations, they were often compelled to depart in some measure from
them, for the utility of the church and
this milder measure of acting the jurists
called a dispensation."
This power to dispense with the provisions
of law in particular cases appears to be inherent in the Grand Master because, although frequently referred to in the old
Regulations, it always is as if it were a
power already in existence, and never by
way of a new grant. There is no record
of any Masonic statute or constitutional
provision conferring this prerogative in distinct words.
The instances, however, in
which this prerogative may be exercised
are clearly enumerated in various places
of the Old Constitutions, so that there can
be no difficulty in understanding to what
extent the prerogative extends.
The power of granting dispensations is
confided to the Grand Master, or his representative, but should not be exercised except on extraordinary occasions, or for exThe dispensing power is
cellent reasons.
confined to only four circumstances: 1.
Lodge cannot be opened and held unless a
Warrant of Constitution be first granted by
the Grand Lodge ; but the Grand Master
may issue his dispensation, empowering a
constitutional number of brethren to open
and hold a Lodge until the next communication of the Grand Lodge. At this communication, the dispensation of the Grand
Master is either revoked or confirmed.
Lodge under dispensation is not permitted to be represented, nor to vote in the
Grand Lodge. 2. Not more than five candidates can be made at the same communication of a Lodge; but the Grand Master,
on the showing of sufficient cause, may extend to a Lodge the privilege of making as
many more as he may think proper. 3.
No brother can, at the same time, belong
to two Lodges within three miles of each
But the Grand Master may disother.
pense with this regulation also. 4. Every
;

'

Lodge must

elect

and

install its officers

on

the constitutional night, which, in most

Masonic jurisdictions, precedes the anniversary of St. John the Evangelist. Should
it, however, neglect this duty, or should
any officer die, or be expelled, or remove
permanently, no subsequent election or installation can take place, except under dispensation of the Grand Master.

Dispensation, Lodges under.

See Lodge.

Dispensations of Religion. An

DISPENSATIONS

DISPERSION

attempt has been made to symbolize the

Pagan, the Jewish, and the Christian dispensations by a certain ceremony of the
Master's degree which dramatically teaches
the resurrection of the body and the im-

Mason's degree, which, in its original conception, before it was dismembered by the
innovations of the Royal Arch, was perfect and complete in its consummation of
all Masonic light, symbolizes the last, or
Christian dispensation, where the great and

The

mortality of the soul.

reference

made

ceremony to portions of the first,

second, and third degrees is used to demonin this

strate the difference of the three dispensations in the reception of these two dogmas.
It is said that

the unsuccessful

effort in

the

Entered Apprentice's degree refers to the

heathen dispensation, where neither the
resurrection of the body nor the immorthat the
tality of the soul was recognized
second unsuccessful effort in the Fellow
Craft's degree refers to the Jewish dispensation, where, though the resurrection of the
body was unknown, the immortality of the
soul was dimly hinted and that the final
and successful effort in the Master's degree
symbolizes the Christian dispensation, in
which, through the teachings of the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, both the resurrection
of the body and the immortality of the soul
were clearly brought to light. This sym;

bolism, which was the invention of a peripatetic lecturer in the South about fifty
years ago, is so forced and fanciful in its
character, that it did not long survive the
local and temporary teachings of its inventor, and is only preserved here as an
instance of how symbols, like metaphors,
is

another symbolism of the

three degrees, as illustrating three dispensations,

which

is

much

older,

having

ori-

ginated among the lecture-makers of the

eighteenth century, which for a long time
formed a portion of the authorized ritual,
and is still repeated with approbation by
some distinguished writers. In this the
three degrees are said to be symbols, in the
progressive knowledge which they impart
of the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the
Christian dispensations.
The first, or Entered Apprentice's de-

which but little Masonic light is

communicated, and which, indeed, is only
preparatory and introductory to the two
succeeding degrees, is said to symbolize the

gree, in

or Patriarchal dispensation, the earrevelation, where the knowledge of

God was necessarily imperfect, his worship only a few simple rites of devotion,
and the religious dogmas merely a general
system of morality. The second, or Fellow
Craft's degree, is symbolic of the second or
Mosaic dispensation, in which, while there
were still many imperfections, there was
also a great increase of religious knowledge, and a nearer approximation to divine
truth, with a promise in the future of a
better theodicv.
But the third, or Master

first,

liest

consoling doctrine of the resurrection to

eternal life is the crowning lesson taught
by its Divine founder. This subject is very
fully treated by the Rev. James Watson,
in an address delivered at Lancaster,
Eng., in 1795, and contained in Jones's
Masonic Miscellanies, p. 245 better, I think,
;

by him than even by Hutchinson.

Beautiful as this symbolism may

and

be,

appropriately fitting in all its parts to the

laws of symbolic science, it is evident that
its origin cannot be traced farther back
than to the period when Masonry was first
divided into three distinctive degrees nor
could it have been invented later than the
time when Masonry was deemed, if not an
exclusively Christian organization, at least
;

to be

founded on and

fitly illustrated

by

Christian dogmas. At present, this symbolism, though preserved in the speculations of such Christian writers as Hutchinson and Oliver, and those who are attached
to their peculiar school, finds no place in
the modern cosmopolitan rituals. It may
belong, as an explanation, to the history
of Masonry, but can scarcely make a part
of its symbolism.

Dispersion of Mankind.

may sometimes run mad.

But there

227

The

dispersion of mankind at the tower of Babel and on the plain of Shinar, which is
recorded in the book of Genesis, has given
rise to a Masonic tradition of the following
purport. The knowledge of the great truths
of God and immortality were known to
Noah, and by him communicated to his
immediate descendants, the Noachidae or
Noachites, by whom the true worship continued to be cultivated for some time after
the subsidence of the deluge but when the
human race were dispersed, a portion lost
sight of the divine truths which had been
;

communicated to them from their common

ancestor, and fell into the most grievous theological errors, corrupting the purity of the
worship and the orthodoxy of the religious
faith which they had primarily received.
These truths were preserved in their integrity by but a very few in the patriarchal
line, while still fewer were enabled to retain only dim and glimmering portions of
the true light.
The first class was confined to the direct

descendants of Noah, and the second was

to be found among the priests and philosophers, and, perhaps, still later, among
the poets of the heathen nations, and
among those whom they initiated into the
secrets of these truths.

DISPUTES

DORIC

of doctrine of the former

has been called by Masonic writers
the "Pure or Primitive Freemasonry" of
antiquity, and that of the latter class the
"Spurious Freemasonry" of the same period.
These terms were first used by Dr.
Oliver, and are intended to refer the word
pure to the doctrines taught by the descendants of Noah in the Jewish line, and
the word spurious to those taught by his
descendants in the heathen or Gentile line.
Disputes. The spirit of all the Ancient Charges and Constitutions is, that
disputes among Masons should be settled
by an appeal to the brethren, to whose
award the disputants were required to subThus, in an Old Record of the fifmit.
teenth century, it is provided, among other
charges, that " yf any discorde schall be bi-

District
Lodges. In the
Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England, " Provincial Grand Lodges abroad,"
that is, Grand Lodges in colonies or foreign
countries, are called District Grand Lodges.
But the title of Provincial Grand Lodges
is most commonly used in actual practice.

228

The system

class

twene hym and his felows, he schall abey

hym mekely and be stylle at the byddyng
of his Master or of the Wardeyne of his
Master, in his Master's absens, to the holy
day folowyng, and that he accorde then at
similar
the dispocition of his felows."
regulation is to be found in all the other
old Charges and Constitutions, and is continued in operation at this day by the
Charges approved in 1722, which express
the same idea in more modern language.
Distinctive Title. In the rituals,
all Lodges are called Lodges of St. John,
but every Lodge has also another name by

This is called
it is distinguished.
distinctive title. This usage is preserved

which
its

in the diplomas of the continental Masons,

especially the French, where the specific
name of the Lodge is always given as well
as the general title of St. John, which it
has in common with all other Lodges.
Thus, a diploma issued by a French Lodge
whose name on the Register of the Grand
Orient would perhaps be La Verite, will
purport to have been issued by the Lodge
of St. John, under the distinctive title of
La Verite, " Par la Loge de St. Jean sub la

de la Verite." The expresnever used in English or American

diplomas.
Distress, Sign of. See Sign of Dis-

title distinctive

sion

is

tress.

District

An

officer

Deputy Grand Master.

appointed to inspect old Lodges,

Grand

Documents, Three Oldest.

See

Krause.

Dog. A

symbol in the higher degrees.

See Oynocephalus.

Dolmen.
name given in France to
the Celtic stone tables termed in England
" cromlechs."

Dominican Republic.

Masonry,

in the Dominican Republic, has for its

centre the National Grand Orient, which
possesses the supreme authority and which
practises the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
The Grand Orient is divided
into a National Grand Lodge, under which
are all the Symbolic Lodges a sovereign
Grand Chapter General, under which are
all Chapters and a Supreme Council, which
controls the higher degrees of the Rite.
class of men who were atDonats.
tached to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, or Knights of Malta. They did not
take the vows of the Order, but were employed in the different offices of the convent and hospital. In token of their connection with the Order, they wore what
was called the demi-cross. See Knight of
Malta.
Door. Every well constructed Lodge
room should be provided with two doors,
one on the left hand of the Senior Warden, communicating with the preparation
room, the other on his right hand, communicating with the Tiler's apartment. The
former of these is called the inner door, and
is under the charge of the Senior Deacon
the latter is called the outer door, and is
under the charge of the Junior Deacon.
In a well furnished Lodge, each of these
doors is provided with two knockers, one
on the inside and the other on the outside;
and the outside door has sometimes a small
aperture in the centre to facilitate communications between the Junior Deacon and
the Tiler. This, however, is a modern innovation, and I very much doubt its propriety
;

and expediency.

No communication ough

consecrate new ones, install their officers,

and exercise a general supervision over the
Fraternity in the districts where, from the
extent of the jurisdiction, the Grand Master or his Deputy cannot conveniently attend in person. He is considered as a Grand
officer, and as the representative of the
Grand Lodge in the district in which he
In England, officers of this deresides.
scription are called Provincial Grand Mas-

between the inside and

the outside of the Lodge except through
the door, which should be opened only after
regular alarm duly reported, and on the
order of the Worshipful Master.
Doric Order. The oldest and most
original of the three Grecian orders.
It is
remarkable for robust solidity in the column, for massive grandeur in the entablature, and for harmonious simplicity in its

ters.

construction.

legally to be held

The distinguishing charac-

DORMANT

DRAMATIC

order is the want of a base.

flutings are few, large, and very little
concave. The capital has no astragal, but

Dove. In ancient symbolism, the dove

represented purity and innocence; in ecclesiology, it is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
In Masonry, the dove is only viewed in reference to its use by Noah as a messenger.
Hence, in the Grand Lodge of England,
doves are the jewels of the Deacons, because
these officers are the messengers of the
Masters and Wardens. They are not so
used in this country. In an honorary or
side degree formerly conferred in America,
and called the " Ark and Dove," that bird
is a prominent symbol.

teristic of this

The

only one or more fillets, which separate the

The column of
flutings from the torus.
strength which supports the Lodge is of
the Doric order, and its appropriate situation and symbolic officer are in the West.
!See Orders of Architecture.

Dormant Lodge. A

Lodge whose

Charter has not been revoked, but which

has ceased to meet and work for a long
time, is said to be dormant. It can be restored to activity only by the authority of
the Grand Master or the Grand Lodge on
the petition of some of its members, one
of whom, at least, ought to be a Past Master.
Dormer. In the Lectures, according
to the present English system, the ornaments of a Master Mason's Lodge are said
to be the porch, dormer, and stone pavement. The dormer is the window which
is supposed to give light to the Holy of
Holies. In the Glossary of Architecture,
a dormer is defined to be a window
pierced through a sloping roof, and placed
in a small gable which rises on the side
of the roof. This symbol is not preserved
in the American system.
Dotage. The regulations of Masonry
forbid the initiation of an old man in his
dotage and very properly, because the imbecility of his mind would prevent his
comprehension of the truths presented to

229

Draeseke, Job an Heinrieb

Dernbardt. A celebrated pulpit orator of great eloquence, who presided over
the Lodge "Oelzweig," in Bremen, for three
years, and whose contributions to Masonic
literature were collected and published in
1865, by A. W. Muller, under the title of
Bishop Drdsehe as a Mason. Of this work
Findel says that it " contains a string of
costly pearls full of Masonic eloquence."

Drake, Francis, M. D. Francis

Drake, M. D., F. R. S., a celebrated antiquary and historian, was initiated in the
city of

York

in 1725, and, as

Hughan

says,

"soon made his name felt in Masonry."

His promotion was rapid for in the same
year he was chosen Junior Grand Warden
of the Grand Lodge of York, and in 1726
delivered an address, which was published
with the following title " A Speech delivered to the Worshipful and Ancient Society
of Free and Accepted Masons, at a Grand
him.
Double Cube. A cubical figure, Lodge held at Merchants' Hall, in the city
whose length is equal to twice its breadth of York, on St. John's Day, December the
and height. Solomon's Temple is said to 27th, 1726. The Eight Worshipful Charles
have been of this figure, and hence it has Bathurst, Esq., Grand Master. By the Jusometimes been adopted as the symbol of nior Grand Warden. Olim meminisse JuvaThis address was so much
a Masonic Lodge. Dr. Oliver [Diet. Symb. bit. York."
Mas.) thus describes the symbolism of the esteemed by the Grand Lodge at London,
double cube: "The heathen deities were that it caused its republication in 1729. In
many of them represented by a cubical this work Drake makes the important statePausanius informs us that a cube ment that the first Grand Lodge in Engstone.
was the symbol of Mercury, because, like land was held at York and that while it
the cube, he represented Truth. In Arabia, recognizes the Grand Master of the Grand
a black stone in the form of a double cube Lodge in London as Grand Master of Engwas reputed to be possessed of many occult land, it claims that its own Grand Master
virtues. Apollo was some time worshipped is Grand Master of all England.
under the symbol of a square stone and it
Dramatic literature of Mais recorded that when a fatal pestilence
sonry. Freemasonry has frequently supraged at Delphi, the oracle was consulted plied play-writers with a topic for the exas to the means proper to be adopted for ercise of their genius.
Kloss (Bibliog., p.
the purpose of arresting its progress, and 300,) gives the titles of no less than fortyit commanded that the cube should be douone plays of which Freemasonry has been
This was understood by the priests the subject. The earliest Masonic play is
bled.
to refer to the altar, which was of a cubical noticed by Thory {Fond. G. 0., p. 360,) as
form. They obeyed the injunction, increas- having been performed at Paris, in 1739,
;

ing the altitude of the altar to its prescribed

dimensions, like the pedestal in a Mason's
Lodge, and the pestilence ceased."

Double-Headed Eagle,
gle,

Double- Headed.

See Ea-

under the title of Les Frimacons. Editions

of it were subsequently published at London, Brunswick, and Strasburg. In 1741,
we have Das Geheimniss der Frimaurer at
Frankfort and Leipsic. France and Ger-

DRESDEN

DRUIDICAL

many made many other contributions to

the Masonic drama. Even Denmark supplied one in 1745, and Italy in 1785. The
English dramatists give us only a pantomime, Harlequin Freemason, which was
brought out at Covent Garden in 1781,
and Solomon's Temple, an oratorio. Templarism has not been neglected by the
dramatists. Kalchberg, in 1788, wrote Die
Templeherren, a dramatic poem in five acts.
Odon de Saint-Amand, Grand Maitre des
Templiers, a melo-drama in three acts, was
performed at Paris in 1806. Jacques Molai,
a melo-drama, was published at Paris in
1807, and La Mort de Jacques Molai, a
tragedy, in 1812. Some of the plays on
Freemasonry were intended to do honor to
the Order, and many to throw ridicule upon
it.
From the specimens I have seen, I am
not inclined to regret that the catalogue of
the Masonic drama is not more copious.
General
Dresden, Congress of.
Congress of the Lodges of Saxony was
held in Dresden, where the representatives
of twelve Lodges were present. In this
Congress it was determined to recognize
only the Masonry of St. John, and to construct a National Grand Lodge.
Accordingly, on September 27, 1811, the National
Grand Lodge of Saxony was established in
the city of Dresden, which was soon joined
by all the Saxon Lodges, with the exception of one in Leipsic. Although it recognizes only the Symbolic degrees, it permits
great freedom in the selection of a ritual;
and, accordingly, some of its Lodges work
in the Rite of Fessler, and others in the
Rite of Berlin.

more reasonable had they known that in

Sanscrit druma is an oak, from dru, wood.
It has also been traced to the Hebrew with
equal incorrectness, for the Druids were
not of the Semitic race. Its derivation is
rather to be sought in the Celtic language.
The Gaelic word Druiah signifies a holy or
wise man in a bad sense, a magician and
this we may readily trace to the Aryan
druh, applied to the spirit of night or darkness, whence we have the Zend dru, a magician.
Druidism was a mystical profession, and in the olden time mystery and

230

Dress of a Mason.

Drop

Cloth.

See Clothed.

part of the furniture

used in the ceremony of initiation into the
third degree.
It should be made of very
strong material, with a looped rope at each
corner and one in the middle of each side,
by which it may be securely held.

Druidieal Mysteries. The Druids

were a sacred order of priests who existed
in Britain and Gaul, but whose mystical
rites were practised in most perfection in
the former country, where the isle of Anglesea was considered as their principal
Higgins thinks that they were also
seat.
found in Germany, but against this opinion
we have the positive statement of Caesar.
The meanings given to the word have
been very numerous, and most of them
wholly untenable.
The Romans, seeing
that they worshipped in groves of oak,
because that tree was peculiarly sacred
among them, derived their name from the
Greek word, Apvg, drus ; thus absurdly
seeking the etymology of a word of an
older language in one comparatively modTheir derivation would have been
ern.

magic were always confounded.

Vallencev

Eeb. Bib., iii. 503,) says: "Welsh,

Drud, a Druid, i. e. the absolver or remitter
of sins so the Irish Drui, a Druid, most
certainly is from the Persic duru, a good
and holy man " and Ousely Coll. Orient.,
{Coll.

adds to this the Arabic dari, which

means a wise man. Bosworth (A. S. Diet.)
gives dry, pronounced dru, as the AngloSaxon for " a magician, sorcerer, druid."
I think that with the old Celts the Druids
occupied the same place as the Magi did
with the old Persians.
Druidism was divided into three orders
or degrees, which were, beginning with the
lowest, the Bards, the Prophets, and the
Druids. Higgins thinks that the prophets
were the lowest order, but he admits that
it js not generally allowed.
The constituiv. 302,)

tion of the Order was in many respects like

that of the Freemasons. In every country
there was an Arch-Druid in whom all authority was placed. In Britain it is said that
there were under him three arch-flamens or
priests, and twenty-five flamens.
There

was an annual assembly for the administration of justice and the making of laws, and,
besides, four quarterly meetings, which took
place on the days when the sun reached
his equinoctial and solstitial points.
The
latter two would very nearly correspond at

John the
Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. It
was not lawful to commit their ceremonies
or doctrines to writing, and Caesar cays
{Bell. Gall., vi. 13,) that they used the
Greek letters, which was, of course, as a
cipher
but Higgins (p. 90) says that one
of the Irish Ogum alphabets, which Toland
calls secret writing, " was the original, sacred, and secret character of the Druids."
The places of worship, which were also
places of initiation, were of various forms:
this time with the festivals of St.

circular, because a circle was an emblem

of the universe or oval, in allusion to the
mundane egg, from which, according to the
Egyptians, our first parents issued or serpentine, because a serpent was a symbol of
Hu, the druidieal Noah; or winged, to
represent the motion of the Divine Spirit
or cruciform, because a cross was the em;

DKUSES

DUALISM

blem of regeneration. Their only covering

was the clouded canopy, because they deemed
it absurd to confine the Omnipotent beneath a roof; and they were constructed
of embankments of earth, and of unhewn

ism, Christianity, and Mohammedism the

last of which, greatly modified, predominates in their faith. They have a regular
order of priesthood, the office being filled
by persons consecrated for the purpose,
comprising principally the emirs and
sheiks, who form a secret organization divided into several degrees, keep the sacred
books, and hold secret religious assemblies.
Their sacred books are written in antiquated Arabic. The Druses are divided
into three classes or degrees, according to
religious distinctions. To enable one Druse
to recognize another, a system of passwords
is adopted, without an interchange of which
no communication is made that may give
an idea of their religious tenets. (Tien's
Druse Religion Unveiled.)
Dr. Clarke tells us in his Travels that " one
class of the Druses are to the rest what the
initiated are to the profane, and are called

stones, unpolluted with

a metal

tool.

Nor

was any one permitted

to enter their sacred

retreats, unless he bore a chain.
The ceremony of initiation into the

Druidical Mysteries required much preliminary mental preparation and physical

purification.
The aspirant was clothed
with the three sacred colors, white, blue,
and green white as the symbol of Light,
blue of Truth, and green of Hope. When
the rites of initiation were passed, the tricolored robe was changed for one of green
in the second degree, the candidate was
clothed in blue; and having surmounted
all the dangers of the third, and arrived at
the summit of perfection, he received the
red tiara and flowing mantle of purest white.
The ceremonies were numerous, the physical proofs painful, and the mental trials
appalling. They commenced in the first
degree, with placing the aspirant in the
pastos, bed or coffin, where his symbolical
death was represented, and they terminated
in the third, by his regeneration or restoration to life from the womb of the giantess
Ceridwin, and the committal of the body
of the newly born to the waves in a small
boat, symbolical of the ark.
The result
was, generally, that he succeeded in reaching the safe landing-place, but if his arm
was weak, or his heart failed, death was the
almost inevitable consequence. If he refused the trial through timidity, he was
contemptuously rejected, and declared forever ineligible to participate in the sacred
;

But if he undertook it and succeeded, he was joyously invested with all

the privileges of Druidism.
The doctrines of the Druids were the
same as those entertained by Pythagoras.
They taught the existence of one Supreme
Being a future state of rewards and punishments the immortality of the soul, and
a metempsychosis and the object of their
mystic rites was to communicate these doctrines in symbolic language, an object and
a method common alike to Druidism, to the
Ancient Mysteries and to Modern Free-

rites.

masonry.

Druses,
who

A sect of

mystic religionists

inhabit Mounts Lebanon and AntiLebanon, in Syria. They settled there

about the tenth century, and are said to
be a mixture of Cuthites or Kurds, Mardi
Arabs, and possibly of Crusaders; all of
whom were added, by subsequent immigrations, to the original stock to constitute the
present or modern race of Druses. Their
religion is a heretical compound of Juda-

231
;

and
Okkals, which means spiritualists
they consider themselves superior to their
countrymen. They have various degrees
;

of initiation."
Col. Churchill, in his Ten Years' Residence on Mount Lebanon, tells us that
among this singular people there is an
order having many similar customs to the
Freemasons. It requires a twelvemonth's
probation previous to the admission of a
member. Both sexes are admissible. In
the second year the novice assumes the distinguishing mark of the white turban, and
afterwards, by degrees, is allowed to participate in the whole of the mysteries.
Simplicity of attire, self-denial, temperance,
and irreproachable moral conduct are essential to admission to the order.
All of these facts have led to the theory,
based, however, I think, on insufficient
grounds,
that the Druses are an offshoot
from the early Freemasons, and that their
connection with the latter is derived from
the Crusaders, who, according to the same
theory, are supposed to have acquired their
Freemasonry during their residence in PalSome writers go so far as to say
estine.
that the degree of Prince of Lebanon, the
twenty-second in the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, refers to the ancestors of these
mystical mountaineers in Syria.
The number two in the Pythagorean system of numbers. See Two.
Dualism. In the old mythologies,
there was a doctrine which supposed the

Duad.

world to have been always governed by two

antagonistic principles, distinguished as
the good and the evil principle. This doctrine pervaded all the Oriental religions.
Thus in the system of Zoroaster we have
Ahriman and Ormuzd, and in the Hebrew
cosmogony we find the Creator and the Serpent. There has been a remarkable devel-

DUB

232

DUNCKERLEY

opment of

this system in the three degrees

of Symbolic Masonry, which everywhere
exhibit in their organization, their symbolism, and their design, the pervading influences of this principle of dualism. Thus,
in the first degree, there is Darkness overcome by Light in the second, Ignorance
dispersed by Knowledge, and in the third,
Death conquered by Eternal Life.
Dub. In the ancient ceremonies of
chivalry, a knight was made by giving him
three strokes on the neck with the flat end
of the sword, and he was then said to be
" dubbed a knight." Dubbing is from the
Saxon, dubban, to strike with a blow. Sir
Thomas Smith. [Eng. Commonwealth), who
wrote in the sixteenth century, says
" And when any man is made a knight, he,
kneeling down, is strooken of the prince,
with his sword naked, upon the back or
shoulder, the prince saying, Sus or sois chevalier au nom de Dieu, and (in times past)
they added St. George, and at his arising
the prince sayeth, Avancey^ This is the
manner of dubbing of knights at this present ; and that terme dubbing was the old
terme in this point, and not creation"
;

Due East and West. A

Lodge

is

said to be situated due East and West for

reasons which have varied at different
periods in the ritual and lectures. See
Orientation.
Examination. That sort of
examination which is correct and prescribed by law. It is one of the three
modes of proving a strange brother the
other two being strict trial and lawful information. See Vouching.

Due

Due Form. When the Grand Lodge

opened, or any other Masonic ceremony
performed, by the Deputy Grand Master in
the absence of the Grand Master, it is said
Subordinate
to be done in due form.
Lodges are always said to be opened and
closed in due form. It is derived from the
French word du, and that from devoir, " to

is

owe,"

that which

done.

Due form

act ought to be

French

En

is

is

owing or ought to be

the form in which an

done

to

be done rightly.

due forme.

Due Guard. A mode of recognition

which derives its name from its object,
which is to duly guard the person using
it in reference to his obligations, and the
penalty

Guard

for

their

violation.

The

Due

an Americanism, and of comparatively recent origin, being unknown to the

English and continental systems. In some
is

of the old rituals of the date of 1757, the

expression is used, but only as referring to
what is now called the Sign.
Duelling. Duelling has always been
considered a Masonic crime, and most of
the Grand Lodges have enacted statutes by

which Masons who engage

in duels with
each other are subject to expulsion. The
Monde Maconnique (May, 1858,) gives the
following correct view on this subject " A
Freemason who allows himself to be involved in a duel, and who possesses not
sufficient discretion to be able to make
reparation without cowardice, and without
having recourse to this barbarous extremity, destroys by that impious act the contract which binds him to his brethren. His
sword or his pistol, though it may seem to
spare his adversary, still commits a mur:

der, for it destroys his brothers

from that
time fraternity no longer exists for him."

Dues. The payment of annual dues

by a member to his Lodge is a comparatively modern custom, and one that certainly did not exist before the revival of
1717. As previous to that period, according to Preston, Lodges received no warrants, but a sufficient number of brethren
meeting together were competent to practise the rites of Masonry, and as soon as
the special business which called them
together had been accomplished, they separated, there could have been no permanent
organization of Speculative Masons, and no
necessity for contributions to constitute a
Lodge fund. Dues must therefore have
been unknown except in the Lodges of
Operative Masons, which, as we find, especially in Scotland, had a permanent existence. There is, accordingly, no regulation
in any of the old Constitutions for the payment of dues. It is not a general Masonic
duty, in which the Mason is affected to the

whole of the Craft, but an arrangement

between himself and his Lodge, with which
the Grand Lodge ought not to interfere.
As the payment of dues is not a duty owing
to the Craft in general, so the non-payment
of them is not an offence against the Craft,
but simply against his Lodge, the only punishment for which should be striking from
the roll or discharge from membership.
It is

now

the almost universal opinion of

Masonic jurists that suspension or expulsion from the Order is a punishment that
should never be inflicted for non-payment
of dues.

Dumbness. Although the faculty of

speech is not one of the five human senses,
it is important as the medium of communicating instruction, admonition, or reproof,
and the person who does not possess it is
unfitted to perform the most important duHence dumbness disqualifies a
ties of life.
candidate for Masonic initiation.
A word used in the Grand
Chapter of Minnesota to signify what is
more usually called a substitute in the Royal

Dummy.

Arch

degree.

Dunckerley, Thomas. No

one,

DUNCKERLEY

DUNCKERLEY

the Masons of England, occupied a

more distinguished position or played a
more important part in the labors of the

and that the result would have

been an appointment equal to his birth.
But the frustration of these hopes by the
death of the king seems to have discouraged him, and no efforts appear for some
time to have been made by him or his
friends to communicate the facts to George
III., who had succeeded to the throne.
In 1761 he again left England as a gunner in Lord Anson's -fleet, and did not re-

among

Craft during the latter part of the eighteenth

century than Thomas Dunckerley, whose
private life was as romantic as his Masonic
was honorable.
Thomas Dunckerley was born in the
city of London on the 23d of October,
He was the reputed son of Mr.
1724.

233

father,

and Mrs. Mary Dunckerley, but really turn until 1764, at which time, finding
owed his birth to a personage of a much himself embarrassed with a heavy debt,
higher rank in life, being the natural son incurred in the expenses of his family, (for
of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George he had married in early life, in the year
he bore, as his portrait 1744,) knowing no person who could auII., to whom
It was thenticate the story of his birth, and seeing
shows, a striking resemblance.
not until after his mother's death that he no probability of gaining access to the ear
became acquainted with the true history of the king, he sailed in a merchant vessel
of his birth so that for more than half of for the Mediterranean. He had previously
his life this son of a king occupied a very been grarrted superannuation in the navy
humble position on the stage of the world, in consequence of his long services, and
and was sometimes even embarrassed with received a small pension, the principal part
the pressure of poverty and distress.
of w hich he left for the support of his family
At the age of ten he entered the navy, during his absence.
and continued in the service for twenty-six
But the romantic story of his birth began
years, acquiring, by his intelligence and to be publicly known and talked about, and
uniformly good conduct, the esteem and in 1766 attracted the attention of several
commendation of all his commanders. But persons of distinction, who endeavored, but
having no personal or family interest, he without success, to excite the interest of
never attained to any higher rank than the Princess Dowager of Wales in his bethat of a gunner. During all this time, half.
except at brief intervals, he was absent
In 1767, however, the declaration of his
from England on foreign service.
mother was laid before the king, who was
He returned to his native country in George III., the grandson of his father.
January, 1760, to find that his mother had It made an impression on him, and inquiry
died a few days before, and that on her into his previous character and conduct
death-bed she had made a solemn declara- having proved satisfactory, on May 7, 1767,
tion, accompanied by such details as left the king ordered Dunckerley to receive a
no possible doubt of its truth, that Thomas pension of 100, which was subsequently
was the illegitimate son of King George increased to 800, together with a suite of
II., born while he was Prince of Wales.
apartments in Hampton Court Palace. He
The fact of the birth had, however, never also assumed, and was permitted to bear,
been communicated by the mother to the the royal arms, with the distinguishing
prince, and George II. died without know- badge of the bend sinister, and adopted as
ing that he had such a son living.
his motto the appropriate words " Fato non
Dunckerley, in the account of the affair merito." In his familiar correspondence,
which he left among his posthumous pa- and in his book-plates, he used the name
" This information gave me of " Fitz-George."
pers, says
great surprise and much uneasiness; and
In 1770 he became a student of law, and
as I was obliged to return immediately to in 1774 was called to the bar; but his fondmy duty on board of the Vanguard, I made ness for an active life prevented him from
it known to no person at that time but
ever making much progress in the legal
Captain Swanton. He said that those who profession.
did not know me could look on it to be
Dunckerley died at Portsmouth in the
nothing more than a gossip's story. We year 1795, at the ripe age of seventy-one
were then bound a second time to Quebec, but his last years were embittered by the
and Captain Swanton did promise me that misconduct of his son, whose extravagance
on our return to England he would en- and dissolute conduct necessarily afflicted
deavor to get me introduced to the king, the mind while it straitened the means of
and that he would give me a character; the unhappy parent. Every effort to rebut when we came back to England the claim him proved utterly ineffectual and
king was dead."
on the death of his father, no provision
Dunckerley had hoped that his case being left for his support, he became a
would have been laid before his roval
vagrant, living for the most part on MaJ
;

2E

DUNCKERLEY

DUNCKERLEY

At last he became a brickand was often seen ascending a ladder with a hod on his shoulders.
His misfortunes and his misconduct at
length found an end, and the grandson of
a king of England died a pauper in a cellar

of Provincial Grand Master, which appointment he held from the Prince of

Wales, viz., Grand Superintendent and
Past Grand Master of Royal Arch Masons

234

sonic charity.

layer's laborer,

of St. Giles.

The Masonic

career of Dunckerley, if
remarkable than his domestic life, is
more interesting to the Freemason. There
is no record of the exact time of his reception into the Order but it must have been
not long before 1757, as he in that year delivered an address, as we should now call
it, before the Lodges of Plymouth, which
was published at the time under the title
of "The Light and Truth of Masonry Explained, being the Substance of a Charge
Delivered at Plymouth in 1757." In the
title of this production he styles himself
simply a "Master Mason," showing that
he had not been long enough in the Order
to have obtained official position, and in
the body of the charge he apologizes for
the apparent presumption of one " who had
been so few years a Mason." It is probable
that he was initiated about the year 1755,
and, as he was at that time in the navy, in
one of the Lodges of Plymouth, which was
then, as now, frequented by vessels of war.
In this charge, it is worthy of note that a
prayer, written by Dunckerley, appears for
the first time, which, slightly abridged, has
ever since been used in all English and
American Lodges at the initiation of a canless

didate.

Oliver says that shortly after his return

England he was elected the Master of a
Lodge. This must have been in the year
1766 or 1767 for in the latter year he received from Lord Blaney, the Grand Master, the deputation for Provincial Grand
Master of Hampshire, which, I suppose,
would scarcely have been given him if he
had not " passed the chair." Preston speaks
of his " indefatigable assiduity "in the discharge of the duties of the office, and of the
considerable progress of Masonry in the
province through his instrumentality. He
was soon after appointed to the superintendency of the Lodges in Dorsetshire,
Essex, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, and
Herefordshire. And some years afterwards,
the Grand Lodge, in grateful testimony of
his zeal in the cause of Masonry, resolved
that he should rank as a Past Senior Grand
Warden, and in all processions take place
next the present Senior Grand Warden for
During the rest of his life
the time being.
Dunckerley received many evidences of the
high esteem in which he was held by the
Masonic authorities of the day, and at the
time of his death was occupying the following prominent positions, in addition to that
to

of Bristol and several counties, appointed

by the Duke of Clarence, and Supreme
Grand Master of the Knights of Rosa Cru-

Templars, and Kadosh, under Prince

Edward, afterwards Duke of Kent. His
royal kinsmen did not neglect his claims to
cis,

patronage.

But 'far higher than any of these titles

and offices, and of far more lasting importance to the Craft, was the position occupied
by Dunckerley as an instructor of the
Lodges, and a reformer, or at least a remodeller, of the system of lectures. To
these duties he was called by the Grand
Lodge of England, which authorized him
to construct a new code of lectures, a careful revision of the existing ritual, and a
collation of all ancient formulas.
For this task he was pre-eminently qualiPossessed of a fair share of learning,
fied.
and imbued with a philosophical spirit, he
was prepared to amplify the existing system of Martin Clare by the addition of
much new symbolism, and the improvement of that which had already been introduced by his predecessor. He was also
liberal in his views, and not partaking of
the prejudices then so active against what
were called the innovations of Dermott,
he did not hesitate to avail himself of his
labors, as that schismatic had previously
not hesitated to profit by the suggestions
of the Chevalier Ramsay. Oliver says,
that he often visited the Lodges of the
" Ancients," for the purpose of ascertaining what were the essential differences
between the two systems, and of that which
was good he culled the best, and transplanted it into the workings of the legiti-

mate Grand Lodge.

The results were not evanescent, but are
felt

even in the ritual of the present day.

The most important was

fected the third degree.

that which
Dunckerley

af-

re-

constructed the Royal Arch of Dermott,

and introduced it into the Grand Lodge of
England; not, however, without opposition,
which was only overcome, Oliver says, by
the patronage of the Duke of Clarence,
and his own personal influence. By this
innovation, the true Word, which had
hitherto been a part of the Master's degree,
was transferred to the Royal Arch, and the
third degree was made incomplete, and required to be supplemented by a higher one,

which should supply

Master's degree, as

its

The
deficiency.
in England

now given

and America, differs very considerably from

that which was left by Martin Clare, and
is

indebted for

its

present organization to

"

DUNCKERLEY

EAGLE

the labors of Dunckerley. It might, indeed,

be properly called Dunckerley's degree.
Dunckerley also introduced into his system
of lectures some new symbols. Thus to
him is ascribed the adoption of the "lines
parallel," as a symbol of the two Saints
John, and the " theological ladder."
Dunckerley wrote nothing of great importance. His contributions to Masonic
literature seem to have been confined to a
couple of charges or addresses, delivered in
1757 and in 1769, and to a brief chronological sketch of the Order of Knights Templars, which was published in the 3d volume of the Freemason's Magazine. He was
also the author of some Masonic poetry,
and two of his odes are inserted in Noorthouck's edition of the Book of Constitutions.
But his most effective labors were
almost altogether esoteric and his instructions oral, and his industry in this way
seems to have been indefatigable, and his
influence extensive. The results are felt,
as has already been said, to the present
His popularity as a lecturer is to be
day.
attributed to the active character of his
mind, and his thorough mastership of the
subjects which he taught, and the fluency
of his delivery.
His conduct was irreproachable, and
hence he was fortunate in securing the esteem and regard of the Craft, and the
friendship of the most distinguished Masons who were his contemporaries. Preston
styles him " that truly Masonic luminary
and Oliver says that " he was the oracle of
the Grand Lodge, and the accredited interpreter of its Constitutions. His decision,
;

235

law of the Medes and Persians, was

both of doctrine and discipline, and against it there was no appeal."
Were I to attempt a comparative estimate of his character as a Masonic scholar,
like the

final

on

all points,

in reference to his predecessors, his contemporaries, and his successors in English

Masonry, I should say that he was the
superior of both Anderson and Desaguiiers,
but inferior to Preston, to Hutchinson, and
Among his contemporaries he
to Oliver.
certainly had a well-deserved reputation,
and is clearly entitled to the appellation

that was bestowed upon him, of being a

learned and philosophical Mason.

Dupaty, Louis Emanuel

Charles Mercier.

The author of
songs and other fugitive
pieces inserted in the Annates Magonniques.
He wrote in 1810, with Keveroui de SaintCyr, a comic opera entitled "Cagliostro
ou les Illumine's." In 1818, he published
a Masonic tale entitled "PHarmonie."
He was a poet and dramatic writer of some
reputation, born in the Gironde in 1775,
elected to the French Academy in 1835,
and died in 1851.
Duty. The duty of a Mason as an
honest man is plain and easy. It requires
of him honesty in contracts, sincerity in
affirming, simplicity in bargaining, and
faithfulness in performing. To sleep little,
and to study much; to say little, and to
hear and think much; to learn, that he may
be able to do; and then to do earnestly
and vigorously whatever the good of his
fellows, his country and mankind requires,
are the duties of every 'Mason.

many Masonic

E.
Eagle. The eagle, as a symbol, is of
great antiquity. In Egypt, Greece, and
Persia, this bird was sacred to the sun.
Among the Pagans it was an emblem of
Jupiter, and with the Druids it was a symbol of their supreme god. In the Scriptures, a distinguished reference is in many
instances made to the eagle especially do
we find Moses (Exod. xix. 4,) representing
Jehovah as saying, in allusion to the belief
that this bird assists its feeble young in
their flight by bearing them upon its own
pinions, " Ye have seen what I did unto the
;

Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles'

wings, and brought you unto myself." Not
less elevated was the symbolism of the

eagle among the Pagans. Thus, Cicero,

speaking of the myth of Ganymede carried
up to Jove on an eagle's back, says that it

teaches us that the truly wise, irradiated by

the shining light of virtue, become more

and more

like God, until by wisdom they

are borne aloft and spar to him. The heralds explain the eagle as signifying the
same thing among birds as the lion does

among quadrupeds.
most
bold

It

is,

they say, the

swift, strong, laborious, generous,

of all birds, and for this reason it

and
has

been made, both by ancients and moderns,

the symbol of majesty. In the jewel of the
Rose Croix degree is found an eagle displayed at the foot of the cross and it is
;

EAGLE

EAGLE

there very appropriately selected as a symbol of Christ, in his divine character, bearing the children of his adoption on his
wings, teaching them with unequalled love
and tenderness to poise their unfledged
wings and soar from the dull corruptions
of earth to a higher and holier sphere.
And for this reason the eagle in the jewel
of that degree is very significantly represented as having the wings displayed as if
in the very act of flight.

doubtful, that " the double-headed eagle of

the Austrian and Russian empires was first
assumed during the second Crusade, and
typified the great alliance formed by the
Christian sovereigns of Greece and Germany against the enemy of their common
faith, and it is retained by Russia and
Austria as representations of those empires."
The theory is more probable as
well as more generally accepted which connects the symbol with the eastern and western empires of Rome. It is, however, agreed
by all that while the single-headed eagle
denotes imperial dignity, the extension and
multiplication of that dignity is symbolized
by the two heads.
The double-headed eagle was probably
first introduced as a symbol into Masonry
in the year 1758. In that year the body
calling itself the Council of Emperors of
the East and West was established in Paris.

236'

Eagle and Pelican, Knight of

the. See Knight of the Eagle and

Pelican.

Eagle, Double - Headed.

The

displayed, that is, with extended

wings, as if in the act of flying, has always,
from the majestic character of the bird,
eagle

been deemed an emblem of imperial power.

Marius, the consul, first consecrated the
eagle, about eight years b. c, to be the sole
Koman standard at the head of every legion,
and hence it became the standard of the
Roman empire ever afterwards. As the
single-headed eagle was thus adopted as
the symbol of imperial power, the doubleheaded eagle naturally became the representative of a double empire and on the
division of the Roman dominions into the
eastern and western empire, which were
afterwards consolidated by the Carlovingian race into what was ever after called
the Holy Roman empire, the double-headed
eagle was assumed as the emblem of this
double empire one head looking, as it were,
to the West, or Rome, and the other to the
East, or Byzantium. Hence the escutcheons
of many persons now living, the descendants of the princes and counts of the Holy
Roman empire, are placed upon the breast
of a double-headed eagle. Upon the dissolution of that empire, the emperors of Germany, who claimed their empire to be the
representative of ancient Rome, assumed
the double-headed eagle as their symbol,
and placed it in their arms, which were
blazoned thus Or, an eagle displayed sable,
having two heads, each inclosed within an
amulet, or beaked and armed gules, holding
in his right claw a sword and sceptre or,
and in his left the imperial mound. Russia
also bears the double-headed eagle, having
added, says Brewer, that of Poland to her
own, and thus denoting a double empire.
It is, however, probable that the doubleheaded eagle of Russia is to be traced to
some assumed representation of the Holy
Roman empire based upon the claim of
Russia to Byzantium for Cons tan tine, the
Byzantine emperor, is said to have been the
first who assumed this device to intimate
the division of the empire into East and
West.
The statement of Millington {Heraldry
in History, Poetry, and Romance, p. 290,) is
;

The double-headed

eagle

was

likely to

have

been assumed by this Council in reference

to the double jurisdiction which it claimed,

and which

represented so distinctly in its

which consisted of twentyfive degrees, all of which are now contained
in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
was subsequently established in the city of
Berlin, and adopted by the Grand Lodge
of the Three Globes. Frederick II., king
of Prussia, who was the head of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite, is said to have
title.

is

Its ritual,

his own Rite, adding

to its twenty-five degrees eight more, so as to
make the thirty- three degrees of which that

merged this body into

Rite is

now composed. The double-headed

eagle was then adopted as the symbol of

the thirty- third and ultimate degree. The
whole Rite being considered as a representative of the Holy Empire, as is indicated by the titles of two of its officers,

who

are still called the Secretary and the

Treasurer of the Holy Empire, the doubleheaded eagle, which was the ensign, as it
has been seen, of that empire, was appropriately adopted as the symbol of the governing degree of the Rite.
The jewel of the thirty-third degree, or

EAGLE

EAST

Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, is a
double-headed eagle (which was originallyblack, but is now generally of silver), a
golden crown resting on both heads, wings
displayed, beak and claws of gold, his
talons grasping a wavy sword, the emblem
of cherubic fire, the hilt held by one talon,
the blade by the other. The banner of the
Order is also a double - headed eagle
crowned.
Eagle, Knight of the. See Knight

Fellow Craft Mason. In the Hebrew language, the verb ^fc>, shemong, signifies
not only to hear, but also to understand and
to obey.
Hence, when Jesus said, after a
parable, " he that hath ears to hear, let him
hear," he meant to denote that he who
hears the recital of allegories should endeavor to discover their hidden meaning,
and be obedient to their teaching. This is
the true meaning of the symbol of the listening ear, which admonishes the Fellow
Craft not only that he should receive lessons of instruction from his teacher, but
that he should treasure them in his breast,
so as to ponder over their meaning and
carry out their design.
Earthen Pan. In the lectures of the
early part of the eighteenth century used as
a symbol of zeal, together with chalk and
charcoal, which represented freedom and
fervency.
In the modern lectures it has
been substituted by clay. Pan once signified hard earth, a meaning which is now
obsolete, though from it we derive the name
of a cooking utensil.
East. The East has always been considered peculiarly sacred. This was, without exception, the case in all the Ancient
Mysteries. In the Egyptian rites, especially, and those of Adonis, which were
among the earliest, and from which the
others derived their existence, the sun was
the object of adoration, and his revolutions
through the various seasons were fictitiously

of the Eagle.

Eagle, Knight ofthe American.

See Knight of the American Eagle,

Eagle, Knight of the Black.

See Knight of the Black Eagle.

Eagle, Knight of the Gold. See

Knight of the Gold Eagle.

Eagle, Knight of the Prussian.

See Knight of the Prussian Eagle.

Eagle, Knight of the Red.

See

Knight of the Red Eagle.

Eagle, Knight ofthe White and

Black.

See Knight of the White and

Black Eagle.

Eagles,

Crowned.

Knight of the Two

See
Crowned Eagles.

Knight

the

of

Two

Ear

of Corn. This was, among all

the ancients, an emblem of plenty. Ceres,
who was universally worshipped as the
goddess of abundance, and even called by
the Greeks Demeter, a manifest corruption
of Gemeter, or mother earth, was symbolically represented with a garland on her
head composed of ears of corn, a lighted
torch in one hand, and a cluster of poppies
and ears of corn in the other. And in the
Hebrew, the most significant of all languages, the two words, which signify an ear
of corn, are both derived from roots which
give the idea of abundance.
For shibboleth,
which is applicable both to an ear of corn
and a flood of water, has its root in shabal,
to increase or to flow abundantly
and the
other name of corn, dagan, is derived from
the verb dagah, signifying to multiply, or
;

to be increased.
Ear of corn, which is a technical exprestion in the second degree, has been some-

times ignorantly displaced by a sheaf of

wheat. This is done in America, under the
mistaken supposition that corn refers only
to Indian maize, which was unknown to the
ancients.
But corn is a generic word, and
includes wheat and every other kind of
grain. This is its legitimate English meaning, and hence an ear of corn, which is an
old expression, and the right one, would
denote a stalk, but not a sheaf of wheat. See
Shibboleth.

Ear,
ear

is

The Listening.

The

listening

one of the three precious jewels of a

237

The spot, therefore, where

luminary made his appearance at the
commencement of day, and where his worshippers were wont anxiously to look for
the first darting of his prolific rays, was esteemed as the figurative birthplace of their
god, and honored with an appropriate degree
of reverence. And even among those nations
where sun - worship gave place to more
represented.
this

enlightened doctrines, the respect for the

place of sun-rising continued to exist.
The camp of Judah was placed by Moses
in the East as a mark of distinction the
tabernacle in the wilderness was placed due
East and West and the practice was conChristian
of
tinued in the erection
churches. Hence, too, the primitive Christians always turned towards the East in
their public prayers, which custom St. Augustine (Serm. Dom. in Monte, c. 5,) accounts for " because the East is the most
honorable part of the world, being the region of light whence the glorious sun
And hence all Masonic Lodges,
arises."
like their great prototype the Temple of
Jerusalem, are built, or supposed to be
built, due East and West and as the North
is esteemed a place of darkness, the East, on
the contrary, is considered a place of light.
In the primitive Christian church, ac;

EAST

ECLECTIC

cording to

St. Ambrose, in the ceremonies

accompanying the baptism of a catechumen, "he turned towards the West, the
image of darkness, to abjure the world, and

Eastern Star, Order of the. An

American Adoptive Rite, called the "Order
of the Eastern Star," invented by Bro.
Robert Morris, and somewhat popular in

towards the East, the emblem of light, to

denote his alliance with Jesus Christ."
And so, too, in the oldest lectures of the
last century, the Mason is said to travel
from the West to the East, that is, from
darkness to light. In the Prestonian system, the question is asked, " What induces
you to leave the West to travel to the
East?" And the answer is: "In search
of a Master, and from him to gain instruction."
The same idea, if not precisely the
same language, is preserved in the modern

this country.

238

and existing

The

rituals.

where the Masconsidered the most honorable

part of the Lodge, and is distinguished from
the rest of the room by a dais, or raised
platform, which is occupied only by those
who have passed the Chair.
Bazot [Manuel, p. 154,) says: "The veneration which Masons have for the East,
confirms the theory that it is from the
East that the Masonic cult proceeded, and
that this bears a relation to the primitive
religion whose first degeneration was sunworship.
East, being the place

ter sits, is

East and West, Knight of the.

See Knight of

East and West.

The place where a
Grand Lodge holds its communications,
and whence are issued its edicts, is often
called its Grand East.
Thus, the Grand
East of Boston would, according to this
usage, be placed at the head of documents
emanating from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Grand Orient has sometimes been
used instead of Grand East, but improperly.
Orient might be admissible as signifying
East, but Grand Orient having been adopted
as the name of certain Grand Bodies, such
as the Grand Orient of France, which is
tantamount to the Grand Lodge of France,
the use of the term might lead to confusion.
Thus, the Orient of Paris is the seat
of the Grand Orient of France. The expression Grand East, however, is almost
exclusively confined to this country and
even here is not in universal use.
East Indies. See India.
East, Knight of the. See Knight
the

Cast, Grand.

of the East.

Easter.

Easter Sunday, being the day

celebrated by the Christian church in commemoration of the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus, is appropriately kept as a feast-

It. consists of five degrees,

Jephtha's daughter, or the daughter's
degree 2, Ruth, or the widow's degree 3,
Esther, or the wife's degree 4, Martha, or
the sister's degree 5, Electa, or the Benevo-

viz., 1,

from European or French Adoptive Masonry. Recently, this Order has undergone a thorough
organization, and been extended into other
countries, especially into South America.
lent.

It is entirely different

East Port. An

error of ignorance in
expression, "the city of East Port," occurs as
"
a corruption of
the cities of the East."

the

Landsdowne Manuscript, where the

Eavesdropper.

listener.

The

punishment which was directed in the old

lectures, at the revival of Masonry in 1717,
to be inflicted on a detected cowan was:
" To be placed under the eaves of the house
in rainy weather, till the water runs in at
his shoulders and out at his heels."
The
French inflict a similar punishment. "On
le met sous une gouttiere, une pompe, ou une
fontaine, jusqu'I ce qu'il soit mouille depuis
la tte jusqu'aux pieds." Hence a listener is
called an eavesdropper. The word is not, as
has by some been supposed, a peculiar Masonic term, but is common to the language.
Skinner gives it in his Etymologicon, and calls
it " vox sane elegantissima ;" and Blackstone
(Comm., iv. 13,) thus defines it: "Eavesdroppers, or such as listen under walls, or
windows, or the eaves of a house, to hearken
after discourse, and thereupon to frame
slanderous and mischievous tales, are a

common

nuisance and presentable at the

court leet; or are indictable at the sessions,
and punishable by fine and finding sureties
for their good behavior."
symbol in the high
Box.
degrees of the human heart, and is intended
to teach reserve and taciturnity, which
should be inviolably maintained in regard
to the incommunicable secrets of the Order.
When it is said that the ebony box contained the plans of the Temple of Solomon,
the symbolic teaching is, that in the human
heart are deposited the secret designs and
motives of our conduct by which we propose to erect the spiritual temple of our

Ebony

lives.

Eclectic Masonry. From the Greek,

which means selecting.

Those philosophers who, in ancient times,
selected from the various systems of philday by Rose Croix Masons.
osophy such doctrines as appeared most
Easter Monday. On this day, in conformable to truth were called "eclectic
every third year, Councils of Kadosh in philosophers." So the confederation of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Masons in Germany, which consisted of
hold their elections.
Lodges that selected the degrees which
lKleKTiK.bg,ekZektikos,

ECLECTIC

ECOSSAIS

they thought most conformable to ancient

Freemasonry, was called the eclectic union,
and the Masonry which it adopted received
the name of Eclectic Masonry. See Eclec-

Rite is really an Ecossias degree. It is

found, too, in many other Rites. Thus, in
the French Rite, it is the fifth degree.
In
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the
thirteenth degree or Knights of the Ninth
Arch is properly an Ecossais degree. The
Ancient York Rite is without an Ecossais
degree, but its principles are set forth in the
instructions of the Royal Arch.
Some idea of the extent to which these
degrees have been multiplied may be formed
from the fact that Oliver has a list of
eighty of them; Ragon enumerates eightythree; and the Baron Tschoudy, rejecting
twenty-seven which he does not consider
legitimate, retains a far greater number to
whose purity he does not object.
In the Ecossais system there is a legend,
a part of which has been adopted in all
the Ecossais degrees, and which has in fact
been incorporated into the mythical history of Masonry. It is to the effect that
the builder of the Temple engraved the
word upon a triangle of pure metal, and,
fearing that it might be lost, he always
bore it about his person, suspended from
his neck, with the engraved side next to
his breast.
In a time of great peril to himself, he cast it into an old dry well, which
was in the south-east corner of the Temple,
where it was afterwards found by three
Masters. They were passing near the well
at the hour of meridian, and were attracted

tic

Union.

The Rite

Eclectic Rite.
by the

Eclectic Union,

which

Eclectic Union.

practised

see.

The fundamental

idea of a union of the German Lodges for

the purpose of purifying the Masonic system of the corruptions which had been introduced by the numerous degrees founded
on alchemy, theosophy, and other occult
sciences which at that time flooded the continent of Europe, originated, in 1779, with
the Baron Von Ditfurth, who had been
a prominent member of the Rite of Strict
Observance; although Lenning attributes
the earlier thought of a circular letter to
Von Knigge. But the first practical step
towards this purification was taken in 1783
by the Provincial Grand Lodges of Frankfort-on-the-Main and of Wetzlar. These
two bodies addressed an encyclical letter to
the Lodges of Germany, in which they invited them to enter into an alliance for the
purpose of " re-establishing the Royal Art
of Freemasonry." The principal points on
which this union or alliance was to be
founded were, 1. That the three symbolic
degrees only were to be acknowledged by
2. That each Lodge
the united Lodges.
was permitted to practise for itself such
high degrees as it might select for itself,
but that the recognition of these was not
to be made compulsory on the other Lodges.
3. That all the united Lodges were to be

none being dependent on any other.

These propositions were accepted by seve-

equal,

Lodges, and thence resulted the EclecBund, or Eclectic Union of Germany,

at the head of which is the " Mother Grand
Lodge of the Eclectic Union " at Frankfort-on-the-Main. The system of Masonry practised by this union is called the
Eclectic system, and the Rite recognized
by it is the Eclectic Rite, which consists
of only the three degrees of Apprentice,
Fellow Craft, and Master Mason.
Ecossais. This is a French word,
which is most generally to be translated as
Scottish Master.
The term was introduced
by the Chevalier Ramsay, who first invented
the degree, which he called Ecossais because he claimed that his system of Masonry came from Scotland.
From this
original degree of Ramsay numerous others
have sprung up under the same or similar
name all of them, however, concurring in
one particular, namely, that of detailing
the method adopted for the preservation
of the true Word. The American Mason
will understand the character of the system
of Ecossaism, as it may be called, when he
is told that the Select Master of his own

ral

tisches

by

its brilliant

appearance

239

whereupon one

of them, descending by the assistance of his

comrades, obtained it, and carried it to King
Solomon. But the more modern form of
the legend dispenses with the circumstance
of the dry well, and says that the builder
deposited it in the place which had been
purposely prepared for it, and where cenAnd this
turies afterwards it was found.
amended form of the legend is more in accord with the recognized symbolism of the
loss and the recovery of the Word.
Ecossais. 1. The fourth degree of
Ramsay's Rite, and the original whence all
the degrees of Ecossaism have sprung. 2.
The fifth degree of the French Rite. 3.
The Ecossais degrees constitute the fourth
from the
class of the Rite of Mizraim,
fourteenth to the twenty-first degree. In
the subsequent articles only the principal
Ecossais degrees will be mentioned.

Ecossais

Architect,

(Ecossais Architecte Parfait.)

the collection of M. Pyron.

Ecossais, English.

Perfect.

degree in

Ecoss. Anglais.

degree in the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Rite.

Ecossais, Faithful. (Ecossais Fidele.)
See Vielle Bru.

Ecossais, French.

The thirty-fifth

degree of the collection of the Metropolitan

Chapter of France.

EDICT

ECOSSAIS

240

Ecossais, Grand.

The

degree of the Scottish Rite

some of the French rituals.

is

{Grand Architect

Ecossais,

Ecossais.)

Grand Master.

tem, practised in Holland.

Ecossais, Knight. A synonym of

the ninth degree of Illuminism. It is more
commonly called Illuminatus Dirigens.
Ecossais, Master. The fifth degree
of the Rite of Zinnendorf. It was also formerly among the high degrees of the German Chapter and those of the Rite of the
Clerks of Strict Observance. It is said to
have been composed by Baron Hund.
of

It is
the eighth degree of Illuminism.
more commonly called Illuminatus Major.

Ecossais of Clermont.

The

1. The thirty-third degree

of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France, said to have been composed
by the Baron Tschoudy. 2. The twentieth
degree of the Rite of Mizraim. 3. In the
French rituals, this name has been given to
the fourteenth degree of the Scottish Rite.
Chemin Dupontes says that the degree was
a homage paid to the kings of Scotland.
Nothing, however, of this can be found in
its present ritual
but it is very probable
that the degree, in its first conception, and
in some ritual that no longer exists, was an
offspring of the house of Stuart, of which
James VI. was the first English king.

thir-

Ecossais of the Three J. J. J.

Chapter

of France.

The thirty-second degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.

1.

Ecossais of England.
in the collection of

degree

M. Le Rouge.

Ecossais of Franville.

The

thir-

degree of the Metropolitan Chapter

of France.
degree
Ecossais of Hiram.
in the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic
Scotch Rite.
Ecossais of Messina. A degree in
the nomenclature of M. Fustier.
ty-first

Ecossais of Montpellier.

in the archives of the Mother

Philosophic Scottish Rite.

Ecossais of Naples.

The

Ecossais of Perfection.

forty-

of the

lection

of the colof the Metropolitan Chapter of

So Thory has
the other nomenclators, give it as Ecossais Panissiere.
The
seventeenth degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
degree in the
Ecossais, Perfect.
archives of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
name given by French
Ecossism.
Masonic writers to the thirty-three degrees
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
This, in English, would be equivalent to
Scottish Masonry, which see.
Ecuador. Masonry was introduced
into the Republic of Ecuador, in the year
1857, by the Grand Orient of Peru, which
organized a Symbolic Lodge and Chapter
of the eighth degree in Guayaquil ; but in
consequence of the opposition of the priests,
these bodies did not flourish, and at the
end of two years their members surrendered
their warrants and ceased to pursue their
but Ragon, and

all

Metropolitan Chapter of France.

degree in
the archives of the Mother Lodge of the
Philosophic Scottish Rite.
Ecossais of St. Andrew. A not
unusual form of Ecossaism, and found in
several Rites.
1
The second degree of the
Clerks of Strict Observance 2. The twenty-first degree of the Rite of Mizraim
3.
The twenty-ninth degree of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite is also an Ecossais of St. Andrew
4. The sixty-third
degree of the collection of the Metropolitan
Chapter of France is an Ecossais of St.
Andrew of Scotland 5. The seventy-fifth
degree of the same collection is called Ecossais of St. Andrew of the Thistle.
Ecossais of St. George. A degree
in the collection of Le Page.
.

Ecossais of the Forty.

The thirty-seventh degree

The

thirty- ninth degree of the collection of the

Ecossais of Prussia.

Lodge of the

Ecossais of the Triple Triangle.

it;

second degree of the collection

Metropolitan Chapter of France.

The

2. The nineteenth degree of the Rite of

Mizraim. The three J. J. J. are the initials of Jourdain, Jaho, Jachin.
Ecossais of Toulouse. A degree

The France.
Ecossais, Parisian.

Metropolitan

degree of the
Chapter of France.
thirty-sixth

Quarante.)

Ecossais of the Sacred Vault of

James VI.

A synonym

tieth degree of the Metropolitan

and referred to Prince Charles Edward, the

young Pretender.

Form-

erly the sixth degree of the Capitular sys-

Ecossais Novice.

France.

Ecossais of the Lodge of Prince

Metropolitan Chapter of

degree of the
France.

collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of

Architect. Edward. A degree in the collection of

The forty-fifth Pyron. This was probably a Stuart degree,

Grand

Ecossais*

fourteenth

so called in

{Ecossais des
thirty-fourth degree of the

Masonic

labors.

Edict of Cyrus.

Five hundred and

thirty-six years before the Christian era,

Cyrus issued his edict permitting the Jews
to return from the captivity at Babylon to

Jerusalem, and to rebuild the House of the

Lord. At the same time he restored to

EDICTS

EGG

all the sacred vessels and precious

ornaments of the first Temple, which had
been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, and
which were still in existence. This is commemorated in the Koyal Arch degree of
the York and American Kites. It is also

consistent with the character of Athelstan,

and, indeed, so slenderly attested, as to be
undeserving a place in history." William
of Malmesbury, the old chronicler, relates
the story, but confesses that it had no better foundation than some old ballads. But
now come the later Masonic antiquaries,
who assert that Edwin himself is only a
myth, and that, in spite of the authority of
a few historical writers, Athelstan had no
son or brother of the name of Edwin.
Woodford ( Old Charges of the Brit. Freemasons, p. xiv.,) thinks that the Masonic
tradition points to Edwin, king of Northum-

them

referred to in the fifteenth degree, or

of the East of the Scottish Eite.

Knight

The decrees of a Grand MasGrand Lodge are called Edicts,

and obedience to them is obligatory on all

Edicts.

ter or of a

the Craft.

Edinburgh. The capital of Scotland.

Official Register of the Grand Lodge
of Scotland, published at the end of its
"Laws and Constitutions," (Edit. 1852, p.
" Lodge of Edinburgh,
60,) states that the

The

No. 1," was instituted in 1518; and the

Charter of Cologne speaks of the existence
of a Lodge in that city in 1535, but the authenticity of this document is now generally disputed.
Lawrie, however, [Hist.
Freem., p. 102,) says that the Minutes of St.
Mary's Lodge, which is the oldest Lodge
in Edinburgh, extend as far back as the
year 1598. See Scotland.

Edinburgh, Congress of. It was

convoked, in 1736, by William St. Clair of
Roslin, Patron of the Masons of Scotland,
(whose mother Lodge was at Kilwinning,)
with the view of abdicating his dignity as
hereditary Grand Patron, with all the privileges granted in 1430, by King James II.,
to the family of Roslin, and afterwards to
organize Masonry upon a new basis. The
members of thirty-two Lodges uniting for
this purpose, constituted the new Grand
Lodge of Scotland, and elected St. Clair
Grand Master. See St. Clair.
Edwin. The son of Edward, Saxon
king of England, who died in 924, and was
succeeded by his eldest son Athelstan.
The Masonic tradition is that Athelstan
appointed his brother Edwin the Patron
of Masonry in England, and gave him what
the Old Records call a free Charter to hold
an Annual Communication or General Assembly, under the authority of which he
summoned the Masons of England to meet
him in a Congregation at York, where they
met in 926 and formed the Grand Lodge
of England. The Old Records say that
these Masons brought with them many old
writings and records of the Craft, some in
Greek, some in Latin, some in French, and
other languages, and from these framed
the document now known as the York Constitutions, whose authenticity has been in
recent years so much a subject of controversy among Masonic writers. Prince Edwin died two years before his brother, and
a report was spread of his being put wrongfully to death by him; "but this," says
Preston, " is so improbable in itself, so in-

2F

16

241

whose rendezvous was once at Auldby,

near York, and who in 627 aided in the
building of a stone church at York, after
his baptism there, with Roman workmen.
" Tradition," he says, " sometimes gets confused after the lapse of time but I believe

bria,

the tradition is in itself true which links

Masonry to the church building at York,
by the Operative Brotherhood, under Edwin, in 627, and to a gild Charter under
Athelstan, in 927."
The legend of Prince Edwin, of course,
requires some modification, but we should
not be too hasty in rejecting altogether a
tradition which has .been so long and so
universally accepted by the Fraternity, and
to which Anderson, Preston, Krause, Oliver, and a host of other writers, have subscribed their assent.
The subject will be
fully discussed under the head of York Legend, which see.
It was a belief of
Egg,
almost all the ancient nations, that the

Mundane.

world was hatched from an egg made by

the Creator, over which the Spirit of God
was represented as hovering in the same
manner as a bird broods or flutters over her
Faber, (Pag. Idol., i. 4,) who traced
eggs.
everything to the Arkite worship, says that
this egg, which was a symbol of the resurand as
rection, was no other than the ark
Dionysus was fabled in the Orphic hymns
to be born from an egg, he and Noah were
the same person; wherefore the birth of
Dionysus or Brahma, or any other hero
;

god from an egg, was nothing more than

the egress of Noah from the ark. Be this
as it may, the egg has been always deemed
a symbol of the resurrection, and hence the
Christian use of Easter eggs on the great

As
feast of the resurrection of our Lord.
this is the most universally diffiised of all
symbols, it is strange that it has found no
place in the symbolism of Freemasonry,
which deals so much with the doctrine of
the resurrection, of which the egg was
everywhere the recognized symbol. It was,
however, used by the ancient architects,
and from them was adopted by the Operative Masons of the Middle Ages, one of

EGLINTON

242
whose

favorite ornaments

EGYPTIAN

was the ovolo, or

egg-moulding.

Eglinton Manuscript. An Old

Record supposed to be of the date of 1599.
It is so named from its having been discovered some years ago in the charter chest
It is a Scottish manuand is valuable for its details of
In it, Edinearly Masonry in Scotland.
burgh is termed "the first and principal
Lodge," and Kilwinning is called "the
heid and secund Ludge of Scotland in all
tyme cuming." An exact copy of it was
taken by Bro. D. Murray Lyon, and first
published by Bro. W. J. Hughan in his

at Eglinton Castle.

script,

Unpublished Records of the Graft.

Egyptian Masonry. See Cagliostro.

Egyptian Mysteries. Egypt has
always been considered as the birthplace
of the mysteries. It was there that the
ceremonies of initiation were first established.
It was there that truth was first
veiled in allegory, and the dogmas of religion were first imparted under symbolic
forms. From Egypt
"the land of the
winged globe "
the land of science and
philosophy, "peerless for stately tombs
the land whose
and magnificent temples
civilization was old and mature before other
nations, since called to empire, had a
name" this system of symbols was dis-

seminated through Greece and

Rome and

other countries of Europe and Asia, giving

origin, through many intermediate steps, to
that mysterious association which is now represented by the Institution of Freemasonry.

To Egypt, therefore, Masons have always

looked with peculiar interest, as the cradle
of that mysterious science of symbolism
whose peculiar modes of teaching they
alone, of all modern institutions, have preserved to the present day.
The initiation into the Egyptian mysteries was, of all the systems practised by
the ancients, the most severe and impresThe Greeks at Eleusis imitated it to
sive.
some extent, but they never reached the
magnitude of its forms nor the austerity of
The system had been organits discipline.
ized for ages, and the priests, who alone
were the hierophants,
the explainers of
the mysteries, or, as we should call them
in Masonic language, the Masters of the
Lodges,
were educated almost from childhood for the business in which they were
That "learning of the Egypengaged.

The priesthood of Egypt constituted a

sacred caste, in whom the sacerdotal functions were hereditary.
They exercised also
an important part in the government of the
state, and the kings of Egypt were but the
first subjects of its priests.
They had
originally organized, and continued to control, the ceremonies of initiation.
Their
doctrines were of two kinds
exoteric or
public, which were communicated to the
multitude, and esoteric or secret, which
were revealed only to a chosen few and to
obtain them it was necessary to pass through
an initiation which was characterized by
the severest trials of courage and fortitude.
The principal seat of the mysteries was
at Memphis, in the neighborhood of the
great Pyramid. They were of two kinds,
the greater and the less the former being
the mysteries of Osiris and Serapis, the
latter those of Isis.
The mysteries of Osiris were celebrated at the autumnal equinox,
those of Serapis at the summer solstice, and
those of Isis at the vernal equinox.
The candidate was required to exhibit
proofs of a blameless life. For some days
previous to the commencement of the ceremonies of initiation, he abstained from all
unchaste acts, confined himself to an exceedingly light diet, from which animal
food was rigorously excluded, and purified
himself by repeated ablutions.
Apuleius, (Met., lib. xi.,) who had been
initiated in all of them, thus alludes, with
cautious reticence, to those of Isis " The
priest, all the profane being removed to a
distance, taking hold of me by the hand,
brought me into the inner recesses of the
sanctuary itself, clothed in a new linen
garment.
Perhaps, curious reader, you
may be eager to know what was then said
and done. I would tell you were it lawful

me

you should know it if

you to hear. But both
the ears that heard those things and the
tongue that told them would reap the evil
for

it

to tell

you

were lawful

for

results of their rashness.

Still, however,
kept in suspense, as you probably are, with
religious longing, I will not torment you
with long-protracted anxiety. Hear, tharefore, but believe what is the truth.
/ approached the confines of death, and, having
trod on the threshold of Proserpine, I re-

turned therefrom, being borne through all

the elements. At midnight I saw the sun
shining with its brilliant light and I aptians," in which Moses is said to have been proached the presence of the gods beneath
so skilled, was all imparted in these myste- and the gods above, and stood near and
Behold, I have related
ries.
It was confined to the priests and to worshipped them.
the initiates; and the trials of initiation to you things of which, though heard by
through which the latter had to pass were you, you must necessarily remain ignorant."
The first degree, as we may term it, of
so difficult to be endured, that none but those
who were stimulated by the most ardent Egyptian initiation was that into the mysthirst for knowledge dared to undertake teries of Isis. What was its peculiar import,
we are unable to say. Isis, says Knight,
them or succeeded in submitting to them.
;

EGYPTIAN

EGYPTIAN

243

was, among the later Egyptians, the personification of universal nature.

To Apuleius she says: "I am nature
the parent
of all things, the sovereign of the elements,

person present whose body would most exactly fit it.

Osiris was tempted to try the
experiment; but he had no sooner laid
down in the chest, than the lid was closed

the primary progeny of time." Plutarch

tells us that on the front of the temple of
Isis was placed this inscription: "I, Isis,
am all that has been, that is, or shall be,
and no mortal hath ever unveiled me."
Thus we may conjecture that the Isiac
mysteries were descriptive of the alternate
decaying and renovating powers of nature.
Higgins, (Anacal., ii. 102,) it is true, says
that during the mysteries of Isis were celebrated the misfortunes and tragical death
of Osiris in a sort of drama and Apuleius
asserts that the initiation into her mysteries is celebrated as bearing a close resemblance to a voluntary death, with a precarious chance of recovery.
But Higgins
gives no authority for his statement, and
that of Apuleius cannot be constrained into
any reference to the enforced death of
Osiris.
It is, therefore, probable that the
ceremonies of this initiation were simply
preparatory to that of the Osirian, and
taught, by instructions in the physical laws
of nature, the necessity of moral purification, a theory which is not incompatible
with all the mystical allusions of Apuleius
when he describes his own initiation.
The mysteries of Serapis constituted the
second degree of the Egyptian initiation.
Of these rites we have but a scanty knowledge.
Herodotus is entirely silent concerning them, and Apuleuis, calling them " the
nocturnal orgies of Serapis, a god of the first
rank," only intimates that they followed
those of Isis, and were preparatory to the
last and greatest initiation.
Serapis is said
to have been only Osiris while in Hades;
and hence the Serapian initiation might
have represented the death of Osiris, but
leaving the lesson of resurrection for a subsequent initiation. But this is merely a con-

and nailed down, and the chest thrown into

the river Nile. The chest containing the
body of Osiris was, after being for a long
time tossed about by the waves, finally

jecture.

cast up at Byblos in Phoenicia, and left at

the foot of a tamarisk tree. Isis, overwhelmed with grief for the loss of her husband, set out on a journey, and traversed
the earth in search of the body. After
many adventures, she at length discovered
the spot whence it had been thrown up by
the waves, and returned with it in triumph
to Egypt.
It was then proclaimed, with
the most extravagant demonstrations of
joy, that Osiris was risen from the dead
and had become a god. Such, with slight
variations of details by different writers,
are the general outlines of the Osiric legend which was represented in the drama
of initiation. Its resemblance to the Hiramic- legend of the Masonic system will
be readily seen, and its symbolism will be
easily understood.
Osiris and Typhon are
the representatives of the two antagonistic
principles
good and evil, light and darkness, life and death.
There is also an astronomical interpretation of the legend which makes Osiris the
sun and Typhon the season of winter,
which suspends the fecundating and fertilizing powers of the sun or destroys its life,
to be restored only by the return of invigorating spring.
The sufferings and death of Osiris were
the great mystery of the Egyptian religion.
His being the abstract idea of the divine
goodness, his manifestation upon earth, his
death, his resurrection, and his subsequent
ofiice as judge of the dead in a future state,
look, says Wilkinson, like the early revelation of a future manifestation of the deity
converted into a mythological fable.
Into these mysteries Herodotus, Plu.

In the mysteries of Osiris, which were the

consummation of the Egyptian system, the tarch, and Pythagoras were initiated, and
lesson of death and resurrection was sym- the former two have given brief accounts
bolically taught; and the legend of the of them.
But their own knowledge must
murder of Osiris, the search for the body, have been extremely limited, for, as Clemits discovery and restoration to life is scenent of Alexandria (Strom., v. 7,) tells us,
ically represented.
This legend of initia- the more important secrets were not retion was as follows. Osiris, a wise king of vealed even to all the priests, but to a
Egypt,

left

the care of his

kingdom

to his

select

number of them

only.

and travelled for three years to

Egyptian Priests, Initiations of
communicate to other nations the arts of the. In the year 1770, there was pubcivilization. During his absence, his broth- lished at Berlin a work entitled Crata Beer Typhon formed a secret conspiracy to poa ; oder Einweihurtgen der Egyptischen
destroy him and to usurp his throne. On Priester, i. e. Crata Kepoa; or, Initiations
his return, Osiris was invited by Typhon of the Egyptian Priests.
This book was
to an entertainment in the month of No- subsequently republished in 1778, and
vember, at which all the conspirators were translated into French under the revision
present.
Typhon produced a chest inlaid of Ragon, and published at Paris in 1821,
with gold, and promised to give it to any by Bailleul. It professed to give the whole

wife

Isis,

EHEYEH

EHEYEH

formula of the initiation into the mysteries

by announcing what that name

and God said to him, n*n&$>( Eheyeh,)
lam that lam; and he directed him to say,
"
I am hath sent you." Eheyeh asher eheyeh
is, therefore, the name of God, in which
Moses was instructed at the burning bush.
Maimonides thinks that when the Lord
ordered Moses to tell the people that n^H^
(Eheyeh) sent him, he did not mean that
he should only mention his name for if
they were already acquainted with it, he
told them nothing new, and if they were
not, it was not likely that they would be
satisfied by saying such a name sent me, for
the proof would still be wanting that this
was really the name of God therefore, he
not only told them the name, but also taught
them its signification. In those times, Sabaism being the predominant religion, almost all men were idolaters, and occupied

244

practised by the ancient Egyptian priests.

Lenning cites the work, and gives an outline of the system as if he thought it an
authentic relation but Gadicke more prudently says of it that he doubts that there
are more mysteries described in the book
than were ever practised by the ancient
The French writers
Egyptian priests.
have generally accepted it as genuine.
Forty years before, the Abbe Terrasson had
written a somewhat similar work, in which
he pretended to describe the initiation of
a Prince of Egypt. Kloss, in his Bibliography, has placed this latter work under
the head of "Romances of the Order; " and a
similar place should doubtless be assigned to
the Crata Repoa. The curious may, however,
be gratified by a brief detail of the system.
According to the Crata Repoa, the priests
of Egypt conferred their initiation at
Thebes. The mysteries were divided into
the following seven degrees. 1. Pastoph;

2. Neocoros.
3. Melanophoros.
4.
Kistophoros.
5. Balahate.
6. Astronomos. 7. Propheta. The first degree was
devoted to instructions in the physical
sciences the second, to geometry and architecture.
In the third degree, the candidate
was instructed in the symbolical death of
Osiris, and was made acquainted with the
hieroglyphical language. In the fourth, he
was presented with the book of the laws of
Egypt, and became a judge. The instructions of the fifth degree were dedicated to
chemistry, and of the sixth to astronomy
In the
and the mathematical sciences.
seventh and last degree the candidate received a detailed explanation of all the
mysteries, his head was shaved, and he was
presented with a cross, which he was constantly to. carry, a white mantle, and a
square head dress. To each degree was atAny one who
tached a word and sign.
should carefully read the Crata Repoa,
would be convinced that, so far from
being founded on any ancient system of

oros.

initiation, it was simply a modern invention made up out of the high degrees
of continental Masonry. It is indeed surprising that Lenning and Ragon should
have treated it as if it had the least claims
to antiquity.

Elieyeh asher Eheyeh. The

pro-

nunciation of ppilK 1C5W IT HN> which

means, / am that I am, and is one of the
pentateuchal names of God. It is related
in the third chapter of Exodus, that when
God appeared to Moses in the burning
bush, and directed him to go to Pharaoh
and to the children of Israel in Egypt,
Moses required that, as preliminary to his
mission, he should be instructed in the
name of God, so that, when he was asked
by the Israelites, he might be able to prove

his mission

was

themselves in the contemplation of the

heavens and the sun and the stars, without any idea of a personal God in the
world. Now, the Lord, to deliver his people
from such an error, said to Moses, " Go and
hath sent me
tell them I
THAT I
unto you," which name j^HN* (Eheyeh,)
signifying Being, is derived from n\"7,
(heyeh,) the verb of existence, and which,
being repeated so that the second is the
predicate of the first, contains the mystery.
This is as if he had said, " Ex-

AM

AM

plain to them that i" am what lam: that is,

that my Being is within myself, independent of every other, different from all other
beings, who are so alone by virtue of my
distributing it to them, and might not have
been, nor could actually be, such without
it."
So that |"Vn*$ denotes the Divine
Being Himself, by which he taught Moses
not only the name, but the infallible demonstration of the Fountain of Existence,
The Kabbaas the name itself denotes.
lists say that Eheyeh is the crown or highest of the Sephiroth, and that it is the
name that was hidden in the most secret
place of the tabernacle.
The Talmudists had many fanciful exercitations on this word }7*ntf> an d>
others, said that it is equivalent to

and the four

letters of

which

it is

among
HliT,
formed

Hepossess peculiar properties. J$

brew numerically equivalent to 1, and * to
a result also ob10, which is equal to 11
tained by taking the second and third
an(i 1> which
letters of the holy name, or
are 5 and 6, amounting to 11. But the 5
and 6 invariably produce the same number
in their multiplication, for 5 times 5 are
25, and 6 times 6 are 36, and this invariable product of ,"7 and was said to denote
the unchangeableness of the First Cause.
or
Again, lam, iTJ7N> commences with
1, the beginning of numbers, and Jehovah,
HIPP* with * or 10, the end of numbers,
is

in

*|

ELECT

EIGHT
which

God was

signified that

the begin-

ning and end of all things. The phrase,

Eheyeh asher eheyeh, is of importance in the
study of the legend of the Royal Arch system.

Some years

William

ago, that learned

Mason,

Rockwell, while preparing his

S.

Ahiman Rezon

for the State of

Georgia,

undertook, but beyond that jurisdiction

unsuccessfully, to introduce it as a password
to the veils.
Eight. Among the Pythagoreans the
number eight was esteemed as the first cube,
being formed by the continued multiplication of 2 X 2 X 2, and signified friendship,
prudence, counsel, and justice and, as the
cube or reduplication of the first even number, it was made to refer to the primitive
law of nature, which supposes all men to
be equal. Christian numerical symbologists have called it the symbol of the resurrection, because Jesus rose on the 8th day,
i. e. the day after the 7th, and because the
name of Jesus in Greek numerals, corres;

ponding

to its

Greek

letters, is 10, 8, 200,

70, 400, 200, which, being

Hence, too, they call it the

added up, is 888.

Dominical Num-

As

8 persons were saved in the ark,

those who, like Faber, have adopted the
ber.

theory that the Arkite Rites pervaded

all the religions of antiquity, find an important symbolism in this number, and as
Noah was the type of the resurrection, they
again find in it a reference to that doctrine.
It can, however, be scarcely reckoned
among the numerical symbols of Masonry.
Eighty-One. A sacred number in
the high degrees, because it is the square
of nine, which is again the square of three.
The Pythagoreans, however, who considered
the nine as a fatal number, especially
dreaded eighty-one, because it was produced by the multiplication of nine by itself.
El, Sx. One of the Hebrew names of
God, signifying the Mighty One. It is the
root of many of the other names of Deity,
and also, therefore, of many of the sacred
words in the high degrees. Bryant [Anc.
Myth., i. 16,) says it was the true name of
God, but transferred by the Sabians to the
sun, whence the Greeks borrowed their

Elchanan, pnSx.

God has graciously

In the authorized version, it is improperly translated Elhanan. Jerome says

that it meant David, because in 2 Sam.

given.

xxi. 19,
liath.

it

said that Elchanan slew Gosignificant word in the high deis

Elders. This word is used in some of

the old Constitutions to designate those
Masons who, from

their rank and age, were

deputed to obligate Apprentices when admitted into the Craft. Thus in the Con-

Masonrie, preserved in the archives of the Lodge at York, with the date
of 1704, and which were first published by
Bro.
J. Hughan, [Hist. Frem. in York,
p. 98,) we find this expression, Tunc, unus ex
Senioribus Teneat librum, etc., which in
another manuscript, dated 1693, preserved
in the same archives, and for the publication of which we are also indebted to Bro.
Hughan, the same passage is thus translated, " Then one of the elders takeing the
Booke, and that hee or shee that is to bee
made Mason shall lay their hands thereon,
and the charge shall be given."
Elect. See Elu.
Elect Brother. The seventh degree of the Rite of Zinnendorf and of the
National Grand Lodge of Berlin.
stitutions of

Wm.

Elect Cohens, Order

Elect Commander. {Elu Commandeur.) A degree mentioned in Fustier's nomenclature of degrees.

Elect,

translates it,
Pike concurs.

God of

the

The

Scottish Rite.

An androgynous degree
tained in the collection of Pyron.

Sublime.)

Elect, Eittle English.

[Petit

con-

Elu

Anglais.)
The Little English Elect was a
degree of the Ancient Chapter of Cler-

mont.

The degree

is

now

extinct.

Elect Master.

[Maitre Elu.)
1.
The thirteenth degree of the collection of
the Metropolitan Chapter of France. 2.
The fifth degree of the Rite of Zinnendorf.

Elect of Fifteen. Elu des Quinze.

The tenth degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The place of meet(

ing is called a chapter; the emblematic

color is black, strewed with tears and the
principal officers are a Thrice Illustrious
Master and two Inspectors. The history of
;

this degree develops the continuation and

conclusion of the punishment inflicted on
three traitors who, just before the conclu-

sion of the Temple, had committed a crime

of the most atrocious character. The degree is now more commonly called Illustrious

raim.

mercy
Eliham, and
people, in which

[Grand Elu.)

of the Chapter of the

East and West. The
Elect, Perfect and Sub-

Elect Lady, Sublime. [Dame, Elu

chanam, and incorrectly

God; Delaunay calls

it

Or and.

fourteenth degree
Emperors of the
same as the Grand
lime Mason of the

Elu of

translates,

See

of.

Paschalis, Martin.

grees, which has undergone much corruption and various changes of form.
In the
old rituals it is Eleham. Lenning gives El-

of

245

the

Fifteen.

The same degree

is

found in the Chapter of Emperors of the

East and West, and in the Rite of Miz-

Elect of London.

[Elus des Lonseventieth degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
dres.)

The

ELEMENTS

ELECT

246

Elect of Xine. {Elu des Neuf. ) The

ninth degree of the Ancient and Accepted
In the old rituals there were two
Rite.
represented Solomon and
officers who
But in the revised ritual of the
Stolkin.
Southern Jurisdiction, the principal officers
The
are a Master and two Inspectors.
meetings are called Chapters. The degree
mode

in which certain traitors,

who, just before the completion of the Temple, had been engaged in an execrable
deed of villany, received their punishment.
The symbolic colors are red, white, and
black the white emblematic of the purity
of the knights the red, of the crime which
the black, of grief.
was committed; and
1
This is the first of the elu degrees, and the
details the

one on which the whole

elu

system has

been founded.

Elect of tfine and Fifteen.

serwdhlte der

Neun und der Funfzehn. )

(Au-

The

and second points of the fourth degree

of the old system of the Royal York Lodge

first

of Berlin.

Elect of Perignan.

(Elu de Pedegree illustrative of the punishment inflicted upon certain criminals

whose exploits constitute a portion of the
The sublegend of Symbolic Masonry.
stance of this degree is to be found in the
Elect of Nine, and Elect of Fifteen in the
Scottish Rite, with both of which it is
It is the sixth degree
closely connected.
of the Adonhiramite Rite. See Perignan.
rignan.)

Elect of the

New Jerusalem.

See Perfection, Degree

under this name

[Elu
The seventeenth degree
des douze Tribus.)
of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter
of France.
Elect of Truth, Rite of. ( Bite des
Elus de la Verite.) This Rite was instituted
in 1776, by the Lodge of Perfect Union, at
Rennes, in France. A few Lodges in the
interior of France adopted this regime; but,
notwithstanding its philosophical character,
it never became popular, and finally, about
the end of the eighteenth century, fell into
disuse.
It consisted of twelve degrees divided into two classes, as follows
Knights Adepts. 1. Appren1st Class.
tice; 2. Fellow Craft; 3. Master; 4. Per-

2d

Elect of
Nine 6. Elect of Fifteen 7. Master Elect
Architect
Architect ; 10.
9. Second
8.
Grand Architect; 11. Knight of the East;
12. Prince of Rose Croix.
Class.'

Elects of Truth.

5.

Elect of Twelve.

See Knight Elect

of Twelve.

Elect, Perfect.

of.

Elect Philosopher.

degree

found in the instructions of the Philosophic Scottish Rite, and

in the collection of Viany.
is

Elect Secret, Severe Inspector.

The fourSecret, Severe Inspecteur.)
teenth degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
Elect, Sovereign. (Elu Souverain.)
The fifty- ninth degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
Elect, Sublime. (Elu Sublime.) The
fifteenth degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
(Elu Supreme.)
Elect, Supreme.
The seventy-fourth degree of the collection
of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
It is also a degree in the collection of
M. Pyron, and, under the name of Tabernacle of Perfect Elect, is contained in
the archives of the Mother Lodge of the
Philosophic Rite.
(Elu

Election of Officers.

The

election

of the officers of a Lodge is generally held

on the meeting which precedes the festival
of St. John the Evangelist, and sometimes
on that festival itself. Should a Lodge
fail to make the election at that time, no
election can be subsequently held except

by dispensation; and

it is

now

very gener-

ally admitted, that should any one of the

officers die or remove from the jurisdiction
during the period for which he was elected,
no election can take place to supply the

Formerly the eighth and last of the high

vacancy, but the
degrees of the Grand Chapter of Berlin.

Elect of the Twelve Tribes.

and Sublime

Perfect

Elect,

Mason.

office

must be

tem-

filled

porarily until the next election. If it be

the Master, the Senior Warden succeeds to
the office. For the full exposition of the
law on this subject, see Vacancy.
Elective Officers. In this country,
all the officers of a Symbolic Lodge except
the Deacons, Stewards, and sometimes the
Tiler, are elected by the members of the
Lodge. In England, the rule is different.
There the Master, Treasurer, and Tiler only
are elected the other officers are appointed
by the Master.
;

Eleham.
Elements.

See Elchanan.
It was the doctrine of the

old philosophies, sustained by the authority of Aristotle, that there were four principles of matter fire, air, earth, and water,
which they called elements. Modern
science has shown the fallacy of the theory.
But it was also taught by the Kabbalists,
and afterwards by the Rosicrucians, who,

according to the Abbe de Villars, (Le Comte

de Gaballs,) peopled them with supernatural
beings called, in the fire, Salamanders in
the air, Sylphs in the earth, Gnomes and
in the water, Undines. From the Rosicrucians and the Kabbalists, the doctrine
;

{Parfait Elu.)

The

twelfth degree of the Metropolitan Chapter

of France, and also of the Rite of Mizraim.

ELEPHANTA

ELEUSINIAJ*

passed over into some of the high degrees of

Masonry, and is especially referred to in the
Ecossais or Scottish Knight of St. Andrew,
originally invented by the Chevalier Ramsay. In this degree we find the four angels
of the four elements described as Andarel,
the angel of fire Casmaran, of air Taland Furlac, of earth and
liad, of water
the signs refer to the same elements.
Elephanta. The cavern of Elephanta,
situated on the island of Gharipour, in the
Gulf of Bombay, is the most ancient temple in the world, and was the principal
place for the celebration of the mysteries
of India. It is one hundred and thirty-five
feet square and eighteen feet high, supported by four massive pillars, and its walls
covered on all sides with statues and carved
decorations. Its adytum at the western extremity, which was accessible only to the
initiated, was dedicated to the Phallic worship. On each side were cells and passages
for the purpose of initiation, and a sacred
orifice for the mystical representation of
the doctrine of regeneration. See Maurice's
Indian Antiquities, for a full description of
this ancient scene of initiation.
Eleusinian Mysteries. Of all the
mysteries of the ancient religions, those
celebrated at the village of Eleusis, near
the city of Athens, were the most splendid
and the most popular. To them men came,
says Cicero, from the remotest regions to
be initiated. They were also the most an-

generally admitted that when Virgil, in the

sixth book of his JEneid, depicted the descent of iEneas into hell, he intended to
give a representation of the Eleusinian
mysteries.
The mysteries were divided into two
classes, the lesser and the greater.
The
lesser mysteries were celebrated on the
banks of the Ilissus, whose waters supplied
the means of purification of the aspirants.
The greater mysteries were celebrated in
the temple at Eleusis. An interval of six
months occurred between them, the former
taking place in March* and the latter in
September which has led some writers to
suppose that there was some mystical reference to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.
But, considering the character of Demeter
as the goddess of Agriculture, it might be
imagined, although this is a mere conjecture, that the reference was to seed-time and
harvest.
year, however, was required to
elapse before the initiate into the lesser
mysteries was granted admission into the.

cient, if

who

we may

believe St. Epiphanius,

them

to the reign of Inachus,

traces

more than eighteen hundred years before

the Christian era. They were dedicated
to the goddess

Romans,

Demeter, the Ceres of the

who was worshipped by

the

Greeks as the symbol of the prolific earth

and in them were scenically represented
the loss and the recovery of Persephone, and
the doctrines of the unity of God and the
immortality of the soul were esoterically
taught. The learned Faber believed that
there was an intimate connection between
the Arkite worship and the mysteries of
Eleusis; but Faber's theory was that the
Arkite rites, which he traced to almost all
the nations of antiquity, symbolized, in the
escape of Noah and the renovation of the
earth, the doctrines of the resurrection and
the immortal life. Plutarch (Be Is. et Os.)
says that the travels of Isis in search of
Osiris were not different from those of
Demeter in search of Persephone; and

view has been adopted by St. Croix

duPag.) and by Creuzer,(#ym&.;) and
hence we may well suppose that the recovery of the former at Byblos, and of the latter in Hades, were both intended to symthis
(

My st.

the restoration of the soul after

death to eternal life. The learned have

bolize

247

greater.

In conducting the mysteries, there were

four officers, namely 1. The Hierophant,
or explainer of the sacred things. As the
pontifex maximus in Rome, so he was the
chief priest of Attica he presided over the
ceremonies and explained the nature of the
mysteries to the initiated. 2. The Dadouchus, or torch-bearer, who appears to
have acted as the immediate assistant of
the Hierophant. 3. The Hieroceryx, or
sacred herald, who had the general care of
the temple, guarded it from the profanation of the uninitiated, and took charge of
the aspirant during the trials of initiation.
4. The Epibomus, or altar-server, who conducted the sacrifices.
The ceremonies of initiation into the lesser
mysteries were altogether purificatory, and
:

intended to prepare the neophyte for his

reception into the more sublime rites of
the greater mysteries. This, an ancient
poet, quoted by Plutarch, illustrates by
saying that sl^ep is the lesser mysteries of
the death. The candidate who desired to
pass through this initiation entered the
modest temple, erected for that purpose on
the borders of the Ilissus, and there submitted to the required ablutions, typical of
moral purification. The Dadouchus- then
placed his feet upon the skins of the victims which had been immolated to Jupiter.
Hesychius says that only the left foot was
placed on the skins. In this position he
was asked if he had eaten bread, and if he
was pure and his replies being satisfactory,
he passed through other symbolic ceremonies, the mystical signification of which
was given to him, an oath of secresy having
been previously administered. The initiate
;

ELEUSINIAN

248

into the lesser mysteries was called a mystes, a title which, being derived from a
Greek word meaning to shut the eyes, signified that he was yet blind as to the greater
truths thereafter to be revealed.
The greater mysteries lasted for nine
days, and were celebrated partly on the
Thriasian plain, which surrounded the temple, and partly in the temple of Eleusis
Of this temple, one of the most
itself.
magnificent and the largest in Greece, not
a vestige is now left. Its antiquity was
very great, having been in existence, according to Aristides the rhetorician, when
the Dorians marched against Athens. It
was burned by the retreating Persians

under Xerxes, but immediately rebuilt,

and finally destroyed with the city by
Alaric, " the Scourge of God," and all that
is now left of Eleusis and its spacious temple is the mere site occupied by the insignificant Greek village of Lepsina, an evident corruption of the ancient name.
The public processions on the plain and
on the sacred way from Athens to Eleusis
were made in honor of Demeter and Persephone, and made mystical allusions to
events in the life of both, and of the infant
Iacchus. These processions were made in
the daytime, but the initiation was nocturnal, and was reserved for the nights of
the sixth and seventh days.
The herald opened the ceremonies of
initiation into the greater mysteries by the
proclamation, snag, enac, ears fizfirfkoi, " Retire, O ye profane."
Thus were the sacred
precincts tiled. The aspirant was clothed
with the skin of a

An oath of secrecy

calf.

was administered, and he was then asked,

"Have you eaten bread?" The reply to
which was, "I have fasted I have drunk
the sacred mixture I have taken it out of
the chest I have spun I have placed it in
the basket, and from the basket laid it in
;

the chest." By this reply, the aspirant

showed that he had been duly prepared by
initiation into the lesser mysteries; for
Clement of Alexandria says that this
formula was a shibboleth, or password, by
which the mystae, or initiates, into the
lesser mysteries were known as such, and
admitted to the epopteia or greater initiation. The gesture of spinning wool, in imitation of what Demeter did in the time of
her affliction, seemed also to be used as a
sign of recognition.
The aspirant was now clothed in the sacred tunic, and awaited in the vestibule the
opening of the doors of the sanctuary.
What subsequently took place must be
left in great part to conjecture, although
modern writers have availed themselves
of all the allusions that are to be found in
the ancients. The temple consisted of

ELEUSINIAN
the megaton, or sanctuary, corresponding to the holy place of the Temple
of Solomon the anactoron, or holy of holies, and a subterranean apartment beneath
the temple. Each of these was probably
occupied at a different portion of the initiation.
The representation of the infernal

three parts

regions, and the punishment of the uninitiated impious was appropriated to the subterranean apartment, and was, as Sylvestre
de Sacy says, [Notes to St. Croix, i. 360,) an

episode of the drama which represented the

adventures of Isis, Osiris, and Typhon, or
of Demeter, Persephone, and Pluto. This
drama, the same author thinks, represented
the carrying away of Persephone, the
travels of Demeter in search of her lost
daughter, her descent into hell the union
of Pluto with Persephone, and was terminated by the return of Demeter into the
upper world and the light of day. The
representation of this drama commenced
immediately after the profane had been
sent from the temple. And it is easy to
understand how the groans and wailings with which the temple at one time
resounded might symbolize the sufferings
and the death of man, and the subsequent rejoicings at the return of the goddess might be typical of the joy for the
restoration of the soul to eternal life.
Others have conjectured that the drama of
the mysteries represented, in the deportation of Persephone to Hades by Pluto, the
departure, as it were, of the sun, or the
deprivation of its vivific power during the
winter months, and her reappearance on
earth, the restoration of the prolific sun in
summer. Others again tell us that the
last act of the mysteries represented the
restoration to life of the murdered Zagreus,
or Dionysus, by Demeter. Diodorus says
that the members of the body of Zagreus
lacerated by the Titans was represented in
the ceremonies of mysteries, as well as in
the Orphic hymns but he prudently adds
that he was not allowed to reveal the deWhatever was
tails to the uninitiated.
the precise method of symbolism, it is evident that the true interpretation was the
restoration from death to eternal life, and
that the funereal part of the initiation referred to a loss, and the exultation afterwards to a recovery. Hence it was folly
to deny the coincidence that exists between
this Eleusinian drama and that enacted in
the third degree of Masonry. It is not
claimed that the one was the uninterrupted
successor of the other, but there must have
been a common ideal source for the origin of
both. The lesson, the dogma, the symbol,
and the method of instruction are the same.
;

Having now, as Pindar says, "descended

beneath the hollow earth, and beheld those

ELEUSINIAN

ELOQUENCE

mysteries," the initiate ceased to be a

mystes, or blind man, and was thenceforth
called an epopt, a word signifying he who

connects them with the modern initiations

of Freemasonry is evident in the common
thought which pervades and identifies both
though it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to trace all the connecting links of
the historic chain.
see the beginning
and we see the end of one pervading idea,
but the central point is hidden from us to
await some future discoverer.
Eleven. In the Prestonian lectures,
eleven was a mystical number, and was the
final series of steps in the winding stairs
of the Fellow Craft, which were said to
consist of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11.
The eleven
was referred to the eleven apostles after the
defection of Judas, and to the eleven sons
of Jacob after Joseph went into Egypt.
But when the lectures were revived by
Hemming, the eleven was struck out. In
Templar Masonry, however, eleven is still
significant as being the constitutional number required to open a Commandery and
here it is evidently allusive of the eleven

beholds.

The Eleusinian

mysteries,

by

which,

their splendor, surpassed all contemporary

institutions of the kind, were deemed of so
much importance as to be taken under the
special protection of the state, and to the

council of five hundred were intrusted the

observance of the ordinances which regulated them. By a law of Solon, the magistrates met every year at the close of the
festival, to pass sentence upon any who had
violated or transgressed any of the rules
which governed the administration of the
sacred rites. Any attempt to disclose the
esoteric ceremonies of initiation was punished with death. Plutarch tells us, in his
Life ofAlcibiades, that that votary of pleasure
was indicted for sacrilege, because he had
imitated the mysteries, and shown them to
his companions in the same dress as that
worn by the Hierophant and we get from
Livy (xxxi. 14,) the following relation
Two Acarnanian youths, who had not
been initiated, accidentally entered the
temple of Demeter during the celebration
of the mysteries. They were soon detected
by their absurd questions, and being carried
to the managers of the temple, although
it was evident that their intrusion was accidental, they were put to death for so horIt is not, therefore, surprisrible a crime.
ing that, in the account of them, we should
find such uncertain and even conflicting
assertions of the ancient writers, who hesitated to discuss publicly so forbidden a
;

249

We

true disciples.

Eligibility for Initiation.

See

Qualifications of Candidates.

Elihoreph. One
taries.

of Solomon's secre-

See Ahiah.

Elizabeth of England.

Preston

{Illustrations j B. IV., $iv.,) states that the

following circumstance is recorded of this

sovereign Hearing that the Masons were
in possession of secrets which they would
not reveal, and being jealous of all secret
assemblies, she sent an armed force to York,
:

with intent to break up their annual Grand

Lodge. This design, however, was happily
frustrated by the
interposition of Sir
Sackville, who took care to initiate some of the chief officers whom she
had sent on this duty. They joined in

Thomas

subject.

The qualifications for initiation were maturity of age and purity of life.
Such was
the theory, although in practice these
qualifications were not always rigidly regarded. But the early doctrine was that
none but the pure, morally and ceremonially,
could be admitted to initiation. At first,
too, the right of admission was restricted
to natives of Greece
but even in the time
of Herodotus this law was dispensed with,
and the citizens of all countries were considered eligible. So in time these mysteries were extended beyond the limits of
Greece, and in the days of the empire they
were introduced into Eome, where they be;

came exceedingly popular.

The scenic representations, the participation in secret signs and words of recognition, the instruction in a peculiar

dogma,
and the establishment of a hidden bond of
fraternity, gave attraction to these mysteries, which lasted until the very fall of the
Roman empire, and exerted a powerful influence on the mystical associations of the
Middle Ages. The bond of union which

2G

communication with the Masons, and made

so favorable a report to the queen on their
return that she countermanded her orders,
and never afterwards attempted to disturb
the meetings of the Fraternity. The iconoclasts, of course, assert that the story is
void of authenticity.

Elizabeth of Portugal.

In May,

1792, this queen, having conceived a suspicion of the Lodges in Madeira, gave an

order to the governor to arrest all the Freemasons in the island, and deliver them over
The rigorous execution
to the Inquisition.
of this order occasioned an emigration of
many families, ten of whom repaired to

New

York, and were liberally assisted by

the Masons of that city.

Elohim.
Hebrew

oviStf.

A name

applied in

any deity, but sometimes also

to the true God.
According to Lanci, it
means the most beneficent. It is not, however, much used in Masonry.
Eloquence of Masonry. Lawyers
to

ELTJ

EMBLEM

boast of the eloquence of the bar, and

point to the arguments of counsel in well
known cases ; the clergy have the eloquence
of the pulpit exhibited in sermons, many
of which have a world-wide reputation
and statesmen vaunt of the eloquence of
Congress
some of the speeches, however,
being indebted, it is said, for their power
and beauty, to the talent of the stenographic
reporter rather than the member who is
supposed to be the author.
Freemasonry, too, has its eloquence,
which is sometimes, although not always,
of a very high order. This eloquence is to
be found in the addresses, orations, and
discourses which have usually been delivered on the great festivals of the Order,
at consecrations of Lodges, dedications of
halls, and the laying of foundation-stones.
These addresses constitute, in fact, the
principal part of the early literature of
Freemasonry. See Addresses, Masonic.
Elu. The fourth degree of the French

Master's degree, and was only applied to

Templarism when De Molay was substituted
for Hiram the Builder.
Emanation. Literally, "a flowing
forth."
The doctrine of emanations was a
theory predominant in many of the Oriental religions, such, especially, as Brahmanism and Parseeism, and subsequently
adopted by the Kabbalists and the Gnostics,
and taught by Philo and Plato. It assumed
that all things emanated, flowed forth,
(which is the literal meaning of the word,
or were developed and descended by degrees from the Supreme Being. Thus, in
the ancient religion of India, the anima
mundi, or soul of the word, the mysterious source of all life, was identified
with Brahma, the Supreme God.
The
doctrine of Gnosticism was that all beings emanated from the Deity that there
was a progressive degeneration of these
beings from the highest to the lowest
emanation, and a final redemption and
return of all to the purity of the Creator.
Philo taught that the Supreme Being was
the Primitive Light or the Archetype of
Light, whose rays illuminate, as from a
common source, all souls. The theory of
emanations is interesting to the Mason,
because of the reference in many of the
higher degrees to the doctrines of Philo,
the Gnostics, and the Kabbalists.
sacred word in some of
Emanuel.
the high degrees, being one of the names
applied in Scripture to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a Greek form from the Hebrew, Immanuel, Sxupy, and signifies " God is with

250

See Elus.

Rite.

Elul.

ty?X.

ecclesiastical

The

sixth

month of

and the twelfth of the

the
civil

year of the Jews. The twelfth also, therefore, of the Masonic calendar used in the

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. It

begins on the new moon of August or September, and consists of twenty-nine days.

The French word elu means

and the degrees, whose object is to
the detection and punishment of the

Ellis.
elected;

detail
actors in the crime traditionally related in
the third degree, are called Elus, or the

degrees of the Elected, because they reto those of the Craft who were
chosen or elected to make the discovery,
and to inflict the punishment. They form
a particular system of Masonry, and are to
be found in every Rite, if not in all in
name, at least in principle. In the York
and American Rites, the Elu is incorporated
in the Master's degree; in the French Rite
it constitutes an independent degree and in
the Scottish Rite it consists of three degrees, the ninth, tenth, and eleventh.
Ragon counts the five preceding degrees among
the Elus, but they more properly belong to
the Order of Masters. The symbolism of
these Elu degrees has been greatly mistaken
and perverted by anti-Masonic writers, who
have thus attributed to Masonry a spirit of
vengeance which is not its characteristic.
ferred

They must be looked upon

as conveying
only a symbolic meaning. Those higher
degrees, in which the object of the election
is changed and connected with Templarism,
are more properly called Kadoshes. Thory
says that all the Elus are derived from the
degree of Kadosh, which preceded them.
The reverse, I think, is the truth. The
Elu system sprang naturally from the

us."

Embassy.

The embassy of Zerubbabel and four other Jewish chiefs to the

court of Darius, to obtain the protection
of that monarch from the encroachments
of the Samaritans, who interrupted the
labors in the reconstruction of the Temple,
constitutes the legend of the sixteenth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, and also of the Red Cross degree of
the American Rite, which is surely borrowed from the former. The history of
this embassy is found in the eleventh book
of the Antiquities of Josephus, whence the
Masonic

have undoubtedly taken

of Josephus is the
apocryphal record of Esdras, and the authenticity of the whole transaction is doubted or denied by modern historians.
Emblem. The emblem is an occult
representation of something unknown or
concealed by a sign or thing that is known.
Thus, a square is in Freemasonry an emblem of morality a plumb line, of rectitude of conduct and a level, of equality
it.

ritualists

The only authority

human conditions. Emblem is very generally used as synonymous with symbol, alof

EMERALD

EMPERORS

though the two words do not express exAn emblem is

actly the same meaning.
properly a representation of an idea by a
visible object, as in the examples quoted
above but a symbol is more extensive in

Lodge were vested with the prerogative of

deciding what was a case of emergency;
but modern law and usage (in this country,
at least,) make the Grand Master the sole
judge of what constitutes a case of emer-

application, includes every representation of an idea by an image, whether that

gency.

its

image

immediately

the
senses as a visible and tangible substance,
or only brought before the mind by words.
Hence an action or event as described, a
myth or legend, may be a symbol and
hence, too, it follows that while all emblems
are symbols, all symbols are not emblems.
See Symbol.
Emerald. In Hebrew, "])J, caphah.
It was the first stone in the first row of the
is

presented

to

high

priest's breastplate,

and was referred

Adam

Clarke says it is the same

to Levi.
stone as the smaragdus, and is of a bright
green color. Josephus, the Septuagint,
and the Jerusalem Targum understood by
the Hebrew word the carbuncle, which is
The modern emerald, as everybody
red.
knows, is green.
Emergency. The general law of Masonry requires a month to elapse between
the time of receiving a petition for initiation and that of balloting for the candidate, and also that there shall be an interval of one month between the reception
of each of the degrees of Craft Masonry.
Cases sometimes occur when a Lodge desires this probationary period to be dispensed with, so that the candidate's petition may be received and balloted for at
the same communication, or so that the degrees may be conferred at much shorter intervals.
As some reason must be assigned
for the application to the Grand Master for
the dispensation, such reason is generallystated to be that the candidate is about to
go on a long journey, or some other equally
valid.
Cases of this kind are called, in the
technical language of Masonry, cases of
emergency. It is evident that the emergency is made for the sake of the candidate, and not for that of the Lodge or of
Masonry. The too frequent occurrence of
applications for dispensations in cases of
emergency have been a fruitful source of
evil, as thereby unworthy persons, escaping the ordeal of an investigation into
character, have been introduced into the
Order; and even where the candidates have
been worthy, the rapid passing through the
degrees prevents a due impression from
being made on the mind, and the candidate
fails to justly appreciate the beauties and
merits of the Masonic system. __ Hence,
these cases of emergency have been very
unpopular with the most distinguished
members of the Fraternity. In the olden
time the Master and Wardens of the

Emergent Lodge. A
at

251

Lodge held

an emergent meeting.

Emergent Meeting.

The meeting

of a Lodge called to elect a candidate, and

confer the degrees in a case of emergency,
or for any other sudden and unexpected
cause, has been called an emergent meeting.
The term is not very common, but it
has been used by W. S. Mitchell and a few
other writers.
Emeritus. Latin plural, emeriti.
The Romans applied this word
which
comes from the verb emerere, to be greatly
deserving
to a soldier who had served out
his time hence, in the Supreme Councils
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
of this country, an active member, who resigns his seat by reason of age, infirmity,
or for other cause deemed good by the
Council, may be elected an Emeritus member, and will possess the privilege of proposing measures and being heard in debate,
but not of voting.
Emeth. Hebrew, HDK- ne of the
words in the high degrees.
It signifies
integrity, fidelity, firmness, and constancy in
keeping a promise, and especially Truth,
as opposed to falsehood.
In the Scottish
Rite, the Sublime Knights Elect of Twelve
of the eleventh degree are called " Princes
Emeth," which means simply men of exalted character who are devoted to truth.
Eminent. The title given to the
Commander or presiding officer of a Commandery of Knights Templars, and to all
officers below the Grand Commander in a

Grand Commandery. The Grand Commander is styled " Right Eminent," and the
Grand Master of the Grand Encampment
of the United States, " Most Eminent."
The word is from the Latin eminens, "standing above," and literally signifies " exalted
in rank."

Hence,

it is

title

given to the

Roman Church.
Emperor of Lebanon. Empereur

cardinals in the

This degree, says Thory, {Ad.

Lat., i. 311,) which was a part of the collection of M. Le Rouge, was composed in
the isle of Bourbon, in 1778, by the Marquis de Beurnonville, who was then National Grand Master of all the Lodges of

du Liban.)

India.

Emperors of the East and West.

In 1758 there was established in Paris a
Chapter called the " Council of Emperors
of the East and West." The members assumed the titles of " Sovereign Prince Masons," "Substitutes General of the Royal

EMPERORS

ENGLAND

Art," " Grand Superintendents and officers

of the Grand and Sovereign Lodge of St.
John of Jerusalem." Their ritual, which
was based on the Templar system, consisted of twenty-five degrees, as follows:
1 to 19, the same as the Scottish Rite ; 20,
Grand Patriarch Noachite ; 21, Key of Masonry 22, Prince of Lebanon ; 23, Knight
of the Sun 24, Kadosh ; 25, Prince of the
Royal Secret. It granted warrants for
Lodges of the high degrees, appointed
Grand Inspectors and Deputies, and established several subordinate bodies in the
interior of France, among which was a
" Council of Princes of the Royal Secret,"
In 1763, one Pincemaille,
at Bordeaux.
the Master of the Lodge La Gandeur, at
Metz, began to publish an exposition of
these degrees in the serial numbers of a
work entitled, Conversations Allegoriques sur
la Franche-Magonnerie. In 1764, the Grand
Lodge of France offered him 300 livres to
suppress the book. Pincemaille accepted
the bribe, but continued the publication,

Stephen Morin, through whom the Ancient

and Accepted Scottish Rite was established
in America.
Emunah. HJIDNr Sometimes spelled
Amunah, but not in accordance with the
Masoretic points. A significant word in
the high degrees signifying fidelity, espe-

252

which lasted until 1766.

In 1758, the year of their establishment
in France, the degrees of this Rite of Heredom, or of Perfection, as it was called, were
carried by the Marquis de Bernez to Berlin,

and adopted by the Grand Lodge of the

Three Globes.
Between the years 1760 and 1765, there
was much dissension in the Rite. A new
Council, called the Knights of the East,
was established at Paris, in 1760, as the
rival of the Emperors of the East and
West. The controversies of these two bodies were carried into the Grand Lodge,
which, in 1766, was compelled, for the sake

cially in fulfilling one's promises.

Encampment.

All regular assem-

blies of Knights Templars were formerly

called Encampments, and are still so called

in England. They are now styled Commanderies in this country, and Grand Encampments of the States are called Grand

Commanderies. See Commandery and Commandery, Grand.

Encampment, General Grand.

The

title,

before the adoption of the Con-

stitution of 1856, of the Grand

ment of the United States.

Encampment, Grand.

-Encamp-

The Grand

Encampment

of the United States was instituted on the 22d of June, 1816, in the
city of New York.
It consists of a Grand
Master, Deputy Grand Master, and other
Grand officers who are similar to those of
a Grand Commandery, with Past Grand
officers and the representatives of the
various Grand Commanderies, and of the
subordinate Commanderies deriving their
warrants immediately from it. It exercises
jurisdiction over all the Templars of the

United States, and meets triennially. The

term Encampment is borrowed from military usage, and is very properly applied to
the temporary congregation at stated
periods of the army of Templars, who may
be said to be, for the time being, in camp.

Encyclical. Circular sent to many

of peace, to issue a decree in opposition to places or persons. Encyclical letters, conthe high degrees, excluding the malcon- taining information, advice, or admonition,
tents, and forbidding the symbolical Lodges are sometimes issued by Grand Lodges or
to recognize the authority of these Chap- Grand Masters to the Lodges and Masons
But the excluded Masons continued of a jurisdiction. The word is not in very
ters.
to work clandestinely and to grant war- common use; but I find that in 1848 the
rants. From that time until its dissolution, Grand Lodge of South Carolina issued " an
the history of the Council of the Emperors encyclical letter of advice, of admonition,
of the East and West is but a history of and of direction," to the subordinate Lodges
continuous disputes with the Grand Lodge under her jurisdiction and that a similar
of France. At length, in 1781, it was com- letter was issued in 1865 by the Grand
Eletely absorbed in the Grand Orient, and Master of Iowa.
as no longer an existence.
famille. French, meaning as a
The assertion of Thory, (Act Lat.,) and family.
In French Lodges, during the
of Ragon, ( Orthod. Mac.,) that the Council reading of the minutes, and sometimes
of the Emperors of the East and West was when the Lodge is engaged in the discusthe origin of the Ancient and Accepted sion of delicate matters affecting only itFrederick of Prussia having added self, the Lodge is said to meet " en famille,"
Rite,
eight to the original twenty-five, although at which time visitors are not admitted.
it has been denied, does not seem destitute
England. I shall give a brief resume
of truth. It is very certain, if the docu- of the history of Freemasonry in England
mentary evidence is authentic, that the as it has hitherto been written, and is now
Constitutions of 1762 were framed by this generally received by the Fraternity. It is
Council and it is equally certain that under but right, however, to say, that recent rethese Constitutions a patent was granted to searches have thrown doubts on the authen*
;

En

ENGLAND

ENGLAND

many of the statements, that the

legend of Prince Edwin has been doubted
the establishment of a Grand Lodge at
York in the beginning of the eighteenth
century denied and the existence of any
thing but Operative Masonry before 1717
ticity of

controverted. These questions are still in

dispute; but the labors of Masonic antiquaries, through which many old records
and ancient constitutions are being continually exhumed from the British Museum
and from Lodge libraries, will eventually
enable us to settle upon the truth.
According to Anderson and Preston, the
first charter granted in England to the
Masons, as a body, was bestowed by King
Athelstan, in 926, upon the application of
his brother, Prince Edwin. " Accordingly/'
says a legend
" Prince Edwin

first

cited

by Anderson,

253

These four Lodges, desirous of reviving the

prosperity of the Order, determined to
unite themselves under a Grand Master,
Sir Christopher Wren being now dead, and
none having, as yet, been appointed in his
place. They therefore " met at the AppleTree Tavern and having put into the chair
the oldest Master Mason, (being the Master
;

of a Lodge,) they constituted themselves a

Grand Lodge, pro tempore, in due form, and
forthwith revived the quarterly communication of the officers of Lodges, (called the
Grand Lodge,) resolved to hold the annual
assembly and feast, and then to choose a
Grand Master from among themselves, till
they should have the honor of a noble
brother at their head."
Accordingly, on St. John the Baptist's
day, 1717, the annual assembly and feast

summoned all the Masons were held, and Mr. Anthony Sayer duly
The
in the realm to meet him in a congregation proposed and elected Grand Master.
at York, who came and composed a Gen- Grand Lodge adopted, among its regulations, the following: "That the privilege
eral Lodge, of which he was Grand Master
and having brought with them all the writings and records extant, some in Greek,
some in Latin, some in French, and other
languages, from the contents thereof that
assembly did frame the Constitution and
Charges of an English Lodge."
From this assembly at York, the rise of

Masonry

in

England

is

generally dated;

from the statutes there enacted are derived

the English Masonic Constitutions and
from the place of meeting, the ritual of the
English Lodges is designated as the " An;

cient

York

of assembling as Masons, which had hitherto been unlimited, should be vested in

certain Lodges or assemblies of Masons
convened in certain places and that every
Lodge to be hereafter convened, except the
four old Lodges at this time existing, should
be legally authorized to act by a warrant
from the Grand Master, for the time being,
granted to certain individuals by petition,
with the consent and approbation of the
;

Grand Lodge

in communication, and that,

without such warrant, no Lodge should be

hereafter

Bite."

For a long time, the York Assembly exercised the Masonic jurisdiction over all
England but in 1567 the Masons of the
;

southern part of the island elected Sir

Thomas Gresham, the celebrated merchant,
their Grand Master.
He was succeeded by
the illustrious architect, Inigo Jones. There
were now two Grand Masters in England
who assumed distinctive titles the Grand
Master of the north being called Grand
Master of all England, while he who presided in the south was called Grand Master
of England.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Masonry in the south of England had
fallen into decay.
The disturbances of the
revolution, which placed William III. on
the throne, and the subsequent warmth of
political feelings which agitated the two
parties of the state, had given this peaceful society a wound fatal to its success. Sir
Christopher Wren, the Grand Master in the
;

Queen Anne, had become aged, inand inactive, and hence the general
assemblies of the Grand Lodge had ceased
to take place.
There were, in the year
1715, but four Lodges in the south of England, all working in the city of London.

deemed regular or constitutional."

In compliment, however, to the four old

Lodges, the privileges which they had always possessed under the old organization
were particularly reserved to them and it
was enacted that " no law, rule, or regula;

be hereafter made or passed in

Grand Lodge, should ever deprive them of
tion, to

such privilege, or encroach on any landmark which was at that time established
as the standard of Masonic government."

The Grand Lodges of York and of London kept up a friendly intercourse, and mutual interchange of recognition, until the
latter body, in 1725, granted a warrant of
constitution to some Masons who had seThis unmasonic
ceded from the former.
act was severely reprobated by the York
Grand Lodge, and produced the first interruption to the harmony that had long subsisted between them. It was, however, followed some years after by another unjustifiable act of interference.
In 1735, the

reign of

Earl of Crawford, Grand Master of Eng-

firm,

land, constituted two Lodges within the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of York, and
granted, without its consent, deputations
for Lancashire,

land.

Durham, and Northumber-

" This circumstance," says Preston,

ENGLAND

ENOCH

(Iliust., p. 184,) " the Grand Lodge at York

highly resented, and ever afterward viewed
the proceedings of the brethren in the
south with a jealous eye. All friendly intercourse ceased, and the York Masons,
from that moment, considered their interests distinct from the Masons under the

desire to find the truth, and not to uphold

a theory. The legend may not be true but
if it has been long accepted and venerated

254

Grand Lodge

in

London."

Three years after, in 1738, several brethren,

with the conduct of the Grand
Lodge of England, seceded from it, and held
unauthorized meetings for the purpose of initiation.
Taking advantage of the breach
between the Grand Lodges of York and
London, they assumed the character of
York Masons. On the Grand Lodge's determination to put strictly in execution the
laws against such seceders, they still further separated from its jurisdiction, and
assumed the appellation of "Ancient York
Masons." They announced that the ancient
landmarks were alone preserved by them
and, declaring that the regular Lodges had
adopted new plans, and sanctioned innovations, they branded them with the name of
"Modern Masons." In 1739, they established
a new Grand Lodge in London, under the
name of the "Grand Lodge of Ancient
York Masons," and, persevering in the measures they had adopted, held communications
and appointed annual feasts. They were
soon afterward recognized by the Masons
of Scotland and Ireland, and were encouraged and fostered by many of the nobility.
The two Grand Lodges continued to exist,
and to act in opposition to each other, exdissatisfied

tending their schisms into other countries,

especially into America, until the year 1813,
when, under the Grand Mastership of the
Duke of Sussex, they were united under
the title of the United Grand Lodge of
England.
Such is the history of Freemasonry in
England as uninterruptedly believed by all
Masons and Masonic writers for nearly a
century and a half. Recent researches
have thrown great doubts on its entire accuracy. Until the year 1717, the details
are either traditional, or supported only by
manuscripts whose authenticity has not yet
been satisfactorily proved. Much of the
^history is uncertain some of it, especially
as referring to York, is deemed apocryphal

as truth, it should not be rejected until there

incontestable evidence of its falsity. In

criticisms of this kind we should remember

is

the caution of an eminent metaphysician,

that " the hand that cannot build a hovel
may demolish a palace." So far, the researches of these inquiries into the early
history of English Freemasonry, of whom
Bro. Hughan, of Cornwall, may justly be
considered as the chief, have been generally
conducted with earnest fairness and laborious learning. See York
corruption of Euclid, found
Englet.
in the Old Constitutions known as the
Matthew Cooke MS., " wherefore y e forsayde maister Englet ordegnet thei were
passing of conying schold be passing honoured," [line 674-7.) lam inclined to think
that the copyist has mistaken a badly-made
old English u for an n, and that the original had Euglet, which would be a nearer
approximation to Euclid.

Engrave.

In French Lodges, buriner,

to engrave, is used instead of ecrire, to
The " engraved tablets " are the
write.
" written records."

Enlightened.

This word, equivalent

to the Latin illuminatus, is frequently used

to designate a Freemason as one who ha3

been rescued from darkness, and received

Webster's definition
intellectual light.
shows its appositeness " Illuminated instructed; informed; furnished with clear
views." Many old Latin diplomas commence with the heading, "Omnibus illu;

minatis,"

i.

" to all the enlightened."

e.,

Enlightenment, Shock

of.

See

Shock of Enlightenment.

by Hughan and other laborious writers.

Enoch. Though the Scriptures furnish but a meagre account of Enoch, the
traditions of Freemasonry closely connect
him, by numerous circumstances, with the
early history of the Institution. All, indeed, that we learn from the Book of Genesis on the subject of his life is, that he was
the seventh of the patriarchs the son of
Jared, and the great-grandfather of Noah
that he was born in the year of the world
622 that his life was one of eminent virtue,
so much so, that he is described as " walk
ing with God " and that in the year 987

Yet, as the hereditary tradition of the

Order, it cannot be safely or justly thrown
altogether aside though it should be received with many reservations until the
profound researches of Masonic antiquaries,
now being actively pursued in England,
shall have been brought to a satisfactory
conclusion. The investigations on this important subject should be conducted with
impartial judgment, and with an earnest

was terminated, (as

the commentators generally suppose, ) not by
death, but by a bodily translation to heaven.
In the very commencement of our inquiries, we shall find circumstances in the
life of this great patriarch that shadow
forth, as it were, something of that mysticism with which the traditions of Masonry
have connected him. His name, in the
Hebrew language, "pH, Henoch, signifies

his earthly pilgrimage

ENOCH
to initiate

and to instruct, and seems intended

to express the fact that he was, as Oliver

remarks, the first to give a decisive character to the rite of initiation, and to add to

the practice of divine worship the study

and application of human science. In
confirmation of this view, a writer in the
Freemason's Quarterly Review says, on this
subject, that " it seems probable that Enoch
introduced the speculative principles into
the Masonic creed, and that he originated
its exclusive character," which theory must
be taken, if it is accepted at all, with very
considerable modifications.
The years of his life may also be supposed
to contain a mystic meaning, for they
amounted to three hundred and sixty-five,
being exactly equal to a solar revolution.
In all the ancient rites this number has oc-

cupied a prominent place, because it was

the representative of the annual course of
that luminary which, as the great fructifier
of the earth, was the peculiar object of
divine worship.
Of the early history of Enoch, we know
nothing. It is, however, probable that, like
the other descendants of the pious Seth, he
passed his pastoral life in the neighborhood of Mount Moriah. From the other
patriarchs he differed only in this, that, enlightened by the divine knowledge which
had been imparted to him, he instructed
his contemporaries in the practice of those
rites, and in the study of those sciences, with
which he had himself become acquainted.
The Oriental writers abound in traditionary evidence of the learning of the venerable patriarch.
One tradition states that he
received from God the gift of wisdom and
knowledge, and that God sent him thirty
volumes from heaven, filled with all the secrets of the most mysterious sciences. The

Babylonians supposed him to have been intimately acquainted with the nature of the
stars and they attribute to him the invention of astrology.
The Rabbins maintain
that he was taught by God and Adam how
to sacrifice, and how to worship the Deity
;

The kabbalistic book of Raziel

says that he received the divine mysteries
from Adam, through the direct line of the
preceding patriarchs.
The Greek Christians supposed him to
have been identical with the first Egyptian
Hermes, who dwelt at Sais. They say he
was the first to give instruction on the celestial bodies
that he foretold the deluge
mat was to overwhelm his descendants;
and that he built the Pyramids, engraving
thereon figures of artificial instruments and
the elements of the sciences, fearing lest
the memory of man should perish in that
general destruction. Eupolemus, a Grecian
Writer, makes him the same as Atlas, and
aright.

ENOCH

255

attributes to him, as the Pagans did to that

deity, the invention of astronomy.
Mr. Wait, in his Oriental Antiquities,

quotes a passage from Bar Hebrseus, a Jewish writer, which asserts that Enoch was
the first who invented books and writing
that he taught men the art of building
cities
that he discovered the knowledge
of the Zodiac and the course of the planets
and that he inculcated the worship of God
by fasting, prayer, alms, votive offerings,
and tithes. Bar Hebraeus adds, that he
also appointed festivals for sacrifices to the
sun at the periods when that luminary entered each of the zodiacal signs but this
statement, which would make him the author of idolatry, is entirely inconsistent
with all that we know of his character,
from both history and tradition, and arose,
as Oliver supposes, most probably from a
blending of the characters of Enos and
;

Enoch.
In the study of the sciences, in teaching
them to his children and his contemporaries, and in instituting the rites of initiation,
Enoch is supposed to have passed the years
of his peaceful, his pious, and his useful
until the crimes of mankind had increased to such a height that, in the expressive words of Holy Writ, " every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was
only evil continually." It was then, according to a Masonic tradition, that Enoch,
disgusted with the wickedness that surrounded him, and appalled at the thought
of its inevitable consequences, fled to the
solitude and secrecy of Mount Moriah, and
devoted himself to prayer and pious contemplation. In was on that spot
then
first consecrated by this patriarchal hermitage, and afterwards to be made still more
holy by the sacrifices of Abraham, of David,
that we are informed
and of Solomon
that the Shekinah or sacred presence appeared to him, and gave him those instructions which were to preserve the wisdom
of the antediluvians to their posterity when
the world, with the exception of but one
family, should have been destroyed by the
The circumstances
forthcoming flood.
which occurred at that time are recorded
in a tradition which forms what has been
called the great Masonic "Legend of
life,

Enoch," and which runs to this effect:

Enoch, being inspired by the Most High,
and in commemoration of a wonderful vision, built a temple under ground, and dedHis son, Methuselah,
icated it to God.
constructed the building although he was
not acquainted with his father's motives
This temple consisted of
for the erection.
;

nine brick vaults, situated perpendicularly

beneath each other, and communicating by
apertures left in the arch of each vault.

ENOCH

256

ENOCH

Enoch then caused a triangular plate of

gold to be made, each side of which was a
cubit long; he enriched it with the most
precious stones, and encrusted the plate
upon a stone of agate of the same form.
On the plate he engraved, in ineffable characters, the true name of Deity, and, placing
it on a cubical pedestal of white marble,
he deposited the whole within the deepest
arch.

When this subterranean building was

completed, he made a door of stone, and
attaching to it a ring of iron, by which it
might be occasionally raised, he placed it
over the opening of the uppermost arch,
and so covered it over that the aperture
could not be discovered. Enoch himself
was not permitted to enter it but once a
year and on the death of Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech, and the destruction of
the world by the deluge, all knowledge of
this temple, and of the sacred treasure which
it contained, was lost until, in after times,
it was accidentally discovered by another
worthy of Freemasonry, who, like Enoch,
was engaged in the erection of a temple on
the same spot.
The legend goes on to inform us that
after Enoch had completed the subterranean temple, fearing that the principles of
those arts and sciences which he had cultivated with so much assiduity would be lost
in that general destruction of which he had
received a prophetic vision, he erected two
pillars,
the one of marble, to withstand the
influence of fire, and the other of brass, to
resist the action of water.
On the pillar of
brass he engraved the history of the creation, the principles of the arts and sciences, and the doctrines of Speculative
Freemasonry as they were practised in his
times
and on the one of marble he in;

scribed characters in hieroglyphics, importing that near the spot where they stood
a precious treasure was deposited in a subterranean vault.
Josephus gives an account of these pillars in the first book of his Antiquities.
He ascribes them to the children of Seth,
which is by no means a contradiction of
the Masonic tradition, since Enoch was one
of these children. " That their inventions,"
says the historian, " might not be lost before

they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's

prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire and
at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars
the
one of brick, the other of stone they in-

scribed their discoveries on them both, that

in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone
might remain and exhibit those discoveries
to mankind, and also inform them that

there was another pillar of brick erected by

Now this remains in the land of
Siriad to this day."
Enoch, having completed these labors,

them.

called his descendants around him on

Mount Moriah, and having warned them

in the most solemn manner of the consequences of their wickedness, exhorted them
to forsake their idolatries and return once
more to the worship of the true God. Masonic tradition informs us that he then delivered up the government of the Craft to
his grandson, Lamech, and disappeared
from earth.
Brother. {Frere Enoch.)
Evidently the nom de plume of a French
writer and the inventor of a Masonic rite.
He published at Liege, in 1773, two works
1. Le Vrai Franc- Magon, in 276 pages
2.
Lettres Maconniques pour servir de Supple-

Enoch,

ment au Vrai Franc-Macon. The design of

the former of these works was to give an
account of the origin and object of Freemasonry, a description of all the degrees,
and an answer to the objections urged

The historical
against the Institution.
theories of Frere Enoch were exceedingly
Thus, he
fanciful and wholly untenable.
asserts that in the year 814, Louis the Fair
of France, being flattered by the fidelity
and devotion of the Operative Masons, organized them into a society of four degrees,
granting the Masters the privilege of weara custom still
ing swords in the Lodge,
and, having
continued in French Lodges,
been received into the Order himself, accepted the Grand Mastership on the festival
of St. John the Evangelist in the year 814.
Other equally extravagant opinions make
his book rather a source of amusement
His definition of
than of instruction.
Freemasonry is, however, good. He sayg
that it is " a holy and religious society of
men who are friends, which has for its
foundation, discretion; for its object, the
service of God, fidelity to the sovereign,
and love of our neighbor and for its doctrine, the erection of an allegorical building dedicated to the virtues, which it teaches
with certain signs of recognition."

Enoch, Iiegend of.

This legend

is

detailed in a preceding article. It never

formed any part of the old system of Masonry, and was first introduced from Talmudic and Eabbinical sources into the high
degrees, where, however, it is really to be
viewed rather as symbolical than as his-

Enoch himself is but the symbol

of initiation, and his legend is intended
symbolically to express the doctrine that
the true Word or divine truth was preserved
in the ancient initiations.
Enoch, Bite of. A Rite attempted
to be established at Liege, in France, about
torical.

EPHRAIMITES

EN SOPH
the year

1773.

It

consisted of four de-

grees, viz., 1. Manouvre, or

whose object was friendship

Apprentice,
and benevo-

Ouvrier, or Fellow Craft, whose

was fidelity to the Sovereign. 3.
Maitre, or Master, whose object was submission to the Supreme Being. 4. Architecte, whose object was the perfection of all
the virtues. The Rite never made much
progress.

lence.
object

2.

En Soph.

SID -p.

In the Kabbalis-

the Divine Word, or Supreme

called the En Soph, or rather the
Soph, the Infinite Intellectual Light.

tic doctrines,

Creator,

is

Or En
The theory

is,

that all things emanated

from this Primeval Light. See Kabbala.

Entered. When a candidate receives
the first degree of Masonry he is said to be
entered. It is used in the sense of admitted,
or introduced ; a common as well as a Masonic employment of the word, as when we
say, " the youth entered college " or, " the
soldier entered the service."
;

Entered Apprentice.

See Appren-

tice.

Entick, John. An

English clergy-

man, born in 1713, who took much interest

in Freemasonry about the middle of the
eighteenth century.
He revised the third
and fourth editions of Anderson's Constitutions, by order of the Grand Lodge. They
were published in 1756 and 1767. Both of
these editions were printed in quarto form,
and have the name of Entick on the titlepage. In 1769 another edition was published in octavo, being an exact copy of
the 1767 edition, except a slight alteration
of the title-page, from which Entick's name
is omitted, and a brief appendix, which
carries the transactions of the Grand Lodge
up to 1769. On a careful collation, I can
find no other differences.
Kloss does not
appear to have seen this edition, for he
only refers to it briefly in his Bibliographic,
as No. 147, without full title, on the authority of Krause.
Entick was also the
author of many Masonic sermons, a few
of which were published.
Oliver speaks
of him as a man of grave and sober habits,
a good Master of his Lodge, a fair disciplinarian, and popular with the Craft.
But
Entick did not confine his literary labors
to Masonry.
He was the author of a History of the War which ended in 1763, in 5
vols., 8vo
and a History of London, in 4
vols., 8vo. As an orthoepist he had considerable reputation, and published a Latin
and English Dictionary, and an English
Spelling Dictionary.
He died in 1773.
An impressive ceremony in the degree of Perfect Master of
the Scottish Rite.
Entrance, Points of. See Points
of Entrance.
;

Entombment.

2H

17

Entrance, Shock

of.

257
See Shock

of Entrance.

Envy. This meanest of vices has always been discouraged in Masonry. The
fifth of the Old Charges, approved in
1722, says " None shall discover envy at
:

the prosperity of a brother."

Eons. In the doctrine of Gnosticism,
divine spirits occupying the intermediate
state

which was supposed

to exist

between

the Supreme Being and the Jehovah of the

Jewish theology, whom the Gnostics called
only a secondary deity. These spiritual
beings were indeed no more than abstractions, such as Wisdom, Faith, Prudence, etc.
They derived their name from the Greek
aiuv, an age, in reference to the long duration of their existence. Valentinius said
there were but thirty of them but Basilides
reckons them as three hundred and sixtyfive, which certainly has an allusion to the
days of the solar year. In some of the
philosophical degrees, references are made
to the Eons, whose introduction into them
is doubtless to be attributed to the connection of Gnosticism with certain of the
;

high degrees.

Eons, Rite of

the. Ragon ( Tuilleur Gen., 186,) describes this Rite as one

full of beautiful and learned instruction,
but scarcely known, and practised only in
Asia, being founded on the religious dogmas of Zoroaster. I doubt the existence
of it as a genuine Rite. Ragon's information is very meagre.
Ephod. The sacred vestment worn by
the high priest of the Jews over the tunic
and outer garment. It was without sleeves,
and divided below the arm- pits into two
parts or halves, one falling before and the
other behind, and both reaching to the
middle of the thighs. They were joined
above on the shoulders by buckles and two
large precious stones, on which were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes, six

The ephod was a distinctive

of the priesthood. It was of two
kinds, one of plain linen for the priests, and
another, richer and embroidered, for the
high priest, which was composed of blue,
purple, crimson, and fine linen. The robe
worn by the High Priest in a Royal Arch
Chapter is intended to be a representation,
but hardly can be called an imitation, of the
ephod.
Ephraimites. The descendants of
Ephraim. They inhabited the centre of
Judea between the Mediterranean and the
river Jordan.
The character given to them
in the ritual of the Fellow Craft's degree,
of being " a stiffnecked and rebellious
people," coincides with history, which describes them as haughty, tenacious to a
fault of their rights, and ever ready to reon each.

mark

EPOCH

EQUES

the pretensions of the other tribes, and

especially that of Judah, of which
they were peculiarly jealous. The circumstance in their history-which has been appropriated for a symbolic purpose in the
ceremonies of the second degree of Ma-

one who had passed through the Great

Mysteries, and been permitted to behold
what was concealed from the mystoe, who
had only been initiated into the Lesser. It
signifies an eye- witness, and is derived
from the Greek, e-kotttevu, to look into, to be-

258
sist

more

sonry,

may be

briefly related thus.

The

Ammonites, who were the descendants of

the younger son of Lot, and inhabited a
tract of country east of the river Jordan,
in hostility
against the Israelites. On the occasion re-

had been always engaged

ferred to, they had commenced a war upon

the pretext that the Israelites had deprived
them of a portion of their territory. Jephtha, having been called by the Israelites to
the head of their army, defeated the Ammonites, but had not called upon the
Ephraimites to assist in the victory. Hence,
that high-spirited people were incensed, and
more especially as they had had no share
in the rich spoils obtained by Jephtha from
the Ammonites. They accordingly gave
him battle, but were defeated with great
slaughter by the Gileadites, or countrymen
of Jephtha, with whom alone he resisted
their attack. As the land of Gilead, the
residence of Jephtha, was on the west side
of the Jordan, and as the Ephraimites
lived on the east side, in making their invasion it was necessary that they should
cross the river, and after their defeat, in attempting to effect a retreat to their own
country, they were compelled to recross the
river.
But Jephtha, aware of this, had
placed forces at the different fords of the
river, who intercepted the Ephraimites, and
detected their nationality by a peculiar defect in their pronunciation.
For although
the Ephraimites did not speak a dialect
different from that of the other tribes, they
had a different pronunciation of some
words, and an inability to pronounce the
letter \tf or SH, which they pronounced as
if it were Q or S. Thus, when called upon
to say SHIBBOLETH, they pronounced
it SIBBOLETH, " which trifling defect,"

says the ritual," proved

The

test to

them to be enemies."

Hebrew was

a palpable one,

for the two words have an entirely different

signification shibboleth meaning an ear of
corn, and sibboleth, a burden.
The biblical
;

relation will be found in the twelfth chapter

of the

Book

of Judges.
In chronology, a certain point
of time marked by some memorable event
at which the calculation of years begins.
Different peoples have different epochs or
epocha.
Thus, the epoch of Christians
is the birth of Christ
that of Jews, the
creation of the world; and that of Mohammedans, the flight of their prophet from
Mecca. See Calendar.

Epoch.

Epopt.

This was the

name given

to

The epopts repeated the oath of

secrecy which had been administered to
them on their initiation into the Lesser
Mysteries, and were then conducted into
the lighted interior of the sanctuary and
permitted to behold what the Greeks em :
phatically termed "the sight," avroij/ia.
The epopts alone were admitted to the
sanctuary, for the mystse were confined to
the vestibule of the temple. The epopts
were, in fact, the Master Masons of the
Mysteries, while the mystse were the Apprentices and Fellow Crafts ; these words
being used, of course, only in a comparative
hold.

sense.

Equality.

Among

the ancient icon-

was symbolized by a female figure holding in one hand a pair of

scales equipoised and in the other a nest
of swallows. The moderns have substituted a level for the scales. jAnd this is
the Masonic idea. In Masonry, the level
is the symbol of that equality which, as
ologists, equality

Higgins (Anac, i. 790,) says, is the very

" All, let their
essence of Freemasonry.
rank in life be what it may, when in the
brethren with the
Lodge are brothers
Father at their head. No person can read
the Evangelists and not see that this is
correctly Gospel Christianity."

Equerry. An

officer in

some courts

who has the charge of horses. I do not

know why the title has been introduced
into

some of the high

degrees.

Eques. A

Latin word signifying

knight.
Every member of the Eite of
Strict Observance, on attaining to the seventh or highest degree, received a "characteristic name," which was formed in Latin
by the addition of a noun in the ablative
case, governed by the preposition a or ab,

word Eques, as " Eques a Serpente,"

or Knight of the Serpent, " Eques ab Aquila,"
or Knight of the Eagle, etc., and by this
name he was ever afterwards known in the
Order. Thus Bode, one of the founders of
the Rite, was recognized as " Eques a Lilio
Convallium," or Knight of the Lily of the
to the

and the Baron Hund, another

"Eques ab Euse," or Knight of
A similar custom prevailed
the Sword.
among the Illuminati and in the Royal
Valleys,

founder, as

Eques signified among

a knight, but in the Middle
Ages the knight was called miles; although
the Latin word miles denoted only a soldier,
yet, by the usage of chivalry, it received
the nobler signification. Indeed, Muratori

Order of Scotland.

the

Romans

EQUES

ERICA

on the authority of an old inscription,

that Eques was inferior in dignity to Miles.

says,

See Miles.

Eques Professus.
The seventh and

last

of Strict Observance.
the original series by

Professed Knight.
degree of the Rite

Added,

it is

Von Hund.
Equilateral Triangle.

said, to

See Tri-

angle.

Equity. The equipoised balance is an

ancient symbol of equity. On the medals,
this virtue is represented by a female holding in the right hand a balance, and in the
left a measuring wand, to indicate that she
gives to each one his just measure. In the
Ancient and Accepted Rite, the thirty-first
degree, or Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander, is illustrative of the virtue of
equity and hence the balance is a prominent symbol of that degree, as it is also of
the sixteenth degree, or Princes of Jerusalem, because, according to the old rituals,
they were chiefs in Masonry, and administered justice to the inferior degrees.
Equivocation. The words of the
covenant of Masonry require that it should
be made without evasion, equivocation, or
mental reservation. This is exactly in accordance with the law of ethics in relation
And it properly applies
to promises made.
in this case, because the covenant, as it is
called, is simply a promise, or series of
promises, made by the candidate to the
Fraternity
to the brotherhood into whose
association he is about to be admitted.
In
making a promise, an evasion is the eluding
or avoiding the terms of the promise ; and
this is done, Or attempted to be done, by
equivocation, which is by giving to the
words used a secret signification, different
from that which they were intended to convey by him who imposed the promise, so
as to mislead, or by a mental reservation,
which is a concealment or withholding in
the mind of the promiser of certain conditions under which he makes it, which conditions are not known to the one to whom
the promise is made. All of this is in
direct violation of the law of veracity. The
doctrine of the Jesuits is very different.
Suarez, one of their most distinguished
casuists, lays it down as good law, that if
any one makes a promise or contract, he
may secretly understand that he does not
sincerely promise, or that he promises without any intention of fulfilling the promise.
This is not the rule of Masonry, which requires that the words of the covenant be
taken in the patent sense which they were
intended by the ordinary use of language
to convey.
It adheres to the true rule of
ethics, which is, as Paley says, that a promise is binding in the sense in which the promiser supposed the promisee to receive it.
;

Among

Eranoi.

259

the ancient Greeks

there- were friendly societies, whose object

was, like the modern Masonic Lodges, to relieve the distresses of their necessitous memThey were permanently organized,
bers.

and had a common fund by the voluntary

contributions of the members. If a member was reduced to poverty, or was in temporary distress for money, he applied to the
eranos, and, if worthy, received the necessary assistance, which was, however, ad-

vanced rather as a loan than a gift, and the

amount was to be returned when the recipient was in better circumstances.
In the
days of the Roman empire these friendly
societies were frequent among the Greek
cities, and were looked on with suspicion
by the emperors, as tending to political
combinations. Smith says [Diet. Gr. and
Rom. Ant.) that the Anglo-Saxon gilds, or
fraternities for mutual aid, resembled the

In their spirit, these

Grecian confraternities partook more of the
eranoi of the Greeks.

Masonic character, as charitable associations, than of the modern friendly societies,

where relief is based on a system of mutual insurance for the assistance was given
only to cases of actual need, and did not
depend on any calculation of natural con;

tingencies.

Erica. The Egyptians selected the

erica as a sacred plant.
The origin of the
consecration of this plant will be peculiarly
interesting to the Masonic student.
There
was a legend in the mysteries of Osiris,
which related that Isis, when in search of
the body of her murdered husband, discovered it interred at the brow of a hill near
which an erica grew and hence, after the
recovery of the body and the resurrection
of the god, when she established the mysteries to commemorate her loss and her re;

covery, she adopted the erica as a sacred

plant, in memory of its having pointed out

the spot where the mangled remains of

Osiris were concealed.
Ragon ( Cours des Initiations, p. 151,) thus
alludes to this mystical event " Isis found
the body of Osiris in the neighborhood of
Biblos, and near a tall plant called the erica.
Oppressed with grief, she seated herself on
the margin of a fountain, whose waters issued from a rock. This rock is the small
hill mentioned in the ritual
the erica has
been replaced by the acacia, and the grief
of Isis has been changed for that of the
:

Fellow Crafts."

The lexicographers define epeUri as " the

health plant " but it is really, as Plutarch
asserts, the tamarisk tree; and Schwenk
[Die Mythologie der Semiten, p. 248,) says
that Phyloe, so renowned among the ancients as one of the burial-places of Osiris,
and among the moderns for its wealth of
;

ERNEST

ESSENES

architectural remains, contains monuments

in which the grave of Osiris is overshadowed by the tamarisk.
Ernest
Falk. Ernst und Fall.
Gesprache fur Freimaurerei, i. e., " Ernest
and Falk. Conversations on Freemasonry,"
is the title of a German work written by
Gottfried Ephraim Lessing, and first pubErnest is an inquirer, and
lished in 1778.
Falk a Freemason, who gives to his interlocutor a very philosophical idea of the
character, aims, and objects of the InstituThe work has been faithfully transtion.
lated by Bro. Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie,
F. S. A., in the London Freemason's Quarterly Magazine, in 1854, and continued and
finished, so far as the author had completed
Finit, in the London Freemason in 1872.
del says of this work, that it is one of the
best things that has ever been written upon

at the entrance of their temples. Two centuries later, Aristotle adopted the system

260

and

Freemasonry.

Erwin von Steinbach. A

distin-

guished German, who was born, as his name

imports, at Steinbach, near Buhl, about
the middle of the 13th century. He was
the master of the works at the Cathedral
of Strasburg, the tower of which he commenced in 1275. He finished the tower and
doorway before his death, which was. in
1318. He was at the head of the German
Fraternity of Stonemasons, who were the
precursors of the modern Freemasons.
See Strasburg.

Esoteric

Masonry.

That

secret

portion of Masonry which is known only

to the initiates as distinguished from exoteric Masonry, or monitorial, which is accessible to all who choose to read the manuals
and published works of the Order. The
words are from the Greek, 'eourepiKdg, in-

and 'e^urspiKog, external, and were

used by Pythagoras, whose philosophy

ternal,
first

was divided into the exoteric, or that

taught to all, and the esoteric, or that
taught to a select few and thus his disciples were divided into two classes, according to the degree of initiation to which they
had attained, as being either fully admitted
into the society, and invested with all the
knowledge that the Master could commu;

merely postulants, enjoying

only the public instructions of the school,
and awaiting the gradual reception of further knowledge. This double mode of instruction was borrowed by Pythagoras
from the Egyptian priests, whose theology
the one exoteric, and
was of two kinds
addressed to the people in general; the
other esoteric, and confined to a select number of the priests and to those who possessed, or were to possess, the regal power.
And the mystical nature of this concealed
doctrine was expressed in their symbolic
language by the images of sphinxes placed
nicate, or as

of Pythagoras, and, in the Lyceum at

Athens, delivered in the morning to his
select disciples his subtle and concealed
doctrines concerning God, Nature, and
Life, and in the evening lectured on more
elementary subjects to a promiscuous audience.
These different lectures he called
his

Morning and

his

Evening Walk.

Essenes.

Lawrie, in his History of

Freemasonry, in replying to the objection,
that if the Fraternity of Freemasons had
flourished during the reign of Solomon, it

would have existed in Judea in after ages,

attempts to meet the argument by showing
that there did exist, after the building of
the Temple, an association of men resembling Freemasons in the nature, ceremoThe
nies, and object of their institution.
association to which he here alludes is that
of the Essenes, whom he subsequently describes as an ancient Fraternity originating from an association of architects who
were connected with the building of Solo-

mon's Temple.
Lawrie evidently seeks to connect historically the Essenes with the Freemasons,
and to impress his readers with the identity
of the two Institutions. I am not prepared to go so far; but there is such a similarity between the two, and such remarkable coincidences in many of their usages, as
to render this Jewish sect an interesting
study to every Freemason, to whom therefore some account of the usages and doctrines of this holy brotherhood will not,

perhaps, be unacceptable.
At the time of the advent of Jesus Christ,
there were three religious sects in Judea
the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes and to one of these sects every Jew
was compelled to unite himself. The Saviour has been supposed by many writers
to have been an Essene, because, while repeatedly denouncing the errors of the two
other sects, he has nowhere uttered a w ord
of censure against the Essenes; and because, also, many of the precepts of the
New Testament are to be found among the
laws of this sect.
In ancient authors, such as Josephus,
Philo, Porphyry, Eusebius, and Pliny, who
have had occasion to refer to the subject,
the notices of this singular sect have been

so brief and unsatisfactory, that modern

writers have found great difficulty in properly understanding the true character of
Essenism. And yet our antiquaries, never
weary of the task of investigation, have at
length, within a recent period, succeeded
in eliciting, from the collation of all that
has been previously written on the subject,
very correct details of the doctrines and

ESSENES

ESSENES

Of these writers,
practices of the Essenes.
none, I think, have been more successful
than the laborious German critics Frankel

the Maccabsean, one hundred and sixty-six

years before Christ. The Jewish historian
repeatedly speaks of them at subsequent
periods and there is no doubt that they
constituted one of the three sects which divided the Jewish religious world at the advent of our Saviour, and of this sect he is
supposed, as has been already said, to have
been a member.
On this subject, Ginsburg says " Jesus,
who in all things conformed to the Jewish
law, and who was holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners, would, therefore, naturally associate himself with that
order of Judaism which was most congenial
to his holy nature. Moreover, the fact that
Christ, with the exception of once, was not
heard of in public till his thirtieth year,
implying that he lived in seclusion with
this Fraternity, and that, though he frequently rebuked the Scribes, Pharisees, and
Sadducees, he never denounced the Essenes, strongly confirms this decision."
But he admits that Christ neither adopted
nor preached their extreme doctrines of as-

and Rappaport, Their investigations have

been ably and thoroughly condensed by
Dr. Christian D. Ginsburg, whose essay on
The Essenes, their History and Doctrines,
(Lond., 1864,) has supplied the most material facts

contained in the present

article.

It is impossible to ascertain the precise

date of the development of Essenism as a

The old writers are
distinct organization.
so exaggerated in their statements, that
they are worth nothing as historical auPhilo says, for instance, that
thorities.
Moses himself instituted the order, and
Josephus that it existed ever since the ancient time of the Fathers while Pliny asserts, with mythical liberality, that it has
Dr.
continued for thousands of ages.
Ginsburg thinks that Essenism was a gradual development of the prevalent religious
notions out of Judaism, a theory which
Dr. Dollinger repudiates. But Rappaport,
who was a learned Jew, thoroughly conversant with the Talmud and other He;

brew writings, and who is hence called by

Ginsburg "the corypheus of Jewish critics,"
asserts that the Essenes were not a distinct
in the strict sense of the word, but
simply an order of Judaism, and that there
never was a rupture between them and the
This theory
rest of the Jewish community.
is sustained by Frankel, a learned German,
who maintains that the Essenes were simply an intensification of the Pharisaic sect,
and that they were the same as the Chasidim, whom Lawrie calls the Kassideans,
and of whom he speaks as the guardians
of King Solomon's Temple. If this view
be the correct one, and there is no good
reason to doubt it, then there will be another feature of resemblance and coincidence between the Freemasons and the Essenes for, as the latter was not a religious
sect, but merely a development of Judaism,
an order of Jews entertaining no heterodox
opinions, but simply carrying out the religious dogmas of their faith with an un-

sect,

usual strictness of observance, so are the

Freemasons not a religious sect, but simply
a development of the religious idea of the

The

age.

however, between
Essenism lies in the

difference,

Freemasonry and

spirit of universal tolerance

prominent in
the one and absent in the other. Freemasonry is Christian as to its membership
in general, but recognizing and tolerating
in its bosom all other religions
Essenism,
on the contrary, was exclusively and intensely Jewish in its membership, its usages,
:

and

doctrines.
are first mentioned by Joseas existing in the days of Jonathan

its

The Essenes
phus

261

ceticism.

After the establishment of Christianity,

the Essenes fade out of notice, and it has
been supposed that they were among the
earliest converts to the new faith.
Indeed,
De Quincey rather paradoxically asserts
that they were a disguised portion of the
early Christians.

The etymology of the word has not been

Yet, among the contending opin-

settled.

ions, the preferable

is

one seems to be that

derived from the

holy,

it

Hebrew CHASID,

pious,
which connects the Essenes with the Chasidim, a sect which preceded them, and of whom Lawrie says,
(quoting from Scaliger,) that they were "an
order of the Knights of the Temple of
Jerusalem, who bound themselves to
adorn the porches of that magnificent structure, and to preserve it from injury and
decay."
The Essenes were so strict in the observance of the Mosaic law s of purity, that
they were compelled, for the purpose of
avoiding contamination, to withdraw altogether from the rest of the Jewish nation
and to form a separate community, w hich
thus became a brotherhood.
The same
scruples which led them to withdraw from
their less strict Jewish brethren induced
most of them to abstain from marriage,
and hence the unavoidable depletion of
their membership by death could only be
repaired by the initiation of converts. They
had a common treasury, in which was deposited whatever any one of them possessed,
and from this the wants of the whole community were supplied by stewards appointed by the brotherhood, so that they had
T

ESSENES

ESSENES

Hence there was

no distinction among them of rich and
poor, or masters and servants but the only
gradation of rank which they recognized
was derived from the degrees or orders into
which the members were divided, and
which depended on holiness alone. They
lived peaceably with all men, reprobated
slavery and war, and would not even manuThey
facture any warlike instruments.
were governed by a president, who was
elected by the whole community; and
members who had violated their rules were,
after due trial, excommunicated or ex-

guished for their brotherly love, and for

their charity in helping the needy, and
showing mercy. He says that they are

262

everything in common.

just dispensers of their anger, curbers of

their passions, representatives of fidelity,
ministers of peace, and every word with
them is of more force than an oath. They
avoid taking an oath, and regard it as

worse than perjury

for they say that he

not believed without calling on God
to witness, is already condemned of perjury.
He also states that they studied
with great assiduity the writings of the
ancients on distempers and their remedies,
alluding, as it is supposed, to the magical
pelled.
As they held no communication outside works imputed by the Talmudists to Soloof their own fraternity, they had to raise mon.
It has already been observed that, in
their own supplies, and some were engaged
in tilling, some in tending flocks, others in consequence of the celibacy of the Essenes,
making clothing, and others in preparing it was found necessary to recruit their ranks
food.
They got up before sunrise, and, by the introduction of converts, who were
after singing a hymn of praise for the re- admitted by a solemn form of initiation.
turn of light, which they did with their The candidate, or aspirant, was required to
faces turned to the east, each one repaired pass through a novitiate of two stages,
At the fifth hour, which extended over three years, before he
to his appropriate task.
or eleven in the forenoon, the morning was admitted to a full participation in the
labor terminated. The brethren then again privileges of the Order.
Upon entering
assembled, and after a lustration in cold the first stage, which lasted for twelve
water, they put on white garments and months, the novice cast all his possessions
proceeded to the refectory, where they par- into the common treasury. He then retook of the common meal, which was always ceived a copy of the regulations of the
of the most frugal character.
mysterious brotherhood, and was presented with a
silence was observed during this meal, spade, an apron, and a white robe.
The
which, to some extent, had the character spade was employed to bury excrement, the
of a sacrament. The feast being ended, apron was used at the daily lustrations, and
and the priest having returned thanks, the the white robe was worn as a symbol of
brethren withdrew and put off their white purity. During all this period the aspigarments, resumed their working - clothes rant was considered as being outside the
and their several employments until even- order, and, although required to observe
ing, when they again assembled as before, some of the ascetic rules of the society, he
was not admitted to the common meal. At
to partake of a common meal.
They observed the Sabbath with more the end of the probationary year, the aspithan Judaic strictness, regarding even the rant, if approved, was advanced to the
removal of a vessel as a desecration of the second stage, which lasted two years, and
holy day. On that day. each took his seat was then called an approacher. During
in the synagogue in becoming attire and, this period he was permitted to unite with
as they had* no ordained ministers, any one the brethren in their lustrations, but was
that liked read out of the Scriptures, and not admitted to the common meal, nor to
another, experienced in spiritual matters, hold any office. Should this second stage
expounded the passages that had been read. of probation be passed with approval, the
The distinctive ordinances of the brother- approacher became an associate, and was
hood and the mysteries connected with the admitted into full membership, and at
Tetragrammaton and the angelic worlds length allowed to partake of the common
were the prominent topics of Sabbatical meal.
instruction.
There was a third rank or degree, called
In particular, did they pay
attention to the mysteries connected with the disciple or companion, in which there
the Tetragrammaton, or the Shem bampho- was a still closer union. Upon admission
rash, the expository name, and the other to this highest grade, the candidate was
names of God which play so important a bound by a solemn oath to love God, to be
part in the mystical theosophy of the Jew- just to all men, to practise charity, mainish Kabbalists, a great deal of which has tain truth, and to conceal the secrets of the
descended to the Freemasonry of our own society and the mysteries connected with
days.
the Tetragammaton and the other names
Josephus describes them as being distin- of God.

who

is

ESTHER

ESSENES
These three sections or degrees, of aspiand companion, were sub-

rant, associate,

divided into four orders or ranks, distinguished from each other by different degrees of holiness; and so marked were
these distinctions, that if one belonging to
a higher degree of purity touched one of
a lower order, he immediately became impure, and could only regain his purity by a
series of lustrations.
The earnestness and determination of
these Essenes, says Ginsburg, to advance to
the highest state of holiness, were seen in
their self-denying and godly life, and it
may fairly be questioned whether any religious system has ever produced such a community of saints.
Their absolute confidence in God and resignation to the dealings of Providence; their uniformly holy
and unselfish life their unbounded love of
virtue and utter contempt for worldly fame,
riches, and pleasures
their industry, temperance, modesty, and simplicity of life
their contentment of mind and cheerfulness of temper; their love of order, and
abhorrence of even the semblance of falsehood; their benevolence and philanthropy;
their love for the brethren, and their following peace with all men; their hatred
of slavery and war their tender regard for
children, and reverence and anxious care
for the aged; their attendance on the sick,
and readiness to relieve the distressed;
their humility and magnanimity; their
firmness of character and powefc to subdue
their passions; their heroic endurance
under the most agonizing sufferings for
righteousness' sake; and their cheerfully
looking forward to death, as releasing their
immortal souls from the bonds of the body,
to be forever in a state of bliss with their
Creator,
have hardly found a parallel in
the history of mankind.
Lawrie, in his History of Freemasonry,
gives, on the authority of'Pictet, of Basnage, and of Philo, the following condensed recapitulation of what has been
said in the preceding pages of the usages
of the Essenes
'When a candidate was proposed for
admission, the strictest scrutiny was made
into his character.
If his life had hitherto
been exemplary, and if he appeared capable
of curbing his passions, and regulating his
conduct according to the virtuous, though
austere, maxims of their order, he was presented, at the expiration of his novitiate,
with a white garment, as an emblem of the
regularity of his conduct and the purity of
his heart.
A solemn oath was then administered to him, that he would never divulge the mysteries of the Order that he
would make no innovations on the doctrines
of the society and that he would continue
;

263

in that honorable course of piety and virtue

which he had begun to pursue. Like Freemasons, they instructed the young member
in the knowledge which they derived from
They admitted no women
their ancestors.
They had particular
into their order.
signs for recognizing each other, which

have a strong resemblance to those of Freemasons. They had colleges or places of

retirement, where they resorted to practise
their rites and settle the affairs of the society
and, after the performance 'of these
duties, they assembled in a large hall,
where an entertainment was provided for
;

them by the president

or master of the

who

allotted a certain quantity of

provisions to every individual. They abolished all distinctions of rank and if preference was ever given, it was given to
Treasurers
piety, liberality, and virtue.
were appointed in every town, to supply
the wants of indigent strangers."
Lawrie thinks that this remarkable coincidence between the chief features of the
Masonic and Essenian fraternities can be
accounted for only by referring them to the
same origin ; and, to sustain this view, he
attempts to trace them to the Kassideans,
college,

or Assideans, more properly the Chasidim,

" an association of architects who were
connected with the building of Solomon's
Temple." But, aside from the consideration that there is no evidence that the
for
Chasidim were a body of architects,
they were really a sect of Jewish puritans,
who held the Temple in especial honor, we
cannot conclude, from a mere coincidence
of doctrines and usages, that the origin of

the Essenes and the Freemasons is identiSuch a course of reasoning would

cal.
place the Pythagoreans in the same category a theory that has been rejected by
the best modern critics.
The truth appears to be that the Essenes,
the School of Pythagoras, and the Freemasons, derive their similarity from that
spirit of brotherhood which has prevailed
in all ages of the civilized world, the inherent principles of which, as the results of
any fraternity, all the members of which
are engaged in the same pursuit and asare
senting to the same religious creed,
brotherly love, charity, and that secrecy
:

which gives them their exclusiveness. And

hence, between all fraternities, ancient and
modern, these " remarkable coincidences"
will be found.

Esther.

The second degree

of the

American Adoptive Eite of the Eastern

Star. It is also called " the wife's degree,"
and in its ceremonies comprises the history

of Esther the wife and queen of Ahasuerus,

king of Persia, as related in the Book of

Esther.

ETERNAL

264

ETHICS

Sternal Eife. The

doctrine of etertaught in the Master's degree, as

it was in the Ancient Mysteries of all naSee Immortality of the Soul.
tions.
Eternity. The ancient symbol of
eternity was a serpent in the form of a circle, the tail being placed in the mouth.
The simple circle, the figure which has
neither beginning nor end, but returns

nal

life is

'

continually into
of eternity.

itself,

was also a symbol

Ethics of Freemasonry.

There

a Greek word, edog (ethos), which signifies

custom, from which Aristotle derives another

is

which means ethics; because, as he says, from the custom of doing

good acts arises the habit of moral virtue.

word

jjdog,

(ethos,)

Ethics, then, is the science of morals teaching the theory and practice of all that is
good in relation to God and to man, to the
state and the individual it is, in short, to
use the emphatic expression of a German
Ethics
writer, " the science of the good."
being thus engaged in the inculcation of
moral duties, there must be a standard of
these duties, an authoritative ground-principle on which they depend, a doctrine
that requires their performance, making
certain acts just those that ought to be done,
and which, therefore, are duties, and that
forbid the performance of others which are,
therefore, offences.
Ethics, then, as a science, is divisible into several species, varying in name and character, according to the
foundation on which it is built.
Thus we have the Ethics of Theology,
which is founded on that science which
teaches the nature and attributes of God
and, as this forms a part of all religious
systems, every religion, whether it be
Christianity, or Judaism, Brahmanism, or
Buddhism, or any other form of recognized
worship, has within its bosom a science of
;

theological ethics which teaches, according to the lights of that religion, the duties which are incumbent on man from his
relations to a Supreme Being.
And then
we have the Ethics of Christianity, which,
being founded on the Scriptures, recognized by Christians as the revealed will of
God, is nothing other than theological
ethics applied to and limited by Christianity.

Then, again, we have the Ethics of Phiwhich is altogether speculative,

and derived from and founded on man's
speculations concerning God and himself.
There might be a sect of philosophers who
denied the existence of a Superintending
Providence but it would still have a scilosophy,

ence of ethics referring to the relations of

man to man, although that system would
be without strength, because it would have
no Divine sanction for its enforcement.

And, lastly, we have the Ethics of Freemasonry, whose character combines those
of the three others. The first and second
systems in the series above enumerated are
founded on religious dogmas the third on
philosophical speculations. Now, as Freemasonry claims to be a religion, in so far
as it is founded on a recognition of the relations of man and God, and a philosophy
in so far as it is engaged in speculations
on the nature of man, as an immortal, social, and responsible being, the ethics of
Freemasonry will be both religious and
;

philosophical.

The symbolism of Masonry, which is its

peculiar mode of instruction, inculcates all
the duties which we owe to God as being
his children, and to men as being their
brethren.
"There is," says Dr. Oliver,
" scarcely a point of duty or morality which

man

has been presumed to owe to God, his

neighbor, or himself, under the Patriarchal,
the Mosaic, or the Christian dispensation,
which, in the construction of our symbolical system, has been left untouched."
Hence, he says, that these symbols all
unite to form " a code of moral and theological philosophy " the term of which expression would have been better if he had
called it a "a code of philosophical and
theological ethics."
At a very early period of his initiation,
the Mason is instructed that he owes a
threefold duty,
to God, his neighbor, and
himself,
and the inculcation of these duties constitutes the ethics of Freemasonry.
Now, the Tetragrammaton, the letter G,
and many other symbols of a like character, impressively inculcate the lesson that
there is a God in whom "we live, and
move, and have our being," and of whom
the apostle, quoting from the Greek poet,
To
tells us that "we are his offspring."
him, then, as the Universal Father, does
the ethics of Freemasonry teach us that
we owe the duty of loving and obedient
;

children.
And, then, the vast extent of the Lodge,

making the whole world the common home

of all Masons, and the temple, in which
we all labor for the building up of our
bodies as a spiritual house, are significant
symbols, which teach us that we are not
only the children of the Father, but fellow-workers, laboring together in the same
task and owing a common servitude to God
the
as the Grand Architect of the universe
Algabil or Master Builder of the world and
and thus these symbols
all that is therein
of a joint labor, for a joint purpose, tell us
that there is a brotherhood of man to that
brotherhood does the ethics of Freemasonry
teach us that we owe the duty of fraternal
kindness in all its manifold phases.

EUCLID

ETHIOPIA
And

so

masonry

we

is

find that the ethics of Freereally founded on the two great

ideas of the universal fatherhood of God

and the universal brotherhood of man.

tract of country to the

Ethiopia.
south of Egypt, and watered by the upper
The reference to Ethiopia, in the
Nile.
Master's degree of the American Rite, as
a place of attempted escape for certain
criminals, is not to be found in the English
or French rituals, and I am inclined to
think that this addition to the Hiramic le-

gend is an American interpolation. The

selection of Ethiopia, by the ritualist, as a
place of refuge, seems to be rather inappropriate when we consider what must have
been the character of that country in the
age of Solomon.
Etymology. For the etymology of
the word Mason, see Mason, derivation of.
Euclid. In the year of the world 3650,
which was 646 years after the building of
King Solomon's Temple, Euclid, the celebrated geometrician, was born. His name
has been always associated with the history
of Freemasonry, and in the reign of Ptolemy Soter, the Order is said to have greatly
flourished in Egypt, under his auspices.
The well known forty-seventh problem
of his first book, although not discovered
by him, but long before by Pythagoras, has
been adopted as a symbol in the third de-

265

generacion. And they had not competent

livehode to find with their children wherefore they made much care.
And then the
King of the land made a great counsell
and a parliament, to witt, how they might
find their children honestly as gentlemen.
And they could find no manner of good
way. And then they did crye through all
the realme, if there were any man that
could enforme them, that he should come
to them, and he should be soe rewarded for
his travail, that he should hold him pleased.
"After that this cry was made, then
came this worthy clarke Ewclyde, and said
to the King and to all his great lords
If
yee will, take me your children to governe,
and to teach them one of the Seaven Sciences, wherewith they may live honestly as
gentlemen should, under a condition that
yee will grant me and them a commission
that I may have power to rule them after
the manner that the science ought to be
And that the King and all his
ruled.'
counsell granted to him anone, and sealed
;

'

their commission.
And then this worthy
tooke to him these lords' sonns, and taught
them the science of Geometrie in practice,
for to work in stones all manner of worthy
worke that belongeth to buildinge churches,
temples, castells, towres, and mannors, and

all other manner of buildings

and he gave
them a charge on this manner: "
gree.
Here follow the usual " charges " of a
Euclid, Legend of. All the old Freemason as given in all the old Constimanuscript Constitutions contain the well tutions; and then the legend concludes
known " legend of Euclid," whose name is with these words
presented to us as the " Worthy Clerk Eu"And thus was the science grounded
clid " in every conceivable variety of corthere; and that worthy Master Ewclyde
rupted form. I select, of these Old Re- gave it the name of Geometrie. And now
cords, the so-called Dowland Manuscript, it is called through all this land Masonrye."

from which to give the form of this Euclidian legend of the old Masons. The Dowland Manuscript, although apparently written in the seventeenth century, is believed,
on good authority, to be only a copy, in
more modern and more intelligible language, of an earlier manuscript of the year
1530.
And it is because of its easier intelligibility by modern readers that I have
selected it, in preference to any of the older
records, although in each the legend is substantially the same.
The legend is in the
following words
" Moreover, when Abraham and Sara his
wife went into Egipt, there he taught the
Seaven Sciences to the Egiptians and he
had a worthy Scoller that height Ewclyde,
and he learned right well, and was a master
of all the vij Sciences liberall. And in his
dayes it befell that the lord and the estates
of the realme had soe many sonns that
they had gotten some by their wifes and
some by other ladyes of the realme for
that land is a hott land and a plentious of
;

21

This legend, considered historically, is

certainly very absurd, and the anachronism
which makes Euclid the contemporary of
Abraham adds, if possible, to the absurdity.
But interpreted as all Masonic legends
should be interpreted, as merely intended
to convey a Masonic truth in symbolic language, it loses its absurdity, and becomes
invested with an importance that we should
not otherwise attach to it.
Euclid is here very appropriately used as
a type of geometry, that science of which
he was so eminent a teacher and the myth
or legend then symbolizes the fact that
there was in Egypt a close connection between that science and the great moral and
religious system which was among the
Egyptians, as well as other ancient nations,
what Freemasonry is at the present day
a secret institution, established for the inculcation of the same principles, and inculcating them in the same symbolic manner.
So interpreted, this legend corresponds to all the developments of Egyptian
;

EULOGY

EXAMINATION

which teach us how close a connection existed in that country between

the religious and scientific systems. Thus
Kenrick [Anc. Eg., i. 383) tells us that
" when we read of foreigners [in Egypt]
being obliged to submit to- painful and tedious ceremonies of initiation, it was not
that they might learn the secret meaning
of the rites of Osiris or Isis, but that they
might partake of the knowledge of astronomy, physic, geometry, and theology."
The legend of Euclid belongs to that
class of narrations which, in another work,
I have ventured to call "The Mythical
Symbols of Freemasonry."

Jerusalem and Babylon. In the ritual of

the higher degrees*it is referred to as the
stream over which the Knights of the East
won a passage by their arms in returning
from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Euresis. From the Greek, evpeatg, a

266
history,

Eulogy. Masonry delights to do honor

to the memory of departed brethren by^the
delivery of eulogies of their worth and
merit, which are either delivered at the
time of their burial, or at some future period. The eulogy forms the most important
part of the ceremonies of a Sorrow Lodge.
But the language of the eulogist should be
restrained within certain limits while the
veil of charity should be thrown over the
frailties of the deceased, the praise of his
virtues should not be expressed with exaggerated adulation.
king of Eleusis, who
Eumolpus.
founded, about the year 1374 b. c, the Mysteries of Eleusis.
His descendants, the
Eumolpidse, presided for twelve hundred
years over these Mysteries as Hierophants.
Eunuch. It is usual, in the most correct rituals of the third degree, especially
to name eunuchs as being incapable of initiation.
In none of the old Constitutions
and Charges is this class of persons alluded
to by name, although of course they are
comprehended in the general prohibition
against making persons who have any
blemish or maim. However, in the Charges
which were published by Dr. Anderson,
in his second edition, they are included in
the list of prohibited candidates. It is
probable from this that at that time it was
usual to name them in the point of OB.
referred to and this presumption derives
strength from the fact that Dermott, in
copying his Charges from those of Anderson's second edition, added a note complaining of the " moderns " for having disregarded this ancient law, in at least one
instance.
The question is, however, not
worth discussion, except as a matter of
ritual history, since the legal principle is
already determined that eunuchs cannot
be initiated because they are not perfect
men, " having no maim or defect in their
;

bodies."

Euphrates.

discovery.
That part of the initiation in
the Ancient Mysteries which represented
the finding of the body of the god or hero
whose death and resurrection was the subject of the initiation. The euresis has been
adopted in Freemasonry, and forms an essential portion of the ritual of the third

degree.

Evangelist.

See

of the largest and

most celebrated rivers of Asia. Rising in
the mountains of Armenia and flowing into
the Persian gulf, it necessarily lies between

John

Evergreen. An

the

Evan-

evergreen plant

symbol of the immortality of the

soul.

is

The

ancients, therefore, as well as the moderns,

planted evergreens at the heads of graves.
Freemasons wear evergreens at the funerals
of their brethren, and cast them into the
grave. The acacia is the plant which
should be used on these occasions, but
where it cannot be obtained, some other
evergreen plant, especially the cedar, is
used as a substitute. See Acacia.
candidate is said to be
Exalted.
exalted, when he receives the degree of
Holy Royal Arch, the seventh in American

Masonry. Exalted means elevated or lifted

and is applicable both to a peculiar ceremony of the degree, and to the fact that
this degree, in the Rite in which it is pracup,

tised,

constitutes

the

summit of ancient

Masonry.

The rising of the sun of spring from his

wintry sleep into the glory of the vernal
equinox was called by the old sun- worshippers his " exaltation; " and the Fathers of
the Church afterwards applied the same
term to the resurrection of Christ. St.
Athanasius says that by the expression,
" God hath exalted him," St. Paul meant
Exaltation, therefore,
the resurrection.
technically means a rising from a lower to
a higher sphere, and in Royal Arch Masonry may be supposed to refer to the being
lifted up out of the first temple of this life
into the second temple of the future life.
The candidate is raised in the Master's degree, he is exalted in the Royal Arch. In
both the symbolic idea is the same.

Examination of Candidates.
an almost universal rule of the modern
Constitutions of Masonry, that an examination upon the subjects which had been taught
in the preceding degree shall be required
of every brother who is desirous of receiving a higher degree and it is directed that
this examination shall take place in an
open Lodge of the degree upon which the
examination is made, that all the members
present may have an opportunity of judgIt is

One

St.

gelist.

'

EXAMINATION

EXCELLENT

ing from actual inspection of the proficiency

and fitness of the candidate for the advance-

the answers, nor in any manner aid the

memory or prompt the forgetfulness of the
party examined, by the slightest hints. If
he has it in him it will come out without
assistance, and if he has it not, he is clearly

ment

to

which he

aspires.

The

necessity

of an adequate comprehension of the mysteries of one degree, before any attempt is

made to acquire a higher one, seems to have
been duly appreciated from the earliest
times and hence the Old York Constitutions of 926, or the document usually regarded as such, prescribe, " that if the Master have an Apprentice, he shall thoroughly
teach him, so that he may perfectly understand his Craft." But there is no evidence
that the system of examining candidates as
to their proficiency, before their advancement, is other than a modern improvement,
and first adopted not very early in the present century.
;

Examination of the BallotBox.

This is always done during the bala candidate, by presenting the box
first to the Junior Warden, then to the
Senior, and lastly to the Master, each of
whom proclaims the result as " clear " or
"foul." This order is adopted so that the
declaration of the inferior officer, as to the
state of the ballots, may be confirmed and
lot for

substantiated

by

his superior.

Examination of

Visitors.

267

The Mason who is so

entitled to no aid.
unmindful of his obligations as to have forgotten the instructions he has received,
must pay the penalty of his carelessness,
and be deprived of his contemplated visit
to that society whose secret modes of recognition he has so little valued as not to have
treasured them in his memory.
Lastly, never should an unjustifiable
delicacy weaken the rigor of these rules.
Eemember, that for the wisest and most
evident reasons, the merciful maxim of the
law, which says that it is better that ninetynine guilty men should escape than that
one innocent man should be punished, is
with us reversed, and that in Masonry it is
better that ninety and nine true men should
be turned away from the door of a Lodge than
that one cowan should be admitted.

Excavations. Excavations beneath

Jerusalem have for some years past been in
progress, under the direction of the English society,

which controls the " Palestine

The Exploration Fund," and many important

due examination of strangers who claim the

right to visit, should be intrusted only to
the most skilful and prudent brethren of
the Lodge. And the examining committee
should never forget, that no man applying
for admission is to be considered as a Mason, however strong may be his recommendations, until by undeniable evidence he
has proved himself to be such.
All the necessary forms and antecedent
cautions should be observed.
Inquiries
should be made as to the time and place of
initiation, as a preliminary step the Tiler's
OB, of course, never being omitted. Then
remember the good old rule of " commencing at the beginning." Let everything proceed in regular course, not varying in the
slightest degree from the order in which it
is to be supposed
thai the information
sought was originally received. Whatever
be the suspicions of imposture, let no expression of those suspicions be made until
the final decree for rejection is uttered. And
let that decree be uttered in general terms,
such as, " I am not satisfied," or " I do not
recognize you." and not in more specific
language, such as, " You did not answer this
inquiry," or "You are ignorant on that
point." The candidate for examination is
only entitled to know that he has not complied generally with the requisitions of his
examiner. To descend to particulars is always improper and often dangerous. Above
all, never ask what the lawyers call " leading questions," which include in themselves

discoveries, especially interesting to Masons,

have been made. For the results, see Jerusalem.

Excellent.

title

conferred on the

Grand Captain of the Host, and Grand

Principal Sojourner of a Grand Chapter,
and on the King and Scribe of a subordinate Chapter of Royal Arch Masons ia
America.

Excellent Masons.
{Hist. La?idm.,

i.

420,)

Dr.

Oliver

gives a tradition

that at the building of Solomon's Temple

there were nine Lodges of Excellent Masons, having nine in each, which were distributed as follows: Six Lodges, or fiftyfour Excellent Masons in the quarries;
three Lodges, or twenty-seven Excellent
Masons in the forest of Lebanon eight
Lodges, or seventy-two Excellent Masons
engaged in preparing the materials; and
nine Lodges, or eighty-one Excellent Masons subsequently employed in building the
Temple. Of this tradition there is not the
slightest support in authentic history, and
it must have been invented altogether for
a symbolic purpose, in reference perhaps to
the mystical numbers which it details.
degree in
Excellent Master.
the Irish system which, with Super-Excellent Master, is given as preparatory to the
B,oyal Arch. It is given in a Lodge governed by a Master and two Wardens, and
refers to the legation of Moses.
Excellent, Most. See Most Excel;

lent.

268

EXCELLENT

Excellent, Right.

See Right Ex-

cellent.

Excellent, Super.

See Super-Ex-

cellent.

Excellent, Very.

See Very Excel-

lent.

Exclusion. In England the Grand

Lodge only expels from the rights and
privileges of Masonry.
But a subordinate
Lodge may exclude a member after giving
him due notice of the charge preferred
against him, and of the time appointed for
The name of any one
its consideration.
so excluded, and the cause of his exclusion
must be sent to the Grand Secretary. No
Mason excluded is eligible to any other
Lodge until the Lodge to which he applies
has been made acquainted with his exclusion, and the cause, so that the brethren
may exercise their discretion as to his admission. In America, the word used as

synonymous with

exclusion is striking from

the roll, except that the latter punishment
is only inflicted for non-payment of Lodge

dues.

Exelusiveness of Masonry. The

exclusiveness of Masonic benevolence js a
charge that has frequently been made
against the Order ; and it is said that the
charity of which it boasts is always conferred on its own members in preference
to strangers.
It cannot be denied that
Masons, simply as Masons, have ever been
more constant and more profuse in their
charities to their own brethren than to the
rest of the world that in apportioning the
alms which God has given them to bestow,
they have first looked for the poor in their
own home before they sought those who
were abroad; and that their hearts have
felt more deeply for the destitution of a
brother than a stranger.
The principle that governs the institution
of Freemasonry, in the distribution of its
charities, and the exercise of all the friendly
affections, is that which was laid down by
St. Paul for the government of the infant
church at Galatia " As we have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household."
This sentiment of preference for one's
own household, thus sanctioned by apostolic authority, is the dictate of human nature, and the words of Scripture find their
echo in every heart. "Blood," says the
Spanish proverb, "is thicker than water,"
and the claims of kindred, of friends and
comrades to our affections, must not be
weighed in the same scale with those of
the stranger, who has no stronger tie to
bind him to our sympathies, than that of a
common origin from the founder of our
All associations of men act on this
race.
;

EXCLUSIVENESS
in the
It is acknowledged
church, which follows with strict obedience
the injunction of the apostle and in the
relief it affords to the distressed, in the
comforts and consolations which it imparts
to the afflicted, and in the rights and
privileges which it bestows upon its own
members, distinguishes between those who
have no community with it of religious
belief, and those who, by worshipping at
the same altar, have established the higher
claim of being of the household.
It is recognized by all other societies,
which, however they may, from time to
time, and under the pressure of peculiar
circumstances, extend temporary aid to
accidental cases of distress, carefully preserve their own peculiar funds for the relief of those who, by their election as members, by their subscription to a written constitution, and by the regular payment of
arrears, have assumed the relationship which
St. Paul defines as being of the household.
It is recognized by governments, which,
however liberally they may frame their
laws, so that every burden may bear equally
on all, and each may enjoy the same civil
and religious rights, never fail, in the privileges which they bestow, to discriminate
between the alien and foreigner, whose visit
is but temporary or whose allegiance is
elsewhere, and their own citizens, the children of their household.
This principle of preference is universally
It is
diffused, and it is well that it is so.
well that those who are nearer should be
dearer and that a similitude of blood, an
indentity of interest, or a community of
purpose, should give additional strength to
the ordinary ties that bind man to man.
Man, in the weakness of his nature, requires this security. By his own unaided
efforts, he cannot accomplish the objects of
his life nor supply the necessary wants of
In this state of utter helphis existence.
lessness, God has wisely and mercifully
provided a remedy by implanting in the
human breast a love of union and an
ardent desire for society. Guided by this
instinct of preservation, man eagerly seeks
the communion of man, and the weakness
of the individual is compensated by the
strength of association. It is to this consciousness of mutual dependence, that nations are indebted for their existence, and

principle.

And
governments for their durability.
under the impulse of the same instinct of
society, brotherhoods and associations are
formed, whose members, concentrating
their efforts for the attainment of one common object, bind themselves by voluntary
ties of love and friendship, more powerful
than those which arise from the ordinary
sentiments and feelings of human nature.

EXCUSE
Excuse. Many Lodges in the last
century and in the beginning of this inflicted pecuniary fines for non-attendance
at Lodge meetings, and of course excuses
were then required to avoid the penalty.
But this has now grown out of use. Masonry being considered a voluntary institution, fines for absence are not inflicted, and
excuses are therefore not now required.
The infliction of a fine would, it is supposed, detract from the solemnity of the
obligation which makes attendance a duty.
The old Constitutions, however, required
excuses for non-attendance, although no
penalty was prescribed for a violation of
the rule. Thus, in the Matthew Cooke
Manuscript (fifteenth century), it is said,
" that every master of this art should be
warned to come to his congregation that
they come duly, but if (unless) they may be
excused by some manner of cause." And
in the Halliwell Manuscript, which purports to contain the York Constitutions of
926, it is written
:

EXPOSITIONS
The

2.

269

Secret History of the Freemason-

London, 1725.

ry.

Masonry

by Samuel PrichThere were several

subsequent editions, and a French translation in 1737, and a German one in 1736,
3.

Dissected,

London, 1730.

ard.

The

4.

Secrets of

men, by
London, 1737.
5.

Masonry made known

S. P.

to all

Masonry further

[Samuel Prichard.J
dissected.

London,

The Mystery of Masonry.

London,

1738.
6.

1737.
7. Le Secret des Franc-Macjons, par M.
l'Abbe Perau. Geneva, 1742.
8. Catechisme des
Franc-Masons, par
Leonard Gabanon (Louis Travenol). Paris,
1745.
He published several editions, varying the titles.
9. L'Ordre de Franc-Mac, ons trahi et le

Secret
1745.

des Mopses revele.

Many

Amsterdam,

subsequent editions, and a

German and
10.

a Dutch translation,
Solomon in all his Glory. London,

1766.

"That every mayster, that is a Mason,

Must ben at the generale congregaeyon,
So that he hyt resonebly y-colde

Where
And to

that the semble shall be holde ;

that semble he must nede gon,
But he have a resenabul skwsacyon."

Executive Powers of a Grand

Lodge. See Grand Lodge.
Exemplification of the Work.
of frequent use in American
or teacher performs the ceremonies of a degree for instruction, using generally one of the Masons present as a substitute for the candidate, he is said " to exemplify the work."
It is done for instruction, or to enable the
members of the Grand or subordinate
Lodge to determine on the character of
the ritual that is taught by the exemplifier.
Exoteric. Public, not secret. See

This term

Masonry.

is

When a lecturer

Esoteric.

Expert.

In Lodges of the French

two officers called First and
Second Experts, whose duty it is to assist
the Master of Ceremonies in the initiation
of a candidate. In Lodges of Perfection
Eite, there are

of the Scottish Rite, there are similar

who are known as the Senior and
Junior Expert.
Expositions. Very early after the
revival of Masonry, in the beginning of
the eighteenth century, pretended expositions of the ritual of Masonry began to be
published. The following catalogue comprises the most notorious of these pseudorevelations.
The leading titles only are
given.
officers

1.

The Grand Mystery of Freemasons

Discovered.

London, 1724.

11.
12.

Jachin and Boaz. London, 1750.

The Three Distinct Knocks. Lon-

don, 1767.
13. Hiram
or, The Grand Master Key.
London, 1764.
14. The Freemason Stripped Naked, by
Charles Warren. London, 1769.
15. Shibboleth
or, Every Man a Freemason. Dublin, 1775.
16. Eeceuil precieux de la Maconnerie
Adonhiramite, par Louis Guillemin de St.
Paris, 1781. This work was not
Victor.
written with an unfriendly purpose, and
;

many
17.

editions of

it

were published.
I. Browne. Lon-

The Master Key, by

don, 1794. Scarcely an exposition, since

the cipher in which it is printed renders it
a sealed book to all who do not possess the
key.
18.
Masonic Treatise, with an Elucidation on the Beligious and Moral Beauties
of Freemasonry, etc., by W. Finch. London, 1801.
19. Manual of Freemasonry, in three
parts, by the late Richard Carlisle.
Now
London,
first collected in one volume.

1845.
20. Illustrations of

Morgan.

The

first

or place, but it
Batavia, in 1828.
21.

Masonry, by William

edition

is

without date

was probably printed

at

Light on Masonry, by David Bernard.

Utica, N. Y., 1829.

Ritual of Freemasonry, by Avery
22.
Allyn. New York, 1852.
There have been several other American
expositions, but the compilers have only
been servile copyists of Morgan, Bernard, and Allyn. It has been, and con-

EXPULSION

EXPULSION

tinues to be, simply the pouring out of one

vial into another.
The expositions which abound in the
French, German, and other continental
languages, are not attacks upon Freemasonry, but are written often under authorThe
ity, for the use of the Fraternity.
usages of continental Masonry permit a
freedom of publication that would scarcely
be tolerated by the English or American
Fraternity.
[Expulsion. Expulsion is, of all Masonic penalties, the highest that can be inflicted on a member of the Order, and
hence it has been often called a Masonic
death. It deprives the expelled of all the
rights and privileges that he ever enjoyed,
not only as a member of the particular

All Masons, whether members of Lodges

or not, are subject to the infliction of this
punishment when found to merit it. Resignation or withdrawal from the Order does
not cancel a Mason's obligations, nor exempt
him from that wholesome control which
the Order exercises over the moral conduct
of its members. The fact that a Mason,
not a member of any particular Lodge, but
who has been guilty of immoral or unmasonic conduct, can be tried and punished
by any Lodge within whose jurisdiction he
may be residing, is a point on which there
is no doubt.
Immoral conduct, such as would subject

270

Lodge from which he has been ejected, but

also of those which were inherent in him

He

as a member of the Fraternity at large.

is at once as completely divested of his Masonic character as though he had never
been admitted, so far as regards his rights,
while his duties and obligations remain as
firm as ever, it being impossible for any
human power to cancel them. He can no
longer demand the aid of his brethren, nor

require from them the performance of any

of the duties to which he was formerly entitled, nor visit any Lodge, nor unite in any
of the public or private ceremonies of the
Order. He is considered as being without
the pale, and it would be criminal in any
brother, aware of his expulsion, to hold
communication with him on Masonic subjects.

The only proper tribunal to impose this

heavy punishment is a Grand Lodge. A
subordinate Lodge tries its delinquent
member, and if guilty declares him expelled. But the sentence is of no force until the Grand Lodge, under whose jurisdicworking, has confirmed it. And
optional with the Grand Lodge to do
so, or, as is frequently done, to reverse the decision and reinstate the brother.
Some of
the Lodges in this country claim the right
to expel independently of the action of the
Grand Lodge, but the claim is not valid.
The very fact that an expulsion is a penalty,
affecting the general relations of the punished brother with the whole Fraternity,
proves that its exercise never could with
propriety be intrusted to a body so circumscribed in its authority as a subordinate
Lodge. Besides, the general practice of
the Fraternity is against it. The English
Constitutions vest the power to expel ex" The subclusively in the Grand Lodge.
ordinate Lodge may suspend and report
the case to the Grand Lodge. If the offence
and evidence be sufficient, expulsion is decreed."
tion

it is

it is

a candidate for admission to rejection,

should be the Only offence visited with
expulsion. As the punishment is general,
affecting the relation of the one expelled
with the whole Fraternity, it should not be
lightly imposed for the violation of any
Masonic act not general in its character.
The commission of a grossly immoral act
is a violation of the contract entered into
between each Mason and his Order. If
sanctioned by silence or impunity, it would
bring discredit on the Institution, and tend

to impair its usefulness.

Mason who is
a bad man is to the Fraternity what a mortified limb is to the body, and should be
treated with the same mode of cure,
he
should be cut off, lest his example spread,

and disease be propagated

constitution.

through the

Expulsion from one of what is called the

higher degrees of Masonry, such as a Chapter or an Encampment, does not affect the
relations of the expelled party to Blue
Masonry. A Chapter of Royal Arch Masons is not and cannot be recognized as a
Masonic body by a Lodge of Master Masofis
by any of the modes of recognition known
to Masonry. The acts, therefore, of a Chapter cannot be recognized by a Master Mason's Lodge any more than the acts of a
literary or charitable society wholly unconnected with the Order.
Besides, by the
present organization of Freemasonry, Grand
Lodges are the supreme Masonic tribunals.
If, therefore, expulsion from a Chapter of
Royal Arch Masons involved expulsion
from a Blue Lodge, the right of the Grand
Lodge to hear and determine causes, and
to regulate the internal concerns of the
Institution, would be interfered with by
another body beyond its control. But the
converse of this proposition does not hold
good. Expulsion from a Blue Lodge involves expulsion from all the higher degrees
because, as they are composed of
Blue Masons, the members could not of
right sit and hold communications on Masonic subjects with one who was an expelled
;

Mason.

EXTENDED

EZRA

Extended Wings of the CneruAn

expression used in the ceremonies of Royal Master, the tenth degree of

the American Rite, and intended to teach
symbolically that he who comes to ask and
to seek Divine Truth symbolized by the
True Word, should begin by placing himself under the protection of that Divine
Power who alone is Truth, and from whom
alone Truth can be obtained. Of him the
cherubim with extended wings in the Holy
of Holies were a type.
Extent of the Eodge. The extent
of a Mason's Lodge is said to be in height
from the earth to the highest heavens in
depth, from the surface to the centre in
length, from east to west ; and in breadth,
from north to south. The expression is a
symbolic one, and is intended to teach the
extensive boundaries of Masonry and the
coterminal extension of Masonic charity.
See Form of the Lodge.

in in.

External Qualifications.

The

external qualifications of candidates for

initiation are those which refer to their

outward

fitness,

based upon moral and

reli-

gious character, the frame of body, the

constitution of the mind, and social position.
Hence they are divided into Moral,
Mental, and PolitPhysical,
Religious,
ical, for all of which see the respective
words. The expression in the ritual, that
" it is the internal and not the external
qualifications that recommend a man to be
made a Mason," it is evident, from the context, refers entirely to "

worldly wealth and

honors," which, of course, are not to be

taken " into consideration in inquiring into
the qualifications of a candidate."
Lodge is said to
Extinct Lodge.
be extinct which has ceased to exist and
work, which is no longer on the registry of
the Grand Lodge, and whose Charter has
been revoked for mis-use or forfeited for
non-use.

Extra

Communication.

The

which see.
Extraneous. Not regularly made;
clandestine. The word is now obsolete in
this signification, but was so used by the
Grand Lodge of England in a motion
adopted March 31, 1735, and reported by
Anderson in his 1738 edition of the Consti-

same

as Special Communication,

" No extraneous brothers,

not regularly made, but clandestine,
shall be ever qualified to partake of the Mason's general charity."
Extrusion. Used in the Constitution
of the Royal Order of Scotland for expul" If a brother shall be convicted of
sion.
crime by any Court of Justice, such brother
shall be permanently extruded." (Sect. 29.)
Not in use elsewhere as a Masonic term.

tutions, p. 182.

that
.

is,
.

Eye.

See All- Seeing Eye.

Temple of.

Ezekiel,

271

See Temple

of Ezekiel.

In Hebrew, /TXH pX, eben hahthe stone of the departure, viz., a

mile-stone.
An old testimonial stone in
the neighborhood of Saul's residence, the
scene of the parting of David and Jonathan, and the mark beyond which the falling of Jonathan's arrow indicated danger.
Hence, a word adopted in the honorary
degree called the "Mason's wife and
daughter."
Ezra. There are two persons named
Ezra who are recorded in Scripture. 1.
Ezra, a leading priest among the first colonists who came up to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel, and who is mentioned by Nehemiah and, 2. Ezra, the celebrated Jewish
scribe and restorer of the law, who visited
Jerusalem forty-two years after the second
Temple had been completed.
Calmet,
however, says that this second Ezra had
visited Jerusalem previously in company
with Zerubbabel. Some explanation of
this kind is necessary to reconcile an otherwise apparent inconsistency in the English
system of the Royal Arch, which makes
two of its officers represent Ezra and Nehemiah under the title of scribes, while at
the same time it makes the time of the
ritual refer to the laying of the foundation
of the second Temple, and yet places in the
scene, as a prominent actor, the later Ezra,
who did not go up to Jerusalem until more
than forty years after the completion of the
building.
It is, I think, more probable
that the Ezra who is said in the ritual to
have wrought with Joshua, Haggai, and
Zerubbabel, was intended by the original
framer of the ritual to refer to the first
Ezra, who is recorded by Nehemiah as having been present and that the change was
made in the reference, without due consideration, by some succeeding ritualist, whose
mistake has been carelessly perpetuated by
those who followed him. Dr. Oliver (Hist.
Landmarks, ii. 428,) attempts to reconcile
the difficulty, and to remove the anachronism, by saying that Esdras was the scribe
under Joshua, Haggai, and Zerubbabel,
and that he was succeeded in this important office by Ezra and Nehemiah. But the
English ritual makes no allusion to this
change of succession and if it did, it would
not enable us to understand how Ezra and
Nehemiah could be present as scribes when
the foundations of the second Temple were
laid, and the important secrets of the Royal
Arch degree were brought to light, unless
the Ezra meant is the one who came to Jerusalem with Nehemiah. There is a confusion in all this which should be rectified.

Ezel.

ezel,

e;

272

FELICITY

P.-.

F.
F.*. In French Masonic documents the
abbreviation of Frhre, or Brother. FF.\ is
the abbreviation of Frhres, or Brethren.

Fahre-Palaprat,Bernard Ray-

mond.

The

restorer, or, to

speak more

correctly, the organizer of the Order of the

Temple at Paris, of which he was elected
died at Pau, in
Grand Master in 1804.

He

Rite.

Favorite Brother of

St.

John.

The eighth degree of the Swedish Rite.

See
Feast. The convocation of the Craft

the lower Pyrenees, February 18, 1838.

Temple, Order of the.
Faculty of Ahrac. In the so-called
Leland Manuscript, it is said that Masons
" conceal the way of wynninge the faculty
of Abrac." That is, that they conceal the
method of acquiring the powers bestowed
by a knowledge of the magical talisman
that is called Abracadabra. See Abracadabra and Leland Manuscript.
Faith. In the theological ladder, the
explanation of which forms a part of the
ritual of the first degree of Masonry, faith
is said to typify the lowest round.
Faith,
here, is synonymous with confidence or trust,
and hence we find merely a repetition of
the lesson which had been previously
taught that the first, the essential qualification of a candidate for initiation, is that
he should trust in God.
In the lecture of the same degree, it is
said that " Faith may be lost in sight

Hope ends

is used to denote a number of speeches or records tied up in a roll

and deposited in the archives.
Favorite Brother of St. An*
drew. The ninth degree of the Swedish

faisceau, or fasces,

together at an annual feast, for the laudable purpose of promoting social feelings,
and cementing the bonds of brotherly love
by the interchange of courtesies, is a timehonored custom, which is ' unfortunately
growing into disuse. The " Assembly and

Feast" are words constantly conjoined in

the Book of Constitutions. At this meeting, no business of any kind, except the
installation of officers, was transacted, and
the day was passed in innocent festivity.
The election of officers always took place
at a previous meeting, in obedience to a
regulation adopted by the Grand Lodge
" It was
of England, in 1720, as follows
agreed, in order to avoid disputes on the
annual feast-day, that the new Grand
Master for the future shall be named and
proposed to the Grand Lodge some time
before the feast."
:

Feasts of the Order. The

festi-

but Charity extends

beyond the grave, through the boundless
realms of eternity." And this is said, because as faith is " the evidence of things
not seen," when we see we no longer believe by faith but through demonstration
and as hope lives only in the expectation
of possession, it ceases to exist when the
object once hoped for is at length enjoyed,
but charity, exercised on earth in acts of
mutual kindness and forbearance, is still
found in the world to come, in the sublimer
form of mercy from God to his erring crea-

John the Baptist and St. John

the Evangelist, June 24th and December

tures.

his election or re-election,

in fruition

Faithful Breast.

See Breast,

the

See Waterfall.
Lodge held

es-

Faithful.

Fall of Water.

Family Lodge. A

pecially for the transaction of private and

local business of so delicate a nature that it
is found necessary to exclude, during the

members.
In France a Lodge when so meeting is said
to be en famille, and the meeting is called
a tenue de famille or family session; in
Germany such Lodges are called, some-

session, the presence of all except

times, Familien-Logen, but more generally

Confer enz-Logen. See Conference Lodge.
Fasces. The bundle of rods borne before the Roman magistrates as an ensign
of their authority. In French Masonry,

vals of St.

27th, are so called.

Feeling.

One

senses, and esteemed

the others. For as

of

the

five

human

by Masons above

all

Anthony Brewer, an

old dramatist, says

"

Though one

hear, and see, and smell, and taste,

If he wants touch, he is counted but a block."

Fees of Honor.

In

the

Lodge of England every Grand

is

Grand

officer,

on

required to

pay a sum of money, varying from two to

twenty guineas. The sums thus paid for
honors bestowed are technically called
"fees of honor." A similar custom prevails in the Grand Lodges of Ireland and
Scotland; but the usage is unknown in
this country.

Felicity, Order of. An androgynous secret society, founded in 1743, at

by M. Chambonnet. It was among
of the pseudo-Masonic associations, or coteries, invented by French Masons to gratify the curiosity and to secure
the support of women. It had a ritual and
a vocabulary which were nautical in their
character, and there was a rather too free
Paris,

the

first

indulgence in the latitude of gallantry.

FELD

FENDEURS

consisted of four degrees, Cabin boy,

Master, Commodore, and Vice Admiral.
The chief of the order was called Admiral,
and this position was of course occupied
by M. Chambonnet, the inventor of the
system.
Feld IiOge. What is designated in
England and America as a Military or
Travelling Lodge is called in Germany a
Feld Loge. Sometimes, "ein ambulante
Loge."
Fellow. The Saxon word for fellow
Spelman derives it from two
is felaw.
words, fe and loy, which signifies bound in
mutual trust; a plausible derivation, and
not unsuited to the meaning of the word.
But Hicks gives a better etymology when
he derives it from the Anglo-Saxon folgian,
" to follow," and thus a fellow would be a
In the
follower, a companion, an associate.
Middle Ages, the Operative Masons were
divided into Masters and Fellows. Thus
in the Harleian MS. it is said: "Now I
will rehearse other charges in singular for
Maisters and Fellowes." Those who were of
greater skill held a higher position and
were designated as Masters, while the
masses of the fraternity, the commonalty,
It

as

we might

say,

were called Fellows.

In

the Matthew Cooke MS. this principle is

very plainly laid down. There it is written
that Euclid " ordained that they who were
passing of cunning should be passing honored, and commanded to call the cunninger
Master .... and commanded that they
that were less of wit should not be called
servant nor subject, but Fellow, for nobility
of their gentle blood."
(Lines 675-688.)
From this custom has originated the modern title of Fellow Craft, given to the second
degree of Speculative Masonry; although
not long after the revival of 1717 the Fellows ceased to constitute the main body of
the Fraternity, the Masters having taken
and still holding that position.

Fellow Craft. The

second

degree

of Freemasonry in all the Rites is that of

the Fellow Craft. In French it is called
Compagnon ; in Spanish, Companero ; in
Italian, Compagno ; and in German, Gesell;
in all of which the radical meaning of the
word is & fellow workman, thus showing the
origin of the title from an operative institution.
Like the degree of Apprentice, it
is only preparatory, to the higher initiation of the Master and yet it differs essentially from it in its symbolism.
For, as
the first degree was typical of youth, the
second is supposed to represent the stage
of manhood, and hence the acquisition of
science is made its prominent characteristic.
While the former is directed in all its symbols and allegorical ceremonies to the purification of the heart, the latter is intended
;

2K

18

by

its

lessons

faculties

to

273

cultivate the reasoning

and improve the intellectual pow-

ers.
Before the eighteenth century, the
great body of the Fraternity consisted of
Fellow Crafts, who are designated in all the
After the
old manuscripts as " Fellows."
revival in 1717, the Fellow Crafts, who then
first began to be called by that name, lost
their prominent position, and the great
body of the brotherhood was, for a long
time, made up altogether of Apprentices,
while the government of the Institution
was committed to the Masters and Fellows,
both of whom were made only in the Grand
Lodge until 1725, when the regulation was
repealed, and subordinate Lodges were permitted to confer these two degrees.

Fellow Craft Perfect Architect.

(

Compagnon Parfait

Architect.)

The twen-

ty-sixth degree of the Rite of Mizraim.

There are several other degrees which, like
this, are so called, not because they have
any relation to the orignal second degree
of Symbolic Masonry, but to indicate that
they constitute the second in any particular
series of degrees which are preparatory to
the culmination of that series. Thus, in the
Rite of Mizraim, we have the Master Perfect Architect, which is the twenty-seventh
degree, while the twenty-fifth and twentysixth are Apprentice and Fellow Craft Perfect Architect. So we have in other rites and
systems the Fellow Craft Cohen, Hermetic,

and Kabbalistic Fellow Craft, where Master

Cohen and Hermetic and Kabbalistic Mastopmost degrees of the different
Fellow Craft in all these, and many
other instances like them, means only the
second preparation towards perfection.
Fellowship, FiTe Points of. See

ter are the

series.

Points of Fellowship.

Female Masonry.
Rite

See Adoption,

of.

Female Masons.'

The landmarks

of Speculative Masonry peremptorily exclude females from any active participation

in its mysteries. But there are a few instances in which the othewise unalterable
rule of female exclusion has been made to
yield to the peculiar exigencies of the occasion and some cases are well authenticatd
where this "Salique law" has been violated from necessity, and females have been
permitted to receive at least the first deSuch, however, have been only the
gree.
exceptions which have given confirmation
See Aldworth, Beaton, and
to the rule.
;

Xentrailles.

Fendeurs.

L'Ordre des Fendeurs,

the Order of Wood-cutters, was a secret
society established at Paris, in 1743, by the
Chevalier Beauchain. The Lodge represented a forest, and was generally held in
It was androgynous, and had
a garden.

i. e.

FERDINAND

274

secret signs and words, and an allegorical

language borrowed from the profession of
wood-cutting. The Abbe Barruel (tom. ii.,
p. 345,) thought that the Order originated
in the forests among the actual wood-cut-

and that many intelligent inhabitants

of the city having united with them, the
operative business of felling trees was abandoned, and Philosophic Lodges were established,
a course of conversion from Operative to Speculative precisely like that, he
says, which occurred in Masonry, and this
conversion was owing to the number of
ters,

Fendeurs who were also Freemasons.

Ferdinand IV. This king of the
two Sicilies, on the 12th of September,
1775, issued an edict forbidding the meeting
of Masons in Lodges in his dominions,
under penalty of death. In 1777, at the
solicitation of his
edict was repealed,

more

tolerated

queen, Caroline, this

and Masonry was once

but in 1781 the decree was

renewed.

Ferdinand VI.

In 1751, Ferdinand

VI., king of Spain, at the solicitation of

Joseph Ferrubia, Visitor of the Holy Inquisition, enforced in his dominions the
bull of excommunication of Pope Benedict XIV., and forbade the congregation
of Masons under the highest penalties of
law. In the Journal of Freemasonry, Vienna, 1784, (pp. 176-224,) will be found a
translation from Spanish into German of
Ferrubia's "Act of Accusation," which
gave rise to this persecution.
Ferdinand VII. The king of Spain
who bore this title was one of the greatest
bigots of his time. He had no sooner ascended the throne in 1814, than he reestablished the Inquisition, which had been
abolished by his predecessor, proscribed the
exercise of Freemasonry, and ordered the
closing of all the Lodges, under the heaviest
penalties. In September following, twentyfive persons, among whom were several
distinguished noblemen, were arrested as
"suspected of Freemasonry." On March
30, 1818, a still more rigorous edict was
issued, by which those convicted of being
Freemasons were subjected to the most
severe punishments, such as banishment to
India and confiscation of goods, or sometimes death by a cruel form of execution.
But the subsequent revolution of 1820 and
the abolition of the Inquisition removed
these blots from the Spanish records.
Fervency. From the middle of the
last century, ardent devotion to duty, fervor
or fervency, was taught as a Masonic virtue
in the lectures of the first degree, and symbolized by charcoal, because, as later rituals
say, all metals were dissolved by the fervor
of ignited charcoal. Subsequently, in the
higher degrees, fervency and zeal were symbolized by the color scarlet, which is the

FESSLER
appropriate tincture of Royal Arch

Ma-

sonry.

Fessler, Ignaz Aurelius.

dis-

tinguished German writer and Masonic reformer, and was born at Cziirendorf, in Hungary, in 1756.
He was the son of very poor
parents. His mother, who was a bigoted
Catholic, had devoted him to a monastic
life, and having been educated at the Jesuit
school of Raab, he took holy orders in 1772,
and was removed to the Capuchin monastery in Vienna. In consequence, however,
of his exposure to the Emperor Joseph II.
of monastic abuses, he incurred the persecutions of his superiors. But the emperor,

having taken him under his protection,

nominated him, in 1783, as ex-professor of
the Oriental languages in the University
of Lemberg. But the monks having threatened him with legal proceedings, he fled to
Breslau in 1788, where he subsequently
was appointed the tutor of the son of the
Prince of Corolath. Here he established a
secret Order, called by him the " Evergeten," which bore a resemblance to Freemasonry in its organization, and was intended to effect moral reforms, which at
the time he thought Masonry incapable of
producing.
The Order, however, never
really had an active existence, and the attempt of Fessler failed by the dissolution,
in 1793, of the society. In 1791 he adopted
the Lutheran faith, and, having married,
settled in Berlin, where until 1806 he was
employed as a superintendent of schools.
He wrote during this period several historical works, which gave him a high reputation as an author.
But the victorious
progress of the French army in Prussia
caused him to lose his official position.
Having been divorced from his wife in 1802,
he again married, and, retiring in 1803 from
Berlin, betook himself to the quietude of a
country life. Becoming now greatly embarrassed in pecuniary matters, he received
adequate relief from several of the German
Lodges, for which he expressed the most
In 1808 he accepted the
lively gratitude.
position of a professor in the University of
Petersburg, which, however, he was
soon compelled to relinquish in consequence
of the intrigues of the clergy, who were
displeased with his liberal views. SubseSt.

quently he was appointed superintendent

of the Evangelical community, over nine
Russian departments, and Ecclesiastical
President of the consistory at Saratow, with
a large salary. In 1827, on the invitation
of the Emperor Alexander, he removed
permanently to St. Petersburg, where, in
1833, he received the appointment of Ecclesiastical Counsellor, and died there December 15, 1839, at the advanced age of
eighty-three years.
Fessler was initiated into

Masonry

at

FESSLER

FESSLER
Lemberg, in 1783, and immediately devoted
himself to the study of its science and hisIn June, 1796, he affiliated with the
tory.
Lodge Royal York, zur Freundschaft, in
Berlin, and having been made one of its Sublime Council, was invested with the charge
of revising and remodelling the entire ritual
of the Lodge, which was based on the high degrees of the French system. To the accomplishment of this laborious task, Fessler at
once, and for a long time afterwards, devoted his great intellect and his indefatigable energies. In a very short period he
succeeded in a reformation of the symbolic
degrees, and finding the brethren unwilling
to reject the high degrees, which were four
in number, then practised by the Lodge, he
remodelled them, retaining a considerable
part of the French ritual, but incorporated
with it a portion of the Swedish system. The
work thus accomplished met with general
approbation. In his next task of forming
a new Constitution he was not so successful, although at length he induced the Royal
York Lodge to assume the character and
rank of a Grand Lodge, which it did in
1798, with seven subordinate Lodges under
its obedience.
Again Fessler commenced
the work of a revision of the ritual. He
had always been opposed to the high degree
system. He proposed, therefore, the abolition of everything above the degree of
Master. In this, however, he was warmly
opposed, and was compelled to abandon his
project of reducing German Masonry to the
simplicity of the English system.
Yet he

was enabled to accomplish something, and

had the satisfaction, in 1800, of metamorphosing the Elu, the Ecossais, and the Rose
Croix, of the old ritual of the Royal York
Lodge into the "degrees of knowledge,"
which constitute the Rite known as the
Rite of Fessler.
In 1798, Fessler had been elected Deputy
Grand Master when there were but three
Lodges under the Grand Lodge. In 1801,
by his persevering activity, the number had
been increased to sixteen. Still, notwithstanding his meritorious exertions in behalf of Masonry, he met with that ingratitude, from those whom he sought to serve,
which appears to be the fate of almost all
Masonic reformers. In 1802, wearied with
the opposition of his antagonists, he renounced all the offices that he had filled,
and resigned from the Grand Lodge.
Thenceforth he devoted himself in a more
retired way to the pursuits of Masonry.
Before Fessler resigned, he had conceived and carried out the scheme of establishing a great union of scientific Masons,
who should devote themselves to the investigation of the history of Masonry. Of this
society Mossdorf, Fischer, and many other

275

distinguished Masons, were members. See

Masons.
Fessler's contributions to the literature
of Freemasonry were numerous and valuHis chief work was, An Attempt to
able.
Furnish a Critical History of Freemasonry
and the Masonic Fraternity from the earliest
times to the year 1802. This work was never
printed, but only sold in four folio manuscript volumes, at the price of 30, to persons who pledged themselves eventually to
return it. It was a mistake to circumscribe
the results of his researches within so narrow a field. But he published many other
works. His productions were mostly historical and judicial, and made a great impression on the German Masonic mind.
His collected works were published in Berlin, from 1801 to 1807, but, unfortunately,
they have never been translated into English.
The object of all he wrote was to
elevate Freemasonry to the highest sphere
of intellectual character.

Scientific

Fessler, Rite of. This Rite, which

was prepared by Fessler at the request of
the Grand Lodge Royal York of Berlin,
consisted of nine degrees, as follows
1. Entered Apprentice.
2. Fellow Craft.
3.

Master Mason.

differ from the same

degrees in all the Rites, and are followed
by six other degrees, which he called the
higher knowledge, namely*:
4. The Holy of Holies.
This degree is
occupied in a critical exposition of the various hypotheses which have been proposed
as to the origin of Freemasonry ; as, whether
it sprang from the Templars, from the
Cathedral of Strasburg, from the Rose
Croix of the seventeenth century, from
Oliver Cromwell, from the Cathedral of
St. Paul's at London, from that of the
Palace of Kensington, or from the Jesuits.
Critical examination of
5. Justification.
the origin of certain of the high degrees,,
such as the Ecossais and the Chapter of

These but slightly

Clermont.
6.

Celebration.

Critical examination of

the four following systems: Rose Croix,

Strict Observance, African Architects, and
Initiated Brothers of Asia.
Critical examination of
7. True Light.
the Swedish System, the System of Zinnendorf, the Royal Arch of England, of
the succession of the Mysteries, and of all
systems and their ramifications.
Examination of the
8. The Country.
origin of the Mysteries of the Divine Kingdom, introduced by Jesus of Nazareth of
the exoteric doctrines communicated by
him immediately to his disciples, and of
those which sprang up after his death, up
to the time of the Gnostics.

276

FIFTEEN

FESTIVALS

critical his-

Fides. In the lecture of the first degree,

tory of all Mysteries comprehended in actual Freemasonry.

Both Clavel and Ragon say that the
rituals of these degrees were drawn up
from the rituals of the Golden Rose Croix,
of the Rite of Strict Observance, of the Illuminated Chapter of Sweden, and the AnFessler's Rite
cient Chapter of Clermont.
was, perhaps, the most abstrusely learned
and philosophical of all the Masonic systems ; but it did not have a long existence,
as it was abandoned by the Grand Lodge,
which had at first accepted it, for the purpose of adopting the Ancient York Rite
under the Constitutions of England.
Festivals, In all religions there have
been certain days consecrated to festive enjoyment, and hence called festivals. Sir
Isaac Newton (on Daniel, p. 204,) says
"The heathen were delighted with the
festivals of their gods, and unwilling to part
with these delights and, therefore, Gregory
Thaumaturgus, who died in 265, and was
Bishop of Neocsesarea, to facilitate their
conversion, instituted annual festivals to
the saints and martyrs. Hence it came to
pass that, for exploding the festivals of the
heathens, the principal festivals of the
Christians succeeded in their room ; as the
keeping of Christmas with joy, and feasting, and playing, and sports, in the room
of the Bacchinalm and Saturnalia; the celebrating of May day with flowers, in the
room of the Floralia; and the keeping of
festivals to the Virgin Mary, John the
Baptist, and divers of the apostles, in the
room of the solemnities at the entrance of
the sun into the signs of the Zodiac, in the
old Julian Calendar." The Masons, borrowing from and imitating the usage of
the Church, have also always had their
festivals or days of festivity and celebration.
The chief festivals of the Operative
or Stone Masons of the Middle Ages were
those of St. John the Baptist on the 24th
June, and the Four Crowned Martyrs on
the 4th November. The latter were, however, discarded by the Speculative Masons
and the festivals now most generally celebrated by the Fraternity are those of St.
John the Baptist, June 24, and St. John
the Evangelist, December 27.
These are
the days kept in this country. Such, too,
was formerly the case in England but the
annual festival of the Grand Lodge of
England now falls on the Wednesday following St. George's day, April 23, that
saint being the patron of England.
For
a similar reason, St. Andrew's day, November 30, is kept by the Grand Lodge of
Scotland. In Ireland the festivals kept
are those of the two Saints John.

said that "our ancient brethren worshipped deity under the name of Fides or
Fidelity, which was sometimes represented
by two right hands joined, and sometimea
by two human figures holding each other
by the right hands." The deity here referred to was the goddess Fides, to whom

9.

Perfection.

complete

Fidelity.

See Fides.

it is

Numa
priests

first

erected temples,

and whose

were covered by a white

veil as a
symbol of the purity which should characterize Fidelity.
No victims were slain on
her altars, and no offerings made to her
except flowers, wine, and incense. Her
statues were represented clothed in a white
mantle, with a key in her hand and a dog

The virtue of Fidelity is,

at her feet.
however, frequently symbolized in ancient
medals by a heart in the open hand, but
more usually by two right hands clasped.
Horace calls her "incorrupta fides," and
makes her the sister of Justice while Cicero
says that that which is religion towards
God and piety towards our parents is fidelity towards our fellow-men.
There was
;

among

the

Fidius,

who

Romans another

deity called
presided over oaths and contracts, a very usual form of imprecation
being " Me Dius Fidius adjuvet," that is,
so help me the god Fidius.
Noel [Diet.
Fab.) says that there was an ancient marble
at Rome consecrated to the god Fidius, on
which was depicted two figures clasping
each other's hands as the representatives of
Honor and Truth, without which there can
be no fidelity nor truth among men. Masonry, borrowing its ideas from the ancient
poets, also makes the right hand the symbol of Fidelity.
Fiducial Sign. That is, the sign of
confiding trust, called also the sign of
Truth and Hope. One of the signs of the
English Royal Arch system, which is thus
explained by Dr. Oliver, (Diet. Symb.
Mas.) " The fiducial sign shows us if we
prostrate ourselves with our face to the
earth, we thus throw ourselves on the
mercy of our Creator and Judge, looking
forward with humble confidence to his holy
promises, by which alone we hope to pass
through the ark of our redemption into
the mansion of eternal bliss and glory
to the presence of Him who is the great
I AM, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the
Last."
sacred number symbolic
Fifteen.
of the name of God, because the letters of
the holy name J"J*> JAH, are equal, in the
Hebrew mode of numeration by the letters
of the alphabet, to fifteen for * is equal
is equal to five.
Hence,
to ten, and
from veneration for this sacred name, the
Hebrews do not, in ordinary computations,

FIRE

FINANCES
wlren they wish to express the number
fifteen, make use of these two letters, but
of two others, which are equivalent to nine

and

six.

Finances,

According to

universal

usage in Masonry, the Treasurer of the

Lodge or other body is the banker or depositary of the finances of the Lodge'.
They are first received by the Secretary,
who receipts for them, and immediately
The
pays them over to the Treasurer.
Treasurer distributes them under the orders
of the Master and the consent of the Lodge.
This consent can only be known officially
to him by the statement of the Secretary.
And hence all orders drawn on the Treasurer for the disbursement of money should
be countersigned by the Secretary.

Finch, William.

Masonic charflourished at the end of the last

and the beginning of the present century.
Finch was a tailor in Canterbury, who,
having been expelled for some misconduct

latan,

who

by the Grand Lodge, commenced a system

of practical Masonry on his own account,
and opened a Lodge in his house, where he
undertook to initiate candidates and to
give instructions in Masonry. He published a great number of pamphlets, many
of them in a cipher of his own, which he
pretended were for the instruction of the
Among the books published
Fraternity.
by him are A Masonic Treatise, with an Elucidation on the Religious and Moral Beauties
of Freemasonry, etc. ; printed at Canterbury
The Lectures, Laws, and Ceremoin 1802.
nies of the Holy Arch Degree of Freemasonry,
The Origin of Freeetc.: Lambeth, 1812.

277

FOR THE TITLE-PAGE.

Cipher, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h,
o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.

Key.
u,

s,

b, d,

q, o,

m,

f,

k,

h,
i,

n, p, r,
g, e, c, a.

j, 1,

i,

t,

m,

n,

v, x, z, y,

w,

j,

k,

1,

FOR THE FIRST PART.

Cipher, a, b,

c, d, e, f,

Key.
1,

k,j,

g, h,
z.

y, x, w, v, u, t,s,
h, g, f, e, d, c, b, a.

r,

z,
i,

i, j,

w, x, y,

0, p, q, r, s, t, u, v,

k,

1,

m,

q, p, o, n,

n,

m,

In the second part of the work, a totally

system is employed. The words
may be deciphered by taking the last letter,
then the first, then the last but one, then
the second, and so on. Two or three words
are also often run into one for example,
different

ereetemhdrdoh, is he ordered them. The nine

digits represent certain words of frequent
recurrence, a repetition of the same digit
denoting the plural; thus, 1 stands for
Lodge; 11, for Lodges; 3, Fellow Craft;

Fellow Crafts, etc.

Fines for non-attendance or
neglect of duty are not now usually imposed in Masonic bodies, because each
33,

Fines.

member is bound to the discharge of these

duties by a motive more powerful than
any that could be furnished by a pecuniary
penalty. The imposition of such a penalty
would be a tacit acknowledgment of the
inadequacy of that motive, and would hence
detract from its solemnity and its binding
nature. It cannot, however, be denied that
the records of old Lodges show that it
was formerly a common custom

to

impose

masons, etc. : London, 1816. Finch found fines for a violation of the rules.
many dupes, and made a great deal of
Fire. The French, in their Table
money. But having on one occasion been Lodges, called the drinking a toast, feu, or
sued by an engraver named Smith, for fire.
money due for printing his plates, Finch
See TheoFire Philosophers.
pleaded an offset of money due by Smith sophists.
for initiation and instruction in Masonry.
Fire, Pillars of. See Pillars of Fire.
Smith brought the Grand Secretary and
Fire, Purification by. See Puriother distinguished Masons into court, who fication.
testified that Finch was an impostor.
In
Fire-Worship. Of all the ancient
consequence of this exposure, Finch lost religions, fire-worship was one of the earcredit with the community, and, sinking liest, next to Sabaism and even of this it
into obscurity, died sometime after, 1816, seems only to have been a development, as
in abject poverty.
with the Sabaists the sun was deemed the
As it is impossible to read Finch's Trea- Universal Fire. "Darius," says Quintus
tises without a knowledge of the cipher
Curtius, " invoked the sun as Mithras, the
employed by him, the following key will sacred and eternal fire." It was the faith
be found useful. We owe it to the re- of the ancient Magi and the old Persians,
searches of Bro. H. C. Levander, (Freem. still retained by their modern descendants
Mag. and Rev., 1859, p. 490.) In the first the Parsees. But with them it was not an
Eart of the book the cipher used is formed idolatry. The fire was venerated only as a
y reversing the alphabet, writing z for a, y visible symbol of the Supreme Deity, of
for b, etc.
The cipher used on the title- the creative energy, from whom all things
page differs somewhat from this, as will be come, and to whom all things ascend. The
seen from the following tables
flame darting upwards to meet its divine
;

original,

the

mundane

fire

seeking

an

FISH

FIVE

ascension to and an absorption into the ceGod himself, constituted what

has been called "the flame-secret" of the
This religion was not
fire-worshippers.
only very ancient, but also very universal.
From India it passed over into Egypt, and
thence extended to the Hebrews and to the
Greeks, and has shown its power and prevalence even in modern thought. On the
banks of the Nile, the people did not, indeed, fall down like the old Persians and
worship fire, but they venerated the fireHence
secret and its symbolic teaching.
the Pyramids, (pyr is Greek for fire,) the
representation of ascending flame; and
Jennings Hargrave shrewdly says that
what has been supposed to be a tomb, in
the centre of the Great Pyramid, was in
reality a depository of the sacred, ever-

Clement of Alexandria, in writing of the

ornaments that a Christian may constantly
wear, mentions the fish as a proper device
for a ring, as serving to remind the Chris-

278

lestial fire, or

burning

fire.

Monoliths were everywhere

in antiquity erected to fire or to the sun,

Among the Hebrews,
as the type of fire.
the sacred idea of fire, as something con-

tian of the origin of his spiritual life, the

fish referring to the waters of baptism.'
The Vesica Piscis, which is an oval figure,
pointed at both ends, and representing the
air bladder of a fish, was adopted, and is
still often used as the form of the seal of
religious houses and confraternities. Margoliouth ( Vest, of Gen. Freem., 45,) says
" In former days, the Grand Master of our
Order used to wear a silver fish on his person but it is to be regretted that, amongst
the many innovations which have been of
late introduced into the society to conciliate the prejudices of some who cannot
consistently be members of it, this beautiful emblem has disappeared."
Five. Among the Pythagoreans five
;

was a mystical number, because it was

formed by the union of the first even numnected with the Divine Being, was very ber and the first odd, rejecting unity and
prominent. God appeared to Moses in a hence it symbolized the mixed conditions
flame of fire; he descended on Mount of order and disorder, happiness and misSinai in the midst of flames at the Tem- fortune, life and death. The same union
ple the fire descended from heaven to con- of the odd and even, or male and female,
sume the burnt-offering. Everywhere in numbers made it the symbol of marriage.
Scripture, fire is a symbol of the holiness Among the Greeks it was a symbol of the
of God. The lights on the altar are the world, because, says Diodorus, it represymbols of the Christian God. The puri- sented ether and the four elements. It
fying power of fire is naturally deduced was a sacred round number among the
from this symbol of the holiness of the ele- Hebrews.
In Egypt, India, and other
ment. And in the high degrees of Mason- Oriental nations, says Gesenius, the five
ry, as in the ancient institutions, there is a minor planets and the five elements and
purification by fire, coming down to us elementary powers were accounted sacred.
insensibly and unconsciously from the old It was the pentas of the Gnostics and the
Magian cultus. In the Mediaeval ages Hermetic Philosophers it was the symbol
;

there was- a sect of " fire-philosophers "

philosophi per ignem
who were a branch
or offshoot of Rosicrucianism, with which
Freemasonry has so much in common.
These fire-philosophers kept up the veneration for fire, and cultivated the "fire-secret," not as an idolatrous belief, but modi-

by their hermetic notions. They were

called " theosophists," and through
them, or in reference to them, we find
the theosophic degrees of Masonry, which
sprang up in the eighteenth century. As
fire and light are identical, so the fire,
which was to the Zoroastrians the symbol
of the Divine Being, is to the Mason, under
the equivalent idea of light, the symbol of
Divine Truth, or of the Grand Architect.
Fish. The Greek word for fish is
IX6T2. Now these five letters are the initials of the five words lrjaovQ Xptarog Qeov
Tiog Iiottjp, that is, Jesus Christ the Son of
fied

also

God, the Saviour. Hence the early Christians adopted the fish as a Christian symbol; and it is to be found on many of their
tombs, and was often worn as an ornament.

of their quintessence, the fifth or highest

essence of power in a natural body. In
Masonry, five is a sacred number, inferior
only in importance to three and seven. It
is
especially significant in the Fellow
Craft's degree, where five are required to
hold a Lodge, and where, in the winding
stairs, the five steps are referred to the
orders of architecture and the human
senses.
In the third degree, we find the
reference to the five points of fellowship
and their symbol, the five-pointed star.

Geometry, too, which is deemed synonymous with Masonry, is called the fifth science; and, in fact, throughout nearly all the
degrees of Masonry, we find abundant allusions

to

five

as

a sacred

and mystical

number.

Five-Pointed
pointed

star,

which

Star.
is

not

The

five-

be connot found

to

founded with the blazing star, is

inthe old symbols of Masonry
deed, some writers have denied that it is a
Masonic emblem at all. Tt is undoubtedly
of recent origin, and was probably intro-

among

FIVE

FLORIDA

duced by Jeremy Cross, who

placed it
the plates in the emblems of the
third degree prefixed to his Hieroglyphic
It is not mentioned in the ritual
Chart.
or the lecture of the third degree, but the
Masons of this country have, by tacit consent, referred to it as a symbol of the Five
Points of Fellowship. The outlines of the
five-pointed star are the same as those of
the pentalpha of Pythagoras, which was
the symbol of health. M. Jomard, in his
Description de V Egypte, (torn, viii., p. 423,)
says that the star engraved on the Egyptian
monuments, where it is a very common
hieroglyphic, has constantly five points,
never more nor less.

among

Five Points of Fellowship.

See

Points of Fellowship.

Five

Senses. The five senses of Hearing, Seeing, Feeling, Tasting, and Smelling
are introduced into the lecture of the Fellow Craft as a part of the instructions of
that degree. See each word in its appropriate place.
In the earlier lectures of the
eighteenth century, the five senses were
explained in the first degree as referring to
the five who make a Lodge. Their subsequent reference to the winding stairs, and
their introduction into the second degree,
were modern improvements.
As these
senses are the avenues by which the mind
receives its perceptions of things exterior
to it, and thus becomes the storehouse of
ideas, they are most appropriately referred
to that degree of Masonry whose professed
object is the pursuit and acquisition of

knowledge.

Fixed Lights. In the old lectures

of the last century, the fixed lights were the
three windows always supposed to exist in
the East, South, and West. Their uses were,
according to the ritual, " to light the men to,

279

translated it, "the flaming sword which revolveth, to guard the way to the tree of
life."
In former times, when symbols and
ceremonies were more respected than they
are now when collars were worn, and not
ribbons in the button-hole and when the
standing column of the Senior Warden,
and the recumbent one of the Junior during labor, to be reversed during refreshment, were deemed necessary for the complete furniture of the Lodge, the cavalry
sword was unknown as a Masonic implement, and the Tiler always bore a flaming
sword. It were better if we could get back
to the old customs.
Floats. Pieces of timber, made fast
together with rafters, for conveying burdens down a river with the stream. The
use of these floats in the building of the
Temple is thus described in the letter of
;

King Hiram to Solomon: "And we will

cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou
shalt need and we will bring it to thee in
;

by sea to Joppa; and thou

carry it up to Jerusalem." 2 Chron.
floats

shalt
ii.

16.

The floor of a properly conLodge room should be covered

Floor.

structed
with alternate squares of black and white,
to represent the Mosaic pavement which
was the ground floor of King Solomon's

Temple.

frame-work of board
Floor-Cloth.
or canvas, on which the emblems of any
particular degree are inscribed, for the assistance of the Master in giving a lecture.
It is so called because formerly it was the
custom to inscribe these designs on the
floor of the Lodge room in chalk, which
was wiped out when the Lodge was closed.
It is the same as the " Carpet," or "Tracing Board."

Flooring. The same as floor-cloth,

and from their work." In the modern which see.
lectures they have been .omitted, and their
Florida. Freemasonry was first introplace as symbols supplied by the lesser lights. duced into Florida, in 1806, by the organiFlaming Sword. A sword whose zation, in the city of St Augustine, of St.
blade is of a spiral or twisted form is called Fernando Lodge by the Grand Lodge of
by the heralds a flaming sword, from its re- Georgia. In the year 1811, it was supsemblance to the ascending curvature of a pressed by a mandate of the Spanish govflame of fire. Until very recently,
ernment. In 1820, the Grand Lodge of
this was the form of the Tiler's
South Carolina granted a Charter to Flosword. Carelessness or ignorance
ridian Virtue Lodge, No. 28, but, in consehas now in many Lodges substiquence of the hostility of the political and
tuted for it a common sword of any
religious authorities, it did not long exist.
form. The flaming sword of the
In 1824, the Grand Lodge of South CaroTiler refers to the flaming sword
lina granted another Charter for Esperanza
which guarded the entrance to
Lodge at St. Augustine, which body, howParadise, as described in Genesis,
ever, became extinct after a year by the
(iii. 24:)
"So he drove out the
removal of most of its members to Haman and he placed at the east of
vana.
In 1826, the Grand Lodges of
the garden of Eden cherubim,
Tennessee and Georgia granted warrants
and a flaming sword which turned
for the establishment respectively of Jackevery way, to keep the way of the
son Lodge at Tallahassee, Washington
*ree of life " or, as Eaphall has
Lodge at Quincy, and Harmony Lodge at

at,

FLUDD

FOLKES

Mariana. On the 5th July, 1830, delegates

from these three Lodges met at Tallahassee,

Martin Folkes, Esq., Counsellor at Law, and

Dorothy, the daughter of Sir William
Howell, Knt., of the county of Norfolk.
He was born in* Queen Street, Leicester
Inn Fields, Westminster, October 29, 1690.
In 1707 he was entered at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and in 1713 elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society, of which, in 1723, he
was appointed Vice President. In 1727,
on the death of Sir Isaac Newton, he be-

280

and organized the Grand Lodge of Florida.

Fludd, Robert.

Robert Fludd,

or,

as he called himself in his Latin writings,

Robertus de Fluctibus, was in the seven-

teenth century a prominent member of the

Rosi crucian Fraternity. He was born in
England in 1574, and having taken the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts at
St. John's College, Oxford, he commenced
the study of physic, and in due time took
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He
died in 1637. In 1616, he commenced the
publication of his works and became a

voluminous writer, whose subject and style

were equally dark and mysterious. The
most important of his publications are
Apologia

Compendaria,

Fraternitatem

de

.Rosea Cruce, suspicionis et infamice maculis

aspersum abluens," (Leyden, 1616,) i. e.,
Brief Apology, clearing the Fraternity of the
Rosy Cross from the stigma of suspicion and
infamy with which they have been aspersed ;
and fractatus Apologeticus integritatem Societatis de Rosea Cruce defendens contra Libanium et alios, (Leyden, 1617,) or, An Apologetic Tract defending the purity of the Society of the Rosy Cross from the attacks of

Libanius and others. And last, and wildest

of all, was his extravagant work on magic,
the kabbala, alchemy, and Rosicrucianism,
entitled Summum bonum, quod est verum
magios, cabaloz, alchymioz, fratrum Rosoz
Crucis verorum verce subjectum. Rosicrucianism was perhaps indebted more to Fludd
than to any other person for its introduction from Germany into England, and it may
have had its influence in moulding the form
of Speculative Freemasonry but I am not
prepared to go as far as a distinguished writer
in the London Freemason's Magazine, (April,
1858, ) who says that " Fludd must be considered as the immediate father of Freemasonry
as Andrea was its remote father." Nicolai
more rationally remarks that Fludd, like
Andrea, exerted a considerable and beneficial influence on the manners of his age.
;

His explanation of the Rose Croix

is

worth

quoting. He says that it symbolically signifies the cross dyed with the blood of the
Saviour a Christian idea which was in advance of the original Rosicrucians.
Folkes, Martin. From his acquaintance with Sir Christopher Wren, and his
intimacy with Dr. Desaguliers, Martin
Folkes was induced to take an active part
in the reorganization of Freemasonry in
the beginning of the last century, and his
literary attainments and prominent position
in the scientific world enabled him to exercise a favorable influence on the character
He was descended
of the Institution.
from a good family, being the eldest son of
;

came a candidate

for the Presidency, in

which he was defeated by Sir Hans Sloane,

who, however, renewed his appointment as
Vice President, and in 1741, on the resignation of Sloane as President, he was
elected his successor.
In 1742, he was
elected a member of the Royal Academy
of Sciences of Paris, and in 1746 received
the degree of Doctor of Laws from the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1750, he was elected President of the
Society of Antiquaries. To this and to the
Royal Society he contributed many essays,
and published a work entitled, A Table of
English Silver Coins, which is still much esOn
teemed as a numismatic authority.
September 26, 1751, he was struck with
paralysis, from which he never completely
recovered. On November 30, 1753, he resigned the Presidency of the Royal Society,
but retained that of the Society of Antiquaries until his death. In 1733, he visited
Italy, and remained there until 1735, during which time he appears to have ingratiated himself with the Masons of that
country, for in 1742 they struck a medal in
his honor, a copy of which is to be found
in Thory's History of the Foundation of the
Grand Orient of France. On one side is a
pyramid, a sphinx, some Masonic ciphers,

and the two

pillars,

and on the obverse a

likeness of Folkes.

Of the Masonic life of Folkes we have

but few records. In 1725, he was appointed
Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge
of England, and is recorded as having paid
great attention to the duties of his office.
Anderson says that he presided over the
Grand Lodge in May of that year, and
" prompted a most agreeable communicaBut he held no office afterwards;
tion."
yet he is spoken of as having taken great inOf his literary
terest in the Institution.
contributions to Masonry nothing remains.
The Pocket Companion cites an address
by him, in 1725, before the Grand Lodge,
probably at that very communication to

which Anderson has alluded, but it is unfortunately no longer extant. He died June
28, 1754, and was buried in the Chancel of
Hillington Church near Lynn, Norfolk.
He left a wife and two daughters, an only
son having died before him.
'

Nichols,

who knew him

personally, says

FOOL

FORM

(LU-.Anecd. f ii. 591,) of him: "His knowledge was very extensive, his judgment ex-

low vegetation of the shrubby and thorny

which make it difficult even to approach the margin of the stream. The
Arabs cross the river at the present day,
at stages of low water, at a number of
fords, from the one near the point where
the Jordan leaves the Sea of Galilee down
to the Pilgrims' Ford, six miles above the

act and accurate, and the precision of his

ideas appeared from the perspicuity and
conciseness of his expression in his discourses and writings on abstruse and diffiHe had turned his
cult topics
thoughts to the study of antiquity and the
polite

arts

with a

philosophical

spirit,

which he had contracted by the cultivation

of the mathematical sciences from his
His valuable library of
earliest youth."
more than five thousand volumes was sold
3,090 at auction after his decease.
A fool, as one not in possession
of sound reason, a natural or idiot, is intellectually unfit for initiation into the mysteries of Freemasonry, because he is incapable of comprehending the principles of
the Institution, and is without any moral
responsibility for a violation or neglect of
for

Fool.

its duties.

corner - stone. " To

lay the cornerThus, Oliver: "Solomon was enstone.
abled to level the footstone of the Temple
in the fourth year of his reign."
Foot to Foot. The old lectures of
the last century descanted on the symbolism
of foot to foot as teaching us " that indolence should not permit the foot to halt or
wrath to turn our steps out of the way
but forgetting injuries and selfish feelings,
and remembering that man was born for
the aid of his fellow-creatures, not for his

Footstone. The

level the footstone

"

= to

281

sorts,

Dead

Sea."

Foreign Country. The

lecture of
the third degree begins by declaring that
the recipient was induced to seek that
sublime degree " that he might perfect himself in Masonry, so as to travel into foreign
countries, and work and receive wages as a

Master Mason."
Thousands have often heard this ritualistic expression at the opening and closing
of a Master's Lodge, without dreaming for
a moment of its hidden and spiritual meaning, or, if they think of any meaning at all,
they content themselves by interpreting it
as referring to the actual travels of the Masons, after the completion of the Temple,
into the surrounding countries in search of

employment, whose wages were to be the

gold and silver which they could earn by the
exercise of their skill in the operative art.
But the true symbolic meaning of the
foreign country into which the Master Mason travels in search of wages is far different.

The symbolism of

this life terminates

with the Master's degree. The completion

of that degree is the lesson of death and the

own enjoyments only, but to do that which resurrection to a future life, where the true
word, or Divine Truth, not given in this,
is good, we should be swift to extend our
to all, but more
The
particularly to a brother Mason."
present lecture on the same subject gives the
same lesson more briefly and more emphatically, when it says, " we should never halt

mercy and benevolence

nor grow weary in the service of a brother

Mason."

Fords of the Jordan. The

ter of the

slaugh-

Ephraimitesat the passages or fords

of the river Jordan, which is described in the

twelfth chapter of the Book of Judges, is referred to in the ritual of the Fellow Craft's
degree.
Morris, in his Freemasonry in the
Holy Land, (p. 316,) says " The exact locality of these fords (or passages,' as the Bible
terms them,) cannot now be designated,
but most likely they were those nearly due
east of Seikoot and opposite Mizpah.
At
these fords, in summer time, the water is not
more than three or four feet deep, the bottom
being composed of a hard limestone rock.
If, as some think, the fords, thirty miles
higher up, are those referred to, the same description will apply.
At either place, the
Jordan is about eighty feet wide, its banks
encumbered by a dense growth of tamarisks, cane, willows, thorn-bushes, and other
:

'

2L

to be received as the reward of a life

worthily spent in its search. Heaven, the
future life, the higher state of existence
after death, is the foreign country in which
the Master Mason is to enter, and there he
is to receive his wages in the reception of
that truth which can be imparted only in
is

that better land.

Foresters' Degrees. This title has

been given to certain secret associations
which derive their symbols and ceremonies
from trades practised in forests, such as the
Carbonari, or Charcoal-burners the Fendeurs, or Wood-cutters the Sawyers, etc.
They are all imitative of Freemasonry.
Forest of Lebanon. See Lebanon.
;

Forfeiture of Charter. A Lodge

may forfeit its charter for misconduct, and
when forfeited, the warrant or charter is
revoked by the Grand Lodge. See Revocation of Charter.

Form.

In Masonry, an official act is

said to be done, according to the rank of
the person who does it, either in ample form,
Thus, when
in due form, or simply in form.
the

Grand Lodge

Master in person,

is

opened by the Grand

said to be opened in

it is

FORM

FORTY

ample form ; when by the Deputy Grand

Master, it is said to be in due form ; when

lelogram the outlines of a double cube, and

meet thereby that definition which says
that " the form of the Lodge ought to be a
double cube, as an expressive emblem of
the powers of light and darkness in the

282

by any other

qualified officer,

it is

said to

be in form. The legality of the act is the

same whether it be done in form or in
ample form and the expletive refers only
;

of the officer
performed.

to the dignity

act

is

Form of the liOdge.

a Mason's Lodge

by

whom

the

The form of

said to be an oblong
square, having its greatest length from east
to west, and its greatest breadth from north
to south. This oblong form of the Lodge
has, I think, a symbolic allusion that has
is

not been adverted to by any other writer.

If, on a map of the world, we draw lines
which shall circumscribe just that portion
which was known and inhabited at the
time of the building of Solomon's Temple,
these lines, running a short distance north
and south of the Mediterranean Sea, and
extending from Spain to Asia Minor, will
form an oblong square, whose greatest length
will be from east to west, and whose greatest
breadth will be from north to south, as is
shown in the annexed diagram.

creation."

prescribed mode or form

Formula.
of doing or saying anything. The word is
derived from the technical language of the
Eoman law, where, after the old legal actions had been abolished, suits were practised according to certain prescribed forms
called formulae.
Formulas in Freemasonry are very frequent. They are either oral or monitorial.
Oral formulas are those that are employed
in various parts of the ritual, such as the
opening and closing of a Lodge, the investiture of a candidate, etc. From the fact of
their oral transmission they are frequently
corrupted or altered, which is one of the
most prolific sources of non-conformity so
often complained of by Masonic teachers.
Monitorial formulas are those that are
committed to writing, and are to be found

in the various monitors and manuals. They

are such as relate to public installations,
to laying foundation-stones, to dedications of halls, to funerals, etc.
Their
monitorial character ought to preserve
them from change but uniformity is not
even here always attained, owing to the
whims of the compilers of manuals or of
monitors, who have often unnecessarily
changed the form of words from the
original standard.
Fortitude. One of the four cardinal virtues, whose excellencies are dilated on in the first degree. It not only
instructs the worthy Mason to bear the ills
of life with becoming resignation, " taking
;

There is a peculiar fitness in this theory,

which is really only making the Masonic
Lodge a symbol of the world. It must be
remembered that, at the era of the Temple,
the earth was supposed to have the form of
a parallelogram, or " oblong square." Such
a figure inscribed upon a map of the world,
and including only that part of it which
was known in the days of Solomon, would
present just such a square, embracing the
Mediterranean Sea and the countries lying
immediately on its northern, southern, and

up arms against a sea of trouble,"

but,

by

its

be referred to the two pillars that stood at

the porch of the Temple. Thus the world
itself would be the true Mason's Lodge, in
which he was to live and labor. Again

intimate connection with a portion of our

ceremonies, it teaches him to let no dangers shake, no pains dissolve the inviolable
fidelity he owes to the trusts reposed in
him. Or, in the words of the old Prestonian lecture, it is " a fence or security
against any attack that might be made
upon him, by force or otherwise, to extort
from him any of our Royal Secrets."
Spence, in his Polymetis, (p. 139,) when
describing the moral virtues, says of Fortitude " She may be easily known by her
erect air and military dress, the spear she
rests on with one hand, and the sword which
she holds in the other. She has a globe
under her feet; I suppose to show that the
Romans, by means of this virtue, were to
subdue the whole world."

the solid contents of the earth below, "from

the surface to the centre," and the profound
expanse above, "from the earth to the
highest heavens," would give to this paral-

forty-seventh problem of Euclid's first book,

which has been adopted as a symbol in the
Master's degree, is thus enunciated: "I

eastern borders.

Beyond,

far in the north,

deserts as a place of
darkness, while the pillars of Hercules in
the west, on each side of the Straits of Ga-

would be Cimmerian

des

now Gibraltar might appropriately

Forty -Seventh Problem.

The

FORTY

FORTY
any right-angled triangle, the square which
is described upon the side subtending the
is equal to the squares described
sides which contain the right
angle." Thus, in a triangle whose perpendicular is 3 feet, the square of which is 9,

right angle

upon the

and whose base is 4 feet, the square of

which is 16, the hypothenuse, or subtending side, will be 5 feet, the square of which
will be 25, which is the sum of 9 and 16.
This interesting problem, on account of its
great utility in making calculations and
drawing plans for buildings, is sometimes
called the " Carpenter's Theorem."
For the demonstration of this problem
the world is indebted to Pythagoras, who,
it is said, was so elated after making the
discovery, that he made an offering of a
hecatomb, or a sacrifice of a hundred
oxen, to the gods. The devotion to learning which this religious act indicated in
the mind of the ancient philosopher has
induced Masons to adopt the problem as a
memento, instructing them to be lovers of
the arts and sciences.
The triangle, whose base is 4 parts, whose
perpendicular is 3, and whose hypothenuse
is 5, and which would exactly serve for a
demonstration of this problem, was, according to Plutarch, a symbol frequently employed by the Egyptian priests, and hence
it is called by M. Jomard, in his Exposition du Systtme Metrique des Anciens Egyptiens, the Egyptian triangle.
It was, with
the Egyptians, the symbol of universal nature,
the base representing Osiris, or the
male principle; the perpendicular, Isis, or
the female principle and the hypothenuse,
Horus, their son, or the produce of the two
principles.
They added that 3 was the
first perfect odd number, that 4 was the
square of 2, the first even number, and
that 5 was the result of 3 and 2.
But the Egyptians made a still more important use of this triangle. It was the
standard of all their measures of extent,
and was applied by them to the building
of the pyramids.
The researches of M.
Jomard, on the Egyptian system of measures, published in the magnificent work of
the French savans on Egypt, has placed us
completely in possession of the uses made
by the Egyptians of this forty-seventh
problem of Euclid, and of the" triangle
which formed the diagram by which it was
demonstrated.
If we inscribe within a circle a triangle,
whose perpendicular shall be 300 parts,
whose base shall be 400 parts, and whose
hypothenuse shall be 500 parts, which, of
course, bear the same proportion to each
other as 3, 4, and 5 then if we let a perpendicular fall from the angle of the perpendicular and base to the hypothenuse,

283

and extend

it through the hypothenuse to

the circumference of the circle, this chord
or line will be equal to 480 parts, and the
two segments of the hypothenuse, on each
side of it, will be found equal, respectively,
From the point where
to 180 and 320.
this chord intersects the hypothenuse let

another line

fell perpendicularly to the

shortest side of the triangle, and this line
will be equal to 144 parts, while the shorter

segment, formed by its junction with the

perpendicular side of the triangle, will be
equal to 108 parts. Hence, we may derive
the following measures from the diagram:
500, 480, 400, 320, 180, 144, and 108, and
all these without the slightest fraction.
Supposing, then, the 500 to be cubits, we

have the measure of the base of the great

pyramid of Memphis. In the 400 cubits
of the base of the triangle we have the
exact length of the Egyptian stadium.

The 320

gives

us the exact

number of

Egyptian cubits contained in the Hebrew

and Babylonian stadium. The stadium of
Ptolemy is represented by the 480 cubits,
or length of the line falling from the right
angle to the circumference of the circle,
through the hypothenuse.
The number
180, which expresses the smaller segment
of the hypothenuse, being doubled, will
give 360 cubits, which will be the stadium
of Cleomedes. By doubling the 144, the
result will be 288 cubits, or the length of
the stadium of Archimedes and by doubling the 108, we produce 216 cubits, or
the precise value of the lesser Egyptian
stadium. In this manner, we obtain from
this triangle all the measures of length
that were in use among the Egyptians;
;

and since

this

triangle,

whose

sides

are

equal to 3, 4, and 5, was the very one that

most naturally would be used in demonstrating the forty-seventh problem of Euclid; and since by these three sides the
Egyptians symbolized Osiris, Isis, and Horus, or the two producers and the product,
the very principle, expressed in symbolic
language, which constitutes the terms of
the problem as enunciated by Pythagoras,
that the sum of the squares of the two sides
will produce the square of the third, we
have no reason to doubt that the fortyseventh problem was perfectly known to
the Egyptian priests, and by them communicated to Pythagoras.
Dr. Lardner, in his edition of Euclid,
" Whether we consider the fortysays
seventh proposition with reference to the
peculiar and beautiful relation established
in it, or to its innumerable uses in every
department of mathematical science, or to
its fertility in the consequences derivable
from it, it must certainly be esteemed the
most celebrated and important in the whole
:

"

FOUR

FOUL

284

of the elements, if not in the whole range,

of mathematical science. It is by the influence of this proposition, and that which
establishes the similitude of equiangular
triangles, (in the sixth book,) that geometry has been brought under the dominion
of algebra and it is upon the same principles that the whole science of trigonometry
is founded.
" The XXXIId and XLVIIth propositions are said to have been discovered by
Pythagoras, and extraordinary accounts are
given of his exultation upon his first perception of their truth. It is, however, supposed
by some that Pythagoras acquired a knowledge of them in Egypt, and was the first to
make them known in Greece."
Foul. The ballot-box is said to be
" foul" when, in the ballot for the initiation
or advancement of a candidate, one or more
black balls are found in it.
Foundation-Stone. This term has
been repeatedly used by Dr. Oliver, and
after him by some other writers, to designate the chief or corner-stone of the Temple or any other building. Thus, Oliver
says, "the Masonic days proper for laying
the foundation-stone of a Mason's Lodge
are from the 15th of April to the 15th of
May " evidently meaning the cornerstone.
The usage is an incorrect one.
The foundation-stone, more properly the
stone of foundation, is very different from
the corner-stone.
Foundation, Stone of. See Stone
of Foundation.
Fountain. In some of the high degrees a fountain constitutes a part of the
furniture of the initiation. In the science
of symbology, the fountain, as representing
a stream of continually flowing water, is a
symbol of refreshment to the weary and so
it might be applied in the degrees in which
it is found, although there is no explicit
interpretation of it in the ritual, where it
seems to have been introduced rather as an
exponent of the dampness and darkness of
the place which was a refuge for criminals
and a spot fit for crime. Brother Pike refers to the fountain as " tradition, a slender
stream flowing from the Past into the Present, which, even in the thickest darkness
of barbarism, keeps alive some memory of
the Old Truth in the human heart." But
this beautiful idea is not found in the symbolism as interpreted in the old rituals.
Four. Four is the tetrad or quarternary
of the Pythagoreans, and it is a sacred
number in the high degrees. The Pythagoreans called it a perfect number, and
hence it has been adopted as a sacred number in the degree of Perfect Master. In
many nations of antiquity the name of God
consists of four letters, as the Adad of the
;

Amum

Syrians, the
of the Egyptians, the
6E02 of the Greeks, the Deus of the Eo-

mans, and pre-eminently the Tetragrammaton or four-lettered

name

of the Jews. But

number has no

in Symbolic Masonry this

special significance.

Four Crowned Martyrs.

The

legend of " The Four Crowned Martyrs

should be interesting to Masonic scholars,
because it is one of the few instances, perhaps the only one, in which the church
has been willing to do honor to those old
workers in stone, whose services it readily
secured in the Mediaeval ages, but with
whom, as with their successors the modern
Freemasons, it has always appeared to be
in a greater or less degree of antagonism.
Besides, these humble but true-hearted confessors of the faith of Christianity were
adopted by the Stone-masons of Germany
as the patron saints of Operative Masonry,
just as the two Saints Jonn have been
since selected as the patrons of the Speculative branch of the Institution.
The late Dr. Christian Ehrmann, of
Strasburg, who for thirty years had devoted his attention to this and to kindred
subjects of Masonic archaeology, has supplied us with the most interesting details
of the life and death of the Four Crowned
Martyrs.
The Roman Church has consecrated the
8th of November to the commemoration of
these martyrs, and yearly, on that day,
" Grant, we beseech
offers up the prayer
:

as we have
been informed of the constancy of the glorious martyrs in the profession of Thy
faith, so we may experience their kindness
in recommending us to Thy mercy." The
Roman Breviary of 1474 is more explicit,
and mentions them particularly by name.
thee,

Almighty God, that

is, therefore, somewhat remarkable,

although thus careful in their commemoration, the missals of the church
give us no information of the deeds of these
holy men. It is only from the breviaries
that we can learn anything of the act on

It

that,

which the commemoration in the calendar

was founded. Of these breviaries, Ehrmann has given full citations from two
the Breviary of Rome, published in 1474,
and the Breviary of Spire, published in
1478. These, with some few extracts from
other books on the subject, have been made
accessible to us by George Kloss, in his interesting work entitled, Freimaurerei in
ihrer wahren Bedeutung, or Freemasonry in
:

its

true Significance.

The Breviarium Romanum

complete in

is

much more

details than the Breviarium

yet the latter contains a few

its

Spirense; and
incidents that are not related in the former.
Both agree in applying to the Four Crowned

FOUR

FOUR
"
Martyrs the title of quadratarii"
quadratarius, in the Latin of the lower age,
signified a Stone-squarer or a Mason. This
will remind us of the passage in the Book
of Kings, thus translated in the authorized
version "And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stoneIt is evident from the use of
squarers."
this word " quadratarii " in the ecclesiastical legends, as well as from the incidents
of the martyrdom itself, that the four martyrs were not simply sculptors, but stonein other
cutters and builders of temples
words, Operative Masons. Nor can we
deny the probability o^ the supposition,
that they were members of one of those colleges of architects, which afterwards gave
birth to the gilds of the Middle Ages, the
corporations of builders, and through these
to the modern Lodges of Freemasons. Supposing the legend to be true, or even admitting that it is only symbolical, we must
acknowledge that there has been good reason why the Operative Masons should have
selected these martyrs as the patron saints
of their profession.
And now let us apply ourselves to the
Taking the Roman Breviary as
legend.
the groundwork, and only interpolating it
at the proper points with the additional
incidents related in the Breviary of Spire,
we have the following result as the story
of the Four Crowned Martyrs.
In the last quarter of the third century
Diocletian was emperor of the Roman empire.
In his reign commenced that series
of persecutions of the Christian church,
which threatened at one time to annihilate
the new religion, and gave to the period
among Christian writers the name of the
JExa. of Martyrs. Thousands of Christians,
who refused to violate their consciences by
sacrificing to the heathen gods, became the
victims of the bigotry and intolerance, the
hatred and the cruelty, of the Pagan priests
and the Platonic philosophers; and the
scourge, the cross, or the watery grave
daily testified to the constancy and firmness of the disciples of the prophet of
Nazareth.
Diocletian had gone to the province of
Pannonia, that he might by his own presence superintend the bringing of metals
and stones from the neighboring mines of

Now

Noricum, wherewith to construct a temple

consecrated to the sun-god, Apollo. Among
the six hundred and twenty-two artisans
whom he had collected together for this
purpose were four
by name Claudius,

Castorius, Symphorianus, and Nichostratus

said to have been distinguished for
their skill as Stone-masons. They had aban-

doned the old heathen faith and were in

doing all their work as

secret Christians,

Masons

in the

name

285

of the Lord Jesus

Christ.

The Breviary of Spires relates here an

additional occurrence, which is not contained in the Breviary of Rome, and which,
as giving a miraculous aspect to the legend,
must have made it doubly acceptable to the
pious Christians of the fifteenth century,
upon whose religious credulity one could
safely draw without danger of a protest.
It seems that, in company with our four
blessed martyrs, there worked another Mason, one Simplicius, who was also a Mason,
but a heathen. While he was employed
in labor near them, he wondered to see how
much they surpassed in skill and cunning
all the other artisans.
They succeeded in
all that they attempted, while he was unfortunate, and always breaking his working
tools. At last he approached Claudius, and
said to him
"Strengthen, I beseech thee, my tools,
that they may no longer break."
Claudius took them in his hands, and
said:
"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
be these tools henceforth strong and faithful to their

From

work."

work

this time, Simplicius did his

well, and succeeded in all that he attempted

to do.
Amazed at the change, Simplicius

was continually asking his fellow-workmen

how it was that the tools had been so
strengthened that now they never broke.
At length Claudius replied
" God, who is our Creator, and the Lord
of all things, has made his creatures
:

strong."

Then Simplicius inquired

God Zeus? "

Claudius replied
"Repent, O my brother, of what thou
hast said, for thou hast blasphemed God,
our Creator, whom alone we worship that
which our own hands have made we do not
recognize as a God."
With these and such sentences they converted Simplicius to the Christian faith,
who, being baptized by Cyrillus, bishop of
Antioch, soon afterwards suffered martyr"

Was

To

this

not this done by the

:

dom

for his refusal to sacrifice to the

Pagan

gods.

But to return from this episode to the legend of the Four Martyrs It happened
that one day Diocletian issued an order,
that out of a piece of marble should be con:

structed a noble statue of Apollo sitting in

And now all the workmen
his chariot.
and the philosophers began to consult on
the subject, and each one had arrived at a
different opinion.
And when at length they had found a
huge block of stone, which had been brought
from the Island of Thasos, it proved that

FOUR

286

"

and Simplicius, and said

do ye not hearken to the com-

Why

mands of our devout emperor,

and obey

Diocletian,

his will."

And

Claudius answered and said

we cannot offend our Creator
and commit a sin, whereof we should be
found guilty in his sight."
Then said the philosophers
"From this it appears that you are
:

" Because

Christians."

And

Claudius replied

" Truly

we

FOUR

the marble was not fit for the statue which

Diocletian had commanded and now began a great war of words between the masters of the work and the philosophers. But
one day the whole of the artisans, six hundred and twenty-two in number, with five
philosophers, came together, that they
might examine the defects and the veins
of the stone, and there arose a still more
wonderful contest between the workmen
and the philosophers.
Then began the philosophers to rail
against Claudius, Symphorianus, Nichostratus,

are Christians."

As soon as Diocletian had expressed hia

admiration of the statue of Esculapius, the
philosopher said
"Most mighty

know that these

majesty has praised for
in Masonry, namely, Claudius,
Caesar,

men whom your

their skill

Symphorianus, Nichostratus, and Castorius,

are Christians, and by magic spells or incantations

make men obedient

to

their

will."

Then

said Diocletian
" If they have violated the laws, and if
your accusations be true, let them suffer the
punishment of sacrilege."
But Diocletian, in consideration of their
skill, sent for the Tribune Lampadius, and
said to him
" If they refuse to offer sacrifice to the
sun-god Apollo, then let them be scourged
with scorpions. But if they are willing to
do so, then treat them with kindness."
For five days sat Lampadius in the same
place, before the temple of the sun-god,
and called on them by the proclamation of
the herald, and showed them many dreadful
things, and all sorts of instruments for the
punishment of martyrs, and then he said to

Hereupon the philosophers chose other

Masons, and caused them to make a statue them:
" Hearken to me and avoid the doom of
of Esculapius out of the stone which had
been rejected, which, after thirty-one days, martyrs, and be obedient to the mighty
they finished and presented to the philoso- prince, and offer a sacrifice to the sun-god,
phers. These then informed the emperor for no longer can I speak to you in gentle

derstanding of the legend, which proceeds

words."
But Claudius replied for himself and for
his companions with great boldness
" This let the Emperor Diocletian know
that we truly are Christians, and never can
depart from the worship of our God."
Thereupon the Tribune Lampadius, becoming enraged, caused them to be stripped
and to be scourged with scorpions, while a
herald, by proclamation, announced that
this was done because they had disobeyed
the commands of the emperor.
In the
same hour Lampadius, being seized by an
evil spirit, died on his seat of judgment.
As soon as the wife and the domestics of
Lampadius heard of his death, they ran
with great outcries to the palace. Diocletian, when he had learned what had happened, ordered four leaden coffins to be
Claudius and his three
made, and that
companions being placed therein alive
they should be thrown into the river Danube. This order Nicetius, the assistant of
Lampadius, caused to be obeyed, and thus
the faithful Masons suffered the penalty
and gained the crown of martyrdom.
There are some legend books which give
the names of the Four Crowned Martyrs as
Severus, Severianus, Carpophorus, and Victorinus, and others again which speak of
five confessors who, a few years afterwards,

as follows

suffered

that the statue of Esculapius was finished,

when he ordered it to be brought before
him for inspection. But as soon as he saw
it he was greatly astonished, and said
" This is a proof of the skill of these men,
who receive my approval as sculptors."
It is very apparent that this, like all
other legends of the church, is insufficient
in its details, and that it leaves many links
in the chain of the narrative to be supplied
by the fancy or the judgment of the readIt is equally evident from what has
ers.
already been said, in connection with what
is subsequently told, that the writer of the
legend desired to make the impression that
it was through the influence of Claudius
and the other Christian Masons that the
rest of the workmen were persuaded that
the Thasian stone was defective and unfit
for the use of a sculptor that this was done
;

by them because they were unwilling

to

engage in the construction of the statue of

a Pagan god that this was the cause of the
controversy between the workmen and the
philosophers that the latter denied the de;

fectiveness of the stone ; and, lastly, that

they sought to prove its fitness by causing
other Masons, who were not Christians, to
make out of it a statue of Esculapius.
These explanations are necessary to an un-

martyrdom

for refusing to sacrifice

;;

FOUR

FOURFOLD

to the Pagan gods, and whose names being

at the time unknown, Pope Melchiades
caused them to be distinguished in the
church calendar as the Four Crowned

Records, whose date is variously traced

from the end of the fourteenth to the middle
of the fifteenth century, under the title of
"ars quatuor coronatorum" gives a rather
copious detail of the legend, which is here
inserted with only those slight alterations
of its antiquated phraseology which are
necessary to render it intelligible to modern
readers, although in doing so the rhyme of
the original is somewhat destroyed

Martyrs an error, says Jacob de Voragine,

which, although subsequently discovered,
was never corrected. But the true legend
of the Four Crowned Martyrs is that which
has been given above from the best authority, the Roman Breviary of 1474.
"On the other side of the Esquiline,"
says Mrs. Jameson, (in her Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. ii., p. 624,) "and on the
road leading from the Coliseum to the Lateran, surmounting a heap of sand and
ruins, we come to the church of the 'Quattro Coronati,' the Four Crowned Brothers.
On this spot, sometime in the fourth century, were found the bodies of four men
:

who had suffered

decapitation,

whose names

being then unknown, they were merely distinguished as Coroxati, crowned that is,
with the crown of martyrdom."
There is great obscurity and confusion in
the history of these.
Their church, Mrs. Jameson goes on to
say, is held in particular respect by the
builders and stone-cutters of Rome.
She
has found allusion to these martyr Masons
not only in Roman art, but in the old sculpture and stained glass of Germany.
Their
effigies, she tells us, are easily distinguished
by the fact, that they stand in a row, bearing palms, with crowns upon their heads

and various Masonic implements at their

feet
such as the rule, the square, the mallet, and the chisel.
They suffered on the 8th of November,
287, and hence in the Roman Catholic missal that day is dedicated to their commem-

oration.

From

their profession as Stone-

masons and from the pious firmness with

which they refused, at the cost of their lives,
to consecrate their skill in their art to the

Pagan temples, they have

been adopted by the Stone-masons of Germany as the Patron Saints of Operative Masonry.
Thus the oldest regulation of the
Stone-masons of Strasburg, which has the
date of the year 1459, commences with the

construction of

following invocation: "In the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, and of our gracious Mother Mary,
and also of her Blessed Servants, the Four
Crowned Martyrs of everlasting memory."
Such allusions are common in the German
Masonic documents of the Middle Ages.
It is true, however, that the English Masons ceased at a later period to refer in
their constitutions to those martyrs, although
they undoubtedly borrowed many of their
usages from Germany. Yet the Halliwell
Manuscript of the Constitutions of Masonry, one of the oldest of the English

" Pray

287

we now

to God Almighty,
His Mother, Mary bright,
That we may keep these articles here

And

to

And

these points well altogether,

those holy martyrs four
That were in this Craft of great honor.
They were as good Mason as on earth shall go,

As did

Gravers and image makers they were also,

For they were workmen of the best,
The emperor had them in great liking;
He invoked them an image to make,
That might be worshiped for his sake
Such idols he had in his day
To turn the people from Christ's law,
But they were steadfast in Christ's religion

And

to their Craft,

without denial

They loved well God and

all his doctrines,

And

were in his service evermore.

True men they were, in that day,
And lived well in God's law
They resolved no idols for to make,
For no good that they might take
To believe on that idol for their god,
They would not do so, though he were mad,
For they would not forsake their true faith,
And believe on his false religion.
The emperor caused to take them at once
And put them in a deep prison.
The sorer he punished them in that place,
The more joy was to them of Christ's grace.
Then when he saw no other way,
To death he caused them to go.
"Who" so will of their life more know,
By the book he may it learn,
In the legends of the saints,
The names of the four crowned ones.
Their feast will be, without denial,
After All HaUows, the eighth day."

The devotion of these saints, which led

to the introduction of their legend into an
ancient Constitution of Masonry, shows
they were reverenced by the
Craft.
In fact, the Four Crowned Martyrs
were to the Stone-cutters of Germany and
to the earlier Operative Masons of England
what St. John the Baptist and St. John the
Evangelist became to their successors, the
Speculative Freemasons of the eighteenth
century.
Fourfold Cord. In the ritual of the
Past Master's degree in this country we
find the following expression: "A twofold
cord is strong, a threefold cord is stronger,
but a fourfold cord is not easily broken."
The expression is taken from a Hebrew
proverb which is to be found in the book
of Ecclesiastes, (iv. 12 :) " And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him ;

how much

288

FOURTEEN

and a threefold cord

is

FRANCE

not easily broken."

The form of the Hebrew proverb has been

necessarily changed to suit the

symbolism

of the degree".

Fourteen.

1720.

only necessary to
remind the well-informed Mason of the
fourteen days of burial mentioned in the
legend of the third degree. Now, this period of fourteen was not, in the opinion
of Masonic symbologists, an arbitrary selection, but was intended to refer to or
symbolize the fourteen days Of lunary darkness, or decreasing light, which intervene
between the full moon and its continued
decrease until the end of the lunar month.
In the Egyptian mysteries, the body of
It

is

Osiris is said to have been cut into fourteen

pieces by Typhon, and thrown into the
Plutarch, speaking of this in his
Nile.

On Isis and Osiris, thus explains

the symbolism of the number fourteen,
which comprises the Masonic idea " The
body of Osiris was cut," says Plutarch,
" into fourteen pieces that is, into as many
parts as there are days between the full
moon and the new. This circumstance has
reference to the gradual diminution of the
lunary light during the fourteen days that
follow the full moon. The moon, at the
end of fourteen days, enters Taurus, and
becomes united to the sun, from whom she
collects fire upon her disk during the fourteen days which follow. She is then found
every month in conjunction with him in
the superior parts of the signs. The equinoctial year finishes at the moment when
the sun and moon are found united with
Orion, or the star of Orus, a constellation
placed under Taurus, which unites itself
The moon
to the Neomenia of spring.
renews herself in Taurus, and a few days
afterwards is seen, in the form of a crescent, in the following sign, that is, Gemini,
the home of Mercury. Then Orion, united
to the sun in the attitude of a formidable
warrior, precipitates Scorpio, his rival, into
the shades of night for he sets every time
The
Orion appears above the horizon.
day becomes lengthened, and the germs of
It is thus
evil are by degrees destroyed.
that the poet Nonnus pictures to us Typhon
conquered at the end of winter, when the
sun arrives in Taurus, and when Orion
mounts into the heavens with him."
France. The early history of Masonry in France is, from the want of authentic documents, in a state of much
Kloss, in his Geschichte der
uncertainty.
Freimaurerei in Frankreich, (vol. i., p. 14,)
says, in reference to the introduction of
Freemasonry into that kingdom, that the
Yet
earliest date of any certainty is 1725.
he copies the statement of the Sgeau Rompu,
that the eara work published in 1745,
treatise

recognized date of its introduction is

1718 and the Abbe Robin says that nothing of it is to be found farther back than
liest

Lalande, the great astronomer, was the

author of the article on Freemasonry in the
Encyclopedic Methodique, and his account
has been generally recognized as authentic
by succeeding writers. According to him,
Lord Derwentwater, the Chevalier Maskeleyne, Mr. Heguetty, and some other Englishmen, (the names being corrupted, of
course, according to French usage,) founded,
in 1725, the first Lodge in Paris.
It was
held at the house of an English confectioner named Hure, in the Rue de Boucheries.
In ten years the number of Lodges
in Paris had increased to six, and there
were several also in the provincial towns.
As the first Paris Lodge had been opened
by Lord Derwentwater, he was regarded as

Grand Master of the French Masons,

without any formal recognition on the part
of the brethren, at least until 1736, when
the six Lodges of Paris formally elected
Lord Harnouester as Provincial Grand Master; in 1738, he was succeeded by the Duke
D' Antin and on the death of the Duke, in
1743, the Count de Clermont was elected to
supply his place.
Organized Freemasonry in France dates
In
its existence from this latter year.
the

1735, the Lodges of Paris had petitioned

the Grand Lodge of England for the establishment of a Provincial Grand Lodge,
which, on political grounds, had been refused.
In 1743, however, it was granted,
and the Provincial Grand Lodge of France
was constituted under the name of the
"Grand Loge Anglaise de France." The
Grand Master, the Count de Clermont, was,
however, an inefficient officer anarchy and
confusion once more invaded the Fraternity; the authority of the Grand Lodge
was prostrated; and the establishment of
Mother Lodges in the provinces, with the
original intention of superintending the
proceedings of the distant provincial Lodges,
instead of restoring harmony, as was vainly
expected, widened still more the breach.
For, assuming the rank and exercising the
functions of Grand Lodges, they ceased all
correspondence with the metropolitan body,
;

and became in fact its rivals.

Under these circumstances, the Grand
Lodge declared itself independent of England in 1756, and assumed the title of the
"National Grand Lodge of France." It
recognized only the three degrees of Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason,
and was composed of the grand officers to
be elected out of the body of the Fraternity, and of the Masters for life of the Parisian

Lodges thus formally excluding the

;

PRANCE

FRANCE

provincial Lodges from any participation in

the government of the Craft.
But the proceedings of this body were
not less stormy than those of its predecesThe Count de Clermont appointed, in
sor.
succession, two deputies, both of whom had
been displeasing to the Fraternity. The
last, Lacorne, was a man of such low origin
and rude manners, that the Grand Lodge
refused to meet him as their presiding

organize and control Symbolic or Blue

Lodges, and this assumption had been a
fertile source of controversy between them
and the Grand Lodge. By the latter body
they had never been recognized, but the
Lodges under their direction had often been
declared irregular, and their members expelled.

289

They now, however, demanded a

and proposed, if their request

recognition,

was complied with, to bestow the government of the "hautes grades" upon the
same person who was at the head of the
Masters who had made a traffic of initia- Grand Lodge. The compromise was made,
tions, but who, heretofore, had submitted to the recognition was decreed, and the Duke
the control, and been checked by the au- of Chartres was elected Grand Master of
From among all the Councils, Chapters, and Scotch
thority of, the Grand Lodge.
them he selected officers devoted to his ser- Lodges of France.
But peace was not yet restored. The
vice, and undertook a complete reorganizaparty who had been expelled, moved by a
tion of the Grand Lodge.
The retired members, however, protested spirit of revenge for the disgrace formerly
against these illegal proceedings; and in inflicted on them, succeeded in obtaining
the subsequent year, the Grand Master con- the appointment of a committee which was
sented to revoke the authority he had be- empowered to prepare a new Constitution.
stowed upon Lacorne, and appointed as his All the Lodges of Paris and the provinces
deputy, M. Chaillou de Jonville. The re- were requested to appoint deputies, who
spectable members now returned to their were to form a convention to take the new
seats in the Grand Lodge and in the trien- Constitution into consideration.
This connial election which took place in June, vention, or, as they called it, National As1765, the officers who had been elected dur- sembly, met at Paris in December, 1771.
ing the Deputy Grand Mastership of La- The Duke of Luxemburg presided, and on
corne were all removed.
The displaced the twenty-fourth of that month the Anofficers protested, and published a defamacient Grand Lodge of France was declared
tory memoir on the subject, and were in. extinct, and in its place another substituted,
consequence expelled from Masonry by the with the title of Grand Orient de France.
Grand Lodge. Ill feeling on both sides
Notwithstanding the declaration of exwas thus engendered, and carried to such a tinction by the National Assembly, the
height, that, at one of the communications Grand Lodge continued to meet and to
of the Grand Lodge, the expelled brethren, exercise its functions. Thus the Fraternity
attempting to force their way in, were re- of France continued to be harassed, by the
sisted with violence.
The next day the bitter contentions of these rival bodies, until
lieutenant of police issued an edict, forbid- the commencement of the revolution comding the future meetings of the Grand pelled both the Grand Orient and the Grand
Lodge.
Lodge to suspend their labors.
The expelled party, however, still conOn the restoration of civil order, both
tinued their meetings.
The Count de bodies resumed their operations, but the
Clermont died in 1771 and the excluded Grand Lodge had been weakened by the
Irritated at this pointed disrespect,
he sought in the taverns of Paris those
officer.

brethren having invited the Duke of Chartres (afterwards Duke of Orleans) to the
Grand Mastership, he accepted the appointment. They now offered to unite with the
Grand Lodge, on condition that the latter
would revoke the decree of expulsion. The
proposal was accepted, and the Grand Lodge
went once more into operation.

Another union took place, which has

since considerably influenced the character
of French Masonry. During the troubles
of the preceding years, Masonic bodies
were instituted in various parts of the kingdom, which professed to confer degrees of
a higher nature than those belonging to
Craft Masonry, and which have since been

known by the name of the High Degrees.

These Chapters assumed a right to

2

19

death of

who had

many

of the perpetual Masters,

originally been attached to

it

and

a better spirit arising, the Grand Lodge

was, by a solemn and mutual declaration,
united to the Grand Orient on the 28th of
June, 1799.
Dissensions, however, continued to arise
between the Grand Orient and the different
Chapters of the high degrees. Several of
those bodies had at various periods given in
their adhesion to the Grand Orient, and
again violated the compact of peace. Finally, the Grand Orient, perceiving that
the pretensions of the Scotch Bite Masons
would be a perpetual source of disorder, decreed on the 16th of September, 1805, that
the Supreme Council of the thirty-third degree should thenceforth become an inde-

FRANKLIN

FRANCIS

290

pendent body, with the power to confer

warrants of constitution for all the degrees
superior to the eighteenth, or Rose Croix
while the Chapters of that and the inferior
degrees were placed under the exclusive
control of the Grand Orient.
Bui the concordat was not faithfully observed by either party, and dissensions continued to exist with intermittent and unsuccessful attempts at reconciliation, which
was, however, at last effected in some sort in
1841. The Masonic obedience of France is
now divided between the two bodies, and
the Grand Orient and the Supreme Council
now both exist as independent powers in
French Masonry. The constant tendency
of the former to interfere in the administration of other countries would furnish an
unpleasant history for the succeeding thirty
years, at last terminated by the refusal of
all the Grand Lodges in the United States,
and some in Europe, to hold further Masonic communication with it; a breach
which every good Mason must desire to see
eventually healed. One of the most extraordinary acts of the Grand Orient of France
has been the recent abolition of the office of
Grand Master, the duties being performed by
the President of the Council of the Order.
Francis II., Emperor of Germany,
was a bitter enemy of Freemasonry. In
1789, he ordered all the Lodges in his dominions to be closed, and directed all civil
and military functionaries to take an oath
never to unite with any secret society, under
pain of exemplary punishment and destitution of office.
In 1794, he proposed to
the diet of Ratisbon the suppression of
the Freemasons, the Illuminati, and all
other secret societies. The diet, controlled
by the influence of Prussia, Brunswick, and
Hanover, refused to accede to the proposition, replying to the emperor that he might
interdict the Lodges in his own states, but
that others claimed Germanic liberty.
In
1801, he renewed his opposition to secret
societies, and especially to the Masonic
Lodges, and all civil, military, and ecclesi-

were restrained from

taking any part in them under the penalty
astical functionaries

of forfeiting their

offices.

Francken, Henry A.

The

first

Deputy Inspector General appointed by

Stephen Morin, under his commission from
the Emperors of the East and West.
Francken received his degrees and his appointment

at Kingston, Jamaica.
The
not known, but it must have been
between 1762 and 1767. Francken soon
afterwards repaired to the United States,
where he gave the appointment of a Deputy
to Moses M. Hayes, at Boston, and organized a council of Princes of Jerusalem at
Albany. He may, I think, be considered

date

is

as the first propagator of the

in the United States.

high degrees

Franc - Macon, Franc - MaoonThe French names of Freemason

and of Freemasonry. The construction of

nerie.

these words is not conformable to the genius

or the idiom of the French language, which
would more properly employ the terms
"Macon libre," and "Macjonnerie libre;"
and hence Laurens, in his Essais historiques
et critiques sur la Franc- Magonnerie, adduces
their incorporation into the language as an
evidence that the Institution in France was
derived directly from England, the words
being a literal and unidiomatic translation
of the English titles. But he blunders in
supposing that Franc-Mason and FrancMasonry are any part of the English language.

Frankfort- on-thc-Main. A Provincial Grand Lodge was established in this

city, in 1766, by the Grand Lodge of England. In the dissensions which soon after
prevailed among the Masons of Germany,

the Provincial Grand Lodge of Frankfort,

not finding itself supported by its mother
Grand Lodge, declared itself independent
in 1782. Since 1825, it has worked under
the title of the " Grand Lodge of the Eclectic Union of Freemasons."
Franklin, Benjamin. This sage
and patriot was born in the city of Boston,
Massachusetts, on the 6th of January, 1706.
Of the time and place of his initiation as a
Freemason we have no positive evidence;
it was, however, certainly anterior to the
year 1734, and he was probably made a

Mason

in England during a temporary visit

which he paid to that country. On the 24th
of June, 1734, a petition was signed by himself and several brethren residing at Philadelphia, and presented to the Grand Lodge

of Massachusetts, praying for a Constitution

The prayer
to hold a Lodge in that city.
of the petition was granted, and Franklin

was appointed the first Master. " He was,"

says C. W, Moore, " probably invested with
special powers, for we find that in November following he affixes to his name the
"
title of ' Grand Master of Pennsylvania.'
In
[Freemason's Magazine, vol. v., 105.)
November, 1734, Franklin applied to Henry
Price, who had received from England authority to establish Masonry in this country,
for a confirmation of those powers conferred
by the first deputation or warrant. It is
probable that the request was granted, although I can find no record of the fact.
In 1734, Franklin edited an edition of Anderson's Constitutions, which was probably the first Masonic work published in

America.

While Franklin was in France as the

Ambassador from this country, he appears

FREDERICK

FRATER
have taken much interest in Masonry.

to

He

with the celebrated Lodge of

the Nine Sisters, of which Lalande, Court
de Gebelin, and other celebrities of French
literature, were members. He took a prominent part in the initiation of Voltaire, and
on his death acted as Senior Warden of the
Lodge of Sorrow held in his memory. The
Lodge of Nine Sisters held Franklin in such
esteem that it struck a medal in his honor,
of which a copy, supposed to be the only
one now in existence, belongs to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Mecklenburg.
term
Frater. Latin, Brother.
borrowed from the monks by the Military
Orders of the Middle Ages, and applied by
the members to each other. It is constantly employed in England by the Masonic
Knights Templars, and is beginning' to be
adopted, although not very generally, in
When speaking of two
the United States.
or more, it is an error of ignorance, sometimes committed, to call them. /raters. The

Lodges under the obedience of the National

Grand Lodge, he proposed a new system,
to consist of five degrees, namely, the three
symbolic, and two more as complements or
illustrations of the third, which he called
Elect Master and Supreme Elect Master.
Some few Lodges adopted this new system,
but most of them rejected it. The Grand
Chapter, whose existence it had attacked,
denounced it. The Lodges practising it in
Belgium were dissolved in 1830, but a few
of them probably still remain in Holland.
The full rituals of the two supplementary
degrees are printed in the second volume
of Hermes, and an attentive perusal of them
does not give an exalted idea of the inven-

affiliated

correct plural isfratres.

The usual mode of

Fraternally.

subscription to letters written by one Mason to another is, " I remain, fraternally,
yours."
Fraternity. The word was originally
used to designate those associations formed
in the Roman Catholic Church for the pursuit of special religious and ecclesiastical
purposes, such as the nursing of the sick,
the support of the poor, the practice of particular devotions, etc.
They do not date
earlier than the thirteenth century.
The
name was subsequently applied to secular
associations, such as the Freemasons. The

word is only a Latin form of the AngloSaxon Brotherhood.

In the earliest lectures of the last century
find the word fraternity alluded to in
the following formula

we

How many

" Q.
tain to a

particular points per-

Freemason?

"A. Three: Fraternity, Fidelity, and

Taciturnity.
" Q. What do they represent?
" A. Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth

among

all

Right Masons."

Fraternize.
brother
,

To

recognize

as

to associate with Masonically.

Frederick of Nassau.

Prince

Frederick, son of the king of the Netherlands, was for many years the Grand Master
of the National Grand Lodge of that king-

dom. He was ambitious of becoming a

Masonic reformer, and in addition to his
connection with the Charter of Cologne, an
account of which has been given under
that head, he attempted, in 1819, to introduce a new Rite. He denounced the high
degrees as being contrary to the true intent
of Masonry and in a circular to all the
;

291

tive genius of the Prince.

Frederick: the Great.

Frederick

king of Prussia, surnamed the Great,

was born on the 24th of January, 1712, and
died on the 17th of August, 1786, at the
age of seventy-four years and a few months.
He was initiated as a Mason, at Brunswick,
on the night of the 14th of August, 1738,
not quite two years before he ascended the
II.,

throne.
In English,
initiation,

we have two

accounts of this

one by Campbell, in

his

work on

Frederick the Great and his Times, and the

other by Carlyle in his History of Frederick
the Second. Both are substantially th e sam e,
because both are merely translations of the
original account given by Bielfeld in his
Freundschaftliche Briefe, or Familiar Letters.
The Baron von Bielfeld was, at the
time, an intimate companion of the Prince,
and was present at the initiation.
Bielfeld tells us that in a conversation
which took place on the 6th of August at
Loo, (but Carlyle corrects him as to time
and place, and says it probably occurred at
Minden, on the 17th of July,) the institution of Freemasonry had been enthusiastically lauded by the Count of Lippe Buckeburg. The Crown Prince soon after privately expressed to the Count his wish to
join the society. Of course, this wish was
to be gratified. The necessary furniture
and assistance for conferring the degrees
were obtained from the Lodge at Hamburg.
Bielfeld gives an amusing account of the
embarrassments which were encountered in
passing the chest containing the Masonic
implements through the custom-house

without detection.

Campbell, quoting from

Bielfeld, says

"The whole of the 14th (August) was

spent in preparations for the Lodge, and at
twelve at night the Prince Royal arrived,
accompanied by Count Wartensleben, a
captain in the king's regiment at Potsdam.
The Prince introduced him to us as a candidate whom he very warmly recommended,
and begged that he might be admitted im-

FREDERICK

292

mediately after himself. At the same time,

he desired that he might be treated like
any private individual, and that none of
the usual ceremonies might be altered on
his account. Accordingly, he was admitted
in the customary form, and I could not sufficiently admire his fearlessness, his comAfter the double
posure, and his address.
All was over
reception, a Lodge was held.
by four in the morning, and the Prince returned to the ducal palace, apparently as
well pleased with us as we were charmed
with him."
Of the truth of this account there never
has been any doubt. Frederick the Great
was certainly a Mason. But Carlyle, in his
usual sarcastic vein, adds: "The Crown
Prince prosecuted his Masonry at Reinsberg or elsewhere, occasionally, for a year or
two, but was never ardent in it, and very
soon after his accession left off altogether.

....

Royal Lodge was established at

which the new king consented to
be patron but he never once entered the
palace, and only his portrait (a welcomely
good one, still to be found there) presided
Berlin, of

over the mysteries of that establishment."

Now how much of truth with the sarcasm, and how much of sarcasm without
the truth, there is in this remark of Carlyle,
is just what the Masonic world is bound to
discover.
Until further light is thrown
upon the subject by documentary evidence
from the Prussian Lodges, the question cannot be definitely answered. But what is
the now known further Masonic history of
Frederick ?
Bielfeld tells us that the zeal of the
Prince for the Fraternity induced him to
invite the Baron Von Oberg and himself
to Reinsberg, where, in 1739, they founded
a Lodge, into which Keyserling, Jordan,
Moolendorf, Queis, and Fredersdorf (Frederick's valet) were admitted.
Bielfeld is again our authority for stating
that on the 20th of June, 1740, King Frederick
for he had then ascended the throne
held a Lodge at Charlottenburg, and, as
Master in the chair, initiated Prince William
of Prussia, his brother, the Margrave
Charles of Brandenburg, and Frederick
William, Duke of Holstein. The Duke of
Holstein was seven years afterwards elected
Adjutant Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge of the Three Globes at Berlin.
We hear no more of Frederick's Masonry
In the printed records until the 16th of
July, 1774, when he granted his protection
to the National Grand Lodge of Germany,
and officially approved of the treaty with
the Grand Lodge of England, by which the
National Grand Lodge was established. In
the year 1777, the Mother Lodge " Royal
York of Friendship," at Berlin, celebrated,

FREDERICK
by a

the King's birthday, on which

Frederick wrote the following
letter, which, as it is the only printed declaration of his opinion of Freemasonry
that is now extant, is well worth copying
"I cannot but be sensible of the new
homage of the Lodge 'Royal York of
Friendship' on the occasion of the anniversary of my birth, bearing, as it does, the
evidence of its zeal and attachment for my
person. Its orator has well expressed the
sentiments which animate all its labors;
and a society which employs itself only in
sowing the seed and bringing forth the
fruit of every kind of virtue in my dominions may always be assured of my protection.
It is the glorious task of every good
sovereign, and I will never cease to fulfil it.
And s I pray God to take you and your
Lodge under his holy and deserved protection.
Potsdam, this 14th of February,
Frederick."
1777.
In the circular issued by the Supreme Council of Sovereign Inspectors from Charleston, South Carolina, on the 10th of October,
1802, it is stated that " on the first of May,
1786, the Grand Constitution of the thirtythird degree, called the Supreme Council
of Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, was
finally ratified by his Majesty the King of
Prussia, who, as Grand Commander of the
Order of Prince of the Royal Secret, possessed the sovereign Masonic power over all
the Craft. In the new Constitution, this
high power was conferred on a Supreme
Council of nine brethren in each nation,
who possess all the Masonic prerogatives,
in their own district, that his Majesty individually possessed, and are sovereigns of
festival,

occasion

Masonry."
" Livre d'Or " of the Supreme Counof France contains a similar statement,
but with more minute details. It says that
on the 1st of May, 1786, Frederick II., King
of Prussia, caused the high degrees and
Masonic Constitutions of the Ancient Rite
He added eight degrees to
to be revived.
the twenty-five already recognized in Prussia, and founded a Supreme Council of
thirty-three degrees, of which he himself
constructed the regulations in eighteen

The

cil

articles.

It must not be concealed that the truth

of these last statements has been controverted not, however, by positive evidence,
but simply on grounds of probability. Lenning denies it, because he says that Frederick had, for the last fifteen years of his
;

life,

abandoned all direct and indirect acMasonry; and he adds, that he

tivity in

was said

to

high degrees

be decidedly opposed to the

because, in common with

many of the respectable brethren and

Lodges of Germany, he thought that he

FREDERICK

FREDERICK

saw in them the root of all the corruptions

in Masonry, and the seed of the discord
which existed between different Lodges and
systems. But for this assertion of the King's
antipathy to the high degrees, Lenning
gives no other authority than indefinite re-

his guilt, and to ask forgiveness, on which

conditions, as a Mason, he consented to
pardon and forget the offence. Wallgrave,
however, did not avail himself of the fraternal offer ; when the monarch, expressing
his regret at the conviction that no Masonic sentiment could prevail even among so
small a number as composed that Lodge,
closed it, and laid down the gavel, which

port.

Reghellini

(t.

2, p.

263,) says that the

opponents of the Ancient and Accepted

Rite had denied that Frederick could have
had anything to do with the establishment
of the Constitutions of May, 1786, because
the King, although the protector of the
Order, had never been either its Chief or
its Grand Master and because it was impossible for him to have approved of any
Masonic regulations, since he had not been
of severe illness,
able, in consequence
;

to attend to the affairs of his kingdom for

eleven months before his death, which took

place in August, 1786.

The idea that Frederick never had been
Grand Master of the Prussian Lodges
seems to be inferred from a passage in Mirabeau's Histoire de la Monarchie Prussienne,
which is in the following words "It is a
great pity that Frederick II. never carried
his zeal so far as to become the Grand
Master of the German, or at least of the
Prussian, Lodges. His power would have
been greatly increased, and perhaps many
of his military enterprises would have
taken another turn, if he had never been
embroiled with the superiors of this associ:

ation."
Mirabeau acknowledges himself
to be indebted for this remark to Fischer's
Geschicte Friedericks II.
But I look in
vain in Thory, or any other historians of
Masonry, for an account of those embroilments of which Fischer, and Mirabeau after

him, have spoken.

That Frederick did not, in his latter days,
take that active interest in Masonry which
had distinguished the beginning of his
reign, although he always continued to be
partial to the Institution, is attempted to
be accounted for by the author of a German
work entitled Erwinia. I am not acquainted with the book but an extract from it
was published several years ago by that
;

distinguished Masonic antiquary, Giles F.

Yates, in the Boston Magazine. It seems,
from the anecdote there related, that Gen.

Wallgrave, an officer of distinction, and

one of the members of a select Lodge in
Berlin over which Frederick had presided
for many years, had been guilty of treasonable practices, which became known to his
Master. While the Lodge was in session,
the King communicated the fact that one

of the brethren, whose name he did not

disclose, had violated the laws of the Order
and of the State. He called upon him to
make a full confession, in open Lodge, of

293

<

he never afterwards resumed, and Wallgrave was subsequently punished.

The
author adds, that from the moment Frederick had been thus forced to break the ties
which bound him to a brother Mason he
ceased to engage in the active work of a
Lodge. But this did not induce him to
dissolve his connection with the Order,
which, to the day of his death, he never
ceased to honor, and to extend to it his
protection and patronage.
The evidence of the connection of Frederick with the Institution in his latter days,
and of his organization of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite, are, it must be
confessed, derived only from the assertions
made in the Grand Constitutions of 1786,
and from the statements of the earliest
bodies that have received and recognized
If the document is
these- Constitutions.
not authentic, and if those who made the
statements here have been mistaken or been
dishonest, then the proof of Frederick's interest

and labors in Masonry must

fall to

the ground. Yet, on the other side, the

oppugners of the theory that in May, 1786,
the King signed the Constitutions, which
fact alone would be sufficient to establish
his Masonic character,
have been able to
bring forward in support of their denial
little more than mere conjecture, and, in
some instances, perversions of acknowledged
Brother Albert Pike, in the edihistory.
tion of the Grand Constitutions which he
prepared for the use of the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction, and published in 1872, has most thoroughly investigated this subject with the learning of
a scholar and the acumen of a lawyer.

While unable

to advance

any new

facts,

he

has collected all the authorities, and has,

by the most irrefragable arguments, shown
that the conclusions of those who deny the
authenticity of the Constitutions of 1786,
and Frederick's connection with them, are
illogical, and are sustained only by false
Brother
statements and wild conjecture.
Pike very candidly says
" There is no doubt that Frederick came
to the conclusion that the great pretensions
of Masonry in the blue degrees were mereHe ridiculed
ly imaginary and deceptive.
the Order, and thought its ceremonies mere
child's play
and some of his sayings to
:

that effect have been preserved.

But

i*

FREDERICK

294

does not at all follow that he might not at

a later day have found it politic to put
himself at the head of an Order that had
become a power; and, adopting such of the
degrees as were not objectionable, to reject
all that were of dangerous tendency, that
had fallen into the hands of the Jesuits, or
been engrafted on the Order by the Illumi-

FREE
The Grand Lodge of England extends
this doctrine, that Masons should be free in
all their thoughts and actions, so far, that
it will not permit the initiation of a candi-

date who is only temporarily in a place of

confinement. In the year 1782, the Master
of the Royal Military Lodge at Woolwich

being confined, most probably for debt, in

the King's Bench prison, at London, the
It is evident that the question of what Lodge, which was itinerant in its character
active part Frederick took in the affairs of and allowed to move from place to place
Masonry is not yet settled. Those who with its regiment, adjourned, with its warclaim him as having been, to within a short rant of Constitution, to the Master in prison,
period before his death, an active patron where several Masons were made.
The
of and worker in the Order, attempt to sus- Grand Lodge, being informed of the cirtain their position by the production of cumstances, immediately summoned the
certain documents. Those who deny that Master and Wardens of the Lodge "to
position assert that those documents have answer for their conduct in making Masons
been forged. Yet it must be admitted that in the King's Bench prison," and, at the
the proofs of forgery that have been offered same time, adopted a resolution, affirming
are not such as in an ordinary criminal that " it is inconsistent with the principles
trial would satisfy a jury.
of Freemasonry for any Freemason's Lodge
Frederick William III. King to be held, for the purpose of making, passof Prussia, and, although not a Freemason, ing, or raising Masons, in any prison or
a generous patron of the Order. On De- place of confinement."
cember 29, 1797, he wrote to the Lodge
Free and Accepted. The title of
Royal York of Friendship, at Berlin, these " Free and Accepted Masons " was first used
words
"I have never been initiated, as by Dr. Anderson in the second edition of the
every one knows, but I am far from con- Book of Constitutions, published in 1738,
ceiving the slightest distrust of the inten- the title of which is " The History and
tions of the members of the Lodge.
I be- Constitutions of the Most Ancient and Honlieve that its design is noble, and founded orable Fraternity of Free and Accepted
on the cultivation of virtue that its methods Masons." In the first edition of 1723, the
are legitimate, and that every political ten- title was " The Constitutions of the Freedency is banished from its operations. masons." The newer title continued to be
Hence, I shall take pleasure in manifesting used by the Grand Lodge of England, in
on all occasions my good-will and my affec- which it was followed by those of Scotland
tion to the Lodge Royal York of Friend- and Ireland and a majority of the Grand
ship, as well as to every other Lodge in my Lodges in this country have adopted the
dominions." In a similar tone of kindness same style, and call themselves Grand
towards Masonry, he wrote three months Lodges of Free and Accepted Masons.
afterwards to Fessler. And when he issued, See Accepted.
The old lectures formerly
October 20, 1798, an edict forbidding secret used in England give the following account
societies, he made a special exemption in of the origin of the term
" The Masons who were selected to build
favor of the Masonic Lodges. To the time
of his death, he was always the avowed the Temple of Solomon were declared Free,
friend of the Order.
and were exempted, together with their deFree. The word " free," in connection scendants, from imposts, duties, and taxes.
with " Mason," originally signified that the They had also the privilege to bear arms.
person so called was free of the company or At the destruction of the Temple by Nebugild of incorporated Masons.
For those chadnezzar, the posterity of these Masons
operative Masons who were not thus made were carried into captivity with the ancient
free of the gild, were not permitted to work Jews.
But the good-will of Cyrus gave
with those who were. A similar regulation them permission to erect a second Temple,
still exists in many parts of Europe, alhaving set them at liberty for that purpose.
though it is not known to this country. It is from this epoch that we bear the name
The term appears to have been first thus of Free and Accepted Masons."
used in the tenth century, when the travelFree Born. In all the old Constitutions,
ling Freemasons were incorporated by the free birth is required as a requisite to the reRoman Pontiff. See Travelling Freemasons. ception of Apprentices. Thus the LandsIn reference to the other sense of free as downe MS, says, " That the prentice be able
meaning not bound, not in captivity, it is a of birth, that 'is, free born." So it is in the
rule of Masonry that no one can be initiated Edinburgh Kilwinning, the York, the Anwho is at the time restrained of his liberty. tiquity, and in every other manuscript that
nati."

FREEMASON

FKEE
has been so far discovered. And hence,
the modern Constitutions framed in 1721
continue the regulation. After the abolition of slavery in the West Indies by the
British Parliament, the Grand Lodge of
England changed the word " free born " into
"free," but the ancient landmark never
has been removed in this country.
The non-admission of a slave seems to
have been founded upon the best of reasons; because, as Freemasonry involves a

Freedom.

This is defined to be a
of exemption from the control or
power of another. The doctrine that Masons should enjoy unrestrained liberty, and
state

all their thoughts and actions,

carried so far in Masonry, that the Grand
Lodge of England will not permit the initiation of a candidate who is only temporarily deprived of his liberty, or even in a
place of confinement. See Free.
It is evident that the word freedom is
used in Masonry in a symbolical or metaphysical sense differing from its ordinary
signification. While, in the application of
the words free born and freeman, we use
them in their usual legal acceptation, we
combine freedom with fervency and zeal
Gadicke,
as embodying a symbolic idea.
under the word Freiheit, in his FreimaurerLexicon, thus defines the word
"
word that is often heard among us,
but which is restricted to the same limitation as the freedom of social life.
have
in our assemblies no freedom to act each
one as he pleases. But we are, or should
be, free from the dominion of passion,
pride, prejudice, and all the other follies of
human nature.
are free from the false
delusion that we need not be obedient to
the laws." Thus he makes it equivalent to
integrity; a sense that I think it bears in

be free in
is

solemn contract, no one can legally bind

himself to its performance who is not a free
agent and the master of his own actions.
That the restriction is extended to those
who were originally in a servile condition,
but who may have since acquired their liberty,, seems to depend on the principle that
birth in a servile condition is accompanied
by a degradation of mind and abasement
of spirit which no subsequent disenthralA
ment can so completely efface as to render
the party qualified to perform his duties, as
a Mason, with that " freedom, fervency, and
zeal " which are said to have distinguished
our ancient brethren.
"Children," says
Oliver, "cannot inherit a free and noble
spirit except they be born of a free woman."
The same usage existed in the spurious
Freemasonry or the mysteries of the ancient
world. There, no slave, or man born in
slavery, could be initiated; because the the next
imperatively demanded that
the candidate should not only be a man of
irreproachable manners, but also a freeborn
denizen of the country in which the mys-

were celebrated.

Some Masonic writers have thought

that

in this regulation, in relation to free birth,

some allusion is intended, both in the mysteries and in Freemasonry, to the relative
conditions and characters of Isaac and Ishmael. The former
the accepted one, to

whom the

promise was given

was the son

woman, and the latter, who was

cast forth to have " his hand against every
man and every man's hand against him,"
was the child of a slave. Wherefore, we
read that Sarah demanded of Abraham,
"Cast out this bondwoman and her son;

of a free

son of the bondwoman shall not be

heir with my son."
Dr. Oliver, in speaking
of the grand festival with which Abraham
celebrated the weaning of Isaac, says that
he " had not paid the same compliment at
the weaning of Ishmael, because he was the
son of a bondwoman, and consequently
could not be admitted to participate in the
Freemasonry of his father, which could only
be conferred on free men born of free women." The ancient Greeks were of the
same opinion; for they used the word
SovTioTrpeTTEia, or "slave manners," to designate any very great impropriety of manners.
for the

We

We

article.

Freedom, Fervency, and Zeal.

prerequisites

teries

295

The

earliest lectures in the eighteenth century designated freedom, fervency, and zeal
as the qualities which should distinguish
the servitude of Apprentices, and the same
symbolism is found in the ritual of the
present day. The word freedom is not here
to be taken in its modern sense of liberty,
but rather in its primitive Anglo-Saxon
meaning of frankness, generosity, a generous

work or perform one's

So Chaucer uses it in the Prior's
willingness to
(v.

"

duty.
Tale,

46:)

A knight there was,

That

and that a worthy man,

fro the time that he first began

out, he loved chivalrie,

To riden

Trouthe and Honour, Freedom and Chivalrie."

See Fervency and Zeal.

Freeman.
some years

The Grand Lodge of Eng-

ago, erased from their list

of the qualifications of candidates the word
" free born," and substituted for it " freeman." Their rule now reads, "every candidate must be a freeman." This has been
generally considered an unauthorized violation of a landmark.
Freemason. One who has been initiated into the mysteries of the fraternity
of Freemasonry. Freemasons are so called
to distinguish them from the Operative or

land,

FREEMASONRY

FREEMASON

296

Stone-masons, who constituted an inferior

class of workmen, and out of whom they
sprang. See Stone-Masons and Travelling
Freemasons. The meaning of the epithet
free, as applied to Mason, is given under
the word Free. In the old lectures of the
last century a Freemason was described as
being "a freeman, born of a freewoman,
brother to a king, fellow to a prince, or
companion to a beggar, if a Mason," and
by this was meant to indicate the universality of the brotherhood.
The word " Freemason " was until repently divided into two words, sometimes
witji and sometimes without a hyphen;
and we find in all the old books and manuscripts " Free Mason" or " Free - Mason."
But this usage has been abandoned by all
good writers, and "Freemason" is now
always spelled as one word. The old Constitutions constantly used the word Mason.
Freemason appears only in the Harleian

MS., dated 1670. Yet the word was employed at a very early period in the parish
registers of England, and by some writers.
Thus, in the register of the parish of Astbury we find these items
" 1685.
Smallwood, Jos., fils Jos. Henshaw, Freemason, bapt. 3 die Nov.
" 1697. Jos. fil Jos. Henshaw, Freemason, buried 7 April."

But the most singular passage is one

found in Cawdray's Treasurie of Similies,
published in 1609, and which he copied from
Bishop Coverdale's translation of Werdmuller's A Spiritual and most Precious Perle,
which was published in 1550. It is as follows
"As the Free - Mason heweth the
hard stones .... even so God the Heavenly Free -Mason buildeth a Christian
church." But, in fact, the word was used
:

at a much earlier period, and occurs, Steinbrenner says, ( Orig. and Early Hist of Mas.,
p. 110,) for the first time in a statute passed
in 1350, in the twenty-fifth year of Edward
I., where the wages of a master Freemason
are fixed at 4 pence, and of other masons
at 3 pence.
The original French text of
the statute is "Mestre de franche-peer."
"Here," says Steinbrenner, " the word Freemason evidently signifies a free-stone mason
one who works in free-stone, (Fr.

franche-peer,

i. e.,

franche-pierre,) as distin-

guished from the rough mason,

who merely

built walls of rough, unhewn stone." This

latter sort of workmen was that class called

by the Scotch Masons cowans, whom the

Freemasons were forbidden to work with,
whence we get the modern use of that
word. Ten years after, in 1360, we have a
statute of Edward III., in which it is ordained that " every mason shall finish his
work, be it of free-stone or of rough-stone,"
where the French text of the statute is

" de franche-pere ou de grosse-pere." Thus

seems evident that the word free-mason
was originally used in contradistinction
to rough-mason.
The old Constitutions
sometimes call these latter masons roughit

layers.

Freemasonry, History of. It is

the opprobrium of Freemasonry that its
history has never yet been written in a
spirit of critical truth
that credulity, and
not incredulity, has been the foundation on
;

which all Masonic historical investigations

have hitherto been built that imagination
has too often " lent enchantment to the
;

view " that the missing links of a chain

of evidence have been frequently supplied

by gratuitous invention and that statements of vast importance have been .carelessly sustained by the testimony of documents whose authenticity has not been
;

proved.

me to the important questhe history of Freemasonry

to be written, so that the narrative shall
win the respect of its enemies, and secure
the assent and approbation of its friends ?
In the first place, we must begin by a
If
strict definition of the word Masonry.
we make it synonymous with Freemasonry,
then must we confine ourselves closely to
the events that are connected with the Institution in its present form and organmay then say that Maization.
sonry received a new organization and a
restoration in the beginning of the eightmay trace this very
eenth century.
Institution, with an older but not dissimilar
form, in the Masonic guilds of Europe; in
the corporations of Stone-masons of Germany in the travelling Freemasons of the
Middle Ages, and connect it with the ColSuch a hisleges of Architects of Rome.
tory will not want authentic memorials to
substantiate its truth, and there will be no
difficulty in conferring upon the Institution
an enviable antiquity.
But if we confound the term Masonry with
Geometry, with Architecture, or with Moral
Science, we shall beget in the mind, equally
of the writer and the reader, such a confusion of ideas as can never lead to any pracAnd yet this has been the pretical result.
vailing error of all the great English writers on Masonry in the last, and, with a fewexceptions, even in the present century.
At one moment they speak of Masonry as
a mystical institution which, in its then
existing form, was familiar to their readers.
Soon afterwards, perhaps on the same page,
a long paragraph is found to refer, without
any change of name, under the identical
term Masonry, to the rise of Architecture,
to the progress of Geometry, or perhaps to
the condition of the moral virtues.
And

tion

this leads

How

is

We

We

FREEMASONRY

FREEMASONS

Thus Preston, in his Illustrations of Masonry, begins his section on the Origin of
Masonry by stating that, " from the com-

period.
Its connection with these associations can be rationally established by authentic documents, and by other evidence
which no historian would reject. Thus
dispassionately and philosophically treated,
as though it were the history of an empire
that was under investigation,
no claim
being advanced that cannot be substantiated, no assertion made that cannot be
proved,
Freemasonry
the word so used
meaning, without evasion or reservation,
precisely what everybody supposes it to

mencement of the world we may

trace the

And

he adds:
Ever since symmetry began and harmony
displayed her charms, our Order has had a
being." But, after we have read through
foundation of Masonry."
"

we find that it is not to

Freemasonry, such as we know and recognize it, that the author has been referring,
but to some great moral virtue, to the social
feeling, to the love of man for man, which,
as inherent in the human breast, must have
existed from the very creation of the race,
and necessarily have been the precursor of
the entire chapter,

civilization and the arts.

Oliver, who, notwithstanding the valuable services which he has rendered to Ma-

sonry, was unfortunately too much given

to abstract speculations, has "out-heroded
Herod," and, in commenting on this passage of Preston, proclaims " that our science
existed before the creation of this globe, and
was diffused amidst the numerous systems
with which the grand empyreum of universal space is furnished."
But on further
reading, we find that by Speculative Masonry the writer means " a system of ethics
founded on the belief of a God," and that
in this grandiloquent sentence he does not
refer to the Freemasonry of whose history
he is professing to treat, but to the existence of such a belief among the sentient
intelligences who, as he supposes, inhabit
the planets and stars of the solar system.
Anderson is more modest in his claims,
and traces Masonry only to Adam in the
garden of Eden ; but soon we find that he,
too, is treating of different things by the
same name, and that the Masonry of the
primal patriarch is not the Freemasonry of
our day, but Geometry and Architecture.
Now, all this is to write romance, not history.
Such statements may be said to be
what the French call faeons de parler
rhetorical flourishes, having much sound,

and no meaning.

But when the reader

meets with them in books written by men
of eminence, professedly intended to give
the true history of the Order, he either abandons in disgust a study which has been
treated with so much folly, or he is led to
adopt theories which he cannot maintain,
because they are absurd. In the former
case Freemasonry perhaps loses a disciple
in the latter, he is ensnared by a delusion.
The true history of Freemasonry is much
in its character like the history of a nation.
It has its historic and its pre-historic era.
In its historic era, the Institution can be
regularly traced through various antecedent associations, similar in design and
organization, to a comparatively remote
'

2N

297

mean

can be invested with

sufficient for the pride of the

admirer of the Society

And

an antiquity
most exacting

then, for the pre-historic era,

that

which connects it with the mysteries of the

Pagan world, and with the old priests of

Eleusis, of Samothrace, or of Syria,

let
us honestly say that we now no longer
treat of Freemasonry under its present organization, which we know did not exist
in those days, but of a science peculiar,
and peculiar only, to the Mysteries and to
Freemasonry,
a science which we may
call Masonic symbolism, and which constituted the very heart-blood of the ancient
and the modern institutions, and gave to
them, while presenting a dissimilarity of
form, an identity of spirit. And then, in
showing the connection and in tracing the
germ of Freemasonry in those pre-historic
days, although we shall be guided by no
documents, and shall have no authentic
spoken or written narratives on which to

we shall find fossil thoughts embalmed

in those ancient intellects precisely like
the living ones which crop out in modern
Masonry, and which, like the fossil shells
and fishes of the old physical formations
of the earth, show, by their resemblance to
living specimens, the graduated connection
of the past with the present.
No greater honor could accrue to any
man than that of having been the founder
of a new school of Masonic history, in
which the fictions and loose statements of
former writers would be rejected, and in
which the rule would be adopted that has
been laid down as a vital maxim of all inin words that have been
ductive science,
chosen as his motto by a recent powerful
investigator of historical truth
" Not to exceed and not to fall short of
not to add and not to take away.
facts
To state the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth."
rely,

Freemasons of the Churcli. An

architectural college was organized in London, in the year 1842, under the name of
" Freemasons of the Church for the Recovery, Maintenance, and Furtherance of the
True Principles and Practice of Architec-

ture."

The founders

of the association

FRENCH

FREE-WILL

298

their objects to be " the rediscovery of the ancient principles of architecture the sanction of good principles of
building, and the condemnation of bad
ones the exercise of scientific and experienced judgment in the choice and use of
the proper materials; the infusion, maintenance, and advancement of science
throughout architecture; and eventually,
by developing the powers of the college
upon a just and beneficial footing, to reform
the whole practice of architecture, to raise
it from its present vituperated condition,
and to bring around it the same unquestioned honor which is at present enjoyed
by almost every other profession." One of
their members has said that the title assumed was not intended to express any
conformity with the general body of Freemasons, but rather as indicative of the profound views of the college, namely, the
recovery, maintenance, and furtherance of
the free principles and practice of architecture and that, in addition, they made
it an object of their exertions to preserve
or effect the restoration of architectural
remains of antiquity, threatened unnecessarily with demolition or endangered by deBut it is evident, from the close
cay.
connection of modern Freemasonry with
the building gilds of the Middle Ages, that
any investigation into the condition of
Mediaeval architecture must throw light on

announced
;

Masonic

history.

and Accord. There is

one peculiar feature in the Masonic InstiFree- Will

tution that must commend it to the respect

of every generous mind. In other associations it is considered meritorious in a member to exert his influence in obtaining
applications for admission but it is wholly
uncongenial with the spirit of our Order
to persuade any one to become a Mason.
Whosoever seeks a knowledge of our mys;

rites, must first be prepared for the

ordeal in his heart he must not only be
endowed with the necessary moral qualifications which would fit him for admission
into our ranks, but he must come, too, uninfluenced by friends and unbiassed by
unworthy motives. This is a settled landmark of the Order ; and, therefore, nothing
can be more painful to a true Mason than
to see this landmark violated by young and
heedless brethren. For it cannot be denied
that it is sometimes violated; and this
habit of violation is one of those unhappy
influences sometimes almost insensibly exerted upon Masonry by the existence of
the many secret societies to which the
present age has given birth, and which resemble Masonry in nothing except in having some sort of a secret ceremony of
These societies are introducing
initiation.

tic

some parts of our country such phraseology as a " card" for a " demit," or "worthy " for " worshipful," or u brothers " for
" brethren." And there are some men who,
coming among us imbued with the principles and accustomed to the usages of these
modern societies, in which the persevering
solicitation of candidates is considered as a
legitimate and even laudable practice,
bring with them these preconceived notions, and consider it their duty to exert
all their influence in persuading their
friends to become members of the Craft.
Men who thus misunderstand the true
policy of our Institution should be instructed by their older and more experienced brethren that it is wholly in opposition to all our laws and principles to ask
any man to become a Mason, or to exercise
any kind of influence upon the minds of
others, except that of a truly Masonic life
and a practical exemplification of its tenets,
by which they may be induced to ask admission into our Lodges. We must not
seek,
we are to be sought.
And if this were not an ancient law,
imbedded in the very cement that upkolds
our system, policy alone would dictate an
adherence to the voluntary usage.
need not now fear that our Institution will
suffer from a deficiency of members.
Our
greater dread should be that, in its rapid
extension, less care may be given to the
selection of candidates than the interests
and welfare of the Order demand. There
can, therefore, be no excuse for the practice of persuading candidates, and every
hope of safety in avoiding such a practice.
It should always be borne in mind that the
candidate who comes to us not of his own
" free-will and accord," but induced by the
persuasions of his friends,
no matter how
violates, by
worthy he otherwise may be,
so coming, the requirements of our Institution on the very threshold of its temple,
and, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred,
fails to become imbued with that zealous
attachment to the Order which is absolutely
essential to the formation of a true Mainto

We

sonic character.

Freimaurer. German for Freemason.

" a wall," and mauern, " to
build a wall." Hence, literally, freimaurer
is a " builder of walls" who is free of his
gild, from the fact that the building of
walls was the first occupation of masons.
Freiinaurerei. German for Freemasonry.

Mauer means

French, Benjamin Brown. A

Mason

of the United States,

at Chester, in New Hampshire, September 4, 1800, and died at the
city of Washington, where he had long reHe was initisided, on August 12, 1870.

distinguished

who was born

FUND

FRENCH
ated into

299

Masonry in 1825, and during his the first degree. And that the symbolism
took an active interest in the further represents the sun in his annual

whole

life

affairs

of the Fraternity.

many years

He

served for

progress through the four seasons.

Thus,

Grand Secretary of the Elect degree represents the element of

the General Grand Chapter, and Grand Re- Earth and the season of Spring ; the Scotcorder of the Grand Encampment of the tish Master represents Air and the Summer ;
United States. In 1846, soon after his ar- the Knight of the East represents Water
rival in Washington, he was elected Grand and Autumn ; and the Rose Croix repreMaster of the Grand Lodge of the District, sents Fire; but he does claim that it is conas General

a position which he repeatedly occupied.

In 1859 he was elected Grand Master of the
Templars of the United States, a distinguished position which he held for six
years, having been re-elected in 1862. His
administration, during a period of much
excitement in the country, was marked by
great firmness, mingled with a spirit of
conciliation.
He was also a prominent
member of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and at the time of his death was
the Lieutenant Grand Commander of the
Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States.
Brother French was possessed of much
ability, and
contributed no
small share of his studies to the literature
of Masonry. His writings, which have not
yet been collected, were numerous, and
consisted of Masonic odes, many of them
marked with the true poetic spirit, eloquent
addresses on various public occasions,
learned dissertations on Masonic law, and
didactic essays, which were published at the
time in various periodicals. His decisions

intellectual

on Templar law have always been esteemed

of great value.

French Rite. [Rite Frangais mi

Moderne.) The French or Modern Rite is
one of the three principal Rites of Freemasonry.
It consists of seven degrees, three
symbolic and four higher, viz. 1. Apprentice; 2. Fellow-Craft; 3. Master; 4. Elect;
5. Scotch Master
6. Knight of the East
7. Rose Croix.
This Rite is practised in
France, in Brazil, and in Louisiana.
It
was founded, in 1786, by the Grand Orient
of France, who, unwilling to destroy entirely the high degrees which were then practised by the different Rites, and yet anxious
to reduce them to a smaller number and to
greater simplicity, extracted these degrees
out of the Rite of Perfection, making some
few slight modifications. Most of the authors who have treated of this Rite have
given to its symbolism an entirely astronomical meaning.
Among these writers,
we may refer to Ragon, in his Cours Philosophique, as probably the most scientific.
Ragon, in his Tuileur General, (p. 51,)
says that the four degrees of the French
Rite, which were elaborated to take the
place of the thirty degrees of the Scottish
Rite, have for their basis the four physical
proofs to which the recipiendary submits in
:

secrated to Winter, although that would be

the natural conclusion.
The original Rose Croix was an eminently Christian degree, which, being found inconvenient, was in 1860 substituted by the
Philosophic Rose Croix, which now forms
the summit of the French Rite.

Friendly Societies.

Societies first

established towards the end of the last century, in England, for the relief of mechanics,
laborers, and other persons who derived their
support from their daily toil. By the weekly payment of a stipulated sum, the members secured support and assistance from
the society when sick, and payment of the
expenses of burial when they died. These
societies gave origin to the Odd Fellows
and other similar associations, but they
have no relation whatever to Freemasonry.
Friend of St. John. The sixth degree of the system practised by the Grand
Lodge of Sweden. It is comprehended in
the degree of Knight of the East and West.

Friend of Truth. The fifth degree

of the Rite of African Architects.
Friendship. Leslie, in 1741, delivered the first descant on Friendship as
peculiarly a Masonic virtue. He was followed by Hutchinson, Preston, and other
writers, and now in the modern lectures it
is adopted as one of the precious jewels of
a Master Mason. Of universal friendship,
blue is said to be the symbolic color. " In
regular gradation," says Munkhouse, [Disc,
i. 17,)
"and by an easy descent, brotherly
love extends itself to lesser distinct societies
or to particular individuals, and thus becomes friendship either of convenience or
of personal affection." Cicero says, " Amicitia nisi inter

bonos non potest," Friend-

ship can exist only

Fund

among

the good.

of BeneTolence. A
many

fund

years ago by the Grand

Lodge of England, principally through the
exertions of Dr. Crucefix. The regulations
Its disfor its management are as follows.
tribution and application is directed by the
Constitution to be monthly, for which purpose a committee or Lodge of Benevolence
is holden on the last Wednesday of every
month. This Lodge consists of all the
present and past Grand officers, all actual
Masters of Lodges, and twelve Past Masters.
The brother presiding is bound strictly to
enforce all the regulations of the Craft reestablished

FUND

specting the distribution of the fund, and

must be satisfied, before any petition is read,
that all the required formalities have been
complied with. To every petition must be
added a recommendation, signed in open
Lodge by the Master, Wardens, and a majority of the members then present, to
which the petitioner does or did belong, or
from some other contributing Lodge, certifying that they have known him to have
been in reputable, or at least tolerable, circumstances, and that he has been not less
than two years a subscribing member to a
regular Lodge.
of the Lodge. The funds of
the Lodge are placed in the keeping of the
Treasurer, to whom all moneys received by
the Secretary must be immediately paid.
Hence each of these officers is a check on
the other. And hence, too, the "Thirtynine Regulations" of 1721 say that the
Treasurer should be "a brother of good
worldly substance," lest impecuniosity
should tempt him to make use of the Lodge
funds.
Funeral Rites. See Burial.
word in the high degrees,
Furlac.
whose etymology is uncertain, but probably
Arabic. It is said to signify the angel of
the earth.

divine will by that holy book than by any

other means.
The compasses, being the
chief implement used in the construction
of all architectural plans and designs, are
assigned to the Grand Master in particular
as emblems of his dignity, he being the
chief head and ruler of the Craft. The
square is given to the whole Masonic body,
because we are all obligated within it, and
are consequently bound to act thereon."
But the lecture of the early part of the last
century made the furniture consist of the
Mosaic Pavement, Blazing Star, and the Indented Tarsel, while the Bible, square, and
compass were considered as additional

300

Funds

Furniture of Lodge. The Bible,

square, and compasses are technically said
to constitute the furniture of a Lodge.
They are respectfully dedicated to God, the
Master of the Lodge, and the Craft. Our
English brethren differ from us in their explanation of the furniture. Oliver gives
their illustration, from the English lectures,
as follows
" The Bible is said to derive from God
to man in general, because the Almighty
has been pleased to reveal more of his

furniture.

Fustier. An officer of the Grand

Orient of France in the beginning of this
century. In 1810, he published, and presented to the Grand Orient, a Geographical
Chart of the Lodges in France and its Dependencies.
He was the author of several

memoirs, dissertations, etc., on Masonic

subjects, and of a manuscript entitled Nomenclature Alphabetique des Grades. Oliver
{Landmarks, ii. 95,) says that he promulgated a new system of sixty-four degrees.
I think he has mistaken Fustier's catalogue
of degrees invented by others for a system
established by himself. I can find no record elsewhere of such a system. Lenning
says (Encyc. der Freimaurerei) that Fustier
was a dealer in Masonic decorations and in
the transcript of rituals, of which he had
made a collection of more than four hundred, which he sold at established prices.

Future

Life.

Lorenzo

de Medici

said that all those are dead, even for the

present life, who do not believe in a future
The belief in that future life, it is
state.
the object of Freemasonry, as it was of the
ancient initiations, to teach.

G.
G. As in all Roman Catholic and in
many Protestant churches the cross, engraved or sculptured in some prominent
position, will be found as the expressive
symbol of Christianity, so in every Masonic
Lodge a letter G- may be seen in the east,
either painted on the wall or sculptured in
wood or metal, and suspended over the
Master's chair. This is, in fact, if not the
most prominent, certainly the most familiar,
of all the symbols of Freemasonry. It is
the one to which the poet Burns alluded in

those well-known and often-quoted lines,

in which he speaks of
"

that hieroglyphic bright,

ever

Which none but Craftsmeu

saw

"
;

that is to say, ever saw understanding^

ever saw, knowing at the same time what

it

meant.

an uncertainty as to the exact

symbol was first introduced
into Speculative Masonry.
It was not derived, in its present form, from the operaThere

time

is

when

this

G
Masons of the Middle Ages, who bestowed upon Freemasonry so much of its
symbolism, for it is not found among the
architectural decorations of the old catheDr. Oliver says it was " in the old
drals.
lectures " but this is an uncertain exprestive

From

Prichard's Masonry Dissected,

which was published in 1730, it would seem
that the symbol was not in use at that date.
If Tubal
But it may have been omitted.
Cain, which was published in 1768, is, as
it purported to be, identical with Prichard's
work, the question is settled for it contains
the lecture on the letter G, to which reference will directly be made.
It is, however, certain that the symbol
was well known and recognized in 1766, and
some few years before. The book entitled
Solomon in all his Glory, the first edition
of which appeared in that year, and is said,
on the title-page, to be a translation of a
French original, contains the reference to
and the explanation of the symbol. The
work contains abundant internal evidence
that it is a translation, and hence the symbol may, like some others of the system
subsequent to 1717, have been first introduced on the Continent, and then returned
in the translation, all of which would indicate a date some years anterior to 1776 for
the time of its adoption.
In the ritual contained in Tubal Cain,
(p. 18,) or, if that be only a reprint, in Masonry Dissected, that is to say, in 1768 or
in 1730, there is a test which is called " The
Eepeating the Letter G," and which Dr.
Oliver gives in his Landmarks (i. 454) as a
part of the " old lectures."
It is doggerel
verse, and in the form of a catechism between an examiner and a respondent, a
form greatly affected in these old lectures,
and is as follows
sion.

" Resp.

In the Midst

of Solomon's Temple
there stands a G,
letter for all to read and see
But few there be that understand
What means the letter G.

A
" Ex.

My friend,
Of

if

you pretend

to

be

this Fraternity,

You can forthwith and rightly

What means that letter G.
" Resp.

tell

By sciences are brought about,

Bodies of various kinds,

Which do appear

to perfect sight
shall know

But none but males

my

mind.

"Ex.
Resp.

Ex.

The Right

shall.

If Worshipful.

Both Right and Worshipful I am

To

hail you I have command,

That you forthwith let me know,
As I you may understand.

"

Resp.

By letters four and science

301
five,

This G aright doth stand,

In a due art and proportion
You have your answer, Friend."

And now as to the signification of the

symbol. We may say, in the first place,
that the explanation is by no means, and
never has been, esoteric. As the symbol itself has always been exposed to public view,
forming, as it does, a prominent part of the
furniture of a Lodge, to be seen by every
one, so our Masonic authors, from the
earliest times, have not hesitated to write,
openly and in the plainest language, 'of its
signification.
The fact is, that the secret
instruction in reference to this symbol relates not to the knowledge of the symbol
itself, but to the mode in which, and the
object for which, that knowledge has been
obtained.
Hutchinson, who wrote as early as 1776,
says, in his Spirit of Masonry, (Lect. viii.,)
" It is now incumbent on me to demonstrate
to you the great signification of the letter

G, wherewith Lodges and the medals of

Masons are ornamented.
"To apply it to the name of God only is
depriving it of part of its Masonic import
although I have already shown that the
symbols used in Lodges are expressive of
the Divinity's being the great object of Masonry as Architect of the world.

"This

significant letter denotes

Geome-

the science by
which all their labors are calculated and
formed and to Masons contains the determination, definition, and proof of the order,
beauty, and wonderful wisdom of the power
of God in His creation."
Again, Dr. Frederick Dalcho, a distinguished Mason of South Carolina, in one
of his Orations, delivered and published in
1801, uses the following language:
" The letter G, which ornaments the Master's Lodge, is not only expressive of the
name of the Grand Architect of the universe, but also denotes the science of Geometry, so necessary to artists. But the adoption of it by Masons implies no more than
their respect for those inventions which
demonstrate to the world the power, the
wisdom, and beneficence of the Almighty
Builder in the works of the creation."
Lastly, Dr. Oliver has said, in his Golden
Remains of the Early Masonic Writers, that
"the term G. A. O. T. U. is used among
Masons for this great and glorious Being,
designated by the letter G, that it may be
applied by every brother to the object of
his adoration."
More quotations are unnecessary to show
that from the earliest times, since the adoption of the letter as a symbol, its explanatry,

which, to
;

artificers, is

GABAON

tion has not been deemed an esoteric or seNo Masonic writer

cret part of the ritual.
has hesitated openly to give an explanation
of its meaning. The mode in which, and
the purpose for which, that explanation
was obtained are the only hidden things
about the symbol.
It is to be regretted that the letter G, as
a symbol, was ever admitted into the Masonic system. The use of it, as an initial,
would necessarily confine it to the English
language and to modern times. It wants,
therefore, as a symbol, the necessary characteristics of both universality and antiquity.
The Greek letter gamma is said to
have been venerated by the Pythagoreans
because it was the initial of yeu/ierpia, or
Geometry. But this veneration could not

Indeed, the symbol, made sacred by its

reference to the Grand Geometrician of the
universe, was well worthy to be applied to
that science which has, from the remotest
times, been deemed synonymous with Masonry.
significant word in the
Gabaon.
high degrees. Oliver says, {Landm., i. 335,)
"in philosophical Masonry, heaven, or,
more correctly speaking, the third heaven, is

302

have been shared by other nations whose

alphabet had no gamma, and where the
word for geometry was entirely different.
There can be no doubt that the letter G
a very modern symbol, not belonging to
any old system anterior to the origin of the

is

English language.

It is, in fact, a corruption of the old Hebrew Kabbalistic symbol,

the letter yod, *, by which the sacred name
in fact, the most sacred name, the
of God

Tetragrammaton

This letis expressed.

the initial letter of the word
nirP> or Jehovah, and is constantly to be
met with among Hebrew writers, as the
abbreviation or symbol of that most holy
name, which, indeed, was never written at
length.
is in like manner the
Now, as
initial of God, the English equivalent of
the Hebrew Jehovah, the letter has been
adopted as a symbol intended to supply to
modern Lodges the place of the Hebrew
symbol. First adopted by the English
ritual makers, it has, without remark, been
transferred to the Masonry of the Continent, and it is to be found as a symbol in
all the systems of Germany, France, Spain,
Italy, Portugal, and every other country
where Masonry has been introduced; although in Germany only can it serve, as it
does in England, for an intelligent symbol.
The letter G, then, has in Masonry the
same force and signification that the letter
yod had among the Kabbalists. It is only a
symbol of the Hebrew letter, and, as that
is a symbol of God, the letter
is only a
symbol of a symbol. As for its reference
to geometry, Kloss, the German Masonic
historian, says that the old Operative Masons referred the entire science of geometry
to the art of building, which gave to the
modern English Masons occasion to embrace the whole system of Freemasonry
under the head of Geometry, and hence
the symbol of that science, as well as of
God, was adopted for the purpose of giving
elevation to the Fellow Craft's degree.

ter, yod, is

denominated Mount

Gabaon,

which

is

feigned to be accessible only by the seven

degrees that compass the winding staircase.
These are the degrees terminating in the
Royal Arch." Gabaon is defined to signify
" a high place." It is the Septuagint and
Vulgate form of JIP3J, Gibeon, which was
the city in which the tabernacle was stationed during the reigns of David and Sol-

omon. The word means a city built on a hill,

and is referred to in 2 Chron. i. 3. "So
Solomon, and all the congregation with him,
went to the high place that was at Gibeon
for there was the tabernacle of the congregation of God."
In a ritual of the middle of the last cenit is said that Gabanon is the name
of a Master Mason. This word is a striking
evidence of the changes which Hebrew
words have undergone in their transmission
to Masonic rituals, and of the almost impossibility of tracing them to their proper
root.
It would seem difficult to find a connection between Gabanon and any known
Hebrew word. But if we refer to Guillemain's Ritual of Adonhiramite Masonry, we
will find the following passage:
" Q. How is a Master called?
" A. Gabaoc, which is the name of the
place where the Israelites deposited the
ark in the time of trouble.
" Q. What does this signify?
" A. That the heart of a Mason ought to
be pure enough to be a temple suitable for

tury,

God."
There is abundant internal evidence that
these two rituals came from a common
source, and that Gabaoc is a French distortion as Gabanon is an English one, of some
unknown word connected, however, with
the Ark of the Covenant as the place where
that article was deposited.
Now, we learn from the Jewish records
\

that the Philistines, who had captured the

ark, deposited it " in the house of Abinadab
that was in Gibeah " and that David, subsequently recapturing it, carried it to Jerusalem, but left the tabernacle at Gibeon.
The ritualist did not remember that the
tabernacle at Gibeon was without the ark,
but supposed that it was still in that sacred
shrine.
Hence, Gabaoc or Gabanon must
have been corrupted from either Gibeah or
Gibeon, because the ark was considered to
;

GABAONNE

GAVEL

be at some time in both places. But Gibeon had already been corrupted by the
Septuagint and the Vulgate versions into
Gabaon ; and this undoubtedly is the word
from which Gabanon is derived, through
either the Septuagint or the Vulgate, or
perhaps from Josephus, who calls it Gabao.

of Orator and Master, which he filled,

he taught and recommended that Institution which he had once abused and even
on a public occasion pronounced the eulogy
of that Ramsay whom he had formerly
anathematized.
Gaston, John. Grand Duke of Tuscany; in 1737 he inaugurated a persecu-

Gabaonne.

In French Masonic lan-

guage, the widow of a Master Mason. Derived from Gabaon.

strong.
signifiGabor. Heb.,
cant word in the high degrees.
Gabriel. Heb., Sxn^J, a man of God.
The name of one of the archangels, referred
to in some of the high degrees.

HDX

Gaedioke, Johann Christian.

bookseller of Berlin, born on the 14th

of December, 1763, and initiated into Masonry in 1804. He took much interest in
the Order, and was the author of several
works, the most valuable and best known
of which is the Freimaurer- Lexicon, or
Freemason's Lexicon, published in 1818
which, although far inferior to that of Lenning, which appeared four years afterwards,
is, as a pioneer work, very creditable to its
author.
The Lexicon was translated into
English and published in the London Freemason's Magazine.
Galahad. Also spelled Galaad. Most
probably a corruption of Gilead. Said in
the old rituals to have been the keeper of
the Seals in the Scottish degree of Knights
of the Ninth, Arch or Sacred Vault of
;

James VI.

G.\ A. - . 0.\ T.\ U.\ An

tion of

Grand Architect of the

abbrevia-

Universe,

which

see.

Garinus. Said in the old ritual of

the degree of Knights of the East and West
have been the Patriarch of Jerusalem,
between whose hands the first Knights of
that Order took, in 1182, their vows.
It is
to

a corruption, by the French ritualists, of

Garimond or Garimund, Patriarch of Jerusalem, before whom the Hospitallers took
their three vows of obedience, chastity, and
poverty.
Gassicourt, Cadet de. An apothecary of Paris, who, in the year 1796, published a work entitled Le Tombeau de
Jacques Molai, ou histoire secrete et abregee
des inities anciens et modernes. In this book,
which embraced all the errors of Barruel
and Robison, he made the same charges of
atheism and conspiracy against the Fraternity, and loaded the Chevalier Ramsay, the
inventor of some of the high degrees, with
the most vehement indignation as a libertine
and traitor. ButDe Gassicourt subsequently
acknowledged his folly in writing against
a society of which he really knew nothing.
In fact, in 1805, he solicited admission into
the Order, and was initiated in the Lodge
"1'Abeille," at Paris, where, in the various

303

offices

tion against the Freemasons in his dominions.

See Tuscany.
Gates of the Temple. In the system of Freemasonry, the Temple of Solomon is represented as having a gate on the
east, west, and south sides, but none on the
north.
In reference to the historical Temple of Jerusalem, such a representation is
wholly incorrect. In the walls of the building itself there were no places of entrance
except the door of the porch, which gave
admission to the house. But in the surrounding courts there were gates at every
point of the compass. The Masonic idea
of the Temple is, however, entirely symbolic.
The Temple is to the Speculative Mason only
a symbol not an historical building, and
the gates are imaginary and symbolic also.
They are, in the first place, symbols of the
progress of the sun in his daily course,
rising in the east, culminating to the meridian in the south, and setting in the west.
They are also, in the allegory of life, which
it is the object of the third degree to illustrate, symbols of the three stages of youth,
manhood, and old age, or, more properly of
birth, life, and death.
Gauge. See Twenty-four-inch Gauge.
Gauntlets. Gloves formerly made of
steel and worn by knights as a protection
to their hands in battle. They have been
adopted in the United States, as a part of
the costume of a Knight Templar, under a
regulation of the Grand Encampment,
which directs them to be "of buff leather,
the flap to extend four inches upwards from
the wrist, and to have the appropriate cross
embroidered in gold, on the proper colored
velvet, two inches in length."
Gavel. The common gavel is one of
the working tools of an Entered Apprentice.
It is made use of by the Operative Mason
to break off the corners of the rough ashlar,
and thus fit it the better for the builder's use,
and is therefore adopted as a symbol in
Speculative Masonry, to admonish us of
the duty of divesting our minds and consciences of all the vices and impurities of
life, thereby fitting our bodies as living
stones for that spiritual building not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens.
It borrows its name from its shape, being
that of the gable or gavel end of a house
and this word again comes from the German gipfel, a summit, top, or peak, the
idea of a pointed extremity being common
to all.

GEBAL

304

The true form

GENERAL

of the gavel

is

that of the

stone-mason's

hammer.
to

It is

be made with

a cutting edge,
as in the annexed engraving,
that it may be
used " to break

rough stones," an operawhich could never be effected by the

off the corners of

tion

common hammer

or mallet. The gavel

thus shaped will give, when looked at in
front, the exact representation of the gavel
or gable end of a house, whence, as I have
already said, the name is derived.
The gavel of the Master is also called a
" Hiram," because, like that architect, it
governs the Craft and keeps order in the
Lodge, as he did in the Temple.
city of Phoenicia, on the
Gebal.
Mediterranean, and under Mount Lebanon.
It was the Byblos of the Greeks, where the
worship of Adonis, the Syrian Thammuz,

was celebrated. The inhabitants, who were

Giblites or, in Masonic language, Giblemites,
are said to have been distinguished for the
art of stone-carving, and are called in the
first Book of Kings " stone-squarers." See
Gib Urn,

Gedaliah. The

second oflicer in a
Council of Super-Excellent Masters repreAn
sents Gedaliah the son of Pashur.
historical error has crept into the ritual of
this degree in reference to the Gedaliah
who is represented in it. I have sought

two

is the one referred to in the ceremonies

of a Council of Super-Excellent Masters?
I think there can be no doubt that the
founders of the degree intended the second
officer of the Council to represent the former,
and not the latter Gedaliah
the son of
Pashur, and not Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; the prince of Judah, and not the
governor of Judea.
are forced to this conclusion by various reasons. The Gedaliah represented in
the degree must have been a resident of
Jerusalem during the siege, and at the very
time of the assault, which immediately
preceded the destruction of the Temple and
the city. Now, we know that Gedaliah the
son of Pashur was with Hezekiah as one
of his advisers. On the other hand, it is
most unlikely that Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam could have been a resident of
Jerusalem, for it is not at all probable that

We

Nebuchadnezzar would have selected such

an one for the important and confidential

We

of a satrap or governor.
should
rather suppose that Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam had been carried away to Babylon
that he had
after one of the former sieges
there, like Daniel, gained by his good conduct the esteem and respect of the Chaldean monarch that he had come back to
Judea with the army; and that, on the
office

taking of the city, he, had been appointed

governor by Nebuchadnezzar. Such being
the facte, it is evident that he could not
have been in the council of King Zedekiah,
advising and directing his attempted escape.
The modern revivers of the degree of
to elucidate the question in my work
on Cryptic Masonry in the following Super-Excellent Master have, therefore,
manner
been wrong in supposing that Gedaliah the
There are five persons of the name of son of Ahikam, and afterwards governor of
Gedaliah who are mentioned in Scripture, Judea, was the person represented by the
but only two of them were contemporary second officer of the Council. He was Gewith the destruction of the Temple.
daliah the son of Pashur, a wicked man,
Gedaliah the son of Pashur is mentioned one of Zedekiah's princes, and was most
by the prophet Jeremiah (xxxviii. 1) as a probably put to death by Nebuchadnezzar,
prince of the court of Zedekiah. He was with the other princes and nobles whom he
present at its destruction, and is known to captured in the plains of Jericho.
have been one of the advisers of the king. It
Gemara. See Talmud.
was through his counsels, and those of his
General Assembly. See Assembly.
colleagues, that Zedekiah was persuaded to
Chapter. Until
General
deliver up the prophet Jeremiah to death, the year 1797, the Boyal Arch degree and
from which he was rescued only by the in- the degrees subsidiary to it were conferred
tercession of a eunuch of the palace.
in this country, either in irresponsible bodies
The other Gedaliah was the son of Ahi- calling themselves Chapters, but obedient
kam. He seems to have been greatly in to no superior authority, or in Lodges workfavor with Nebuchadnezzar, for after the ing under a Grand Lodge Warrant.
On
destruction of Jerusalem, and the deporta- the 24th of October, 1797, a convention of
tion of Zedekiah, he was appointed by the committees from three Chapters, namely,
Chaldean monarch as his satrap or govern- St. Andrew's Chapter of Boston, Temple
or over Judea.
He took up his residence Chapter of Albany, and Newburyport
at Mizpah, where he was shortly afterwards Chapter, was held at Boston, which remurdered by Ishmael, one of the descend- commended to the several Chapters withants of the house of David.
in the States of New Hampshire, MassaThe question now arises, which of these chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Ver-

Grand

GENERAL

GENERAL

mont, and New York, to hold a convention

at Hartford on the fourth Wednesday of
January ensuing, to form a Grand Chapter

Arch Masons for the United States of

America," and jurisdiction was extended
over the whole country. This year may,
therefore, be considered as the true date of
the establishment of the General Grand

for the said States.

Accordingly, on the 24th of January,

1798, delegates from St.

Andrew's Chapter

of Boston, Mass. King Cyrus Chapter of

Newburyport, Mass. Providence Chapter
of Providence, R. I. Solomon Chapter of
Derby, Conn. Franklin Chapter of Norwich, Conn.; Franklin Chapter of New
Haven, Conn.; and Hudson Chapter of
Hudson, N. Y. to which were the next
day added Temple Chapter of Albany, N.
Y., and Horeb Chapter of Whitestown,
N. Y., assembled at Hartford in Convention, and, having adopted a Constitution, organized a governing body which they styled,
"The Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the
Northern States of America." This body
assumed in its Constitution jurisdiction over
only the States of New England and New
York, and provided that Deputy Grand
Chapters, subject to its obedience, should
Ephraim
be organized in those States.
Kirby, of Litchfield, Conn., was elected
Grand High Priest and it was ordered that
the first meeting of the Grand Chapter
should be held at Middletown, Conn., on
the third Wednesday of September next
ensuing.
On that day the Grand Chapter met, but
the Grand Secretary and Grand Chaplain
were the only Grand officers present. The
Grand King was represented by a proxy.
The Grand Chapter, however, proceeded to
an election of Grand officers, and the old
officers were elected.
The body then adjourned to meet in January, 1799, at Providence, R. I.
On the 9th of January, 1799, the Grand
Chapter met at Providence, the Deputy
Grand Chapters of Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, and New York being represented.
At this meeting, the Constitution was
very considerably modified, and the Grand
Chapter assumed the title of " The General
Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons for the
six Northern States enumerated in the preamble." The meetings were directed to be
held septennially and the Deputy Grand
Chapters were in future to be called "State
Grand Chapters." No attempt was, however, made in words to extend the jurisdiction of the General Grand Chapter beyond
the States already named.
On the 9th of January, 1806, a meeting
of the General Grand Royal Arch Chapter
was held at Middletown, representatives
being present from the States of Rhode
Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and New
York. The Constitution was again revised.
The title was for the first time assumed of
"The General Grand Chapter of Royal
;

20

305

Chapter.

In 1826, the septennial meetings were

abolished, and the General Grand Chapter
has ever since met triennially.
The General Grand Chapter consists of
the present and past Grand High Priests,

Deputy Grand High Priests, Grand Kings

and Scribes of the State Grand Chapters,
and the Past General Grand officers.
The officers are a General Grand High
Priest, Deputy General Grand High Priest,
General Grand King, General Grand Scribe,
General Grand Treasurer, General Grand
Secretary, General Grand Chaplain, General Grand Captain of the Host, and General Grand Royal Arch Captain.
It originally possessed large prerogatives,

extending even to the suspension of Grand

Chapters; but by its present Constitution
it has " no power of discipline, admonition,
censure, or instruction over the Grand
Chapters, nor any legislative powers whatever not specially granted " by its Constitution.
It may, indeed, be considered as
scarcely more than a great Masonic Congress meeting triennially for consultation.
But even with these restricted powers, it is
capable of doing much good.

General Grand High Priest.

The

presiding officer of the General Grand

Chapter of the United States of America.
He is elected every third year by the General Grand Chapter.
The title was first
assumed in 1799, although the General
Grand Chapter did not at that time extend
its jurisdiction beyond six of the Northern
States.

General Grand Lodge.

Ever
Grand Lodges of this country
began, at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, to abandon their dependence
on the Grand Lodges of England and Scotsince the

land,

that

is

to

say,

as

soon as they

emerged from the subordinate position of

Provincial Grand Lodges, and were compelled to assume a sovereign and indepen-

attempts have, from time

dent character,
to time, been made by members of the
Craft to destroy this sovereignty of the
State Grand Lodges, and to institute in its
place a superintending power, to be constituted either as a Grand Master of North
America or as a General Grand Lodge of the
United States. Led, perhaps, by the analogy
of the united Colonies under one federal
head, or, in the very commencement of the
Revolutionary struggle, controlled by long
habits of dependence on the mother Grand
Lodges of Europe, the contest had nc>

GENERAL

GENERAL

sooner begun, and a disseverance of politi-

sylvania had held an emergent meeting,

in some measure anticipated the proposed action of the convention by electing
General Washington Grand Master of the
United States.
From the contemporaneous character of
these events, it would seem probable that
there was some concert of action between
the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and the
Masons of Morristown. Perhaps, the initiative having been taken by the latter in
December, the former determined to give
its influence, in January, to the final recommendations which were to be made in the
following February. All this, however,

306

cal relations between England and America

taken place, than the attempt was made to
institute the office of Grand Master of the
of which
United States, the object being
to invest
there can hardly be a doubt
Washington with the distinguished dignity.

The effort emanated, it appears, with the

For a full
military Lodges in the army.
account of it we are indebted to the industrious researches of Bro. E. G. Storer, who
published the entire Minutes of the "American Union Lodge," attached to the Connecticut line, in his work on The Early
Records of Freemasonry in the State of Con-

although

necticut.

On

and

27th of December, 1779, the

Lodge met to celebrate the day at Morristown, in New*Jersey, which, it will be remembered, was then the winter-quarters of
At that communication
at
the army.
which, it may be remarked, by the way,
" Bro. Washington " is recorded among the
a petition was read, representvisitors
ing the present state of Freemasonry to
the several Deputy Grand Masters in the
United States of America, desiring them to
adopt some measures for appointing a Grand
Master over said States.
The petition purports to emanate from
" Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in
the several lines of the army " and on its
being read, it was resolved that a committee
be appointed from the different Lodges in
the army, and from the staff, to meet in
convention at Morristown on the 7th of
February next. Accordingly, on the 7th
of February, 1780, a convention, called in
the records " a committee," met at Morristown. This convention adopted an address
to the "Grand Masters of the several
Lodges in the respective United States."
The recommendations of this address were
that the said Grand Masters should adopt
and pursue the most necessary measures
the

for establishing one Grand Lodge in America, to preside over and govern all other

Lodges of whatsoever degree or denominabe licensed, upon the

tion, licensed or to

continent; that they should nominate, as

said Lodge, a brother
whose merit and capacity may be adequate
to a station so important and elevated
and that his name should be transmitted
"
"
our Grand Mother
in Europe

Grand Master of

to
for approbation

Lodge

and confirmation.

This convention contained delegates from

the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, and Maryland. Between the
time of its conception, on the 27th of December, 1779, and that of its meeting on
the 7th of February, 1780, that is to say in
January, 1780, the Grand Lodge of Penn-

plausible,
is
but conjecture.
to have resulted from the
action of either body. The only further
reference which I find to the subject, in
subsequent Masonic documents, is the declaration of a convention held in 1783, to

Nothing appears

organize the Grand Lodge of Maryland,

where it is remarked that " another Grand
Lodge was requisite before an election
could be had of a Grand Master for the

United States."
But the attempt to form a General Grand
Lodge, although, on this occasion, unsuccessful, was soon to be renewed.
In 1790,
the proposition was again made by the
Grand Lodge of Georgia, and here, true to
the Roman axiom, Tempora mutantur et
nos

mutamur

in Mis, the

Grand Lodge of

Pennsylvania became the opponent of the

measure, and declared it to be impracticable.

Again, in 1799, the Grand Lodge of

South Carolina renewed the proposition,

and recommended a convention to be held
at the city of Washington for the purpose
of establishing a " Superintending Grand
Lodge of America." The reasons assigned
by the Grand Lodge of South Carolina for

making
circular

this proposition are set forth in the

which it issued on the subject to

Grand Lodges. They are " to

closer the bonds of union between the
different Lodges of the United States, and
to induce them to join in some systematic'
its sister

draw

plan whereby the drooping spirit of the

Ancient Craft may be revived and become
more generally useful and beneficial, and

whereby Ancient Masonry, so excellent and

its primitive institution, may
be placed upon such a respectable and firm
basis in this western world as to bid defiance to the shafts of malice or the feeble
attempts of any foreign disclaimers to
bring it into disrepute." The allusion
here is to the Abbe Barruel, who had just
published his abusive and anti-Masonic
History of Jacobinism.
Several Grand Lodges acceded to the
proposition for holding a convention, al-

beautiful in

GENERAL

GENERAL
though they believed the scheme of a
" Superintending Grand Lodge " inexpedient and impracticable but they were willing to send delegates for the purpose of
producing uniformity in the Masonic sysThe convention, however, did not
tem.
;

assemble.
The proposition was again made in 1803,
by the Grand Lodge of North Carolina,
and with a like want of success.
In 1806, the subject of a General Grand
Lodge was again presented to the consideration of the Grand Lodges of the Union,
and propositions were made for conventions
to be held in Philadelphia in 1807, and in
Washington city in 1808, neither of which
was convened. The " Proceedings " of the
various Grand Lodges in the years 1806,
1807, and 1808 contain allusions to this
subject, most of them in favor of a convention to introduce uniformity, but unfavorable to the permanent establishment of a
North Carolina,
General Grand Lodge.
however, in 1807, expressed the opinion
that "a National Grand Lodge should possess controlling and corrective powers over
all

Grand Lodges under

its

jurisdiction."

An

unsuccessful attempt was again made

to hold a convention at Washington in
January, 1811, " for the purpose of forming
a Superintending Grand Lodge of America."

After the failure of this effort, the Grand

Lodge of North Carolina, which seems to

have been earnest in its endeavors to accomplish its favorite object, again proposed
a convention, to be convoked at AVashington in 1812. But the effort, like all which
had preceded it, proved abortive. No con
vention was held.
The effort seems now, after all these discouraging efforts, to have been laid upon

the shelf for nearly ten years. At length,

however, the effort for a convention which
had so often failed was destined to meet
with partial success, and one rather extemporaneous in its character was held in
Washington on the 8th of March, 1822.
Over this convention, which the Grand
Lodge of Maryland rather equivocally describes as " composed of members of Congress and strangers," the renowned orator
and statesman Henry Clay presided.
strong appeal, most probably from the facile
pen of its eloquent president, was made to
the Grand Lodges of the country to concur
in the establishment of a General Grand
Lodge. But the appeal fell upon unwilling
ears, and the Grand Lodges continued firm
in their opposition to the organization of
such a superintending body.
The subject was again brought to the
attention of the Fraternity by the Grand
Lodge of Maryland, which body, at its

307

communication in May, 1845, invited its

Grand Lodges to meet in convention
at Baltimore on the 23d of September, 1847,

sister

purpose of reporting a Constitution

of a General Grand Lodge.
This convention met at the appointed
time and place, but only seven Grand
Lodges were represented by twice that
number of delegates. A Constitution was
formed for a "Supreme Grand Lodge of
the United States," which was submitted
for approval or rejection to the Grand
Lodges of the Union.
The opinion expressed of that Constitution by the Grand
Lodge of Ohio, " that it embraced, in several of its sections, indefinite and unmeaning
powers, to which it was impossible to give
a definite construction, and that it gave a
jurisdiction to the body which that Grand
Lodge would in no event consent to," seems
to have been very generally concurred in
by the other Grand bodies, and the " Supreme Grand Lodge of the United States "
never went into operation. The formation
of its Constitution was its first, its last, and
its only act.
The next action that we find on this
much discussed subject was by the Grand
Lodge of New York, which body recommended, in 1848, that each of the Grand
Lodges should frame the outlines of a General Grand Constitution such as would be
acceptable to it, and send it with a delegate
to a convention to be holden at Boston in
1850, at the time of meeting of the Genfor the

eral Grand Chapter and General Grand Encampment. The committee of the Grand
Lodge of New York, who made this recommendation, also presented the outlines of a
General Grand Constitution.

This instrument defines the jurisdicof the proposed General Grand

Lodge as intended to be " over all controversies and disputes between the different

tion

Grand Lodges which may become parties

to the compact, when such controversies
are referred for decision and the decisions
in all cases to be final when concurred in
;

by a majority of the Grand Lodges present;"

but it disclaims all appeals from State Grand
Lodges or their subordinates in matters reIt is
lating to their own internal affairs.
evident that the friends of the measure had
abated much of their pretensions since the
year 1779, when they wanted a Grand
Lodge of America, " to preside over and
govern all other Lodges of whatsoever degree or denomination, licensed or to be
licensed, on the continent."
The Grand Lodge of Rhode Island also
submitted the draft of a General Grand
Constitution, more extensive in its details
than that presented by New York, but subThe
stantially the same in principle.

GENERAL

308

GENUFLECTION

Grand Lodge of the

District of Columbia
The
also concurred in the proposition.
convention did not, however, meet; for the

Supreme Grand Lodge was still

an unpopular one with the Craft. In January, 1850, Texas expressed the general
idea of a

sentiment of the Fraternity when it said

"The formation of a General Grand Lodge
The
will not accomplish the desired end.

same

feeling

and

spirit that

now

lead to

between the different Grand

Lodges would produce insubordination and
disobedience of the edicts of a General
Grand Lodge."
But another attempt was to be made by
difficulties

its

friends to carry this favorite measure,

and a convention of delegates was held

at

Lexington, Ky., in September, 1853, during

the session of the General Grand Chapter
and Encampment at that city. This convention did little more than invite the
meeting of a fuller convention, whose delegates should be clothed with more plenary
powers, to assemble at Washington in January, 1855.

The proposed convention met

at

Wash-

ington, and submitted a series of nine propositions styled "Articles of Confederation."

The gist of these articles is to be found in
the initial one, and is in these words "All
matters of difficulty which may hereafter
arise in any Grand Lodge, or between two
or more Grand Lodges of the United States,
which cannot by their own action be satisfactorily adjusted or disposed of, shall, if
the importance of the case or the common
welfare of the Fraternity demand it, be
submitted, with accompanying evidence and
documents, to the several Grand Lodges in
their individual capacities and the concurrent decision thereon of two-thirds of
the whole number, officially communicated,
shall be held authoritative, binding, and
:

on

concerned."
The provisions of these articles were to
be considered as ratified, and were to take
effect as soon as they were approved by
twenty Grand Lodges of the United States.
It is needless to say that this approbation
was never received, and the proposed confederation failed to assume a permanent
form.
It will be perceived that the whole question of a General Grand Lodge is here, at
once and in full, abandoned. The proposition
was simply for a confederated league, with
scarcely a shadow of power to enforce its
decisions, with no penal jurisdiction whatsoever, and with no other authority than
that which, from time to time, might be
delegated to it by the voluntary consent of
the parties entering into the confederation.
If the plan had been adopted, the body
would, in all probability, have died in a
final

all parties

few years of sheer debility. There was no

principle of vitality to keep it together.
But the friends of a General Grand Lodge
did not abandon the hope of effecting their
object, and in 1857 the Grand Lodge of
Maine issued a circular, urging the formation of a General Grand Lodge at a convention to be held at Chicago in September,
1859, during the session of the General

Grand Chapter and General Grand Encampment at that city. This call was genand courteously responded to; the
convention was held, but it resulted in a
failure, and since then all idea of a General Grand Lodge appears to have been
abandoned.
Generalissimo. The second officer
in a Commandery of Knights Templars, and
one of its representatives in the Grand
Commandery. His duty is to receive and
erally

communicate
tions

all

and, in

his

and petiEminent Commander,

orders, signs,

to assist the

absence, to preside over the.

Commandery. His station is on the right

of the Eminent Commander, and his jewel
is a square, surmounted by a paschal
lamb.

The use of the title in Templarism is of

very recent origin, and peculiar to this
country. No such officer was known in
the old Order. It is, besides, inappropriate
to a subordinate officer, being derived from
the French generalissime, and that from the
Italian generalissimo, both signifying a supreme commander. It has the same meaning in English.
Gentleman Mason. In some of
the old lectures of the last century this title'
is used as equivalent to Speculative Freemason. Thus they had the following catechism
" Q. What do you learn by being a Gen:

tleman Mason ?
"A. Secrecy, Morality, and Good-Fellowship.

" Q. What do you learn by being an

Operative Mason?
"A. Hew, Square, Mould stone, lay a
Level, and raise a Perpendicular."

Hence we see that Gentleman Mason

in contrast with Operative Mason.

Genuflection.

was

Bending the knees

has, in all ages of the world, been considered as an act of reverence and humility,
and hence Pliny, the Eoman naturalist,
observes, that " a certain degree of religious

reverence

is

attributed to the knees of a

man." Solomon placed himself in this position when he prayed at the consecration
of the Temple and Masons use the same
posture in some portions of their ceremoIn
nies, as a token of solemn reverence.
Ancient Craft Masonry, during prayer, it is
the custom for the members to stand, but in
;

;
;

GEOMETRICAL

GERMANY

the higher degrees, kneeling, and generally

is the more usual form.

strange that Euclid, the most famous of

geometricians, should be spoken of in all
the Old Records as a founder of Masonry in Egypt, and that a special legend
should have been invented in honor of his

on one knee,

Geometrical Master Mason. A

term in use in England during the

last centhe primitive regulations of the

Grand Chapter, an applicant for the Royal
Arch degree was required to produce a certificate that he was " a Geometrical Master
Mason," and had passed the chair. The
word Geometrical was here synonymous
with Speculative.
Geometric Points. In the language of French Masonry, this name is
given to the four cardinal points of the
compass, because they must agree with the
four sides of a regular Temple or Lodge.
They are a symbol of regularity and per-

tury.

By

fection.

memory.
Freemasonry was introGeorgia.
duced at a very early period into the province of Georgia. Roger Lacey is said to
have been the first Provincial Grand Master, and to him the warrant for Solomon's
Lodge, at Savannah, was directed in 1735.
Rockwell (Ahim. Rez., p. 323,) denies this,
and thinks that there was an earlier Lodge
organized by Lacey, perhaps in 1730. The
original warrant of Solomon's Lodge has,
however, been destroyed, and we have no
authentic evidence on the subject although
it is very generally conceded that the introduction of organized Masonry into Georgia
does not date later than the year 1735.
There is no evidence, except tradition, of
the existence of an earlier Lodge. In 1786
Mitchell, (Hist, i. 570,) with his usual
;

Geometry.
geometry

309

is

In the modern rituals,

said to be the basis on which

the superstructure of Masonry is erected

and in the old Constitutions of the Mediaeval Freemasons of England the most
prominent place of all the sciences is given

which is made synonymous

with Masonry. Thus, in the Halliwell MS.,
which dates not later than the latter part of
to geometry,

the fourteenth century, the Constitutions

of Masonry are called "the Constitution of
the art of geometry according to Euclid,"
the words geometry and Masonry being
used indifferently throughout the document
and in the Harleian MS. it is said, " thus
the craft Geometry was governed there, and
that worthy Master (Euclid) gave it the
name of Geometry, and it is called Masonrie
in this land long after."
In another part
of the same MS. it is thus defined " The
fifth science is called Geometry, and it
teaches a man to mete and measure of the
earth and other things, which science is
Masonrie."
The Egyptians were undoubtedly one of
the first nations who cultivated geometry
" It was not less useful and
as a science.
necessary to them," as Goguet observes,
(Orig. des Lois., I., iv. 4,) "in the affairs of
life, than agreeable to their speculatively
philosophical genius." From Egypt, which
was the parent both of the sciences and the
mysteries of the Pagan world, it passed
over into other countries
and geometry
and Operative Masonry have ever been
found together, the latter carrying into execution those designs which were first
traced according to the principles of the
:

former.

Speculative Masonry is, in like manner,

intimately connected with geometry. In
deference to our operative ancestors, and,
in fact, as a necessary result of our close
connection with them, Speculative Freemasonry derives its most important symbols
from this parent science. Hence it is not

typographical inaccuracy, says 1776

the
Independent Grand Lodge of Georgia was
formed, Samuel Elbert, (again Mitchell
blunders and says Elliot,) the last Provincial Grand Master resigning his position to
William Stephens, who was elected the first
Grand Master.

German Union of Two and

Twenty. A
Germany,

secret society founded in

in 1786, by Dr. Bahrdt, whose

with Freemasonry was

and the twenty-one others who
founded it were Masons, and that they invited to their co-operation the most disThe
tinguished Masons of Germany.
only connection

that Bahrdt

founder professed that the object of the association was to diffuse intellectual light,
to annihilate superstition, and to perfect
the human race. Its instruction was divided into six degrees, as follows 1. The
:

Adolescent 2. The Man 3. The Old Man

4. The Mesopolite; 5. The Diocesan; 6.
The Superior. The first three degrees were
considered a preparatory school for the last
three, out of which the rules of the society
were chosen. It lasted only four years, and
was dissolved by the imprisonment of its
founder for a political libel, most of its
members joining the Illuminati. The publication of a work in 1789 entitled Mehr
Noten als Text, etc., i. e., More Notes than
Text, or The German Union of XXII. which
divulged its secret organization, tended to
hasten its dissolution. See Bahrdt.
;

Germany.

Of all countries Germany

plays the most important part in the history
of ancient Masonry, since it was there that
the gilds of Operative Stone-masons first
assumed that definite organization which
subsequently led to the establishment of

GHIBLIM

310

GILDS

Speculative Freemasonry. But it was not

until a later date that the latter institution
obtained a footing on German soil. Findel
{Hist., p. 238,) says that as early as 1730
temporary Lodges, occupied only in the
communication of Masonic knowledge and
in the study of the ritual, were formed at
different points. But the first regular Lodge

was established at Hamburg, in 1733, under

a warrant of Lord Strathmore, Grand Master of England; which did not, however,

come

into active operation until four years

Its progress was at first slow
but,
under the patronage of Frederick the Great,
it assumed a firm footing, which it has never
later.

lost,

and nowhere

is

Freemasonry now more

popular or more deserving of popularity.

Its scholars have brought to the study of
its antiquities and its philosophy all the
laborious research that distinguishes the
Teutonic mind, and the most learned works
on these subjects have emanated from the
German press. The detailed history of its
progress would involve the necessity of no

ordinary volume.

Ghibliiii. The form in which Dr.

Anderson spells Giblim. In the Book of
Constitutions, ed. 1738, page 70, it is stated
that in 1350 "John de Spoulee, calPd Master of the Qhiblim" rebuilt St. George's
chapel.
Masonic corruption of
Gibalini.
Giblim, the Giblites, or men of Gebal. See
Giblim.
significant
Giblim. Heb., thl}.
word in Masonry. It is the plural of the
Gentile noun Gibli, (the g pronounced
hard,) and means, according to the idiom
of the Hebrew, Giblites, or inhabitants of
the city of Gebal. The Giblim, or Giblites,
are mentioned in Scripture as assisting
Solomon's and Hiram's builders to prepare
the trees and the stones for building the
Temple, and from this passage it is evident
that they were clever artificers. The passage is in 1 Kings v. 18, and, in our common
" And Solomon's
version, is as follows
builders and Hiram's builders did hew
them, and the stone-squarers so they prepared timber and stoues to build the house,"
where the word translated in the authorized
version by stone-squarers is, in the original,
Giblim.
It is so also in that translation
known as the Bishop's Bible. The Geneva
version has masons. The French version
of Martin has tailleurs de pierres, following
the English; but Luther, in his German
version, retains the original word Giblim.
It is probable that the English translation followed the Jewish Targum, which
has a word of similar import in this pas-

The error has, however, assumed

importance in the Masonic ritual, where
Giblim is supposed to be synonymous with

sage.

a Mason.

And

Sir

Wm. Drummond

con*
his Origines, (vol..
iii., b. v., ch. iv., p. 129,) that " the Gibalim
were Master Masons who put the finishing
hand to King Solomon's Temple." See
Gebal.
Gilds. The word gild, guild, or geld,
from the Saxon gildan, to pay, originally
meant a tax or tribute, and hence those
fraternities which, in the early ages, contributed sums to a common stock, were
called Gilds. Cowell, the old English jurist,
defines a Gild to be " a fraternity or commonality of men gathered together into
one combination, supporting their common

firms this

by saying, in

charge by mutual contribution."

Societies of this kind, but not under the
same name, were known to the ancient
Greeks and Romans, and their artificers
and traders were formed into distinct companies which occupied particular streets
named after them. But according to Dr.
Lujo Brentano, who published, in 1870, an
essay on The History and Development of
Gilds, England is the birthplace of the Mediaeval Gilds, from whom he says that the
modern*" Freemasons emerged. They existed, however, in every country of Europe,
and we identify them in the Compagnons
de la Tour of France, and the Baucorporationen of Germany. The difference, however, was that while they were patronized
by the municipal authorities in England,
they were discouraged by both the Church
and State on the Continent.
The Gilds in England were of three
kinds, Religious Gilds, Merchant Gilds,
and Craft Gilds, specimens of all of which
still exist, although greatly modified in
The Religious or
their laws and usages.
Ecclesiastical Gilds are principally found
in Roman Catholic countries, where, under
the patronage of the Church, they often accomplish much good by the direction of
their benevolence to particular purposes.
Merchant Gilds are exemplified in the
twelve great Livery Companies of London.
And the modern Trades Unions are nothing else but Craft Gilds under another
name. But the most interesting point in
the history of the Craft Gilds is the fact
that from them arose the Brotherhoods of
the Freemasons.
Brentano gives the following almost exhaustive account of the organization and
customs of the Craft Gilds
" The Craft Gilds themselves first sprang
up amongst the free craftsmen, when they
were excluded from the fraternities which
had taken the place of the family unions,
and later among the bondmen, when they
ceased to belong to the familia of their
Like those Frith Gilds, the object
lord.
of the early Craft Gilds was to create rela-

GILDS

GILDS
tions as if among brothers
and above all
things, to grant to their members that assistance which the member of a family
might expect from that family. As men's
wants had become different, this assistance
no longer concerned the protection of life,
limbs, and property, for this was provided
for by the Frith Gilds, now recognized as
the legitimate authority; but the principal object of the Craft Gilds was to secure
their members in the independent, unimpaired, and regular earning of their daily
bread by means of their craft.
"The very soul of the Craft Gild was
;

its meetings, which brought all the Gild

brothers together every week or quarter.

These meetings were always held with

cer-

tain ceremonies, for the sake of greater

solemnity. The box, having several locks
like that of the Trade Unions, and containing the charters of the Gild, the statutes,

the money, and other valuable articles, was

opened on such occasions, and all present
had to uncover their heads. These meetings
possessed all the rights which they themselves had not chosen to delegate.
They
elected

the presidents

(originally called

Aldermen, afterwards Masters and Wardens) and other officials, except in those
cases already mentioned, in which the Master was appointed by the king, the bishop,
o 1* the authorities of the town.
As a rule,
the Gilds were free to choose their Masters,
either from their own members, or from
men of higher rank, though they were
sometimes limited in their choice to the
former.
" The Wardens summoned and presided
at the meetings,

with their consent enacted

ordinances for the regulation of the trade,

saw these ordinances properly executed,

and watched over the maintenance of the
customs of the Craft. They had the right
to examine all manufactures, and a right
of search for all unlawful tools and products.
They formed, with the assistance
of a quorum of Gild brothers, the highest
authority in all the concerns of the Gild.
No Gild member could be arraigned about

We

trade matters before any other judge.

have still numerous documentary proofs of
the severity and justice with which the
Wardens exercised their judicial duties.

Whenever they held a

court, it

was under

special forms and solemnities; thus, for

instance, in 1275 the chief Warden of the

masons building Strasburg cathedral held

a court sitting under a canopy.
" Besides being brotherhoods for the care
of the temporal welfare of their members,
the Craft Gilds were, like the rest of the
Gilds, at the same time religious fraternities.
In the account of the origin of the
Company of Grocers, it is mentioned that

311

at the very first meeting they fixed a stifor the priest, who had to conduct
their religious services and pray for their
In this respect the Craft Gilds of
dead.
and in reading their
all countries are alike

pend

one might fancy sometimes that

the old craftsmen cared only for the wellbeing of their souls. All had particular
statutes,

saints for patrons, after whom the society

was frequently called; and, where it was
possible, they chose one who had some relation to their trade. They founded masses,
altars, and painted windows in cathedrals
and even at the present day their coats of
arms and their gifts range proudly by the
side of those of kings and barons.
Sometimes individual Craft Gilds appear to have
stood in special relation to a particular
church, by virtue of which they had to
perform special services, and received in
return a special share in all the prayers of
the clergy of that church. In later times,
the Craft Gilds frequently went in solemn
find inprocession to their churches.
numerable ordinances also as to the support
of the sick and poor ; and to afford a settled asylum for distress, the London Companies early built dwellings near their

We

The chief care, however, of the

Gildmen was always directed to the welEvery year
fare of the souls of the dead.
a requiem was sung for all departed Gild
brothers, when they were all mentioned by
name and on the death of any member,
special services were held for his soul, and
distribution of alms was made to the poor,
who, in return, had to offer up prayers for
halls.

the dead, as is still the custom in Roman

Catholic countries."
In a History of the English Guilds, edited
by Toulmin Smith from old documents in
the Record Office at London, and published
by the Early English Text Society, we find
many facts confirmatory of those given by
Brentano, as to the organization of these
organizations.
The testimony of these old records shows
that a religious element pervaded the Gilds,
and exercised a very powerful influence
over them. Women were admitted to all
of them, which Herbert (Liv. Comp., i. 83,)
thinks was borrowed from the Ecclesiastical
Gilds of Southern Europe and the brethren and sisters were on terms of complete
There were fees on entrance,
equality.
yearly and special payments, and fines for
wax for lights to burn at the altar or in
funeral rites. The Gilds had set days of
meeting, known as " mOming speeches," or
"days of spekyngges totiedare for here
comune profyte," and a grand festival on
the patron saint's day, when the members
assembled for worship, almsgiving, feasting, and for nourishing of brotherly love.
;

GLOBE

GILKES

312

Mystery plays were often performed. They returned to Switzerland in 1788, where he
treasure-chest, the opening of which continued to exercise an interest in Freewas a sign that business had begun. While masonry, and in 1810 was elected Grand
Master for three years, and in 1813, for life
it remained open all stood with uncovered
heads, when cursing and swearing and all of the Roman Grand Orient of Helvetia,
loose conduct were severely punished. The which body adopted his Rite.

had a

Gild property consisted of land, cattle,

money, etc. The expenditure was on the
sick poor and aged, in making good losses
by robbery, etc. Loans were advanced,
pilgrims assisted, and, in one city, " any
good girl of the Gild " was to have a dowry
on marriage, if her father could not provide it. Poor travellers were lodged and
fed.
Eoads were kept in repair, and
churches were sustained and beautified.
They wore a particular costume, which was
enforced by their statutes, whence come the
liveries of the London Companies of the
present day and the " clothing" of the Freemasons.
An investigation of the usages of these
Mediaeval Gilds, and a comparison of their
regulations with the old Masonic Constitutions, will furnish a fertile source of interest to the Masonic archaeologist, and will

throw much light on the early history of

Freemasonry.
Gilkes, Peter William. Born in
London in 1765, and died in 1833. He
was celebrated for his perfect knowledge
of the ritual of Ancient Craft Masonry
according to the English ritual, which he
His
successfully taught for many years.
reputation in England as a Masonic teacher
was very great.
Girdle. In ancient symbology the
girdle was always considered as typical of
In the Brahmanical
chastity and purity.
initiations, the candidate was presented
with the Zennar, or sacred cord, as a part
of the sacred garments and Gibbon says
that "at the age of puberty the faithful
Persian was invested with a mysterious
girdle fifteen genuflections were required
The
after he put on the sacred girdle."
old Templars assumed the obligations of
poverty, obedience, and chastity; and a
girdle was given them, at their initiation,
as a symbol of the last of the three vows.
As a symbol of purity, the girdle is still
used in many chivalric initiations, and
may be properly considered as the analogue
of the Masonic apron.
;

Glaire, Peter Maurice.

dis-

tinguished Mason, who was born in Switzerland in 1743, and died in 1819. In 1764,
he went to Poland, and became the intimate friend of King Stanislaus Poniatowski, who confided to him many important
diplomatic missions. During his residence
in Poland, Glaire greatly patronized the
Freemasons of that kingdom, and established there a Rite of seven degrees.
He

Gleason, Benjamin.
and teacher of the Masonic

lecturer

ritual, accord-

ing to the system of Webb, in the Grand

Lodge of Massachusetts, from 1806 to 1842.
Gleason is said to have been a man of liberal education, and a graduate in 1802 of
Brown University. He became soon after
a pupil of Thomas Smith Webb, whose
lectures he taught in Massachusetts and
elsewhere.
The assertion of some writers
that Gleason went to England and lectured
before the Grand Lodge of England, which
recognized his or Webb's system as being
the same as that of Preston, is highly improbable and wants confirmation.
Globe. In the second degree, the celestial and terrestrial globes have been adopted
as symbols of the universal extension of
the Order, and as suggestive of the universal claims of brotherly love.
The symbol
is a very ancient one, and is to be found in
the religious systems of many countries.
Among the Mexicans the globe was the
symbol of universal power. But the Masonic symbol appears to have been derived
from, or at least to have an allusion to,
the Egyptian symbol of the winged globe.
There is nothing more common among the
Egyptian monuments than the symbol of a
globe supported on each side by a serpent,

and accompanied with wings extended wide

beyond them, occupying nearly the whole
of the entablature above the entrance of
many of their temples.
are thus reminded of the globes on the pillars at the
entrance of the Temple of Solomon. The
winged globe, as the symbol of Cneph, the
Creator Sun, was adopted by the Egyptians
as their -national device, as the Lion is that
of England, or the Eagle of the United
In the eighteenth chapter of IsaStates.
iah, where the authorized version of King
James's Bible has " Woe to the land shadowing with wings," Lowth, after Bochart,
" Ho
translates,
to the land of the
winged cymbal," supposing the Hebrew
hyhy to mean the sistrum, which was a
round instrument, consisting of a broad
rim of metal, having rods passing through
it, and some of which, extending beyond
the sides, would, says Bishop Lowth, have
the appearance of wings, and be expressed
by the same Hebrew word. But Rosellini
translates the passage differently, and says,
" Ho, land of the winged globe."
Dudley, in his Naology, (p. 18,) says
that the knowledge of the spherical figure
of the earth was familiar to the Egyptians

We

GLORY

GLOVES

in the early ages, in which some of their

temples were constructed. Of the round
figure described above, he says that although it be called a globe, an egg, the

Masonry, as practised in France, in Germany, and in other countries of Europe, it

is an invariable custom to present the new-

symbol of the world was perhaps intended

and he thinks that if the globes of the
Egyptian entablatures were closely examined, they would perhaps be found of an
oval shape, figurative of the creation, and
not bearing any reference to the form of
the world.

The

interpretation of the Masonic globes,

symbol of the universality of Masonry,
would very well agree with the idea of the
Egyptian symbol referring to the extent of
creation.
That the globes on the pillars,
placed like the Egyptian symbol before
the temple, were a representation of the
celestial and terrestrial globes, is a very
modern idea. In the passage of the Book
of Kings, whence Masonry has derived its
ritualistic description, it is said, (1 Kings
vii. 16,) "And he made two chapiters of
molten brass, to set upon the tops of the
pillars."
In the Masonic ritual it is said
that " the pillars were surmounted by two
pomels or globes." Now pomel, VdiS, is the
very word employed by Rabbi Solomon in
his commentary on this passage, a word
which signifies a globe or spherical body.
The Masonic globes were really the chapiters described in the Book of Kings. Again
it is said, (1 Kings vii. 22,) " Upon the top
of the pillars was lily work." We now
as a

know

that the plant here called the lily

Egyptian waterlily.
But among the Egyptians the lotus
was a symbol of the universe and hence,
although the Masons in their ritual have
changed the expanded flower of the lotus,
which crowned the chapiter and surmounted
each pillar of the porch, into a globe, they
have retained the interpretation of universality.
The Egyptian globe or egg and
lotus or lily and the Masonic globe are all
symbols of something universal, and the
Masonic idea has only restricted by a
natural impulse the idea to the universality
of the Order and its benign influences. But
it is a pity that Masonic ritualists did not
preserve the Egyptian and scriptural symbol of the lotus surrounding a ball or sphere,
and omit the more modern figures of globes

was

really the lotus, or the

celestial

and

Glory,

terrestrial.

Symbol of.

The Blazing Star

in the old lectures was called "the glory

in the centre," because it was placed in the
centre of the floor-cloth, and represented
the glorious name of Deity. Hence Dr.
Oliver gives to one of his most interesting

313

ly-initiated candidate not only, as we do,

with a white leather apron, but also with
two pair of white kid gloves,
one a man's
pair for himself, and the other a woman's,
to be presented by him in turn to his wife
or his betrothed, according to the custom
of the German Masons, or, according to the
French, to the female whom he most es-

teems, which, indeed, amounts, or should

amount, to the same thing.
There is in this, of course, as there is
in everything else which pertains to Freemasonry, a symbolism. The gloves given
to the candidate for himself are intended
to teach him that the acts of a Mason
should be as pure and spotless as the gloves
now given to him. In the German Lodges,
the word used for acts is, of course, handlung, or handlings, " the works of his hands,"
which makes the symbolic idea more impressive.

'

Dr. Robert Plot

no friend of Masonry,
but still an historian of much research
says, in his Natural History of Staffordshire,
that the Society of Freemasons in his time
(and he wrote in 1686) presented their candidates with gloves for themselves and their
wives. This shows that the custom, still
preserved on the continent of Europe, once
was practised in England; although there,
as well as in America, it is discontinued,
which is perhaps to be regretted.
But although the presentation of the
gloves to the candidate is no longer practised as a ceremony in England or America,
yet the use of them as a part of the proper
professional clothing of a Mason in the
duties of the Lodge or in processions, is

retained and in many well-regulated

Lodges the members are almost as regularly

still

clothed in their white gloves as in their

white aprons.
The symbolism of the gloves, it will be
admitted, is in fact but a modification of
that of the apron. They both signify the
same thing, both are allusive to a purifica" Who shall ascend," says the
tion of life.
Psalmist, "into the hill of the Lord? or
who shall stand in his holy place? He
that hath clean hands and a pure heart."
The apron may be said to refer to the " pure
heart " the gloves, to the " clean hands."
Both are significant of purification of that
;

which was always symbolized

by the ablution which preceded the ancient
But
initiations into the sacred mysteries.
while our American and English Masons
works, which treats of the symbolism of the have adhered only to the apron, and rejected
Blazing Star, the title of The symbol of the gloves as a Masonic symbol, the latter
Glory.
appear to be far more important in symbolic

GloTes.
2

In the continental Rites of

purification

science, because the allusions to

pure or

GLOVES

314

GNOSTICS

clean hands are abundant in all the ancient

writers.

"Hands," says Wemyss, in his Clavis

Symbolica, " are the symbols of human acpure hands are pure actions unjust
tions
hands are deeds of injustice." There are
numerous references in sacred or profane
The washing
writers to this symbolism.
of the hands has the outward sign of an
Hence the Psalmist
internal purification.
says, " I will wash my hands in innocence,
and I will encompass thine altar, Jehovah."
In the Ancient Mysteries, the washing of
the hands was always an introductory ceremony to the initiation, and, of course, it
was used symbolically to indicate the necessity of purity from crime as a qualification of those who sought admission into
the sacred rites and hence on a temple in
the island of Crete this inscription was
placed: "Cleanse your feet, wash your
hands, and then enter."
Indeed, the washing of hands, as symbolic of purity, was among the ancients a
peculiarly religious rite.
No one dared to
pray to the gods until he had cleansed his

hands.

Thus,

Homer makes Hector

say,

" I dread with unwashed hands to bring

My incensed wine to Jove an offering."

The same

practice

existed

among

the

and a striking instance of the symbolism is exhibited in that well-known action of Pilate, who, when the Jews clamored for Jesus that they might crucify him,

Jews

appeared before the people, and, having

taken water, washed his hands, saying at
the same time, "I am innocent of the
blood of this just man. See ye to it." In
the Christian Church of the Middle Ages,
gloves were always worn by bishops or
priests when in the performance of ecclesiThey were made of linen
astical functions.
and were white; and Durandus, a celebrated
ritualist, says that " by the white gloves
were denoted chastity and purity, because
the hands were thus kept clean and free
from all impurity."
There is no necessity to extend examples
any further. There is no doubt that the
use of the gloves in Masonry is a symbolic
idea, borrowed from the ancient and universal language of symbolism, and was intended, like the apron, to denote the necessity of purity of life.

who associated in comtraversed Europe and were engaged in the construction of palaces and
cathedrals, have left to us, as their descendants, their name, their technical language, and the apron, that distinctive piece
of clothing by which they protected their
garments from the pollutions of their laboThe

panies,

builders,

who

rious employment.
Did they also bequeath
to us their gloves?
This is a question
which some modern discoveries will at last
enable us to solve.
M. Didron, in his Annales Archeologiques,

presents us with an engraving copied from

the painted glass of a window in the Cathedral of Chartres, in France.
The painting
was executed in the thirteenth century, and
represents a number of operative masons
Three of them are adorned with
at work.
laurel crowns.
May not these be intended
to represent the three officers of a Lodge?
All of the masons wear gloves. M. Didron
remarks that in the old documents which
he has examined mention is often made of
gloves which are intended to be presented
to masons and stone-cutters.
In a subsequent number of the Annales, he gives the
following three examples of this fact
In the year 1331, the Chatelan of Villaines, in Duemois, bought a considerable
quantity of gloves to be given to the workmen, in order, as it is said, " to shield their

hands from the stone and lime."

In October, 1383, as he learns from a
document of that period, three dozen pair
of gloves were bought and distributed to
the masons when they commenced the
buildings at the Chartreuse of Dijon.
And, lastly, in 1486 or 1487, twenty-two
pair of gloves were given to the masons
and stone-cutters who were engaged in work
at the city of Amiens.
It is thus evident that the builders
the
operative masons of the Middle Ages wore
gloves to protect their hands from the
It is equally evident
effects of their work.
that the Speculative Masons have received
from their operative predecessors the gloves
as well as the apron, both of which, being
used by the latter for practical uses, have
been, in the spirit of symbolism, appropriated by the former to " a more noble and
glorious purpose."
Gnostics. The general name of Gnostics has been employed to designate several
sects that sprung up in the eastern parts
of the Roman empire about the time of the
advent of Christianity although it is supposed that their principal doctrines had
been taught centuries before in many of
the cities of Asia Minor. The word Gnosticism is derived from the Greek Gnosis or
knowledge, and was a term used in the earliest days of philosophy to signify the science of divine things, or, as Matter says,
"superior or celestial knowledge." He
thinks the word was first used by the Jewish philosophers of the famous school of
The favorite opinion of
Alexandria.
scholars is that the sect of Gnostics arose
among the philosophers who were the converts of Paul and the other Apostles, and

GOD

GNOSTICS
who sought

to mingle the notions of the

Jewish Egyptian school, the speculations
of the Kabbalists, and the Grecian and
Asiatic doctrines with the simpler teachings
of the new religion which they had em-

braced. They believed that the writings of

the Apostles enunciated only the articles of
the vulgar faith but that there were esoteric traditions which had been transmitted
from generation to generation in mysteries,
;

which they gave the name of Gnosticism or Gnosis. King says (Gnostics, p. 7,)
that they drew the materials out of which
they constructed their system from two religions, viz., the Zeudavesta and its modifications in the Kabbala, and the reformed
Brahmanical religion, as taught by the
to

Buddhist missionaries.
Notwithstanding the large area of country over which this system of mystical philosophy extended, and the number of different sects that adopted it, the same fundamental doctrine was everywhere held by
the chiefs of Gnosticism. This was, that
the visible creation was not the work of the
Supreme Deity, but of the Demiurgus, a
simple emanation, and several degrees removed from the Godhead. To the latter,
indeed, styled by them " the' unknown

Father," they attributed the creation of the

iEons and Angels,
while they made the creation of the world
of matter the work of the Demiurgus.
Gnosticism abounded in symbols and
legends, in talismans and amulets, many
of which were adopted into the popular superstitions of the Mediaeval ages. It is, too,
interesting to the student of Masonic antiquities because of its remote connection
with that Order, some of whose symbols
have been indirectly traced to a Gnostic
origin.
The Druses of Mount Lebanon
were supposed to be a sect of Gnostics; and
the constant intercourse which was maintained during the Crusades between Europe
and Syria produced an effect upon the
Western nations through the influence of
the pilgrims and warriors.
Towards the Manicheans, the most
prominent offshoot of Gnosticism, the
Templars exercised a tolerant spirit very
inconsistent with the professed objects of
their original foundation, which led to the
charge that they were affected by the
dogmas of Manicheism.
The strange ceremonies observed in the
initiation into various secret societies that
existed in the Lower Empire are said to
have been modelled on the Gnostic rites of
the Mithraic Cave.
The architects and stone-masons of the
Middle Ages borrowed many of the principles of ornamentation, by which they decorated the ecclesiastical edifices which they
intellectual world, the

315

constructed, from the abstruse symbols of

the Gnostics.
So, too, we find Gnostic symbols in the Hermetic Philosophy and in the system of R,osicrucianism and lastly, many of the symsuch, for
bols still used by Freemasonry
instance, as the triangle within a circle, the
letter G, and the pentacle of Solomon
have been traced to a Gnostic source.
Goat, Riding the. The vulgar idea
that ''riding the goat" constitutes a part
of the ceremonies of initiation in a Masonic Lodge has its real origin in the superstition of antiquity.
The old Greeks
and Romans portrayed their mystical god
Pan in horns and hoof and shaggy hide,
;

and called him " goat-footed." When the

demonology of the classics was adopted
and modified by the early Christians, Pan
gave way to Satan, who naturally inherited
his attributes so that to the common mind
the Devil was represented by a he-goat,
and his best known marks were the horns,
the beard, and the cloven hoofs. Then
came the witch stories of the Middle Ages,
and the belief in the witch orgies, where,
it was said, the Devil appeared riding on
a goat. These orgies of the witches, where,
amid fearfully blasphemous ceremonies,
they practised initiation into their Satanic
rites, became, to the vulgar and the illiterate, the type of the Masonic mysteries; for,
as Dr. Oliver says, it was in England a
common belief that the Freemasons were
accustomed in their Lodges " to raise the
Devil." So the " riding of the goat," which
was believed to be practised by the witches,
was transferred to the Freemasons and the
saying remains to this day, although the
belief has very long since died out.
belief in the existence of God
God.
is an essential point of Speculative Masonry
so essential, indeed, that it is a
landmark of the Order that no Atheist can
be made a Mason. N(5r is this left to an
inference for a specific declaration to that
effect is demanded as an indispensable
preparation for initiation. And hence
Hutchinson says that the worship of God
" was the first and corner-stone on which
our originals thought it expedient to place
the foundation of Masonry." The religion
of Masonry is cosmopolitan, universal but
the required belief in God is not incompatible with this universality; for it is the
" Be assured," says
belief of all peoples.
Godfrey Higgins, " that God is equally
present with the pious Hindoo in the temple, the Jew in the synagogue, the Mohammedan in the mosque, and the Christian in
the church." There never has been a time
since the revival of Freemasonry, when
this belief in God as a superintending
power did not form a part of the system.
;

GODFATHER

316

The very

earliest

GOOD

rituals that are extant,

going back almost to the beginning of the

eighteenth century, contain precisely the

same question

as to the trust in

God which

found in those of the present day and

the oldest manuscript Constitutions, dating
as far back as the fifteenth century at least,
is

commence

with, or contain, an invocaMighty Father of Heaven."

There never was a time when the dogma
did not form an essential part of the Maall

tion to the "

sonic system.

Godfather.

In French Lodges the

introduces a candidate for
called his "parrain," or "god-

member who
initiation is
father."

Goethe, John Wolfgang von.

This illustrious German poet was much attached to Freemasonry. He was initiated
on the eve of the festival of St. John the
Baptist, in 1780 and on the eve of the same
;

the Masons of Weimar

celebrated the semi-centennial anniversary
of his admission into the Order, of which,
in a letter to the musical composer, Zeeter,
who had been, like himself, initiated on the
same day fifty years before, he speaks with
great gratification as his " Masonic jubilee." He says, " The gentlemen have treated
I
this epoch with the greatest courtesy.
responded to it in the most friendly manner on the following day." Goethe's writings contain many favorable allusions to
the Institution.
festival, in 1830,

Golden Candlestick. The golden

candlestick which was made by Moses for
the service of the tabernacle, and was afterwards deposited in the holy place of the
temple, to throw light upon the altar of
incense, and the table of showbread, was
made wholly of pure gold, and had seven
branches that is, three on each side, and
one in the centre. These branches were at
equal distances, and each one was adorned
with flowers like lilies, gold knobs after
the form of an apple, and similar ones resembling an almond. Upon the extremities of the branches were seven golden
lamps, which were fed with pure olive-oil,
and lighted every evening by the priests on
duty. Its seven branches are explained in
the Ineffable degrees as symbolizing the
seven planets. It is also used as a decoration in Chapters of the Eoyal Arch, but
apparently without any positive symbolic
;

signification.

Golden Fleece. In the lecture of

the first degree, it is said of the Mason's
apron, that it is " more ancient than the
Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle, more honorable than the Star and Garter." The reference is here evidently not to the Argonautic expedition in search of the golden
fleece, nor to the deluge, of which that

event is supposed to have been a figure,

as Dr. Oliver incorrectly supposes, (Symb.
Diet.,) but to certain decorations of honor
with which the apron is compared. The
eagle was to the Eomans the ensign of imperial power; the Order of the Golden
Fleece was of high repute as an Order of
Knighthood. It was established in Flanders, in 1429, by the Duke of Burgundy,
who selected the fleece for its badge because wool was the staple production of the
country. It has ever been considered, says
Clark, one of the most illustrious Orders in
Europe. The Order of the Garter was, and
is still considered, the highest decoration
that can be bestowed upon a subject by a
sovereign of Great Britain. Thus, the apron
is proudly compared with the noblest decorations of ancient Rome and of modern Europe. But the Masons may have been also
influenced in their selection, of a reference
to the Golden Fleece, by the fact that in
the Middle Ages it was one of the most important symbols of the Hermetic philosophers.

Golden Key, Knight of

the.

See Knight of the Golden Key.

Golden Lance, Knight of the.

See Knight of the Golden Lance.
Golgotha. Greek, Tolyoda, from the

Hebrew, rhjhl,

"a

Gulgoleth,

skull."
to Calvary,
the place of Christ's crucifixion and burial.
It is a significant word in Templar Masonry.
See Calvary.

The name given by the Jews

Good Samaritan.

An

androgy-

nous, honorary or side degree conferred in

the United States with rather impressive
ceremonies. It is, of course, as a degree to
be conferred on females, unconnected with
Masonic history or traditions, but draws its
allusions from the fate of Lot's wife, and from
the parable of the Good Samaritan related
in the Gospels.
The passages of Scripture
which refer to these events are read during
the ceremony of initiation. This degree is
to be conferred only on Royal Arch Masons
and their wives, and in conferring it two

Good Samaritans must always be present,

one of whom must be a Royal Arch Mason.

Much dignity and importance has been

given to this degree by its possessors and
it is usual in many places for a certain
number of Good Samaritans to organize
themselves into regular, but of course independent, bodies to hold monthly meetings
under the name of Assemblies, to elect
proper officers, and receive applications for
initiation.
In this manner the assemblies
of Good Samaritans, consisting of male and
female members, bear a very near resemblance to the female Lodges, which, under
the name of "Maconnerie d' Adoption,"
prevail in France.
;

GOOD

GOTHIC

Good

317

And

Shepherd. Our Saviour called

Thus, in
himself the Good Shepherd.
St. John's Gospel, (x. 14, 15, 16,) he says
" I am the Good Shepherd, and know my
sheep, and am known of mine. As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the
Father: and I lay down my life for the
sheep. And other sheep I have, which are
not of this fold them also must I bring,
and they shall hear my voice and there

hence the Christian degree of Rose

Croix has very naturally appropriated the
" sign of the Good Shepherd," the representation of Christ bearing his once lost
but now recovered sheep upon his shoulders, as one of its most impressive symbols.

be one fold, and one Shepherd."

Hence, in Masonic as well as in Christian
symbolism, Christ is naturally called the
Good Shepherd.

Gridiron, and it was there that the first

quarterly communication of the Grand
Lodge of England, after the revival of 1717,
was held on the 24th of June, 1717.

shall

Good Shepherd, Sign of

the.

When

Jesus was relating (Luke xv.) the

parable in which one having lost a sheep
goes into the wilderness to search for it, he
" And when h% hath found it, he
said
:

layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing." Mr.

Hettner, a German writer on Greek customs, says: "When the Greek carries
home his lamb, he slings it round his neck,
holding it by the feet crossed over the
This is to be seen with us also,
breast.
but the sight is especially attractive at
Athens, for it was in this manner that the
ancients represented Hermes as the guardian and multiplier of flocks so stood the
statue of Hermes at Olympia, Occhalia,
and Tanagra. Small marble statues of this

Goose and Gridiron. An alehouse

with this sign, in London House- Yard, at
the north end of St. Paul's. In 1717 the
Lodge of Antiquity met at the Goose and

Gormogons. A

secret society established in 1724, in England, in opposition

One of its rules was that
to Freemasonry.
no Freemason could be admitted until he

was first degraded, and had then renounced

the Masonic Order. It was absurdly and
intentionally pretentious in its character ;
claiming, in ridicule of Freemasonry, a great
antiquity, and pretending that it was descended from an ancient society in China.
There was much antipathy between the
two associations, as will appear from the
following doggerel, published in 1729 by

Henry Carey

kind have even come down to us, one of

which is to be seen in the Pembroke collection at Wilton House another, a smaller
one, in the Stoa of Hadrian, at Athens.
This representation, however, appears most
frequently in the oldest works of Christian
art, in which the laden Hermes is turned
into a laden Christ, who often called himself the Good Shepherd, and expressly says
in the Gospel of St. Luke, that when the
shepherd finds the sheep, he lays it joyfully
on his shoulder."
Now, although the idea of the Good
Shepherd may have been of Pagan origin,
yet derived from the parable of our Saviour
in St. Luke and his language in St. John,
it was early adopted by the Christians as a
;

religious

emblem.

The Good Shepherd

bearing the sheep upon his shoulders, the

iwo hands of the Shepherd crossed upon
his breast and holding the legs of the sheep,
is a very common subject in the paintings
of the earliest Christian era. It is an expressive symbol of the Saviour's love
of
him who taught us to build the new temple
of eternal life
and, consequently, as
Didron says, " the heart and imagination
of Christians have dwelt fondly upon this
theme; it has been unceasingly repeated
under every possible aspect, and may be
almost said to have been worn threadbare
by Christian art. From the earliest ages,
Christianity completely made it her own."

" The Masons and the Gormogons

Are laughing at one another,
While all mankind are laughing at them ;
Then why do they make such a bother ?
'

" They bait their hook for simple gulls,

And truth with bam they smother
But when they 've taken in their culls,
Why then 't is Welcome, Brother "

The Gormogons made a great splutter in

and published many squibs against

their day,

Freemasonry; yet that is still living, while

the Gormogons were long ago extinguished.
They seemed to have flourished for but a
very few years.
Gothic Architecture. Of all the
styles of architecture, the Gothic is that
which is most intimately connected with
the history of Freemasonry, having been
the system peculiarly practised by the
Freemasons of the Middle Ages. To what
country or people it owes its origin has
never been satisfactorily determined; although it has generally been conjectured
that it was of Arabic or Saracenic extraction, and that it was introduced into Europe by persons returning from the CruThe Christians who had been in
sades.
the Holy Wars received there an idea of
the Saracenic works, which they imitated
on their return to the West, and refined
on them as they proceeded in the building
The Italians, Germans,
of churches.
French, and Flemings, with Greek refugees,
united in a fraternity of architects and

GOTHIC

GRAND

ranged from country to country, and erected

buildings according to the Gothic style,
which they had learned during their
visits to the East, and whose fundamental
principles they improved by the addition
of other details derived from their own
Hence
architectural taste and judgment.

14, 1865, at the ripe old age of eighty-eight,

and being at the time probably the oldest
possessor of the thirtieth degree in the world.

318

Wren

thinks that this style

of the Mediaeval Freemasons should be
rather called the Saracenic than the Gothic.
Sir Christopher

This style, which was distinguished, by its

pointed arches, and especially by the perpendicularity of its lines, from the rounded
arch and horizontal lines of previous styles,
was altogether in the hands of those architects who were known, from the tenth to
the sixteenth centuries, as Freemasons, and
who kept their system of building as a
secret, and thus obtained an entire monopoly of both domestic and ecclesiastical
architecture.
At length, when the gilds or
fraternities of Freemasons, "who alone,"
says Mr. Hope, " held the secrets of Gothic
art," were dissolved, the style itself was

and was succeeded by what Paley says

{Man. of Goth. Arch., p. 15,) was "a worse
than brazen era of architecture." For fur-

lost,

ther details, see Travelling Freemasons.

Gothic Constitutions.

and especially rich in manuscripts.

His correspondence with Dr. Moses Holbrook, at one time Grand Commander of
the Southern Council, is in the Archives of
that body, and bears testimony to his large
Masonic attainments.
Grades. Degrees in Masonry are
sometimes so called. It is a French word.
uable,

See Degrees.

Grammar.

One of the seven liberal

sciences, which forms, with Logic
and Ehetoric, a triad dedicated to the cul" God," says Sanctivation of language.
and

arts

tius, "

created

man

the participant of rea-

and as he willed him to be a social

being, he bestowed upon him the gift of
language, in the perfecting of which there
The first is Grammar,
are three aids.
which rejects from language all solecisms
and barbarous expressions; the second is
Logic, which is occupied with the truthfulness of language and the third is Rhetoric,
which seeks only the adornment of lanson

title

sometimes given to the Constitutions which

are supposed to have been adopted by the
Freemasons at the city of York, in the

guage."

Grand

degree in
Architect.
several of the Eites modelled upon the
twelfth of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Eite.
It is, 1. The sixth degree
of the Eeform of St. Martin 2. The four-

See Scandina-

teenth of the Eite of Elected Cohens 3.

The twenty-third of the Eite of Mizraim
and 4. The twenty-fourth of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.

tenth century, and so called in allusion to

the Gothic architecture which was introduced into England by the Fraternity.
more correct and more usual designation of
these laws is the York Constitutions, which
see.

Gothic Mysteries.

Brother Gourgas was distinguished for the

purity of his life and the powers of his intellect.
His Masonic library was very val-

Grand Architect of the UniGourgas, John James Joseph. verse. The title applied in the technical
A merchant of New York, who was born language of Freemasonry to the Deity. It

vian Mysteries.

in France in 1777, and received a

of the Scottish Eite in 1806. His

member
name is

intimately connected with the rise and progress of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite in the Northern Jurisdiction of the
United States. Through his representations and his indefatigable exertions, the
Mother Council at Charleston was induced
to denounce the spurious Consistory of
Joseph Cerneau in the city of New York,
and to establish there a Supreme Council
for the Northern Jurisdiction, of which Bro.
Gourgas was elected the Secretary General.
He continued to hold this office until 1832,
when he was elected Sovereign Grand Commander. In 1851, on the removal of the
Grand East of the Supreme Council to
Boston, he resigned his office in favor of
Brother Giles Fonda Yates, but continued
to take an active interest, so far as his age
would permit, in the Eite until his death,
which occurred at New York on February

appropriate that a society founded on

the principles of architecture, which symbolizes the terms of that science to moral
purposes, and whose members profess to be
the architects of a spiritual temple, should
view the Divine Being, under whose holy
law they are constructing that edifice, as
their Master Builder or Grand Architect.
is

Grand Chapter. A Grand Chapter

consists of the High Priests, Kings, and
Scribes, for the time being, of the several
Chapters under its jurisdiction, of the Past

Grand and Deputy Grand High Priests,

Kings, and Scribes of the said Grand Chapter.
In some Grand Chapters Past High Priests
are admitted to membership, but in others
they are not granted this privilege, unless
they shall have served as Grand and Deputy Grand High Priests, Kings, or Scribes.
Grand Chapters have the sole government
and superintendence of the several Eoyal
Arch Chapters and Lodges of Most Excel-

GKAND

GRAND

lent Past and Mark Masters within their

several jurisdictions.
Until the year 1797, there was no organization of Grand Chapters in the United
Chapters were held under the auStates.
thority of a Master's Warrant, although the

the superior jurisdiction of the Supreme

Council of the Thirty-third. The members
of the Grand Consistory are required to be
in possession of the thirty-second degree.
Council. The title given to
the first three officers of a Royal Arch
Chapter. Also the name of the superintending body of Cryptic Masonry in any
It is composed of -the first
jurisdiction.
three officers of each Council in the jurisIts officers are: Most Puissant
diction.
Grand Master, Thrice Illustrious Deputy
Grand Master, Illustrious Grand Conductor
of the Works, Grand Treasurer, Grand Recorder, Grand Chaplain, Grand Marshal,
Grand Captain of the Guards, Grand Conductor of the Council, and Grand Steward.
East. The city in which the
Grand Lodge, or other governing Masonic

consent of a neighboring Chapter was

generally deemed expedient. But in 1797,
delegates from several of the Chapters in
the Northern States assembled at Boston
for the purpose of deliberating on the expediency of organizing a Grand Chapter
for the government and regulation of the
several Chapters within the said States.
This convention prepared an address to the
Chapters in New York and New England,
disclaiming the power of any Grand Lodge
to exercise authority over Royal Arch
Masons, and declaring it expedient to esIn consequence
tablish a Grand Chapter.
of this address, delegates from most of the
States above mentioned met at Hartford
in January, 1798, and organized a Grand

Chapter, formed and adopted a Constitution,

and elected and installed

their officers.

This example was quickly 'followed by other

parts of the Union, and Grand Chapters
now exist in nearly all the States.
The officers of a Grand Chapter are usually the same as those of a Chapter, with
the distinguishing prefix of " Grand " to
the titles. The jewels are also the same,
but enclosed within a circle. In England
and Scotland the Grand Chapter bears the
title of Supreme Grand Chapter.

319

Grand

Grand

Body, is situated, and whence its official

documents emanate, is called the Grand
Thus, a document issued by the
East.
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts would be
dated from the " Grand East of Boston,"
or if from the Grand Lodge of Louisiana,
it would be the " Grand East of New Orleans."
The place where a Grapd Lodge
meets is therefore called a Grand East.
The word is in constant use on the continent of Europe and in America, but seldom
employed in England, Scotland, or Ireland.
Grand Encampment. See Encampment, Grand.

Grand High

Priest. The presidGrand Royal Arch Chapter

Grand Commander. The presid- in the American system. The powers and
ing officer of a Grand Commandery of prerogatives of a Grand High Priest are
Knights Templars.
far more circumscribed than those of a
Grand Commander of the East- Grand Master. As the office has been con(Grand Commandeur de stitutionally created by the Grand Chapter,
ern Star.
VEtoile d' Orient.)
A degree in Pyron's and did not precede it as that of Grand
collection.
Masters did the Grand Lodges, he possesses
Grand Conclave. The title of the no inherent prerogatives, but those only
presiding body of Templarism in England which are derived from and delegated to
is the "Grand Conclave of the Religious
him by the Constitution of the Grand Chapand Military Order of Masonic Knights ter and regulations formed under it for the
Templars."
government of Royal Arch Masonry.

Grand Conservators. On
1814, the

July

1,

Grand Mastership of the Order

in

France, then held by Prince Cambaceres,

was, in consequence of the political troubles
attendant upon the restoration of the monarchy, declared vacant by the Grand Orient.
On August 12, the Grand Orient decreed
that the functions of Grand Master should
be provisionally discharged by a commission consisting of three Grand officers, to
be called Grand Conservators, and Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, the Count de
Beurnonville, and Timbrune, Count de
Valence, were appointed to that office.

Grand Consistory. The governing

body over a State of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; subject, however, to

ing

officer

of a

Grand Inquiring Commander.

The

sixty-sixth degree of the Rite of Mizraim.

Grand Inspector, Inquisitor

Commander. The thirty-first degree
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
It is not an historical degree, but simply a
The
judicial power of the higher degrees.
place of meeting is called a Supreme Tribunal. The decorations are white, and the
presiding officer is styled Most Perfect
President. The jewel of the degree is a
Teutonic cross of silver attached to white
watered ribbon.
Grand Lodge is the
JLodge.
dogmatic and administrative authority of
Ancient Craft Masonry, or the three Sym-

Grand

GRAND

GRAND

bolic degrees. It is defined in the old Charges

of 1725 as " consisting of and formed by the
Masters and Wardens of all the regular
Lodges upon record, with the Grand Master
at their head, and his Deputy on his left
hand, and the Grand Wardens in their proper places." This definition refers to a very
modern organization, for of Grand Lodges
thus constituted we have no written evidence previous to the year 1717, when Freemasonry was revived in England. Previous to that time the administrative authority of the Craft was exercised by a
General Assembly of the Masons of a jurisdiction which met annually. (See Assembly,)
The true history of Grand Lodges
commences, therefore, from what has been
called the era of the revival.
In 1717, there were only four Lodges
in existence in London, and no others in
the whole south of England. These four
Lodges determimed, if possible, to revive
the Institution from its depressed state, and
accordingly they met in February, 1717, at

and experience of all the subordinate

Lodges under its obedience so that the
voice of the Grand Lodge is nothing else
than the voice of the Craft expressed by
their representatives.
Hence the twelfth

the Apple-Tree Tavern, (whose name has

thus been rendered famous for all time ) and
after placing the oldest Master Mason, who
was the Master of a Lodge, in the chair,
they constituted themselves into a Grand
Lodge, and resolved, says Preston, " to revive the quarterly communications of the
Fraternity." On the following St. John
the Baptist's day, the Grand Lodge wa3
duly organized, and Mr. Anthony Sayre
was elected Grand Master, who " appointed
his Wardens, and commanded the brethren
of the four old Lodges to meet him and
the Wardens quarterly in communication."
From that time Grand Lodges have been
uninterruptedly held; receiving, however,
at different periods, various modifications.
A Grand Lodge is invested with power
and authority over all the Craft within its
jurisdiction.
It is the Supreme Court of
Appeal in all Masonic cases, and to its
decrees implicit obedience must be paid
by every Lodge and every Mason situated
within its control. The government of
Grand Lodges is, therefore, completely despotic.
While a Grand Lodge exists, its
edicts must be respected and obeyed without examination by its subordinate Lodges.
This autocratic power of a Grand Lodge
is based upon a principle of expediency, and
derived from the fundamental law established at the organization of Grand Lodges
in the beginning of the last century.
In
so large a body as the Craft, it is absolutely
necessary that there should be a supreme
controlling body to protect the Institution
from anarchy, and none could be more conveniently selected than one which, by its
representative character, is, or ought to be,
composed of the united wisdom, prudence,

his officers

320

General Regulations declares that

" the Grand Lodge consists of, and is formed
by, the Masters and Wardens of all the
regular particular Lodges upon record."
So careful has the Institution been to
preserve the dogmatic and autocratic power
of tne Grand Lodge, that all elected Masters
are required, at the time of their installation, to make the following declaration
"You agree to hold in veneration the
original rulers and patrons of the Order of
Freemasonry, and their regular successors,
supreme and subordinate, according to
their stations and to submit to the awards
and resolutions of your brethren in Grand
Lodge convened, in every case, consistent
with the Constitutions of the Order.
"You promise to pay homage to the
Grand Master for the time being, and to
of the

conform
Lodge."
to

when duly
to

installed,

every edict

and

of the

strictly

Grand

The

organization of new Grand Lodges

America has followed that adopted, in
essential particulars, by the four Lodges
which established the Grand Lodge of Eng-

in

land in 1717. When it is desired to organize a Grand Lodge, three or more legally-constituted Lodges, working in 'any
State, territory, or other independent political division,

where no Grand Lodge

al-

ready exists, may meet in convention,

adopt by-laws, elect officers, and organize
a Grand Lodge. The Lodges within its
jurisdiction then surrender their Warrants
of constitution to the Grand Lodges from
which they respectively had received them,
and accept others from the newly-organized Grand Lodge, which thenceforward
exercises all Masonic jurisdiction over the
State in which it has been organized.
A Grand Lodge thus organized consists
of the Masters and Wardens of all the
Lodges under its jurisdiction, and such
Past Masters as may enroll themselves or
be elected as members. Past Masters are
not, however, members of the Grand Lodge
by inherent right, but only by courtesy,
and no Past Master can remain a member
of the Grand Lodge unless he is attached
to some subordinate Lodge in its jurisdiction.

All Grand Lodges are governed by the

following officers: Grand Master, Deputy
Grand Master, Senior and Junior Grand
Wardens, Grand Treasurer, and Grand
Secretary. These are usually termed the
Grand officers; in addition to them there
are subordinate officers appointed by the

GRAND

GRAND

321

a
Grand Master and the Grand Wardens, are unfolded. Its officers are three
such as Grand Deacons, Grand Stewards, Master, and two Wardens. The Chapter
Grand Marshal, Grand Pursuivant, Grand is decorated with white and red hangings,
Sword Bearer, and Grand Tiler but their and furnished with the five orders of archinumber and titles vary in different Grand tecture, and a case of mathematical instruments. The apron is white, lined with
Lodges.
Grand Lodge Manuscript. A blue; and the jewel is a gold medal, on
roll of parchment, nine inches in length which are engraved the orders of architecand five in breadth, containing the Legend ture. It is suspended by a stone-colored
of the Craft and the Old Charges. It is ribbon.
preserved in the archives of the Grand
Grand Master Mason. The title
Lodge of England, but there is no record given to the Grand Master in the Grand
of how it got there. Affixed to it is the Lodge of Scotland.
date A. D. 1132, which is evidently an error,
Grand Master of all Symbolic
and was most probably intended for 1632, Lodges. ( Venerable Maltre de toutes les
perhaps 1532, for in the sixteenth century Loges. The twentieth degree in the Ancient
manuscripts there is a very slight differ- and Accepted Scottish Rite. The presiding
ence in the form of the 1 and the 5. This officer is styled Venerable Grand Master,
manuscript was first noticed by Brother W. and is assisted by two Wardens in the west.
J. Hughan, who transcribed it, and pub- The decorations of the Lodge are blue and
lished it in his Old Charges of British Free- yellow. The old ritual contains some inter;

masons.

esting instructions respecting the

Grand Master.

The presiding

offi-

cer of the symbolic degrees in a jurisdiction.

presides, of course, over the
Grand Lodge, and has the right not only
to be present, but also to preside in every

He

Lodge, with the Master of the Lodge on

his left hand, and to order his Grand Wardens to attend him, and act as Wardens in

that particular Lodge. He has the right

of visiting the Lodges and inspecting their
books and mode of work as often as he
pleases, or, if unable to do so, he may depute his Grand officers to act for him.
has the power of granting dispensations for
the formation of new Lodges which dispensations are of force until revoked by
himself or the Grand Lodge. He may also
grant dispensations for several other purposes, for which see the article Dispensa-

He

tion.
Formerly, the Grand Master appointed his Grand officers, but this regulation has been repealed, and the Grand officers are now all elected by the Grand
Lodges.
When the Grand Master visits a Lodge,
he must be received with the greatest respect, and the Master of the Lodge should
always offer him the chair, which the
Grand Master may or may not accept at

his pleasure.

Grand Wardens according

to seniority.

Grand Master Architect.

Maltre Architect.)

The twelfth degree

Grand
in the

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. This

is strictly a scientific degree, resembling
in
that respect the degree of Fellow Craft.
In it the principles of architecture and the
connection of the liberal arts with Masonry

2Q

and

Among the traditions preserved by the

possessors of this degree, is one which
states that after the third Temple was destroyed by Titus, the son of Vespasian, the
Christian Freemasons who were then in
the Holy Land, being filled with sorrow,
departed from

home

with {he determina-

tion of building a fourth, and that, dividing

themselves into several bodies, they dispersed over the various parts of Europe.
The greater number went to Scotland, and
repaired to the town of Kilwinning, where
they established a Lodge and built an abbey, and where the records of the Order
were deposited. This tradition, preserved
in the original rituals, is a very strong presumptive evidence that the degree owed its
existence to the Templar system of Ramsay.
Master of Light. One of
the various names bestowed on the degree
of Knight of St. Andrew.

Grand

Grand Offerings.
English system of

According to the
important

lectures, three

events recorded in Scripture are designated

as the three grand offerings of Masonry,
because they are said to have occurred on
Mount Moriah, which symbolically represents the ground-floor of the Lodge. These
three grand offerings are as follows The
first grand offering was when Abraham
prepared to offer up his son Isaac the second was when David built an altar to stay
the pestilence with which his people were
afflicted ; and the third was when Solomon
dedicated to Jehovah the Temple which he
:

Should the Grand Master die, or be absent from the jurisdiction during his term
of office, the Deputy Grand Master assumes
his powers, or, if there be no Deputy, then
the

first

second Temple.

21

had completed.

See Ground-Floor of

the

Lodge.

Grand Officers.

The

elective officers

of a superintending Masonic body, such as

Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, etc., are so
called.
The appointed officers are desig-

GRAND

322

GRAND

nated as subordinate officers but this distinction is not always strictly observed.
;

Grand

Orient. Most of the Grand

established by the Latin races,
such as those of France, Spain, Italy, and
the South American States, are called
Grand Orients. The word is thus, in one
Lodges

sense,

synonymous with Grand Lodge but

;

these Grand Orients have often a more extensive obedience than Grand Lodges, frequently exercising jurisdiction over the
highest degrees, from which English and

American Grand Lodges

refrain.

Thus,

the Grand Orient of France exercises jurisdiction not only over the seven degrees of
its own Rite, but also over the thirty-three
of the Ancient and Accepted, and over all
the other Rites which are practised in
France.
Grand Orient is also used in English,

and especially in American, Masonry to indicate the seat of the Grand Lodge of
highest Masonic power, and is thus equivalent to Grand East, which see.
Grand Pontiff. ( Grand Pontife ou

liam Cowper was chosen by the Grand

Lodge. The office was therefore at first an
elective one, but Anderson, in his edition
of 1738, says that "ever since, the new

Grand Master, upon

his

commencement,

appoints the Secretary, or continues him

by returning him the books." This usage
is still pursued by the modern Grand Lodge
of England; but in every jurisdiction of
this country the office of Grand Secretary
is an elective one. The jewel of the Grand
Secretary is a circle enclosing two pens
crossed.
His badge of office was formerly
a bag. See Bag.
rand Stewards. Officers of a Grand
Lodge, whose duty it is to prepare and serve
This duty was at first
at the Grand Feast.
performed by the Grand Wardens, but in
1720 they were authorized " to take some

Stewards to their assistance." This was

sometimes done and sometimes omitted, so
that often there were no Stewards. In 1732,
the Stewards, to the

number of

twelve,

and it was
resolved that in future, at the annual elecSublime Ecossais.) The nineteenth degree tion, each Steward should nominate his
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. successor. At present, in the Grand Lodge
The degree is occupied in an examination of England, eighteen Grand Stewards are
of the Apocalyptic mysteries of the New annually appointed from eighteen different
Jerusalem. Its officers are a Thrice Puis- Lodges. Each Lodge recommends one of
sant and one Warden. The Thrice Puis- its subscribing members, who is nominated
sant is seated in the east on a throne by the former Steward of that Lodge, and
canopied with blue, and wears a white satin the appointment is made by the Grand
robe. The Warden is in the west, and holds Master.
The number of Grand Stewards
a staff of gold. The members are clothed in this country seldom exceeds two, and
in white, with blue fillets embroidered with the appointment is made in some Grand
twelve stars of gold, and are called True Lodges by the Grand Master, and in others
and Faithful Brothers. The decorations by the Junior Grand Warden. The jewel
of the Lodge are blue sprinkled with gold of a Grand Steward is a cornucopia within
stars.
a circle, and his badge of office a white rod.
Grand Principals. The first three Grand Stewards9 Lodge. Acofficers of the Grand Chapter of England cording to the Constitutions of England,
are so called. They are respectively desig- the past and present Grand Stewards connated as Z., H., and J., meaning Zerubba- stitute a Lodge, which has no number, but
bel, Haggai, and Joshua.
is registered in the Grand Lodge books at
Grand Prior. 1. Each chief or con- the head of all other Lodges. It is repreventual bailiff of the eight languages of sented in the Grand Lodge by its Master,
the Order of Malta was called a Grand Wardens, and Past Masters, but has no
Prior. There were also other Grand Priors, power of making Masons.
The institution
under whom were several Commanderies. has not been introduced into this country
The Grand Priors of the Order were twenty- except in the Grand Lodge of Maryland,
six in number. 2. The third officer in the where the Grand Stewards' Lodge acts as a
Supreme Council of the Ancient and Ac- Committee of Grievances during the recess
cepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States. See Prior.
Secretary. The recording
and corresponding officer of a Grand Lodge,
whose signature must be attached to every
document issued from the Grand Lodge;
where there is no Grand Register or Keeper
of the Seals, he is the custodian of the Seal
of the Grand Lodge. The Regulations of
1722 had provided for the office, but no ap-

Grand

pointment was made until 1723, when Wil-

were made permanent

officers

Grand Lodge.
Tiler. An officer who performs in a Grand Lodge the same duties

of the

Grand

that a Tiler does in a subordinate Lodge.

The Grand Tiler is prohibited from being a

member of the Grand Lodge, because his
duties outside of the door would prevent
his taking part in the deliberations of the

body.

Grand Treasurer. The office of

Grand Treasurer was provided for by the

GRAND
Regulations of 1722, and in 1724, on the
organization of the Committee of Charity,
it was enacted that a Treasurer should be
appointed. But it was not until 1727 that
the office appears to have been really filled
by the selection of Nathaniel Blakerly.

GRAVE
if his

nomination was not approved, the

Grand Lodge proceeded to an

election.

By

the present Constitutions of England the

power of appointment is vested absolutely
In this country the
in the Grand Master.
Grand Wardens are elected by the Grand

But as he was elected Deputy Grand Masthe same year, and yet continued to

Lodge.

perform the duties of Treasurer, it does not

appear to have been considered as a disIn 1738, he demitted
tinct appointment.

cois

ter in

323

Grasse Tilly, Alexandre FranAuguste Comte de. He was

son of the Comte de Grasse who commanded the French fleet that had been sent
ttie

the office, when Revis, the Grand Secretary, to the assistance of the Americans in their
was appointed. But he declined on the revolutionary struggle.
De Grasse Tilly
ground that the offices of Secretary and was born at Versailles, in France, about the
Treasurer should not be held by the same year 1766. He was initiated in the Mother
"the one being a check on the Scottish Lodge du Contrat Social, and subperson,
So that, in 1739, it was made a sequently, going over to America, resided
other."
permanent office of the Grand Lodge by for some time in the island of St. Domingo,
the appointment of Bro. John Jesse.
It is whence he removed to the city of Charleston,
an elective office and it was provided, by in South Carolina, where, in 1796, he affilithe Old Regulations, that he should be " a ated with the French Lodge la Candeur.
brother of good worldly substance." The In 1799, he was one of the founders of the
duties are similar to those of the Treasurer Lodge la Reunion Franchise, of which he
of a subordinate Lodge. The jewel is a was at one time the Venerable or Master.
circle enclosing two keys crossed, or in In 1802, the Comte de Grasse was a memsaltire.
According to ancient custom, his ber of the Supreme Council of the Ancient
badge of office was a white staff, but this is and Accepted Rite, which had been estabgenerally disused in this country.
lished the year before at Charleston and in
Grand Wardens. The Senior and the same year he received a patent as
Junior Grand Wardens are the third and Grand Commander for life of the French
fourth officers of a Grand Lodge. Their West India islands. In 1802 he returned
duties do not differ very materially from to St. Domingo, and established a Supreme
those of the corresponding officers of a sub- Council of the Scottish Rite at Port au
ordinate Lodge, but their powers are of Prince. In 1804 he went to Europe, and
course more extensive.
labored with great energy for the extension
The Grand Wardens succeed to the gov- of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. On
ernment of the Craft, in order of rank, September 22, 1804, he founded at Paris a
upon the death or absence from the juris- Supreme Council of the Ancient and Acdiction of the Grand and Deputy Grand cepted Scottish Rite, of which body he was,
Masters. See Succession to the Chair?
On
until 1806, the Grand Commander.
It is also their prerogative to accompany March 5, 1805, he organized a Supreme
the Grand Master in his visitations of the Council at Milan, in Italy, and on July 4,
Lodges, and when there to act as his War- 1811, another at Madrid, in Spain. The
dens.
Comte de Grasse was an officer in the
In the absence of the Senior Grand War- French army, and was taken prisoner by
den, the Junior does not occupy the west, the English and detained in England until
but retains his position in the south. 1815, when he returned to Paris. He imHaving been elected and installed to pre- mediately resumed his functions as Grand
side in the south, and to leave that station Commander of a body which took the unonly for the east, the temporary vacancy authorized pretentious title of the Supreme
in the west must be supplied by the ap- Council of America.
For several years
pointment by the Grand Master of some Scottish Masonry in France was convulsed
other brother. See Wardens.
with dissensions, which De Grasse vainly
On the same principle, the Senior Grand labored to reconcile. Finally, in 1818, he

Warden does not supply the place of the

absent Deputy Grand Master, but retains
his station in the west.
The old Charges of 1722 required that
no one could be a Grand Warden until he
had been the Master of a Lodge. The rule
still continues in force, either by specific
regulations or by the force of usage.
By the Regulations of 1721, the Grand
Master nominated the Grand Wardens, but

Grand Commander,
and was succeeded by the Comte Decazes.
From that period he appears to have passed
quietly out of the Masonic history of France,
and probably died soon after.
resigned his post as

Grave. The grave is, in the Master's

degree, the analogue of the pastos, couch
or coffin, in the Ancient Mysteries, and is
intended scenically to serve the same purThe grave is, therefore, in that depose.

GREATER

GREGORIANS

gree, intended, in connection with the sprig

of acacia, to teach symbolically the great

appropriate color of the degree, because

truth is there said to be the palladium of
the Order.
In the degree of Knight of the East, in
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
green is also the symbolic color.
may
very readily suppose, from the close connection of this degree in its ritual with that
of the Red Cross Knight, that the same
symbolic explanation of the color would
apply to both, and I think that such an explanation might very properly be made;
but it is generally supposed by its possessors that the green of the Knights of the
East alludes to the waters of the river Euphrates, and hence its symbolism is not

324

Masonic doctrine of a future life.

Greater Lights. See Lights, Greater,
Bible, Square and Compasses.
Greece. In 1867, the first steps were
taken to establish a Grand Lodge in Greece
by the Lodges which had been recently
founded there by the Grand Orient of Italy,
but owing to various causes the organization did not succeed, and until 1872 the
Grecian Lodges were presided over by a
Deputy Grand Master, appointed by and
the representative of the

Grand Orient of

Italy.

On July

22, 1872, the

Lodges of Greece

We

met at Athens, and organized the Grand moral but historical.

The evergreen of the third degree is to
Lodge of Greece, electing His Imperial
Highness Prince Rhodocanakis the first the Master Mason an emblem of immortalGrand Master. The Order is now repre- ity. Green was with the Druids a symbol
sented by seven Lodges, at Syra, Athens, of hope, and the virtue of hope with a MaIn all
Piraeus, Chalkis, Corfu, Patras, Lamia, and son illustrates hope of immortality.
Argos.
At the same time a Supreme Council of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
was organized. The seat of both bodies is
at Athens.

Greece, Mysteries in. The princiPagan mysteries celebrated in Greece

were the Eleusinian and the Bacchic, both
of which see.
pal

Green.

Green, as a Masonic color, is

almost confined to the four degrees of Perfect Master, Knight of the East, Knight of
the Red Cross, and Prince of Mercy. In
the degree of Perfect Master it is a symbol
of the moral resurrection of the candidate,
teaching him that being dead to vice he
should hope to revive in virtue.
In the degree of Knight of the Red Cross,
this color is employed as a symbol of the
immutable nature of truth, which, like the

bay

tree, will

ever flourish in immortal

green.

This idea of the unchanging immortality

of that which is divine and true, was always connected by the ancients with the
Among the Egyptians, the
color of green.
god Phtha, the active spirit, the creator and
regenerator of the world, the goddess
Pascht, the divine preserver, and Thoth, the
instructor of men in the sacred doctrines of
truth, were all painted in the hieroglyphic
system with green flesh.
Portal says, in his essay on Symbolic
Colors, that " green was the symbol of victory " and this reminds us of the motto
of the Red Cross Knights, " magna est Veri;

tas

et

prevalebit,"

great

is

truth

and

mighty above all things; and hence green is

the symbolic color of that degree.
In the degree of Prince of Mercy, or the
twenty-sixth degree of the Scottish Rite,
green is also symbolic of truth, and is the

the Ancient Mysteries, this idea was carried

out, and green symbolized the birth of the
world, and the moral creation or resurrection of the initiate. If we apply this to the
evergreen of the Master Mason we shall
again find a resemblance, for the acacia is
emblematic of a new creation of the body,
and a moral and physical resurrection.

Greeting.

This word means salutaunder the form of " Thrice Greeting," it is very common at the head of Masonic documents. In the beginning of the
last century it was usual at the meeting of
Masons to say, " God's good greeting be to
tion, and,

happy meeting." Brown gives the

formula as practised in 1800 " The recommendation I bring is from the right worthy
and worshipful brothers and fellows of the
Holy Lodge of St. John, who greet your
worship well." This formula is obsolete,
but the word greeting is still in use among
Freemasons. In Masonic documents it is
sometimes found in the form of S.'. S.\ S.\,
this our

which three letters are the initials of the

Latin word salutem or health, three times
to
repeated, and therefore equivalent
" Thrice Greeting."

Gregorians. An association established early in the eighteenth century in

ridicule of and in opposition to the Freemasons. There was some feud between the
two Orders, but the Gregorians at last succumbed, and long ago became extinct.
They lasted, however, at least until the end
of the century, for there is extant a Sermon
preached before them in 1797. They must
too, by that time, have changed their character, for Prince William Frederick of
Gloucester was then their presiding officer
and Dr. Munkhouse, the author of that
sermon, who was a very ardent Mason,
speaks in high terms of the Order as an
;

GREINEMANN

GUGOMOS

Freemasonry, and distinguished for

"benign tendency and salutary effects."
Greineniann, Ludwig. A Dominican monk, who, while preaching a
course of Lent sermons at Aix-la-Chapelle
in 1779, endeavored to prove that the Jews
who crucified Jesus were Freemasons; that
Pilate and Herod were Wardens in a Masonic Lodge; and that Judas, before he betrayed his Lord, had been initiated in the
synagogue, the thirty pieces of silver which
he returned being the amount of his fee for

was the second grand offering ; and lastly, it

was here, that when the Temple was completed, King Solomon dedicated that mag-

ally of

its

initiation.

With

discourses

like

these,

Greinemann, who had threatened, if his

followers would assist him, he would slay
every Freemason he met with his own hand,
so excited the people, that the magistrates
were compelled to issue an edict forbidding

the assemblies of the Freemasons. Peter

Schuff, a Capuchin, also vied with Greinemann in the labor of persecution, and peace
was not restored until the neighboring free
imperial states threatened that, if the
monks did not refrain from stirring up the
mob against Freemasonry, they should be
prohibited from collecting alms in their

Grip. This word

nificent structure to the service of Jehovah,

with the offering of pious prayers and many
and this was the third
costly presents

grand offering.
This sacred spot was once the threshingOman the Jebusite, and from him
David purchased it for fifty shekels of
The Kabbalists delight to invest it
silver.
with still more solemn associations, and declare that it was the spot on which Adam
was born and Abel slain. See Holy Ground.
floor of

Ground-Floor of King
mon's Temple. This is said

peculiar to Masonic
language. It is not to be found in any
English dictionary except Webster's, where
it is marked as " obsolete or vulgar."
The
correct equivalent English word is " gripe,"
which is used also in one or two Masonic
works of the beginning of the last century
but grip was very soon adopted as the technical word of Masonry; and so uninterrupted has been its use, that at length, notwithstanding the derogatory remark of
Webster, it has passed into the colloquial
language of the day to signify a grasp of
the hand. But in Masonry the meaning of
the word is somewhat different. German
Masons call it der griff, and French ones,
V attouchement.
Grot on. In the Leland Manuscript, a
corruption of Crotona, where Pythagoras
established his school.
is

Solo-

have
been a Mosaic pavement, consisting of
black and white stones laid lozengewise,
and surrounded by a tesselated border. The
tradition of the Order is that Entered Apprentices' Lodges were held on the groundfloor of King Solomon's Temple; and hence
a Mosaic pavement, or a carpet representing
one, is a very
sonic Lodges.

Grand

common

to

decoration of

Ma-

See Mosaic Pavement, and

Offerings.

Guard.

territories.

325

See

Due Guard.

Guard of the Conclave. See Knight

of the Christian Mark.

Guards.

used in working the

Cross and Templar degrees.
They do not constitute regular
officers of a Council or Commandery, but
are appointed pro re natd.
rituals of the

Officers

Red

Guerrier de Dumast. A

distin-

guished French Mason, born at Nancy on

February 26, 1796. He is the author of a

entitled La Magonnerie, in three canenriched with historical, etymological,

and critical notes, published in 1820. For
this work he received from the Lodge
Freres Artistes, of which he was the orator,
a gold medal. He was the author of several
other works both Masonic and secular.
Gugomos, Baron Von. An impostor in Masonry, who, in 1775, appeared
in Germany, and, being a member of the
Ground-Floor of the :Lodge. Order of Strict Observance, claimed that
Mount Moriah, on which the Temple of he had been delegated by the Unknown
Solomon was built, is symbolically called Superiors of the Holy See at Cyprus to
the ground-floor of the Lodge, and hence it establish a new Order of Knights Templars.
is said that "the
Lodge rests on holy Calling himself Dux and High Priest, he
ground." This ground-floor of the Lodge convoked a Masonic Congress at Wiesis remarkable for three great events rebaden, which, notwithstanding the warning
corded in Scripture, and which are called of Dr. Bode, was attended by many influen" the three grand offerings of Masonry." It tial members of the Fraternity. His prewas here that Abraham prepared, as a token tensions were so absurd, that at length his
of his faith, to offer up his beloved son imposture was detected, and he escaped
Isaac
this was the first grand offering ; it secretly out of Wiesbaden.
In 1786, Guwas here that David, when his people were gomos confessed the imposition, and, it is
afflicted with a pestilence, built an altar, and said, asserted that he had been employed
offered thereon peace-offerings and burnt-of- as a tool by the Jesuits to perform this part,
ferings to appease the wrath of God
this that Freemasonry might be injured.

poem
tos,

HAGGAI

GUIBBS

326

Guibos. The names given to the Assassins of the third degree by some of the
inventors of the high degrees, are of so
singular a form as to have almost irresistibly led to the conclusion that these names
were bestowed by the adherents of the
house of Stuart upon some of their enemies as marks of infamy. Such, for instance, is Romvel, the name of one of the
Assassins in certain Scottish degrees, which
probably a corruption of Cromwell.
Jubelum Guibbs, another name of one of
these traitors, has much puzzled the Masonic etymologists.
I think that I have
found its origin in the name of the Rev.
Adam Gib, who was an antiburgher clergyman of Edinburgh. When that city was
taken possession of by the young Pretender, Charles Edward, in 1745, the clergy
generally fled. But Gib removed only three
miles from the city, where, collecting his
loyal congregation, he hurled anathemas
for five successive Sundays against the Pretender, and boldly prayed for the downfall
of the rebellion. He subsequently joined
the loyal army, and at Falkirk took a rebel
prisoner. So active was Gib in his opposition to the cause of the house of Stuart,
and so obnoxious had he become, that several attempts were made by the rebels to
take his life. On Charles Edward's return
to France, he erected in 1747 his " Primordial Chapter " at Arras ; and in the compois

high degrees there practised,

very probable that he bestowed the
name of his old enemy Gib on the most
atrocious of the Assassins who figure in the
legend of third degree. The letter u was
doubtless inserted to prevent the French,
in pronouncing the name, from falling into
the soft sound of the
and calling the
word Jib. The additional b and s were the
natural and customary results of a French
attempt to spell a foreign proper name.
sition of the

it

is

Guillemain de

St.

Tic tor,

distinguished French writer,

who published several works on Freemasonry, the most valuable and best known
of which is his Recueil Precieux de la Magonnerie Adonhiramite, first issued at Paris
in 1782. This work, of which several editions were published, contains the catechisms of the first four degrees of Adoniramite Masonry, and an account of several
other degrees, and is enriched with many
learned notes. Ragon, who speaks highly of the work, erroneously attributes its
authorship to the celebrated Baron de

XiOuis.

Tschoudy.

Gustavus IV., King of Sweden. He

was initiated into Masonry, at Stockholm,
on the 10th of March, 1793. Ten years
after, on the 9th of March, 1803, Gustavus
issued an Ordonnance by which he required all the secret societies in his dominions to make known to the stadtholders of
the cities where they resided, and in the
provinces to his governors, not only the
formula of the oath which they administered to their members, but the duties
which they prescribed, and the object of
their association; and also to submit at any
time to a personal inspection by the officers
of government. But at the end of the Or-

donnance the King says " The Freemasons,

who are under our immediate protection,
are alone excepted from this inspection,
and from this Ordonnance in general."
:

Guttural Point of Entrauee.

From

the Latin guttur, the throat. The

is that avenue of the body which is
most employed in the sins of intemperance,
and hence it suggests to the Mason certain
symbolic instructions in relation to the virtue of temperance. See Perfect Points of
Entrance.
Gymnosophist. The eighth degree
of the Kabbalistic Rite.

throat

H.
H.\
Hiram

A.*.

B.\ An

abbreviation

of

Abif.

Hadeeses. An

Arabic word, signify-

ing the traditions handed down by Mohammed and preserved by the Mohammedan
doctors.
They are said to amount to 5266
in number.
Many of the traditions of Mohammedan Masonry are said to be borrowed from the Hadeeses, just as much of
the legendary lore of European Masonry is
to be found in the Jewish Talmud.
II agar. The old lectures taught the

and hence it was the theory of

the Masons of the eighteenth century, that
the landmark which requires all candidates
for initiation to be free born is derived from
the fact that the promise which was given
to Isaac, the free-born son of Abraham and
Sarah, was denied to Ishrnael, the slaveborn son of the Egyptian bondwoman Hagar.
This theory is entertained by Oliver
in all his writings, as a part of the old Masonic system. See Free Born.
doctrine,

IXaggai.

According to Jewish

tradi-

HAGUE

HALL

327

Babylon during the people, to cover it and he that covereth an

young man at the house with tile or slate is called a helliar."
Hall Committee. A committee estime of the liberation by Cyrus, he came
to Jerusalem in company with Joshua and tablished in all Lodges and Grand Lodges
Zerubbabel, to aid in the rebuilding of the which own the building in which they meet,
Temple. The work being suspended during to which is entrusted the supervision of the
the reigns of the two immediate successors building. The Grand Lodge of England
of Cyrus, on the accession of Darius, Hag- first appointed its Hall Committee in 1772,
tion, Haggai was born in
captivity, and being a

gai urged the renewal of the undertaking,

and for that purpose obtained the sanction
of the King. Animated by the courage
and patriotism of Haggai and Zechariah,
the people prosecuted the work with vigor,
and the second Temple was completed and
dedicated in the year 516 b. c.
In the Koyal Arch system of America,
Haggai represents the scribe, or third offiIn the Engcer of a Koyal Arch Chapter.
lish system he represents the second officer, and is called the prophet.
city of the NetherHague, The.
lands, formerly South Holland.
Freemasonry was introduced there in 1731 by
the Grand Lodge of England, when an
occasional Lodge was opened for the initiation of Francis, Duke of Lorraine, after-

wards Emperor of

Germany.

Between

that year and 1735 an English and a Dutch

Lodge were regularly instituted, from which
other Lodges in Holland subsequently proceeded. In 1749, the Lodge at the Hague
assumed the name of " The Mother Lodge
of the Royal Union," whence resulted the
National Grand Lodge, which declared its
independence of the Grand Lodge of England in 1770. See Netherlands.

Hall.

The Hebrew

definite article

j"],

" the." It forms the second syllable of the

Substitute Word.

Hail or Hale.

This word

is

among Masons with two very different

used
sig-

When

addressed as an inquiry to a visiting brother, it has the same

import as that in which it is used under
like circumstances by mariners.
Thus:
" Whence do you hail ? " that is, " of what
Lodge are you a member ? " Used in this

nifications.

sense, it

1.

comes from the Saxon term of saluand should be spelled " hail."

tation " h^:l,"

to what
tie" and in
this sense it signifies to conceal, being derived from the Saxon word " hblan," to
hide, the e being pronounced in AngloSaxon as a in the word /ate. By the rules
of etymology, it should be spelled " hale."
The preservation of this Saxon word in the
Masonic dialect, while it has ceased to exist
in the vernacular, is a striking proof of the
2.

Its

second

use

is

confined

Masons understand by the "

antiquity of the Order and its ceremonies

" In the western parts of
in England.

England," says Lord King, ( Crit. Mist. Ap.

Creed, p. 178,) "at this very day, to hele
over anything signifies, among the common

purpose of superintending the erecwhich had been projected.

Hall, Masonic. For a long time

for the

tion of the hall

after the revival of Masonry in 1717, Masonic Lodges continued to meet, as they
had done before that period, in taverns.

Thus, the Grand Lodge of England was

organized, and, to use the language of Anderson, " the quarterly communications
were revived," by four Lodges, whose respective places of meeting were the Goose
and Gridiron Ale-House, the Crown AleHouse, the Apple-Tree Tavern, and the
Rummer and Grapes Tavern. For many
years the Grand Lodge held its quarterly
meetings sometimes at the Apple-Tree, but
principally at the Devil Tavern, and kept
the Grand Feast at the hall of one of the
Livery companies.
The first Lodge in
Paris was organized at a tavern kept in the
Rue des Boucheries by one Hure, and the
Lodges subsequently organized in France
continued to meet, like those of England,
in public houses.
The custom was long
followed in other countries of Europe.
In
America the practice ceased only at a comparatively recent period, and it is possible
that in some obscure villages it has not yet

been abandoned.

At as early a period as the beginning of

the fourteenth century, the Gilds, or Livery
Companies, of London had their halls or
places of meeting, and in which they stored
their goods for sale.
At first these were
mean buildings, but gradually they rose
into importance, and the Goldsmith's Hall,
erected in the fifteenth century, is said to
have been an edifice of large dimensions
and of imposing appearance. These halls,
probably, as they were very common in the
eighteenth century, were suggestive to the
Freemasons of similar edifices for their
own Fraternity; but undoubtedly the necessity, as the Association grew into importance, of a more respectable, more convenient, and more secure locality than was
afforded by temporary resort to taverns and
ale-houses must have led to the erection of

own special use.

The first Masonic Hall of which we have

isolated edifices for their

any account is the one that was erected by

the Lodge at Marseilles, in France, in the
year 1765. Smith describes it very fully
in his Use and Abuse of Freemasonry, and
calls it " a very magnificent hall."
In
1772, the Grand Lodge of England made

HALL

HALL

preliminary arrangements for the construction of a hall, a considerable sum having

been already subscribed for that purpose.
On the 1st of May, 1775, the foundationstone of the new edifice was laid in solemn
form, according to a ceremonial which was
then adopted, and which, with a few modifications, continues to be used at the presOn the
ent day on similar occasions.
corner-stone it was designated as Aula Latamorum, " The Freemason's Hall." It was
finished in less than twelve months, and
was dedicated, on the 23d of May, 1776, to
Masonry, Virtue, and Universal Benevolence
a formula still adhered to without variation
in the English and American rituals.
In the same year, the Lodge at Newcastle, stimulated by the enterprise of the
London Freemasons, erected a hall; an example which was followed, two years afterwards, by the Lodge of Sunderland. And
after this the erection of isolated halls for
Masonic purposes became common not only
in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but all
over the Continent, wherever the funds of
a Lodge would permit of the expenditure.
In America, Lodges continued to be held
in taverns up to a very recent period. It
is not now considered reputable; although,
as has been already remarked, the custom
is, perhaps, not entirely discontinued, especially in remote country villages.
It is
impossible to tell at what precise period
and in what locality the first Masonic hall

appearance, and yet creditable to the Institution of which they are

the abiding-places, are to be found scattered
all over the land.
In this country, as well as in Britain, the
construction of Masonic Halls is governed
by no specific rules, and is too often left to
the judgment and taste of the architect, and
hence, if that person be not an experienced
Freemason, the building is often erected
without due reference to the ritual requirements of the Order. But in these particulars,
says Oliver, the Masons of the Continent
are governed by a Ritual of Building, and
he quotes, as a specimen of the Helvetian
Ritual in reference to the laying of the
foundation-stone of a Masonic Hall, the
following directions

328

was erected in

this country.
It is true that
in a Boston paper of 1773 we find (Moore's
Mag., xv. 162,) an advertisement summoning the Masons to celebrate the festival of

John the Evangelist at "Freemason's

Hall " but, on examination, we learn that
this was no other than a room in the Green
Dragon Tavern. Other buildings, such as
St.

the Exchange Coffee-House, only partially

used for Masonic purposes, were subsequently erected in Boston, and received by
courtesy, but not by right, the name of
"Masonic Halls;" but it was not until
1832 that the first independent hall was
built in that city, which received the name
of the Masonic Temple, a title which has
since been very usually conferred on the
halls in the larger cities. We may suppose
that it was about this time, when a resuscitation of Masonic energy, which had been
paralyzed by the anti-Masonic opposition,
had commenced to develop itself, that the

Lodges and Grand Lodges began

halls

to erect
their peculiar use. At present
no dearth of these buildings, and

for

there is
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Cincinnati, and other large cities,
present edifices for Masonic use of imposing
grandeur and architectural beauty to the
eye of the spectators, while buildings of

less pretentious

"A

Mason,

assisted

by two

others, if

there be a dearth of workmen, or distress,

or war, or peril, or threats of danger, may
begin the work of building a Lodge ; but it
better to have seven known and sworn
workmen. The Lodge is, as we know, due
east and west but its chief window or its
chief door must look to the east. On a day
allowed and a place appointed, the whole
company of builders set out after high noon
is

to lay the first stone."

Far more practical are the directions of
Dr. Oliver himself for the construction of a
Masonic Hall, given in his Book of the

Lodge, (ch.
"

iii,)

which

is

here condensed.

A Masonic Hall should be isolated, and,

if possible, surrounded with lofty walls, so

as to be included in a court, and apart from
any other buildings, to preclude the possibility of being overlooked by cowans or
eavesdroppers. As, however, such a situation in large towns can seldom be obtained,
the Lodge should be formed in an upper
story ; and if there be any contiguous buildings, the windows should be either in the

These
very high from the floor.
to be all on one side
the
south, if practicable
and furnished with
proper ventilation, that the brethren be not
incommoded, when pursuing their accustomed avocations, by the heat of the Lodge.
The room, to preserve a just proportion,
must, of course, be lofty. It should be furnished with a pitched roof, open within,
and relieved with an ornamental framework
of oak, or painted so as to represent that
species of timber.
It should be supported
on corbels running along the cornice, on
which should be engraven Masonic ornaments. The dimensions of the room, in
length and breadth, will depend in a great
measure on the situation of the Lodge, or
the space which is assigned for its position;
and this will often be extremely circumscribed in a large and populous place,
where building land is scarce and dear,
roof, or

windows ought

HALL

HALL

or the fund inadequate to any extensive

But in all cases a due proporoperations.
tion should be observed in the several members of the fabric wherever it is practicable,
that no unsightly appearance may offend
the eye, by disturbing that general harmony
of parts which constitutes the beauty and
excellence of every architectural produc-

and may be of smaller dimensions, accord-

tion.

"The

principal entrance to the Lodge

to face the east, because the east
is a place of light both physical and moral
and therefore the brethren have access to
the Lodge by that entrance, as a symbol of
mental illumination. The approaches to
the Lodge must be angular, for a straight

room ought

unmasonic and cannot be tolerated.

The advance from the external
avenue to the east ought to consist of
three lines and two angles. The first line
passes through a small room or closet for
the accommodation of visitors. At the extremity of this apartment there ought to be
entrance

is

another angular passage leading to the

Tiler's room adjacent to the Lodge; and
from thence, by another right angle, you
are admitted into the presence of the
brethren with your face to the Light.
" In every convenient place the architect
should contrive secret cryptse or closets.
They are of indispensable utility but in
practice are not sufficiently attended to in
this country.
On the Continent they are
numerous, and are dignified with the name
of chapels. Two of these apartments have
a room for visalready been mentioned
itors and the Tiler's room
added to which
there ought to be a vestry, where the ornaments, furniture, jewels, and other regalia
This is called the treasury,
are deposited.
or Tiler's conclave, because these things are
under his especial charge, and a communi;

made

apartment
from the Tiler's room. There ought to be
also a chapel for preparations, hung with
black, and having only one small light,
placed high up, near the ceiling a chapel
for the dead furnished with a table, on
which are a lamp and emblems of mortality
the Master's conclave, where the
records, the warrants, the minutes, and
cation

is

usually

to this

every written document are kept. To this

room the Worshipful Master retires when
the Lodge is called from labor to refreshment, and at other times when his
presence in the Lodge is not essential and
here he examines the visitors, for which
purpose a communication is formed between his conclave and the visitor's chapel.
It is furnished with blue.
And here he
transacts the Lodge business with his Secretary.
The Ark of the Covenant is also
deposited in this apartment. None of these
closets should exceed twelve feet square,
;

329

ing to circumstances. In the middle of the

hall there should be a movable trap-door
in the floor, seven feet long and three or
four feet broad, opening into a small crypt,
about three feet in depth, the use of which
is known to none but perfect Masons, who
have passed through all the symbolical deAll of these particulars may not be
grees.
equally necessary to the construction of a
Masonic Hall but a close attendance to
their general spirit and direction, or to
similar regulations, should be impressed on
every Lodge that undertakes the construction of a building exclusively for Masonic
purposes and such a building only is entitled to be called a Masonic Hall."
The division in the American Kite of the
degrees among different bodies imposes the
necessity, or at least the convenience, when
erecting a Masonic Hall in this country,
of appropriating some of the rooms to the
uses of Ancient Craft Lodges, some to
Royal Arch Chapters, some to Royal and
Select Councils, and some to Commanderies
of Knights Templars. It is neither proper
nor convenient that a Chapter should be
held in a Lodge and it is equally expedient that the Asylum of a Commandery
should be kept separate from both.
All of these rooms should be oblong in
form, lofty in height, with an elevated
dais or platform in the east, and two doors
in the west, the one in the north-west
corner leading into the preparation room,
and the other communicating with the
Tiler's apartment.
But in other respects
they differ. First, as to the color of the
decorations. In a Lodge room the predominating color should be blue, in a
Chapter red, and in a Council and Com;

mandery black.
In a Lodge room the dais should be elevated on three steps, and provided with a
pedestal for the Master, while on each side
are seats for the Past Masters, and digniThe pedtaries who may visit the Lodge.
estal of the Senior Warden in the west
should be elevated on two steps, and that
of the Junior Warden in the south on one.
similar arrangement, either permanent or temporary, should be provided in
the Chapter room for working the intermediate degrees but the eastern dais should
be supplied with three pedestals instead of
one, for the reception of the Grand CounThe tabernacle also forms an essential
cil.
part of the Chapter room. This is sometimes erected in the centre of the room, although the consistency of the symbolism
would require that the whole room, during
the working of the Royal Arch degree,
should be deemed a tabernacle, and then
the veils would, with propriety, extend

HAND

HALL

330

from the ceiling to the

side of the

room

floor,

and from one

There are

to the other.

some other arrangements required

in the
construction of a Chapter room, of which
it is unnecessary to speak.
Councils of Royal and Select Masters are
usually held in Chapter rooms, with an entire disregard of the historical teachings
of the degrees. In a properly-constructed
Council chamber, which, of course, would
be in a distinct apartment, there should be
no veils, but nine curtains of a stone color
and these, except the last, starting from one
side of the room, should stop short of the
other, so as to form a narrow passage between the wall and the extremities of the
curtains, reaching from the door to the
ninth curtain, which alone should reach
across the entire extent of the room. These
are used only in the Select degree, and can
be removed when the Eoyal Master is to
be conferred. Unlike a Lodge and Chapter,
in a Council there is no dais or raised platform; but three tables, of a triangular
form, are placed upon the level of the floor
in the east. It is, however, very seldom
that the funds of a Council will permit of
the indulgence in a separate room, and
those bodies are content to work, although
at a disadvantage, in a Chapter room.
It is impossible, with any convenience,
to work a Commandery in a Lodge, or even

in 1390 from an earlier copy. The manuscript is in the King's Library of the
British Museum.
It was published in
1840 by James O. Halliwell, and again in
1844.
By a deputation of the
Earl of Strathmore, granted in 1733 to
eleven German Masons, a Lodge was established in Hamburg, (Preston, p. 202,) from
which we date the introduction of Freemasonry into Germany. Of the proceedings of this Lodge we have no further information.
In 1740 Brother Luettman
brought from England a Warrant for the
establishment of a Lodge, and a patent for
himself, as Provincial Grand Master of
Hamburg and Lower Saxony, (Lenn.) In
October, 1741, it assumed the name of Absalom, and in the same year the Provincial
Grand Lodge of Hamburg and Saxony was

Hamburg.

opened, a body which, Findel says, (p. 239,)

was the oldest Mother Lodge in Germany.
About the year 1787 the Provincial Grand
Lodge adopted the newly-invented Bite of
Frederick L. Schroder, consisting of only
three degrees. In 1801 it declared itself an
independent Grand Lodge, and has so continued. The Grand Lodge of Hamburg
practises Schroder's Kite.
See Schroder.
There is also in Hamburg a sort of Chapter,
which was formed by Schroder, under the
title of Geschichtliche Engbund, or Histoa Chapter room. The officers and their rical Select Union. It was intended as a
stations are so different, that what is suit- substitute for Fessler's Degrees of Knowlable for one is unsuitable for the other. edge, the members of which employ their
The dais, which has but one station in a time in studying the various systems of
Lodge and three in a Chapter, requires four Masonry. The Mutter-Bund of the Conin a Commandery, the Prelate taking his federacy of Hamburg Lodges, which make
proper place on the right of the Generalis- up this system, is independent of the Grand
simo. But there are other more important Lodge. The two authorities are entirely
differences. The principal apartment should distinct, and bear much the same relation
be capable of a division by a curtain, to each other as the Grand Lodges and
which should separate the Asylum proper Grand Chapters of the United States.
from the rest of the room, as the mystical
Hand. In Freemasonry, the hand as
veil in the ancient Church shut off the a symbol holds a high place, because it is
prospect of the altar, during the eucha- the principal seat of the sense of feeling so
ristic sacrifice, from the view of the catechunecessary to and so highly revered by Mamens. There are several other rooms re- sons. The same symbol is found in the
quired in the Templar ritual which are not most ancient religions, and some of their
used by a Lodge, a Chapter, or a Council, analogies to Masonic symbolism are peand which makes it necessary that the culiar. Thus, Horapollo says that among
apartments of a Commandery should be the Egyptians the hand was the symbol of
distinct.
banquet-room in close prox- a builder, or one fond of building, because all
imity to the Asylum is essential and con- labor proceeds from the hand. In many of
venience requires that there should be an the Ancient Mysteries the hand, especially
armory for the deposit of the arms and the left, was deemed the symbol of equity.
costume of the Knights. But it is unneces- In Christian art a hand is the indication
sary to speak of reflection rooms, and other of a holy person or thing. In early Mediplaces well known to those who are familiar aeval art, the Supreme Being was always
with the ritual, and which cannot be dis- represented by a hand extended from a
pensed with.
cloud, and generally in the act of benedicMalliwell Manuscript. The ear- tion. The form of this act of benediction,
liest of the old Constitutions.
It is in as adopted by the Boman Church, which
poetic form, and was probably transcribed seems to have been borrowed from the sym-

HAND

"

HARLEIAN

331

more valuable than the Monitors

of Webb and Cross, and deserved a greater
popularity than it seems to have received.
Harleian Manuscript. An old
record of the Constitutions of Freemasonry,
so called because it forms No. 2,054 of the
collection of manuscripts in the British Museum, which were originally collected by
Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, the celebrated prime minister of Queen Anne, and known
as the " Bibliotheca Harleian," or Harleian
palm. The church explains this
Library. The MS. consists of four leaves,
position of the extended thumb
containing six and a half pages of close
and two fingers as representing
the Trinity but the older symbol of the writing in a cramped hand, said to be that
Pagan priests, which was precisely of the of Handle Holmes, Chester Herald, who
same form, must have had a different mean- died in 1659. The MS. was first published
writer in the British Magazine (vol. by Bro. William James Hughan, in his
ing.
Unpublished Records of the Craft. The
i., p. 565,) thinks that the hand, which was
used in the Mithraic mysteries in this posi- Manuscript was carefully transcribed for
tion,was symbolic of theLight emanating not Bro. Hughan by a faithful copyist, and its
from the sun, but from the Creator, directly correctness was verified by Mr. Sims, of the
as a special manifestation and he remarks MS. department of the British Museum.
that chiromancy or divination by the hand Bro. Hughan places the date of the record
in the middle of the seventeenth century,
is an art founded upon the notion that the
human hand has some reference to the de- and in this he is probably correct.
"The two following folios," says the Rev.
crees of the supreme power peculiar to it
Mr. Woodford, "in the volume (viz., 33 and
above all other parts of the microcosmus
man. Certainly, to the Mason, the hand 34) are of a very important character, inasmuch as the secrets of Freemasonry are
is most important as the symbol of that
mystical intelligence by which one Mason referred to in the 'obligation' taken by
"
knows another in the dark as well as in Initiates, and the sums are recorded which
William Wade give to be a Freemason/
the light."
and others who were admitted members of
Left. See Left Hand.
the Lodge. The amounts varied from five
Right. See Bight Hand.
to Back. See Points of Fel- shillings to a pound, the majority being
lowship.
ten shillings and upwards. The fragment
See Points of Fel- on folio 33 is as follows, and was written
to
lowship.
about the same time as the MS. ConstituHanover. Freemasonry was intro- tions
"
duced into Hanover, in the year 1744, by
There is severall words & signes of a
ch
u
u
the organization of the Lodge " Frederick ;" free mason to be reveiled to y w as y will
r
which did not, however, get into active answ before God at the Great & terrible
n
not to reoperation, in consequence of the opposi- day of Judgmt y keep secret
tion of the priests, until two years after. vaile the same in the neares of any person
re
& fellows of the
Provincial Grand Lodge was established or to any but to the
in 1755, which in 1828 became an inde- said society of free masons so helpe me
pendent Grand Lodge. In 1866, in conse- God, etc'
quence of the war between Austria and
There is another MS. in the same collecPrussia, Hanover was annexed to the latter tion marked No. 1492, the date of which
country. There being three Grand Lodges is conjectured to be about 1670. It was
at that time in Prussia, the King deemed it copied by Bro. Henry Phillips, and first
inexpedient to add a fourth, and, by a cabi- published in the Freemason's Quarterly Renet order of February 17, 1867, the Grand view in 1836, pp. 228-295. The copy, howLodge of Hanover was dissolved. Most of ever, unfortunately, is not an exact one, as
the Hanoverian Lodges united with the Mr. E. A. Bond, of the Museum, who comGrand Lodge Eoyal York at Berlin, and a pared a part of the transcript with the
few with the Grand Lodge of the Three original, says that " the copyist has overGlobes.
looked peculiarities in many instances."
Grand. The seventy-third It is important in containing the " Oath
degree of the Eite of Mizraim.
of Secrecy," which is in the following
Hardie, James.
Mason of New words
" I, A. B. Doe, in the presence of AlYork, who published, in 1818, a work entitled The New Freemason's Monitor and mighty God, and my fellows and Brethren
Masonic Guide. It evinces considerable here present, promise and declare that I
bols of the Phrygian and Eleusinian priests
or hierophants, who used it in their mystical
processions, presents a singular analogy,
which will be interesting to Mark Master Masons, who will recognize in it a symbol of their own ritual. In the benediction
referred to, as given in the Latin
Church, the thumb, index, and
middle fingers are extended, and
the two others bent against the

ability, is

Hand,
Hand,

Hand
Hand

Hand.

'

&

Haram,

332

HARMONY

HARODIM

will not at any time hereafter, by any Act,

or Circumstance whatsoever, directly or
indirectly publish, discover, reveall, or
make knowne any of the Secrets, priviledges, or Counsels of the Fraternity or fellowship of Freemasonry, which at this
time, or any time hereafter shall be made
known unto me soe helpe mee God and
the holy contents of this book."
It is a duty especially intrusted to the Senior Warden of a Lodge,
who is figuratively supposed to preside over
the Craft during the hours of labor, so to
act that none shall depart from the Lodge
dissatisfied or discontented, that harmony
may be thus preserved, because, as the
ritual expresses it, harmony is the strength
;

Harmony.

and support of

all

well-regulated institu-

tions.

Harmony,

Universal.

See Mes-

meric Masonry.

Harnouester. More
wester.

The Earl

of

properly

Harn wester was

Hamelect-

ed by the four Lodges of Paris, as the second Grand Master of France, in 1732, succeeding the Earl of Derwentwater. He
left France in 1734, and having resigned
his office was succeeded by the Duke d'
Antin. I have sought in vain to find some
account of this nobleman in contemporary
history.
Burke makes no allusion to him
in his Extinct Peerages, and I am inclined
to think that the word has undergone one

of those indecipherable mutations to which

French writers are accustomed to subject
all

foreign names.

We

Harodim.

owe the Masonic

use of this word to Anderson, who first
employed it in the Book of Constitutions,
where he tells us that " there were employed
about the Temple no less than three thousand and six hundred Princes or Master
Masons to conduct the work," and in a note
he says that "in 1 Kings v. 16 they are
called Harodim, Rulers or Provosts."
The
passage here alluded to may be translated
somewhat more literally than in the authorized version, thus " Besides from the chiefs
or princes appointed by Solomon who were
over the work, there were three thousand
and three hundred harodim over the people
who labored at the work." Harodim, in
Hebrew Q 1 "Tin> is a grammatically compounded word of the plural form, and is
composed of the definite article f], hah,
the or those, and a participle of the verb
radah, to rule over, and means, therefore, those who rule over, or overseers.
In
the parallel passage of 2 Chronicles ii. 18,
the word used is Menatzchim, which has a
similar meaning.
But from the use of this
word Harodim in 1 Kings, and the commentary on it by Anderson, it has come to
pass that Harodim is now technically used
:

mi,

to signify "Princes in Masonry."

were really overseers of the work, and

They

hence
not al-

the Masonic use of the term is

together inappropriate. Whoever inspects
the two parallel passages in 1 Kings v. 16
and 2 Chron. ii. 18, will notice an apparent
discrepancy. In the former it is said that
there were three thousand and three hundred of these overseers, and in the latter
the number is increased to three thousand
and six hundred. The commentators have
noted but not explained the incongruity.
Lee, in his Temple of Solomon, attempts to
solve it by supposing that " possibly three
hundred at a second review might be added
to the number of officers for the greater
care of the business." This is not satisfactory not more so is the explanation offered by myself, many years ago, in the Lexicon of Freemasonry. It is much more reasonable to suspect a clerical error of some
old copyist which has been perpetuated.
There is room for such an inadvertence, for
there is no very great difference between
which
2>Siy, the Hebrew for three, and
is six.
The omission of the central letter
would create the mistake. Masonic writers
have adhered to the three thousand and
six hundred, which is the enumeration in
Chronicles.
Harodim,
Chapter of.
An institution under the title of the " Grand
Chapter of the Ancient and Venerable Order of Harodim " was established in London, in the year 178*7, by the celebrated
Masonic lecturer, William Preston. He
thus defines, in his Illustrations, its nature
;

W,

Grand

and objects
" The mysteries of this Order are peculiar
to the institution itself; while. the lectures

of the Chapter include every branch of the

Masonic system, and represent the art of
Masonry in a finished and complete form.
" Different classes are established, and
particular lectures restricted to each class.
The lectures are divided into sections, and
the sections into clauses. The sections are
annually assigned by the Chief Harod to a
certain number of skilful Companions in
each class, who are denominated Sectionists
and they are empowered to distribute
the clauses of their respective sections, with
the approbation of the Chief Harod and
General Director, among the private companions of the Chapter, who are denomi;

nated Clauseholders. Such Companions

as by assiduity become possessed of all the
sections in the lecture are called Lecturers
and out of these the General Director is
always chosen.
"Every Clauseholder, on his appointment,
is presented with a ticket, signed by the
Chief Harod, specifying the clause allotted
This ticket entitles him to enjoy
to him.

HAUTES

HARODIM
the rank and privileges of a Clauseholder
in the Chapter and no Clauseholder can
transfer his ticket to another Companion,
unless the consent of the Council has been
obtained for that purpose, and the General
;

333

more commonly represented as the god of

and secrecy. Thus, Ovid says of
him:
silence
"

Quique premit vocem

digitoque

silentia

suadet."

Director has approved the Companion to

whom it is to be transferred as qualified to
hold it. In case of the death, sickness, or
non-residence in London of any Lecturer,
Sectionist, or Clauseholder, another Companion is appointed to fill up the vacancy
for the time being, that the lectures may be
always complete; and during the session
a public lecture is usually delivered at

placed at the entrance of temples and places

where the mysteries were celebrated, as an
indication of the silence and secrecy that
should there be observed. Hence the finger
on the lips is a symbol of secrecy, and has
so been adopted in Masonic symbolism.

stated times.
" The Grand Chapter is governed

Rev. Thaddeus Mason

The whole system was admirably adapted

to the purposes of Masonic instruction, and
was intended for the propagation of the
Prestonian system of lectures. The body
no longer exists, but the Prestonian lectures
are still delivered in London at stated

times by the authority of the Grand Lodge.

of.

and persuades

In the old

lectures of the Ineffable degrees, it is said

that Tito, the oldest of the Provosts and

Judges, was the Prince of Harodim, that is,

chief of the three hundred architects who
were the Harodim, or additional three hundred added to the thirty-three thousand
Menatzchim mentioned in Chronicles, and
who thus make up the number of three
thousand six hundred recorded in the first
Book of Kings, and who in the old lecture
of the degree of Provost and Judge are
supposed to have been the Harodim or
Rulers in Masonry. The statement is a
myth but it thus attempts to explain the
discrepancy alluded to in the article Harodim.
Harpocrates. The Greek god of
silence and secrecy.
He was, however, a
divinity of the Egyptian mythology
his
true name being, according to Bunsen and
Lepsius, Har-pi-chrati, that is, Horus the
child and he is supposed to have been the
son of Osiris and Isis. He is represented
as a nude figure, sitting sometimes on a
lotus flower, either bareheaded or covered
by an Egyptian mitre, but always with his
finger pressed upon his lips.
Plutarch
thinks that this gesture was an indication
of his childlike and helpless nature; but the
Greeks, and after them the Romans, supposed it to be a symbol of silence and
hence, while he is sometimes described as
the god of the renewed year, whence peach
blossoms were consecrated to him because
of their early appearance in spring, he is
;

to

In this capacity, his statue was often

Harris, Thaddeus Mason.

by a

Grand Patron, two Vice Patrons, a chief

Ruler, and two Assistants, with a Council
of twelve respectable Companions, who are
chosen annually at the Chapter nearest to
the festival of St. John the Evangelist."

Harodim, Prince

He who controls the voice

silence with his finger.

The

Harris, D.D., an
American Masonic writer of some reputation, was born in Charlestown, Mass., July 7,
1767, and graduated at Harvard University
He was ordained as minister of a
in 1787.
church in Dorchester in 1793, and died at
Boston, April 3, 1842. He held at different

times the offices of Deputy Grand Master,

Grand Chaplain, and Corresponding Grand
Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Massa" His first great Masonic work,"
chusetts.
says Huntoon, [Eulogy, " was the editing of
a collation, revision, and publication of the
Constitutions of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons,' a quarto volume, printed at Wora work which he accester, Mass., 1792
complished with the accustomed diligence
)

and

fidelity

with which he performed every

enterprise confided to his care. His various occasional addresses while Grand

Chaplain of the Grand Lodge, Masonic

defences, and his volume of Masonic Discourses, published in 1801, constitute a large

and valuable portion of the Masonic

literature of

Hasidim,
The

classic

America."

Sovereign Prince.

and seventy-sixth degrees

of the Rite of Mizraim. It should be
Chasidim, which see.
Hat. To uncover the head in the presence of superiors has been, among all
Christian nations, held as a mark of respect
and reverence. The Eastern nations uncover the feet when they enter a place of
worship; the Western uncover the head.
The converse of this is also true and to
keep the head covered while all around are
uncovered is a token of superiority of rank
The king remains covered, the
or office.
courtiers standing around him take off their
seventy-fifth

hats.

Haupt-Hutte. Among the German

- masons
of the Middle Ages, the
original Lodge at Strasburg was considered
as the head of the Craft, under the title of
the Haupt-Hutte, or Grand Lodge.

Stone

Hautes Grades.
Degrees,

which

see.

French.

High

HEAL

334

Heal.
which

technical

HELMET
Masonic

term

make

valid or legal.
Hence one who has received a degree in an
irregular manner or from incompetent authority is not recognized until he has been
healed. The precise mode of healing deIf the Lodge
pends on circumstances.
which conferred the degree was clandestine,
the whole ceremony of initiation would
have to be repeated. If the authority which
signifies

to

conferred the degree was only irregular,

and the question was merely a technical one
of legal competence, it has been supposed
that it was only necessary to exact an obligation of allegiance, or in other words to
renew the covenant.
Hearing. One of the five senses, and
an important symbol in Masonry, because
it is through it that we receive instruction
when ignorant, admonition when in danger, reproof when in error, and the claim
of a brother who is in distress. Without
this sense, the Mason would be crippled in
the performance of all his duties and hence
deafness is deemed a disqualification for ini;

tiation.

Heart.

Notwithstanding that

all

the

The Mediaeval idea has descended to modern times for our present lectures say that
the ashes of Hiram were deposited in an urn.
;

Heeart, Gabriel Antoine Jo-

A French Masonic writer, who was

born at Valenciennes in 1755, and died in
seph.

He made a curious collection of

1838.
degrees, and invented a system of five,
namely 1. Knight of the Prussian Eagle
2. Knight of the Comet
3. The Scottish
Purifier 4. Victorious Knight 5. Scottish
Trinitarian, or Grand Master Commander
:

of the Temple.

This cannot be called a

Rite, because it was never accepted and
practised by any Masonic authority. It is
known in nomenclatures as Hecart's system.
He was the author of many dissertations
and didactic essays on Masonic subjects.
He at one time proposed to publish his
collection of degrees with a full explanation
of each, but did not carry his design into
execution. Many of them are cited in this
work.

Height of the Lodge. From the

earth to the highest heavens.
symbolic
expression. See Form of the Lodge.

Heldmann, Dr. Friedrieh. He

modern American Masonic Manuals and was a professor of political science in the
Master's Carpets from the time of Jeremy Academy of Bern, in Switzerland, and was
L. Cross exhibit the picture of a heart
among the emblems of the third degree,
there is no such symbol in the ritual. But
the theory that every man who becomes a
Mason must first be prepared in his heart
was advanced among the earliest lectures
of the last century, and demonstrates, as
Krause properly remarks, in Speculative
Masonry, an internal principle which addresses itself not simply to the outward
conduct, but to the inner spirit and conscience of all men who seek its instructions.

Hiram

Abif. There is a
Heart of
legend in some of the high degrees and in
continental Masonry, that the heart of
Hiram Abif was deposited in an urn and
placed upon a monument near the holy of
holies and in some of the tracing boards it
The myth, for
is represented as a symbol.
such it is, was probably derived from the
very common custom in the Middle Ages
of persons causing their bodies to be dismembered after death for the purpose of
having parts of them buried in a church, or
some place which had been dear to them in
life. Thus Hardynge, in his Metrical Chronicle of England, tells us of Richard I. that
;

"

He

queathed his corpse then

At Fount Everard, there

*

-#-

::

to

be buried

at his father's feete

*-

His herte invyncyble to Rome he sent full

mete
For their great truth and stedfast great constance."

born at Margetshochheim, in Franconia,

November 24, 1770. He was one of the
most profound of the German investigators
into the history and philosophy of Masonry.
He was initiated into the Order at Freiburg, in 1809, and, devoting himself to the
study of the works of Fessler and other
eminent scholars, he resolved to establish a
system founded on a collation of all the
rituals, and which should be more in accordance with the true design of the InstiFor this purpose, in 1816, he ortution.
ganized the Lodge zur Brudertreue at
Aarau, in Switzerland, where he then resided as a professor. For this Lodge he
prepared a Manual, which he proposed to
publish. But the Helvetian Directory demanded that the manuscript should be
given to that body for inspection and correction, which the Lodge, unwilling to submit to such a censorship, refused to do.
Heldmann, being reluctant to involve the
Lodge in a controversy with its superiors,
withdrew from it. He subsequently published a valuable work entitled Die drei dtes-

Denkmale der deutschen

Freimaurerbruderschaft ; i. e., The three
oldest Memorials of the German Masonic
Brotherhood, which appeared at Aarau in
ten geschichtlichen

1819. In this work, which is chiefly founded

on the learned researches of Krause, the Constitutions of the

were published

Stone-masons of Strasburg
for the first time.

Helmet. A defensive weapon wherewith the head and neck are covered. In

HEREDOM

HELMETS
heraldry,
bility.

it is

mark of chivalry and

It was, of course, a part of

nothe ar-

knight, and therefore, whatever

the head covering adopted by modern Knights Templars, it is in the ritual
called a helmet.

mor of a

may be

Helmets, To Deposit.

In Tem-

plar ritualism, to lay aside the covering of

the head.

Helmets, To Recover.

335

of the Masons, was passed by an intolerant

Parliament, and because of the questions
said to have been proposed to the Masons
by the king, and their answers, which are
contained in what is called the " Leland

Manuscript," a document which, if authenhighly important but of whose authenticity there are as many oppugners as
tic, is

there are defenders.

Heredom.

In what are called the

" high degrees " of the continental Rites,
there is nothing more puzzling than the
etymology of this word.
have the
Help. See Aid and Assistance.
Samuel, H. J>. Pre- Royal Order of Heredom, given as the ne
vious to the union of the two Grand Lodges plus ultra of Masonry in Scotland, and in
of England in 1813, the Prestonian system almost all the Rites the Rose Croix of Hereof lectures was practised by the Grand dom, but the true meaning of the word is
Lodge of Modern Masons, while the Athol apparently unknown. Ragon, in his OrthoMasons recognized higher degrees, and va- doxie Magonnique, (p. 91,) asserts that it
ried somewhat in their ritual of the lower. has a political signification, and that it was
When the union was consummated, and invented between the years 1740 and 1745,
the United Grand Lodge of England was by the adherents of Charles Edward the
organized, a compromise was effected, and Pretender, at the Court of St. Germain,
Dr. Hemming, who was the Senior Grand which was the residence, during that period,
Warden, and had been distinguished for of the unfortunate prince, and that in their
his skill as the Master of a Lodge and his letters to England, dated from Heredom, they
acquaintance with the ritual, was appointed mean to denote St. Germain. He supposes
to frame a new system of lectures. The Pres- it to be derived from the Mediaeval Latin
tonian system was abandoned, and the Hem- word " hceredum," signifying " a heritage,"
ming lectures adopted in its place, not with- and that it alludes to the Castle of St.
out the regret of many distinguished Masons, Germain, the only heritage left to the deamong whom was Dr. Oliver. The Hem- throned sovereign. But as Ragon's favorming lectures are now the authorized sys- ite notion was that the hautes grades were
tem of the Grand Lodge of England. Some originally instituted for the purpose of aidof the country Lodges, however, still ad- ing the house of Stuart in its restoration to
here to the system of Preston, and the Pres- the throne, a theory not now generally actonian lectures are annually delivered in cepted, at least without modification, this
London. Among the innovations of Dr. etymology must be taken with some grains
Hemming, which are to be regretted, are of allowance. The suggestion is, however,
the abolition of the dedication to the two an ingenious one.
Saints John, and the substitution for it of a
In some of the old manuscripts the word
dedication to Solomon. Some other changes Heroden is found as the name of a mountain
that were made were certainly no improve- in Scotland and we sometimes find in the
ments.
French Cahiers the title of " Rose Croix de
Henrietta Maria. The widow of Heroden." There is not a very great difCharles L, of England. It is asserted, by ference in the French pronunciation of
those who support the theory that the Mas- Heredom and Heroden, and one might be a
ter's degree was invented by the adherents corruption of the other.
I was once inof the exiled house of Stuart, and that its clined to this theory but even if it were the
legend refers to the death of Charles I. and correct one we should gain nothing, for the
the restoration of his son, that in the tech- same difficulty would recur in tracing the
nical Masonic expression of the " widow's root and meaning of Heroden.
son," the allusion is to the widow of the
The most plausible derivation is one given
decapitated monarch.
Those who look in 1858, by a writer in the London Freefarther for the foundation of the legend mason's Magazine. He thinks it should be
give, of course, no credence to a statement spelled " Heredom," and traces it to the two
whose plausibility depends only on a coin- Greek words, tepbg, hieros, holy, and do/nog,
cidence.
domos, house. It would thus refer to MaVI. King of England from sonry as symbolically the Holy House or
1422 to 1461. This monarch is closely con- Temple.
In this way the title of Rose
nected with the history of Masonry because, Croix of Heredom would signify the Rosy
in the beginning of his reign and during his Cross of the Holy House of Masonry.
This
minority, the celebrated "Statute of La- derivation is now very generally recognized
borers," which prohibited the congregations as the true one.
In Tem-

plar ritualism, to resume the covering of

the head.

We

Hemming,

Henry

HERMAIMES

336

HEROINE

corruption of HerHermaimes.
mes, found in some of the old Constitutions.
Hermaphrodite. The merest ignorance has, in a few instances, permitted the
introduction of this word into the ritual
as one of the classes which the Masons
promise not to initiate. The word is not
mentioned in the old Constitutions nor in
any of the rituals but if such monsters did
actually exist, which naturalists deny, their
exclusion would be founded on the general
law which prohibits the initiation of those
who have any physical defect or maim.
Hermes. In all the old manuscript
records which contain the Legend of the
Craft, mention is made of Hermes as one
of the founders of Masonry. Thus, in the
" Grand Lodge MS.," whose date is 1632, it
is said
and the statement is substantially
and almost verbally the same in all the
others
that "The great Hermarines that
was Cubys sonne, the which Cubye was
Semmes sonne, that was Noes sonne. This
same Hermarines was afterwards called
Hermes the father of Wisdome he found
one of the two pillars of stone, and found
the science written thereon, and he taught
it to other men."
There are two persons of the name of
Hermes mentioned in sacred history. The
first is the divine Hermes, called by the
Romans Mercury. Among the Egyptians
he was known as Thoth. Diodorus Siculus
describes him as the secretary of Osiris he
is commonly supposed to have been the son
of Mizraim, and Cumberland says that he
was the same as Osiris. There is, however,
much confusion among the mythologists
concerning his attributes.
The second was Hermes Trismegistus or
the Thrice Great, who was a celebrated
Egyptian legislator, priest, and philosopher,
who lived in the reign of Ninus, about the
year of the world 2670. He is said to have
written thirty-six books on theology and philosophy, and six upon medicine, all which are
lost. There are many traditions of him one
of which, related by Eusebius, is that he introduced hieroglyphics into Egypt. This
Hermes Trismegistus, although the reality
of his existence is doubtful, was claimed by
the alchemists as the founder of their art,
whence it is called the Hermetic science,
;

and whence we get in Masonry, Hermetic

Rites and Hermetic degrees. It is to him
that the Legend of the Craft refers and, indeed, the York Constitutions, which are of
importance, though not probably of the
date of 926, assigned to them by Krause,
give him that title, and say that he brought
the custom of making himself understood
by signs with him to Egypt. In the first
;

ages of the Christian church, this mythical

philosopher was in fact con-

Egyptian

sidered as the inventor of everything known

human intellect. It was fabled that
Pythagoras and Plato had derived their
knowledge from him, and that he had recorded his inventions on pillars.
The
Operative Masons, who wrote the old Constitutions, obtained their acquaintance with
him from the Polycronycon of the monk
Ranulf Higdeu, which was translated from
the Latin by Trevisa, and printed by William Caxton in 1482.
It is repeatedly
quoted in the Cooke MS., whose probable
date is the latter part of the fifteenth century, and was undoubtedly familiar to the
writers of the other Constitutions.
Art. The art or science
of Alchemy, so termed from Hermes Trismegistus, who was looked up to by the
alchemists as the founder of their art. The
Hermetic philosophers say that all the
sages of antiquity, such as Plato, Socrates,
to the

Hermetie

Aristotle, and Pythagoras, were initiated

into the secrets of their science ; and that

the hieroglyphics of Egypt and all the fables

of mythology were invented to teach the dogmas of Hermetic philosophy. See Alchemy.
Rite established
Hermetic Rite.
by Pernetty at Avignon, in France, and
more commonly called the Illuminati of
Avignon. See Avignon.

Herodem. See Heredom.

Herodem, Royal Order of.

See

Royal Order of Scotland.

Heroden. "Heroden," says a MS.
of the Ancient Scottish Rite in my possession, " is a mountain situated in the northwest of Scotland, where the first or metropolitan Lodge of Europe was held." The
word is not now used by Masonic writers,
and was, undoubtedly, a corruption of
Heredom.

Heroine of Jericho. An androgynous degree conferred, in America, on Royal

Arch Masons, their wives, and daughters.
It is intended to instruct its fenjale recipients in the claims which they have upon
the protection of their husbands' and fathers'
companions, and to communicate to them
an effectual method of proving those claims.
An instance of friendship extended to the
whole family of a benefactress by those
whom

she had benefited, and of the influence of a solemn contract in averting danger, is referred to in the case of Rahab, the
woman of Jericho, from whom the degree
derives its name and for this purpose the
second chapter of the Book of Joshua is
read to the candidate. When the degree is
received by a male, he is called a Knight
of Jericho, and when by a female, she is
termed a Heroine. It is a side or honorary
degree, and may be conferred by any Royal
Arch Mason on a candidate qualified to
;

receive

it.

HESED
Hesed. A corruption of

HIGHEST
Chesed,

which

see.

Hexagon. A

figure of six equal sides

constitutes a part of the camp in the Scottish degree of Sublime Princes of the Roy*al
Stieglitz, in an essay on the symSecret.
bols of Freemasonry, published in 1825, in

337

Novice, and Knight Templar. These

gave the impulse to the invention of many
other degrees, all above the Master's degree.
sais,

To these the name oihautes grades or high deTheir number is very great.
Many of them now remain only in the catalogues of Masonic collectors, or are known
the Altenburg Zeitschrift, says that the hex- merely by their titles while others still exist,
agon, formed by six triangles, whose apices and constitute the body of the different
converge to a point, making the following Rites. The word is not properly applicable
to the Royal Arch or degrees of the Engfigure,
lish and American systems, which are ingrees was given.

a symbol of the universal creation, the

six points crossing the central point; thus
assimilating the hexagon to the older symbol of the point within a circle.

is

Hieroglyphics. From two Greek

words which signify the engraving of sacred things. Hieroglyphics are properly
the expressions of ideas by representations
of visible objects, and the word is more
peculiarly applied to that species of picture-writing which was in use among the
ancient Egyptians, whose priests by this
means concealed from the profane that

knowledge which they communicated only

Browne says [Master Key,

usages amongst Masons have
ever corresponded with those of the ancient
Egyptians. Their Philosophers, unwilling
to expose their Mysteries to vulgar Curiosity, couched the Principles of their Learning and Philosophy under Hieroglyphical
Figures and Allegorical Emblems, and expressed their notions of Government by
Signs and Symbols, which they communicated to the Magi, or wise Men only, who were
solemnly obligated never to reveal them."
Hierograinanatists. The title of
those priests in the Egyptian mysteries to
whom were confided the keeping of the sacred records. Their duty was also to instruct the neophytes in the ritual of initiation, and to secure its accurate observance.
repliant. From the Greek,
'lepofavreg, which signifies one who explains
the sacred things.
The Hierophant was, in
the Ancient Mysteries, what the Master is
in a Masonic Lodge
he who instructed
the neophyte in the doctrines which it was
the object of the mysteries to inculcate.
Degrees. Not long after the
introduction of Freemasonry on the Continent, in the beginning of the eighteenth
century, the Chevalier Ramsay invented
three new degrees, which he called Ecos-

to their initiates.
p. 87),

"The

Mie

High

2S

22

timately connected with the Master's degree, but is confined to the additions made
to Ancient Craft Masonry by continental
ritualists.
These degrees have, from time
to time, met with great opposition as innovations on Ancient Masonry, and some of
the Grand Lodges have not only rejected
them, but forbidden their cultivation by
those who are under their obedience. But
on the other hand, they have been strenuously supported by many who have believed
the Ancient Craft degrees do not afford a
sufficient field for the expansion of Masonic
thought.
writer in the London Freemason's Magazine (1858, i. 1167,) has, I think,
expressed the true theory on this subject in
the following language
"It is the necessary consequence of an
exclusive addiction to Craft Masonry that
the intellectual and artistic development
of the minds of the members must suffer,
the ritual sink to formalism, and the administration fall into the hands of the lower
members of the Order, by a diminution in
the initiations of men of high intellectual
calibre, and by the inactivity, or practical
The
secession, of those within the Order.
suppression of the higher degrees, that is,
of the higher Masonry, may be agreeable to
those who are content to possess the administrative functions of the Order without genuine qualifications for their exercise, but it
is a policy most fatal to the true progress
of the Order. When Masonry has so fallen,
to restore the higher degrees to their full
activity is the measure essential for restoring the efficacy of Masonry within and
without. Thus, in the last century, when
Craft Masonry had spread rapidly over the
whole of Europe, a reaction set in, till the
heads of the Order brought the high degrees
into vigor, and they continued to exercise
the most powerful influence."
Highest of Hills. In the Old York
Lectures was the following passage " Before we had the convenience of such wellformed Lodges, the Brethren used to meet
on the highest of hills and in the lowest of
And if they were asked why they
valleys.
met so high, so low, and so very secret,
the better to see and observe
they replied
and in
all that might ascend or descend

'

HIGH

HIGH

cowan should appear, the Tiler

might give timely notice to the Worshipful
Master, by which means the Lodge might be

front of the mitre is inscribed the words,

" Holiness to the Lord."
His jewel is

put by, thereby preventing any unlawful intrusion." Commenting on this, Dr. Oliver (Landm., i. 319,) says
"Among other observances which were
common to both the true and spurious
Freemasonry, we find the practice of performing commemorative rites on the highest
of hills and in the lowest of valleys. This
practice was in high esteem amongst all the
inhabitants of the ancient world, from a

High. Priesthood, Order of.

This order is an honorarium, to be bestowed
upon the High Priest of a Royal Arch Chapter in the United States, and consequently no
one is legally entitled to receive it until he
has been duly elected to preside as High
Priest in a regular Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons. It should not be conferred when
a less number than three duly qualified
High Priests are present. Whenever the
ceremony is performed in ample form, the
assistance of at least nine High Priests^

338
case a

closed, the jewels

fixed persuasion that the summit of mountains made a nearer approach to the celestial deities, and the valley or holy cavern
to the infernal and submarine gods than
the level country and that, therefore, the
prayers of mortals were more likely to be
heard in such situations." Hutchinson
" The highest hills and the lowalso says
;

were from the earliest times es^teemed sacred, and it was supposed that the
Spirit of God was peculiarly diffusive in
those places." The sentiment was expressed
in the language of the earliest lectures of
the eighteenth century, and is still retained, without change of words, in the
lectures of the present day.
But introduced, at first, undoubtedly with special
reference to the ancient worship on " high
places," and the celebration of the mysteest valleys

caverns of initiation, it is now

retained for the purpose of giving warning
and instruction as to the necessity of security and secrecy in the performance of our
mystical rites, and this is the reason assigned in the modern lectures. And, indeed, the notion of thus expressing the necessity of secrecy seems to have been early
adopted, while that of the sacredness of
these places was beginning to be lost sight
of; for in a lecture of the middle of the last
century, or perhaps earlier, it was said that
" the Lodge stands upon holy ground, or
the highest hill or lowest vale, or in the
Vale of Jehosophat, or any other secret
The sacredness of the spot is, it is
place."
true, here adverted to, but there is an emphasis given to its secrecy.

a mitre.

who have

received

it,

is

requisite.

The

General Grand Chapter of the United

States has decided that although it is
highly expedient that every High Priest
should receive the order, yet its possession is not essentially necessary as a qualification for the discharge of his official
duties.

ries in the

Sigh Grades.
High

Degrees,

which

Sometimes used

for

see.

iligii Priest. The presiding officer

of a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons according to the American system.
His title
is "Most Excellent,"
and he represents
Joshua, or Jeshua, who was the son of
Josedech, and the High Priest of the Jews
when they returned from the Babylonian
exile. He is seated in the east, and clothed
in the apparel of the ancient High Priest of
the Jews. He wears a robe of blue, purple,
scarlet, and white linen, and is decorated
with a breastplate and mitre. On the

The jewel of the degree consists of a plate

of gold in the form of a triple triangle, a
breastplate being placed over the point of
union. In front, the face of each triangle
with the Tetragrammaton,
is inscribed
niiTl on tne other side, the upper triangle has the following mystical notation,
HTfl HT""; the two lower triangles have
the Hebrew letters ) and p inserted upon
them. Each side of each triangle should
be one inch in length, and may be ornamented at the fancy of the wearer. The
breastplate may be plainly engraved or set
with stones. It was adopted in 1856, on the
suggestion of the author of this work, at a
very general but informal meeting of Grand

HIGH

HIGH

339

and Past Grand High Priests during the ful acquiescence with the charges and regsession of the General Grand Chapter held ulations just recited, I now declare you duly
installed and anointed High Priest of this
It is now in general use.
at Hartford.
Now do not the words
It is impossible, from the want of au- new Chapter.'
and anointed,'' as here used, fully answer
thentic documents, to throw much light
upon the historical origin of this degree. the question as to what those 'other neNo allusion to it can be found in any ritual cessary ceremonies were ? It seems so to
works out of America, nor even here an- me.
" Upon this theory, then, we have Thomas
terior to about the end of the last and beginning of this century. Webb is the first Smith Webb and his associates on the comwho mentions it, and gives it a place in the mittee, Benjamin Hurd, Jr., an|d James
1

'

series of capitular degrees.

The

question

been exhaustively examined

by Brother William Hacker, Past Grand

has, however,

High Priest of Indiana, who has paid much

attention to the subject of American Masonic
archseology. In a letter to the author in August, 1873, he has sought to investigate the
origin of this Order, and I gladly avail myself of the result of his inquiries.
"Thomas Smith Webb," says Brother
Hacker, " in the first edition of his Monitor,
published in 1797, makes no mention of it.
But in the second edition, published in
1802, he gives a monitorial ritual for the
Order; or, as. he terms it, Observations on
the

Order of High

Priests.

"Now,

I infer, as we find no mention

of the Order in the edition of 1797, and a
monitorial ritual appearing in the edition
of 1802, that at some time between those
dates we must look for the true origin of

the Order.
" Turning then to the proceedings of the
General Grand Chapter of the United States,
we find that at the Communication held in
the city of Providence, in the State of
Rhode Island, on the 9th day of January,
1799, Benjamin Hurd, Jr., Thomas S. Webb,
and James Harrison were appointed a
committee to -revise the Constitution, and
report such alterations and amendments
'

thereto as they shall find necessary to be

made.'
" The next day, January 10, 1799, Webb,
as chairman of the committee, submitted
their report, which was adopted as reported.
In Article IV. of that Constitution, we find
the forms for constituting new Chapters
and installing High Priests fully laid down
and provided for. In those forms, after
certain ceremonies had been gone through
with, 'All the Companions, except High
Priests and Past High Priests, are requested
to withdraw, while the new High Priest is

solemnly bound to the performance of his

duties and after the performance of other
necessary ceremonies, not proper to be
written, they are permitted to return.'
"Now, right here the question naturally
arises, What were those 'other necessary
ceremonies not proper to be written ? A
few lines farther on we find this language
laid down
In consequence of your cheer;

'

'

Harrison, as the authors of the Order.

It

was adopted by the General Grand Chapter

on the 10th day of January, 1799, when it
became a part of the constitutional requirements of Royal Arch Masonry, so far,
at least, as the authority of the

General

Grand Chapter extended.

" Following this matter out,

we find that
this provision of the Constitution was retained until the Triennial Communication
held in the city of Lexington, Kentucky,
on the 19th day of September, 1853, when,
on motion of Companion Gould, the section wag repealed thus leaving the Order
;

of High Priesthood the exclusive property

of those who were in possession of it.
" Where these Excellent Companions got

the original thought or germ out of which

the Order was formed will have, perhaps, to
be left to conjecture yet even here I think
we may find some data upon which to found
a conclusion.
"In setting about the formation of an
order suitable for the office of High Priest,
what could be more natural or appropriate
than to take the scriptural history of the
meeting of Abraham, with Melchizedek,
Priest of the Most High God the circumstances which brought that meeting about;
the bringing forth the bread and wine the
blessing, etc.
and the anointing of Aaron
and his sons to the Priesthood under the
Mosaic dispensations. It does seem to me
that these would be the most natural sources
for any one to go to for facts and circumstances to work into an order of this kind.
"
can illustrate this point farther by
reference to a note found in an old ritual
of the 'Mediterranean Pass,' as then
conferred
and perhaps it may be so now
under the Grand Priory of England and
Wales, preparatory to the Order of Malta.
That note read as follows
" 'In some Priories the candidate partakes
of bread from the point of a sword, and
wine from a chalice placed upon the blade,
handed to him by the Prelate.'
" Again, in an old manuscript of the ritual
of the Royal Grand Conclave of Scotland,
now also lying before me, I find similar
language used in the ritual of the Templars'
Order. How well the thoughts contained
in these extracts have been worked into
;

We

'

HIGH

340
the order of

High

Priest, every well-in-

stand.

" But the question

now comes up

were

Webb and

his associates in possession of

these rituals at the time they originated the
order of High Priesthood? I think they
were, and for these reasons In these rituals
to which I have referred I find these expressions used ' That I will not shed the
;
blood of a K. T. unlawfully ' ' the skull
to be laid open, and all the brains to be ex:

posed to the scorching rays of the sun

with several other familiar expressions,
which every Eoyal Arch Mason will read;

recognize as appropriately wrought into

Webb's Royal Arch

degree.

"

From the foregoing facts, as well as

others not stated, I infer that Thomas
Smith Webb, with his co-advisers, Benjamin Hurd, Jr., and James Harrison, were
the true authors of the Order that it dates
from the 10th day of January, 1799, at
which time it was adopted by the General
Grand Chapter, and became a part of the
constitutional regulations and requirements
of Royal Arch Masonry so far as the authority of the General Grand Chapter extended, and that it continued as such until
the 19th day of September, 1853, when it
was repealed, as before stated.
"A thought or two further, and I will
have done. Webb, in arranging the Order,
evidently intended that it should be conferred as a part of the installation ceremonies of a High Priest and whether he ever
conferred it at any other time or in any
other manner I have been unable to learn,
as I have never met with any one who
claimed to have received the Order from
him. At what time and by whom it was
first conferred as a separate ceremonial is
equally unknown to me. All I have yet
been able to find upon this point is in
Cross's Chart, where, in the edition of 1826,
and it may also be in the earlier editions,
I find it arranged as a separate ceremonial,
and disconnected with the ceremonies of
;

installation.
" The earliest authentic record of the organization of a Council of High Priests I

have yet found is in the proceedings of the

Grand Chapter of Ohio in 1828, where it
appears that a Council was duly formed,
rules adopted for its government, and a full
list

of officers elected,

with Companion

John Snow as President.

"It is more than probable

that the Order

has always been conferred, west of the
mountains, as a separate ceremonial, and
never as a part of the installation ceremoIt is well known that John Snow,
who no doubt brought it with him when he

nies.

came

to the

HIGH

formed High Priest must very well under-

ily

West, always so conferred

it,

and not then

until the applicant had been

regularly elected and installed as High
Priest of his Chapter.
I have also met
with those who claimed to have received it
from the celebrated Lorenzo Dow, of whom
it is further alleged that he always required
an election and installation as a prerequisite
to the Order.
With these facts before us,
and I have no doubt of the truth of every
word of them, I would ask of those who

have attempted to heap such obloquy and

derision upon the Order, as Dr. Mitchell
and others who have followed him, to
point us to any other single order or degree
of Masonry that can be traced so successfully to the source

from whence

it

came

that has in it more of the elements of sublimity and impressiveness, and that is more
scripturally and Mason ically appropriate
for that for which it was intended, than has
this much-maligned Order of High Priesthood remembering also that it was established upon the constitutional authority of
the General Grand Chapter of the United
States, which is, and ever has been, the
highest authority in Royal Arch Masonry
And again, among
in the United States.
the names of those zealous companions who
participated in its adoption stands that
of the Honorable De Witt Clinton, for
so many years the zealous and efficient
;

General Grand High Priest. Then I say,

when we take all these facts together, as
they stand recorded before us, I think the
question as to the origin and authenticity
may be considered as fully settled."

High Priest of the Jews.

important

office

of the

The
High Priesthood

was instituted by Moses after the completion of the directions for erecting the tabernacle, and was restricted to Aaron and his
descendants, and was so confined until
the time of the Asmonean dynasty, when it
passed into the family of Judas Maccabseus.
The High Priest was at the head not only
of ecclesiastical but of civil affairs, presiding
in the Sanhedrim and judging the people.
He superintended the Temple, directing the
mode of worship, and preserving the building from profanation. He was inducted
into his office by anointment and sacrifices,
and was invested with a peculiar ress.
This dress, as the Rabbins describe it, consisted of eight parts, namely, the breastplate, the ephod, with its curious girdle,

the robe of the ephod, the mitre, the broidered coat, and the girdle. The materials
of which these were composed were gold,
blue, red, purple, and fine white linen. As
these garments are to a certain extent represented in the vestment of a High Priest
of a Royal Arch Chapter, a brief description of them may be expedient
The High Priest was first clothed in a

HIGH

HINDUSTAN

pair of linen drawers. Over this was a coat

or shirt of fine linen reaching to his feet,
and with sleeves extending to his wrists.
Over this again was a robe of blue, called
the coat of ephod. It was without sleeves,
but consisted of two pieces, one before and
another behind, having a large opening in
the top for the passage of the head, and another on each side to admit the arms. It

the ethnic religions, that of Hindustan is

admitted to be the oldest, for its Vedas or
sacred books claim an antiquity of nearly

extended only to the middle of the legs,

and its skirt was adorned with little golden
Above all these
bells and pomegranates.
vestments was placed the ephod, which has
already been described as a short garment
coming down only to the breast before, but
somewhat longer behind, without sleeves,
and artificially wrought with gold, and
blue, and purple, and scarlet, in embroidery
of various figures. It was looped on the
shoulders with two onyx stones, on each of
which was inscribed the names of six of the
tribes.
On the front of the ephod he wore
the breastplate at solemn ministrations a
mitre of fine linen of a blue color. This was
wrapped in several folds, and worn about
his head in the manner of a Turkish turban,
except that it was without a crown, being
;

open on

and sitting on his head like a

In front of it there hung down
upon his forehead a square plate of gold,
called the plate of the golden crown, upon
which were inscribed the words Holiness
to the Lord, which were engraved in the
ancient Hebrew or Samaritan characters.
The vestments of a High Priest of a Eoyal
Arch Chapter are intended to represent
though the representation is imperfect
the gorgeous apparel of the Jewish Pontiff.
top,

garland.

They

are a mitre, breastplate, and a robe of

four colors.
To these the Masonic ritualists have ascribed a symbolic signification.
The mitre teaches the High Priest the
dignity of his office ; the breastplate, his
responsibility to the laws and ordinances
of the Institution, and that the honor and
interest of the Chapter should be always
near his heart and the robe, the different
graces and virtues which are symbolized
by the various colors of which it is corn;

High

Twelve. The hour of noon or

twelve o'clock in the day, when the sun is
high in the heavens, in contradistinction
to low twelve, or midnight, when the sun is
low down beneath the earth. The expression is always used, in Masonic language,
to indicate the hour of noon, at which time,
as the tradition tells us, the Craft in the
Temple were called from labor to refreshment. The phrase was used in the earliest
rituals of the last century.
The answer in
the old catechisms to the question, " What's
a clock ? " was always, " High Twelve."

Hindustan, Mysteries

of.

Of all

forty

centuries.

341

However Brahmanism

may have been

corrupted in more modern

times, in its earliest state it consisted of a
series of doctrines which embraced a belief
in a Supreme Being and in the immortality
of the soul. All primitive religions were
more or less mystical, and that of India
formed no exception to the rule. Oliver,
in his History of Initiation, has given a
very succinct account of the Brahmanical
mysteries, collected from the most authentic sources, such as Maurice, Colebrook,
Jones, and Faber. His description refers
almost exclusively to the reception and
advancement of a Brahman in his sacred
profession for the initiations of India, like
those of Egypt, were confined to the priesthood. All Brahmans, it is true, do not
necessarily belong to the sacerdotal order,
but every Brahman who has been initiated,
and thus been made acquainted with the
formulas of worship, may at any time become an officiating priest. The ceremonies
of initiation, as they have been described
by Oliver, were celebrated in spacious caverns, the principal of which were Elephanta
and Salsette, both situated near Bombay.
The mysteries were divided into four degrees, and the candidate' was permitted to
perform the probation of the first at the
It consisted simearly age of eight years.
ply in the investiture with the linen garment and Zennar or sacred cord; of sacriand of an
fices accompanied by ablutions
explanatory lecture. The aspirant was now
delivered into the care of a Brahman, who
thenceforth became his spiritual guide, and
prepared him by repeated instructions and
a life of austerity for admission into the
second degree. To this, if found qualified,
he was admitted at the requisite age. The
probationary ceremonies of this degree consisted in an incessant occupation in prayers, fastings, ablutions, and the study of
astronomy. Having undergone these austerities for a sufficient period, he was led at
night to the gloomy caverns of initiation,
which had been duly prepared for his re;

ception.
The interior of this cavern was brilliantly
illuminated, and there sat the three chief
hierophants, in the east, west, and south,

representing the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and

Siva, surrounded by the attendant mystagogues, dressed in appropriate vestments.
After an invocation to the sun, the aspirant was called upon to promise that he
would be obedient to his superiors, keep
his body pure, and preserve inviolable
secrecy on the subject of the mysteries. He
was then sprinkled with water, an invoca-

342

HINDUSTAN

tion of the deity was whispered in his ear

he was divested of his shoes, and made to
circumambulate the cavern three times, in
imitation of the course of the sun, whose
rising was personated by the hierophant
representing Brahma, stationed in the
east, whose meridian height by the representative of Siva in the south, and whose
setting by the representative of Vishnu
He was then conducted
in the west.
through seven ranges of dark and gloomy
caverns, during which period the wailing of Mahadeva for the loss of Siva
was represented by dismal howlings. The
usual paraphernalia of flashes of light, of
dismal sounds and horrid phantoms, was
practised to intimidate or confuse the aspirant.
After the performance of a variety
of other ceremonies, many of which we can
only conjecture, the candidate reached the
extremity of the seven caverns ; he was
now prepared for enlightenment by requisite instruction and the administration of a
solemn oath.
This part of the ceremonies being concluded, the sacred conch was blown, the
folding-doors were suddenly thrown open,
and the aspirant was admitted -into a spacious apartment filled with dazzling light,
ornamented with statues and emblematical
figures, richly decorated with gems, and
scented with the most fragrant perfumes.
This was a representation of Paradise.
The candidate was now supposed to be
regenerated, and he was invested by the
chief Brahman with the white robe and
tiara; a cross was marked upon his forehead, and a tau upon his breast, and he
was instructed in the signs, tokens, and
lectures of the Order.
He was presented
with the sacred belt, the magical black
stone, the talismanic jewel to be worn upon
his breast, and the serpent stone, which, as
its name imported, was an antidote against
the bite of serpents. And, lastly, he was
intrusted with the s&cred name, known
only to the initiated. This ineffable name
was AUM, which, in its triliteral form, was
significant of the creative, preservative,
and destroying power, that is, of Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva. It could not be pronounced, but was to be the subject of incessant silent contemplation. The symbols
and the aporrheta, or secret things of the
mysteries, were now explained.
Here ended the second degree. The tbf rd
took place when the candidate had grown
old, and his children had all been provided
This consisted in a total exclusion in
for.
the forest, where, as an anchorite, he occupied himself in ablutions, prayers, and sac-

HIKAM
them a portion of the divine

nature, and

to secure him a residence among the immortal gods.

The object of the Indian mysteries appears, says Oliver, to have been to teach
the unity of God and the necessity of virtue.
The happiness of our first parents, the subsequent depravity of the human race, and

the universal deluge were described in a

manner which showed that their knowledge
must have been derived from an authentic
source.

Hinnom. A deep valley south of Mt.

Moriah, known as Gehenna; in which Carrion was cast as food for vultures. The holy
valley of judgment, Jehoshaphat, has been
improperly substituted for Hinnom.
Hiram. The gavel, when wielded by
the Master of the Lodge, is sometimes
called the Hiram, because as the workmen
at the Temple were controlled and directed
by Hiram, the chief builder, so the Master
preserves order in the Lodge by the proper
use of the gavel.

Hiram

or

Huram.

In Hebrew,

DTH or Dmn> meaning noble-born. The

more correct pronunciation, according
to

the true value of the Hebrew letters, is

Khuramox Khurum; but universal Masonic
usage renders it now impossible, or, at least,
inexpedient, to make the change. The name
of the king of Tyre is spelled Hiram everywhere in Scripture except in 1 Chronicles
In 1
xiv. 1, where it occurs as Huram.
Chron. xiv. 1, the original Hebrew text has
Hiram, but the Masorites in the margin
In our authordirect it to be read Huram.
ized version, the name is spelled Hiram,
which is also the form used in the Vulgate
and in the Targums; the Septuagint has
Xeipdjx, or Cheiram.
Abif. There is no character
in the annals of Freemasonry whose life is
so dependent on tradition as the celebrated
architect of King Solomon's Temple. Profane history is entirely silent in respect to
his career, and the sacred records supply us
with only very unimportant items. To fill
up the space between his life and his death,
we are necessarily compelled to resort to
those oral legends which have been handed
down from the ancient Masons to their sucYet, looking to their character, I
cessors.
should be unwilling to vouch for the authenticity of all most of them were probably at first symbolical in their character
the symbol in the lapse of time having been
converted into a myth, and the myth, by con*
stant repetition, having assumed the formal
appearance of a truthful narrative. Such
has been the case in the history of all nations.
But whatever may have been their true
rifices.
In the fourth degree he underwent still character, to the Mason, at least, they are
greater austerities, the object of which was interesting, and cannot be altogether void
to impart to the happy sage who observed of instruction.

Hiram

HIRAM

HIRAM
When King Solomon was
a temple

to-

Jehovah, the

about to build
difficulty of ob-

taining skilful workmen to superintend and

to execute the architectural part of the undertaking was such, that he found it necessary to request of his friend and ally, Hiram,
King of Tyre, the use of some of his most
able builders for the Tyrians and Sidonians
were celebrated artists, and at that time
were admitted to be the best mechanics in
the world. Hiram willingly complied with
his request, and despatched to his assistance
an abundance of men and materials, to be
employed in the construction of the Temple,
and among the former, a distinguished
artist, to whom was given the superintendence of all the workmen, both Jews and
Tyrians, and who was in possession of all
the skill and learning that were required to
carry out, in the most efficient manner, all
the plans and designs of the king of Israel.
Of this artist, whom Freemasons recognize sometimes as Hiram the Builder, sometimes as the Widow's Son, but more commonly as Hiram Abif, the earliest account
is found in the first Book of Kings (vii. 13,
14,) where the passage reads as follows
" And King Solomon sent and fetched
Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's
son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father
was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass, and
;

he was filled with wisdom and understandand cunning to work all works in brass.
And he came to King Solomon and wrought
all his work."
He is next mentioned in the second Book

ing,

of Chronicles, (ch. ii. 13, 14,) in the following letter from Hiram of Tyre to King

Solomon.
" And now I have sent a cunning man,
endued with understanding, of Huram my
father's.
The son of a woman of the
daughters of Dan, and his father was a man
of Tyre, skilful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone and in timber, in purple, in blue and in fine linen and
in crimson also to grave any manner of
graving, and to find out every device which
shall be put to him, with thy cunning men,
and with the cunning men of my lord
David, thy father."
In reading these two descriptions, every
one will be at once struck with an apparent
contradiction in them in relation to the
parentage of their subject.
There is no
doubt
for in this both passages agree
that his father was a man of Tyre but the
discrepancy is in reference to the birthplace of his mother, who in one passage is
said to have been " of the tribe of Naphtali," and in the other, " of the daughters
of Dan." Commentators have, however,
met with no difficulty in reconciling the
contradiction, and the suggestion of Bishop
;

343

Patrick is now generally adopted on this

supposes that she herself was
subject.
of the tribe of Dan, but that her first husband was of the tribe of Naphtali, by
she had this son and that when she was a

He

whom

widow, she married a man of Tyre, who is

called Hiram's father because he bred him
up and was the husband of his mother.
Hiram Abif undoubtedly derived muchi
of his knowledge in mechanical arts from
that man of Tyre who had married his
mother, and

we may

justly conclude that

he increased that knowledge by assiduous

study and constant intercourse with the
artisans of Tyre, who were greatly distinguished for their attainments in architecTyre was one of the principal seats
ture.
of the Dionysiac fraternity of artificers, a
society engaged exclusively in the construction of edifices, and living under a secret
organization, which was subsequently imitated by the Operative Freemasons. Of this
association, it is not unreasonable to suppose that Hiram Abif was a member, and
that on arriving at Jerusalem he intro-

duced among the Jewish workmen the same

exact system of discipline which he had
found of so much advantage in the Dionysiac associations at home, and thus gave,
under the sanction of King Solomon, a peculiar organization to the Masons who were
engaged in building the Temple.

Upon the arrival of this celebrated artist

at Jerusalem, which was in the year b. c.
1012, he was at once received into the intimate confidence of Solomon, and intrusted
with the superintendence of

all

the work-

men, both Tyrians and Jew s, w ho were engaged in the construction of the building.
He received the title of "Principal Conductor of the Works," an office which, previous to his arrival, had been filled by Adoniram, and, according to Masonic tradition,
formed with Solomon and King Hiram of
r

Tyre, his ancient patron, the Supreme

Council of Grand Masters, in which every
thing was determined in relation to the
construction of the edifice and the government of the workmen.
The Book of Constitutions, as it w as edited
by Entick, (p. 19,) speaks of him in the
following language " This inspired master
was, without question, the most cunning,
skilful, and curious workman that ever
lived; whose abilities were not confined to
building only, but extended to all kinds of
work, whether in gold, silver, brass or iron ;
r

whether in linen, tapestry or embroidery;

whether considered as architect, statuary,
founder or designer, separately or together,

From

his designs and

the rich and splendid furniture of the Tempte and its several
appendages were begun, carried on, and

he equally excelled.
under his direction,

all

344
finished.

HIRAM

HIRAM

Solomon appointed him,

in his

absence, to fill the Chair as Deputy Grand

Master, and in his presence, Senior Grand
Warden, Master of Work, and general overseer of all artists, as well those whom
David had formerly procured from Tyre
and Sidon, as those Hiram should now
send."
This statement requires some correction.
According to the most consistent systems
and the general course of the traditions,
there were three Grand Masters at the building of the Temple, of whom Hiram Abif
was one, and hence in our Lodges he always receives the title of a Grand Master.
may, however, reconcile the assertion of
Anderson, that he was sometimes a Deputy
Grand Master, and sometimes a Senior
Grand Warden, by supposing that the three
Grand Masters were, among the Craft, possessed of equal authority, and held in equal
reverence, while among themselves there
was an acknowledged subordination of station and power. But in no way can the assertion be explained that he was at any time

We

a Senior Grand Warden, which would be

wholly irreconcilable with the symbolism
of the Temple. In the mythical Master's
Lodge, supposed to have been held in the
Temple, and the only one ever held before
its completion, at which the three Grand
Masters alone were present, the office of
Junior Warden is assigned to Hiram Abif.
According to Masonic tradition, which is
in part supported by scriptural authority,
Hiram was charged with all the architectural decorations and interior embellishments of the building. He cast the various vessels and implements that were to be
used in the religious service of the Temple,
as well as the pillars that adorned the porch,
selecting as the most convenient and appropriate place for the scene of his operations, the clay grounds which extend between Succoth and Zaredatha and the old
lectures state that the whole interior of the
house, its posts and doors, its very floors
;

and

ceilings, which were made of the most

expensive timber, and overlaid with plates
of burnished gold, were, by his exquisite
taste, enchased with magnificent designs
and adorned with the most precious gems.
Even the abundance of these precious
jewels, in the decorations of the Temple,
is attributed to the foresight and prudence
of Hiram Abif; since a Masonic tradition,
quoted by Dr. Oliver, informs us, that about
four years before the Temple was begun, he,
as the agent of the Tyrian king, purchased
some curious stones from an Arabian merchant, who told him, upon inquiry, that
they had been found by accident on an
island in the Red Sea.
By the permission
of King Hiram, he investigated the truth

of this report, and had the good fortune to

discover many precious gems, and among
the rest an abundance of the topaz. They
were subsequently imported by the ships of
Tyre for the service of King Solomon.
In allusion to these labors of taste and
skill displayed by the widow's son, our
lectures say, that while the wisdom of
Solomon contrived the fabric, and the
strength of King Hiram's wealth and power
supported the undertaking, it was adorned
by the beauty of Hiram Abif's curious and

cunning workmanship.
In the character of the chief architect of
the Temple, one of the peculiarities which
most strongly attract attention, was the
systematic manner in which he conducted
all the extensive operations which were
placed under his charge. In the classification of the workmen, such arrangements
were made, by his advice, as to avoid any
discord or confusion; and although about
two hundred thousand craftsmen and laborers were employed, so complete were his
arrangements, that the general harmony
was never once disturbed. In the payment
of wages, such means were, at his suggestion,
adopted, that every one's labor was readily
distinguished, and his defects ascertained,
every attempt at imposition detected, and
the particular amount of money due to
each workman accurately determined and
easily paid, so that, as Webb remarks, "the
disorder and confusion that might otherwise have attended so immense an undertaking was completely prevented." It was
his custom never to put off until to-morrow
the work that might have been accomplished
to-day, for he was as remarkable for his
punctuality in the discharge of the most
trifling duties, as he was for his skill in
performing the most important. It was his
constant habit to furnish the craftsmen
every morning with a copy of the plans
which he had, on the previous afternoon,
designed for their labor in the couree of the
ensuing day. As new designs were thus furnished by him from day to day, any neglect
to provide the workmen with them on each
successive morning would necessarily have
stopped the labors of the whole body of the
workmen for that day a circumstance that
in so large a number must have produced
the greatest disorder and confusion. Hence
the practice of punctuality was in him a
duty of the highest obligation, and one
;

for a moment have been

neglected without leading to immediate observation.
Such is the character of this
distinguished personage, whether mythical
or not, that has been transmitted by the
uninterrupted stream of Masonic tradition.

which could never

The trestle-board used by him in drawing

his designs is said to have been made, as

HIRAM

HIRAM
the ancient tablets were, of wood, and
covered with a coating of wax. On this
coating he inscribed his plans with a pen
or stylus of steel, which an old tradition,
preserved by Oliver, says was found upon
him when he was raised, and ordered by
King Solomon to be deposited in the centre
of his monument. The same tradition informs us that the first time he used this
stylus for any of the purposes of the Temple was on the morning that the foundationstone of the building was laid, when he
drew the celebrated diagram known as the
forty-seventh problem of Euclid,

and which

gained a prize that Solomon had offered on

that occasion. But this is so evidently a
mere myth, invented by some myth-maker
of the last century, without even the excuse
of a symbolic meaning, that it has been
rejected or, at least, forgotten by the Craft.
Another and more interesting legend has
been preserved by Oliver, which may be
received as a mythical symbol of the faithIt runs thus
ful performance of duty.
" It was the duty of Hiram Abif to superintend the workmen, and the reports of
his officers were always examined with the
most scrupulous exactness. At the opening of the day, when the sun was rising in
the east, it was his constant custom, before
the commencement of labor, to go into the
Temple, and offer up his prayers to Jehovah tor a blessing on the work and in like
manner when the sun was setting in the
west.
And after the labors of the day were
closed, and the workmen had left the Temple, he returned his thanks to the Great
Architect of the Universe for the harmonious protection of the day. Not content
with this devout expression of his feelings,
he always went into the Temple at the
hour of high twelve, when the men were
called off from labor to refreshment, to
inspect the work, to draw fresh designs
upon the trestle-board, if such were necessary, and to perform other scientific labors,
never forgetting to consecrate the duties
by solemn prayer. These religious customs
were faithfulty performed for the first six
years in the secret recesses of his Lodge,
and for the last year in the precincts of the
most holy place."
;

While assiduously engaged in the discharge of these arduous duties, seven years
passed rapidly away, and the magnificent
Temple at Jerusalem was nearly completed.
The Fraternity were about to celebrate the
cope-stone with the greatest demonstrations
f jy but, in the language of the venerable Book of Constitutions, "their joy was
soon interrupted by the sudden death of
their dear and worthy master, Hiram Abif."
On the very day appointed for celebrating
the cope-stone of the building, says one
>'

345

he repaire'd to his usual place of

retirement at the meridian hour, and did
not return alive. On this subject we can
say no more. This is neither the time nor
the place to detail the particulars of his
death. It is enough to say that the circumstance filled the Craft with the most profound grief, which was deeply shared by
his friend and patron, King Solomon, who,
according to the Book of Constitutions,
" after some time allowed to the Craft to
vent their sorrow, ordered his obsequies to
be performed with great solemnity and decency, and buried him in the Lodge near
according to the ancient
the Temple,
and long mourned
usages among Masons,

tradition,

his loss."

Miramites. In the degree of Patriarch Noachites, the legend is, that the Masons of that degree are descended from Noah
through Peleg. Distinguishing themselves,
therefore, as Noachites, they call the Masons
of the other degrees Hiramites, as being
descended from Hiram Abif. The word is
not elsewhere used.

Hiram, King of Tyre, He

was

the son of Abibal, and the contemporary of

both David and Solomon. In the beginning of the former's reign, he sent messengers to him, and Hiram supplied the
Israelitish king with " cedar-trees, and carpenters, and masons and they built David
a house." (2 Sam. v. 11.) Nearly forty
:

years afterwards, when Solomon ascended

the throne and began to prepare for building the Temple, he sent to the old friend
of his father for the same kind of assistance. The king of Tyre gave a favorable
response, and sent workmen and materials
to Jerusalem, by the aid of which Solomon
was enabled to carry out his great design.
Historians celebrate the friendly intercourse
of these monarchs, and Josephus says that
the correspondence between them in respect
to the building of the Temple was, in his
days, preserved in the archives of the kingdom of Tyre. The answer of Hiram to the
application of Solomon is given in the first
Book of Kings (v. 8, 9,) in the following
language " I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar and timber of fir.
My servants shall bring them down from
Lebanon unto the sea and I will convey
them by sea in floats unto the place that
thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them
to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them and thou shalt accomplish my
desire in giving food for my household."
In return for this kindness, Solomon gave
Hiram 20,000 measures, or corim, of wheat
and the same quantity of oil, which was
nearly 200,000 bushels of one and 1,500,000
gallons of the other; an almost incredible
amount, but not disproportioned to the
:

HIRAM

HO-HI

magnificent expenditure of the Temple in

other respects. After Solomon had finished
his work, he presented the king of Tyre
with twenty towns in Galilee; but when
Hiram viewed these places, he was so dissatisfied with their appearance that he called
which signifies
them the land of Cabul,
saying reproachfully to
barren, desolate,
Solomon, "Are these, my brother, the
towns which you have given me?" On
this incident the Scottish Rite Masons have
founded their sixth degree, or Intimate Sec-

Mirscliaii, Wilhelm von. The

Abbot Wilhelm von Hirschau, Count Pal-

346

retary.

Hiram appears, like Solomon, to have

been disposed to mysticism, for Dius and
Menander, two Greek historians, tell us
that the two kings proposed enigmas to
Dius says that
each other for solution.
Solomon first sent some to Hiram and that
the latter king, being unable to solve them,
paid a large sum of money as a forfeit, but
that afterwards he explained them with the
assistance of one Abdemon; and that he in
turn proposed some to Solomon, who, not
being able to solve them, paid a much
greater sum to Hiram than he had himself
received on the like occasion.
The connection of the king of Tyre with
king Solomon in the construction of the
Temple has given him a great importance
Anin the legendary history of Masonry.
;

atine of Scheuren, is said to have been the

founder, at the close of the eleventh century, of the German Bauhutten. Having been
previously the Master of the Bauhutte, or
Lodge of St. Emmerau, in Ratisbon, when
he became Abbot of Hirschau, he collected together in 1080-1091 the Masons
for the purpose of enlarging the convent.
He incorporated the workmen, says Findel,
(Hist., p. 54,) with the monastery, as lay
brethren, and greatly promoted their instruction and general improvement. Their
social life was regulated by special laws
and the one most frequently inculcated by
him was that brotherly concord should prevail, because only by working together and
lovingly uniting all their strength would
it be possible to accomplish such great
works as were these undertakings for the
public benefit.
K..\ TV. The abbreviation of
Hiram, King of Tyre.
combination of the two HeHo-lai.

H.\

brew pronouns *\f), ho, meaning "he," and

*F7i #* meaning "she;" thus mystically
representing the twofold sex of the Creator,
and obtained by a Kabbalistic transposition
or inversion of the letters of the Tetragram-

maton,

derson says, "

HliT

or

IHOH.

HO-HI, therefore,

The tradition is that King thus Kabbalistically obtained, denotes the

Hiram had been Grand Master of all Ma- male and female principle, the vis genitrix,
sons but when the Temple was finished, the phallus and lingam", the point within the
Hiram came to survey it before its conse- circle the notion of which, in some one
cration, and to commune with Solomon form or another of this double gender, per;

about wisdom and art

and finding that
the Great Architect of the Universe had
inspired Solomon above all mortal men,
Hiram very readily yielded the pre-eminence to Solomon Jedediah, the beloved of
God." He is called in the rituals one of
our " Ancient Grand Masters," and when
the mythical Master's Lodge was held in
the Temple is supposed to have acted as
the Senior Warden. It is said, too, that
in the symbolic supports of Masonry he
represented the pillar of strength, because
" by his power and wealth he assisted the
great undertaking" of constructing the
;

He

have
Temple.
is reported, also, to
visited Jerusalem several times (a fact on

which profane history is silent) for the

purpose of consultation with Solomon and
his great architect on the symbolism of the
Word, and to have been present at the
time of the death of the latter. Many
other legends are related of him in the
Master's degree and those connected with
it, but he is lost sight of after the completion of the first Temple, and is seldom heard
of in the high degrees.

Hiram
Abif.

the Builder.

See Hiram

vades all the ancient systems as the representative of the creative power.
Thus, one of the names given by the mythological writers to the Supreme Jupiter
was appevod^vg, the man-woman. In one
of the Orphic hymns we find the following
line
Zzvs

npatjv,

Jove

is

ytvno, Zev$ apfipoTos IxXtTO wpfprj-

a male, Jove

is

an immortal

virgin.

And

Plutarch, in his Isis and Osiris, says,

is a male and female intelligence, being both life and light, brought
forth another intelligence, the Creator of
the world." All the Pagan gods and goddesses, however various their appellation,
were but different expressions for the male
"In fact," says
and female principle.
Russel, "they may all be included in the
one great Hermaphrodite, the apfievodqlvQ,
who combines in his nature all the elements of production, and who continues to
support the vast creation which originally

"God, who

proceeded from his will." And thus, too,

may we learn something of the true meaning of the passage in Genesis, (i. 27,) where
it is

said, "

So God created man

in his

own

";

'

HOLINESS

HOLY

(mage, in the image of God created lie him

male and female created he them."
For the suggestion of this working of
Ho-hi out of Ih-ho, I was many years
ago indebted to rny learned and lamented
friend, George R. Gliddon, the great Egyptologist, who had obtained it from the writings of Lanzi, the Italian antiquary.

character, and uses of the Sanctum Sanctorum or Holy of Holies in King Solomon's
Temple. Situated in the western end of
the Temple, separated from the rest of the
building by a heavy curtain, and enclosed
on three sides by dead walls without any
aperture or window, it contained the sacred
ark of the covenant, and was secluded and
set apart from all intrusion save of the
high priest, who only entered it on certain
solemn occasions.
As it was the most
sacred of the three parts of the Temple, so
has it been made symbolic of a Master's
Lodge, in which are performed the most
sacred rites of initiation in Ancient Craft
Masonry.
But as modern hierologists have found in
all the Hebrew rites and ceremonies the
traces of more ancient mysteries, from
which they seem to have been derived, or
on which they have been modified, whence
we trace also to the same mysteries most of
the Masonic forms which, of course, are
more immediately founded on the Jewish

Holiness to the Lord.

In Hebrew,

rmh anp, kodesh layehovah.

it

was the inscription on the plate of gold

that was placed in front of the high priest's
mitre. The letters were in the ancient Sa'

maritan character.
Holland. See Netherlands.

Holy Ghost, Knight of the.

Knight of

the

See

Holy Ghost.

Holy Ground. A Masonic Lodge

is

said to be held on holy ground, according

to the Prestonian lecture, because the first
regularly constituted Lodge was held on
that holy, consecrated ground wherein the
first three grand offerings were made, which

afterwards met with Divine approbation.

See Ground-Floor of the Lodge.
Holy Lodge. The old lectures of
the last century taught symbolically that
there were three Lodges opened at three
these
different periods in Masonic history
were the Holy Lodge, the Sacred Lodge,
and the Royal Lodge. The Holy Lodge
was opened in the tabernacle in the wilderness, and over it presided Moses, Aholiab, and Bezaleel
the Sacred Lodge was
opened on Mount Moriah during the building of the first Temple, and was presided
over by Solomon, King of Israel, Hiram,
King of Tyre, and Hiram the Builder the
Royal Lodge was opened among the ruins
of the first Temple, at the building of the
second, and was presided over by Joshua,
Though preZerubbabel, and Haggai.
sented as a tradition, it is really only a
symbol intended to illustrate three important events in the progress of Masonic
;

science.

Holy

jJTame. Freemasonry teaches,

in all its symbols and rituals, a reverence
for the name of God, which is emphatically
called the " Holy Name."
In the prayer
" Ahabath Olam," first introduced by Der"
mott, it is said, because we trusted in thy
holy, great, mighty, and terrible Name
and in the introductory prayer of the Royal
Arch, according to the American system,
similar phraseology is employed: "Teach
us, we pray thee, the true reverence of thy
;

great, mighty,

and

terrible

Name."

expression, if not the sentiment,

rowed from the Hebrew mysteries.

is

The
bor-

Holy of Holies. Every student of

Jewish antiquities knows, and every Mason
who has taken the third degree ought to
know, what was the peculiar construction,

347

we shall find in the ancient

Gentile temples the type of this same Sanctum Sanctorum or Holy of Holies, under
the name of Adyton or Adytum.
And what
is more singular, we shall find a greater resemblance between this Adytum of the
Pagan temples and the Lodge of Master
Masons, than we will discover between the
latter and the Sanctum Sanctorum of the
Solomonic Temple. It will be curious and
interesting to trace this resemblance, and to
follow up the suggestions that it offers in
reference to the antiquity of Masonic rites.
The Adytum was the most retired and
secret part of the ancient Gentile temple,
into which, as into the Holy of Holies of
the Jewish Temple, the people were not
permitted to enter, but which was accessible only to the priesthood. And hence the
derivation of the word from the Greek
Adoein, "not to enter," "that which it is
Seclusion and
not permitted to enter."
mystery were always characteristic of the
Adytum, and therefore, like the Holy of
Holies, it never admitted of windows.
In the Adytum was to be found a taphos*
or tomb, and some relic or image or statue
of the god to whom the temple was dedicated.
The tomb reminds us of the characteristic
feature of the third degree of Masonry the
image or statue of the god finds its analogue
in the ark of the covenant and the overScriptures, so

shadowing cherubim.
It being supposed that temples owed their
first origin to the reverence paid by the
ancients to their deceased friends, and as it
was an accepted theory that the gods were
once men who had been deified on account
of their heroic virtues, temples were, pert aps, in the beginning only stately monu-

HONORARY

HOLY

348

ments erected in honor of the dead. Hence

the interior of the temple was originally
nothing more than a cell or cavity, that is
to say, a grave regarded as a place of deposit for the reception of a person interred,
and, therefore, in it was to be found the
soros or coffin, and the taphos or tomb, or,
among the Scandinavians, the barrow or
mound grave. In time the statue or image

of a god took the place of the coffin but

the reverence for the spot, as one of peculiar
sanctity, remained, and this interior part
of the temple became among the Greeks
the sekos or chapel, among the Romans
the Adytum or forbidden place, and among
the Jews the Jcodesh kodashim, or Holy of
Holies.
" The sanctity thus acquired," says Dudley in his Naology, (p. 393,) "by the cell
of interment might readily and with propriety be assigned to any fabric capable of
containing the body of the departed friend,
or relic, or even the symbol of the presence
or existence, of a divine personage." And
thus it happened that there was in every
ancient temple an Adytum or most holy
;

place.

There was in the Holy of Holies of the

Jewish Temple, it is true, no tomb nor coffin
containing the relics of the dead. But there
was an ark of the covenant which was the
recipient of the rod of Aaron, and the pot
of manna, which might well be considered
the relics of the past life of the Jewish
nation in the wilderness. There was an
analogy easily understood according to the
principles of the science of symbolism.
There was no statue or image of a god, but
there were the sacred cherubim, and, above
all, the Shekinah or Divine Presence, and
the bathkol or voice of God.
But when Masonry established its system
partly on the ancient rites and partly on
the Jewish ceremonies, it founded its third

Adytum

or holy of holies of
the exclusive place into
which none but the most worthy
the
priesthood of Masonry
the Masters in
Israel
were permitted to enter and then
going back to the mortuary idea of the ancient temple, it recognized the reverence for
the dead which constitutes the peculiar
characteristic of that degree.
And, therefore, in every Lodge of Master Masons there
should be found, either actually or allegorically, a grave, or tomb, and coffin, because the third degree is the inmost sanctuary, the kodesh kodashim, the Holy of
Holies of the Masonic temple.
Holy Place. Called also the sanctuary.
It was that part of the Temple of
Solomon which was situated between the
Porch and the Holy of Holies. It was appropriated to the purposes of daily worship,

degree as the

all its mysteries,

altars and utensils used

in that service.
It has no symbolic meaning in Masonry
although really, as it
occupied the ground-floor of the Temple,
it might be properly considered as repre-

and contained the

;

sented by an Entered Apprentice's Lodge,

that is to say, by the Lodge when occupied
in the ceremonies of the first degree.

Holy Sepulchre, Knight of the.

See Knight of

the

Honorable.

Holy Sepulchre.
This was the

title for-

merly given to the degree of Fellow Craft.

Honorarium. When

a degree of

Masonry is conferred honoris causa, that is,

as a mark of respect, and without the payment of a fee, it is said to be conferred as an
honorarium. This is seldom done in Ancient Craft Masonry but it is not unusual
;

in the high degrees of the Scottish Rite,

which are sometimes bestowed by Inspectors on distinguished Masons as an honora-

rium.

Honorary Degrees.

1.

The Mark

Master's degree in the American system is

called the " Honorary degree of Mark Master," because it is traditionally supposed to
have been conferred in the Temple upon
a portion of the Fellow Crafts as a mark
of honor and of trust. The degrees of Past
Master and of High Priesthood are also
styled honorary, because each is conferred
as an honorarium or reward attendant upon
certain offices; that of Past Master upon
the elected Master of a symbolic Lodge,
and that of High Priesthood upon the
elected High Priest of a Chapter of Royal

Arch Masons.
Those degrees which are outside of
series, and which are more commonly known by the epithet " side degrees,"
are also sometimes called honorary degrees,
because no fee is usually exacted for them.
2.

the regular

Honorary Masons. A
body which arose soon

schismatic

after the revival in

the beginning of the eighteenth century,

the members of which rejected the established formula of an obligation, and bound
themselves to secrecy and obedience by a
pledge of honor only. Like the Gregorians
and the Gormogons, who arose about the
same time, they soon died a natural death.
A song of theirs, preserved in Carey's Musical Century, is almost the only record left
of their existence.
Honorary Members. It is a custom in some Lodges to invest distinguished
Masons with the rank and title of honorary
membership. This confers upon them, as
the by-laws may prescribe, sometimes all
the rights of active membership and sometimes only the right of speaking, but always without the exaction of annual dues.
Nor does honorary membership subject the
person receiving it to the discipline of the

HONORS

HONORARY
Lodge further than to
honor bestowed. The
honorary members is a
ern date, and has not

a revocation of the
custom of electing
usage of very modthe sanction of the

old Constitutions.

common in France

It is

but not altogether unknown, in

America and England. Oliver, in the title
of one of his works, claimed honorary membership in more than nine Lodges. It may
be considered unobjectionable as a method
of paying respect to distinguished merit and
Masonic services, when it is viewed only
as a local regulation, and does not attempt
A
to interfere with Masonic discipline.
Mason who is expelled forfeits, of course,
with his active membership in his own
Lodge, his honorary membership in other
Lodges.
less

so,

Honorary Thirty - Thirds. The

Supreme Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite in this country have,
within a few years past, adopted the custom of electing honorary members, who
are sometimes called "Honorary ThirtyThirds." They possess none of the rights
of Inspectors General or Active Members,
except that of being present at the meetings of the Council, and taking part to a
limited extent in its deliberations.

Honors, Grand. The Grand Honors

Masonry are those peculiar acts and geswhich the Craft have always been
accustomed to express their homage, their
joy, or their grief on memorable occasions.
In the Symbolic degrees of the American
Rite, they are of two kinds, the private and
public, which are used on different occasions and for different purposes.
The private Grand Honors of Masonry
are performed in a manner known only to
of

tures by

Master Masons, since they can only be used

in a Master's Lodge.
They are practised
by the Craft only on four occasions when
a Masonic hall is to be consecrated, a new
Lodge to be constituted, a Master elect to
be installed, or a Grand Master, or his
Deputy, to be received on an official visitation to a Lodge. They are used at all these
ceremonies as tokens of congratulation and
homage. And as they can only be given
by Master Masons, it is evident that every
consecration of a hall, or constitution of a
new Lodge, every installation of a Wor:

shipful Master, and every reception of a

Grand Master, must be done in the third
degree.
It is also evident, from what has
been said, that the mode and manner of
giving the private Grand Honors can only
be personally communicated to Master Masons. They are among the aporrheta
the
things forbidden to be divulged.
The public Grand Honors, as their name
imports, do not partake of this secret character.
They are given on all public occa-

349

sions, in the presence of the profane as well

They are used at the layas the initiated.

ing of corner-stones of public buildings, or

in other services in which the ministrations of the Fraternity are required, and
They are given in
especially in funerals.
the following manner: Both arms are
crossed on the breast, the left uppermost,
and the open palms of the hands sharply
striking the shoulders they are then raised
above the head, the palms striking each
other, and then made to fall smartly upon
the thighs. This is repeated three times,
and as there are three blows given each
time, namely, on the breast, on the palms
of the hands, and on the thighs, making
nine concussions in all, the Grand Honors
are technically said to be given " by three
times three." On the occasion of funerals,
each one of these honors is accompanied
by the words, "the will of God is accomplished; so mote it be" audibly pronounced
by the brethren.
;

These Grand Honors of Masonry have

undoubtedly a classical origin, and are but
an imitation of the plaudits and acclamations practised by the ancient Greeks and

Romans

in their theatres, their senates,

and their public games.

There is abundant evidence in the writings of the ancients, that in the days of the empire, the
Romans had circumscribed the mode of
doing homage to their emperors and great
men when they made their appearance in
public, and of expressing their approbation
of actors at the theatre, within as explicit
rules and regulations as those that govern
the system of giving the Grand Honors in
Freemasonry. This was not the case in the
earlier ages of Rome, for Ovid, speaking of
the Sabines, says that when they applauded,
they did so without any rules of art
" In

And

medio plausu, plausus tunc

arte carebat."

Propertius speaks, at a later day, of

the ignorance of the country people, who,

at the theatres, destroyed the general harmony by their awkward attempts to join
in the modulated applauses of the more
skilful citizens.

The ancient Romans had carried their

science on this subject to such an extent as
to have divided these honors into three
kinds, differing from each other in the
mode in which the hands were struck
against each other, and in the sound that
thence resulted. Suetonius, in his life of
Nero, (cap. xx.,) gives the names of these
various kinds of applause, which he says
were called bombi, imbrices, testce ; and Seneca, in his Naturales Qucestiones, gives a description of the manner in which they were
executed. The "bombi," or hums, were
produced by striking the palms of the

HOODWINK

HOSPITALLER

hands together, while they were in a hollow or concave position, and doing this at

fear
life would be devoid of joy, and the
grave but a scene of desolation. The ancients represented Hope by a nymph holding in her hand a bouquet of opening flowers,
indicative of the coming fruit but in modern and Masonic iconology it is represented by a virgin leaning on an anchor, the
anchor itself being a symbol of hope.
Manuscript.
manuscript
copy of the old Constitutions, which is in
the possession of the Lodge of Hope at
Bradford, in England.
The parchment

350

frequent intervals, but with little force, so

as to imitate the humming sound of a swarm
of bees. The "imbrices," or tiles, were
made by briskly striking the flattened and
extended palms of the hands against each
other, so as to resemble the sound of hail
pattering upon the tiles of a roof. The
" testae," or earthen vases, were executed by
striking the palm of the left hand, with the
fingers of the right collected into one point.
By this blow a sound was elicited which
imitated that given out by an earthen vase
when struck by a stick.
The Romans, and other ancient nations,
having invested this system of applauding
with all the accuracy of a science, used it
in its various forms, not only for the purpose of testifying their approbation of actors in the theatre, but also bestowed it, as
a mark of respect or a token of adulation,
on their emperors, and other great men, on
the occasion of their making their appearance in public. Huzzas and cheers have,
in this latter case, been generally adopted

by the moderns, while the manual applause

only appropriated to successful public
speakers and declaimers. The Freemasons,
however,, have altogether preserved the
ancient custom of applause, guarding and
regulating its use by as strict, though different rules as did the Romans and thus
showing, as another evidence of the antiquity of their Institution, that the "Grand
Honors " of Freemasonry are legitimately
derived from the "plausus," or applaudings, practised by the ancients on public
is

occasions.

In the higher degrees, and in other Rites,

the Grand Honors are different from those
of Ancient Craft Masonry in the American
Rite.

Hoodwink. A

symbol of the secrecy,

silence, and darkness in which the mysteries of our art should be preserved from the

unhallowed gaze of the profane. It has

been supposed to have a symbolic reference
to the passage in St. John's Gospel, (i. 5,)
" And the light shineth in darkness and
;

the darkness comprehended it not." But

it is more certain that there is in the hoodwink a representation of the mystical darkness which always preceded the rites of the
ancient initiations.
Hope. The second round in the theo-

and Masonic ladder, and symbolic

of a hope in immortality. It is appropriately placed there, for, having attained the
first, or faith in God, we are led by a belief
in his wisdom and goodness to the hope of
logical

immortality. This
pectation without

is

but a reasonable ex-

virtue would lose its

necessary stimulus and vice its salutary
;

it,

Hope

roll

on which

this Constitution is written is

and six inches wide, and is

defaced and worn away at the lower edge.
It is considered a very important manuscript.
Its date is supposed to be about
1680.
From a transcript in the possession
of Bro. A. F. A. Woodford, whose correctness is certified to by the Master of the
Lodge, Bro. Hughan first published it in
his Old Charges of the British Freemasons.
of Plenty. The jewel of the
Steward of a Lodge. See Cornucopia.
of the Altar. In the Jewish
Temple, the altars of
burnt-offering and of
incense had each at
the four corners four
horns of shittim wood.
Among the Jews, as
well as all other ancient peoples, the altar
was considered
peculiarly holy and
privileged and hence,
when a criminal, fleeing, took hold of these horns, he found an
asylum and safety. As the Masonic altar
is a representation of the altar of the Solomonic member, it should be constructed
with these horns and Cross has very properly so represented it in his Hieroglyphic
six feet long

Horn

Horns

Chart.

Hosehea. The word of acclamation

used by the French Masons of the Scottish
In some of the Cahiers it is spelled
Rite.
Ozee.
It is, I think, a corruption of the
word huzza, which is used by the English
and American Masons of the same Rite.
Hospitality. This virtue has always
been highly esteemed among Masons.
Nothing is more usual in diplomas or certificates than to recommend the bearer "to
the hospitality of all the brethren wheresoever dispersed over the globe " a recommendation that is seldom disregarded. All
of the old Constitutions detail the practice
of hospitality, as one of the duties of the
Craft, in language like this: "Every Mason
shall receive and cherish strange fellowes
when they come over the countreye."
Hospitaller, Knight. See Knight
;

Hospitaller.

HU

HOSPITALLERS
Hospitallers of Jerusalem.

In

the middle of the eleventh century, some

merchants of Amain, a rich city of the
kingdom of Naples, while trading in Egypt,
obtained from the Caliph Monstaser Billah
permission to establish hospitals in the city
of Jerusalem for the use of poor and sick
site was assigned to
Catholic pilgrims.
them close to the Holy Sepulchre, on which
they erected a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, giving it the name of St. Mary ad Latinos, to distinguish it from those churches
where the service was performed according
The building was
to the Greek ritual.
completed in the year 1048 and at the

same time two

hospitals, one for either sex,

were erected in the vicinity of the chapel
for the reception of pilgrims. Subsequently
each of these hospitals had a separate
chapel annexed to it that for the men being dedicated to St. John the Almoner, and
that for the women to St. Mary Magdalen.
Many of the pilgrims, who had experienced
the kindness so liberaDy bestowed upon all
;

wayfarers, abandoned all idea of returning

to Europe, and formed themselves into a
band of charitable assistants, and, without
assuming any regular, religious profession,
devoted themselves to the service of the
hospital and the care of its sick inmates.
The chief cities of the south of Europe
subscribed liberally for the support of this
institution; and the merchants of Amain*
who were its original founders acted as the
stewards of their bounty, which was greatly
augmented from the favorable reports of
grateful pilgrims who had returned home,
and the revenues of the hospital were thus
much increased. The associates assumed
the name of Hospitallers of .Jerusalem.
Afterwards, taking up arms for the protection of the holy places against the Saracens,
they called themselves Knights Hospitallers, a title which they subsequently changed
to that of Knights of Rhodes, and finally
to that of Knights of Malta.
Host, Captain of the. See Captain
of the Host.
Hour-Glass. An emblem used in the
third degree, according to the Webb lectures, to remind us by the quick passage of
its sands of the transitory nature of human
life.
As a Masonic symbol it is of comparatively modern date, but the use of the
hour-glass as an emblem of the passage
of time is older than our oldest rituals.
Thus, in a speech before Parliament, in
1627, it is said "
may dandle and play
with the hour-glass that is in our power, but
the hour will not stay for us and an opportunity once lost cannot be regained."
are told in Notes and Queries, (1st Ser.,
v. 223,) that in the early part of the last century it was a custom to inter an hour-glass
:

We

We

351

with the dead, as an emblem of the sand of

life being run out.
Hours, Masonic. The language of
Masonry, in reference to the hours of labor

and refreshment,

is altogether symbolical.
old lectures contained a tradition that
our ancient brethren wrought six days in
the week and twelve hours in the day,
being called off regularly at the hour of
high twelve from labor to refreshment. In
the French and German systems, the Craft
were said to be called from labor at low
twelve, or midnight, which is therefore the
supposed or fictitious time at which a
French or German Lodge is closed. But
in the English and American systems the
Craft are supposed to be called off at high
twelve, and when called on again the time
for recommencing labor is said to be "onehour past high twelve " all this refers to
Ancient Craft Masonry. In some of the
high degrees the hours designated for labor
or rest are different. So, too, in the different
Rites thus, in the system of Zinnendorf, it
is said that there are in a Mason's Lodge
five hours, namely, twelve struck, noon,

The

high noon, midnight and high midnight;

which are thus explained. Twelve struck,
is before the Lodge is opened and after it is
closed; noon is when the Master is about to
open the Lodge; high noon, when it is
duly open midnight, when the Master is
about to close it and high midnight, when
it is closed and the uninitiated are permitted to draw near.
Hours of Initiation. In Masonic
Lodges, as they were in the Ancient Mys;

teries,

initiations

are

always

No Lodges

at

night.

ever meet in the daytime for

that purpose, if it can be avoided. See
Night.
go Squares ? The question was
one of the earliest of the tests which were
common in the eighteenth century. In the
Grand Mystery, published in 1724, we find
it in the following form
"Q. How go squares ?
"A. Straight."
It is noteworthy, that this phrase has an
earlier date than the eighteenth century,
and did not belong exclusively to the Masons.
In Thomas May's comedy of The
Old Couple, published in 1658, (Act. iv., sc.
i.,) will be found the following passage:
"Sir Argent Scrape. Ha Mr. Frightful,
welcome. How go squares ? What do you
think of me to make a bridegroom? Do I
look young enough? " See it in Dodsley's
Collection of Old Plays, Vol. 10.
An abbreviation
R.\ I>.\
of Heredom or Herodem.
The name of the chief god amoug
the Druids, commonly called Hu Gadarn,
or Hu the Mighty. He is thus described

How

H.\

M.\

Hu.

'

HUND

HUMILITY

352

by one of the Welsh bards " The smallest

of the small, Hu is the mighty in the world's
judgment; yet he is the greatest and Lord
over us and our God of mystery. His
course is light and swift, his car is a partiHe is great on
cle of bright sunshine.
land and sea, the greatest whom I shall beOffer not
hold, greater than the worlds.
indignity to him, the Great and Beautiful."
Bryant and Davies, in accordance with
their arkite theory, think that he was Noah
deified but the Masonic scholar will be reminded of the Hi-hu eliminated by the
:

Kabbalists out of the

name

of Jehovah.

Humility. The Divine Master has

said, " He that humbleth himself shall be
(Luke xiv. 2,) and the lesson is
emphatically taught by a portion of the
Indeed,
ritual of the Royal Arch degree.
the first step towards the acquisition of
truth is a humility of mind which teaches
us our own ignorance and our necessity for
knowledge, so that thus we may be prepared
Dr. Oliver has greatly
for its reception.
erred in saying {Landmarks, ii. 471,) that
bare feet are a Masonic symbol of humility.
They are properly a symbol of reverence.
The true Masonic symbol of humility is
bodily prostration, and it is so exemplified
in the Royal Arch degree.
Carl Gotthhelf,
Baron Von Hund, was born in Oberlausitz,
in Germany, on the 11th of September, 1722.
He was a nobleman and hereditary landed
proprietor in the Lausitz. He is said to
have been upright in his conduct, although
beset by vanity and a love of adventure.
But Findel is scarcely correct in characterizing him as a man of moderate understanding, since the position which he took among
many of
his Masonic contemporaries
whom were of acknowledged talent and
the ability with which he defended and
maintained his opinions, would indicate the
possession of very respectable intelligence.
In religious faith he was a Protestant.
That rare work, the Anti-Saint- Nicaise,
contains in its first volume a brief biography of Von Hund, from which some details of his personal appearance and character may be obtained. He was of middling
stature, but well formed; never dressed
sumptuously, but always with taste and
neatness and although himself a moderate
liver, was distinguished for his hospitality,
and his table was always well supplied for
the entertainment of friends and visitors.
The record that his servants were never
changed, but that those who were employed
in his domestic service constantly remained
with him, is a simple but conclusive testimony to the amiability of his character.
The scanty details of the life of Hund,
which are supplied by Clavel in his Hisexalted,"

Hund,BaronYon.

by Thory, in the Acta

Latamorum ; by Ragon, in his Orthodoxie
Maconnique; by Robison, in his Proofs of
a Conspiracy; by Lenning and Gadicke, in
the Encyclopadie of each; by Oliver, in
his Historical Landmarks ; and by Findel,

toire Pittoresque ;

in his History, vary so much in dates and

in the record of events, that he who should
depend on their conflicting authority for
information would be involved in almost
inextricable confusion in attempting to
follow any connected thread of a narrative.
As Thory, however, writes as an annalist,
in chronological order, it may be presumed
that his dates are more to be depended on
than those of the looser compilers of historical essays.
He, therefore, will furnish
us with at least an outline of the principal
Masonic events in the life of Hund, while
from other writers we may derive the material facts which the brevity of Thory
does not provide. But even Thory must

sometimes be abandoned, where he has

evidently neglected to note a particular
circumstance, and his omission must be
supplied from some other source.
On the 20th of March, 1742, when still
lacking some months of being twenty years
of age, he was initiated into the mysteries
of Freemasonry in the Lodge of the Three
Thistles at Frankfort-on-the-Main.
Findel places the date of his initiation in the
year 1741 but, for the reason already assigned, I prefer the authority of Thory,
with whom Lenning concurs. The first
and second degrees were conferred on the
same day, and in due time his initiation
into the symbolic degrees was completed.
Soon after his initiation, the Baron Von
Hund travelled through England and Hol;

land,

and paid a

who speaks

visit to Paris.
Robison,
of the Baron as " a gentleman

of honorable character," and whose own

reputation secures him from the imputation
of wilful falsehood, although it could not
preserve him from the effects of prejudice,
says that Hund, while in Paris, became
acquainted with the Earl of Kilmarnock
and some other gentlemen, who were adherents of the Pretender, and received from
them the new degrees, which had been invented, it is said, for political purposes by
the followers of the exiled house of Stuart.
Gadicke states that while there he also
received the Order of the Mopses, which
he afterwards attempted, but without sucThis
cess, to introduce into Germany.
must, however, be an error for the Order
of the Mopses, an androgynous institution,
which subsequently gave birth to the French
Lodges of Adoption, was not established
until 1776, long after the return of Hund to
;

his native country.

While he resided in Paris he received,

HUND

HUND

says Findel, some intimations of the existence of the Order of Knights Templars in
Scotland. The legend, which it is necessary
to say has been deemed fabulous, is given
to us by Clavel, (Hist. Pittor., 184,) who
tells us that, after the execution of Jacques
de Molay, Pierre d'Aumont, the Provincial
Grand Master of Auvergne, accompanied

on his estates at Kittlitz, near Loban, to

which he gave the name of the " Lodge of
the Three Pillars." At the same time he

by two Commanders and five Knights, escaped to Scotland, assuming during their
journey, for the purpose of concealment,
Having
the costume of Operative Masons.
landed on one of the Scottish Islands, they
met several other companions, Scottish
Knights, with whom they resolved to continue their existence of the Order, whose
abolition had been determined by the Pope
and the King of France. At a Chapter
held on St. John's day, 1313, Aumont was
elected Grand Master, and the Knights, to
avoid in future the persecutions to which
they had been subjected, professed to be
Freemasons, and adopted the symbols of
that Order. In 1361 the Grand Master
transported his see to the city of Aberdeen,
and from that time the Order of the Temple
spread, under the guise of Freemasonry,
throughout the British Islands and the
Continent.
The question is not now as to the truth
It
or even the probability of this legend.
is sufficient for our present purpose to say,
that the Baron Von Hund accepted it as a
He was admitted,
veritable historical fact.
at Paris, to the Order of Knights Templars,
Clavel says, by the Pretender, Charles
Edward, who was the Grand Master of the
Order. Of this we have no other evidence
than the rather doubtful authority of ClaRobison intimates that he was invel.
ducted by the Earl of Kilmarnock, whose
signature was attached to his diploma. G'adicke says that he travelled over Brabant
to the French army, and was there made a
Templar by high chiefs of the Order. And
this statement might be reconciled with
that of Robison, for the high chiefs (hohe
Obere) of G'adicke were possibly the followers of the Pretender, some of whom

353

built there a Protestant church, the cornerstone of which was laid by the brethren,

with the usual Masonic ceremonies.

I am compelled to suppose, from incidents in his life which subsequently occurred, that Hund must have visited Paris
a second time, and that he was there in the
year 1754. On the 24th of November in
that year, the Chevalier de Bonneville,
supported by some of the most distinguished
Masons of Paris, instituted a Chapter of
the High Degrees, which received the name
of the "Chapter of Clermont," and into
which he introduced the Templar system,
that is, the system which finds the origin
of Freemasonry in Templarism. In this

Chapter Baron

Von Hund, who was

then

in Paris, received the degrees of the Clermont system, and there, says Thory, he
learned the doctrine upon which he subsequently founded his new Rite of Strict ObThis doctrine was, that Freeservance.
masonry owes its existence to Knight Templarism, of which it is the natural successor;
and, therefore, that every Mason is a Templar, although not entitled to all the privileges of the Order until he has attained the

highest degree.

Von Hund returned to Germany possessed of powers, or a deputation granted

to him in Paris by which he was authorized to disseminate the high degrees in that
country. He was not slow to exhibit these
documents, and soon collected around him
a band of adherents. He then attempted
what he termed a reform in primitive Masonry or the simple English system of the
three symbolic degrees, which alone most
of the German Lodges recognized. The

result was the establishment of a new system, well known as the Rite of Strict Observance.
But here we again encounter the embarrassments of conflicting authorities.
The distinctive feature of the Rite of Strict
Observance was, that Freemasonry is the
were likely to have been with the French successor of Templarism the legend of Auarmy. The point is not, however, worth mont being unhesitatingly accepted as authe trouble of an investigation. Two things thentic. The author of Anti- Saint- Nicaise,
have been well settled, namely: That in the book already referred to, asserted that
1743 Von Hund was initiated as a Knight between the years 1730 and 1740 there was
Templar, and that at the same time he re- already in Lusatia a Chapter of Templar
ceived the appointment of a Provincial that he knew one, at least, who had been
Grand Master, with ample powers to pro- there initiated before the innovation of the
pagate the Order in Germany.
He re- Baron Von Hund and that the dignities
turned to his native country, but does not of Prior, Sub-prior, Prefect, and Comappear to have been very active at first as mander, which he professed to introduce
a missionary of Templarism, although he into Germany for the first time, had been
continued to exhibit his strong attachment known there at a long antecedent period.
to Ancient Craft Masonry.
In the year
Ragon also asserts that the Templar sys1749 he erected, at his own expense, a Lodge tem of Ramsay was known in Germany be;

2U

23

HUND

HUND

Chapter of Clermont, whence Von Hund derived his information and his powers that it consisted
of six degrees, to which Hund added a
seventh; and that at the time of Von

Hund, who had really selected Johnson as

his agent, to give greater strength to his
Rite. I am reluctant to admit the truth
of this charge, and am rather disposed to

ferred him.

ceived, and, discovering the true character

as well as the dangerous designs of Johnson, he proclaimed him to be an adventurer.
denied that Johnson had been
sent as a delegate from Scotland, and asserted anew that he alone was the Grand
Master of the Order in Germany, with the
power to confer the high degrees. Johnson,

354

fore the foundation of the

;

believe that the enthusiasm and credulity

Hund's arrival in Germany this regime of Von Hund had made him for a time the
had Baron Von Marshall as its head, to victim of Johnson's ostentatious pretenwhom Hund's superiors in Paris had re- sions. If this be so, he was soon unde-

This seems to be the correct version of

the affair and so the Rite of Strict Observance was not actually established, but only
reformed and put into more active opera;

tion,

by

One

Von Hund.

of the peculiarities of this Rite was,

that every member was called a Knight, or
Eques; the classical Latin for a Roman
knight being, by a strange inconsistency,
adopted by these professed Templars, instead of the Mediaeval word Miles, which
had been always appropriated to the military knights of chivalry. To this word was
appended another, and the title thus formed
was called the " characteristic name." Lists
of these characteristic names, and of the
persons whom they represented, are given
in all the registers and lists of the Rite.
Von Hund selected for himself the title of
Eques ab Ense, or Knight of the Sword;
and, to show the mixed military and IV^,sonic character of his regime, chose for his
seal a square and sword crossed, or, in
heraldic language, saltierwise.
Von Hund divided Europe into nine
provinces, and called himself the Grand
Master of the seventh province, which embraced Lower Saxony, Prussian Poland,
Livonia, and Courland. He succeeded in
getting the Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick
to place himself at the head of the Rite,
and secured its adoption by most of the
Lodges of Berlin and of other parts of
Prussia. After this he retired into comparative inactivity, and left the Lodges of
his Rite to take care of themselves.
But in 1763 he was aroused by the appearance of one Johnson on the Masonic

He

accused of abstracting the papers of a Lord

of Courland, in whose service he had been,
and of the forgery of documents, was arrested at Magdeburg through the influence
of Von Hund, on the further charges of
larceny and counterfeiting money, and died
in 1775 in prison.
Von Hund now renewed his activity as a
Mason, and assembled a Congress of the
Rite at Altenberg, where he was recognized
as Grand Master of the Templars, and augmented his strength by numerous important initiations. His reappearance among
the brethren exerted as much surprise as
joy, and its good effects were speedily seen
in a large increase of Chapters; and the
Rite of Strict Observance soon became the
predominating system in Germany.
But dissatisfaction began to appear as a
consequence of the high claims of the members of the Rite to the possession of supe-

The Knights looked haughupon the Masons who had been invested
only with the primitive degrees, and these
rior knowledge.

tily

were offended at the superciliousness with

which they were treated. A Mother Lodge

was established at Frankfort, which recognized and worked only the three degrees.
Other systems of high degrees also arose
rivals of the Rite, and Von Hund's
regime began to feel sensibly the effects of
this compound antagonism.
Hitherto the Rite of Strict Observance
had been cosmopolitan in its constitution,
admitting the believers in all creeds to its
bosom, and professing to revive only the
military and chivalric character of the ancient Templars, without any reference to

as

This man, whose real name was

Leucht, was a Jew, and had formerly been
the secretary of the Prince of AnhaltBernburg, under the assumed name of
Becker. But, changing his name again to
that of Johnson, he visited the city of Jena,
and proclaimed himself to the Masons
there as possessed of powers far more ex- their religious condition. But in 1767, Von
tensive than those of Von Hund, which Starck, the rector at Wismar, proposed to
he pretended to have received from " un- engraft upon the Rite a new branch, to be
known Superiors " at Aberdeen, Scotland, called the clerical system of Knights Temthe supposed seat of the Templar Order, plars. This was to be nominally spiritual
which had been revived by Aumont. Von in character and, while announcing that
Hund at first admitted the claims of John- it was in possession of secrets not known to
son, and recognized him as the Grand Prior the chivalric branch of the Order, demandof the Order.
Ragon says that this recog- ed, as preliminary to admission, that every
nition was a fraud on the part of Von candidate should be a Roman Catholic, and
stage.

HUND

HUTCHINSON

have previously received the degrees of the

devotion to Masonry deceived but enthusiastic

generous and kind in his disposition whose heart was better than his head
we may not entertain the profoundest
veneration but we cannot but feel an emoknow not how
tion of sympathy.
much the antagonism and contests of years,

Strict Observance.
Starck wrote to

355

Von Hund,

proposing a

fusion of the two branches and he, " because," to borrow the language of Findel,
" himself helpless and lacking expedients,
;

eagerly stretched out his hand to grasp the

offered assistance, and entered into connecHe even,
tion with the so-called clergy."
it is said, renounced Protestantism and became a Catholic, so as to qualify himself,
for admission.

We

final defeat and failure, may have embittered his days or destroyed his energy
but we do know that he ceased the warfare
of life while still there ought to have been

and

the promise of many years of strength and

In 1774, a Congress assembled at Kohlo, vigor.
the object of which was to reconcile the
Hungary. Masonry was introduced
difference between these two branches of into Hungary about the middle of the
the Rite. Here Von Hund appears to have eighteenth century. In 1760, a Lodge, acbeen divested of some portion of his dig- cording to Hund's Templar system, was
Smith says [Use
nities, for he was appointed only Provin- instituted at Presburg.
cial Superior of Upper and Lower Alsace, and Abuse, p. 219,) that there were several
of Denmark and of Courland, while the Lodges there in 1783, but none working
Most
Grand Mastership of the Rite was con- under the English Constitution.
ferred on Frederick, Duke of Brunswick.
probably they received their Warrants from
Another Congress was held in 1775, at Germany.
In 1870, there were seven
Brunswick, where Hund again appeared. Lodges in Hungary. On the 30th of JanHere Findel, who seems to have no friendly uary in that year these Lodges met in condisposition towards Von Hund, charges him vention at Pesth, and organized the Grand
with " indulgence in his love of outward Lodge of Hungary.
pomp and show," a charge that is not conHutchinson, William. Of all the
sistent with the character given him by Masonic writers of the last century there
other writers, who speak of his modesty of was no one who did more to elevate the
demeanor. The question of the Superiores spirit and character of the Institution than
Incogniti, or Unknown Superiors, from whom William Hutchinson of Barnard Castle, in
Von Hund professed to derive his powers, the county of Durham, England. To him
came under consideration.
His replies are we indebted for the first philosophical
were not satisfactory. He denied that he explanation of the symbolism of the Order,
was bound to give any explanations at all, and his Spirit of Masonry still remains a
and asserted that his oath precluded him priceless boon to the Masonic student.
from saying ariything more. Confidence
Hutchinson was born in 1732, and died
in him now declined, and the Rite to which April 7, 1814, at the ripe age of eighty-two
he was so much attached, and of which he years. He was by profession a solicitor;
had been the founder and the chief sup- but such was his literary industry, that aporter, began to lose its influence.
The very extensive practice did not preclude
clerical branch of the Rite seceded, and his devotion to more liberal studies.
He
formed an independent Order, and the published several works of fiction, which,
Lodges of Strict Observance thenceforward at the time, were favorably received. His
called themselves the "United German first contribution to literature was The
Hermitage, a British Story, which was pubWith his failure at Brunswick, the func- lished in 1772. This was followed, in 1773,
tions of Von Hund ceased.
He retired by a descriptive work, entitled An Excuraltogether from the field of Masonic labor, sion to the Lakes of Westmoreland and Cumand died, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, on berland. In 1775, he published The Doubtthe 8th of November, 1776, at Meiningen, ful Marriage, and in 1776 A Week in a Cot-

The members of the Lodge

Minerva, at Leipsic, struck a medal in commemoration of him, which contains on the
obverse an urn encircled by a serpent, the
symbol of immortality, and on the reverse
a likeness of him, which is said to be exceedingly accurate. A copy of it may be
found in the Taschenbuche der Freimaurerei,
and in the American Quarterly Review of
Freemasonry.
For this amiable enthusiast, as he certainly was
credulous but untiring in his
in Prussia.

tage,

the

and

Romance

Castle of Otranto.

after the

Fashion of

In 1778, he com-

as a dramatic writer, and besides

two tragedies, Pygmalion, King of Tyre and
The Tyrant of Onia, which were never acted,
he also wrote The. Princess of Zanfara, which
was successfully performed at several of the

menced

provincial theatres.

Hutchinson subsequently devoted himand became a

prominent member of the Royal Society of
Antiquaries. His labors in this direction
self to archaeological studies,

HUTCHINSON

HUTCHINSON

were such as to win for him from Nichols

title of " an industrious antiquary."
He published in 1776 A View of Northumberland, in two volumes in 1785, 1787, and
1794, three consecutive quarto volumes of
The History and Antiquities of the County
Palatinate of Durham and in 1794, in two

has elevated it from a convivial association,

such as it was in the beginning of the
eighteenth century, to that school of religious philosophy which it now is. To the
suggestions of Hutchinson, Hemming undoubtedly owed that noble definition, that
" Freemasonry was a science of morality

556

the

quarto volumes,

works which are

History of Cumberland,
still

referred to

by

schol-

ars as containing valuable information on

the subjects of which they treat, and are
an evidence of the learning and industry
of the author.
But it is as a Masonic writer that Hutchinson has acquired the most lasting reputation, and his labors as such have made his
name a household word in the Order. He
was for some years the Master of Barnard
Castle Lodge, where he sought to instruct
the members by the composition and delivery of a series of Lectures and Charges,
which were so far superior to those then in
use as to attract crowds of visitors from
neighboring Lodges to hear him and to
profit by his instructions.
Some of these
were from time to time printed, and won so
much admiration from the Craft that he was
requested to make a selection, and publish
them in a permanent form.
Accordingly, he applied in 1774, for permission to publish, to the Grand Lodge,
which then assumed to be a rigid censor of
the Masonic press,
and, having obtained
it, he gave to the Masonic world the first
edition of his now celebrated treatise entitled, The Spirit of Masonry, in Moral and
Elucidatory Lectures; but the latter part of
the title was omitted in all the subsequent
editions.
The sanction for its publication,
prefixed to the first edition, has an almost
supercilious sound, when we compare the
reputation of the work
which at once
created a revolution in Masonic literature
with that of those who gave the sanction,
and whose names are preserved only by the
official titles which were affixed to them.
The sanction is in these words
" Whereas, Brother William Hutchinson
has compiled a book, entitled The Spirit of
Masonry, and has requested our sanction
for the publication thereof; we, having
perused the said book and finding it will be
of use to this Society, do recommend the
same." This is signed by the Grand Master and his Deputy, by the Grand Wardens,
and the Grand Treasurer and Secretary.

But their judgment, though tamely expressed, was not amiss.

centurv has
since shown that the book of Hutchinson
has really been " of use to the Society." It

opened new thoughts on the symbolism

and philosophy of Masonry, which, worked
out by subsequent writers, have given to
Masonry the high rank it now holds, and

veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols."

The first edition of The Spirit of Masonry was published in 1775, the second in
1795, the third in 1802, the fourth in 1813,
the fifth in 1814, and the sixth in 1815, all
except the last in the lifetime of the author.
Several subsequent editions have
been published both in this country and in
Great Britain. In 1780 it was translated
into German, and published at Berlin under the title of Her Geist der Freimaurerei,
in moralischen und erlduternden Vortragen.
Of this great work the Craft never appear
It was reto have had but one opinion.

ceived on its first appearance with enthusiasm, and its popularity among Masonic
scholars has never decreased. Dr. Oliver
says of it " It was the first efficient attempt
to explain, in a rational and scientific manDr.
ner, the true philosophy of the Order.
Anderson and the writer of the Gloucester
sermon indicated the mine, Calcott opened
:

and Hutchinson worked it. In this

book he gives to the science its proper value.
After explaining his design, he enters copiously on the rites, ceremonies, and instituThen he dilates
tions of ancient nations.
on the Lodge, with its ornaments, furniture,
and jewels; the building of the Temple;
geometry and after explaining the third
degree with a minuteness which is highly
gratifying, he expatiates on secrecy, charand sets at rest all
ity, and brotherly love
the vague conjectures of cowans and unbelievers, by a description of the occupations
of Masons and a masterly defence of our
peculiar rites and ceremonies."
The peculiar theory of Hutchinson in
reference to the symbolic design of Masonry is set forth more particularly in his ninth
it,

lecture, entitled "

The Master Mason's Or-

lost word
was typical of the lost religious purity,
which had been occasioned by the corrupThe piety which
tions of the Jewish faith.
had planted the Temple at Jerusalem had
been expunged, and the reverence and
adoration due to God had been buried in
the filth and rubbish of the world, so that
" that the guide to
it might well be said
heaven was lost, and the master of the
works of righteousness was smitten." In
the same way he extends the symbolism.
" True religion," he says, " was fled. Those
who sought her through the wisdom of
the ancients were not able to raise her,

der."

His doctrine was that the

HUTCHINSON

IATRIC

357

She eluded the grasp, and their polluted contemporaries. Still, in his enlarged and
hands were stretched forth in vain for her elevated views of the symbolism and philoThose who sought her by the sophy of Masonry as a great moral and
restoration.
old law were frustrated, for death had step- religious science, he was immeasurably in
ped between, and corruption defiled the advance of his age.
In his private life, Hutchinson was greatly
embrace."
Hence the Hutchinsonian theory is, that respected for his cultivated mind and extenthe third degree of Masonry symbolizes the
new law of Christ, taking the place of
the old law of Judaism, which had become
dead and corrupt. With him, Hiram or
Huram is only the Greek huramen, "we
have found it," and Acacia, from the same
Greek, signifies freedom from sin; and
" thus the Master Mason represents a man,
under the Christian doctrine, saved from
the grave of iniquity and raised to the faith
of salvation."
Some of Hutchinson's etymologies are
unquestionably inadmissible; as, when he
derives Tubal Cain from a corruption of the
Greek, tumbon choeo, "I prepare my sepulchre," and when he translates the substitute
word as meaning " I ardently wish for life."
But fanciful etymologies are the besetting
sin of all antiquaries.
So his theory of
the exclusive Christian application of the
third degree will not be received as the
dogma of the present day. But such was
the universally recognized theory of all his

sive literary acquirements, while the suavity

of his manners and the generosity of his
disposition secured the admiration of all

He had been long married

an estimable woman, whose death was
followed in only two days by his own,
and they were both interred in the same
who knew him.

to

grave.

Hutte.

A word equivalent among the

Stone-masons of Germany, in the Middle

Ages, to the English word Lodge. Findel
defines it as "a booth made of boards,
erected near the edifice that was being
built, where the stone-cutters kept their
tools, carried on their work, assembled, and
most probably occasionally eat and slept."
These hutten accord exactly with the
Lodges which Wren describes as having
been erected by the English Masons around
the edifice they were constructing.
Huzza. The acclamation in the Scottish Bite.
In the old French rituals it is
generally written Hoschea.

I
I. A. A. T.
Reghellini
that the Bose Croix Masons of Germany
and Italy always wear a ring of gold or
silver, on which are engraved these letters,
the initials of Ignis, Aer, Aqua, Terra, in
allusion to the Egyptian mystical doctrine
of the generation, destruction, and regeneration of all things by the four elements,
fire, air, water, and earth ; which doctrine
passed over from the Egyptians to the
Greeks, and was taught in the philosophy
of Empedocles.
But these Bose Croix
Masons, I think, must have borrowed their
doctrine from the Gnostics.
(i.

Am that

Am.

29,) says

The name which

Grand Architect directed Moses to use,

(Exod. iii. 14,) that he might identify
himself to the Israelites as the messenger
sent to them by God. It is one of the
modifications of the Tetragrammaton, and

the York, American, and several other

Rites. The^ original Hebrew words are actually in the future tense, and grammatically mean I will be what 1 will be; but all
the versions give a present signification.
Thus, the Vulgate has it, I am who am; the
Septuagint, I am he who exists; and the
Arabic paraphrase, / am the Eternal who
passes not away. The expression seems intended to point out the eternity and selfexistence of God, and such is the sense in
which it is used in Masonry. See Eheyeh
asher eheyeh.

latric

Masonry. From

art of medicine.

'larpm?),

the

Bagon, in his Orthodoxie

450,) says that this system

the

Magonnique,

as such, in its Hebrew

was instituted in the eighteenth century,

and that its adepts were occupied in the
search for the universal medicine. It must
therefore have been a Hermetic Bite. Bagon knew very little of it, and mentions

(TH^

form of HJ>N
eheyeh asher eheyeh, (the e pronounced like a in fate,) has been adopted
as a significant word in the high degrees of

rrn^,

(p.

only one degree, called the " Oracle of Cos."

island of Cos was the birthplace of
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, and

The

IDIOT

ILLINOIS

him the degree is dedicated. The Order

or Rite has, I suppose, no longer an existence.
Idiot. Idiocy is one of the mental disqualifications for initiation. This does not,
however, include a mere dulness of intellect and indocility of apprehension. These

Lodges met in convention and organized

358
to

amount only to stupidity, and " the judgment of the heavy or stupid man," as Dr.
Good has correctly remarked, " is often as
sound in itself as that of the man of more
capacious comprehension." The idiot is
defined by Blackstone as " one that hath
had no understanding from his nativity;
and therefore is by law presumed never
likely to attain any." A being thus menincompetent to observe
the obligations or to appreciate the instrucIt is true that the
tions of Freemasonry.
word does not occur in any of the old Constitutions, but from their general tenor it is
evident that idiots were excluded, because
"cunning," or knowledge and skill, are
tally imperfect is

everywhere deemed essential qualifications

of a Mason. But the ritual law is explicit

on the

subject.

The worship paid to any

created object. It was in some one of its
forms the religion of the entire ancient
world except the Jews. The forms of idolatry are generally reckoned as four in number.
1. Fetichism, the lowest form, consisting in the worship of animals, trees,

Idolatry.

mountains, and stones. 2. Sabianism or Sabaism, the worship of the sun,

moon, and stars. 3. Sintooism, or the worrivers,

ship of deceased ancestors or the leaders

of a nation. 4. Idealism, or the worship
Oliof abstractions or mental qualities.
ver and his school have propounded the
theory that among the idolatrous nations
of antiquity, who were, of course, the descendants, in common with the monotheistic Jews, of Noah, there were the remains
of certain legends and religious truths
which they had received from their common ancestor, but which had been greatly
distorted and perverted in the system which
they practised. This system, taught in the
Ancient Mysteries, he called " the Spurious
Freemasonry" of antiquity.
Iconology. The science which teaches
the doctrine of images and symbolic representations.
It is a science collateral with
Masonry, and is of great importance to the
Masonic student, because it is engaged in
the consideration of the meaning and history of the symbols which constitute so
material a part of the Masonic system.
Idaho. One of the United States very
In 1867 there were four
recently settled.
Lodges in what was then the Territory,
three chartered by the Grand Lodge of Oregon, and one by the Grand Lodge of WashIn that year these
ington Territory.

Grand Lodge of Idaho. The Grand

Lodge is migratory, holding its sessions on
the
the

first

as may
sion.

Monday in October, at such place

be determined at the previous ses-

Igne Efatura Renovatur InteBy fire, nature is

b. N.\ B.\ I.:
Ignorance. The

gra.

perfectly renewed.

See

ignorant Freemaa drone and an incumbrance in the

Order. He who does not study the nature,
the design, the history, and character of the
Institution, but from the hour of his initiation neither gives nor receives any ideas
that could not be shared by a profane, is of
no more advantage to Masonry than Masonry is to him. The true Mason seeks
light that darkness may be dispelled, and
knowledge that ignorance may be removed.
The ignorant aspirant, no matter how
.loudly he may have asked for light, is still
a blind groper in the dark.
Ili-IIo. The Kabbalistic mode of reading Ho-hi, one of the forms of the Tetragrammaton. See Ho-Hi.
I. H. S. A monogram, to which various meanings have been attached. Thus,
these letters have been supposed to be the
initials of In hoc signo, words which surrounded the cross seen by Constantine.

son

is

But that inscription was

in

Greek and be;

even in a Latin translation, the letter

V, for vinces, would be required to complete
it. The Church has generally accepted the
sides,

monogram as containing the initials of

Jesus Hominum Salvator, Jesus the Saviour
of Men; a sense in which it has been
adopted by the Jesuits, who have taken it
1"

in this form, I. H. S., as the badge of their

society.
So, too, it is interpreted by the

Masonic Templars, on whose banners

it

A later interpretation is

advocated by the Cambridge Camden Society in a work published by them on the

In this work they contend that
subject.
often appears.

monogram

is of Greek origin, and is

three letters of the Greek name,
IH20Y2, Jesus. But the second of these
interpretations is the one most generally
received
Ijar. *yJ$. The eighth month of
the Hebrew civil year. It corresponds to
a part of the months of April and May.

the
the

first

Illinois.

The

first

Grand Lodge

es-

tablished in this State was in the year 1822

but this body yielded in a few years to the
storm of anti-Masonry which swept over
the country, and ceased to exist. Subsequently, Lodges were chartered by the
Grand Lodges of Kentucky and other jurisdictions, and on the 20th January, 1840, a
convention of six Lodges was held in the
pity of Jackson, which organized the Grand

:
:

ILLITERACY

ILLUMINATI

Lodge of Illinois. The seat of the Grand

Lodge is Springfield. A Grand Chapter,
Grand Council, and Grand Commandery

but he subsequently gave it the

it is now universally known.
Its professed object was, by the mutual assistance of its members, to attain the highest
possible degree of morality and virtue, and
to lay the foundation for the reformation
of the world by the association of good men
to oppose the progress of moral evil.
To
give to the Order a higher influence, Weishaupt connected it with the Masonic institution, after whose system of degrees, of
esoteric instruction, and of secret modes of
recognition, it was organized. It has thus

were subsequently established.

Illiteracy.

The word

illiteracy, as

signifying an ignorance of letters, an incapability to read and write, suggests the inquiry whether illiterate persons are qualified to

be made Masons.

There can be no

doubt, from historic evidence, that at the

period when the Institution was operative
in its character, the members for the most
that is, the great mass of the Frapart
were unable to read or write. At
ternity
a time when even kings made at the foot
of documents the sign of the cross, "pro
ignorantia literarum," because they could
not write their names, it could hardly be
expected that an Operative Mason should
be gifted with a greater share of education
than his sovereign. But the change of the
society from Operative to Speculative gave
to it an intellectual elevation, and the philosophy and science of symbolism which

was then introduced could hardly be understood by one who had no preliminary eduAccordingly, the provision in all
Lodges, that initiation must be preceded
by a written petition, would seem to indicate that no one is expected or desired to
apply for initiation unless he can comply
with that regulation, by writing, or at
The Grand
least signing, such a petition.
Lodge of England does not leave this principle to be settled by implication, but in
express words requires that a candidate
cation.

fectibilists

name by which

become confounded by

and a

liberal

been a Jesuit

in politics, had originally

and he employed, therefore,

in the construction of his association, the

shrewdness and subtlety which distinguished the disciples of Loyola and having been
initiated in 1777 in a Lodge at Munich, he
also borrowed for its use the mystical or;

ganization which was peculiar to Freemasonry.

In this latter task he was greatly
assisted by the Baron Von Knigge, a zealous and well- instructed Mason, who joined
the Illuminati in 1780, and soon became a
leader, dividing with Weishaupt the control and direction of the Order.
In its internal organization the Order of
Illuminati was divided into three great

namely, 1. The Nursery 2. SymFreemasonry and 3. The Mysteries

each of which was subdivided into several
classes,

bolic

degrees, making ten in

ing table

sign his name.

visions,

Illuminated Theosophists.

modification of the system of Pernetty instituted at Paris by Benedict Chastanier,

who subsequently succeeded in introducing
it into London.
It consisted of nine degrees, for an account of which see Chastanier.

Illuminati.

This

is

I.

all,

as in the follow-

Nursery.

1.

2.
3.

secret

founded on May 1, 1776, by Adam

Weishaupt, who was professor of canon law
society,

at the University of Ingoldstadt. Its founder at first called it the Order of the Per-

it

began

Novice.
Minerval.
Illuminatus Minor.

II.

The

Symbolic Freemasonry.
three degrees were communi-

first

cated without any exact respect to the diand then the candidate proceeded
4.

Illuminatus Major, or Scottish Nov-

5.

Illuminatus Dirigens, or
Knight.

ice.

III.

Scottish

The Mysteries.

This class was subdivided into the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries.

The Lesser Mysteries were

Freemasons.

Illumiiiati of Bavaria.

After a ceremony of preparation

a Latin word,

signifying the enlightened, and hence often

applied in Latin diplomas as an epithet of

superficial writers

with Freemasonry, although it never could

be considered as properly a Masonic Rite.
Weishaupt, though a reformer in religion

know how to write, by inserting in its

Constitution the provision that a candidate,
" previous to his initiation, must subscribe
his name at full length to a declaration."
The official commentary on this, in an accompanying note, is, that " any individual
who cannot write is consequently ineligible
to be initiated into the Order," and this is
now the very generally accepted law. The
ne varietur in Masonic diplomas, which follows the signature in the margin, indicates
that the holder is required to know how to

shall

359

6.
7.

Presbyter, Priest, or Epopt.

Prince, or Regent.

The Greater Mysteries were

8.
9.

Magus.
Rex, or King.

ILLUMINATI

IMMANUEL

Any one otherwise qualified could be

received into the degree of Novice at the
age of eighteen and after a probation of
not less than a year he was admitted to the
second and third degrees, and so on to the
higher degrees though but few reached the
ninth and tenth degrees, in which the inmost secret designs of the Order were contained, and, in fact, it is said that these
last degrees were never thoroughly worked
up.
The Illuminati selected for themselves
Order names, which were always of a classical character. Thus, Weishaupt called himself Spartacus, Knigge was Philo, and
Zwack, another leader, was known as Cato.

enemies, and waged war so successfully

against it, that on June 22, 1784, the Elector of Bavaria issued an edict for its suppression.
Many of its members were fined
or imprisoned, and some, among whom
was Weishaupt, were compelled to flee the
country. The edicts of the Elector of Bavaria were repeated in March and August,
1785, and the Order began to decline, so
that by the end of the last century it had
ceased to exist. Adopting Masonry only
as a means of its own more successful
propagation, and using it only as incidental to its own organization, it exercised
while in prosperity no favorable influence
on the Masonic institution, nor any unfavorable effect on it by its dissolution.
Illuminati of Avignon. See Avignon.

360

They gave

also fictitious

names

to coun-

Ingoldstadt, where the Order originated, was called Eleusis; Austria was
Egypt, in reference to the Egyptian darkness
of that kingdom, which excluded all Ma-

tries.

sonry from its territories; Munich was

called Athens, and Vienna was Eome. The
Order had also its calendar, and the months
were designated by peculiar names; as,
Dimeh for January, and Bemeh for February.
They had also a cipher, in which
the official correspondence of the members
was conducted. The character
now so
much used by Masons to represent a Lodge,
was invented and first used by the Illumi,

nati.

The Order was at first very popular, and

enrolled no less than two thousand names
upon

its registers,

among whom were some

of the most distinguished men of Germany.

It extended rapidly into other countries,
and its Lodges were to be found in France,

Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Po-

Hungary, and

land,

Italy.

The

original design of Illuminism was

undoubtedly the elevation of the human

Knigge, who was one of its most

prominent working members, and the author of several of its degrees, was a religious
man, and would never have united with it
had its object been, as has been charged, to
abolish Christianity. But it cannot be denied, that in process of time abuses had
crept into the Institution, and that by the
influence of unworthy men the system berace.

came corrupted

yet the coarse accusations

of such writers as Barruel and Robison

are known to be exaggerated, and some of
them altogether false. The ConversationsLexicon, for instance, declares that the
society had no influence whatever on the
French Revolution, which is charged upon
it by these as well as other writers.
But Illuminism came directly and professedly in conflict with the Jesuits and
with the Roman Church, whose tendencies
were to repress the freedom of thought.
The priests became, therefore, its active

An

Illuminati of Stockholm.
known

mentioned by Ragon in his Catalogue as having been instiOrder but

little

tuted for the propagation of Martinism.

Illuminism. The system or Rite
practised by the German Illuminati is so
called.

Illustrious.

title

given

in the

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite to

those

who

possess
thirty-third degree.

all

the thirty-second or

Illustrious Elect of the Fifteen.

The title now generally given to the Elect
of Fifteen, which see.

Imitative Societies.

title

some-

times given to those secret societies which,

imitating the general organization of Free-

masonry,

differ

from

entirely in their

it

character and object. Such, in the last

century, when at one time they abounded,
were the Bucks, the Sawyers, the Gormogons, and the Gregorians and, in the present century, the Odd Fellows, the Good
Templars, and the Knights of Pythias.
Most of them imitate the Masons in their
external appearance, such as the wearing
of aprons, collars, and jewels, and in calling
their places of meeting, by a strange misnomer, Lodges. But in these points is their
only resemblance to the original Institu;

tion.

Immanuel. A
"God with

Hebrew word

signi-

from "Oft^, immanu,

" with us," and Sx, el, " God."
It was the
symbolical name given by the prophet Isaiah to the child who was announced to
Ahaz and the people of Judah as the sign
which God would give of their deliverance
from their enemies, and afterwards applied
by the Apostle Matthew to the Messiah
born of the Virgin. As one of the appellations of Christ, it has been adopted as a
significant word in modern Templarism,
where, however, the form of Emanuel is
most usually employed.
fying

us,"

IMMORTALITY

IMPOSTORS

Immortality of the Soul. Very

wisely has Max Muller said, [Chips, i. 45,)
that " without a belief in personal immortality, religion is surely like an arch resting
on one pillar, like a bridge ending in an
abyss " and he cites passages from the
Vedas to show that to the ancient Brahmans the idea was a familiar one. Indeed,
almost all the nations of the earth with
whose religious faith we are acquainted
recognize the dogma, although sometimes
in vague and, perhaps, materialistic forms.
It was the professed teaching of the Ancient Mysteries, where, in the concluding
rites of their initiation, the restoration of
the hero of their legend was a symbol of
the immortal life. So, too, the same doctrine is taught by a similar legendary and
symbolic method in the third degree of
;

Masonry.
Archdeacon Mant thus describes the

dif-

ferences, in the teaching of this doctrine of

immortality, between what he calls, after
the school of Oliver, the spurious and the
true Freemasonry
" Whereas the heathens had taught this
doctrine only by the application of a fable
to their purpose, the wisdom of the pious
Grand Master of the Israe^itish Masons
took advantage of a real circumstance,
which would more forcibly impress the
sublime truths he intended to inculcate

upon the minds of

all

brethren."

be doubted by some of our modern

sceptics whether the Hiramic myth is entiIt will

more authenticity

as an historic
narrative than the Osiric or the Dionysian ; but it will not be denied that, while

tled to

taught the same dogma of immorthe method of teaching by symbolism

was in all the same.
Jewels. See Jewels of
a Lodge.
Implements. The Operative Freemasons of the Middle Ages gave to certain
of their implements
the most important
of which were the square, the compasses,
the stone-hammer, or gavel, and the footrule
a special symbolic meaning. When
the Operative Institution was merged in the
Speculative, the custom of thus spiritualizing, as it was called, these implements
was continued but the system of symbolic
instruction has been so greatly enlarged
and improved as to constitute, in fact, the
characteristic feature of modern Freemasonry, a feature which widely distinguishes
it from all other societies, whether secret or
open. Thus, the twenty-four inch gauge
and gavel are bestowed upon the Entered
Apprentice because these are the implements used in the quarries in hewing the
stones and fitting them for the builder's use,
an occupation which, for its simplicity, is

they

all

tality,

Immovable

361

properly suited to the unskilled apprentice.

The square, level, and plumb are employed
in the still further preparation of these
stones and in adjusting them to their proper
positions.
This is the labor of the craftsmen, and hence to the Fellow Craft are
they presented. But the work is not completed until the stones thus adjusted have
been accurately examined by the master
workman, and permanently secured in their
places by cement. This is accomplished
by the trowel, and hence this implement is
intrusted to the Master Mason.
Thus, the
tools attached to each degree admonish the
Mason, as an Apprentice, to prepare his
mind for the reception of the great truths
which are hereafter to be unfolded to him
as a Fellow Craft, to mark their importance
and adapt them to their proper uses and
as a Master, to adorn their beauty by the
practice of brotherly love and kindness, the
cement that binds all Masons in one com;

mon

fraternity.

There

no doubt,

as Findel says, [Hist.,

stone-masons were not the
first who symbolized the implements of
their craft.
But they had reason, above all
other gilds, for investing them with a far
higher worth, and associating them with a
spiritual meaning, on account of the sacred
calling to which they were devoted. By
the erection of churches, the Master Mason
not only perpetuated his own name, but assisted in giving glory to God, in spreading
is

68,) that the

the knowledge of Christianity, and in

stimulating to the practice of the Christian
And hence the church-building
virtues.
Masons naturally gave a more sacred signification in their symbolism to the implements employed in such holy purposes.
And thus it was that they transmitted to
their successors, the Speculative Masons,
the same sacred interpretation of their
symbols. Modern Freemasonry has been
derived from an association of church
architects, and this accounts for the religious character of its symbolism. Had it
been the offspring of the Templars, as
Ramsay contends, its symbolism would

have been undoubtedly military, somewhat

like that employed by St. Paul in hio
epistle to the Ephesians.

Impostors. Impostors in Masonry

may be either profanes who, never having
initiated, yet endeavor to pass themselves for regular Freemasons, or Masons

been

who, having been expelled or suspended

from the Order, seek to conceal the fact and
still

claim the privileges of members in

false pretensions of

good standing. The

the former class are

easily detected, because their real ignorance must after a

proper trial become apparent. The latter
class, having once been invested with the

;;

362

INCORPORATION

proper instructions, can stand the test of an

examination and their true position must
be discovered only by information derived
from the Lodges which have suspended or
expelled them. The Tiler's oath is intended to meet each of these cases, because
it requires every strange visitor to declare
that he has been lawfully initiated, and

incomplete, because they do not possess all

the rights and prerogatives that belong to
a Lodge working under the Warrant of
constitution of a Grand Lodge. The same
term is applied to Chapters which work
under the dispensation of a Grand High

But .perjury

grammaton, so called because it was not

common to, and could not be bestowed"
upon, nor shared by, any other being. It
was proper to the true God alone. Thus
Drusius (Tetragrammaton, sive de Nomine
Dei proprio, p. 108,) says, "Nomen quatuor
literarum proprie et absolute non tribui

that he

is

in

good standing.

added to imposture will easily escape this

test.
Hence the necessity for the utmost
caution, and therefore the Charges of 1722
say, "You are cautiously to examine- a
strange brother in such a method as prudence shall direct you, that you may
not be imposed on by an ignorant, false,
pretender, whom you are to reject with contempt and derision, and beware of giving
him any hints of knowledge." The Masonic rule is, that it is better that ninety
and nine true brethren be rejected than
that one impostor be admitted.
In Activity. When a Lodge is performing all its duties and functions, and is
regularly represented in the Grand Lodge,
it is said to be in activity, in contradistinction to a Lodge which has ceased to work
or hold communications, which is said to
be dormant.
word applied by
Inauguration.
the ancient Romans to the ceremony by
which, after the augurs had been consulted,
some thing or person was solemnly consecrated.
The consecration of a Master of a
Lodge to his office, which is equivalent to
the ancient inauguration of a priest or
king, is in Masonic language called an In-

stallation,

which

Incense.

see.

The use of incense

as a
part of the divine worship was common to
all the nations of antiquity.
Among the
Hebrews, the Egyptians, and the Hindus it
seems to have been used for no other purposes ; but the Persians burnt it also before
the king. The Roman Catholic Church has
borrowed the usage from the ancients and
the burning of incense in certain sacred
rites is also practised in Masonry, especially
in the high degrees.
In Scripture, incense
is continually spoken of, both in the Old
and the New Testaments, as a symbol of
prayer. Thus the Psalmist says, (cxli. 2,)
" Let my prayer be set before thee as incense."
It has in Masonry a similar signification
and hence the pot of incense has
been adopted as a symbol in the third degree, typifying the pure heartfrom which
prayers and aspirations arise, as incense
does from the pot or incensorium, as an
acceptable sacrifice to the Deity.
Inchoate Lodges. From the Latin,
inchoatus, unfinished, incomplete.
Lodges
working under the dispensation of the
Grand Master are said to be " inchoate " or
;

Priest.

See Lodges under Dispensation.

Incommunicable.

nisi

Deo

vero.

Unde

The

Tetra-

doctores catholici di-

cunt incommunicabile [not common]

esse

creaturae."

That is: "The name of four letters,

which is not to be attributed, properly and
absolutely, except to the true God. Whence
the Catholic doctors say that it is incommunicable, not common to or to be shared
by any creature." Oliver, in his Symbolic
Dictionary, commits a curious blunder in
supposing that the Incommunicable Name
is the Name not to be communicated to or
pronounced by any one; thus incorrectly
confounding $ie words incommunicable and
Although the two epithets are
ineffable.
applied to the same name, yet the qualities
of incommunicability and ineffability are
very different.
Incorporation. By an act of incorporation, the supreme legislature of a
country creates a corporation or body politic, which is defined by Mr. Kyd ( Corp., i.
13,) to be " a collection of many individuals
united in one body, under a special denomination, having perpetual succession under
an artificial form, and vested by the policy
of the law with a capacity of acting in several
respects as an individual, particularly of
taking and granting property, contracting
obligations, and of suing and being sued
of enjoying privileges and immunities in
common, and of exercising a variety of political rights."

Some Grand Lodges in this

country are incorporated by act of the Gen-

Assembly of their respective States

others are not, arid these generally hold
their property through Trustees. In 1768,
an effort was made in the Grand Lodge of
England to petition Parliament for incorporation, and after many discussions the
question was submitted to the Lodges; a
large majority of whom having agreed to
the measure, a bill was introduced in Parliament by the Deputy Grand Master, but,
being approved on its second reading, at
the request of several of the Fraternity,
who had petitioned the House against it,
it was withdrawn by the mover, and thus
the design of an incorporation fell to the
eral

INDEFEASIBLE

INDUCTOR

ground. Perhaps the best system of Masonic, incorporation in existence is that of

the Grand Lodge of South Carolina. There
the act, by which the Grand Lodge was incorporated, in 1817, delegates to that body
the power of incorporating its subordinates so that a Lodge, whenever it receives
from the Grand Lodge a Warrant of constitution, acquires thereby at once all the
rights of a corporate body, which it ceases
to exercise whenever the said Warrant is
revoked by the Grand Lodge.
Objections have been made to the incorporation of Lodges in consequence of some
of the legal results which would follow.
An incorporated Lodge becomes subject to
the surveillance of the courts of law, from
which an unincorporated Lodge is exempt.
Thus, a Mason expelled by an unincorporated Lodge must look for his redress to the
Grand Lodge alone. But if the Lodge be
incorporated, he may apply to the courts
for a restoration of his franchise as a member.
Masonic discipline would thus be

Hutchinson's List of Lodges we find the

next established at Madras in 1752 a third
and a fourth at Calat Bombay in 1757
From that time Masonry
cutta in 1761.
made rapid progress in India, and in 1779
there was scarcely a town of importance

seriously affected. The objection to incoris, I think, founded on good reasons.

poration

Indefeasible.

Unavoidable, that

which cannot be voided or taken away.

The word is thus used in the second of
the Charges of 1722, where, speaking of a
brother who has been guilty of treason or
rebellion, it is said that he cannot for this
cause be expelled from the Lodge, and that
" his relation to it remains indefeasible." It
a law term, which is usually applied to
estate or right which cannot be defeated.
Indelibility. The indelibility of the
Masonic character, as expressed in the
often repeated maxim, "once a Mason,
always a Mason," is universally admitted.
That is to say, no voluntary or even forced
withdrawal from the Order can cancel certain obligations which have been contracted,
and place the person withdrawing in precisely the same relative position towards
the Institution that he had occupied before
is

an

his initiation.

Indented Tarsel. In the old rituals

these words were used for what is now called
the tessellated border. See Tarsel.
Indented Tessel. The

ornamented

border which surrounds the Mosaic pavement. See Tessellated Border.

India. In 1728, Lord Kingston, Grand
Master of England, granted a Deputation
to George Pomfret, Esq., for Bengal, in the
East Indies, but no action seems to have
been taken, under that authority, until
1740, in which year the Lodge Star in the
East, No. 70 on the English Begister, was
established at Calcutta; and this may therefore be considered as the era of the introduction of Freemasonry into India. In

363

Hindustan in which there was not a

in

Lodge.

The

dissensions of the Ancients

and the Moderns, which commenced in

England in 1738, unhappily spread to India, and an Ancient York Lodge was established on the coast of Coromandel.
This
subsequently voluntarily surrendered

its

Warrant, and all differences were reconciled

by the establishment of a ProvinGrand Lodge, of which Brigadier-General Home was appointed Provincial Grand
Master by the Duke of Cumberland. Templarism and Boyal Arch Masonry were subsequently introduced, and Lodges, Chapters, and Commanderies are now in successin 1787,
cial

ful operation.

Indiana. Freemasonry was introduced into the State of Indiana in 1807,

by the establishment of Vincennes Lodge,
No. 15, at Vincennes, under a Warrant
granted by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky.
Five other Lodges were subsequently chartered by the same authority.
On Dec. 3,
1817, a convention assembled at Corydon,
at which were present the representatives
of six chartered Lodges, and two under dispensation from Kentucky, and one under
dispensation from Ohio. The convention,
having taken the preliminary steps, adjourned to meet at Madison on Jan. 12,
1818, on which day the Grand Lodge was
organized.

The Grand Chapter was established in

the Grand Commandery on May 16,
1854, and the Grand Council of Boyal and
1845

Select Masters on Dec. 11, 1855.

Indifferent^.

secret society of
established in Paris, in
1738, in imitation of Freemasonry. The
object of the society was to protect its
members from the influence of love, and
hence it wore, as an appropriate device, a
jewel representing an icicle.

men and women

Indnetion.

1. The Master of a
Lodge, when installed into office, is said to
be inducted into the Oriental Chair of King
Solomon. The same term is applied to
the reception of a candidate into the Past
Master's degree. The word is derived from
the language of the law, where the giving a
clerk or parson possession of his benefice is
called his induction.
2. Induction is also
used to signify initiation into the degree
called Thrice Illustrious Order of the

Cross.

Induetor. The Senior and Junior

Inductors are officers in a Council of the
Thrice Illustrious Order of the Cross, cor-

364

INDUSTKY

INHERENT

responding to the Senior and Junior Dea-

the information, the one receiving it, and

the one of whom it is given, should all be
virtue inculcated present at the same time, for otherwise
amongst Masons, because by it they are there would be no certainty of identity.
enabled not only to support themselves The information must be positive, not
and families, but to contribute to the re- founded on belief or opinion, but derived
"All. from a legitimate source. And, lastly, it
lief of worthy distressed brethren.
Masons," say the Charges of 1722, " shall must not have been received casually, but
work honestly on working days that they for the very purpose of being used for
may live creditably on holy days." The Masonic purposes. For one to say to anMasonic symbol of industry is the beehive, other, in the course of a desultory conversation, " A. B. is a Mason," is not sufficient.
which is used in the third degree.
Ineffable Degrees. From the Latin He may not be speaking with due caution,
word, ineffabilis, that which cannot or ought under the expectation that his words will
not to be spoken or expressed. The de- be considered of weight. He must say
grees from the fourth to the fourteenth something to this effect " I know this man
inclusive of the Ancient and Accepted Scot- to be a Master Mason, for such or such
tish Eite, and are so called because they reasons, and you may safely recognize him
are principally engaged in the investigation as such." This alone will ensure the necesand contemplation of the Ineffable name.
sary care and proper observance of pruIt was forbidden dence.
Ineffable
to the Jews to pronounce the TetragrammaInherent Rights of a
ton or sacred name of God ; a reverential Master. This has been a subject of ferusage which is also observed in Masonry. tile discussion among Masonic jurists, alHence the Tetragrammaton is called the though only a few have thought proper to
Ineffable Name. As in Masonry, so in all deny the existence of such rights. Upon
the secret societies of antiquity, much mys- the theory which, however recently contery has been attached to the Divine Name, troverted, has very generally been recogwhich it was considered unlawful to pro- nized, that Grand Masters existed before
nounce, and for which some other word Grand Lodges were organized, it must be
was substituted. Adonai was among the evident that the rights of a Grand Master
Hebrews the substitute for the Tetragram- are of two kinds
those, namely, which
maton.
he derives from the Constitution of a Grand
o are and who are not Lodge of which he has been made the preIneligible.
ineligible for initiation into the mysteries siding officer, and those which exist in the
of Freemasonry is treated of under the office independent of any Constitution, behead of Qualifications, which see.
cause they are derived from the landmarks
Information, Lawful. One of the and ancient usages of the Craft. The rights
modes of recognizing a stranger as a true and prerogatives which depend on and arc
"
brother, is from the " lawful information
prescribed by the Constitution may be
of a third party. No Mason can lawfully modified or rescinded by that instrument.
give information of another's qualifications They differ in different jurisdictions, beunless he has actually tested him by the cause one Grand Lodge may confer more
strictest trial and examination, or knows or less power upon its presiding officer than
that it has been done by another. But it another ; and they differ at different times,
is not every Mason who is competent to give because the Constitution of every Grand
"lawful information." Ignorant and un- Lodge is subject, in regard to its internal
skilful brethren cannot do so, because they regulations, to repeated alteration and
are incapable of discovering truth or of de- amendment. These may be called the acci" rusty Mason " should dental rights ofa Grand Master, because they
tecting error.
never attempt to examine a stranger, and are derived from the accidental provisions
certainly, if he does, his opinion as to the of a Grand Lodge, and have in them nothresult is worth nothing.
If the informa- ing essential to the integrity of the office.
tion given is on the ground that the party It is unnecessary to enumerate them, bewho is vouched for has been seen sitting cause they may be found in varied modifiin a Lodge, care must be taken to inquire cations in the Constitutions of all Grand
if it was a "just and legally constituted Lodges.
But the rights and prerogatives
Lodge of Master Masons."
person may which Grand Masters are supposed to have
forget from the lapse of time, and vouch possessed, not as the presiding officers of
for a stranger as a Master Mason, when the an artificial body, but as the rulers of the
Lodge in which he saw him was only Craft in general, before Grand Lodges came
opened in the first or' second degree. In- into existence, and which are dependent,
formation given by letter, or through a not on any prescribed rules which may be
third party, is irregular. The person giving enacted to-day and repealed to-morrow,
cons.

Industry. A

Name.

Grand

Wh

INNOVATIONS

IN

365

but on the long- continued usages of the standard. Their only banner was the black
Order and the concessions of the Craft from and white Beauseant, and at the bottom of
time out of mind, inhere in the office, and it was inscribed their motto, " Non nobis
cannot be augmented or diminished by Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da glonot unto us,
the action of any authority, because they riam,"
Lord, not unto us,
are landmarks, and therefore unchangeable. but unto thee give the glory. This was the
These are called the inherent rights of a song or shout of victory sung by the TemGrand Master. They comprise the right plars when triumphant in battle.
to preside over the Craft whenever assemIn Memoriam. Lat. As a memobled, to grant dispensations, and, as a part rial. Words frequently placed at the heads
of that power, to make Masons at sight.
of pages in the transactions of Grand
Sign Vinces. On the Lodges on which are inscribed the names
In
Grand Standard of a Commandery of of brethren who have died during the past
Knights Templars these words are inscribed year. The fuller phrase, of which they are
over " a blood-red Passion Cross," and they an abbreviated form, is " In perpetuam rei
constitute in part the motto of the Ameri- memoriam," As a perpetual memorial of the
can branch of the Order. Their meaning, event. Words often inscribed on pillars
" by this sign thou shalt conquer/' is a sub- erected in commemoration of some person
stantial, but not literal, translation of the or thing.
original Greek, sv tgvtg) vina. For the oriInitiate. (Initiatus.) 1. The fifth and
gin of the motto, we must go back to a last degree of the Order of the Temple 2.
well-known legend of the church, which The eleventh degree of the Rite of Philalehas, however, found more doubters than thes ; 3. The candidate in any of the debelievers among the learned.
Eusebius, grees of Masonry is called an Initiate.
who wrote a life of Constantine, says that
Initiated Knight and Brother
while the emperor was in Gaul, in the year of Asia. The thirty-second degree of the
See
312, preparing for war with his rival, Max- Order of Initiated Brothers of Asia.
entius, about the middle hours of the day, Asia, Brothers of.
as the sun began to verge towards its setInitiate in the Egyptian Seting, he saw in the heavens, with his own crets.
The second degree in the Rite of
eyes, the sun surmounted with the trophy African Architects.
of the cross, which was composed of light,
Initiate in the Mysteries. The
and a legend annexed, which said " by this twenty- first degree in the Metropolitan
conquer" This account Eusebius affirms to Chapter of France.
be in the words of Constantine. LactanInitiate in the Profonnd Mystius, who places the occurrence at a later teries.
The sixty-second degree of the
date and on the eve of a battle with Max- collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of
entius, in which the latter was defeated, France.
relates it not as an actual occurrence, but
Initiation. A term used by the Roas a dream or vision and this is now the mans to designate admission into the mysgenerally received opinion of those who do teries of their sacred and secret rites. It
not deem the whole legend a fabrication. is derived from the word initia, which sigOn the next day Constantine had an image nifies the first principles of a science. Thus
of this cross made into a banner, called the Justin (Lib. xi., c. 7, says of Mida, king of
labarum, which he ever afterwards used as Phrygia, that he was initiated into the
the imperial standard. Eusebius describes mysteries by Orpheus. " Ab Orpheo sacroit very fully.
The Greeks
It was not a Passion Cross, rum solemnibus initiatus."
such as is now used on the modern Tem- used the term Mverayoyia, from /uvcttjplov, a
plar standard, but the monogram of Christ. mystery.
From the Latin, the Masons
The shaft was a very long spear. On the have adopted the word to signify a receptop was a crown composed of gold and pre- tion into their Order. It is sometimes specious stones, and containing the sacred cially applied to a reception into the first
symbol, namely, the Greek letter rho or P, degree, but he who has been made an Enintersected by the chi or X, which two let- tered Apprentice is more correctly said to
ters are the first and second of the name be Entered.
See Mysteries.
XPI2T02, or CHRIST. If, then, the TemInner Guard. An officer of a Lodge,
plars retain the motto on their banner, they according to the English system, whose
should, for the sake of historical accuracy, functions correspond in some particulars
discard the Passion Cross, and replace it with those of the Junior Deacon in the
with the Constantinian Chronogram, or American Rite. His duties are to admit
Cross of the Labarum. But the truth is, visitors, to receive candidates, and to obey
that the ancient Templars used neither the the commands of the Junior Warden. This
Passion Cross, nor that of Constantine, nor officer is unknown in the American system.
yet the motto in hoc signo vinces on their
Innovations. There is a well-known

Hoc

INNOVATIONS

366

maxim

L\ N.\ B.\

of the law which says Omnis inno-

vatio plus novitate perturbat

quam

utililate

I.

healed, in 1813, by a partial sacrifice of

principle on the part of the legitimate

prodest, that is, every innovation occasions Grand Lodge, and have perpetuated differmore harm and disarrangement by its nov- ences which still exist among the English
elty than benefit by its actual utility. This and American and the continental Freema-

maxim is peculiarly applicable to Freemasonry, whose system is opposed to all innovations. Thus Dr. Dalcho says, in his
Ahiman Eezon,

(p.

191,)

"Antiquity

is

dear to a Mason's heart; innovation is

treason, and saps the venerable fabric of
the Order." In accordance with this sentiment, we find the installation charges of
the Master of a Lodge affirming that " it is

not in the power of any man or body of

men to make innovations in the body of

Masonry."

By the " body of Masonry " is here meant,

undoubtedly, the landmarks, which have
always been declared to be unchangeable.
The non-essentials, such as the local and
general regulations and the lectures, are
not included in this term. The former are
changing every day, accordingly as experience or caprice suggests improvement or
The most important of these
alteration.
changes in this country has been the abolition of the Quarterly Communications of
the Grand Lodge, and the substitution for
them, except, perhaps, in a single State, of
an Annual Communication.

But, after all,

perhaps, only a recurrence to first
usages for, although Anderson says that in
1717 the Quarterly Communications " were
this

is,

revived," there is no evidence extant that

before that period the Masons ever met
except once a year in their " General Assembly." If so, the change in 1717 was an
innovation, and not that which has almost
universally prevailed in America.
The lectures, which are but the commentaries on the ritual and the interpretation
of the symbolism, have been subjected, from
the time of Anderson to the present day, to
repeated modifications.
But notwithstanding the repugnance of
Masons to innovations, a few have occurred
in the Order. Thus, in the schism which
took place in the middle of the eighteenth
century, and which resulted in the formation of the Grand Lodge of Ancients, as
they called themselves in contradistinction
to the regular Grand Lodge of England,
which was styled the Grand Lodge of
Moderns, the former body, to prevent the
intrusion of the latter upon their meetings,
made changes in some of the modes of recognition,
changes which, although Dalcho has said that they amounted to no
more than a dispute " whether the glove
should be placed first upon the right hand
or on the left," (Ahim. Rez., 193,) were
among the causes of continuous acrimony
among the two bodies, which was only

sons.

But the most important innovation which

sprang out of this unfortunate schism is
that which is connected with the Royal
Arch degree. On this subject there have
been two theories
One, that the Royal
Arch degree originally constituted a part
:

of the Master's degree, and that it was dissevered from it by the Ancients the other,
that it never had any existence until it was
invented by Ramsay, and adopted by Dermott for his Ancient Grand Lodge. If the
first, which is the most probable and the
most generally received opinion, be true,
then the regular or Modern Grand Lodge
committed an innovation in continuing the
disseverance at the union in 1813. If the
second be the true theory, then the Grand
Lodge equally perpetuated an innovation
in recognizing it as legal, and declaring, as
it did, that " Ancient Craft Masonry consists of three degrees, including the Holy
Royal Arch." But however the innovation
may have been introduced, the Royal Arch
degree has now become, so far as the York
and American Rites are concerned, well
settled and recognized as an integral part
of the Masonic system.
About the same time there was another
innovation attempted in France. The adherents of the Pretender, Charles Edward,
sought to give to Masonry a political bias
in favor of the exiled house of Stuarts,
and, for this purpose, altered the interpretation of the great legend of the third degree, so as to make it applicable to the execution or, as they called it, the martyrdom
of Charles the First. But this attempted
innovation was not successful, and the system in which this lesson was practised has
ceased to exist, although its workings are
now and then seen in some of the high degrees, without, however, any manifest evil
;

effect.

On the whole, the spirit of Freemasonry,

so antagonistic to innovation, has been successfully maintained; and an investigator
of the system as it prevailed in the year
1717, and as it is maintained at the present
day, will not refrain from wonder at the
little change which has been brought about
by the long cycle of one hundred and fifty

years.

I.\ W.\ R.\ I. - . The initials of the

Latin sentence which was placed upon the
cross Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judceorum. The
Rosicrucians used them as the initials of
one of their hermetic secrets Igne Natura
Renovatur Integra, " By fire, nature is per:

INTEGRITY

INSIGNIA

them " are found in this document.

The usage then was for the Grand Master,
or some brother for him, to install the Masof the ter, and for the Master to install his War-

They also adopted them

fectly renewed."
to express the names of their three elementary principles salt, sulphur, and mercury

by making

sentence, Igne

gon

them the

Nitrum Boris

initials

867

Ra-

Invenitur.

install

dens

a usage

which

still exists.

Hebrew letters
Installed Masters, Board of.
Hebrew names of An expression used in England to desig-

finds in the equivalent

i^yi the initials of the

the ancient elements:

laminim, water;
Ruach, air and Iebschah, earth.
Insignia. See Jewels of Office.
Inspector. See Sovereign Grand In-

Nour,

fire

spector General.

Installation.

The

act

by which an

put in possession of the place he

In Masonry it is, therefore, apis to fill.
plied to the induction of one who has been
officer is

elected into his office. The officers of a

Lodge, before they can proceed to discharge
their functions, must be installed.
The
officers of a new Lodge are installed by the
Grand Master, or by some Past Master
deputed by him to perform the ceremony.
Formerly, the Master was installed by the

Grand Master, the Wardens by the Grand

Wardens, and the Secretary and Treasurer
by the Grand Secretary and Treasurer but
now this custom is not continued. At the
;

election of the officers of an old Lodge, the

Master is installed by his predecessor or
some Past Master present, and the Master
elect then installs his subordinate officers.
No officer after his installation can resign.
At his installation, the Master receives the
degree of Past Master. It is a law of Masonry that all officers hold on to their re-

spective offices until their successors are

installed.
It is installation only that gives
the right to exercise the franchises of an
office.

The ceremony is an old one, and does not

pertain exclusively to Masonry. The ancient Eomans installed their priests, their
kings, and their magistrates but the ceremony was called inauguration, because performed generally by the augurs. The word
;

installation is of comparatively modern origin, being Mediaeval Latin, and is com-

pounded of in and

stallum, a seat.

Priests,
after ordination or reception into the sacerdotal order, were installed into the churches
or parishes to which they were appointed.
The term as well as the custom is still in
use.

Installation as a Masonic ceremony was

early used.
find in the first edition of
Anderson's Constitutions, a form of " Constituting a New Lodge," which was practised

We

by the Duke of Wharton, who was Grand

Master in 1723. It was probably prepared
by Desaguliers, who was Deputy, or by Anderson, who was one of the Wardens, and
perhaps by both. It included the ceremony of installing the new Master and
Wardens. The words " Shall, in due form,

nate a committee of Masters to whom " the

Master elect is presented that he may receive from his predecessor the benefit of
installation."
It is the same as the emergent Lodge of Past Masters assembled in
this country for the same purpose.
Installing Officer. The person who
performs the ceremony of installation is
thus called. He should be of the same
official dignity at least although necessity
has sometimes permitted a Grand Master
to be installed by a Past Deputy, who in
such case acts as locum tenens of a Grand
Master. The Masonic rule is that any one
who has been installed into an office may
install others into similar or inferior offices.
In this it agrees with the old Kabbinical
law as described by Maimonides, (Stat, de
" Formerly, all
Sanhed., c. 4,) who says
Rabbis who had been installed, hasmochabut since the
chim, could install others
time of Hillel the faculty can be exercised
only by those who have been invested with
it by the Prince of the Grand Sanhedrim
nor then, unless there be two witnesses
;

an installation cannot be performed by less than three." So the strict

Masonic rule requires the presence of three
Past Masters in the complete installation
of a Master and his investiture with the

present, for

Past Master's degree.

The first Master of a new Lodge can be
installed only by the Grand Master, or by a
Past Master especially appointed by him
and acting as his proxy.
Instruction. It is the duty of the
Master of the Lodge to give the necessary
instruction to the candidate on his initiation.
In some of the higher and in the
continental Rites

these

instructions

are

imparted by an officer called the Orator;

but the office is unknown in the English
and American systems of Ancient Craft
Masonry.
Instruction, Lodge of. See Lodge
of Instruction.

Instructive Tongue.

See Tongue,

the Instructive.

Instrumental Masonry.

Oliver

by this term defines a species of Masonry

which is engaged in the study of mechanical instruments. But I find no authority in
any other writer for the use of the term, nor
can I perceive

its

Integrity.
conduct

is

necessity or relevancy.
Integrity of purpose and

symbolized by the plumb, which

368

INTEMPERANCE

IONIC

Intemperance.

King

Intendant of the Building.

tress. Officers in a Lodge of Adoption,

whose functions resemble those of a Master

This is a vice which

wholly incompatible with the Masonic
character, and the habitual indulgence in
which subjects the offender to the penalty of
expulsion from the Order. See Temperance.

is

[In-

tendant du Bailment. ) This degree is sometimes called " Master in Israel." It is the
eighth in the Ancient and Accepted ScotIts emblematic color is red and
tish Rite.
its principal officers, according to the old
rituals, are a Thrice Puissant, representing
Solomon; a Senior Warden, representing
the illustrious Tito, one of the Harodim
and a Junior Warden, representing Adoniram the son of Abda. But in the present
rituals of the two Supreme Councils of the
United States the three chief officers represent Adoniram, Joabert, and Stolkin ; but
in the working of the degree the past officer
assumes the character of Solomon. The
legend of the degree is, that it was instituted to supply the place of the chief architect of the Temple.
Intention. The obligations of Masonry are required to be taken with an
honest determination to observe them ; and
hence the Mason solemnly affirms that in
assuming those responsibilities he does so
without equivocation, secret evasion, or
mental reservation.
;

Internal Preparation.

See Pre-

paration of Candidates.

Internal Qualifications.

Those

qualifications of a candidate which refer

to a condition known only to himself, and
which are not patent to the world, are called
internal qualifications. They are : 1st. That
he comes forward of his own free-will and
accord, and unbiassed by the solicitations
of others. 2d. That he is not influenced
by mercenary motives; and, 3d, That he
has a disposition to conform to the usages

of the Order. The knowledge of these can

only be obtained from his own statements,
and hence they are included in the preliminary questions which are proposed before initiation. See Questions to Candidates.

Intimate Initiate.

(Intimus InitiaLat. The fourth degree of the Order

of the Temple.
tus.)

Intimate Secretary.

(Secretaire in-

The

sixth degree in the Ancient

and Accepted Scottish Eite. Its emblematic color is black, strewed with tears and
its collar and the lining of the apron are
red.
Its officers are only three: Solomon,
King of Israel Hiram, King of Tyre ; and
a Captain of the Guards. Its history records
an instance of unlawful curiosity, the punishment of which was only averted by the
previous fidelity of the offender. The legend
in this degree refers to the cities in Galilee
which were presented by Solomon to Hiram,
time.)

of Tyre and with whose character

the latter was so displeased that he called
them the land of Cabul.
;

Introductor and

Introduc-

of Ceremonies.

Intrusting. That portion of the ceremony of initiation which consists in communicating to the candidate the modes of
recognition.

Investiture. The

presentation of the

apron to a candidate in the ceremony of

initiation.

Invincible. The degree of Knights

of the Christian Mark, formerly conferred
in this country, was called the Invincible
Order, and the title of the presiding officer
was Invincible Knight.
In wood, Jethro. The Eev. Jethro
Inwood was curate of St. Paul's at Deptford, in England.
He was born about the
year 1767, and initiated into Masonry in
1785 as a lewis, according to Oliver. He
was soon after appointed Chaplain of the
Provincial Grand Lodge of Kent, an office
which he held for more than twenty years,
during which time he delivered a great
number of sermons on festival and other
occasions.
volume of these sermons was
published in 1799, with a portrait of the
author, under the title of Sermons, in which
are explained and enforced the religious,
moral, and political virtues of Freemasonry,

preached upon several occasions before the

Provincial Grand Officers and Brethren in
the Counties of Kent and Essex.
An edition
of these sermons was published by Oliver,
in 1849, in the fourth volume of his Golden
Remains. These sermons are written, to
use the author's own expression, " in a language that is plain, homely, and searching;" but, in Masonic character, surpass
the generality of sermons called Masonic,
simply because they have been preached
before the Craft. Dr. Oliver describes him
as "an assiduous Mason, who permitted no
opportunity to pass unimproved of storing
his mind with useful knowledge, or of imparting instruction to those who needed it."
Ionic Order. One of the three Grecian orders, and the one that takes the
highest place in Masonic symbolism. Its
distinguishing characteristic is the volute
of its capital, and the shaft is cut into
twenty flutes separated by fillets. It is
more delicate and graceful than the Doric,
and more simply majestic than the CorinThe judgment and skill displayed
thian.
in its construction, as combining the
strength of the former with the beauty of
the latter, has caused it to be adopted in
Masonry as the symbol of Wisdom, and
being placed in the east of the Lodge it is

IKELAND

IOWA
referred to as represented

by the Worship-

ful Master.

Iowa. Freemasonry was

introduced

on Nov. 20, 1840, by the formaLodge at Burlington, under a

Warrant from the Grand Lodge of Missouri.
Of this Lodge, Bro. Theodore S. Parvin,
since a Past Grand Master of the State, was
one of the founders, and James R. Hartsock, another Past Grand Master, was the
A second Lodge was formed
first initiate.

into Iowa
tion of a

Bloomington, now Muscatine, Feb. 4,

1841 a third a*t Dubuque, Oct. 20, 1841
and a fourth in Iowa City, Oct. 10, 1842.
A convention was held on Jan. 2, 1844,
and a Grand Lodge organized Oliver Cock
being elected Grand Master.
The Grand Chapter was organized June
8, 1854; the Grand Council in 1857, and
at

the Grand Commandery, June 6, 1864.

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite

has also been introduced into the State, and

there is a Grand Consistory and several
subordinate bodies.
Ireland. The early history of Freemasonry in Ireland is involved in the deepIt is vain to look in Anderest obscurity.
son, in Preston, Smith, or any other English writer of the last century, for any account of the organization of Lodges in that
kingdom anterior to the establishment of
a Grand Lodge. In none of the published
registers is there any reference to an Irish
Lodge. The late Bro. Michael Furnel, Provincial Grand Master of Munster, says, in
a Calendar published by him in 1850, that
there are irrefutable records and data which
show the existence of several self-designated
Grand Lodges in past centuries, and that
Lodge No. 1, on the present registry, claims
an uninterrupted descent from an independent Lodge which existed from time immemorial, and retains many quaint documents in her archives. But I fear that the
evidence intended to support these assertions is not such as would now satisfy any
student of Masonic history. The statement
in the Irish Book of Constitutions, (first
edition, Anno 1730,) that "about three
hundred and seventy years before the birth
of Christ, the four sons of Milesius the
Spaniard, subdued the kingdom, settled
themselves in several parts of it, planted
colonies and erected Lodges," is, of course,
utterly fabulous and mythical.
The list of
" curious and stately buildings " erected by
Masons at various periods only proves the
existence of Operative Masons there as in
other countries of Europe.
Furnel says that the books of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Munster show that
that body was in existence in 1726, and
that the Hon. Col. James O'Brien was
Grand Master. I should be inclined, had

2W

'

24-

369

I no other authority than conjecture, to

place credence in this statement, notwithstanding the doubt of Findel, " because we
find no official documents to confirm the
report." This might be properly attributed
to the well-known scantiness and inaccuracy of the records of that period. And,
indeed, in 1869, Bro. W. J. Hughan, in a
communication to the London Freemason,
says: "Bro. J. G. Findel wrote me sometime since respecting the Grand Lodge of
Munster/ and stated there were some valuable papers, consisting of records of its
transactions, in the possession of a brother
in Ireland, of about 1726 to 1729." So that
the German historian may have seen cause
to modify to some extent his opinion expressed in 1865. This Provincial Grand
Lodge is the only organized body of Masons
in Ireland of which we hear until 1730, and
its existence has now been clearly established as an historical fact by the testimony
of that distinguished Irish Mason, Dr. J.
F. Townsend, who, in a letter to Bro. Albert Pike, writes as follows
" The earliest records (written) that I am
aware of, are the transactions of what appeared to be then the head or governing
body in Ireland, called the Grand Lodge of
Munster, as it is on the old seal. This
body was established in Cork. The date
of the earliest entry is 1721. It is a record
of a Lodge meeting, and is signed by the
Earl of Kingston, G. M., and, what may be
interesting to you, by Springett Penn, as
Deputy Grand Master. This Penn was the
eldest son of the celebrated William Penn. I
find that William Penn married the daughter of Sir Wm. Springett, an English baronet, hence the name of his son.
Penn got
grants of considerable property in lands in
the county of Cork, which are now vested
in his descendant, a young man, Penn
Gaskell. He is a member of No. 1 Lodge,
'

Cork
and was much gratified when I
showed him Springett Penn's signature,
and told him what I now write. In a few
years after, this Lodge or Grand Lodge was,
as was natural, transferred to Dublin, the
metropolis, and then commenced the issuing
of Warrants according to the Grand Lodge
system established in or about 1717. No. 1
Warrant was granted to Cork and it is still
there, a flourishing Blue Lodge, very proud
of its ancient charter. I have been always
a member of it, and am still, as many of
my family had been for a century back.
No. 2 granted to Dublin, No. 3 to Cork,
No. 4 to Dublin, and so on. The Provincial Grand Lodge of Munster seems to be
the successor of that old body. I was Pro*
vincial Grand Master for many years beIt holds
fore I came to reside in Dublin.
;

the ancient records

still."

IRELAND

IRISH

In the year 1730, a Grand Lodge was organized, by whom it is not stated, at Dublin.
The brief account of this event in the
Irish Book of Constitutions is in these
words " At last the ancient Fraternity of
the Free and Accepted Masons in Ireland,
being duly assembled in their Grand Lodge
at Dublin, chose a Noble Grand Master, in
imitation of their brethren." The Grand
Master so chosen was Lord Viscount Kingston, who' the year preceding had been
Grand Master of England. He introduced
the English Constitutions and usages, and
in the same year "The Constitutions of
the Freemasons, containing the History,
Charges, Regulations, etc., of that most
Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity.
For the use of the Lodges," was published
second edition was published
at Dublin.
in 1744, and a third, in 1751.
In 1749, the "Grand Master's Lodge"
was instituted, which still exists; a singular
institution, possessing several unusual privileges, among which are that its members
are members of the Grand Lodge without
the payment of dues, that the Lodge takes
precedence of all other Lodges, and that
any candidates nominated by the Grand
Master are to be initiated without ballot.
In 1772, the Grand Lodge of Ireland recognized the schismatic Grand Lodge of
Ancient Masons, and entered into an alliance with it, which was also done in the
same year by the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
This does not appear to have given any offence to the regular Grand Lodge of England; for when that body, in 1777, passed a
vote of censure on the Lodges of Ancient
Masons, it specially excepted from the censure the Lodges of Ireland and Scotland.
In 1779, an application was made to the
Mother Kilwinning Lodge of Scotland, by
certain brethren in Dublin, for a charter

two veils with each a separate obligaBut that system was abolished some
years ago, and a new ritual framed something like the American, except that the
King and not the High Priest is made the
Presiding Officer. The next degrees are
the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth,
which are under the jurisdiction of the
Templar Grand Conclave, and are given to

370

first

tion.

the candidate previous to his being created

a Knight Templar. Some change will here
have now to be made in consequence of the
recent alliance of the Templars of England
and Ireland, and their abolition of connection with all Masonry except the Craft degrees.
Next to the Templar degree in the
Irish system comes the eighteenth or Rose
Croix, which is under the jurisdiction of
the Grand Chapter of Prince Masons or
Council of Rites, composed of the first
three officers of all the Rose Croix Chapters, the Supreme Council having some
years ago surrendered its authority over
the degree. The twenty-eighth degree or
Knight of the Sun is the next conferred,
and then the thirtieth or Kadosh in a body
over which the Supreme Council has no
control except to grant certificates to its
members. The Supreme Council confers
the thirty-first, thirty-second, and thirtythird degrees, there being no Grand Consistory.

The Supreme Council of the Ancient and

Accepted Scottish Rite for Ireland was
established by a Patent from the Supreme
Council of the United States, at Charleston, dated Aug. 13, 1824, by which the
Duke of Leinster, John Fowler, and Thomas
McGill were constituted a Supreme Council
for Ireland, and under that authority it
continues to work.
Whence the high degrees came into Ireland is not clearly known. Bro. Townsend
says they came "by piecemeal, in a dis-

empowering them to form a Lodge to be

called the
High Knights Templars," that jointed, irregular way." The Rose Croix
they might confer the Templar degree. The and Kadosh degrees existed in Ireland long
Kilwinning Lodge granted the petition for before the establishment of the Supreme
'*

the three Craft degrees only, but at a later

period this Lodge became, says Findel, the
source of the Grand Encampment of Ireland.

To

Bro. Townsend's interesting letter

am

I indebted for an account of the working

system in Ireland. The Grand Lodge holds

jurisdiction over all the Blue Lodges.

Duke of Leinster, who

The

has been Grand Master for sixty years, having been elected in
1813, is also head of all the degrees worked
in Ireland.
The Mark degree is worked
under the Grand Royal Arch Chapter.
Next comes the Royal Arch, which formerly
consisted of three degrees, the Excellent,
Super- Excellent, and Royal Arch
the first
two being nothing more than passing the

I have in my library a copy of

Dalcho's Orations, republished at Dublin,
in 1808, by " the Illustrious College of
Knights of K. H., and the Original Chapter
of Prince Masons." It is probable that
these degrees were received from Bristol,
England, where are preserved the earliest
English records of the Rose Croix.
The Grand Lodge of Ireland practises
the simplest form of Masonry, that of the
York Rite, which with its Constitutions it
received in 1730 from England.
These Chapters
Irish Chapters.
existed in Paris about the year 1730 to
1740, and were thence disseminated through
France. They consisted of degrees, such
as Irish Master, Perfect Irish Master, and

Council.

ITALY

IRISH

371

Sublime Irish Master, which, it is said, the " Giblim," or stone-cutters, and the
were invented by the adherents of the "Bonai," or builders, amounted to eighty
house of Stuart when they sought to make thousand, all of whom he calls, in his secFreemasonry a political means of restoring ond edition, " bright Fellow Crafts." But
the exiled family to the throne of England. he distinguishes them from the thirty thouRamsay, when he assumed his theory of sand who cut wood on Mount Lebanon
the establishment of Freemasonry in Scot- under Adoniram.j
IshSabal. 7nD "K- Men of burland by the Templars, who had fled thither
under d'Aumont, took possession of these den. Anderson thus designates the 70,000
degrees, (if he did not, as some suppose, in- laborers who, in the original Hebrew, are
vent them himself, ) and changed their name, (1 Kings v. 18,) called noshe sabal, bearin deference to his theory, from Irish to ers of burdens. Anderson says " they were
Scottish, calling, for instance, the degree of the remains of the old Canaanites, and,
of Maitre Irlandais or Irish Master, the being bondmen, are not to be reckoned
Maitre Ecossais or Scottish Master.
among Masons." But in Webb's system

Irish Colleges.
are also called

The

by some

Irish Chapters
writers Irish Col-

Irish Degrees. See Irish Chapters.

The lectures teach us
that at the building of King Solomon's

Iron Tools.

Temple there was not heard the sound of

hammer, or other metallic tool. But
all the stones were hewn, squared, and
numbered in the quarries and the timbers
felled and prepared in the forest of Lebanon, whence they were brought on floats
by sea to Joppa, and thence carried by
axe,

land to Jerusalem, where, on being put up,

each part was found to fit with such exact
nicety that the whole, when completed,
seemed rather the handiwork of the Grand
Architect of the Universe than of mere human hands. This can hardly be called a
legend, because the same facts are substantially related in the first

Book

of Kings

but the circumstance has been appropriated in Masonry to symbolize the entire
peace and harmony which should prevail

among Masons when

,

spiritual

laboring on that
temple of which the Solomonic

Temple was the archetype.

Isaae and Ishmael. The sons of

Abraham by Sarah and Hagar. They are
recognized, from the conditions of their
mothers, as the free born and the bondman.
According to Oliver, the fact that the inheritance which was bestowed upon Isaac,
the son of his free-born wife, was refused
to Ishmael, the son of a slave woman, gave
rise to the Masonic theory which constitutes
a landmark that none but the free born are
entitled to initiation.

they constitute the Apprentices at the building of the Temple.

Ish Nodi. Corruptly, Ish Soudy. This
expression is composed of the two Hebrew
words,
ISH, and 1*10, SOD. The first
of these words, ISH, means a man, and SOD
signifies primarily a couch on which one

&\

reclines.
first,

with

of great familiarity and confidence. Thence

followed the secondary meaning given to
SOD, of familiar intercourse, consultation,
or intimacy.
Job (xix. 19) applies it in
this sense, when, using MATI, a word synonymous with ISH, he speaks of MATI
SODI in the passage which the common
version has translated thus " all my in:

ivard friends abhorred me," but which the

marginal interpretation has more correctly
rendered, " all the men of my secret." Ish
Sodi, therefore, in this degree, very clearly
means a man of my intimate counsel, a man
of my choice, one selected to share with me
a secret task or labor. Such was the position of every Select Master to King Solomon, and in this view those are not wrong
who have interpreted Ish Sodi as meaning
a Select Master.
Isis. The sister and the wife of Osiris,
and worshipped by the Egyptians as the
great goddess of nature.
Her mysteries
constituted one of the degrees of the ancient
Egyptian initiation. See Egyptian Mysteries

and Osiris.
Italy. In the year 1733, Freemasonry
was introduced into Italy, by the establishment of a Lodge at Florence, by Charles
Sackville, Duke of Dorset. Thory, and after
,

Ish Chotzeh. 2^\1 &^N Literally, " men of hewing," i. e., " hewers."
him
The phrase was

used by Anderson in
the first edition of the " Constitutions," but
is not found in the original Hebrew, 1
Kings v. 18, to which he refers, where it
is said that Solomon had fourscore " hewers
in the mountains," chotzeb bahar.
But ish
chotzeb is properly constructed according
first

Hebrew idiom, and is employed by

Anderson to designate the hewers who, with
to the

Hence ISH SODI would mean,

of my couch, one who reclines
the same seat, an indication

man
me on

Findel, calls him Duke of Middlesex

but there was at that time no such title in
the peerage of England. A medal was
struck on this occasion. It is not known
under what authority the Duke of Dorset
established this Lodge, but most probably
under that of the Grand Lodge of England.
The initiation of the Grand Duke of Tuscany had a favorable influence on the prospects of the Order, and in 1735 Lodges were
;

ITALY

JACOBINS

established at Milan, Verona, Padua, Vincenza, Venice, and Naples. In 1737, John
Gaston, the last duke of the house of the
Medicis, prohibited Freemasonry, but dy-

na, Turin, Messina, in the island of Sicily,

372

ing soon after, the Lodges continued to

meet. His successor, the Grand Duke of
Lorraine, declared himself the protector of
the Order, and many new Lodges were
In 1738,
established under his auspices.

Pope Clement XIV. issued

his bill forbid-

ding all congregations of Freemasons, which

was followed in January, 1739, by the edict
of Cardinal Firrao, which inflicted the penalty of death and confiscation of goods on
all who should contravene the Papal order.
Several arrests were made at Florence by
the Inquisition, but, through the intercession of the Grand Duke, the persons who
had been arrested were set at liberty.
For many years Freemasonry held but a
precarious existence in Italy, the persecutions of the church preventing any healthy
growth. The Masons continued to meet,
although generally in secret. The Masons
of Rome struck a medal, in 1746, in honor
of Martin Folkes and the author of AntiSaint- Nicaise says that there was a Grand
Lodge at Naples in 1756, which was in
;

correspondence with the Lodges of Germany. Naples, indeed, seems to have been
for a long time the only place where the
Lodges Were in any kind of activity. In
1776, Queen Caroline exerted her interest
in behalf of the Order.
Smith, writing in
1783, [Use and Abuse, p. 211,) says, " At
present most of the Italian nobles and dignified ecclesiastics are Freemasons, who
hold their meetings generally in private
houses, though they have established
Lodges at Naples, Leghorn, Venice, Vero-

Genoa, and Modena."

In 1805 a Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite was established at
Milan by Count de Grasse-Tilly, and Prince

Eugene accepted the offices of Grand Commander of the Council and Grand Master
of the Grand Orient.
When, by the defeat of Napoleon in
1814, the liberal policy of

France was with-

drawn from Italy, to be again substituted

by the ignorance of the Bourbon dynasty
and the bigotry of the Roman Church,
Italian Masonry ceased any longer to have
an existence, nor did it revive until 1860.
But the centralization of Italy, and the
political movements that led to it, restored
Italy to freedom and intelligence, and Free-

masonry has again found, even beneath the

shadow of the Vatican, a congenial soil.
A Lodge was established at Turin in
1859, and a Grand Lodge in 1861. A Grand
Orient was subsequently established by
Garibaldi, who adopted the system of the
Scottish Rite.
Supreme Council was also
formed at Naples. Internal dissensions,
however, unfortunately took place. The

Grand Orient was removed from Turin to

Florence, when many resignations took
place, and a recusant body was formed. But
peace at length prevails, and at a Constituent Assembly held at Rome on April 28/
1873, " the fundamental bases of Italian Masonic Fraternity" were adopted; and "the
Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Italy and
its Masonic Colonies " is now in successful operation.
There is also a Supreme
Council of the Scottish Rite.
corruption of Zabud,

Izabnd. A

which

see.

J.
Jaeliin.

|\D\

Hence

called

by Dud-

ley and some other writers, who reject the

points, ichin.
It is the name of the righthand pillar that stood at the porch of King

Solomon's Temple.

Hebrew

words,

TV,

It is derived from two

jah, "God," and |.\D

iachin, " will establish."

It signifies, therefore, "God will establish," and is often
called "the pillar of establishment."

Gallic corruption of
Jactiinai.
Shekinah, to be found only in the French
Cahiers of the high degrees.
political sect that sprang
Jacobins.
up in the beginning of the French Revolution, and which gave origin to the Jacobin
clubs, so well known as having been the

places where the leaders of the Revolution

concocted their plans for the abolition of
the monarchy and the aristocracy. Lieber
says that it is a most surprising phenomenon, that " so large a body of men could be
found uniting rare energy with execrable
vice, political madness, and outrageous cruelty, committed always in the name of virtue." Barruel, in his Histoire de Jacobinisme,
and Robison, in his Proofs of a Conspiracy,
both endeavor to prove that there was a
coalition of the revolutionary conspirators
with the Illuminati and the Freemasons
which formed the Jacobin clubs, those bodies being, as they contend, only Masonic
Lodges in disguise. The falsity of these

JACOB'S

JACOB'S

charges will be evident to any one who

reads the history of French Masonry during the Revolution, and more especially
during that part of the period known as
the " Reign of Terror," when the Jacobin
The Grand
clubs were in most vigor.
Orient, in 1788, declared that a politicoMasonic work, entitled Les Jesuites chassts
de la Magonnerie et leur Poignard brise par
les Mdgons, was the production of a perverse
mind, prepared as a poison for the destruction of Masonry, and ordered it to be
burned. During the Revolution, the Grand
Orient suspended its labors, and the Lodges
in France were dissolved and in 1793, the
Duke of Orleans, the head of the Jacobins,
who was also, unfortunately, Grand Master
of the French Masons, resigned the latter
position, assigning as a reason that he did
not believe that there should be any mystery nor any secret society in a republic.
It is evident that the Freemasons, as an
Order, held themselves aloof from the political contests of that period.
Jacob's ^Ladder. The introduction
of Jacob's ladder into the symbolism of
Speculative Masonry is to be traced to the
vision of Jacob, which is thus substantially
recorded in the twenty-eighth chapter of
the Book of Genesis When Jacob, by the
command of his father Isaac, was journeying towards Padan-aram, while sleeping
one night with the bare earth for his couch
and a stone for his pillow, he beheld the
vision of a ladder, whose foot rested on the
earth and whose top reached to heaven.
Angels were continually ascending and descending upon it, and promised him the
blessing of a numerous and happy posterity.
When Jacob awoke, he was filled with pious
gratitude, and consecrated the spot as the
house of God.
This ladder, so remarkable in the history
of the Jewish people, finds its analogue in
all the ancient initiations.
Whether this
is to be attributed simply to a coincidence
a theory which but few scholars would be
willing to accept
or to the fact that these
analogues were all derived from a common
fountain of symbolism, or whether, as suggested by Oliver, the origin of the symbol
was lost among the practices of the Pagan
rites, while the symbol itself was retained,
it is, perhaps, impossible authoritatively to
determine. It is, however, certain that the
ladder as a symbol of moral and intellectual progress existed almost universally in
antiquity, presenting itself either as a succession of steps, of gates, of degrees, or in
some other modified form. The number of
the steps varied; although the favorite one
appears to have been seven, in reference,
apparently, to the mystical character almost
everywhere given to that number.

Thus, in the Persian mysteries of Miwas a ladder of seven rounds,

the passage through them being symbolical
of the soul's approach to perfection. These
rounds were called gates, and, in allusion
to them, the candidate was made to pass
through seven dark and winding caverns,

373

thras, there

which process was called the ascent of the

ladder of perfection.
Each of these caverns was the representative of a world, or
state of existence through which the soul
was supposed to pass in its progress from
first world to the last, or the world of
truth.
Each round of the ladder was said
to be of metal of increasing purity, and
was dignified also with the name of its proSome idea of the contecting planet.
struction of this symbolic ladder may be
obtained from the following table

the

7 Gold,

Sun,

6 Silver,

Moon,

Mars,
5 Iron,
4 Tin,
Jupiter,
Venus,
3 Copper,
2 Quicksilver, Mercury,
1

Lead,

Saturn,

Truth.

[Blessed.

Mansion of the

World of

Births.

Middle World.
Heaven.

World of

[ence.

Pre-exist-

First World.

In the mysteries of Brahma we find the

same reference to the ladder of seven steps.

The names of these were not different, and
there was the same allusion to the symbol
of the universe. The seven steps were emblematical of the seven worlds which con-

The lowest
the Earth; the second, the World
of Pre-existence ; the third, Heaven; the
fourth, the Middle World, or intermediate region between the lower and upper
worlds ; the fifth, the World of Births, in
which souls are again born the sixth, the
Mansion of the Blessed ; and the seventh,
or topmost round, the Sphere of Truth, and
the abode of Brahma. Dr. Oliver thinks
that in the Scandinavian mysteries the tree
Yggrasil was the representative of the mysBut although the ascent of
tical ladder.
the tree, like the ascent of the ladder, was
a change from a lower to a higher sphere
from time to eternity, and from death to
life
yet the unimaginative genius of the

stituted the Indian universe.

was

to have shorn the symbolism

of its more salient features.
Among the Kabbalists, the ladder was
represented by the ten Sephiroths, which,
commencing from the bottom, were the
Kingdom, Foundation, Splendor, Firmness,
Beauty, Justice, Mercy, Intelligence, Wisdom, and the Crown, by which we arrive
at the En Soph, or the Infinite.
In the higher Masonry we find the ladder
of Kadosh, which consists of seven steps,
thus commencing from the bottom Justice,
Equity, Kindness, Good Faith, Labor,
Patience, and Intelligence. The arrange-

North seems
of

many

JACOB'S

JACOB'S

ment of these steps, for which we are indebted to modern ritualism, does not seem
to be perfect but yet the idea of intellectual progress to perfection is carried out bymaking the topmost round represent Wisdom or Understanding.
The Masonic ladder which is presented
in the symbolism of the first degree ought
really to consist of seven steps, which thus
ascend: Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence,
Justice, Faith, Hope, and Charity but the
earliest examples of it present it only with
three, referring to the three theological
virtues, whence it is called the theological
ladder.
It seems, therefore, to have been
settled by general usage that the Masonic
ladder has but three steps.
As a symbol of progress, Jacob's ladder
was early recognized. Picus of Mirandola,
who wrote in the sixteenth century, in his

the Rosicrucian Freemasons in the seventeenth century, a symbol of the knowledge

of nature. Finally, Krause says in his

374

"De Hominis Dignitate," says that

Jacob's ladder is a symbol of the progressive
scale of intellectual communication betwixt
earth and heaven; and upon the ladder, as
it were, step by step, man is permitted with
the angels to ascend and descend until the
mind finds blissful and complete repose in
the bosom of divinity. The highest step
he defines to be theology, or the study and
contemplation of the Deity in his own abstract and exalted nature.
Other interpretations have, however, been
given to it. The Jewish writers differ very
much in their expositions of it. Thus, a
writer of one of the Midrashes or Commentaries, finding that the Hebrew words
for Ladder and Sinai have each the same
numerical value of letters, expounds the
ladder as typifying the giving of the law
on that mount. Aben Ezra thought that
it was a symbol of the human mind, and
that the angels represented the sublime
meditations of man. Maimonides supposed
the ladder to symbolize nature in its operations and, citing the authority of a Midrash which gives to it four steps, says that
they represent the four elements the two
heavier, earth and water, descending by
their specific gravity, and the two lighter,
fire and air, ascending from the same cause.
Abarbanel, assuming the Talmudic theory
that Luz, where Jacob slept, was Mount
Moriah, supposes that the ladder, resting on
the spot which afterwards became the holy
of holies, was a prophetic symbol of the
building of the Temple. And, lastly, Raphael interprets the ladder, and the ascent
and the descent of the angels, as the prayers
of man and the answering inspiration of
God. Fludd, the hermetic philosopher, in
his Philosophia Mosaica, (1638,) calls the
ladder the symbol of the triple world, moral,
physical, and intellectual and Nicolai says
that the ladder with three steps was, among
oration,

drei

altestenten

Kwisturkunden,

(ii.

481,)

that a Brother Keher of Edinburgh, whom

he describes as a skilful and truthful Mason, had in 1802 assured the members of a
Lodge at Altenberg that originally only one
Scottish degree existed, whose object was
the restoration of James II. to the throne
of England, and that of that restoration
Jacob's ladder had been adopted by them
as a symbol.
Of this fact he further said
that an authentic narrative was contained
in the archives of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
Notwithstanding Lawrie's silence
on the subject, Krause is inclined to believe
the story, nor is it in all its parts altogether without probability. It is more than
likely that the Chevalier Ramsay, who
was a warm adherent of the Stuarts, transferred the symbol of the mystical ladder
from the Mithraic mysteries, with which he
was very familiar, into his Scottish degrees,
and that thus it became a part of the symbolism of the Kadosh system. In some of
the political Lodges instituted under the
influence of the Stuarts to assist in the restoration of their house, the philosophical
interpretation of the symbol may have been
perverted to a political meaning, and to
these Lodges it is to be supposed that Keher alluded but that the Grand Lodge of
Scotland had made any official recognition
of the fact is not to be believed. Lawrie's
silence seems to be conclusive.
In the Ancient Craft degrees of the York
Rite, Jacob's ladder was not an original
symbol. It is said to have been introduced
by Dunckerley when he reformed the lecThis is confirmed by the fact that
tures.
it is not mentioned in any of the early rituals of the last century, nor even by
Hutchinson, who had an excellent opportunity of doing so in his lecture on the
Nature of the Lodge, where he speaks of
the covering of the Lodge, but says nothing
of the means of reaching it, which he would
have done, had he been acquainted with
the ladder as a symbol. Its first appearance is in a Tracing Board, on which the
date of 1776 is inscribed, which very well
agrees with the date of Dunckerley's improvements. In this Tracing Board, the
ladder has but three rounds a change from
the old seven-stepped ladder of the mysteries; which, however, Preston corrected
when he described it as having many
rounds, but three principal ones. Dunckerley, I think, was indebted for this symbol to Ramsay, from whom he liberally
borrowed on several other occasions, taking
from him his Royal Arch, and learning from
him to eliminate the Master's Word from the
;

;
:

JAMBLICHUS

JACQUES
third degree, where it had been placed by
his predecessors.
As to the modern Masonic symbolism of
the ladder, it is, as I have already said, a
symbol of progress, such as it is in all the
old initiations. Its three principal rounds,
representing Faith, Hope, and Charity,
present us with the means of advancing
from earth to heaven, from death to life
from the mortal to immortality. Hence
its foot is placed on the ground-floor of the
Lodge, which is typical of the world, and
its top rests on the covering of the Lodge,
which is symbolic of heaven.
In the Prestonian lecture, which was
elaborated out of Dunckerley's system, the
ladder is said to rest on the Holy Bible,
and to reach to the heavens. This symbolism is thus explained.
" By the doctrines contained in the Holy
Bible we are taught to believe in the divine
dispensation of Providence, which belief
strengthens our Faith, and enables us to ascend the first step.
" That Faith naturally creates in us a
Hope of becoming partakers of some of the
blessed promises therein recorded, which
Hope enables us to ascend the second step.
"But the third and last being Charity
comprehends the whole, and he who is
possessed of this virtue in its ample sense,
is said to have arrived to the summit of his
profession, or, more metaphorically, into an
ethereal mansion veiled from the mortal
eye by the starry firmament."
In the modern lectures, the language is
materially changed, but the idea and the
symbolism are retained unaltered.
The delineation of the ladder with three
steps only on the Tracing Board of 1776,
which is a small one, may be attributed to
notions of convenience. But the fact that
Dunckerley derived his symbol from Ramsay that Ramsay's ladder had seven steps,
being the same as the Kadosh symbol that
in all the old initiations the number seven
was preserved and lastly, that Preston describes it as having "many rounds or
staves, which point out as many moral virtues, but three principal ones, namely,
Faith, Hope, and Charity," irresistibly lead
us to the conclusion that the Masonic ladder should properly have seven steps, which
represent the four cardinal and the three
theological virtues.

375

version of the Bible by the word

Lord, being thus considered as synonymous with Jehovah, except in Psalm lxviii.
4, where the original word is preserved
"Extol him that rideth upon the heavens
by his name JAH," upon which the Targum comment is " Extol him who sitteth
on the throne of glory in the ninth heaven
ized

YAH

is his name."
It seems, also, to have
been well known to the Gentile nations as
the triliteral name of God; for, although
biliteral among the Hebrews, it assumed
among the Greeks the triliteral form, as
IA2.
Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, says
that this was the sacred name of the Supreme Deity and the Clarian Oracle being
asked which of the gods was Jao, replied,
;

"The initiated are bound to conceal the

mysterious secrets. Learn thou that IA&
is the Great God Supreme who ruleth over
all."
See Jehovah.
Jainblichus. It is strange that the
old Masons, when inventing their legend,
which gave so prominent a place to Pythagoras as " an ancient friend and brother,"
should have entirely forgotten his biographer, Jamblichus, whose claims to their esteem and veneration are much greater than
those of the Samian sage. Jamblichus was
a Xeoplatonic philosopher, who was born
at Chalcis, in Calo, Syria,

See Molay.

In Hebrew, pp.

Maimonides
name," and derives it from the Tetragrammaton, of which
he says it is an abbreviation. Others have
denied this, and assert that Jah is a name
independent of Jehovah, but expressing
the same idea of the Divine Essence. It
calls it the " two-lettered

is

uniformlv

translated

in

the author-

had studied the

mystical theology of the Egyptians and
Chaldeans, whose divine origin and truth
he attempts to vindicate. He maintained
that man, through theurgic rites and ceremonies, might commune with the Deity;
and hence he attached great importance to
initiation as the means of inculcating truth.
He carried his superstitious veneration for
numbers and numerical formula to a far
greater extent than did the school of Pythagoras so that all the principles of his
philosophy can be represented by numbers.
Thus, he taught that one, or the mcnad,
was the principle of all unity as well as diversity
the duad, or two, was the intellect;
four, the principle of unithree, the soul
versal harmony eight, the source of motion ; nine, perfection and ten, the result
of all the emanations of the to en. It will
thus be seen that Jamblichus, while adopting the general theory of numbers that
distinguished the Pythagorean school, differed very materially in his explanations.
He wrote many philosophical works on the
basis of these principles, and was the author of a Life of Pythagoras, and a Treatise
Of all the ancient philof the Mysteries.
osophers, his system assimilates him most
if not in its details, at least in its spirit
oras, and, like the latter,

Jab.

and flourished
was a pupil of

Porphyry, and was deeply versed in the

philosophic systems of Plato and Pythag-

Jacques de Molay.

He

in the fourth century.

376

JEHOVAH

JANITOR

to the

mystical and symbolic character

of the Masonic philosophy.

second degree has only within a few years

past been abandoned. Hutchinson referred
door-keeper. The word to this symbolism, when he said that the
Janitor.
Sentinel, which in a Eoyal Arch Chapter is Spiritual Lodge was placed in the Valley
the proper equivalent of the Tiler in a of Jehoshaphat to imply that the principles
Lodge, is in some jurisdictions replaced by of Masonry are derived from the knowlthe word Janitor. There is no good author- edge of God, and are established in the
judgments of the Lord.
ity for the usage.
Jehovah. Jehovah is, of all the sigJapan. Freemasonry was introduced in
Japan by the establishment at Yokohama, nificant words of Masonry, by far the most
in 1868, of a Lodge by the Grand Lodge of important.
Reghellini very properly calls
England. A Masonic hall was built at it " the basis of our dogma and of our mysteries."
In Hebrew it consists of four fetYokohama, in 1869.
Japhet. Heb., n* T ne eldest son ters, niiT, and hence is called the Tetrathe grammaton, or four-lettered name and beof Noah. It is said that the first ark
ark of safety, the archetype of the taberna- cause it was forbidden to a Jew, as it is to
cle
was constructed by Shem, Ham, and a Mason, to pronounce it, it is also called
Japhet under the superintendence of Noah. the Ineffable or Unpronounceable name.
Hence these are significant words in the For its history we must refer to the sixth
chapter of Exodus, (verses 2, 3.) When
Eoyal Arch degree.
Jasper. Heb., lDC* A precious Moses returned discouraged from his first
stone of a dullish green color, which was visit to Pharaoh, and complained to the
the last of the twelve inserted in the high Lord that the only result of his mission
priest's breastplate, according to the au- had been to incense the Egyptian king, and
thorized version; but the Vulgate trans- to excite him to the exaction of greater
lation more correctly makes it the third burdens from the oppressed Israelites, God
It represented encouraged the patriarch by the promise
stone of the second row.
of the great wonders which he would perthe tribe of Zebulun.
form in behalf of his people, and confirmed
Jehusite. See Oman.
Jedadiah. A special name given to the promise by imparting to him that subKing Solomon at his birth. It signifies lime name by which he had not hitherto
been known "And God," says the sacred
"beloved of God."
Jehoshaphat. East of Jerusalem, be- writer, "spake unto Moses, and said unto
tween Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives, him, I am Jehovah and I appeared unto
lies the Valley of Jehoshaph at.
In the most Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as
recent rituals this word has lost its signifi- El Shaddai, but by my name Jehovah
cance, but in the older ones it played an was I not known unto them."
important part. There was in reality no
This Ineffable name is derived from the
such valley in ancient Judea, nor is there substantive verb ("PH? hayah, to be; and
any mention of it in Scripture, except once combining, as it does, in its formation the
by the prophet Joel. The name is alto- present, past, and future significations of
gether modern. But, as the Hebrew means the verb, it is considered as designating
the judgment of God, and as the prophecy God in his immutable and eternal existof Joel declared that God would there judge ence. This idea is carried by the Eabbins
the heathen for their deeds against the to such an extent, that Menasseh Ben
Israelites, it came at last to be believed by Israel says that its four letters may be so arthe Jews, which belief is shared by the ranged by permutations as to form twelve
Mohammedans, that the Valley of Jehosha- words, every one of which is a modification
phat is to be the place of the last judgment. of the verb to be, and hence it is called the
Hence it was invested with a peculiar de- nomen substantial vet essential, the name of
gree of sanctity as a holy place. The idea his substance or existence.
The first thing that attracts our attenwas borrowed by the Masons of the last
century, who considered it as the symbol tion in the investigation of this name is
of holy ground. Thus, in the earliest rit- the ancient regulation, still existing, by
which it was made unlawful to pronounce
uals we find this language
" Where does the Lodge stand ?
it.
This, perhaps, originally arose from a
" Upon holy ground, or the highest hill wish to conceal it from the surrounding
or lowest vale, or in the Valley of Jehosha- heathen nations, so that they might not
desecrate it by applying it to their idols.
phat, or any other secret place."
This reference to the Valley of Jehosha- Whatever may have been the reason, the
phat as the symbol of the ground-floor of rule was imperative among the Jews. The
the Lodge was in this country retained Talmud, in one of its treatises, the " Sanuntil a very recent period and the expres- hedrim," which treats of the question, Who
sion which alludes to it in the ritual of the of the Israelites shall have future life and

'

JEHOVAH

JEHOVAH

377

"Even he who thinks he would say " holiness to Adonai." And

God with its true letters for- this same reverential reticence has been
preserved by our translators in the authorfeits his future life." Abraham Ben David
Halevi, when discussing the names of God, ized version, who, wherever Jehovah ocsays: "But the name HIPP we are not curs, have, with a few exceptions, trans-

who

shall not? says:

name

the

of

allowed to pronounce. In its original meaning it is conferred upon no other being, and
therefore we abstain from giving any explanation of it." We learn from Jerome,
Origen, and Eusebius that in their time
the Jews wrote the name in their copies of
the Bible in Samaritan instead of Hebrew
letters, in order to veil it from the inspection of the profane. Capellus says that the
rule that the holy name was not to be pronounced was derived fiom a tradition,
based on a passage in Leviticus, (xxiv.

which says that he who blasphemeth

of Jehovah shall be put to death
and he translates this passage, " whosoever
shall pronounce the name Jehovah shall
suffer death," because the word nokeb, here
translated "to blaspheme," means also "to
pronounce distinctly, to call by name."
Another reason for the rule is to be found
16,)

the

name

in a rabbinical misinterpretation of a passage in Exodus.

In the third chapter of that book, when
Moses asks of God what is his name, he re-

Am

"I
that I Am; and he said,
shalt thou say unto the children of
Israel, I
hath sent me unto you," and
he adds, " this is my name forever." Now,
the Hebrew word I
is rPnK> Ehyeh.
But as Mendelsohn has correctly observed,
there is no essential difference between
n^HNj i n the sixth chapter and Hlrl* the
plies

Thus

AM

AM

former being the first person singular, and the latter the third, person of the
same verb, (the future used in the present
sense of the verb to be;) and hence what
was said of the name Ehyeh was applied
by the Rabbins to the name Jehovah. But
of Ehyeh God had said, "this is my name
forever."
Now the word forever is represented in the original by nbyb, Polam;
but the Rabbins, says Capellus, by the
third, the

change of a single

letter,

made

rolam, for-

had been written Valam,

which means "to be concealed," and hence
the passage was translated " this is my
ever, read as if it

name to be concealed," instead of " this

my name forever." And thus Josephus,

is

in
writing upon this subject, uses the following expressions: "Whereupon God declared to Moses his holy name, which had
never been discovered to men before concerning which it is not lawful for me to say
any more." In obedience to this law, whenever the word Jehovah occurs to a Jew in
reading, he abstains from pronouncing it,
and substitutes in its place the word *31N>
Adonai.
Thus, instead of saying "holiness to Jehovah," as it is in the original,
;

2X

lated it by the word " Lord," the very passage just quoted, being rendered " holiness
to the Lord."
Maimonides tells us that the knowledge
of this word was confined to the hachamin
or wise men, who communicated its true
pronunciation and the mysteries connected
with it only on the Sabbath day, to such
of their disciples as were found worthy
but how it was to be sounded, or with what
vocal sounds its four letters were to be
uttered, was utterly unknown to the people.
Once a year, namely, on the day of atonement, the holy name was pronounced with
the sound of its letters and with the utmost
veneration by the high priest in the Sanctuary. The last priest who pronounced it,
says Rabbi Bechai, was Simeon the Just,
and his successors used in blessing only the
twelve- lettered name. After the destruction of the city and Temple by Vespasian,
the pronunciation of it ceased, for it was
not lawful to pronounce it anywhere except
in the Temple at Jerusalem, and thus the
true and genuine pronunciation of the
name was entirely lost to the Jewish people.

Nor

is it

now known how it was originally

The Greeks called it Jao

pronounced.

Jo VA the Samaritans always

pronounced it Jahve.
The task is difficult to make one unacquainted with the peculiarities of the Hebrew language comprehend how the pronunciation of a word whose letters are preserved can be wholly lost. It may, however, be attempted.
The Hebrew alphabet
consists entirely of consonants.
The vowel
sounds were originally supplied by the
the Romans,

reader while reading, he being previously

made acquainted with the correct pronunciation of each word
and if he did not
posless this knowledge, the letters before
him could not supply it, and he was, of
course, unable to pronounce the word.
Every Hebrew, however, knew from practice the vocal sounds with which the consonants were pronounced in the different
words, in the same manner as every English reader knows the different sounds of
a in hat hate, far, was, and that knt is pronounced knight. The words " God save the
republic," written in the Hebrew method,
would appear thus " Gd sv th rpblc."
Now, this incommunicable name of God
consists of four letters, Yod, He, Vau,
and He, equivalent in English to the combination JHVH. It is evident that these
four letters cannot, in our language, be
pronounced, unless at least two vowels be
;

378

JEHOVAH

JEHOVAH

supplied.
Neither can they in Hebrew.
In other words, the vowels were known to
the Jew, because he heard the words continually pronounced, just as we know that
Mr. stands for Mister, because we continually hear this combination so pronounced.
But the name of God, of which these four
letters are symbols, was never pronounced,
but another word, Adonai, substituted for
it; and hence, as the letters themselves
have no vocal power, the Jew, not knowing
the implied vowels, was unable to supply
them, and thus the pronunciation of the
word was in time entirely lost.

Hence some of the most learned of the

Jewish writers even doubt whether Jehovah
is the true pronunciation, and say that the
recovery of the name is one of the mysteries that will be revealed only at the
coming of the Messiah. They attribute
the loss to the fact that the Masoretic or
vowel points belonging to another word were
applied to the sacred name, whereby in time
a confusion occurred in its vocalization.
In the ineffable degrees of the Scottish
Rite, there is a tradition that the pronunciation varied among the patriarchs in
different ages.

Methuselah, Lamech, and

Noah pronounced it Juha; Shem, Arphaxad,

Selah, Heber, and Peleg pronounced it
Jeva; Eeu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abraham,
Isaac, and Judah, called it Jova; by Hezrom and Ram it was pronounced Jevo; by

Aminadab and Nasshon, Jevah; by Salmon,

Boaz, and Obed, Johe; by Jesse and David,
Jehovah. And they imply that none of
these was the right pronunciation, which
was only in the possession of Enoch, Jacob,
and Moses, whose names are, therefore, not
mentioned in this list. In all these words
it must be noticed that the J is to be pronounced as Y, the a as in father, and the

a in fate. Thus, Je-ho-vah would be

pronounced Yay-ho-vah.
The Jews believed that this holy name,
which they held in the highest veneration,
was possessed of unbounded powers. * He
who pronounces it," said they, " shakes
heaven and earth, and inspires the very
angels with astonishment and terror. There

e as

a sovereign authority in this name: it

governs the world by its power. The other
names and surnames of the Deity are
ranged about it like officers and soldiers
about their sovereigns and generals from
this king-name they receive their orders,
and obey."
It was called the Shem hamphorash, the
explanatory or declaratory name, because it
alone, of all the divine names, distinctly
explains or declares what is the true essence
of the Deity.
Among the Essenes, this sacred name,
which was never uttered aloud, but always
in a whisper, was one of the mysteries of
is

initiation, which candidates were

bound by a solemn oath never to divulge.

their

have been, under a modipassword in the Egyptian mys-

It is reported to
fied form, a

and none, says Schiller, dare enter

the temple of Serapis who did not bear on
his breast or forehead the name Jao or Jeha-ho ; a name almost equivalent in sound
to that of Jehovah, and probably of identical import
and no name was uttered in
Egypt with more reverence.
The Rabbins asserted that it was engraved
on the rod of Moses, and enabled him to
perform all his miracles. Indeed, the Talmud says that it was by the utterance of
this awful name, and not by a club, that he
slew the Egyptian although it fails to tell
us how he got at that time his knowledge
of it.
That scurrilous book of the Jews of the
Middle Ages, called the Toldoth Jeshu, attributes all the wonderful works of Jesus
Christ to the potency of this incommunicable name, which he is said to have abstracted from the Temple, and worn about him.
But it would be tedious and unprofitable to
relate all the superstitious myths that have

teries,

been invented about

this

name.

And now

as to the grammatical signification of this important word. Gesenius

and many modThesaur., ii. 577,) thinks
(
that the
ern scholars agree with him
word is the future form of the Hiphil con-

jugation of the verb to be, pronounced Yaand therefore that it denotes "He who
made to exist, called into existence," that
The more generally acis, the Creator.
cepted definition of the name is, that it expresses the eternal and unchangeable existence of God in respect to the past, the preThe word Hi IT i s
sent, and the future.
derived from the substantive verb n*j"|,
hayah, to be, and in its four letters combines
those of the past, present, and future of the
verb. The letter * in the beginning, says
Buxtorf, (de Nomine, v,) is a characteristic
in the middle, of the
of the future the
participle or present time; and the |f at
the end, of the past. Thus, out of jllif* we
get j"V(N h e was; HliT he is; and J"Vn*>
Hence, among other titles it rehe will be.
ceived that oinomen essentia}, because it shows
the essential nature of God's eternal existence. The other names of God define his
power, wisdom, goodness, and other qualibut this alone defines his existence.
ties
It has been a controverted point whether
this name was made known for the first
time to Moses, or whether the patriarchs had
been previously acquainted with it. The
generally recognized opinion now is, and
the records of Genesis and Exodus sustain
it, that the name was known to the patriarchs, but not in its essential meaning, into
which Moses was the first to be initiated.

vah,

*)

JEHOVAH

JEHOVAH

In the language of Aben Ezra, " Certainly

In Freemasonry, the equilateral triangle,

called the delta, with or without a Yod in
the centre, the Yod alone, and the letter G,
are recognized as symbols of the sacred and
Ineffable name.
The history of the introduction of this
word into the ritualism of Freemasonry
would be highly interesting, were it not so
obscure. Being in almost all respects an
esoteric symbol, nearly all that we know
of its Masonic relations is derived from
tradition and as to written records on the
subject, we are compelled, in general, to
depend on mere intimations or allusions,
which are not always distinct in their meaning.
In Masonry, as in the Hebrew mysteries, it was under the different appellations
of the Word, the True Word, or the Lost

already known to the patriarchs, but only as an uncomprehended and

unmeaning noun, not as a descriptive, appellative one, indicative of the attributes
and qualities of the Deity." " It is manifest," says Kallisch, {Coram, on Ex.,) "that
Moses, in being initiated into the holy and
comprehensive name of the Deity, obtains
a superiority over the patriarchs, who, although perhaps from the beginning more
believing than the long- wavering Moses,
lived more in the sphere of innocent, childlike obedience than of manly, spiritual enlightenment." This, too, is the Masonic
doctrine.
In Freemasonry the Holy Name
is the representative of the Word, which is
itself the symbol of the nature of God.
To
know the Word is to know the true nature
and essence of the Grand Architect.
When the pronunciation of the name
was first interdicted to the people is not
certainly known.
Leusden says it was a
rabbinical prohibition, and was probably
made at the second Temple. The statement of the Eabbi Bechai, already cited,
tljat the word was pronounced for the last
time by Simeon, before the spoliation by
the Eoman emperor Vespasian, would
seem to indicate that it was known at the
second Temple, although its utterance was
forbidden, which would coincide with the
Masonic tradition that it was discovered
while the foundations of the second Temple were being laid.
But the general opinion is, that the prohibition commenced in
the time of Moses, the rabbinical writers
tracing it to the law of Leviticus, already
This, too, is the theory of Masonry,
cited.
which also preserves a tradition that the
prohibition would have been removed at
the first Temple, had not a well-known occurrence prevented it. But this is not to
be viewed as an historic statement, but only
as a medium of creating a symbol.
The Jews had four symbols by which
they expressed this Ineffable name of God
the first and most common was two Yods,
with a Sheva and the point Kametz underneath, thus, x ; the second was three
the

name was

points in a radiated form like a diadem,

thus, \j/, to represent, in all probability, the
sovereignty of God the third was a Yod
within an equilateral triangle, which the
Kabbalists explained as a ray of light,
whose lustre was too transcendent to be
contemplated by human eyes; and the
fourth was the letter ty, which is the initial letter of Shadai, " the Almighty," and
was the symbol usually placed upon their
phylacteries.
Buxtorf mentions a fifth
method, which was by three Yods, with a
Kametz underneath * * \ inclosed in a circle.
;

379

Word, the symbol of the knowledge of Divine Truth, or the true nature of God.
That this name, in its mystical use, was
not unknown to the Mediaeval Freemasons
there can be no doubt. Many of their architectural emblems show that they possessed this knowledge. Nor can there be
any more doubt that through them it
came to their successors, the Freemasons
of the beginning of the eighteenth century.
No one can read Dr. Anderson's
Defence of Masonry, written in 1730, without being convinced that this prominent
actor in the revival was well acquainted
with this name; although he is, of course,
careful to make no very distinct reference
" The occato it, except in one instance.
sion," he says, "of the brethren searching
so diligently for their Master was, it seems,
to receive from him the secret Word of Masonry, which should be delivered down to
their posterity in after ages."
It is now conceded, from indisputable
evidence, that the holy name was, in the
earlier years, and, indeed, up to the middle
of the last century, attached to the third
degree, and then called the Master's Word.
I have now lying before me two tracingboards of that degree, one an Irish one of
the date of 1769, the other a continental
one of 1778 but both, apparently, copies
of some earlier one. Among the emblems
displayed is a coffin, on which is inscribed,
in capital letters, the word
Hutchinson, who wrote in 1774, makes no
reference whatever to the Eoyal Arch, although that system had, by that time, been
partially established in England but in his
lectures to Master Masons and on the third
degree refers to " the mystic word, the Tetragrammaton." Oliver tells us distinctly
that it was the Master's Word until Dunckerley took it out of the degree and transThat it was
ferred it to the Royal Arch.
so on the Continent, we have the unmistakable testimony of Guillemain de St.
;

JEHOVAH.

380

JEHOVAH

JEHOVAH

Victor, who says, in his Adonhiramite Masonry, that Solomon placed a medal on the
tomb of Hiram, " on which was engraved
Jehova, the old Master's Word, and which
signifies the Supreme Being."
So far, then, these facts appear to be established: that this Ineffable name was
known to the Operative Freemasons of the
Middle Ages; that it was derived from
them by the Speculative Masons, who, in
1717, revived the Order in England; that
they knew it as Master Masons and that
it continued to be the Master's Word until
late in that century, when it was removed
by Dunckerley into the Royal Arch.
Although there is, perhaps, no point in
the esoteric system of Masonry more clearly
established than that the Tetragrammaton
is the true omnific word, yet innovations
have been admitted, by which, in some
jurisdictions in this country, that word has
been changed into three others, which simply signify Divine names in other languages, but have none of the sublime symbolism that belongs to the true name of
God. It is true that the General Grand
Chapter of the United States adopted a
regulation disapproving of the innovation
of these explanatory words, and restoring
the Tetragrammaton but this declaration
of what might almost be considered a truism in Masonry has been met with open
opposition or reluctant obedience in some
;

places.

The Grand Chapter of England has

fallen

into the same error, and abandoned the

teachings of Dunckerley, the founder of
the Eoyal Arch in that country, as some
of the Grand Chapters in America did those

of Webb, who was the founder of the system here. It is well, therefore, to inquire
what was the omnific word when the Royal
Arch system was first invented.
We have the authority of Oliver, who
had the best opportunity of any man in
England of knowing the facts, for saying
that Dunckerley established the Royal
Arch for the modern Grand Lodge; that
he wisely borrowed many things from Ramsay and Dermott; and that he boldly transplanted the word Jehovah from the Master's
degree and placed it in his new system.
Now, what was " The Word " of the
Royal Arch, as understood by Dunckerley?
We have no difficulty here, for he himself

answers the question. To the first edition

of the Laws and Regulations of the Royal
Arch, published in 1782, there is prefixed
an essay on Freemasonry, which is attributed to Dunckerley. In this he makes the
following remarks
" It must be observed that the expression
The Word is not to be understood as a

watchword only,

after the

manner of those

annexed

to the several degrees of the Craft

but also theologically, as a term, thereby to

convey to the mind some idea of that Grand
Being who is the sole author of our existence and to carry along with it the most
solemn veneration for his sacred Name and
;

Word,

as well as the most clear and perfect

elucidation of his power and attributes
that the human mind is capable of receiving.
And this is the light in which the
Name and Word hath always been considered, from the remotest ages, amongst us
Christians and the Jews."
And then, after giving the well-known
history from Josephus of the word, which,
to remove all doubt of what it is, he says
is the " Shem Hamphorash, or the Unutterable Name," he adds "Philo, the learned
Jew, tells us not only that the word was lost,
but also the time when, and the reason why.
But, to make an end of these unprofitable
disputes among the learned, be it remembered that they all concur with the Royal
Arch Masons in others much more essential
first, that the Name or Word is expressive of Self-Existence and Eternity and, secondly, that it can be applicable only to that Great Being who was
and is and will be."
:

Notwithstanding this explicit and unmistakable declaration of the founder of

the English Royal Arch, that the Tetragrammaton is the omnific word, the present system in England has rejected it, and
substituted in its place three other words,
the second of which is wholy unmeaning."
In the American system, as revised by
Thomas Smith Webb, there can be no
doubt that the Tetragrammaton was recognized as the omnific word. In the Freemason's Monitor, prepared by him for monitorial instruction, he has inserted, among
the passages of Scripture to be read during
an exaltation, the following from Exodus,
which is the last in order, and which any
one at all acquainted with the ritual will
at once see is appropriated to the time of
the euresis or discovery of the Word.
"And God spake unto Moses, and said
unto him, I am the Lord, and I appeared
unto Abraham, and unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob by the name of God Amighty, but
was I not known
by my name
to them."
From this it will be evident that Webb
recognized the word Jehovah, and not the

JEHOVAH

three other words that have since been substituted for them by some Grand Chapters
in. this country, and which it is probable
were originally used by Webb as merely
explanatory or declaratory of the Divine

nature of the other and principal word.

And this is in accordance with one of the
traditions of the degree, that they were

JEPHTHAH

JERUSALEM

placed on the substitute ark around the

key to explain its significa-

1722, and of Anderson in 1738, with the

significant fact that the charges are found
in a manuscript written seven years after,
give some plausibility to the statement that
a General Assembly was held at that time.
Jekson. This word is found in the
French Cahiers of the high degrees. It is
undoubtedly a corruption of Jacquesson,
and this a mongrel word compounded of

real word, as a
tion.

To call anything else

lettered name an omnific

but this four-

word
an alleither
creating and all -performing word
in Masonry or in Hebrew symbolism, whence
Masonry derived it, is to oppose all the

doctrines of the Talmudists, the Kabbalists,

and the Gnostics, and to repudiate the
teachings of every Hebrew scholar from
Buxtorf to Gesenius. To fight the battle
It
against such odds is to secure defeat.
shows more of boldness than of discretion.
And hence the General Grand Chapter of
the United States has very wisely restored
the word Jehovah to its proper place. It
is only in the York and in the American
Eites that this error has ever existed. In
every other Rite the Tetragrammaton is
recognized as the true word.
Judge of Israel, and the
Jephthah.
leader of the Gileadites in their war against
the Ephraimites, which terminated in the
slaughter of so many of the latter at the
passes of the river Jordan. See Ephraim-

ites.

Jericho, Heroine

of.

See Heroine

Jericho, Knight of.

See Knight

of Jericho.
of Jericho.

Jermyn, Henry.
{Illustrations, p.

161.

Preston

ol. ed.,)

that

says

Henry

Albans, was elected

General Assembly held
on the 27th of December, 1663, and that at

Jermyn, Earl of

Grand Master

St.

at a

381

the French Jacques and the English son,

and means the son of James, that is, James
II.
It refers to Charles Edward the Pretender, who was the son of that abdicated
and exiled monarch. It is a significant
relic of the system attempted to be introduced by the adherents of the house of
Stuart, and by which they expected to enlist
Masonry as an instrument to effect the restoration of the Pretender to the throne of
England. For this purpose they had altered
the legend of the third degree, making it
applicable to James II., who, being the son
of Henrietta Maria, the widow of Charles
I., was designated as " the widow's son."
Jena, Congress of. Jena is a city
of Saxe- Weimar, in Thuringia.
Masonic Congress was convoked there in 1763,
by the Lodge of Strict Observance, under
the presidency of Johnson, a Masonic charlatan, but whose real name was Becker.
In
this Congress the doctrine was announced
that the Freemasons were the successors of
the Knights Templars, a dogma peculiarly
characteristic of the Rite of Strict Observance.
In the year 1764, a second Congress

was convoked by Johnson or Leucht with

Assembly "several useful regulations the desire of authoritatively establishing hi&
were made," some of which he gives in a doctrine of the connection between TernRoberts, in his edition of the "Old plarism and Masonry. The empirical charnote.
Constitutions " printed in 1722, the earli- acter of Johnson was here discovered by the
est printed Masonic book that we have, re- Baron Hund, and he was denounced, and
fers also to this General Assembly the date subsequently punished at Magdeburg by
of which he, however, makes the 8th of the public authorities.
December. Roberts gives what he calls
Jerusalem. The capital of Judea,
the Additional Orders and Constitutions. and memorable in Masonic history as the
The Harleian MS., in the British Museum, place where was erected the Temple of Solnumbered 1942, which Hughan supposes to omon. It is early mentioned in Scripture,
have the date of 1670, and which he has and is supposed to be the Salem of which
published in his Old Charges of the Brit- Melchizedek was king. At the time that
ish Freemasons, (p. 52,) contains also three the Israelites entered the Promised Land,
" new articles."
The articles in Roberts' the city was in possession of the Jebusites,
and the Harleian MS. are identical. In from whom, after the death of Joshua, it
Preston, they are modified in language, was conquered, and afterwards inhabited
as they are also in the 1738 edition of An- by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The
derson. But neither of these writers is trust- Jebusites were not, however, driven out
worthy in relation to citations from old and we learn that David purchased Mount
documents. Of these new articles, one of Moriah from Oman or Araunah the Jebuthe most important is that which prescribes site as a site for the Temple. It is only in
that the society of Freemasons shall there- reference to this Temple that Jerusalem is
after be governed by a Master and War- connected with the legends of Ancient
dens.
Bro. Hughan thinks that there is no Craft Masonry. In the degrees of chivalry
evidence of the statement that a General As- it is also important, because it was the
sembly was held in 1663. But I think that city where the holy places were situated,
the concurring testimony of Roberts in and for the possession of which the Cru*

this

JERUSALEM

JEWELS

and so bravely contested. It

there, too, that the Templars and the
Hospitallers were established as Orders of
religious and military knighthood.
Modern Speculative Masonry was introduced into Jerusalem by the establishment of a Lodge in 1872. The warrant for

tributed to those members of the Society

who constituted the College of Clermont.
This theory of a Jesuitical Masonry seems
to have originated with the Illuminati, who
were probably governed in its promulgation
by a desire to depreciate the character of
all other Masonic systems in comparison

which, on the application of Robert Morris

and others, was granted by the Grand Lodge
of Canada.
Jerusalem, Knight of. See Knight

with their own, where no such priestly interference was permitted.

Barruel scoffs
at the idea of such a connection, and calls
it (Hist, de Ja., iv. 287,) "la fable de la
Franc-Maconnerie Je'suiteque." For once
he is right. Like oil and water, the tolerance of Freemasonry and the intolerance

382

saders so long

was

of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, New, The

symbolic

name

of the Christian Church (Rev. xxi.

2-21 iii. 12). The Apostle John, (Rev.
xxi.,) from the summit of a high mountain,
beheld, in a pictorial symbol or scenic representation, a city resplendent with celes;

which seemed to descend

from the heavens to the earth. It was
stated to be a square of about 400 miles,
or 12,000 stadia, equal to about 16,000
miles in circumference
of course, a mystical number, denoting that the city was
capable of holding almost countless myriads
of inhabitants. The New Jerusalem was
beheld, like Jacob's ladder, extending from
earth to heaven. It plays an important
tial brightness,

part in the ritual of the nineteenth degree,

or Grand Pontiff of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, where the descent of
the New Jerusalem is a symbol of the descent of the empire of Light and Truth
upon the earth.
Jerusalem, Priuce of. See Prince
of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem Word. In the catechism of 1724 occurs the following question and answer.
" Q. Give me the Jerusalem Word.
"A. Giblin."
The origin of this phrase may perhaps be
thus traced. The theory that after the completion of the Temple a portion of the workmen travelled abroad to seek employment,
while another portion remained at Jerusalem, was well known to the Fraternity at
the beginning of the last century. It is
amply detailed in that old manuscript
known as the York MS., which is now lost,
but was translated by Krause, and inserted
in his Kunsturkunden.
It may be supposed that this " Jerusalem Word " was the
v/ord which the Masons used at Jerusalem,
while the " Universal Word," which is
given in the next question and answer, was
the word common to the Craft everywhere.
The Jerusalem Word, as such, is no longer
in use, but the Universal Word is still
found in the first degree.
Jesuits. In the last century the Jesuits
were charged with having an intimate connection with Freemasonry, and the invention of the degree of Kadosh was even at-

of the "Society of Jesus" cannot commingle.

Yet it cannot be denied that, while the
Jesuits have had no part in the construction of pure Freemasonry, there are reasons
for believing that they took an interest in
the invention of some degrees and systems which were intended to advance their
own interests. But wherever they touched
the Institution they left the trail of the serThey sought to convert its pure
pent.

philanthropy and toleration into political

intrigue and religious bigotry. Hence it is
believed that they had something to do
with the invention of those degrees, which
were intended to aid the exiled house of
Stuart in its efforts to regain the English
throne, because they believed that would
secure the restoration in England of the
Roman Catholic religion. Almost a library
of books has been written on both sides of
this subject in Germany and in France.

Jewel of au Ancieut Grand

Master.

Masonic tradition informs us

that the jewel of an ancient Grand Master
at the Temple was the square and compass
between. This was the
with the letter
jewel worn by Hiram Abif on the day
which deprived the Craft of his invaluable

and which was subsequently found

upon him.
Jewel, Member's. In many Lodges,
especially among the Germans, where it is
services,

called "Mitgleider Zeichen," a jewel is

provided for every member, and presented
to

him on

his initiation or affiliation.

It

worn from the button-hole, and

generally contains the name of the Lodge
and some Masonic device.
is

to be

Jewels, Immovable.

See Jewels

of a Lodge.

Jewels, Movable.

See Jewels of a

Lodge.

Jewels of a L.odge.

Every Lodge

furnished with six jewels, three of which

are movable and three immovable. They
are termed jewels, says Oliver, because they
have a moral tendency which renders them
jewels of inestimable value. The movable
jewels, so called because they are not conis

JEWS

JEWELS
Hiram

of Tyre

fined to any particular part of the Lodge,

are the rough ashlar, the perfect ashlar,

I.

trestle-board. The immovable jewthe square, the level, and the plumb.
They are termed immovable, because they
are appropriated to particular parts of the
Lodge, where alone they should be found,
namely, the square to the east, the level to
the west, and the plumb to the south. In
the English system the division is the reverse of this. There, the square, level, and

Principal Conductor
of the works
Treasurer

and the
els are

383

wears a

and

trowel
level.

"

and

trowel

plumb.
"

and

trowel

cross keys.

"

Recorder

and

trowel

cross pens.

Captain of the Guards "

trowel and
sword.
a trowel and
cross swords.
a trowel and
baton.
a

"

Steward
movable jewels, because
"
they pass from the three officers who wear Marshal
them to their successors.
Jewels, Official. Jewels are the
If a Conductor of the Council is used,
names applied to the emblems worn by the he wears a trowel and baton, and then a
officers of Masonic bodies as distinctive scroll is added to the Marshal's baton to
badges of their offices. For the purpose distinguish the two officers.
of reference, the jewels worn in symbolic
All the jewels are of silver, and are enLodges, in Chapters, Councils, and Encamp- closed within an equilateral triangle.
ments are here appended.

plumb

are called

4.
1.

wears
W.\ Master

Senior Warden
Junior Warden

a square;
a level.
a plumb.

Treasurer
Secretary
Senior Deacon

cross keys.
cross pens.

<(

u
({
cc

Junior Deacon

(C

Steward

tl

The

Scribe

wears a mitre.
"
a level surmounted
by a crown.
"
a plumb-rule sur-

mounted

Captain of the Host "

by a
turban.
a triangular plate
inscribed with a

Principal Sojourner "

Royal Arch Captain "

Grand Master of
the Veils.

"

a triangular plate
inscribed with a
pilgrim.
a sword.

a sword.

The other officers

as in a symbolic Lodge.
All the jewels are of gold, and suspended
within an equilateral triangle.
3.

In Royal and

trowel
square.

sur-

level

mounted

by a

cock.

"

Prelate
Senior Warden

"

a triple triangle.
a hollow square
and sword of

Junior Warden

"

eagle and flaming

Treasurer
Recorder

"
"

cross keys.
cross pens.

Standard Bearer

"

Warder

"

justice.

sword.

plumb
surmounted by a
i

banner.
square

plate
inscribed with a

trumpet

Three Guards

"

and

cross swords.
a square plate in-

scribed with
battle-axe.

The jewels

are of silver.

In the lectures
of the second and third degrees, allusion is
made to certain moral qualities, which, as
they are intended to elucidate and impress
the most important moral principles of the
degree, are for their great value called the
Precious Jewels of a Fellow Craft and the
Precious Jewels of a Master Mason. There
are three in each degree, and they are referred to by the Alarm. Their explanation
is esoteric.

Jews, Disqualification

Select Councils.

Grand Master wears a

sur-

Jewels, Precious.

soldier.

I.

"

In Royal Arch Chapters.

Priest

square

paschal lamb.

Captain General

jewels are of silver in a subordinate

2.

T.

mounted by a

Lodge, and of gold in a Grand Lodge. In

English Lodges, the jewel of the Deacon is
a dove.

High
King

"

Generalissimo

square and compass,

sun in the centre.
square and compass,
moon in the centre.
a cornucopia.
cross swords.

Tiler

In Commanderies of Knights Templars.

Em't Commander wears a cross surmounted

by rays of light.

In Symbolic Lodges.

and

of.

The

great principles of religious and political

toleration which peculiarly characterize
Freemasonry would legitimately make no

JEZIRAH

JOHNSON

religious faith which recognized a Supreme

Being a disqualification for initiation. But,
unfortunately, these principles have not
always been regarded, and from an early
period the German Lodges, and especially
the Prussian, were reluctant to accord admission to Jews. This action has given
great offence to the Grand Lodges of other
countries which were more liberal in their
views, and were more in accord with the

is Johaben, or,
more properly, Ihaoben,
which he interprets the Son of God; but it
would be difficult to find any such meaning

J84

Masonic spirit, and was productive of dissensions among the Masons of Germany,
many of whom were opposed to this intolerant policy. But a better spirit now prevails
and very recently the Grand Lodge
of the Three Globes at Berlin, the leading
Masonic body of Prussia, has removed the
interdict, and Judaism is there no longer a
;

disqualification for initiation.

Jezirah, or Jetzirah,

n"W* n3D>
A Kabbalistic

e ')

Book

Book of the

of.

Creation.

work, which is claimed by

the Kabbalists as their first and oldest code
of doctrines, although it has no real affinity
with the tenets of the Kabbala. The authorship of it is attributed to the patriarch
Abraham; but the actual date of its first
appearance is supposed to be about the
ninth century. Steinschneider says that it
opens the literature of the Secret Doctrine.
Its fundamental idea is, that in the ten
digits and the twenty letters of the Hebrew
alphabet we are to find the origin of all
things.
Landauer, a German Hebraist,
thinks that the author of the Jetzirah borrowed his doctrine of numbers from the
School of Pythagoras, which is very probable.
The old Masons, it is probable, derived some of their mystical ideas of sacred
numbers from this work.
Joabert. This, according to the legends of the high degrees, was the name
of the chief favorite of Solomon, who incurred the displeasure of Hiram of Tyre
on a certain occasion, but was subsequently
pardoned, and, on account of the great attachment he had shown to the person of
his master, was appointed the Secretary of
Solomon and Hiram in their most intimate
relations.
He was afterwards still further

promoted by Solomon, and appointed with

Tito and Adoniram a Provost and Judge.

He

distinguished himself in his successful

bring certain traitors to condign
punishment, and although by his rashness
he at first excited the anger of the king, he
was subsequently forgiven, and eventually
received the highest reward that Solomon
could bestow, by being made an Elect, Perefforts to

fect,

and Sublime Mason. The name

is evi-

dently not Hebrew, or must at least have

undergone much corruption, for in its present form it cannot be traced to a Hebrew
root.

Lenning says (Encyclopddie) that

it

according to the recognized rules of the

Hebrew etymology.
Joachim, Order of.
secret association instituted in Germany towards the
end of the last century. Its recipients swore
that they believed in the Trinity, and
would never waltz. None but nobles, their
wives and children, were admitted. It had
no connection with Masonry.

Johannite Masonry. A

term

in-

troduced by Dr. Oliver to designate the system of Masonry, of which the two Sts. John
are recognized as the patrons, and to whom
the Lodges are dedicated, in contradistinction to the more recent system of Dr. Hemming, in which the dedication is to Moses
and Solomon. Oliver was much opposed
to the change, and Wrote an interesting
work on the subject, entitled A Mirror for
the Johannite Masons, which was published
in 1848. According to his definition, the
system practised in the United States is
Johannite Masonry.

Masonico- religious
Johannites.
sect established in Paris, in 1814, by FabrePaliprat, and attached to the Order of the
Temple, of which he was the Grand MasSee Leviticon, and Temple, Order of the.
John's Brothers. In the charter

ter.

of Cologne, it is said that before the year

1440 the society of Freemasons was known
by no other name than that of "John's
Joannaeorum fratrum; that
Brothers,"
they then began to be called at Valenciennes, Free and Accepted Masons; and
that at that time, in some parts of Flanders,
by the assistance and riches of the brotherhood, the first hospitals were erected for
the relief of such as were afflicted with St.
In another part of the
Anthony's fire.
charter it is said that the authors of the
associations were called "Brothers consecrated to John,"
fratres Joanni Sacros,
because "they followed the example and
imitation of John the Baptist."

Johnson. Sometimes
An adventurer, and

spelled JohnMasonic charwhose real name was Leucht. He

assumed Masonry as a disguise under which
he could carry on his impositions. He apstone.
latan,

peared first at Jena, in the beginning of

the year 1763, and proclaimed that he had
been deputed by the chiefs of Templar
Masonry in Scotland to introduce a reform
He established a
into the German Lodges.
Chapter of Strict Observance, (the Rite then
dominating in Germany,) and assumed the
dignity of Grand Prior. He made war upon
Rosa, the founder of the Rosaic Rite, and
upon the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes,
which then sustained that enthusiast. Many

JOHN

JONES

of the German Lodges succumbed to his pretensions, and, surrendering their Warrants,
gave in their adhesion to Johnson. Von
Hund himself was at first deceived by him;
but in 1764, at Altenberg, having dis-

tensive builder of his time, must have

brought him into close intimacy with the
associations of Operative Masons, which
were being rapidly influenced by a specuIt will be remembered
lative character.

covered that Johnson had been formerly,

under the name of Becker, the secretary
of the Prince of Bernberg,whose confidence
he had betrayed that during the seven years'
war he had been wandering about, becoming, finally, the servant of a Mason, whose
papers he had stolen, and that by means of
these papers he had been passing himself
;

as that individual, B.Von Hund denounced

Johnson fled, but
as an impostor.
was subsequently arrested at Magdeburg,
and imprisoned in the fortress of Wartzberg, where in 1773 he died suddenly.

385

that five years before Jones's death, Elias

Ashmole was, by his own account, made a

Freemason at Warrington, and Jones the
architect and builder could hardly have
less interest in the society than Ashmole the astrologer and antiquary. We
have, I think, a right to believe that Jones
was a Freemason.

taken

Jones, Stephen.

miscellaneous

and Masonic author of some celebrity.

He was born at London in 1764, and
educated at St. Paul's school. He was, on
leaving school, placed under an eminent
John the Baptist. See Saint John sculptor, but, on account of some difference,
was removed and apprenticed to a printer.
the Baptist.
John the Evangelist. See Saint On the expiration of his articles, he was engaged as corrector of the press, by Mr. StraJohn the Evangelist.
Jones, Inigo. One of the most cele- han, the king's printer. Four years afterbrated of English architects, and hence wards, he removed to the office of Mr.
He was Thomas Wright,' where he remained until
called the Vitruvius of England.
born at London on July 15, 1573, and died 1797, when the death of his employer disJune 21, 1652, in the seventy -ninth year of solved his immediate connection with the
his age.
He was successively the archi- printing business. He then became the
James I., Charles editor of the Whitehall Evening Post, fond,
tect of three kings,
and during his long on the decline of that paper, of the General
I., and Charles II.,
career superintended the erection of many Evening Post, and afterwards of the Euroof the most magnificent public and private pean Magazine. His contributions to literHe supervised
edifices in England, among which were the ature were very various.
Banqueting-House of Whitehall, and the an edition of Reed's Biographia Drarnatiold church of St. Paul's. Jones's official ca, an abridgment of Burke's Reflections on
position placed him, of course, in close con- the French Revolution, and also abridgments
nection with the Operative Masons. An- of many other popular works. But he is
derson, seizing on this circumstance, says best known in general literature by his
that James I. "approved of his being Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary
chosen Grand Master of England, to pre- of the English Language, published in 1798.
side over the Lodges;" but the Earl of This production, although following WalkPembroke being afterwards chosen Grand er's far superior work, was very favorably
Master, he appointed Jones his Deputy. received by the public.
These statements are copied by Entick and
In Masonry, Stephen Jones occupied a
Noorthouck in their respective editions of very high position. He was a Past Master
the Book of Constitutions but it is hardly of the Lodge of Antiquity, of which Wilnecessary to say that they need historical liam Preston was a member, and of whom
confirmation. Preston says
Jones was an intimate friend, and one of
"During his administration, several his executors. Preston had thoroughly
learned men were initiated into the Order, instructed him in his system, and after the
and the society considerably increased in death of that distinguished Mason, he was
consequence and reputation.
Ingenious the first to fill the appointment of Prestoartists daily resorted to England, where nian lecturer.
In 1797 he published Mathey met with great encouragement
sonic Miscellanies in Prose and Poetry, which
Lodges were instituted as seminaries of went through many editions, the last being
instruction in the sciences and polite arts, that of 1811. In a graceful dedication to
after the model of the Italian schools the Preston, he acknowledges his indebtedness
communications of the Fraternity were es- to him for any insight that he may have
tablished, and the annual festivals regu- acquired into the nature and design of Malarly observed."
sonry. In 1816, he contributed the article
There may be exaggeration or assump- " Masonry or Freemasonry " to the Ency-

him

writer

tion in much of this, but it cannot be denied that the office of Jones as "King's
Architect," and his labors as the most ex-

2Y

25

clopaedia Londinensis.
In 1821, after the
death of Preston, he published an edition
of the Illustrations, with Additions and Cor-

JOPPA

JOSHUA

Bro. Matthew Cooke (London

Freemason's Magazine, Sept., 1859,) says of
him: "In the Masonic Craft, Bro. Jones
was very deeply versed. He was a man of
genial sympathies, and a great promoter
of social gatherings." John Britton the
architect, who knew him well, says of him,
(Autobiog., p. 302,) that " he was a man of
mild disposition, strict honesty, great in-

Mizpah. At these fords, in summer time,

the water is not more than three or four
feet deep, the bottom being composed of a
hard limestone rock. If, as some think,
the fords thirty miles higher up are those
referred to, the same description will apply.
At either place, the Jordan is about eighty
feet wide ; its banks encumbered by a dense
growth of tamarisks, cane, willows, thornbushes, and other low vegetation of the

386
rections.

dustry,

and unblemished character." In

his

days he was in embarrassed circumstances, and derived pecuniary aid from

He died, on Dec.
the Literary Fund.
20, 1828, of dropsy, in King St., Holborn,
latter

London.

town of Palestine and the

Joppa.
seaport of Jerusalem, from which it is distant about forty miles in a westerly direction.
It was here that the King of Tyre
sent ships laden with timber and marble to
be forwarded overland to Solomon for the
construction of the Temple. Its shore is
exceedingly rough, and much dreaded by
navigators, who, on account of its exposure,
and the perpendicularity' of its banks, are
compelled to be perpetually on their guard.
The following extract from the narrative
of the Baron Geramb, a Trappist, who
visited the Holy Land in 1842, will be interesting to Mark Masters.
"Yesterday
morning at daybreak, boats put off and
surrounded the vessel to take us to the
town
cult

(of Joppa), the access to which is diffion account of the numerous rocks that

present

to

view their bare flanks.

The

walls

were covered with spectators, attracted by

shrubby and thorny sorts, which make it

difficult even to approach the margin of the
stream. The Arabs cross the river at the
present day, at stages of low water, at a
number of fords, from the one near the
point where the Jordan leaves the sea of
Galilee,

down

to the Pilgrims' Ford, six

miles above the

Dead

Sea.

Morris

Free-

Holy Land, p. 316.

Joseph II. This emperor of Germany, who succeeded his mother Maria
Theresa, at one time encouraged the Masons

masonry in

the

in his dominions, and, notwithstanding the

efforts of the priests to prevent it, issued a
decree in 1785, written, says Lenning, by
his own hand, which permitted the meetings of Lodges under certain restrictions as
In this decree he says
to number.
" In return for their compliance with this
ordinance, the government accords to the
Freemasons welcome, protection, and liberty ; leaving entirely to their own direction the control of their members and their
constitutions. The government will not attempt to penetrate into their mysteries.
"Following these directions, the Order of
Freemasons, in which body are comprised a
great number of worthy men who are wellknown to me, may become useful to the

The boats being much lower

than the bridge, upon which one is obliged
to climb, and having no ladder, the landing
is not effected without danger.
More than state."
But the Austrian Masons did not enjoy
once it has happened that passengers, in
springing out, have broken their limbs and this tolerance long the Emperor at length
we might have met with the like accident, yielded to the counsels and the influence of
if several persons had not hastened to our the bigoted priesthood, and in 1789 the orassistance."
(Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and dinance was rescinded, and the Lodges were
Mount Sinai, vol. i., p. 27.) The place is forbidden to congregate under the severest
curiosity.

now

penalties.

called. Jaffa.

Jordan. A

river of Judea,

on the

banks of which occurred the slaughter of

the Ephraimites, which
second degree.

is

alluded to in the

Jordan, Charles Stephen.

Seof the King of Prussia,

and Vice President of the Academy of
Sciences in Berlin, was born in the year
In the
1700, and died in the year 1745.
year 1740, he founded, with the Baron von
Bielfeld, the Lodge of Three Globes at
Berlin, of which he was Secretary until the
time of his death.
cret counsellor

Jordan, Fords

of the. The exact

locality of these fords (or " passages," as
the Bible terms them,) cannot now be designated, but most likely they were those
nearly due east of Sei&oot, and opposite

Josephus, Flavius. A

Jewish aucentury, and

wrote in Greek, among other works, a History of the Jews, to which recourse has been
had in some of the high degrees, such as
the Prince of Jerusalem, and Knight of the
Red Cross, or Red Cross of Babylon, for details in framing their rituals.
thor

who

lived in the

first

Joshua. The high priest who, with

Zerubbabel the Prince of Judah, superintended the rebuilding of the Temple after
the Babylonian captivity. He was the high
priest by lineal descent from the pontifical
family, for he was the son of Josadek, who
was the son of Seraiah, who was the high
priest when the Temple was destroyed by
the Chaldeans. He was distinguished for
the zeal with which he prosecuted the work

JOURNEY

JURISDICTION

of rebuilding, and opposed the interference

He is represented by
of the Samaritans.
the High Priest in the Royal Arch degree
according to the York and American Rites.

Journey. Journeywork, or work by

the day, in contradistinction to task, or
work by the piece, and so used in all the
old Constitutions. Thus, in the Dowland
MS., there is the charge " that noe maister
nor fellowe, put no lord's work to taske
that was want to goe to jornaye." It was
fuirer to the lord and to the craftsman to
work by the day than by the piece.
When the Lodges
were altogether operative in their character, a Mason, having served his apprenticeship, began to work for himself, and he was
then called a journeyman ; but he was required, within a reasonable period, (in
Scotland it was two years,) to obtain admission into a Lodge, when he was said to
have passed a Fellow Craft. Hence the
distinction between Fellow Crafts and journeymen was that the former were and the
latter were not members of Lodges.
Thus,
in the minutes of St. Mary's Chapel Lodge
of Edinburgh, on the 27th of December,
1689, it was declared that " No Master shall
employ a person who has not been passed
a Fellow Craft in two years after the expiring of his apprenticeship " and the names
of several journeymen are given who had
not complied with the law.
similar regulation was repeated by the same Lodge in
1705, complaint having been made "that
there are several Masteris of this house
that tolerate jurnimen to work up and down
this citie contrary to their oath of admission; " and such journeymen were forbidden
to seek employment.
The patronage of
the Craft of Freemasons was bestowed only
on those who had become " free of the gild."
significant word in the high
Jova.
degrees.
It is a corrupted form of the Tet-

Journeyman.

ragrammaton.

Jua.

corrupted form of the Tetrasignificant word in the

grammaton, and a
high degrees.

Judah. The whole of Palestine was

sometimes called the land of Judah, because Judah was a distinguished tribe in
obtaining possession of the country. The
Judah bore a lion in its standard,
and hence the Masonic allusion to the Lion
of the tribe of Judah. See also Genesis
xlix. 9, " Judah is a lion's whelp."
Benjamin. Of the
twelve tribes of Israel who were, at various
times, carried into captivity, only two, those
of Judah and Benjamin, returned under
Zerubbabel to rebuild the second Temple.
Hence, in the high degrees, which are
founded on events that occurred at and
after the building of the second Temple,
tribe of

Judah and

made only
Judah and Benjamin.
the allusions are

387

to the tribes of

Jug Lodges. An opprobrious epithet

bestowed, during the anti-Masonic excitement, upon certain assemblages of worthless
men who pretended to confer the degrees
upon candidates weak enough to confide in
They derived their instructions
them.
from the so-called expositions of Morgan,
and exacted a trifling fee for initiation,
which was generally a jug of whiskey, or
They were
to buy one.
found in the mountain regions of North
and South Carolina and Georgia.

money enough

Junior Adept.
of the degrees of the

{Junior Adeptus.) One

Croix.

German Rose

Junior Entered
According to the

Apprentice.

rituals of the early part

of the last century, the Junior Entered

Apprentice was placed in the North, and
his duty was to keep out all cowans and
There was also a Senior
eavesdroppers.
Entered Apprentice, and the two seem to
have occupied, in some manner, the positions now occupied by the Senior and
Junior Deacons. See Senior Entered Apprentice.

Junior Overseer. The lowest offiMark Lodge. When Royal Arch

cer in a

Chapters are opened in the Mark degree,

the duties of the Junior Overseer are performed by the Grand Master of the first
Veil.

Warden.

The third oflicer

Junior
in a symbolic Lodge.
He presides over
the Craft during the hours of refreshment,
and, in the absence of the Master and Senior Warden, he performs the duty of presiding officer. Hence, if the Master and
Senior Warden were to die or remove from
the jurisdiction, the Junior Warden would
assume the chair for the remainder of the
term. The jewel of the Junior Warden is
a plumb, emblematic of the rectitude of
conduct which should distinguish the
brethren when, during the hours of refreshment, they are beyond the precincts
of the Lodge. His seat is in the South,
and he represents the Pillar of Beauty.
He has placed before him, and carries in
procession, a column, which is the representative of the left-hand pillar which stood
at,the porch of the Temple.
SeeWardens.
The sixth officer in a Commandery of
Knights Templars is also styled Junior
Warden. His duties, especially in the reception of candidates, are very important.
His jewel of office is an Eagle holding a
Flaming Sword.
Jupiter, Knight of. See Knight
of Jupiter.

Jurisdiction of a Grand ILodge.

The

jurisdiction of a Grand Lodge extends

over every Lodge working within its terri-

JURISDICTION

JUST

and over all places not already

occupied by a Grand Lodge. Ttie territorial limits of a Grand Lodge are determined in general by the political boundaries of the country in which it is placed.
Thus the territorial limits of the Grand
Lodge of New York are circumscribed
within the settled boundaries of that State.
Nor can its jurisdiction extend beyond
these limits into any of the neighboring
The Grand Lodge of New York
States.
could not, therefore, without an infringement of Masonic usage, grant a Warrant
of Constitution to any Lodge located in
any State where there was already a Grand
Lodge. It might, however, charter a Lodge
in a Territory where there is not in existence a Grand Lodge of that Territory.
Thus the Lodges of France held of the
Grand Lodge of England until the formation of a Grand Lodge of France, and the
Grand Lodges of both England, Scotland,
and France granted Warrants to various
Lodges in America until after the Revolution, when the States began to organize
Grand Lodges for themselves. For the purpose of avoiding collision and unfriendly
feeling, it has become the settled usage,
that when a Grand Lodge has been legally
organized in a State, all the Lodges within
its limits must surrender the charters which
they have received from foreign bodies, and
accept new ones from the newly established Grand Lodge. This is the settled
and well-recognized law of American and
English Masonry.
But the continental
Masons, and especially the Germans, have
not so rigidly interpreted this law of unoccupied territory and there have been in
France, and still are in Germany, several
Grand Lodges in the same kingdom exercising co-ordinate powers.

Lodge can extend its geographical jurisdiction beyond the territorial limits of its
own Grand Lodge.
The personal jurisdiction of a Lodge is
that penal jurisdiction which it exercises
over its own members wherever they may

388

torial limits,

Jurisdiction of a Lodge.

The

jurisdiction of a Lodge is geographical or

The geographical jurisdiction of
personal.
a Lodge is that which it exercises over the
territory within which it is situated, and

extends to all the Masons, affiliated and

unaffiliated, who live within that territory.
This jurisdiction extends to a point equally

Thus,
distant from the adjacent Lodge.
if two Lodges are situated within twenty
miles of each other, the geographical jurisdiction of each will extend ten miles from
its seat in the direction of the other Lodge.
But in this case both Lodges must be situated in the same State, and hold their Warrants from the same Grand Lodge for it
is a settled point of Masonic law that no
;

be situated.

No

may remove from

matter how far a Mason

the Lodge of which he

a member, his allegiance to that Lodge

indefeasible so long as he continues a
member, and it may exercise penal jurisdiction over him.
is

is

Jurisdiction of a
Council. The Masonic

Supreme

jurisdiction of
the whole territory of the United States
for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite

was divided between the Southern and

Northern Supreme Councils in accordance
with a special concession made by the former body in 1813, when the latter was organized. By this concession the Northern

Supreme Council has

jurisdiction over the

of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con-

States

New York, New Jersey, Delaware,

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana
all the other States and Territories are under the jurisdiction of the Southern Sunecticut,

preme Council.

Justice. One

of the four cardinal virwhich is inculcated in

tues, the practice of

the first degree. The Mason who remembers

how emphatically he has been charged to

preserve an upright position in all his dealings with mankind, should never fail to act
justly to himself, to his brethren, and to
the world. This is the corner-stone on
which alone he can expect " to erect a superstructure alike honorable to himself and
to the Fraternity." In iconology, Justice
is usually represented as a matron with
bandaged eyes, holding in one hand a
sword and in the other a pair of scales at
equipoise. But in Masonry the true symbol of Justice, as illustrated in the first degree, is the feet firmly planted on the ground,
and the body upright.
Justification. The fifth degree in
the Rite of Fessler.
Just Lodge. A Lodge is said to be
Just, Perfect, and Regular under the following circumstances Just, when it is furnished with the three Great Lights Perfect, when it contains the constitutional
number of members and Regular, when it
is working under a Charter of Warrant
of Constitution emanating from the legal
authority.
:

KAABA

KABBALA

389

K.
Kaaba.

the Kabbala may be defined to be a

system of philosophy which embraces cer-

The name of the holy tem- masonry,

which is to the Mohammedans what the Temple of Solomon was to

It is certainly older, as Gibbon
the Jews.
admits, than the Christian era, and is supposed, by the tradition of the Arabians, to
have been erected in the nineteenth century b. a, by Abraham, who was assisted
by his son Ishmael. It derives its name
of Kaaba from its cubical form, it being
It has
fifteen feet long, wide, and high.
but one aperture for light, which is a door
in the east end. In the north-east corner is
a black stone, religiously venerated by the
Mussulmans, called " the black stone of the
Kaaba," around which cluster many traditions.
One of these is that it came down
from Paradise, and was originally as white
ple of Mecca,

as milk, but that the sins of mankind turned

another is, that it is a ruby which

it black
was originally one of the precious stones
;

of .heaven, but that

God

deprived

it

of

its

tain mystical interpretations of Scripture,

and metaphysical speculations concerning
the Deity, man, and spiritual beings. In
these interpretations and speculations, according to the Jewish doctors, were enveloped the most profound truths of religion,
which, to be comprehended by finite beings,
are obliged to be revealed through the medium of symbols and allegories. Buxtorf
[Lex. Talm.,) defines the Kabbala to be a
secret science, which treats in a mystical
and enigmatical manner of things divine,
angelical, theological, celestial, and metaphysical the subjects being enveloped in
striking symbols and secret modes of teachMuch use is made of it in the high
ing.
degrees, and entire Rites have been constructed on its principles.
Hence it demands a place in any general work on Masonry.
;

which would have illuminated

In what estimation the Kabbala is held
the world from one end to the other. Syed by Jewish scholars, we may learn from the
Ahmed, who, for a Mussulman, has written traditions which they teach, and which Dr.
a very rational History of the Holy Mecca, Ginsburg has given in his exhaustive work,

brilliancy,

(London, 1870,) says that the black stone {Kabbalah, p. 84,) in the following words:
" The Kabbalah was first taught by God
really a piece of rock from the mountains in the vicinity of Mecca that it owes himself to a select company of angels, who
formed a theosophic school in Paradise.
its black color to the effects of fire and that
before the erection of the temple of the After the fall, the angels most graciously
Kaaba, it was no other than one of the communicated this heavenly doctrine to
numerous altars erected for the worship of the disobedient child of earth, to furnish
God, and was, together with other stones, the protoplasts with the means of returnlaid up in one of the corners of the tem- ing to their pristine nobility and felicity.
ple at the time of its construction. It is, From Adam it passed over to Noah, and
in fact, one of the relics of the ancient then to Abraham, the friend of God, who
stone worship yet it reminds us of the emigrated with it to Egypt, where the
foundation-stone of the Solomonic Temple, patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterito which building the temple of the Kaaba ous doctrine to ooze out.
It was in this
has other resemblances. Thus, Syed Ah- way that the Egyptians obtained some
med, who, in opposition to most Christian knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nawriters, devoutly believes in its Abrahamic tions could introduce it into their philoorigin, says that (p. 6,) "the temple of the sophical systems. Moses, who was learned in
Kaaba was built by Abraham in conformity all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated
with those religious practices according to into it in the land of his birth, but became
which, after a lapse of time, the descend- most proficient in it during his wanderings
ants of his second son built the Temple of in the wilderness, when he not only devoted
Jerusalem."
to it the leisure hours of the whole forty
Kabbala. The mystical philosophy years, but received lessons in it from one of
or theosophy of the Jews is called the the angels. By the aid of this mysterious
Kabbala. The word is derived from the science, the lawgiver was enabled to solve
Hebrew S^p, Kabal, signifying to receive, the difficulties which arose during his manbecause it' is the doctrine received from agement of the Israelites, in spite of the
the elders. It has sometimes been used in pilgrimages, wars, and the frequent miseries
an enlarged sense, as comprehending all of the nation. He covertly laid down the
the explanations, maxims, and ceremonies principles of this secret doctrine in the first
which have been traditionally handed down four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld
to the Jews but in that more limited ac- them from Deuteronomy.
This constitutes
ceptation, in which it is intimately con- the former the man, and the latter the
nected with the svmbolic science of Free- woman. Moses also initiated the seventy
is

KABBALA

KABBALA

elders into the secrets of this doctrine, and

they again transmitted them from hand to
hand. Of all who formed the unbroken
line of tradition, David and Solomon were
No one,
first initiated into the Kabbalah.
however, dared to write it down till Simon
ben Jochai, who lived at the time of the
destruction of the second Temple. Having
been condemned to death by Titus, Eabbi
Simon managed to escape with his son, and
concealed himself in a cavern, where he remained for twelve years. Here in this subterranean abode, he occupied himself entirely with the contemplation of the sublime Kabbalah, and was constantly visited
by the prophet Elias, who disclosed to him
some of its secrets, which were still concealed from the theosophical Rabbi. Here,
too, his disciples resorted to be initiated by
their master into these divine mysteries;
and here Simon ben Jochai expired with
this heavenly doctrine in his mouth, whilst

origin of the Kabbala has been placed by

some scholars at a period posterior to the

390

discoursing on it to his disciples. Scarcely

had his spirit departed, when a dazzling light
filled the cavern, so that no one could look
at the Rabbi; whilst a burning fire appeared outside, forming as it were a sentinel at the entrance of the cave, and denying
admittance to the neighbors. It was not
till the light inside, and the fire outside,
had disappeared, that the disciples perceived that the lamp of Israel was extinguished. As they were preparing for his
obsequies, a voice was heard from heaven,
saying, Come ye to the marriage of Simon
he is entering into peace, and
b. Jochai
flame preshall rest in his chamber '
ceded the coffin, which seemed enveloped
by and burning like fire. And when the
remains were deposited in the tomb, another
voice was heard from heaven, saying, ' This
is he who caused the earth to quake and
His son, R.
the kingdoms to shake

'

Eliezer,

and his

secretary,

R. Abba, as

well as his disciples, then collated R. Simon

b. Jochai's treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work called Sohar,
(inD>) i. e., Splendor, which is the grand
storehouse of Kabbalism."
The Kabbala is divided into two kinds,
the Practical and the Theoretical. The
Practical Kabbala is occupied in instructions for the construction of talismans and
amulets, and has no connection with Masonic science. The Theoretical Kabbala
is again divided into the Dogmatic and
the Literal. The Dogmatic Kabbala is the
summary of the rabbinical theosophy and
philosophy. The Literal Kabbala is the
science which teaches a mystical mode of
explaining sacred things by a peculiar use
of the letters of words, and a reference to
their value.
Each of these divisions demands a separate attention.
I.

The Dogmatic Kabbala.

The

advent of Christianity, but it is evident,

from the traces of it which are found in the
of Daniel, that it arose at a much
It has been supposed to be
derived originally from the system of Zoroaster, but whether its inventors were the
contemporaries or the successors of that
philosopher and reformer it is impossible
The doctrine of emanation is,
to say.
says King, (Gnostics, p. 10,) "the soul, the
essential element of the Kabbala it is likewise the essential element of Zoroastrism."
But as we advance in the study of each we

Book

earlier day.

will find important differences, showing

that, while the idea of the Kabbalistic the-

osophy was borrowed from the Zendavesta,

the sacred book of the Persian sage, it was
not a copy, but a development of it.
The Kabbalistic teaching of emanation
is best understood by an examination of
the doctrine of the Sephiroth.
The Supreme Being, say the Kabbalists,
is an absolute and inscrutable unity, having nothing without him and everything
within him. He is called *nD pK,

EN

SOPH, "The
finitude

Infinite

One."

In this in-

he cannot be comprehended by the

nor described in words intelligible

intellect,

by human minds, so as to make his existence perceptible. It was necessary, thererender himself comprehensible,
should make himself active
and creative. But he could not become the
direct creator because, being infinite, he is
without will, intention, thought, desire, or
action, all of which are qualities of a finite
being only. The En Soph, therefore, was
compelled to create the world in an indirect
manner, by ten emanations from the infin-

fore, that, to

the

En Soph

which he was and in which he

These ten emanations are the ten
Sephiroth, or Splendors of the Infinite One,
and the way in which they were produced
was thus At first the En Soph sent forth
into space one spiritual emanation. This

ite light

dwelt.

first

Sephira

is

called

^jlp,

Kether, " the

Crown," because it occupies the highest

This first Sephira contained
position.
within it the other nine, which sprang forth
in the following order At first a male, or
active potency, proceeded from it, and this,
the second Sephira, is called
Ghocmah or "Wisdom." This sent forth
an opposite, female or passive potency,
Binah or "Intelligence."
named
These three Sephiroth constitute the first
:

HD^n>

H^D,

triad,

seven.

and out of them proceeded the other

From the junction of Wisdom and

the fourth Sephirah,

This
Ghesed or "Mercy."
was a male potency, and from it emanated
Giburah
the fifth Sephira, named
or "Justice." The union of Mercy and
Intelligence

called

came

1DIT

nTOX

KABBALA

KABBALA

the
sixth
produced
Sephira,
i"ntffin> Tiphereth or "Beauty;" and

the " Pillar of Mercy " and the three on

the left, the " Pillar of Justice." They allude to these two qualities of God, of which
the benignity of the one modifies the rigor
of the other, so that the Divine Justice is
always tempered by the Divine Mercy. C.
W. King, in his Gnostics, (p. 12,) refers the
right-hand pillar to the Pillar Jachin, and
the left-hand pillar to the Pillar Boaz,
which stood at the porch of the Temple;
and "these two pillars," he says, "figure
largely amongst all the secret societies of
modern times, and naturally so for these
illuminati have borrowed, without understanding it, the phraseology of the Kabbalists and the Valentinians."
But an inspection of the arrangement of the Sephiroth will show, if he is correct in his general reference, that he has transposed the
pillars.
Firmness would more naturally
symbolize Boaz or Strength, as Splendor
would Jachin or Establishment.
These ten Sephiroth are collectively denominated the archetypal man, the Microcosm, as the Greek philosophers called it,
and each of them refers to a particular part
of the body. Thus the Crown is the head;
Wisdom, the brain; and Intelligence, the
heart, which was deemed the seat of understanding. These three represent the intellectual
and the first triad is therefore
called the Intellectual World.
Mercy is the
right arm, and Justice the left arm, and
Beauty is the chest. These three represent
moral qualities and hence the second triad
is called the Moral World. Firmness is the
right leg, Splendor the left leg, and Foundation the privates. These three represent
power and stability and hence the third
triad is called the Material World.
Lastly,
Kingdom is ihsfeet, the basis on which all
stand, and represents the harmony of the
whole archetypal man.
Again, each of these Sephiroth was represented by a Divine name and by an Angelic name, which may be thus tabulated

Justice

three constitute the second triad.

the sixth Sephira came forth the
seventh Sephira, |f^ j, Nitzach or " Firmness." This was a male potency, and produced the female potency named *J^n> Hd
or " Splendor." From these two proceeded
*T)D*> Isod or "Foundation;" and these
three constituted the third triad of the
Sephiroth. Lastly, from the Foundation
came the tenth Sephira, called nu^D,
Malcuth or " Kingdom," which was at the
foot of all, as the Crown was at the top.
This division of the ten Sephiroth into
three triads was arranged into a form
called by the Kabbalists the Kabbalistic
Tree, or the Tree of Life, as shown in the
following diagram

these

From

391

Divine Names.

Sephiroth.

Eheyeh,

Wisdom,

Jan,

Ophanim,

Intelligence,

Jehovah,

Arelim,

Mercy,

El,

Justice,

Chajoth,

Beauty,
Firmness,
Splendor,
Foundation,

Eloha,
Elohim,

Cashmalim,
Seraphim,
Shinanim,

Jehovah Sabaoth,
Elohim Sabaoth,
El Chai,

Tarshishim,
Beni Elohim
Ishim,

Kingdom.

Adonai.

Cherubim.

These ten Sephiroth constitute in their

world or the world
of emanations, and from it proceeded three
other worlds, each having also its ten Sephiroth, namely, the Briatic world or the world
of creation
the Jetziratic world or the

totality the Atzilatic

In this diagram the vertical arrangement

of the Sephiroth is called " Pillars." Thus
the four Sephiroth in the centre are called
the " Middle Pillar " the three on the right,

Angelic Names.

Crown,

KABBALA

392

KADOSH

and the Ashiatic

world of formation
world or the world of action each inhab;

by a different order of beings. But to

enter fully upon the nature of these worlds
would carry us too far into the obscure
mysticism of the Kabbala.
These ten Sephiroth, represented in their
order of ascent from the lowest to the
highest, from the Foundation to the Crown,
forcibly remind us of the system of Mystical Ladders which pervaded all the ancient
as well as the modern initiations; the
Brahmanical Ladder of the Indian mystethe Ladder of Mithras, used in the
ries
Persian mysteries the Scandinavian Ladder of the Gothic mysteries, and in the Masonic mysteries the Ladder of Kadosh and
lastly, the Theological Ladder of the Symbolical degrees.
ited

The Literal Kabbala.

This division of the Kabbala, being, as has already

been said, occupied in the explanation of
sacred words by the value of the letters of
which they are composed, has been extensively used by the inventors of the high
degrees in the symbolism of their significant words. It is divided into three species
Gematria, Notaricon, and Temura.
This word, which is evi1. Gematria.
dently a rabbinical corruption of the
Greek geometria, is defined by Buxtorf to
be " a species of the Kabbala which collects the same sense of different words from
The Hetheir equal numerical value."
brews, like other ancient nations, having
no figures in their language, made use of
the letters of their alphabet instead of
numbers, each having a numerical value.
Gematria is, therefore, a mode of contemplating words according to the numerical
value of their letters.
II.

Any two words,

the letters of which have"

same numerical value, are mutually
convertible, and each is supposed to conthe

tain the latent signification of the other.

Thus the words in Genesis xlix. 10, "Shiloh
shall come," are supposed to contain a
prophecy of the Messiah, because the letters
of " Shiloh shall come," nS^XS'', and of

have the numerical value of 358, according to the above

table.
By Gematria, applied to the Greek
language, we find the identity of Abraxas
and Mithras. The letters of each word
having in the Greek alphabet the equal
value of 365. This is by far the most
common mode of applying the literal Kab"Messiah," jT&*D>

Dotin

bala.
2.

Notaricon

is

derived from the Latin

notarius, a short-hand writer or writer in

The Roman Notarii were

the Kabbalists, notaricon is a mode of constructing one word out of the initials or
finals of many, or a sentence out of the
letters of a word, each letter being used
as the initial of another word.
Thus of
the sentence in Deuteronomy xxx. 12,
" Who shall go up for us to heaven?" in
Hebrew HD'D^n Uh rhjp 'D, the initial letters
of each word are taken to form the word
nS"D, " circumcision," and the finals to form

HIPP "Jehovah;"

hence

it is

concluded

that Jehovah hath shown circumcision to

be the way to heaven. Again: the six
letters
of the first word in Genesis,
fVC^JOD"* 11 the beginning," are made
use of to form the initials of six words
which constitute a sentence signifying that
"In the beginning God saw that Israel
would accept the law,"
iSDiTK'

mm ^iW

t^n ?** nan wani.

1

Temura

is a rabbinical word which

permutation. Hence temura is a
Kabbalistic result produced by a change
or permutation of the letters of a word.
Sometimes the letters are transposed to
form another word, as in the modern anagram; and sometimes the letters are
changed for others, according to certain
fixed rules of alphabetical permutation,
the 1st letter being placed for the 22d, the
2d for the 21st, the 3d for the 20th, and so
on.
It is in this way that Babel, S33, is
made out of Sheshach, "]tP2>, and hence the
Kabbalists say that when Jeremiah used
the word Sheshach (xxv. 26) he referred to
Babel.
secret society
Kadiri, Order of.
existing in Arabia, which so much resem-

3.

signifies

bles Freemasonry in its object and forms,

that Lieut. Burton, who succeeded in obtaining initiation into it, calls the members
"Oriental Freemasons." Burton gives a
very interesting account of the Order in his

Pilgrimage

to

Kadosh.

El Medinah and Mecca.

The name of a very im-

Rites.
nifies

many

of the Masonic
Hebrew, and sigholy or consecrated, and is thus in-

portant degree in

The word Wlp

is

tended to denote the elevated character of

the degree and the sublimity of the truths
which distinguish it and its possessors from
the other degrees. Pluche says that in the
East, a person preferred to honors bore a
sceptre, and sometimes a plate of gold on
the forehead, called a Kadosh, to apprise
the people that the bearer of this mark or
rod was a public person, who possessed the
privilege of entering into hostile camps
without the fear of losing his personal
liberty.

The degree of Kadosh, though found in

tomed to use single letters, to signify whole many of the Rites and in various countries,
words with other methods of abbreviation, seems, in all of them, to have been more
Hence, among or less connected with the Knights Ternby marks called " notae."
cipher.

accus-

KADOSH
plars.

In some of the Rites

KELLY
it

was placed

at the head of the list, and was then dignified as the "ne plus ultra" of Masonry.
It was sometimes given as a separate
order or Rite within itself, and then it was
divided into the three degrees of Illustrious Knight of the Temple, Knight of
the Black Eagle, and Grand Elect.
Oliver enumerates six degrees of Kadosh
:

the Knight Kadosh Kadosh of the ChapPhilosophical Kadosh

ter of Clermont
Kadosh Prince of Death and Kadosh of
;

the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

The French rituals speak of seven Kadosh of the Hebrews Kadosh of the first
Christians Kadosh of the Crusades Kadosh of the Templars Kadosh of Cromwell or the Puritans; Kadosh of the Jesuits; and the True Kadosh. 'But I doubt
the correctness of this enumeration, which
cannot be sustained by documentary evidence. In all of these Kadoshes the doctrine and the modes of recognition are
substantially the same, though in most of
them the ceremonies of initiation differ.
Ragon mentions a Kadosh which is said
to have been established at Jerusalem in
1118; but here he undoubtedly refers to the
Order of Knights Templars. He gives also
in his Tuileur General the nomenclature of
no less than fourteen Kadosh degrees.
The doctrine of the Kadosh system is
that the persecutions of the Knights Templars by Philip the Fair of France, and
Pope Clement V., however cruel and sanguinary in its results, did not extinguish the
Order, but it continued to exist under the
forms of Freemasonry. That the ancient
Templars are the modern Kadoshes, and
that the builder at the Temple of Solomon
is now replaced by James de Molay, the
martyred Grand Master of the Templars,
the assassins being represented by the king
of France, the Pope, and Naffodei the informer against the Order; or, it is sometimes said, by the three informers, Squin
de Florian, Naffodei, and the Prior of Montfaucon.
As to the history of the Kadosh degree, it
is said to have been first invented at Lyons,
in France, in 1743, where it appeared under
the name of the Petit Elu. This degree,
which is said to have been based upon the
Templar doctrine heretofore referred to,
was afterwards developed into the Kadosh,
which we find in 1758 incorporated as the
Grand Elect Kadosh into the system of the
Council of Emperors of the East and West,
which was that year formed at Paris, whence
it descended to the Scottish Rite Masons.
Of all the Kadoshes, two only are now
important, viz.: the Philosophic Kadosh,
which has been adopted by the Grand
Orient of France, and the Knight Kadosh,
:

393

which constitutes the thirtieth degree of

the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
this latter being the most generally diffused
of the Kadoshes.
Kadosh, called also the Holy Man.
(Kadosch ou V Homme Saint.) The tenth and
last degree of the Rite of Martinism.

Kadosh, Grand, Elect Knight.

The

sixty-fifth degree of the Rite of Mia-

raim.

Kadosh, Knight.

The

degree of the Scottish Rite.

Kadosh.

thirtieth

See Knight

Kadosh

of the Jesuits. According to Thory, {Act. Lat., i. 320,) this degree

is said to have been invented by the Jesuits
of the College of Clermont. The statement is not well supported. De Bonneville's Masonic Chapter of Clermont was
probably, either with or without design,
confounded with the Jesuitical College of
Clermont. See Jesuits.

Kadosh,

modifiPhilosophic.
cation of the original Kadosh, for which it
has been substituted and adopted by the
Grand Orient of France. The military
character of the Order is abandoned, and
the Philosophic Kadosh wear no swords.

Their only weapon

is

the

Word.

Kadosh, Prince. A

degree of the

collection of Pyron.

Kadosh Prince of Heath.

The

twenty-seventh degree of the Rite of Mizraim.

Kamea.

Hebrew, V'Op, an amulet.

particularly applied by the Kabbalists to magic squares inscribed on paper
or parchment, and tied around the neck as
a safeguard against evil. See Magic Squares.
Latinized spelling of
Kasideans.
Chasidim, which see.

More

Katharsis.

Greek, Kadapaig.

The

ceremony of purification in the Ancient

Muller says (Dorians, i. 384,)
Mysteries.
that "one of the important parts of the
Pythagorean worship was the pcean, which
was sung to the lyre in spring-time by a
person sitting in the midst of a circle of
listeners: this was called the katharsis or
purification."

Keeper of the

Seals.

An

officer

called Garde des Sceaux in Lodges of the

French Rite. It is also the title of an
officer in Consistories of the Scottish Rite.
The title sufficiently indicates the functions

of the

office.

Kelly, Christopher. A Masonic

plagiarist, who stole bodily the whole of
the typical part of the celebrated work of

Samuel Lee

entitled Orbis Miraculum, or

The Temple of Solomon pourtrayed by Scripture Light, and published it as his own under
the title of Solomon's Temple spiritualized
setting forth the Divine Mysteries of the Tern.-

;:

KEY

394

KEY-STONE

with an account of its Destruction. He

prefaced the book with An Address to all
Free and Accepted Masons. The first edition was published at Dublin in 1803, and
on his removal to America he published a
second in 1820, at Philadelphia. Kelly
was, unfortunately, a Freemason, but not an
honest one.
K,ey. "The key," says Dr. Oliver,
(Landm., i. 180,) "is one of the most important symbols of Freemasonry. It bears
the appearance of a common metal instrument, confined to the performance oT one
simple act. But the well-instructed brother
beholds in it the symbol which teaches him
to keep a tongue of good report, and to abstain from the debasing vices of slander
and defamation." Among the ancients the
key was a symbol of silence and circumand thus Sophocles alludes to it
spection
in the (Edipus Coloneus, (1051) where he
makes the chorus speak of "the golden
key which had come upon the tongue of
the ministering hierophant in the mysteries
wv nai xP VG^ a k^V~ zkI yTiuaaa
of Eleusis

which knows only how to speak

well of those of whom it speaks in their
absence as in their presence."
All of this shows that the key as a symbol was formerly equivalent to' the modern
symbol of the " instructive tongue," which,
however, with almost the same interpretation, has now been transformed to the second or Fellow Craft's degree. The key,
however, is still preserved as a symbol of
secrecy in the Eoyal Arch degree; and it is
also presented to us in the same sense in
the rvory key of the Secret Master, or
In
fourth degree of the Scottish Eite.
many of the German Lodges an ivory key
is made a part of the Masonic clothing of
each brother, to remind him that he should
lock up or conceal the secrets of Freemasonry in his heart.
But among the ancients the key was also
a symbol of power ; and thus among the
Greeks the title of uleidovxoQ, or key-bearer,
to reason,

pie,

was bestowed upon one holding high office

and with the Eomans, the keys are given
to the bride on the day of marriage, as a
token that the authority of the house was
bestowed upon her and if afterwards divorced, they were taken from her, as a
symbol of the deprivation of her office.
Among the Hebrews the key was used in
the same sense. "As the robe and the
baldric," says Lowth, (Is., p. 2, s. 4,) " were
the ensigns of power and authority, so likewise was the key the mark of office, either
sacred or civil." Thus in Isaiah it is said
" The key of the house of David will I lay
upon his shoulders so he shall open, and
none shall shut and he shall, shut, and
none shall open," (xxii. 22.) Our Saviour
expressed a similar idea when he said to St.

Pefiane irpoGir6?Mv Ev/xoTiTriddv."

Callimachus

says that the priestess of Ceres bore a key

as the ensign of her mystic office. The key
was in the mysteries of Isis a hieroglyphic
of the opening or disclosing of the heart
and conscience, in the kingdom of death,

and judgment.
In the old rituals of Masonry the key
was an important symbol, and Dr. Oliver
regrets that it has been abandoned in the
modern system. In the rituals of the first
for trial

degree, in the eighteenth century, allusion

is made to a key by whose help the secrets
of Masonry are to be obtained, which key
" is said to hang and not to lie, because it
is always to hang in a brother's defence
and not to lie to his prejudice." It was said,
too, to hang " by the thread of life at the
entrance," and was closely connected with
the heart, because the tongue "ought to
utter nothing but what the heart dictates."
And, finally, this key is described as being
" composed of no metal, but a tongue of good
report."
In the ritual of the Master's degree in the Adonhiramite Eite, we find this

catechism
" Q. What do you conceal?
" A. All the secrets which have been intrusted to me.
" Q. Where do you conceal them ?
" A. In the heart.

" Q. Have you a key to gain entrance

there?
" A. Yes, Eight Worshipful.
" Q. Where do you keep it ?
" A. In a box of coral which opens and
shuts only with ivory keys.

" Q. Of what metal is it composed ?

" A. Of none. It is a tongue obedient

Peter, " I will give unto thee the keys of

kingdom of heaven." It is in reference
to this interpretation of the symbol, and
not that of secrecy, that the key has been
adopted as the official jewel of the treasurer of a Lodge, because he has the purse,
the source of power, under his command.

the

Key
'

of Masonry.

See Knight of

the Sun.

Key-Stone. The stone placed in the

centre of an arch which preserves the
others in their places, and secures firmness
and stability to the arch. As it was formerly the custom of Operative Masons to
place a peculiar mark on each stone of a
building to designate the workman by
whom it had been adjusted, so the KeyStone was most likely to receive the most
prominent mark, that of the superintendent of the structure. Such is related to
have occurred to that Key -Stone which
plays so important a part in the legend of
the Eoyal Arch degree.
The objection has sometimes been made,

KILWINNING

KILWINNING

unknown in the time of

this objection has been completely laid at rest by the researches of antiquaries and travellers within a few years

lished the institution of Freemasonry in

If such be the fact, we must
Scotland.
place the origin of the first Lodge in that
kingdom at an earlier date, by three cen-

that the arch was

Solomon.

But

395

Wilkinson discovered arches with turies, than that claimed for it by Lawrie,
regular key-stones in the doorways of the which would bring it much nearer, in point
tombs of Thebes, the construction of which of time, to the great Masonic Assembly,
he traced to the year 1540 b. c, or 460 which is traditionally said to have been
years before the building of the Temple of convened in the year 926, by Prince Edwin,
Solomon. And Dr. Clark asserts that the at York, in England.
There is some collateral evidence to susCycoplean gallery of Tyrius exhibits lancetshaped arches almost as old as the time of tain the probability of this early commenceAbraham. In fact, at the Solomonic era, ment of Masonry in Scotland. It is very
the construction of the arch must have generally admitted that the Royal Order of
been known to the Dionysian artificers, of Herodem was founded by King Eobert
whom, it is the received theory, many were Bruce, at Kilwinning. Thory, in the Acta
Latamorum, gives the following chronicle:
present at the building of the Temple.
Kilwinning. As the city of York "Eobert Bruce, King of Scotland, under
claims to be the birthplace of Masonry in the title of Eobert I., created the Order of
England, the obscure little village of Kil- St. Andrew of Chardon, after the battle of
winning is entitled to the same honor with Bannockburn, which was fought on the 24th
respect to the origin of the Order in the of June, 1314. To this Order was aftersister kingdom of Scotland.
The claim to wards united that of Herodem, for the sake
the honor, however, in each case, depends of the Scotch Masons, who formed a part
on the bare authority of a legend, the au- of the thirty thousand troops with whom
thenticity of which is now doubted by many he had fought an army of one hundred
Masonic historians.
place, which, in it- thousand Englishmen.
King Eobert reself small and wholly undistinguishable served the title of Grand Master to himself
in the political, the literary, or the com- and his successors forever, and founded the
mercial annals of its country, has become Eoyal Grand Lodge of Herodem at Kilof great importance in the estimation of winning."
the Masonic antiquary from its intimate
Dr. Oliver says that "the Eoyal Order
connection with the history of the Institu- of Herodem had formerly its chief seat at
tion.
Kilwinning and there is every reason to
The abbey of Kilwinning is situated in think that it and St. John's Masonry were
the bailiwick of Cunningham, about three then governed by the same Grand Lodge."
miles north of the royal burgh of Irving,
In 1820, there was publ^hed at Paris a
near the Irish Sea. The abbey was founded record which states that in 1286, James,
in the year 1140, by Hugh Morville, Con- Lord Stewart, received the Earls of Gloustable of Scotland, and dedicated to St. cester and Ulster into his Lodge at KilWinning, being intended for a company of winning which goes to prove that a Lodge
monks of the Tyronesian Order, who had was then existing and in active operation
The edifice at that place.
been brought from Kelso.
must have been constructed at great exThe modern iconoclasts, however, who
pense, and with much magnificence, since are levelling these old legends with unit is said to have occupied several acres of
sparing hands, have here been at work.
ground in its whole extent.
Brother D. Murray Lyon has attacked the
Lawrie (Hist, of Freemasonry) says that, Bruce legend, and in the London Freeby authentic documents as well as by other mason's Magazine, (1868, p. 141,) says:
collateral arguments which amount almost " Seeing that the fraternity of Kilwinning
to a demonstration, the existence of the never at any period practised or acknowlKilwinning Lodge has been traced back as edged other than Craft degrees, and have
far as the end of the fifteenth century. But not preserved even a shadow of a tradition
we know that the body of architects who that can in the remotest degree be held to
perambulated the continent of Europe identify Eobert Bruce with the holding of
under the name of "Travelling Free- Masonic Courts, or the Institution of a
masons," flourished at a much earlier Secret Order at Kilwinning, the fraternity
period and we learn, also, from Lawrie of the Herodim must be attributed to
himself, that several of these Masons another than the hero of Bannockburn, and
travelled into Scotland, about the beginning a birthplace must be sought for it in a soil
of the twelfth century. Hence, we have still more favorable to the growth of the
every reason to suppose that these men high grades than Scotland has hitherto
were the architects who constructed the proved." He intimates that the legend
abbey at Kilwinning, and who first estab- was the invention of the Chevalier Eamsay,
past.

'

'

KILWINNING
whose birthplace was in the vicinity of
Kilwinning.
I confess that I look upon the legend and
the documents that contain it with some
favor, as at least furnishing the evidence
that there has been among the Fraternity a
general belief of the antiquity of the KilThose, however, whose
winning Lodge.
faith is of a more hesitating character, will
find the most satisfactory testimonies of the
existence of that Lodge in the beginning
of the fifteenth century. At that period,
when James II. was on the throne, the
Barons of Roslin, as hereditary Patrons of
Scotch Masonry, held their annual meetings at Kilwinning, and the Lodge at that
place granted Warrants of Constitution for
the formation of subordinate Lodges in
other parts of the kingdom.
The Lodges
thus formed, in token of their respect for,
and submission to, the mother Lodge
whence they derived their existence, affixed
the word Kilwinning to their own distinctive name; many instances of which
are still to be found on the register of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland such as Cannongate Kilwinning, Greenock Kilwinning,

Cumberland Kilwinning,

etc.

But, in process of time, this Grand Lodge

at Kilwinning ceased to retain its supremAs
acy, and finally its very existence.
in the case of the sister kingdom, where
the Grand Lodge was removed from York,
the birthplace of English Masonry, to
London, so in Scotland, the supreme seat
of the Order was at length transferred from
Kilwinning to tjae metropolis ; and hence,
in the doubtful document entitled the
" Charter of Cologne," which purports to
have been written in 1542, we find, in a
list of nineteen Grand Lodges in Europe,
that that of Scotland is mentioned as sitting at Edinburgh, under the Grand Mastership of John Bruce.
In 1736, when the
Grand Lodge of Scotland was organized,
the Kilwinning Lodge was one of its constituent bodies, and continued in its obedience until 1743. In that year petitioned
to be recognized as the oldest Lodge in Scotland; but as the records of the original
Lodge had been lost, the present Lodge
could not prove, says Lawrie, that it was
the identical Lodge which had first practised Freemasonry in Scotland.
The petition was therefore rejected, and, in consequence, the Kilwinning Lodge seceded
from the Grand Lodge and established itself as an independent body.
It organized
Lodges in Scotland and several instances
are on record of its issuing charters as
Mother Kilwinning Lodge to Lodges in
foreign countries. Thus, it granted one to
a Lodge in Virginia in 1758, and another
in 1779 to some brethren in Ireland calling
;

KILWINNING
themselves the Lodge of High Knights
Templars. But in 1807 the Mother Lodge
of Kilwinning renounced all right of granting charters, and came once more into the
bosom of the Grand .Lodge, bringing with
her all her daughter Lodges.
Here terminates the connection of Kilwinning as a place of any special importance with the Masonry of Scotland. As
for the abbey, the stupendous fabric which
was executed by the Freemasons who first
migrated into Scotland, its history, like that
of the Lodge which they founded, is one
of decline and decay. In 1560, it was in a
great measure demolished by Alexander,
Earl of Glencairne, in obedience to an
Order from the States of Scotland, in the
exercise of their usurped authority during
the imprisonment of Mary Stuart. A few
years afterwards, a part of the abbey chapel
was repaired and converted into the parish
church, and was used as such until about
the year 1775, when, in consequence of its
ruinous and dangerous state, it was pulled
down and an elegant church erected in the
modern style. In 1789, so much of the
ancient abbey remained as to enable Grose,
the antiquary, to take a sketch of the ruins;
but now not a vestige of the building is to
be found, nor can its exact site be ascertained with any precision.
Kilwinning Manuscript. Also
called the Edinburgh Kilwinning.
This
manuscript derives its name from its being
written in a small quarto book, belonging
to the celebrated "Mother Kilwinning
Lodge " of Scotland. For its publication,
the Masonic Fraternity is indebted to Bro.
William James Hughan, who has inserted
it in his Unpublished Records of the Craft,
from a copy made for him from the original
by Bro. D. Murray Lyon, of Ayr, Scotland.
Bro. Lyon, "whilst glancing at the minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh from December 27, 1675, till March 12, 1678, was struck
with the similarity which the handwriting
bore to that in which the Kilwinning copy
of the Narrative of the Founding of the Craft
is written, and upon closer examination he
was convinced that in both cases the calligraphy is the same." I agree with him in
believing that this proves the date as well
as the source of the manuscript, which,
says Bro. Hughan, "was probably written
The Anglican
earlier than A. D. 1670."
phraseology, and the fact that one of the
charges requires that Masons should be
" liedgemen to the King of England," conclusively show that the manuscript was written in England and introduced into Scotland. It is so much like the text of the Grand
Lodge MS., published by Bro. Hughan in
his Old Charges of British Freemasons, that,
to use the language of Bro. Woodford, " it

KNIGGE

KILWINNING
would pass
document."

as

an

indifferent

copy of that

Scotland, see Kilwinning.

practised in Scotland, so called because it
supposed to have been instituted at the
Oliver uses the
Abbey of Kilwinning.
term in his Mirror for the Johannite Masons,
See Saint John's Masonry.
(p. 120.)
King. The second officer in a Royal
Arch Chapter. He is the representative of
Zerubbabel, prince or governor of Judah.
When the Chapter meets as a Lodge of
Mark, Past, or Most Excellent Masters, the
King acts as Senior Warden.
After the rebuilding of the second Temple, the government of the Jews was adis

ministered by the high priests as the vicegerents of the kings of Persia, to whom
they paid tribute. This is the reason that
the High Priest is the presiding officer in a
Chapter, and the King only a subordinate.
But in the Chapters of England and Ireland, the King is made the presiding officer.
The jewel of the King is a level surmounted
by a crown suspended within a triangle.

The Germans call

der bruder kuss; the French, le baiser fraternal.

It is the kiss given in the French
and German Lodges by each brother to his
right and left hand neighbor when the
labors of the Lodge are closed. It is not
adopted in the English or American systems of Ancient Craft Masonry, although
practised in some of the high degrees.
it

Kiss of Peace.

In the reception
of an Ancient Knight Templar, it was the
practice for the one who received him to
greet him with a kiss upon the mouth.
This, which was called the osculum pads or
kiss of peace, was borrowed by the Templars from the religious orders, in all of
which it was observed. It is not practised
in the receptions of Masonic Templarism.

Kloss. Georg Burkh. Franz. A

German Mason and Doctor of
Medicine, who was born in 1788. Dr.
celebrated

Kloss was initiated into Masonry early in

He reorganized the Eclectic Grand
Lodge, of which he was several times Grand
Master. He resided at Frankfort-on-theMain, where he enjoyed a high reputation
as a physician.
He was the possessor of
an extensive Masonic library, and devoted
himself to the study of the antiquities and
true character of the Masonic institution,
insomuch that he was styled the "teacher
of the German Freemasons." Kloss's theory Was that the present Order of Freemasons found its origin in the stone-cutters
and building corporations of the Middle

life.

many

of which were printed and published. Annals of the Lodge Zur Einigheit, Frankfort,
1840 Freemasonry in its true meaning from
the ancient and genuine documents of the
Stonemasons, Leipsic, 1846
A History of
;

Kilwinning System. The Masonry

Kiss, Fraternal.

He

delivered, in the course of his

valuable historical discourses
before the Lodge Zur Einigheit, several

Ages.
life,

Kilwinning, Mother Lodge. For

an account of this body, which was for
some time the rival of the Grand Lodge of

397

Freemasonry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, Leipsic, 1848

A History of the Freemasons of France, from genuine documents,
Darmstadt, 1852; and a Bibliography of
Freemasonry, Frankfort, 1844. This last is a
most valuable contribution to Masonic literature.
It contains a list of more than
six thousand Masonic works in all languages, with critical remarks on many of
them. Dr. Kloss died at Frankfort, Febru;

ary 10, 1854. Bro. Meisinger, who delivered

" He had
his funeral eulogy, says of him
a rare amount of learning, and was a distinguished linguist; his reputation as a physician was deservedly great and he added
to these a friendly, tender, amiable disposition, with great simplicity and uprightness of character."
Kneeling. Bending the knees has, in
all ages of the world, been considered as an
act of reverence and humility, and hence
Pliny, the Roman naturalist, observes, that
" a certain degree of religious reverence is
attributed to the knees of man." Solomon
placed himself in this position when he
prayed at the consecration of the Temple
and Masons use the same posture in some
portions of their ceremonies, as a token of
solemn reverence. In the act of prayer,
:

Masons in the lower degrees adopt the

standing posture, which was the usage of
the primitive Church, where it was symbut Masons in
bolic of the resurrection
the higher degrees generally kneel on one
;

knee.

Knee

to

Knee.

When,

in

his

devotions to the G. A. O. T. U., he seeks

forgiveness for the past and strength for
the future, the Mason is taught that he
should, in these offices of devotion, join his
brother's name with his own. The prerogative that Job, in his blindness, thought
was denied to him, when he exclaimed,
" Oh that one might plead for a man with
"
God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor
is here not only taught as a right, but inculcated as a duty and the knee is directed
to be bent in intercession, not for ourselves
alone, but for the whole household of our
brethren.
!

Knigge. Adolph Franz Friederich Ludwig, Baron Von. He was

at one time among the most distinguished
Masons of Germany for while Weishaupt
was the ostensible inventor and leader of
the system of Bavarian Illuminism, it was
;

KNIGGE

KNIGHTHOOD

indebted for its real form and organization to the inventive genius of Knigge.
He was born at Brendenbeck, near HanoHe was initiated,
ver, October 16, 1752.
January 20, 1772, in a Lodge of Strict Observance at Cassel, but does not appear at
first to have been much impressed with
the Institution, for, in a letter to Prince
Charles of Hesse, he calls its ceremonies
''absurd, juggling tricks."
Subsequently
his views became changed, at least for a
When, in 1780, the Marquis de Costime.
tan zo was despatched by Weishaupt to
Northern Germany to propagate the Order
of the Illuminati, he made the acquaintance of Knigge, and succeeded in gaining
him as a disciple. Knigge afterwards entered into a correspondence with Weishaupt, in consequence of which his enthusiasm was greatly increased. After some
time, in reply to the urgent entreaties of
Knigge for more light, Weishaupt confessed
that the Order was as yet in an unfinished
state, and actually existed only in his own
brain the lower classes alone having been
organized. Recognizing Knigge's abilities,
he invited him to Bavaria, and promised to
surrender to him all the manuscript materials in his possession, that Knigge might;
out of them, assisted by his own invention,
construct the high degrees of the Rite.
Knigge accordingly repaired to Bavaria
in 1781, and when he met Weishaupt, the
latter consented that Knigge should elaborate the whole system up to the highest

masons and Rosicrucians " Versuch iiber die

Freimaurerei, i. e., " Essay on Freemasonry,"
in 1784; Beytrag zur neuesten Geschichte
des Freimaurerordens, i. e., " Contribution

398

mysteries.
This task Knigge accomplished, and entered into correspondence with the Lodges,
exerting all his talents, which were of no
mean order, fr the advancement of the Rite.
He brought to its aid the invaluable labors
of Bode, whom he prevailed upon to receive
the degrees.
After Knigge had fully elaborated the
system, and secured for it the approval of the
Areopagites, he introduced it into his district, and began to labor with every prospect
of success. But Weishaupt now interfered
and, notwithstanding his compact with
Knigge, he made many alterations and additions, which he imperiously ordered the
Provincial Directors to insert in the ritual.
Knigge, becoming disgusted with this proceeding, withdrew from the Order and soon
afterwards entirely from Freemasonry, devoting the rest of his life to general literature.
He died at Bremen, May 6, 1796.
Knigge was a man of considerable talents,
and the author of many books, both Masonic and non-Masonic.
Of these the
following are the most important.
work
published anonymously in 1781, entitled
Ueber Jesuiten, Freimaureren una deutsche
Rosenkreuzer i. e., " On the Jesuits, Free-

towards the latest History of the Order of

Freemasons," in 1786 and, after he had
retired from the Illuminati, a work entitled Philo's endliche Erklarung, or " Phi;

final Declaration," 1788, which professed to be his answer to the numerous

inquiries made of him in reference to his

lo's

connection with the Order.

Among his most popular non-Masonic
works was a treatise on Social Philosophy,
with the title of Ueber den Umgang mtt
Menschen, or, "On Conversation with
Men." This work, which was written
towards the close of his life, was very favorably received throughout Germany, and
translated into many languages. Although
abounding in many admirable remarks on
the various relations and duties of life, to
the Mason it will* be particularly interesting as furnishing a proof of the instability
of the author's opinions, for, with all his
abilities, Knigge evidently wanted a wellbalanced judgment. Commencing life with
an enthusiastic admiration for Freemasonry, in a few years he became disgusted
with it no long time elapsed before he was
found one of its most zealous apostles and
again retiring from the Order, he spent his
In his Conlast days in writing against it.
versation with Men, is a long chapter on
;

Secret Societies, in which he is scarcely

less denunciatory of them than Barruel or

Robison.

Knighthood. The Saxon word cnecht,

from which we get the English knight, signified at first a youth, and then a servant,
or one who did domestic service, or a soldier who did military service, which might
either be on foot or on horseback but the
French word chevalier and the German ritter
both refer to his equestrian character. Although Tacitus says that the German kings
and chiefs were attended in war and peace
by a select body of faithful servants, and
although the Anglo-Saxon kings and thanes
had their military attendants, who served
;

them with a personal fealty, the knight, in

the modern acceptation of the word, did
not appear until the establishment in
France of the order of chivalry. Thence
knighthood rapidly passed into the other
countries of Christendom for it always was
a Christian institution.
The stages through which a candidate
passed until his full investiture with the
rank of knighthood were three the Page,
the Squire or Esquire, and the Knight.
1. The Page.
The child who was destined to knighthood continued until he
was seven years old in the charge of women,
;

KNIGHTHOOD

KNIGHTHOOD
who gave him

that care which his tender

age required. He was then taken from
them and placed in the hands of a governor,
who prepared him by a robust and manly
education for the labors and dangers of
He was afterwards put into the
war.
household of some noble, where he first assumed the title of a Page. His employments were to perform the service of a domestic about the person of his master and
to attend them in the chase,
mistress
on their journeys, their visits, and their
walks to carry their messages, or even to
wait on them at table. The first lessons
given to him were in the love of God and
;

attachment and respect to females. His

religious education was not neglected, and
he was taught a veneration for all sacred
things.
His instructions in respect to
manners, conversation, and virtuous habits
were all intended to prepare him for his
future condition as a knight.
2. The Squire.
The youth, on emerging
from the employment of a Page, took on

him

that of Squire, called in French ecuyer.

This promotion was not unaccompanied by

an appropriate ceremony. The Page who
was to be made a Squire was presented to
the altar by his father and mother, or by
those who represented them, each holding
a lighted taper in his hand. The officiating
priest took from the altar a sword and belt,
on which he bestowed several benedictions,
and then placed them on the youth, who
from that time constantly wore them. The
Squires were divided into various classes,
each of whose employment was different.
To some, as to the chamberlains, was committed the care of the gold and silver of
the household; others, as the constable,
had the charge of the table utensils others
were carvers, and others butlers. But the
most honorable and the only one connected
immediately with chivalry was the Squire
;

of

Honor

or the

Body

Squire.

He was

immediately attached to some knight,

whose standard he carried. He helped to
dress and undress him, and attended him
morning and evening in his apartment.
On a march, he led the war-horse of his
master and carried his sword, his helmet,
and his shield. In the hour of battle, the
Squire, although he did not actually take a
part in the combat, was not altogether an
idle spectator of the contest.
In the shock
of battle, the two lines of knights, with
their lances in rest, fell impetuously on
each other some, who were thrown from
their horses, drew their swords or battleaxes to defend themselves and to make new
attacks, while advantage was sought by their
enemies over those who had been thrown.
During all this time, the Squire was attentive to every motion of his master.
In the
;

399

one case, to give him new arms, or to supply him with another horse to raise him
up when he fell, and to ward off the strokes
aimed at him while in the other case, he
seconded the knight by every means that
his skill, his valor, and his zeal could suggest, always, however, within the strict
bounds of the defensive, for the Squire was
not permitted by the laws of chivalry to
engage in offensive combat with a knight.
These services merited
3. The Knight
and generally received from the knight the
most grateful acknowledgment, and in time
the high honor of the badge of knighthood
bestowed by his own hand, for every knight
possessed the prerogative of making other
;

knights.

The age of twenty-one was that in which

the youthful Squire, after so many proofs
of zeal, fidelity, and valor, might be admitted to the honor of knighthood. The
rule as to age was not, however, always obSometimes the Squire was not
served.
knighted until he was further advanced in
years, and in the case of princes the time
was often anticipated. There are instances
of infants, the sons of kings, receiving the
dignity of knighthood.
The creation of a knight was accompanied
by solemn ceremonies, which some writers
have been pleased to compare to those of
the Church in the administration of its
sacraments, and there was, if not a close
resemblance, a manifest allusion in the one
The white habit and the bath
to the other.
of the knight corresponded to the form of
baptism the stroke on the neck and the embrace given to the new knight were compared
to the ceremony of confirmation and as the
godfather made a present to 1Jie child whom
he held at the font, so the lord who conferred knighthood was expected to make a
gift or grant some peculiar favor to the
;

whom

knight

he had dubbed.

The preliminary ceremonies which

pre-

pared the neophyte for the sword of chivalry were as follows austere fasts whole
nights passed in prayers in a church or
chapel the sacraments of confession, pen:

ance, and the eucharist; bathings, which

prefigured purity of manners and life a
white habit as a symbol of the same purity,
and in imitation of the custom with new
converts on their admission into the Church
and a serious attention to sermons, were all
duties of preparation to be devoutly performed by the Squire previous to his being
;

armed with the weapons and decorated with

the honors of knighthood.
An old French chronicler thus succinctly
details the ceremony of creation and invesThe neophyte bathes; after which,
titure.
clothed in white apparel, he is to watch all
night in the church, and remain there in

KNIGHTHOOD

KNIGHTHOOD

prayer until after the celebration of high

mass.
The communion being then received, the youth solemnly raises his joined
hands and his eyes to heaven, when the
priest who had administered the sacrament
passes the sword over the neck of the youth
and blesses it. The candidate then kneels
at the feet of the lord or knight who is to
arm him. The lord asks him with what

George (or what other saint the King

pleased to name, ) make thee a good knight ;
after which seven Ladies dressed in white
came and girt a sword to his side and four
knights put on his spurs.
" These ceremonies being over, the Queen
took him by the right hand, and a Duchess
by the left, and leading him to a rich seat,
placed him on an ascent, where they seated
him, the King sitting on his right hand,
and the Queen on his left.
"Then the Lords and Ladies also sat
down upon other seats, three descents
under the King and being all thus seated,
they were entertained with a delicate collation
and so the ceremony ended."
The manner of arming a newly-made
knight was first to put on the spurs, then
the coat-of-mail, the cuirass, the brasset or
casque, and the gauntlets. The lord or
knight conferring the honor then girded
on the sword, which last was considered as
the most honorable badge of chivalry, and
a symbol of the labor that the knight was
in future to encounter. It was in fact
deemed the real and essential part of the
ceremony, and that which actually constituted the knight. Du Cange, in his Glossarium, defines the Latin word militare, in
its mediaeval sense, as signifying "to make
a knight," which was, he says, " balteo
militari accingere," i. e., to gird on him the
knightly belt ; and it is worthy of remark,
that cingulus, which in pure Latin signifies
a belt, came in the later Latin of Justinian
I need
to denote the military profession.
not refer to the common expression, "a
belted knight," as indicating the close connection between knighthood and the girding of the belt. It was indeed the belt and
sword that made the knight.
The oath taken by the knight at his reception devoted him to the defence of religion and the Church, and to the protection
of widows, orphans, and all of either sex
who were powerless, unhappy, or suffering
under injustice and oppression and to
shrink from the performance of these duties whenever called upon, even at the
sacrifice of his life, was to incur dishonor
for the rest of his days.
Of all the laws of chivalry, none was
maintained with more rigor than that which
secured respect for the female sex. " If an
honest and virtuous lady," says Brantome,
" will maintain her firmness and constancy,
her servant, that is to say the knight who
had devoted himself to her service, must
not even spare his life to protect and defend her, if she runs the least risk either
of her fortune, or her honor, or of any censorious word, for we are bound by the laws
of Chivalry to be the champions of women's

400

intent he desires to enter into that sacred

Order, and if his views tend only to the
maintenance and honor of religion and of
knighthood.
The lord, having received
from the candidate a satisfactory reply to
these questions, administers the oath of
reception, and gives him three strokes on
the neck with the flat end of the sword,
which he then girds upon him. This scene
passes sometimes in a hall or in the court of
a palace, or, in time of war, in the open field.
The girding on of the sword was accompanied with these or similar words " In
the name of God, of St. Michael, and of
St. George, I make thee a knight be brave,
:

be hardy, and be loyal." And then the

kneeling candidate is struck upon the
shoulder or back of the neck, by him who
confers the dignity, with the flat of the
sword, and directed to rise in words like
" Arise, Sir Damian " a formula
these
:

followed by the sovereigns of England

when they confer the honor of knighthood.
And hence the word "Sir," which is equivalent to the old French "Sire," is accounted, says Ashmole, " parcel of their
still

style."

William Segar, in his treatise on

and Military Honor, gives the following account of the ceremonies used in EngSir

Civil

land in the sixth century

"A

stage was erected in some cathedral,

or spacious place near it, to which the gentleman was conducted to receive the honor
of knighthood. Being seated on a chair

decorated with green silk, it was demanded

of him if he were of a good constitution,
and able to undergo the fatigue required in
a soldier also whether he were a man of
good morals, and what credible witnesses
he could produce to affirm the same.
" Then the Bishop or Chief Prelate of the
Church administered the following oath:
Sir, you that desire to receive the honor of
knighthood, swear before God and this holy
book that you will not fight against his Majesty, that now bestoweth the order of knighthood upon you.
You shall also swear to
maintain and defend all Ladies, Gentlemen,
Widows and Orphans; and you shall shun
no adventure of your person in any war
wherein you shall happen to be.'
"The oath being taken, two Lords led
him to the King, who drew his sword, and
laid it upon his head, saying, God and St.
;

'

afflictions."

KNIGHTHOOD

KNIGHTHOOD

401

Nor did any human law insist with so pendent of

much force as that of chivalry upon the were at the
necessity of an inviolable attachment to
truth. Adherence to his word was esteemed

most honorable part of a knight's

Hence to give the lie was conmost mortal and irreparable
affront, to be expiated only by blood.
An oath or solemn promise given in the
name of a knight was of all oaths the most
inviolable.
Knights taken in battle engaged to come of their own accord to prison
whenever it was required by their captors,
and on their word of honor they were readily allowed liberty for the time for which
they asked it for no one ever doubted that
they would fulfil their engagements. Sovthe

character.
sidered the

ereigns considered their oath of knightas the most solemn that they could
give, and hence the Duke of Bretagne,
having made a treaty of peace with Charles
the Sixth of France, swore to its observance " by the faith of his body and the loyalty of his knighthood."
It is scarcely necessary to say that generous courage was an indispensable quality
of a knight. An act of cowardice, of cruelty, or of dishonorable warfare in battle,
would overwhelm the doer with deserved
infamy. In one of the tenzones, or poetical
contests of the Troubadours, it is said that
to form a perfect knight all the tender
offices of humanity should be united to the
greatest valor, and pity and generosity to
the conquered associated with the strictest
justice and integrity.
Whatever was contrary to the laws of war was inconsistent
with the laws of chivalry.
The laws of chivalry also enforced with
peculiar impressiveness sweetness and modesty of temper, with that politeness of demeanor which the word* courtesy was meant
perfectly to express. An uncourteous knight

hood

would have been an anomaly.

Almost all of these knightly qualities are
well expressed by Chaucer in the Prologue
to his Knight's Tale
"

A knight there was, and that a worthy man,

That from the time that he first began
To riden out he loved chivalry,
Truth and honor, freedom and courtesy.
Full worthy was he in his lord's war
And thereto had he ridden, no man farre
As well in Christendom as in Heatheness,
And ever honored for his worthiness.
;

"

And ever more he had a sovereign price,

And though that he was worthy, he was wise
And of his port as meek as was a maid.
He never yet no villainy he said
In

unto no manner wight,

was a very perfect, gentle knight."

all his life

He

The most common and

sions

frequent occacreated, inde-

on which knights were

3A

26

those which happened in war,

great feasts of the Church, and
especially at the feast of Pentecost ; also at
the publications of peace or a truce, the
coronations of kings, the birth or baptism
of princes, and the days on which those
princes had themselves received knighthood. But a knight could at any time confer the distinction on one whom he deemed
deserving of it.
There was a distinction between the titles
as well as the dress of a knight and a
squire.
The knight was called Don, Sire,
Messire, or, in English, Sir
a title not bestowed upon a squire and while the wife
of the former was called a Lady, that of
the latter was only a Gentlewoman. The
wife of a knight was sometimes called
Militissa, or female knight.
In their dresses and their harness,
knights were entitled to wear gold and
golden decorations, while* the squires were
confined to the use of silver. Knights
alone had a right to wear, for the lining of
their cloaks and mantles, ermine, sable,
and meniver, which were the most valuable furs ; while those of a less costly kind
were for the squires. The long and training mantle, of a scarlet color, and lined
with ermine or other precious furs, which
was called the Mantle of Honor, wT as especially reserved for the knight.
Such a
mantle was always presented by the kings
of France to knights whom they created.
The mantle was considered the most august
and noble decoration that a knight could
wear, when he was not dressed in his armor.
The official robes still worn by many magistrates in Europe are derived from the
knightly Mantle of Honor.
It should be remarked that the order
of knighthood, and the ceremonies accompanying the investiture of a knight, were
of a symbolic character, and are well calculated to remind the Freemason of the
symbolic character of his own Institution.
The sword which the knight received
was called "the arms of mercy," and he
was told to conquer his enemies by mercy
rather than by force of arms.
Its blade
was two-edged, to remind him that he must
maintain chivalry and justice, and contend
only for the support of these two chief pillars of the temple of honor.
The lance represented Truth, because truth, like the
lance, is straight.
The coat of mail was
the symbol of a fortress erected against
vice for, as castles are surrounded by walls
and ditches, the coat of mail is closed in all
its parts, and defends the knight against
treason, disloyalty, pride, and every other
evil passion.
The rowels of the spur were
given to urge the possessor on to deeds of

honor and

virtue.

The

shield,

which he

KNIGHTHOOD

KNIGHTHOOD

places betwixt himself and his enemy, was

to remind him that the knight is a shield
interposed between the prince and the people, to preserve peace and tranquillity.
In a Latin manuscript of the thirteenth
century, copied by Anstis, (App, p. 95,) will
be found the following symbolical explanation of the ceremonial of knighthood.
The bath was a symbol of the washing
away of sin by the sacrament of baptism.
The bed into which the novice entered and
reposed after the bath, was a symbol of the
peace of mind which would be acquired by
the virtue of chivalry.
The white garments with which he was afterwards
clothed, were a symbol of the purity which
The scarlet
a knight should maintain.
robe put on the newly-made knight was
symbolic of the blood which he should be
ready to shed for Christ and the Church.
The dark boots are a sign of the earth,
whence we all came, and to which we are

But the duty which was owing to the prince

or to the country was preferred to all others,
and hence brothers in arms of different nations were only united together so long as
their respective sovereigns were at peace,
and a declaration of war between two
princes dissolved all such confraternities
between the subjects of each. But except
in this particular case, the bond of brotherhood was indissoluble, and a violation of
the oath which bound two brothers together was deemed an act of the greatest

402

infamy.
other.

They could not challenge each

They even wore in battle the same

habits and armor, as if they desired that

the enemy should mistake one for the
other, and thus that both might incur an
equal risk of the dangers with which each
was threatened.
Knights were divided into two ranks,

namely, Knights Bachelors and Knights

Bannerets.

The white belt is a symbol

The Knight Bachelor was of the lower
The golden spur symbolizes rank, and derived his title most probpromptitude of action. The sword is a ably from the French bas chevalier. In the
all to return.

of chastity.

symbol of severity against the attacks of

Satan; its two edges are to teach the
knight that he is to defend the poor
against the rich, and the weak against the
powerful. The white fillet around the head
is a symbol of good works.
The alapa or
blow was in memorial of him who made him
a knight.
There was

one usage of knighthood

peculiarly worthy of attention.
The love of glory, which was so inspiring
to the knights of chivalry, is apt to produce a spirit of rivalry and emulation that
might elsewhere prove the fruitful source
of division and discord. But this was prevented by the fraternities of arms so common among the knights. Two knights who
had, perhaps, been engaged in the same expeditions, and had conceived for each other
a mutual esteem and confidence, would enter into a solemn compact by which they
became and were called " Brothers in

which

is

arms." Under this compact, they swore to

share equally the labors and the glory, the
dangers and the profits of all enterprises,

days of chivalry, as well as in later times,

this dignity was conferred without any reference to a qualification of property.
Knights Bachelors were in fact mere ad-

Many

venturers, unconnected by feudal ties of

any sort, who offered their services in war
to any successful leader, and found in their
sword a means of subsistence, not only by
pay and plunder, but in the regularly established system of ransom, which every
knight taken in action paid for his liberty.
The Knight Bachelor bore instead of a
square banner a pointed or triangular ensign,

which was forked by being extended

in two cornets or points, and which was

The triangular banner,
called a pennon.
not forked, was called a pennoncel, and was
carried by a squire.
The Knight Banneret, a name derived

from banneret, a little banner, was one who

possessed many fiefs, and who was obliged
to serve in war with a large attendance of
followers.

If a knight was rich and powerful enough

to furnish the state or his sovereign with a
certain number of armed men, and to entertain them at his own expense, permission
was accorded to him to add to his simple
designation of Knight or Knight Bachelor,

and never, under any circumstances, to

abandon each other. The brother in arms
was to be the enemy of those who were the
enemies of his brother, and the friend of
those who were his friends both of them the more noble and exalted title of Knight
This gave him the light to
were to divide their present and future Banneret.
wealth, and to employ that and their lives carry a square banner on the top of his
Knights Bachelors were sometimes
for the deliverance of each other if taken lance.
The claims of a brother in arms made Bannerets on the field of battle, and
prisoner.
were paramount to all others, except those as a reward of their prowess, by the simple
of the sovereign. If the services of a ceremony of the sovereign cutting off with
knight were demanded at the same time by his sword the cornets or points of their
a lady and by a brother in arms, the claim pennons, thus transforming them into
;

of the former gave

way

to that of the latter.

square banners.

Clark, in his History of

KNIGHTHOOD
Knighthood,

(vol.

i.,

p. 73,)

thus describes

ceremony in

detail
" The king or his general, at the head
of his army drawn up in order of battle
after a victory, under the royal standard
this

displayed, attended by all the officers and

nobility present, receives the knight led between two knights carrying his pennon of
arms in his hand, the heralds walking before him, who proclaim his valiant achievements for which he has deserved to be
made a Knight Banneret, and to display
his banner in the field then the king or
general says to him, Advancez toy banneret,
and causes the point of his pennon to be
rent off; then the new knight, having the
trumpets before him sounding, the nobility
and officers bearing him company, is sent
back to his tent, where they are all entertained."
;

But generally the same ceremonial was

used in times of peace at the making of a
Knight Banneret as at the institution of
barons, viscounts, earls, and the other orders of nobility, with whom they claimed
an almost equality of rank.
Not long after the institution of knighthood as an offshot of chivalry, we find, besides the individual Knights Bachelors
and Knights Bannerets, associations of
knights banded together for some common
purpose, of which there were two classes.
First: Fraternities
possessing property
and rights of their own as independent
bodies into which knights were admitted as
monks were into religious foundations. Of
this class may be mentioned, as examples,
the Temthe three great religious Orders
plars, the Hospitallers, and the Teutonic

K^nights.

The second class consisted of honorary

associations established by sovereigns within their respective dominions, consisting
of members whose only common tie is the
possession of the same titular distinction.
Such are most of the European orders of
knighthood now existing, as the Knights
of the Garter in England, the Knights of
St. Andrew in Russia, and the Knights of
the Golden Fleece in Spain.
The institution of these titular orders of knighthood
dates at a much more recent period than
that of the Fraternities who constitute the
first class, for not one of them can trace
its birth to the time of the Crusades, at
which time the Templars and similar orders sprang into existence.
Ragon, in his Cours Philosophique, attempts to draw a parallel between the institution of knighthood and that of Freemasonry, such as that there were three degrees in one as there are in the other, and
that there was a close resemblance in the
ceremonies of initiation into both orders.

KNIGHTHOOD

403

He thus intimates for them a common origin; but these parallels should rather be
considered simply as coincidences.
The
theory first advanced by the Chevalier
Ramsay, and adopted by Hund and the disciples of the Rite of Strict Observance,
that all Freemasons are Templars, and that
Freemasonry is a lineal successor of ancient
knighthood,

is

now

rejected as wholly un-

tenable and unsupported by any authentic

history.
The only connection between
knighthood and Freemasonry is that which
was instituted after the martyrdom of James
de Molay, when the Knights Templars
sought concealment and security in the
bosom of the Masonic fraternity.
When one was made a knight, he was
said to be dubbed.
This is a word in constant use in the Mediaeval manuscripts. In
the old Patavian statutes, "Miles adobatus,"
a dubbed knight, is defined to be " one who,
by the usual ceremonies, acquires the dignity and profession of chivalry."
The
Provencal writers constantly employ the
term to dub, "adouber," and designate a
knight who has gone through the ceremony
of investiture as " un chevalier adoube," a
dubbed knight.
Thus, in the Eomaunt
d'Auberi, the Lady d'Auberi says to the

King,
" Sire, dit elle, par Deu de Paradis
Soit adouber mes freres auberis."
" Sire, for the love of the God of
my brothers be dubbed."
The meaning of the word then is plain
to dub, is to make or create a knight.
But
its derivation is not so easily settled amid
the conflicting views of writers on the subject.
The derivation by Menage from duplex is not worth consideration.
Henschell's, from a Provencal word adobare,
"to equip," although better, is scarcely
tenable.
The derivation from the AngloSaxon dubban, "to strike or give a blow,"
would be reasonable, were it not presumable that the Anglo-Saxons borrowed their
word from the French and from the usages
of chivalry. It is more likely that dubban
came from adouber, than that adouber came
from dubban. The Anglo-Saxons took their
forms and technicalities of chivalry from
the French. After all, the derivation proposed by Du Cange is the most plausible
and the one most generally adopted, because it is supported by the best authorities.
He says that it is derived from the
Latin adoptare, to adopt, "quod qui aliquem armis instruit ac Militem facit, eum
quodammodo adoptat in filium," i. e., " He
who equips any one with arms, and makes
him a knight, adopts him, as it were, as a
son." To dub one as a knight is, then, to

That

is,

Paradise, let

KNIGHTHOOD

KNIGHTHOOD

adopt him into the order of chivalry. The

idea was evidently taken from the Roman
law of adoptatio, or adoption, where, as in
conferring knighthood, a blow on the cheek

the accolade, with the embracing and kiss

of peace," as if they were distinct and separate ceremonies but in another part of his
book he calls the accolade "the laying
hands upon the shoulders." I am inclined
to believe, after much research, that both
the blow on the neck and the embrace constituted properly the accolade.
This blow
was sometimes given with the hand, but
sometimes with the sword. Anstis says that
"the action which fully and finally impresses the character of knighthood is the
blow given with the hand upon the neck
or shoulder." But he admits that there
has been a controversy among writers
whether the blow was heretofore given
with a sword or by the bare hand upon the
neck, (p. 73.)
The mystical signification which Caseneuve gives in hisEtymologies (voc.Accollee)
is ingenious and appropriate, namely, that
the blow was given on the neck to remind
him who received it that he ought never,
by flight from battle, to give an enemy the
opportunity of striking him on the same

404

was given.
The word accolade is another term of
chivalry about which there is much misIt is now supposed to
understanding.
mean the blow of the sword, given by the
knight conferring the dignity, on the neck
But
or shoulder of him who received it.
The word
this is most probably an error.
is derived, says Brewer, {Diet. Phr. and
Fab.,) from the Latin ad collum, "around
the neck," and signifies the embrace "given
by the Grand Master when he receives a

neophyte or new convert." It was an early

custom to confer an embrace and the kiss
of peace upon the newly-made knight,
which ceremony, Ash mole thinks, was
called the accolade. Thus, in his History
of the Order of the Garter, (p. 15,) he says:

"The

first Christian kings, at giving the

kissed the new knight on the left
cheek, saying In the honor of the Father

belt,

Son and the Holy Ghost, I make you

a knight. It was called the osculum pads,
the kiss of favor or of brotherhood, [more

and

the

correctly the kiss of peace,]

sumed to be the accolade or

and is preceremony of

embracing, which Charles the Great used

when he knighted his son Louis the Debonnair." In the book of Johan de Yignay,

which was written in the fourteenth century, this kiss of peace is mentioned to" Et le Seigneur
une colee en signe de proeste et de hardement, et que il leur souveigne

gether with the accolade

leur doit donner

de celui noble

homme

qui la

fait chevalier.

Et done les doit le Seigneur baisier en

bouche en signe de paix et d'amour " i.
;

la
e.,

"And

the lord ought to give him [the

newly- made knight] an accolade as a
symbol of readiness and boldness, and in
memory of the nobleman who has made
him a knight and then the lord ought to
kiss him on the mouth as a sign of peace
;

and

love."

In an old manuscript in the Cottonian Library, entitled "

Knyghtes

The manner

after the

of

makynge

custome of Engelande,"

a copy of which is inserted in Anstis's

Historical Essay on the Knighthood of the
Bath, (Append., p. 99,) is this account of
the embrace and kiss, accompanied with
" Thanne shall the
a blow on the neck
Squyere lift up his armes on high, and the
Kynge shall put his armes about thenekke
of the Squyer, and lyftynge up his right
hande he shall smyte the Squyer in the
nekke, seyeng thus Be ye a good Knyhte ;
kissing him." Anstis himself is quite con:

fused in his description of the ceremonial,

and enumerates "the blow upon the neck,

place.

But there was another blow, which was

given in the earliest times of chivalry, and
which has by some writers been confounded
with the accolade, which at length came to
be substituted for it. This was the blow on
the cheek, or. in common language, the box
on the ear, which was given to a knight at
his investiture.
This blow is never called
the accolade by the old writers, but generally the alapa, rarely the gautada.
Du
Cange says that this blow was sometimes
given on the neck, and that then it was
called the colaphus, or by the French colee,
from col, the neck. Duchesne says the
blow was always given with the hand, and
not with the sword.
Ashmole says " It was in the time of
Charles the Great the way of knighting by
the colaphum, or blow on the ear, used in
sign of sustaining future hardships, ....
a custom long after retained in Germany
and France. Thus William, Earl of Holland, who was to be knighted before he
could be emperor, at his being elected king
of the Romans, received knighthood by the
box of the ear, etc., from John, king of Bohemia, A. D. 1247."
Both the word alapa and the ceremony
which it indicated were derived from the
form of manumission among the Romans,
where the slave on being freed received a
blow called alapa on the cheek, characterized by Claudian as "felix injuria," a happy
injury, to remind him that it was the last
blow he was compelled to submit to for
thenceforth he was to be a freeman, capable
of vindicating his honor from insult. The
alapa, in conferring knighthood, was em:

KNIGHTHOOD

KNIGHT

405

Thus in were to be found as the results of an inwhich gives an ac- stitution founded solely for the public welcount of the knighting of Hildebrand by fare, as in the most enlightened times
the Lord Kidolfonus, we find this passage, have never been surpassed and very seldom
which I give in the original, for the sake equalled."
Knight. 1. An order of chivalry. See
of the one word gautata, which is unusual
" Postea Ridolfonus de more dedit illi gau- Knighthood and Knight Masonic.
2. The eleventh and last degree of the
tatam et dixit illi. Tu es miles nobilis miliOrder of African Architects.
tise equestris, et haec gautata est in recorda-

ployed with a similar symbolism.

an old

register of 1260,

tionem, illius qui te armavit militem, et hoec

gautata debet esse ultima injuria, quam
That is: "Afterpatienter acceperis."
wards Ridolfonus gave him in the customary way the blow, and said to him Thou
art a noble Knight of the Equestrian Order
of Chivalry, and this blow is given in memory of him who hath armed thee as a knight,
and it must be the last injury which thou
shalt patiently endure." The first reason
assigned for the blow refers to an old custom of cuffing the witnesses to a transaction, to impress it on their memory. Thus,
by the riparian law, when there was a sale
of land, some twelve witnesses were collected to see the transfer of property and
the payment of the price, and each received
a box on the ear, that he might thus the
better remember the occurrence. So the
knight received the blow to make him remember the time of his receiving his knighthood and the person who conferred it.
For the commission of crime, more es:

pecially for disloyalty to his sovereign, a

knight might be degraded from the Order

and this act of degradation was accompanied with many ceremonies, the chief of
which was the hacking off his spurs. This
was to be done for greater infamy, not by
a knight, but by the master cook. Thus
Stow says that, at the making of Knights of
the Bath, the king's master cook stood at
the door of the chapel, and said to each
knight as he entered, "Sir Knight, look
that you be true and loyal to the king my
;

Knight, Black.

See Black Brothers.

Knight Commander.
Commandeur.)

(Chevalier

The ninth degree of

the
Rite of Elect Cohens.
distinction
2.
conferred by the Supreme Council of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for
the Southern Jurisdiction of the United
States on deserving Honorary Thirty-Thirds
and Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret.
It is conferred by a vote of the Supreme
Council, and is unattended with any other
ceremony than the presentation of a decoration and a patent.
1.

Knight
Temple.

Commander

of the

See /Sovereign Commander of

the Temple.

Knight Commander of the

White and Black Eagle. {ChevaCommandeur de I'Aigle blanc et noir. ) The
eightieth degree of the collection of the
lier

Metropolitan Chapter of France.

Knight,

Crusader.

Thory says

Chevalier

Lat, i. 303,) that

this is a chivalric degree, which was communicated to him by a member of the
Grand Lodge of Copenhagen. He gives
no further account of its character.
Croise.)

(Act.

Knight Elect of Fifteen.

1.

The

sixteenth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, more commonly called Illustrious Elect of the Fifteen.
See Elect of
the Fifteen.
2.

The tenth degree of the Chapter of

Emperors of the East and West.

3.

The eleventh degree of the Rite of

master, or else I must hew these spurs from

your heels." His shield too was reversed,
and the heralds had certain marks called

Mizraim.

abatements, which they placed

dicate his dishonor.

cient and Accepted Rite, sometimes called

" Twelve Illustrious Knights." After ven-

on

it

to in-

Knight Elect of Twelve, Sublime.

The eleventh degree of the An-

M. de St. Palaye concludes his learned geance had been taken upon the traitors
and exhaustive Memoires sur Vancienne mentioned in the degrees of Elected
Chevalerie with this truthful tribute to Knights of Nine and Illustrious Elected
that spirit of chivalry in which ancient of Fifteen, Solomon, to reward those who
knighthood found its birth, and with it I had exhibited their zeal and fidelity in in-

may

appropriately close this article

"It is certain that chivalry, in its earliest

period, tended to promote order and good
morals and although it was in some respects
imperfect, yet it produced the most accomplished models of public valor and of those
;

and gentle virtues that are the ornaments of domestic life and it is worthy of
consideration, that in an age of darkness,
most rude and unpolished, such examples
pacific

flicting the required punishment, as well as.

to make room for the exaltation of others
to the degree of Illustrious Elected of
Fifteen, appointed twelve of these latter,
chosen by ballot, to constitute a new degree, on which he bestowed the name of
Sublime Knights Elected, and gave them
the command over the twelve tribes of Is-

The Sublime Knights rendered an

account each day to Solomon of the work
real.

"

KNIGHT

406

KNIGHT

that was done in the Temple by their respective tribes, and received their pay.
The Lodge is called a Chapter. In the old

Solomon presides, with the title of

Thrice Puissant, and instead of Wardens,
there are a Grand Inspector and a Master
of Ceremonies. In the modern ritual of
the Southern Jurisdiction, the Master
rituals

and Wardens represent Solomon, Hiram

of Tyre, and Adoniram, and the style of
the Master and Senior Warden is Thrice
The room is hung with black,
Illustrious.
sprinkled with white and red tears.
The apron is white, lined and bordered
with black, with black strings on the flap,
a flaming heart.
The sash is black, with a flaming heart
on the breast, suspended from the right
shoulder to the left hip.
The jewel is a sword of justice.
This is the last of the three Elus which
are found in the Ancient Scottish Eite. In
the French Rite they have been condensed
into one, and make the fourth degree of
that ritual, but not, as Eagon admits, with
the happiest effect.
Knight Hospitaller. See Knight
of Malta.
;

Knight, Illustrious or Illustrious Elect. Chevalier Illustre or Elu II(

lustre.)

The

thirteenth degree of the Eite

of Mizraim.

Knight Jupiter.

Eagon

says of this [Tuileur, 171,) that it is

a pretended degree, of which he has four
copies, and that it appears to be a monstrosity invented by an enemy of the Order
for the purposes of calumniation.
The
ritual says that the degree is conferred only
in England and Prussia, which is undoubtedly untrue.

Knight Masonic.

The word

knight,

prefixed to so many of the high degrees as

a part of the title, has no reference whatever to the orders of chivalry, except in
the case of Knights Templars and Knights
of Malta. The word, in such titles as
Knight of the Ninth Arch, Knight of the
Brazen Serpent, etc., has a meaning totally

unconnected with Mediaeval knighthood.

In fact, although the English, German, and
French words Knight, Bitter, and Chevalier, are applied to both, the Latin word
for each is different.
A Masonic knight
is, in Latin, eques; while the Mediaeval
writers always called a knight of chivalry
miles.
So constant is this distinction, that
in the two instances of Masonic knighthood derived from the chivalric orders, the

Knight Templar and the Knight of Malta,

word miles is used, instead of eques, to

this

indicate that they are not really degrees of

Masonic knighthood. Thus we say Miles
Templarius and Miles Mditae. If they had
been inventions of a Masonic ritualist, the

[Le Chevalier
Jupiter.) The seventy -eighth degree of the
collection of Peuvret.
formerly called

titles would have been Eques Templarius

and Eques Melitce.
The eques, or Masonic knight, is there-

Grand Elect Knight Kadosh.

Grand Elu
du Chevalier Kadosch.) The Knight Ka-

all.

Knight Kadosh,

dosh

the thirtieth degree of the Ancient

and Accepted Scottish Eite, called also
Knight of the White and Black Eagle.
While retaining the general Templar doctrine of the Kadosh system, it symbolizes
and humanizes the old lesson of vengeance.
It is the most popular of all the Kadoshes.
In the Knight Kadosh of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Eite, the meetings
are called Councils. The principal officers
are, according to the recent rituals, a Comis

mander, two Lieutenant Commanders, called

also Prior and Preceptor; a Chancellor,
Orator, Almoner, Eecorder, and Treasurer.

The jewel,

as described in the ritual of the

fore not, in the heraldic sense, a knight at

The word is used simply to denote a

position higher than that of a mere Master;

a position calling, like the "devoir" of
knighthood, for the performance of especial
duties.
As the word " prince," in Masonic
language, denotes not one of princely rank,
but one invested with a share of Masonic
sovereignty and command, so " knight
denotes one who is expected to be distinguished with peculiar fidelity to the cause
in which he has enlisted. It is simply, as I
have said, a point of rank above that of the
Master Mason. It is, therefore, confined to
the high degrees.
Chevalier Ma(
hadon.)
degree in the Archives of the
Lodge of Saint Louis des Amis Ee'unis at

Knight Mahadon.
A

Southern Supreme Council, is a doubleheaded eagle, displayed resting on a teu-

Calais.

tonic cross, the eagle silver, the cross gold

enamelled red. The Northern Council uses
instead of the eagle the letters J. B. M.
The Kadoshes, as representatives of the
Templars, adopt the Beauseant as their
standard. In this degree, as in all the other
Kadoshes, we find the mystical ladder of

Asia, Initiated Knights

seven steps.

Knight Kadosh of Cromwell.

Knight of Asia,

Initiated.

Knight of Athens.
The

See

of.

{Chevalier d'

-second degree of
the Eite of Mizraim. 2. A degree in the
nomenclature of Fustier. 3. A degree in
the Archives of the Mother Lodge of the
Philosophic Eite in France.
Athenes.)

1.

fifty

Knight of Aurora.
VAurore.)

Chevalier de

A degree belonging to the Eite

);

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

Palestine. It is a modification of the

Kadosh, and is cited in the collection of
In the collection of M. Viany, it
Fustier.
is also called Knight of Palestine.

tuted for the recovery of the Holy Land.

It owes its origin to the Hospitallers of Jerusalem, that wholly religious and charitable Order which was established at Jerusalem, in 1048, by pious merchants of Amalfi
for the succor of poor and distressed Latin
pilgrims.
(See Hospitallers of Jerusalem.)
This society, established when Jerusalem
was in possession of the Mohammedans,
passed through many vicissitudes, but lived
to see the Holy City conquered by the
Christian knights. It then received many
accessions from the Crusaders, who, laying
aside their arms, devoted themselves to the
pious avocation of attending the sick. It
was then that Gerard, the Rector of the
Hospital, induced the brethren to take upon
themselves the vows of poverty, obedience,
and chastity, which they did at the hands
of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who clothed
them in the habit selected for the Order,
which was a plain, black robe bearing a
white cross of eight points on the left
This was in the year 1099, and
breast.
some writers here date the beginning of the
Order of Knights of Malta. But this is an
error.
It was not until after the death of
Gerard that the Order assumed that military character which it ever afterwards
maintained, or, in other words, that the
peaceful Hospitallers of Jerusalem became
the warlike Knights of St. John.
In 1118, Gerard, the Rector of the Hospital, died, and was succeeded by Raymond
du Puy, whom Marulli, the old chronicler
of the Order, in his Vite de' Gran Maestri,
(Napoli, 1636,) calls "seeondo Rettore e
primo Maestro."
The peaceful habits and monastic seclusion of the Brethren of the Hospital, which
had been fostered by Gerard, no longer
suited the warlike genius of his successor.
He therefore proposed a change in the
character of the society, by which it should
become a military Order, devoted to active
labors in the field and the protection of
Palestine from the encroachments of the
This proposition was warmly apinfidels.
proved by Baldwyn II., king of Jerusalem,
who, harassed by a continual warfare, gladly
accepted this addition to his forces. The
Order having thus been organized on a military basis, the members took a new oath,
at the hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem,
by which they bound themselves to defend
the cause of Christianity against the infidels in the Holy Land to the last drop of
their blood, but on no account to bear arms
for any other purpose.
This act, done in 1118, is considered as
the beginning of the establishment of the
Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John,
of which Raymond du Puy is, by all historians, deemed the first Grand Master.

r>f

Knight of Beneficence.

Cheva-

The forty-ninth
de la Bienfaisance.)
degree of the collection of the Metropolitan
Chapter of France. It is also called Knight
of Perfect Silence.
of Brightness. ( Chevalier
lier

Knight

de la Clarti.)

The seventh and

last

degree

of the system of the Clerks of Strict Observance, called also Magus.

Knight of Christ.

After the disso-

lution of the Templars in the fourteenth

century, those knights who resided in Portugal retained the possessions of the Order
in that country, and perpetuated it under
the name of the Knights of Christ. Their
badge is a red cross patte'e, charged with a
plain white cross. See Christ, Order of.

Knight of Constantinople. A
side degree ; instituted, doubtless, by some
lecturer; teaching, however, an excellent
moral lesson of humility. Its history has

no connection whatever with Masonry.

The degree is not very extensively diffused

but several Masons, especially in the Western States, are in possession of it. It may
be conferred by any Master Mason on
another although the proper performance
of the ceremonies requires the assistance of
several.
When the degree is formally conferred, the body is called a Council, and
consists of the following officers Illustrious Sovereign, Chief* of the Artisans,
Seneschal, Conductor, Prefect of the Palace, and Captain of the Guards.
Knight of Hope. 1. species of
androgynous Masonry, formerly practised
in France.
The female members were
called Dames or Ladies of Hope.
2. A
synonym of Knight of the Morning Star,
;

which

see.

Knight of Iris.

Chevalier de VIris.
(
fourth degree of the Hermetic Eite of
Montpellier.

The

Knight of Jerusalem

Chevalier

de Jerusalem.) The sixty-fifth degree of

the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter
of France.

Knight of Justice.
pitallers of St.

Knights Hos-

John of Jerusalem or Knights

of Malta were called, in the technical language of the Order, Knights of Justice.
Knights ofMalta. This Order, which
at various times in the progress of its history received the names of Knights Hospitallers, Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights of Ehodes, and, lastly,
Knights of Malta, was one of the most important of the religious and military orders
of knighthood which sprang into existence during the Crusades which were insti-

407

j
'

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

By the rule established by Du Puy for

*
the government of the Order, it was
divided into three classes, namely, 1.
Knights, who were called Knights of Justice; 2. Chaplains; and 3. Serving Brothers all of whom took the three vows of

approval of Pope Clement and the assistance of several of the European States,
made a descent upon the island, and, after
months of hard fighting, on the 15th of
August, 1310, planted the standard of the
Order on the walls of the city of Rhodes
and the island thenceforth became the home
of the Hospitallers, whence they were often
called the Knights of Rhodes.
The Fraternity continued to reside at

408

There
chastity, obedience, and poverty.
was also attached to the institution a body
of men called Donats, who, without assuming the vows of the Order, were employed
in the different offices of the hospital, and
who wore what was called the demi-cross,
as a badge of their connection.
The history of the Knights from this
time until the middle of the sixteenth century is but a chronicle of continued warfare with the enemies of the Christian faith.
When Jerusalem was captured by Saladin,
in 1187, the Hospitallers retired to Margat,
a town and fortress of Palestine which still
acknowledged the Christian sway. In 1191,
they made Acre, which in that year had
been recaptured by the Christians, their
Erincipal place of residence. For just one
undred years the knights were engaged,
with varying success, in sanguinary contests
with the Saracens and other infidel hordes,
until Acre, the last stronghold of the Christians in the Holy Land, having fallen beneath the blows of the victorious Moslems,
Syria was abandoned by the Latin race, and
the Hospitallers found refuge in the island
of Cyprus, where they established their convent.

The Order had been much attenuated by

its

frequent losses in the

field,

and

its treas-

ury had been impoverished. But commands

were at once issued by John de Villiers, the

Grand Master,

to the different

Grand

Prio-

Europe, and large reinforcements in

men and money were soon received, so that
the Fraternity were enabled again to open
ries in

their hospital and to recommence the pracNo longer

tice of their religious duties.
able to continue their military exploits on
land, the knights betook themselves to their
galleys, and, while they protected the pilfrims who still flocked in vast numbers to
'alestine, gave security to the Christian

commerce of the Mediterranean. On sea,

as on land, the Hospitallers still showed
that they were the inexorable and terrible
foes of the infidels, whose captured vessels
the harbor of Cyprus.
But in time a residence in Cyprus became
unpleasant. The king, by heavy taxes and
other rigorous exactions, had so disgusted
them, that they determined to seek some
other residence. The neighboring island
of Rhodes had long, under its independent
princes, been the refuge of Turkish corsairs
a name equivalent to the more modern one
of pirates. Fulk de Villaret, the Grand
Master of the Hospital, having obtained the

soon

filled

Rhodes

for two hundred years, acting as

the outpost and defence of Christendom
from the encroachments of the Ottoman
power. Of this long period, but few years
were passed in peace, and the military reputation of the Order was still more firmly
established by the prowess of the knights.
These two centuries were marked by other
events which had an important bearing on
the fortunes of the institution. The rival
brotherhood of the Templars was abolished
by the machinations of a pope and a king
of France, and what of its revenues and
possessions was saved from the spoliation
of its enemies was transferred to the Hospitallers.

There had always existed a bitter rivalry

between the two Orders, marked by unhappy contentions, which on some occasions, while both
were in Palestine,
amounted to actual strife. Towards the
Knights of St. John the Templars had
never felt nor expressed a very kindly feeling; and now this acceptance of an unjust
appropriation of their goods in the hour of
their disaster, keenly added to the sentiment
of ill-will, and the unhappy children of De
Molay, as they passed away from the theatre of knighthood, left behind them the
bitterest imprecations on the disciples of
the Hospital.
The Order, during its residence at Rhodes,
also underwent several changes in its organization, by which the simpler system
observed during its infancy in the Holy

Land was rendered more perfect and more

complicated. The greatest of all these
changes was in the character of the European Commanderies. During the period
that the Order was occupied in the defence
of the holy places, and losing large numbers of its warriors in its almost continual

Commanderies served as nurand education of

young knights who might be sent to Pales-

battles, these

series for the preparation

tine to reinforce the exhausted ranks of

their brethren.
But now, secured in their
island home, Jerusalem permanently in
possession of the infidel, and the enthusi-

asm once

inspired by Peter the Hermit

forever dead, there was no longer need for
new Crusaders. But the knights, engaged
in strengthening and decorating their insular possession by erecting fortifications

KNIGHT

KNIGHT
and palaces and convents for
residence, now required large additions to
their revenue to defray the expenses thus
incurred. Hence the Commanderies were
the sources whence this revenue was to
for defence,

be derived and the Commanders, once the

;

Principals, as it were, of military schools,

became lords of the manor in their respecThere, by a judicious and
tive provinces.
economical administration of the property
which had been intrusted to them, by the
cultivation of gardens and orchards, by the
rent received from arable and meadowlands, of mills and fisheries appertaining
to their estates, and even by the voluntary
contributions of their neighbors, and by the
raising of stock, they were enabled to add
greatly to their income. Of this one-fifth
was claimed, under the name of responsions, as a tribute to be sent annually to
Rhodes for the recuperation of the always

diminishing revenue of the Order.

Another important change in the organization of the Order was made at a General
Chapter held about 1320 at Montpellier,
under the Grand Mastership of Villanova.
The Order was there divided into languages,
a division unknown during its existence in
Palestine. These languages were at first
seven in number, but afterwards increased to
eight, by the subdivision of that of Aragon.
The principal dignities of the Order were
at the same time divided among these
languages, so that a particular dignity
should be always enjoyed by the same
language. These languages, and the dignities respectively attached to them, were as
follows
1.

2.

3.

4.
5.
6.
7.

8.

Grand Commander.
Auvergne Grand Marshal.
France Grand Hospitaller.
Italy Grand Admiral.
Aragon Grand Conservator.
Germany Grand Bailiff.
Castile: Grand Chancellor.
England Grand Turcopolier.

Provence

But perhaps the greatest of all changes

was that which took place in the personal
character of the Knights. " The Order,"
says Taafe, [Hist, iv. 234,) " had been above
two hundred years old before it managed a
boat, but was altogether equestrian during
its two first, and perhaps most glorious, centuries."
But on settling at Rhodes, the
knights began to attack their old enemies
by sea with the same prowess with which
they had formerly met them on land, and
the victorious contests of the galleys of St.
John with the Turkish corsairs, who were
infesting the Mediterranean, proved them
well entitled to the epithet of naval warriors."

In the year 1480, Rhodes was unsuccessfully besieged

3B

by the Ottoman army of

409

II., under the command of Paleologus Pasha. After many contests, the
Turks were repulsed with great slaughter.
But the attack of the Sultan Solyman, fortyfour years afterwards, was attended with a
different result, and Rhodes was surrendered to the Turkish forces on the 20th December, 1522. The terms of the capitulation were liberal to the knights, who were
permitted to retire with all their personal
property and thus, in the Grand Mastership of L'Isle Adam, Rhodes ceased forever
to be the home of the Order, and six days
afterwards, on New Year's day, 1523, the
fleet, containing the knights and four thousand of the inhabitants, sailed for the island
of Candia.
From Candia, where the Grand Master
remained but a short time, he proceeded
with his knights to Italy.
Seven long
years were passed in negotiations with the
monarchs of Europe, and in the search for
a home. At length, the Emperor Charles
V., of Germany, vested in the Order the
complete and perpetual sovereignty of the
islands of Malta and Gozo, and the city of
Tripoli; and in 1530, the knights took
formal possession of Malta, where, to borrow
the language of Porter, {Hist, ii. 33,) "for
upwards of two centuries and a half, waved
the banner of St. John, an honor to Christianity and a terror to the infidel of the East."
From this time the Order received the designation of " Knights of Malta," a title
often bestowed upon it, even in official documents, in the place of the original one of
" Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem."
For 268 years the Order retained posBut in
session of the island of Malta.
1798 it was surrendered without a struggle by Louis de Hompesch, the imbecile
and pusillanimous Grand Master, to the

Mahomet

French army and fleet under Bonaparte;

and this event may be considered as the

commencement of the suppression of the

Order as an active power.
Hompesch, accompanied by a few knights,
embarked in a few days for Trieste, and
subsequently retired to Montpellier, where
he resided in the strictest seclusion and
poverty until May 12, 1805, when he died,
leaving behind him not enough to remunerate the physicians who had attended him.
The great body of the knights proceeded
to Russia, where the Emperor Paul had a few
years before been proclaimed the protector
of the Order. On the 27th October, 1798,
a Chapter of such of the knights as were
in St. Petersburg was held, and the Emperor Paul I. was elected Grand Master.
This election was made valid, so far as its
irregularities would permit, by the abdication of Hompesch in July, 1799.

KNIGHT

410

At the death of Paul

cessor

KNIGHT

in 1801, his suc-

on the throne, Alexander, appointed

Count

monies of initiation were public and exceedingly simple, consisting of little more than
the taking of the necessary vow. In this
the Hospitallers differed from the Templars,
whose formula of admission was veiled in

Lieutenant of the
Soltikoff as
Mastery, and directed him to convene a
Council at St. Petersburg to deliberate on
Indeed, Porter (Hist., i. 203,) atfuture action. This assembly adopted a secrecy.
new statute for the election of the Grand tributes the escape of the former Order
Master, which provided that each Grand from the accusations that were heaped upon
Priory should in a Provincial Chapter the latter, and which led to its dissolution,
nominate a candidate, and that out of the to the fact that the Knights "abjured all
persons so nominated the Pope should secrecy in their forms and ceremonies."
The Order was dissolved in England by
make a selection. Accordingly, in 1802, the
Pope appointed John de Tommasi, who Henry VIIL, and, although temporarily
was the last knight that bore the title of restored by Mary, was finally abolished in
England.
Grand Master.
A decree of the Constituent
On the death of Tommasi, the Pope de- Assembly abolished it in France in 1792.
clined to assume any longer the responsi- By a decree of Charles IV., of Spain, in
bility of nominating a Grand Master, and
1802, the two languages of Aragon and
appointed the Bailiff Guevarr Luardo Castile became the Eoyal Spanish Order of
simply as Lieutenant of the Mastery, a St. John, of which he declared himself the
Grand Master.
title afterwards held by his successors Centelles, Busca, De Candida and Collavedo.
Now, only the languages of Germany and
In 1826 and 1827, the first steps were taken Italy remain. The Order is, therefore, at
for the revival of the English language, and
this day in a state of abeyance, if not of
Sir Joshua Meredith, Bart., who had been disintegration, although it still maintains
made a knight in 1798 by Hompesch, its vitality, and the functions of Grand
being appointed Lieutenant Prior of Eng- Master are exercised by a Lieutenant of the
land, admitted many English gentlemen Magistery, who resides at Borne. Attempts
into the Order.
have also been made, from time to time, to
But the real history of the Order of St. revive the Order in different places, someJohn of Jerusalem ends with the disgrace- times with and sometimes without the legal
ful capitulation of Malta in 1798.
All sanction of the recognized head of the Orthat has since remained of it all that now der. For instance, there are now in Engremains,
however imposing may be the land two bodies,
one Catholic, under Sir
titles assumed,
George Bowyer, and the other Protestant,
is but the diluted shadow
of its former existence.
at the head of which is the Duke of ManThe organization of the Order in its chester; but each repudiates the other.
days of prosperity was very complicated, But the relic of the old and valiant Order
partaking both of a monarchial and a re- of Knights Hospitallers claims no connecpublican character. Over all presided a tion with the branch of Masonry which
Grand Master, who, although invested with bears the title of Knights of Malta, and
extensive powers, was still controlled by the hence the investigation of its present conlegislative action of the General Chapter.
dition is no part of the province of this
The Order was divided into eight lan- work.
guages, over each of which presided one of
Knight of Malta, Masonic. The
the Grand dignitaries with the title of Con- degree of Knight of Malta is conferred in
ventual Bailiff. These dignitaries were the the United States as " an appendant Order "
Grand Commander, the Grand Marshal, the in a Commandery of Knights Templars.
Grand Hospitaller, the Grand Conservator, There is a ritual attached to the degree, but
the Grand Turcopolier, the Grand Bailiff, very few are in possession of it, and it is
and the Grand Chancellor. Each of these generally communicated after the candidate
dignitaries resided in the palace or inn at has been created a Knight Templar; the
Malta which was appropriated to his lan- ceremony consisting generally only in the
guage. In every province there were one reading of the passage of Scripture, preor more Grand Priories presided over by scribed in the Monitors, and the communiGrand Priors, and beneath these were the cation of the modes of recognition.
Commanderies, over each of which was a
How anything so anomalous in history
Commander. There were scattered through as the commingling in one body of Knights
the different countries of Europe 22 Grand Templars and Knights of Malta, and making
Priories and 596 Commanderies.
the same person a representative of both
Those who desired admission into the Orders, first arose, it is now difficult to deOrder as members of the first class, or termine. It was, most probably, a device
Knights of Justice, were required to pro- of Thomas S. Webb, and was, it may be
duce proofs of noble descent. The cere- supposed, one of the results of a too great
1

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

fondness for the accumulation of degrees.

Mitchell, in his History of Freemasonry,
(ii. 83,) says: "The degree, so called, of
Malta, or St. John of Jerusalem, crept in,
we suppose, by means of a bungler, who,
not knowing enough of the ritual to confer
himself by simply
it properly, satisfied
adding a few words in the ceremony of
dubbing; and thus, by the addition of a few
signs and words but imperfectly understood,
constituted a Knight Templar also a Knight
of Malta, and so the matter stands to this
day." I am not generally inclined to place
much confidence in Mitchell as an historian
yet I cannot help thinking that in this instance his guess is not very far from the
truth, although, as usual with him, there
is a tinge of exaggeration in his statement.
There is evidence that the degree was
introduced at a very early period into the
Masonry of this country. In the Constitution of the " United States Grand Encampment," adopted in 1805, one section enumerates " Encampments of Knights of
Malta, Knights Templars, and Councils of
It will be
Knights of the Red Cross."
observed that the Knight of Malta precedes
the Knight Templar whereas, in the present system, the former is made the ultimate
degree of the series. Yet, in this Constitution, no further notice is taken of the
degree for while the fees for the Red Cross
and the Templar degrees are prescribed,
there is no reference to any to be paid for
that of Malta. In the revised Constitution
of 1816, the order of the series was changed
to Red Cross, Templar, and Malta, which
arrangement has ever since been mainThe Knights of Malta are desigtained.
nated as one of the " Appendant Orders,"
a title and a subordinate position which
the pride of the old Knights of Malta would
hardly have permitted them to accept.
In 1856, the Knights Templars of the
United States had become convinced that
the incorporation of the Order of Malta
with the Knights Templars, and making
the same person the possessor of both
Orders, was so absurd a violation of all historic truth, that at the session of the General Grand Encampment in that year, at
Hartford, Connecticut, on the suggestion
of the author, the degree was unanimously
stricken from the Constitution but at the
session of 1862, in Columbus, Ohio, it was,
I think, without due consideration, restored,
and is now communicated in the Commanderies of Knights Templars.

107,) speaking of the dissensions of the two

Orders, " instead of confining their rivalry
to a friendly emulation, whilst combating
against their common foe, they appeared
more intent upon thwarting and frustrating
each other, than in opposing the Saracen."
To such an extent had the quarrels of the
two Orders proceeded, that Pope Alexander III. found it necessary to interfere; and
in 1179 a hollow truce was signed by the
rival houses of the Temple and the Hospital; the terms of which were, however,
never strictly observed by either side. On
the dissolution of the Templars so much
of their possessions as were not confiscated
to public use were given by the sovereigns
of Europe to the Knights of Malta, who
accepted the gift without compunction.
And there is a tradition that the surviving
Templars, indignant at the spoliation and
at the mercenary act of their old rivals in
willingly becoming a party to the robbery,
solemnly registered a vow never thereafter
to recognize them as friends.

There is no fact in history better known

than that there existed from their very
birth a rivalry between the two Orders of
the Temple and of St. John of Jerusalem,
which sometimes burst forth into open hostility.
Porter says, [Hist. K. of Malta, i.

411

The attempt at this day to make a modern Knight Templar accept initiation into
a hated and antagonistic Order is to display a lamentable ignorance of the facts of
history.

Another reason why the degree of

Knight of Malta should be rejected from
the Masonic system is that the ancient
Order never was a secret association. Its
rites of reception were open and public,
wholly unlike anything in Masonry. In
fact, historians have believed that the favor

shown to the Hospitallers, and the persecutions waged against the Templars, are to be
attributed to the fact that the latter Order
secret system of initiation which did
not exist in the former. The ritual of reception, the signs and words as modes of
recognition now practised in the modern
Masonic ceremonial, are all a mere invention of a very recent date. The old Knights
knew nothing of such a system.
third, and perhaps the best, reason for
rejecting the Knights of Malta as a Masonic
degree is to be found in the fact that the
Order still exists, although in a somewhat
decayed condition and that its members,
claiming an uninterrupted descent from the
Knights who, with Hompesch, left the
island of Malta in 1797, and threw themselves under the protection of Paul of Russia, utterly disclaim any connection with
the Freemasons, and almost contemptuously repudiate the so-called Masonic
branch of the Order. In 1858, a manifesto
was issued by the supreme authority of
the Order, dated from "the Magisterial
Palace of the Sacred Order" at Rome,
which, after stating that the Order, as it
then existed, consisted only of the Grand

had a

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

412

Langues of Italy and GerKnight of Pure Trnth. [Chevalier

many, the knights in Prussia, who trace de la Pure VeriM.) Thory mentions this as
descent from the Grand Bailiwick of Bran- a secret society instituted by the scholars
denburg, and a few other knights who had of the Jesuitical college at Tulle. It could
been legally received by the Mastership scarcely have been Masonic.
and Council, declares that
Knight of Purity and Light.
"Beyond and out of the above-men- [Bitter der Klarheit und des Lichts.) The
tioned Langues and Priories, and except- seventh and last degree of the Rite of the
ing the knights created and constituted as Clerics of Strict Observance, which see.
Priories in the

aforesaid, all those

who may

so call or enti-

themselves are legally ignored by our

Sacred Order."
There is no room there provided for the
so-called Masonic Knights of Malta.
But
a writer in Notes and Queries, (3d Ser., iii.
413,) who professes to be in possession of
the degree, says, in reply to an inquiry, tbat
the Masonic degree " has nothing whatever
to do with the Knights Hospitallers of St.
John of Jerusalem." This is most undoubtedly true in reference to the American
degree. Neither in its form, its ritual, the
tle

objects it professes, its tradition, nor its

historical relations, is it in the slightest degree assimilated to the ancient Order of
Hospitallers, afterwards called Knights of

Rhodes, and,

finally,

Knights of Malta.

To

claim, therefore, to be the modern representatives of that Order, to wear its dress,
to adopt its insignia, to flaunt its banners,
and to leave the world to believe that the

one

is but the uninterrupted continuation

of the other, are acts which must be regarded
as a very ridiculous assumption, if not actually entitled to a less courteous appellation.
For all these reasons, I think that it is
much to be regretted that the action of the
Grand Encampment in repudiating the degree in 1856 was reversed in 1862. The
degree has no historical or traditional connection with Masonry; holds no proper
place in a Commandery of Templars, and
ought to be wiped out of the catalogue of

Masonic degrees.

Knight of Masonry, Terrible.

Chevalier Terrible de la Magonnerie. )

degree contained in the collection of Le Page.
of Palestine. [Chevalier
de la Palestine.) 1. The sixty-third degree
of the Rite of Mizraim. 2. The ninth de(

Knight

gree of the Reform of St. Martin. 3. One

of the series of degrees formerly given in
the Baldwyn Encampment of England, and
said to have been introduced into Bristol, in
1800, by some French refugees under the
authority of the Grand Orient of France.
Knight of Patmos. An apocalyptic
degree mentioned by Oliver in his Landmarks. It refers, he says, to the banishment of St. John.

Knight of Perfumes.

[Chevalier

The eighth degree

of the
Rite of the East (Rite d'Orient) according
to the nomenclature of Fustier.
des Parfums.)

Knight of Rhodes.

1. One of the
given to the Knights Hospitallers in
consequence of their long residence on the
island of Rhodes. 2.
degree formerly
conferred in the Baldwyn Encampment at
Bristol, England.
It seems in some way to
have been confounded with the Mediterra-

titles

nean Pass.

Knight of Rose Croix.

See Rose

Croix.

Knight of

St.

Andrew, Grand

Grand Ecossais de Saint Andre.)

Sometimes called " Patriarch of the
Crusades." The twenty-ninth degree of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Its

Scottish.

ritual is

founded on a legend,

first

promul-

gated by the Chevalier Ramsay, to this

effect: that the Freemasons were originally
a society of knights founded in Palestine for
the purpose of building Christian churches
that the Saracens, to prevent the execution
of this design, sent emissaries among them,
who disguised themselves as Christians,
and were continually throwing obstacles in
their way that on discovering the existence of these spies, the knights instituted
certain modes of recognition to serve as the
means of detection ; that they also adopted
symbolic ceremonies for the purpose of instructing the proselytes who had entered
the society in the forms and principles of
their new religion; and finally, that the
Saracens, having become too powerful for
the knights any longer to contend with
them, they had accepted the invitation of
a king of England, and had removed into
his dominions, where they thenceforth devoted themselves to the cultivation of architecture and the fine arts. On this mythica*.
legend, which in reality was only an application of Ramsay's theory of the origin of
Freemasonry, the Baron de Tschoudy is
said, about the middle of the last century, to
have formed this degree, which Ragon says
[Orthod. Macon., p. 138,) at his death, in
1769, he bequeathed in manuscript to the
Council of Emperors of the East and West.
On the subsequent extension of the twentyfive degrees of the Rite of Perfection, instituted by that body, to the thirty-three degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite,
this degree was adopted as the twenty-ninth,
and as an appropriate introduction to the
Knights of Kadosh, which it immediateHence the jewel, a St. Anly precedes.
;

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

413

1. An androgynous dedrew's cross, is said, by Ragon, to be only lier de VAncre.)

a concealed form of the Templar Cross. In gree. See Anchor, Order of. 2. The twentyallusion to the time of its supposed inven- first degree of the collection of the Metrotion, it has been called " Patriarch of the politan Chapter of France.
Knight of the Ape and Lion.
Crusades." On account of the Masonic instruction which it contains, it also some- G'adicke says (Freimaurer-Lex.) that this
times receives the title of " Grand Master Order appeared about the year 1780, but
that its existence was only made known by
of Light."
The Lodge is decorated with red hang- its extinction. It adopted the lion sleepings supported by white columns. There ing with open eyes as a symbol of watchfulness, and the ape as a symbol of those
are eighty-one lights, arranged as follows
four in each corner before a St. Andrew's who imitate without due penetration. The
cross, two before the altar, and sixty-three members boasted that they possessed all
arranged by nines in seven different parts the secrets of the Ancient Templars, on
of the room. There are three officers, a which account they were persecuted by the
Venerable Grand Master and two Wardens. modern Order. The lion and ape, as symThe jewel is a St. Andrew's cross, appropri- bols of courage and address, are found in
ately decorated, and suspended from a green one of the degrees described in the Franocollar bordered with red.
Magons Ecrasses.
In the ritual of the Southern Jurisdiction,
Knight of the Arch. ( Chevalier de
the leading idea of a communication be- VArche.) A degree found in the nomentween the Christian knights and the Sara- clature of Fustier.
cens has been preserved; but the ceremonies
Knight ofthe Argonauts. ( Chevaand the legend have been altered. The lesson lier des Argonautes.) The first point of
intended to be taught is toleration of religion. the sixth degree, or Knight of the Golden
This degree also constitutes the sixty- Fleece of the Hermetic Rite of Montpellier.

third of the collection of the Metropolitan

Chapter of France; the fifth of the Rite
of* Clerks of Strict Observance ; and the
twenty-first of the Rite of Mizraim. It is
also to be found in many other systems.

Knight of

Knight of the Banqueting

Table of the Seven Sages. Cheva(

de la Table du Banquet des Sept Sages.)

degree in the Archives of the Mother
Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
lier

Andrew, Free.

Knight of the Black Eagle,

degree

Chevalier Ecossais de S. Andre

du Chardon.) The seventy-fifth degree of
the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter

Chevalier de I'Aigle noir.) 1. The seventysixth degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France called also
Grand Inquisitor, Grand Inspector, Grand
Elu or Elect, in the collection of Le
Rouge. 2. The thirty-eighth degree of the

ofFrance.

Rite of Mizraim.

St.

Chevalier libre de Saint- Andre'. )

found in the collection of Pyron.
(

Knight of
Thistle.

St.

Andrew of the

Knight of St. John of Jerusalem.

1.

The

original title of the Knights

of Malta, and derived from the church and

monastery built at Jerusalem in 1048 by
the founders of the Order, and dedicated to
St. John the Baptist.
See Knight of Malta.
mystical degree divided into three
2.
sections, which is found in the collection of

Lemanceau.

Knight ofSt. John of Palestine.

{Chevalier de Sainte Jean de la Palestine.)
The forty-eighth degree of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.

Knight

of the Altar. ( Chevalier

de VAutel.)
The twelfth degree of the Rite
of the East according to the nomenclature
of Fustier.

Knight of the American Ea-

An honorary degree invented many

years ago in Texas or some of the Western
States.
It was founded on incidents of the
American Revolution, and gave an absurd
legion of Hiram Abif's boyhood. It is
gle.

now, I believe, obsolete.

Knight of the Anchor.

Knight of the Brazen Serpent.

du Serpent d'Airaih. ) The twendegree of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite. The history of this degree
is founded upon the circumstances related
in Numbers, ch. xxi., ver. 6-9 " And the
Lord sent fiery serpents among the people,
and they bit the people and much people
of Israel died. Therefore the people came
to Moses, and said, We have sinned; for
we have spoken against the Lord, and
against thee pray unto the Lord that he
take away the serpents from us. And Moses
prayed for the people. And the Lord said
unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and
set it upon a pole: and it shall come to
pass, that every one that is bitten, when he
looketh upon it shall live. And Moses
made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a
pole and it came to pass, that if a serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the
serpent of brass, he lived." In the old
rituals the Lodge was called the Court of
Sinai the presiding officer was styled Most
Puissant Grand Master, and represented
(

Chevalier

ty-fifth

Cheva-

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

while the two Wardens, or Minisrepresented Aaron and Joshua. The

Orator was called Pontiff; the Secretary,
Grand Graver ; and the candidate, a Traveller.
In the modern ritual adopted in this
country, the Council represents the camp of
the Israelites. The first three officers represent Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, and are
respectively styled Most Puissant Leader,
Valiant Captain of the Host, and IllusThe Oratrious Chief of the Ten Tribes.
the Secretary,
tor represents Eleazar;
Ithamar ; the Treasurer, Phinehas ; and the
candidate an intercessor for the people.
The jewel is a crux ansata, with a serpent
entwined around it. On the upright of the
cross is engraved Thfl, khalati, I have suffered, and on the arms jnti'irtt, nakhushtan,

the tau cross or mark on the forehead,

spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel, and
hence the name of the degree. The motto
of the Order is, " Christus regnat, vincit,
triumphat.
Rex regnantium, Dominus
dominantium." Christ reigns, conquers,
and triumphs. King of kings and Lord
of lords.
Knight of the Columns. [Chevalier des Colonnes.)
The seventh degree of
the Rite of the East according to the nomenclature of Fustier.

414

ters,

a serpent. The French ritualists would

have done better to have substituted for the
first

word YlKDn,

khatati,

have sinned ;

Numbers being IJXDn,

Kathanu, we have sinned. The apron is

the

original

in

white, lined with black, and symbolically

decorated.
There is an old legend which says that
this degree was founded in the time of the
Crusades, by John Ralph, who established
the Order in the Holy Land as a military
and monastic society, and gave it the name
of the Brazen Serpent, because it was a
part of their obligation to receive and gratuitously nurse sick travellers, to protect
them against the attacks of the Saraoens,
and escort them safely to Palestine ; thus
alluding to the healing and saving virtues
of the Brazen Serpent among the Israelites
in the wilderness.

Knight of the Burning Bush.

Knight

of the Comet. ( Chevalier

de la Comtte. )
degree found in the collection of Hecart.
of the Cork:. [Chevalier du
Bouchon.) An androgynous secret society
established in Italy after the Papal buil
excommunicating the Freemasons, and intended by its founders to take the place of
the Masonic institution.
of the Courts. [Chevalier
des Parvis.)
The third degree of the Rite
of the East according to the nomenclature
of Fustier.
of the Crown. ( Chevalier
de la Couronne.)
degree in the collection of Pyron.
of the Boor. [Chevalier He
la Porte.
The fourth degree of the Rite
of the East according to the nomenclature
of Fustier.

Knight

Knight

Knight

Knight of the Bove. See Dove,

Knights of the. The Knights and Ladies
of the Dove ( Chevaliers et Chevalieres de la
Colombe) was an androgynous secret society
framed on the model of Freemasonry, and
instituted at Versailles in 1784. It had but
an ephemeral existence.
Knight of the Eagle.
ter

Rite.

the

sophic

Knight of the Chanuca.

lier

de la Kanuka.)

The

[Chevasixty-ninth degree

of the Rite of Mizraim. The POUri, or

Chanuca, is the feast of the dedication celebrated by the Jews in commemoration of
the dedication of the Temple by Judas Maccabaeus after its pollution by the Syrians.
In the ritual of the degree, the Jewish lighting of seven lamps, one on each day, is imitated, and therefore the ceremony of initiation lasts for seven days.

Knight

du Buisson ardent.)
theodegree of the collection of the
Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish
{Chevalier

{Chevalier

The first degree of the Chapof Clermont. 2. The third degree of

Clerks of Strict Observance. 3. The

de VAigle.

1.

degree of the collection of the

Metropolitan Chapter of France.
4. It
was also one of the degrees of the Chapter
of the Grand Lodge Royal York of Berlin.
5. The thirty-seventh degree of the Rite of
Mizraim. Thory says it was also one of
the appellations of the degree more commonly called Perfect Master in Architecture,
which is the fourteenth of the Primitive
Scottish Rite, and is found also in some
other systems.
fifty-fifth

Knight of the Eagle and PeliKnight of the Christian Mark.

ean. One of the appellations of the degree
A

Called also Guard of the Conclave.

degree formerly conferred in the United
States on Knights Templars in a body
called a Council of the Trinity. The legend
of the Order is that it was organized by
Pope Alexander for the defence of his person, and that its members were selected
from the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
In the ceremonies there is a reference to

of Rose Croix, because the jewel has on

one side an eagle and on the other a pelican, both at the foot of the cross, in allusion to the symbolism of the degree. See
Rose Croix.

Knight of the Eagle reversed.

Thory re[Chevalier de VAigle renverse.)
cords this as a degree to be found in the

KNIGHT

KNIGHT
Archives of the Scottish Lodge Saint Louis
des Amis Reunis at Calais. In heraldic
phrase, an eagle reversed is an eagle with
the wings drooping.

Knight of the East.

[Chevalier

This is a degree which has been

extensively diffused through the most important Eites, and it owes its popularity to
the fact that it commemorates in its legend
and its ceremonies the labors of the Masons
in the construction of the second Temple.
1. It is the fifteenth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Bite, the description of which will apply with slight
modifications to the same degree in all the
other Rites. It is founded upon the history
of the assistance rendered by Cyrus to the
Jews, who permitted them to return to Jerusalem, and to commence the rebuilding of
the house of the Lord. Zerubbabel, therefore, as the Prince of the Jews, and Cyrus
the King of Persia, as his patron, are important personages in the drama of reception ; which is conducted with great impressiveness even in the old and somewhat imperfect ritual of the last century, but which
has been greatly improved, I think, in the
d' Orient.)

modern

rituals adopted by the Supreme

CoUncils of the United States.
The cordon of a Knight of the East is a
broad green watered ribbon, worn as a
baldric from left to right.
The sash or
girdle is of white watered silk, edged above,
and fringed below with gold. On it is embroidered a bridge, with the letters L. D.
P. on the arch, and also on other parts
of the girdle human heads, and mutilated
limbs, and crowns, and swords.
The apron
is crimson, edged with green, a bleeding
head and two swords crossed on the flap,
and on the apron three triangles interlaced
formed of triangular links of chains. The
jewel is three triangles interlaced enclosing
two naked swords.
Scripture and the traditions of the Order
furnish us with many interesting facts in
relation to this degree. The Knights of
the East are said to derive their origin from
the captivity of the Israelites in Babylon.
After seventy -two years of servitude, they
were restored to liberty by Cyrus, King of
Persia, through the intercession of Zerubbabel, a prince of the tribe of Judah, and
Nehemias, a holy man of a distinguished
family, and permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.
2. It is the sixth degree of the French
Rite. It is substantially the same as the
preceding degree.
3. The sixth degree of the old system of
the Royal York Lodge of Berlin.
4. The fifteenth degree of the Chapter of
the Emperors of the East and West, and
this was most probably the original degree.

5.

415

The

lection

fifty -second degree of the colof the Metropolitan Chapter of

France.
6.

The

forty-first

degree of the Rite of

Mizraim.
7.

The

sixth degree of the Rite of Phila-

lethes.
8. The eleventh degree of the Adonhiramite Rite.
9. It is also substantially the tenth degree, or Knight of the Red Cross of the
American Rite. Indeed, it is found in all
the Rites and systems which refer to the
second Temple.

Knight of the East and West.

et d' Occident)
1. The
seventeenth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The oldest rituals
of the degree were very imperfect, and did
not connect it with Freemasonry. They
contained a legend that upon the return of
the knights from the Holy Land, in the
time of the Crusaders, they organized the
Order, and that in the year 1118 the first
knights, to the number of eleven, took their
vows between the hands of Garinus, patriarch. The allusion, here, is evidently to the
Knights Templars and this legend would
most probably indicate that the degree
originated with the Templar system of
Ramsay. This theory is further strengthened by the other legend, that the Knights
of the East represented the Masons who
remained in the East after the building of
the first Temple, while the Knights of the
East and West represented those who travelled West and disseminated the Order
over Europe, but who returned during the
Crusades and reunited with their ancient
brethren, whence we get the name.
The modern ritual as used in the United
States has been greatly enlarged. It still
retains the apocalyptic character of the degree which always attached to it, as is evident from the old tracing-board, which is
the figure described in the first chapter of
the Revelation of St. John. The jewel is
a heptagon inscribed with symbols derived
from the Apocalypse, among which are the
lamb and the book with seven seals. The
apron is yellow, lined and edged with crimIn the old ritual its device was a twoson.
edged sword. In the new one is a tetractys
of ten dots. This is the first of the philosophical degrees of the Scottish Rite. 2.
The seventeenth degree of the Chapter of
Emperors of the East and West.

{Chevalier d? Orient

Knight of the Eastern

Star.

The fifty[Chevalier de V Etoile d' Orient.)

seventh degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
'

Knight of the East, Victorious.

A

de[Chevalier victorieux de V Orient.)

gree found in the collection of Hecart.

KNIGHT

416

KNIGHT

Knight of the East, White.

[Chevalier d' Orient.)

The

fortieth

was

Cheva-

Jerusalem and discovered the cross, and

that, in 304, it was confirmed by Pope

of the Rite of Mizraim.

Knight of the Election.

du Choix.) The thirty- third degree of

the Rite of Mizraim.
lier

Knight of the Election, Sub[Chevalier sublime du Choix.) The

thirty-fourth degree of the Rite of Mizraim.

lime.

Knight of the Golden Eagle.

A degree in

[Chevalier de VAigle d'or.)

the collection of Pyron.

Knight of the Golden Fleece.

The sixth
degree of the Hermetic Rite of Montpellier.
Chevalier de la Toisson d'or. )

Knight of the Golden Key.

The third degree of the Hermetic Rite of Montpellier.
(

Chevalier de la Clef d'or.)

Knight of the Golden

A

Star.

degree con[Chevalier de VEtoile d'or.)

tained in the collection of Peuvret.

Knight of the Grand Arch.

degree
Chevalier de la Grande Arche.)
which Thory says is contained in the Ar(

chives of the

Amis Reunis

Lodge of Saint Louis des

at Calais.

Knight of the Holy City, Beneficent. ( Chevalier bienfaisant de la Cite

Sainte.)
The Order of Beneficent Knights
of the Holy City of Jerusalem was created,
according to Ragon, at Lyons, in France, in
1782, by the brethren of the Lodge of Chev-

But Thory says it was

instituted at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad.
Both are perhaps right. It was probably
first invented at Lyons, at one time a prolific field for the hautes grades, and afterwards adopted at Wilhelmsbad, whence it
began to exercise a great influence over the
Lodges of Strict Observance. The Order
professed the Rite of Martinism ; but the
members attempted to convert Freemasonry
into Templarism, and transferred all the
symbols of the former to the latter system.

aliers Bienfaisants.

Thus, they interpreted the two pillars of the

porch and their names as alluding to Jacobus Burgundus or James the Burgundian,
meaning James de Molay, the last Grand
Master of the Templars the three gates of
the Temple signified the three vows of the
Knights Templars, obedience, poverty, and
;

chastity
and the sprig of acacia referred
to that which was planted over the ashes
of De Molay when they were transferred
to Heredom in Scotland.
The Order and
the doctrine sprang from the Templar system of Ramsay. The theory of its Jesuitic
origin can scarcely be admitted.
;

Knight of the Holy Sepulchre.

As a Masonic degree, this was formerly
given in what were called Councils of the
Trinity, next after the Knight of the Christian Mark but it is no longer conferred in
this country, and may now be considered
1.

as obsolete.
The Masonic legend that it
instituted by St. Helena, the mother
of Constantine, in 302, after she had visited

degree

Marcellinus, is altogether apocryphal. The

military Order of Knights of the Holy
Sepulchre still exists and Mr. Curzon, in
his Visits to the Monasteries in the Levant,
states that the Order is still conferred in
Jerusalem, but only on Roman Catholics
of noble birth, by the Reverendissimo or
Superior of the Franciscans, and that the
accolade, or blow of knighthood, is bestowed
with the sword of Godfrey de Bouillon,
which is preserved, with his spurs, in the
sacristy of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Madame Pfeiffer, in her Travels in
the Holy Land, confirms this account.
Dr.
Heylin says that the Order was instituted
in 1099, when Jerusalem was regained from
the Saracens by Philip of France. Faryn,
in his Theatre d'Honneur, gives a different
account of the institution. He says that
while the Saracens possessed the city they
permitted certain canons regular of St.
Augustine to have the custody of the Holy
Sepulchre. Afterwards Baldwyn, King of
Jerusalem, made them Men-of-Arms and
Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and ordained that they should continue to wear
their white habits, and on the breast his
own arms, which were a red cross potent
between four Jerusalem crosses. Their
rule was confirmed by Pope Innocent III.
The Grand Master was the Patriarch of
Jerusalem. They engaged to fight against
infidels, to protect pilgrims, to redeem
Christian captives, hear Mass every day, recite the hours of the cross, and bear the five
red crosses in memory of our Saviour's
wounds. On the loss of the Holy Land,
they retired to Perugia, in Italy, where
they retained their white habit, but assumed
a double red cross. In 1484, they were incorporated with the Knights Hospitallers,
who were then at Rhodes, but in 1496,
Alexander VI. assumed, for himself and the
Popes his successors, the Grand Mastership,
and empowered the Guardian of the Holy
Sepulchre to bestow Knighthood of the
Order upon pilgrims. Unsuccessful attempts were made by Philip II., of Spain,
in 1558, and the Duke of Nevers, in. 1625,
It is now found only
to restore the Order.
in Jerusalem, where it is conferred, as has
been already said, by the Superior of the
Franciscans.
2. It is also the fiftieth degree of the
Metropolitan Chapter of France.
Knight of the Interior. ( ChevaThe fifth degree of the
lier de VInterieur.)
Rite of the East according to the nomenclature of Fustier.
;

KNIGHT

KNIGHT
Knight of the Kabbala.

Cheva-

The eighth degree of

de la Cabale.)
the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter
lier

of France.

Knight of the

Lilies of the Val-

This was a degree conferred by the

Grand Orient of France as an appendage
The Knights Templars
to Templarism.
who received it were constituted Knights

ley.

Commanders.

Knight of the Lion.

[Chevalier

du Lion.) The twentieth degree of the

Metropolitan Chapter of France.

Knight of the Mediterranean

An honorary degree that was
formerly conferred in Encampments of
Knights Templars, but is now disused.
Its meetings were called Councils ; and its
ritual, which was very impressive, supplies
the tradition that it was founded about the
year 1367, in consequence of certain events
which occurred to the Knights of Malta.
In an excursion made by a party of these
knights in search of forage and provisions,
they were attacked while crossing the river
Offanto, (the ancient Aufidio,) by a large
body of Saracens, under the command of
the renowned Amurath I. The Saracens
had concealed themselves in ambush, and
when the knights were on the middle of
the bridge which spanned the river, they
were attacked by a sudden charge of their
enemies upon both extremities of the bridge.
long and sanguinary contest ensued the
knights fought with their usual valor, and
were at length victorious. The Saracens
were defeated with such immense slaughter, that fifteen hundred of their dead bodies encumbered the bridge, and the river
was literally stained with their blood. In
commemoration of this event, and as a reward for their valor, the victorious knights
had free permission to pass and repass in
all the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea
without danger of molestation, whence the
name of the degree is derived. As the latter part of this legend has not been verified by voyagers in the Mediterranean, the
degree has long been disused.
I had a
ritual of it, which was in the handwriting
of Dr. Moses Holbrook, the Grand Commander of the Southern Supreme Council
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Pass.

Knight of the Moon. A mock

Masonic

society,

established in the last

It ceased to exist in

century in London.
the year 1810.

Knight of the Morning

A

Star.

Called also, Knight of Hope.

degree
in the Archives of the Mother Lodge of
the Philosophical Rite, which is said to be a
modification of the Kadosh.

Knight of the Ninth Areh.

thirteenth degree of the Ancient

3C

The

and Ac27

417

cepted Scottish Rite, called also the " Royal

Arch of Solomon," and sometimes the
"Royal Arch of Enoch." It is one of the
most interesting and impressive of what
are called the Ineffable degrees. Its legend
refers to Enoch and to the method by which,
notwithstanding the destructive influence
of the deluge and the lapse of time, he was
enabled to preserve important secrets to be
afterwards communicated to the Craft. According to the present ritual, its principal
officers are a Thrice Puissant Grand Master,
representing King Solomon, and two Wardens, representing the King of Tyre and the
Inspector Adoniram. Bodies of this degree
The color is black
are called Chapters.
strewed with tears. The jewel is a circular
medal of gold, around which is inscribed
the following letters R, S. R. S. T. P. S.
R. I. A. Y. E. S., with the date Anno Enochi 2995.
On the reverse is a blazing triangle with the Tetragrammaton in the centre
in Samaritan letters.
This degree claims great importance in
the history of Masonic ritualism. It is
found, under various modifications, in almost all the Rites and, indeed, without it,
or something like it, the symbolism of Freemasonry cannot be considered as complete.
Indebted for its origin to the inventive
genius of the Chevalier Ramsay, it was
adopted by the Council of the Emperors of
the East and West, whence it passed into
the Ancient and Accepted Rite. Brought
by Ramsay into England, where, however,
it subsehe failed to secure its adoption,
quently gave rise to the Royal Arch of Dermott and that of Dunckerley. Though
entirely different in its legend from the
Royal Arch of the York and American
Rites, its symbolic design is the same, for
one common thought of a treasure lost and
found pervades them all. Vassal, who is
exceedingly flippant in much that he has
written of Ecossism, says of this degree,
that, " considered under its moral and religious aspects, it offers nothing either inIt is evident that he
structive or useful."
understood nothing of its true symbolism.
:

Knight of the tforth. ( Chevalier

du Nord.) A degree in the Archives of the
Lodge of Saint Louis des Amis Reunis at
Thory mentions another degree
Calais.
called Sublime Knight of the North, which
he says is the same as one in the collection
of Peuvret, which has the singular title of
Daybreak of the Rough Ashlar, Point du
Jour de la Pierre Brute.
Knight of the Phcenix.
lier

du Phenix.)

The

Cheva(
fourth degree of the

Philosophic Scottish Rite.

Knight of the Prussian Eagle.

A degree in

Chevalier de VAigle Prussien.)

the collection of Hecart.
(

KNIGHT

418

KNIGHT

Knight of the Purificatory.

{Chevalier

du

Purificatoire.)

degree of the Rite of the East according to

the nomenclature of Fustier.
Knight of the Pyramid. ( ChevaThe seventh degree
lier de la Pyramide.)
of the Kabbalistic Rite.
Knight of the Rainbow. {ChevaThe sixty-eighth delier de V Arc-en-eiel.)
gree of the Rite of Mizraim.

Knight of the Red Cross.

This

degree, whose legend dates it far anterior

to the Christian era, and in the reign of
Darius, has no analogy with the chivalric
It is purely Maorders of knighthood.

and intimately connected with the

Royal Arch degree, of which, in fact, it
ought rightly to be considered as an apsonic,

pendage.

It

is,

however,

now always

con-

ferred in a Commandery of Knights Templars in this country, and is given as a preliminary to recep'tion in that degree. Formerly, the degree was sometimes conferred
in an independent council, which Webb
(edit. 1.812, p. 123,) defines to be " a council that derives its authority immediately

from the Grand Encampment unconnected

with an Encampment of Knights Templars."
The embassy of Zerubbabel and
four other Jewish chiefs to the court of
Darius to obtain the protection of that
monarch from the encroachments of the
Samaritans, who interrupted the labors in
the reconstruction of the Temple, constitutes the legend of the Red Cross degree.
The history of this embassy is found in the
eleventh book of the Antiquities of Josephus, whence the Masonic ritualists have
undoubtedly taken it. The only authority
of Josephus is the apocryphal record of
Esdras, and the authenticity of the whole
transaction is doubted or denied by modern
historians. The legend is as follows After
the death of Cyrus, the Jews, who had been
:

released

by him from

can Templar system, undoubtedly took it

sixteenth degree, or Prince of
Jerusalem of the Ancient and Accepted
Rite.
It has, within a few years, been carried into England, under the title of the
" Red Cross of Babylon."
In New Brunswick, it has been connected with Cryptic
Masonry. It is there as much out of place
as it is in a Commandery of Knights Templars.
Its only true connection is with the

The sixteenth, from the

their captivity, and

permitted to return to Jerusalem, for the purpose of rebuilding the Temple, found themselves obstructed in the undertaking by the
neighboring nations, and especially by the
Samaritans. Hereupon they sent an embassy, at the head of which was their
prince, Zerubbabel, to Darius, the successor
of Cyrus, to crave his interposition and
protection. Zerubbabel, awaiting a favorable opportunity, succeeded not only in
obtaining his request, but also in renewing
the friendship which formerly existed between the king and himself. In commemoration of these events, Darius is said to
have instituted a new order, and called it
the Knights of the East. They afterwards
assumed their present name from the red
cross borne in their banners.
Webb, or
whoever else introduced it into the Ameri-

Royal Arch- degree.

Knight of the Red Eagle.

{ChevVAigle rouge.) The thirty-ninth

degree of the Rite of Mizraim. The red
eagle forms a part of the arms of the House
of Brandenburg, and the Order of Knights
of the Red Eagle was instituted, in 1705,
by George William, hereditary Prince of
Bayreuth. In 1792, it. was placed among
the Prussian orders. The Masonic degree
has no connection with the political order.
The Mizraimites appropriated all titles that
they fancied.
Knight of the Rose. {Chevalier de
la Rose.)
The Order of the Knights and
Ladies of the Rose {Chevaliers et Chevalieres
de la Rose) was an order of adoptive or
androgynous Masonry, invented in France
towards the close of the eighteenth century.
M. de Chaumont, the Masonic secretary
of the Due de Chartres, was its author.
The principal seat of the order was at
Paris.
The hall of meeting was called the
Temple of Love. It was ornamented with
garlands of flowers, and hung round with
escutcheons on which were painted various
devices and emblems of gallantry. There
were two presiding officers, a male and female, who were styled the Hierophant and
the High Priestess. The former initiated
men, and the latter, women. In the initiations, the Hierophant was assisted by a
conductor or deacon called Sentiment, and
the High Priestess by a conductress or deaThe members
coness called Discretion.
received the title of Knights and Nymphs.
The Knights wore a crown of myrtle; the
Nymphs, a crown of roses. The Hierophant
and High Priestess wore, in addition, a rosecolored scarf, on which were embroidered
two doves within a wreath of myrtle. During the time of initiation, the hall was lit
with a single dull taper, but afterwards it
was brilliantly illuminated by numerous
alier de

wax

candles.

When

a candidate was to be initiated, he

or she was taken in charge, according to
the sex, by the conductor or conductress,
divested of all weapons, jewels, or money,
hoodwinked, loaded with chains, and in this
condition conducted to the door of the Temple of Love, where admission was demanded
by two knocks. Brother Sentiment then
introduced the candidate by order of the

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

Hierophant or High Priestess, and he or she

was asked his or her name, country, condition of life, and, lastly, what he or she was
seeking. To this the answer was, " Happi-

(Chevalier de la Table ronde.)

degree in
the Archives of the Lodge of Saint Louis
des Amis Reunis at Calais.

Knight of the Round -Table.

A

Knight of the Round-Table of

ness."

question proposed was, " What

The candidate, if a male,
is your age ? "
replied, "The age to love;" if a female,
" The age to please and to be loved."
The candidates were then interrogated
concerning their private opinions and conduct in relation to matters of gallantry.
The chains were then taken from them, and
they were invested with garlands of flowers
which were called "the chains of love."
In this condition they were made to traverse the apartment from one extremity to
another, and then back in a contrary direction, over a path inscribed with love-knots.
The following obligation was then administered
" I promise and swear by the Grand Master of the Universe never to reveal the secrets of the Order of the Eose and should I
fail in this my vow, may the mysteries I
shall receive add nothing to my pleasures,
and instead of the roses of happiness may
I find nothing but the thorns of repentance."
The candidates were then conducted to
the mysterious groves in the neighborhood
of the Temple of Love, where the Knights
received a crown of myrtle, and the Nymphs
a simple rose. During this time a soft,
melodious march was played by the orchestra.
After this, the candidates were conducted to the altar of mystery, placed at the
foot of the Hierophant's throne, and there
incense was offered up to Venus and her
If it was a Knight who had been inison.
tiated, he now exchanged his crown of myrtle for the rose of the last initiated Nymph
and if a Nymph, she exchanged her rose
for the myrtle crown of Brother Sentiment.
The Hierophant now read a copy of verses
in honor of the god of Mystery, and the
bandage was at length taken from the eyes
of the candidate. Delicious music and
brilliant lights now added to the charms
of this enchanting scene, in the midst of
which the Hierophant communicated to the
candidate the modes of recognition peculier to the Order.
The Order had but a brief existence.
In 1784, F. B. von Grossing invented, in
Germany, an Order bearing a similar name,
but its duration was as ephemeral as that
of the French one.

The next

Knight of the Rosy and Triple

Cross.

Chevalier de la Eose et Triple

degree in the Archives of the
Lodge of St. Louis des Amis Reunis at Calais.
Croix.)

Knight of the Rosy

Rosy

419

Cross.

Cross.

See

King Arthur.

Chevalier de la Table

ronde du Roi Arthur.) 1. Thory says that

this is a degree of the Primitive Rite
but
I can find no such degree in the nomenclature of the Rite.
2. I have seen the manuscript of a degree of this name written many years ago,
which was in the possession of Brother C.W.
Moore, of Boston. It was an honorary de;

gree,

and

referred, if I recollect aright, to

King Arthur and his

the poetic legend of

knights.

Knight ofthe Royal Axe.

lier

de la royale Hache. )

Cheva-

The twenty-second

degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, called also Prince of Libanus, or
Lebanon. It was instituted to record the
memorable services rendered to Masonry
by the " mighty cedars of Lebanon." The

legend of the degree informs us that the

Sidonians were employed in cutting cedars
on Mount Libanus or Lebanon for the
construction of Noah's ark. Their descendants subsequently cut cedars from the same
place for the ark of the covenant and the
descendants of these were again employed
in the same offices, and in the same place,
in obtaining materials for building Solomon's Temple. Lastly, Zerubbabel employed them in cutting the cedars of Lebanon for the use of the second Temple.
This celebrated nation formed colleges on
Mount Lebanon, and in their labors always
adored the Great Architect of the Universe.
I have no doubt that this last sentence refers to the Druses, that secret sect of Theists
;

who

still reside upon Mount Lebanon and

in the adjacent parts of Syria and Pales-

tine,

and whose mysterious ceremonies have

attracted so

much

of the curiosity of East-

ern travellers.

The apron

of the Knights of the Royal

white, lined and bordered with purOn it is painted a round-table, on
ple.
which are laid several architectural plans.
On the flap is a three-headed serpent. The
jewel is a golden axe, having on the handle and blade the initials of several personages illustrious in the history of Masonry. The places of meeting in this degree
are called " Colleges." This degree is especially interesting to the Masonic scholar in
consequence of its evident reference to the
mystical association of the Druses, whose
connection with the Templars at the time
of the Crusades forms a yet to be investigated episode in the history of Freemasonry.

Axe

is

Knight of the Sacred Moun-

KNIGHT

420
tain.

KNIGHT

(Chevalier de la Montague Sacre'e.)

degree in the Archives of the Lodge of

Saint Louis des Amis Reunis at Calais.

Knight of the Sanctuary.

The eleventh
degree of the Rite of the East according
to the collection of Fustier.
(Chevalier du Sanctuaire.)

Knight of the Sepulchre.

The

sixth degree of the system of the Grand

Lodge Royal York at Berlin.
of the South. (Chevalier
du Sud.) The eighth degree of the Swedish
Rite, better known as the Favorite of St.

Knight

John.

Knight of the
VEtoile.)
A degree

Star.

Chevalier de
in the collection of
(

Pyron.

Knight of the Sun.

Soleil.)

Chevalier

du

The twenty-eighth degree of the

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, called

also Prince of the Sun, Prince Adept, and
Key of Masonry, or Chaos Disentangled.
It is a Kabbalistic and Hermetic degree, and
its instructions and symbols are full of the
Kabbala and Alchemy. Thus, one of its
favorite words is Stibium, which, with the
Hermetic Philosophers, meant the primal
matter of all things. The principal officers
are Father Adam and Brother Truth, allegorizing in the old rituals the search of
Man after Truth. The other officers are
named after the seven chief angels, and the
brethren are called Sylphs, or, in the Amercan ritual, Aralim or Heroes. The jewel is
a golden sun, having on its reverse a hemisphere with the six northern signs of the
There is but one light in the
zodiac.
Lodge, which shines through a globe of
glass.

This degree is not confined to the Scottish Rite, but is found sometimes with a
different name, but with the same Hermetic
design, more or less developed in other
Ragon, with whom Delaunay and
Rites.

ern ritual, for which we are indebted to the

inventive genius of Brother Albert Pike, it
is by far the most learned and philosophical of the Scottish degrees.

Knight of the Sword.

Chevalier
(
of the titles of the Scottish Rite degree of Knight of the East. So
called in allusion to the legend that the
Masons at the second Temple worked with
the trowel in one hand and the sword in
the other. Du Cange, on the authority of
Arnoldus Lubeckius, describes an Order, in
the Middle Ages, of Knights of the Sword,
(Milites Gladii,) who, having vowed to wield
the sword for God's service, wore a sword
embroidered on their mantles as a sign of
their profession, whence they took their
name. But it was not connected with the
Masonic degree.

Knight of the Tabernacle.

In

of the " Grand Lodge of

all England," extracts
from which are
given by Bro. Hughan in his Unpublished
Records, we find the expression Knight of
the Tabernacle, used in the year 1780, as
synonymous with Knight Templar.

the Minute

Book

Knight of the Tabernacle of

the IMTine Truths. (Chevalier du

Tabernacle des Verites divines.)

degree
nomenclature of Fustier.
of the Temple. ( Chevalier
du Temple.) This degree is common to all
the systems of Masonry founded on the
Templar doctrine.
1. It is a synonym of Knight Templar.
2. The eighth degree of the Rite of the
Philalethes.
3. The sixty-ninth degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
4. The sixth degree of the Clerks of Strict
cited in the

Knight

Observance.
5. The ninth degree of the Rite of the
East according to the nomenclature of
Fustier.

Chemin - Dupontes

concur, says that it is

not, like many of the high degrees, a mere
modern invention, but that it is of the
highest antiquity and was, in fact, the last
degree of the ancient initiations teaching,
under an Hermetic appearance, the doctrines of natural religion, which formed an
But Raessential part of the Mysteries.
gon must here evidently refer to the general, philosophic design rather than to the
particular organization of the degree.
Thory, with more plausibility, ascribes its
invention as a Masonic degree to Pernetty,
the founder of the Hermetic Rite. Of all
the high degrees, it is, perhaps, the most
important and the most interesting to the
scholar who desires to investigate the true
Its old catechisms,
Secret of the Order.
now unfortunately too much neglected, are
full of suggestive thoughts, and in its mod-

One

de VEpee.)

6.

The

thirty-sixth degree of the Rite of

Mizraim.

Knight of the Three Kings. An

American

side degree of but little importance. Its history connects it with the dedication of the first Temple, the conferrer of

the degree representing King Solomon. Its

moral tendency appears to be the inculcation of reconciliation of grievances among
Masons by friendly conference. It may be
conferred by any Master Mason on another.

Knight ofthe Throne.

Chevalier

du Trone.) The second degree of the Rite

of the East according to the nomenclature
of Fustier.

Knight of the Triple

Cross.

The sixtyChevalier de la Triple Croix. )

sixth degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
(

Knight of the Triple Period.

KNIGHT

KNIGHT
A

{Chevalier de la Triple Periode.)

degree
in the Archives of the Lodge of Saint
Louis des Amis Reunis at Calais.

Knight of the Triple Sword.

{Chevalier de la Triple JSpe'e.) A degree in

Knight of the Two Crowned

Eagles.

formerly conferred in the Chapter attached

Grand Orient of Bologne.

to the

Knight, Sacrificing.
Sacrifiajit.)

Chevalier des teux Aigles Cou-

France.

one
(

Chevalier d'

of Franee. 2. The forty-seventh degree of

the Rite of Mizraim.

Knight of the White and Black

Eagle.

Chevalier de VAigle blanc et noir.)

titles of the thirtieth degree of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or
Knight Kadosh. In the Rite of Perfection

One

of the

of the Emperors of the East and West, it

constituted the twenty-fourth degree, under
the title of Knight Commander of the
White and Black Eagle. The white eagle
was the emblem of the eastern empire, and
the black of the western. Hence we have
the Knights of the White Eagle in Russia,
and the Knights of the Black Eagle in
Prussia, as orders of chivalry.
The two
combined were, therefore, appropriately
(so far as the title is concerned) adopted
by the Council which assumed Masonic
jurisdiction over both empires.

Knight of the White Eagle.

The

sixty-fourth degree of the Rite of

Mizraim. As a political order, that of the

Knights of the White Eagle were instituted
by Wladistas, King of Poland, in 1325.
It is still conferred by the Czar of Russia.

Knight of Unetion.
Onction. )
lection of

The

Chevalier d'

degree of the colthe Metropolitan Chapter of

fifty-first

France.

Knight, Perfect.
fait.)

{Chevalier

Par-

A degree of the Ancient Chapter of

Clermont, found in the Archives of the

Mother Lodge of the Philosophic

Knight, Professed.

Rite.

See

Eques

Professus.

Knight, Prussian. See Noachite.

Also the thirty-fifth degree of the Rite of
Mizraim.
Knight Rower. [Chevalier Rameur.)
The Order of the Knights and Ladies
Rowers [Ordre des Chevaliers Rameurs et
Chevalieres Rameures) was an androgynous
and adoptive Rite, founded at the city of
Rouen, in France, in 1738, and was therefore one of the earliest instances of the
adoptive system. It met with very little
success.

Knight,
[Chevalier

Royal

royal

Victorious,

Victorieux.)

degree

Amis

Knights of the East, Council of.

ter of

Knight of the West.

Chevalier

at Calais.

[Cornell des Chevaliers

ronnees.)
The twenty-second degree of the
collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of

Occident.)
1. The sixty-fourth degree of
the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter

A degree found in the Archives

of the Lodge of Saint Louis des

Reunis

the collection of Pyron.

421

d'

Orient.)
this

High Degrees, under

A Chapname, was

established at Paris, on July 22, 1762, by

Pirlet, a tailor, as the rival of the
Council of Emperors of the East and West.
Baron de Tschoudy became one of its

members.

Knight Templar.

The

piety or

the superstition of the age had induced

multitudes of pilgrims in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries to visit Jerusalem for the
purpose of offering their devotions at the
sepulchre* of the Lord and the other holy
places in that city. Many of these religious
wanderers were weak or aged, almost all
of them unarmed, and thousands of them
were subjected to insult, to pillage, and
often to death, inflicted by the hordes of
Arabs who, even after the capture of Jerusalem by the Christians, continued to infest the sea-coast of Palestine and the roads
to the capital.
To protect the pious pilgrims thus exposed to plunder and bodily outrage, nine
French knights, the followers of Baldwyn,
united, in the year 1118, in a military confraternity or brotherhood in arms, and entered into a solemn compact to aid each
other in clearing the roads, and in defending the pilgrims in their passage to the
holy city.
Two of these knights were Hugh de
Payens and Godfrey de St. Aldemar. Raynouard [Les Templiers) says that the names
of the other seven have not been preserved
in history, but Wilke {Geschichte des T. H.
Ordens) gives them as Roral, Gundemar,
Godfrey Bisol, Payens de Montidier, Archibald de St. Aman, Andre de Montbar, and
the Count of Provence.
Uniting the monastic with the military
character, they took, in the presence of the
Patriarch of Jerusalem, the usual vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience, and with
great humility assumed the title of " Poor
Fellow Soldiers of Christ." Baldwyn, the
King of Jerusalem, assigned for their residence a part of his palace which stood near
the former site at the Temple; and the
Abbot and Canons of the Temple gave
them, as a place in which to store their
arms and magazines, the street between the
palace and the Temple, whence they derived the name of Templars ; a title which
they ever afterwards retained.
Raynouard says that Baldwyn sent Hugh
de Payens to Europe to solicit a new cru-

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

and that while there he presented his

companions to Pope Honorius II., from
whom he craved permission to form a reli-

whoever presented himself for admission

must prove that he was
sprung from a knightly family, and was
born in lawful wedlock that he was free
from all previous obligations that he was
neither married nor betrothed that he had
not made any vows of reception in another
Order that he was not involved in debt
and finally, that he was of a sound and

422
sade,

gious military order in imitation of that

of the Hospitallers. The pontiff referred
them to the ecclesiastical council which
was then in session at Troyes, in Champagne. Thither De Payens repaired, and
represented to the fathers the vocation of
himself and his companions as defenders
of the pilgrim the enterprise was approved,
and St. Bernard was directed to prescribe a
rule for the infant Order.
This rule, in which the knights of the
Order are called Pauperes eommilitis Christi
et Templi Salomonis, or " The Poor Fellow
Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of
Solomon," is still extant. It consists of
seventy-two chapters, the details of which
are remarkable for their ascetic character.
It enjoined severe devotional exercises, self;

mortification, fasting, and prayer.

It prescribed for the professed knights white garments as a symbol of a pure life; esquires
and retainers were to be clothed in black.
To the white dress, Pope Eugenius II. subsequently added a red cross, to be worn on
the left breast as a symbol of martyrdom.

Hugh

de Payens, thus provided with a

permanence to his Order,and
encouraged by the approval of the Church,
returned to Jerusalem, carrying with him
many recruits from among the noblest families of Europe.
The Templars soon became pre-eminently
distinguished as warriors of the cross. St.
Bernard, who visited them in their Temple retreat, speaks in the warmest terms of
rule that gave

their self-denial, their frugality, their mod" Their

esty, their piety, and their bravery.
arms," he says, " are their only finery, and

they use them with courage, without dreading either the number or the strength of
the barbarians. All their confidence is in
the Lord of Hosts, and in fighting for his
cause they seek a sure victory or a Christian and honorable death."
Their banner was the Beauseant, of divided white and black, indicative of peace
to their friends, but destruction to their
foes. At their reception each Templar swore
never to turn his back on three enemies, but
should he be alone, to fight them if they
were infidels. It was their wont to say
that a Templar ought either to vanquish or
die, since he had nothing to give for his
ransom but his girdle and his knife.
The Order of the Temple, at first exceedingly simple in its organization, became
in a short time very complicated.
In the
twelfth century it was divided into three
classes, which were Knights, Chaplains,
and Serving Brethren.
1. The Knights.
It was required that

into the Order

healthy constitution of body.

2.
The Chaplains.
The Order of the
Temple, unlike that of the Hospitallers,
consisted at first only of laymen. But the
bull of Pope Alexander III., issued in
1162, gave the Templars permission to receive into their houses spiritual persons
who were not bound by previous vows,
the technical name of whom was chaplains.
They were required to serve a noviThe reception was, except
tiate of a year.
in a few points not applicable to the clergy,
the same as that of the knights, and they
were required to take only the three vows
of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Their
duties were to perform all religious offices,
and to officiate at all the ceremonies of the
Order, such as the admission of members
at installations, etc. Their privileges were,
however, unimportant, and consisted principally in sitting next to the Master, and
being first served at table.
The only qual3. The Serving Brethren.
ification required of the serving brethren,
was, that they should be free born and not
slaves yet it is not to be supposed that all
the persons of this class were of mean condition. Many men, not of noble birth, but
of wealth and high position, were found
among the serving brethren. They fought
in the field under the knights, and performed at home the menial offices of the
household. At first there was but one class
of them, but afterwards they were divided
into two
the Brethren-at-Arms, and the
Handicraft Brethren. The former were the
The latter, who were
soldiers of the Order.
the most esteemed, remained in the Preceptories, and exercised their various trades,
such as those of farriers, armorers, etc.
The reception of the serving brethren did
not differ, except in some necessary parThey
ticulars, from that of the knights.
were, however, by the accident of their
birth, precluded from promotion out of
;

their class.

Besides these three classes there was a

not, however, living in the bosom
of the Order,
who were called Affiliati
or the Affiliated. These were persons of
various ranks and of both sexes, who were
recognized by the Order, though not openly
connected with it, as entitled to its protection, and admitted to a participation in
some of its privileges, such as protection
fourth,

KNIGHT

KNIGHT
him

from the interdicts of the Church, which

their arms, carried

did not apply to the members of the Order.

There was also a class called Donates or
Donats. These were either youths whom
their parents destined for the service of the
Order when they had attained the proper
age, or adults who had bound themselves to
aid and assist the Order so long as they
lived, solely from their admiration of it,
and a desire to share its honors.
Over these presided the Grand Master,
more usually styled, in the early days of
the Order, simply the Master of the Temple.
In the treaty of peace executed in 1178,
between the Templars and the Hospitallers,
Odo de St. Armand calls himself " Humble
Master of the Order of the Temple." But
in after times this spirit of humility was
lost sight of, and the title of Grand Master
was generally accorded to him. His allowances were suitable to the distinguished
rank he held, for in the best days of the
Order the Grand Master was considered as
the equal of a sovereign.
The Grand Master resided originally at
Jerusalem afterwards, when that city was
lost, at Acre, and finally at Cyprus.
His
duty always required him to be in the Holy
Land; he consequently never resided in

and placed him before the

Europe.

He

was elected

for

life

from

among

the knights in the following manner.

On the death of the Grand Master, a
Grand Prior was chosen to administer the
affairs of the Order until a successor could
be elected. When the day which had been
appointed for the election arrived, the
Chapter usually assembled at the chief seat
of the Order three or more of the most
esteemed knights were then proposed; the
Grand Prior collected the votes, and he who
had received the greatest number was nominated to be the electing Prior. An Assistant was then associated with him, in the
person of another knight. These two remained all night in the chapel, engaged in
prayer. In the morning, they chose two
others, and these four, two more, and so on
until the number of twelve (that of the
apostles) had been selected.
The twelve
then selected a Chaplain. The thirteen
then proceeded to vote for a Grand Master,
who was elected by a majority of the votes.
When the election was completed, it was
announced to the assembled brethren and
when all had promised obedience, the Prior,
if the person was present, said to him, " In
the name of God the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost, we have chosen, and do
choose thee, Brother N., to be our Master."
Then, turning to the brethren, he said,
" Beloved Sirs and Brethren, give thanks
unto God; behold here our Master." The
Chaplains then chanted the Te Deurn; and
the brethren, taking their new Master in
;

423

into the chapel

altar,

where he

continued

kneeling, while the brethren

prayed, and the Chaplains repeated the
Kyrie Eleison, the Pater Noster, and other
devotional exercises.
Next in rank to the Grand Master was
the Seneschal, who was his representative
and lieutenant. Then came the Marshal,
who was the General of the Order. Next
was the Treasurer, an office that was always
united with that of Grand Preceptor of Jerusalem. He was the Admiral of the Order,
The Draper, the next, officer in rank, had
charge of the clothing of the Order. He
was a kind of Commissary General. The
Turcopolier was the Commander of the
light-horse.
There was also a class of officers called Visitors, whose duties, as their
name imports, was to visit the different
Provinces, and correct abuses. There were
also some subordinate offices appropriated
to the Serving Brethren, such as Sub-Marshal, Standard- Bearer, Farrier, etc.

These officers, with the Grand Preceptors

of the Provinces and the most distinguished
knights who could attend, constituted the
General Chapter or great legislative assembly of the Order, where all laws and regulations were made and great officers elected.
This assembly was not often convened, and
in the intervals its powers were exercised
by the Chapter of Jerusalem.
The Order thus organized, as it increased
in prosperity and augmented its possessions
in the East and in Europe, was divided into Provinces, each of which was governed
by a Grand Preceptor or Grand Prior for
the titles were indiscriminately used. That,
however, of Preceptor was peculiar to the
Templars, while that of Prior was common
both to them and to the Knights HospitalThese Provinces were
lers of St. John.
fifteen in number, and were as follows:
Jerusalem, Tripolis, Antioch, Cyprus, Por;

and Leon, Aragon, France

and Auvergne, Normandy, Aquitaine, Provence, England, including Scotland and Ireland Germany, Upper and Central Italy,
and Apulia and Sicily. Hence it will be
seen that there was no part of Europe, except the impoverished kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, where the
Templars had not extended their possessions and their influence.
In all the Provinces there were numerous
tugal, Castile

temple-houses called Preceptories, presided

over by a Preceptor. In each of the larger
Preceptories there was a Chapter, in which
local regulations were made and members
were received into the Order.
The reception of a knight into the O-rder

was a very solemn ceremonial. It was secret, none but members of the Order being

"

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

permitted to be present. In this it differed

from that of the Knights of Malta, whose
form of reception was open and public and
it is to this difference, between a public reception and a secret initiation, that may,
perhaps, be attributed a portion of the spirit
of persecution exhibited by the Church to
the Order in its latter days.
Of this reception, the best and most authentic account is given by Mlinter in his
Statutenbuch des Ordens der Tempelherren,

to the good deeds of the Order, as one who

will for all his life long be the servant and
slave of the Order."
The Master replied: "Beloved Brother,
you are desirous of a great matter, for you
see nothing but the outward shell of our
Order. It is only the outward shell when
you see that we have fine horses and rich
caparisons, that we eat and drink well, and
are splendidly clothed.
From this you
conclude that you will be well off with us.

424

But you know not the rigorous maxims

which are in our interior. For it is a hard
On the day of the reception, the Master matter for you, who are your own master,
and the knights being in the Chapter, the to become the servant of another. You
(pp. 29-42,)

and on that

I shall principally

rely.

Master said
" Beloved Knights and Brethren, ye see
:

that the majority are willing that this man

If there be

shall be received as a brother.

among you any one who knows anything

concerning him, wherefor he cannot rightfully become a brother, let him say so.
For it is better that this should be made
known beforehand than after he has been
brought before us." All being silent, the
candidate is conducted into an adjoining
chamber. Two or three of the oldest
knights are sent to him to warn him of the
difficulties and hardships that he will have
to encounter; or, as the Benedictine rule
says, all the hard and rough ways that lead
" omnia dura et aspera, per quae
to God
itur ad Deum."
They commenced by saying " Brother, do
you seek the fellowship of the Order ? " If
he replied affirmatively, they warned him
of the rigorous services which would be demanded of him. Should he reply that he
was willing to endure all for the sake of
God and to become the slave of the Order,
they further asked him if he were married
or betrothed if he had ever entered any
other Order if he owed more than he could
pay if he was of sound body and if he
was of free condition ? If his replies were
satisfactory, his examiners returned to the
Chapter room and made report; whereupon
the Master again inquired if any one present knew anything against the candidate.
All being silent, he asked " Are you willing that he should be received in God's
name;" and all the knights answered:
" Let him be received in God's name." His
examiners then returned to him and asked

"

will hardly be able to perform, in future,

For when you
what you wish yourself.
wish to be on this side of the sea, you will
be sent to the other side; when you will
wish to be in Acre, you will be sent to the
district of Antioch, to Tripolis, or to Armenia ; or you will be sent to Apulia, to
Sicily, or to Lombardy, or to Burgundy,

France, England, or any other country

where we have houses and possessions.

When you

will wish to sleep,

you

will be

ordered to watch when you will wish to

watch, then you will be ordered to go to
;

when you will wish to eat, then you

;
And
will be ordered to do something else.
as both we and you might suffer great inbed

convenience from what you have, mayhap,

concealed from us, look here on the holy
Evangelists and the word of God, and answer the truth to the questions which we
shall put to you for if you lie, you will be
perjured, and may be expelled the Order,
from which God keep you
The questions which had been before
asked him by his examiners were then repeated more at large, with the additional
one whether he had made any contract with
a Templar or any other person to secure his
;

admission.

His answers being

ter proceeded

satisfactory, the
" Beloved Brother,

Mastake

good heed that you have spoken truth to

us, for should you in any one point have
spoken falsely, you would be put out of the
Order, from which God preserve you. Now,
beloved Brother, heed well what we shall
say to you. Do you promise God and Mary,
our dear Lady, that your life long you will
be obedient to the Master of the Temple
him if he still persisted in his intention. and the Prior who is set over you ? "
If he replied that he did, they gave him the
"Yes, Sir, God willing."
" Do you promise God and Mary, our
necessary instructions how he should act,
and led him to the door of the Chapter dear Lady, all your life long to live chaste
room. There entering he cast himself on in your body?"
his knees before the Master, with folded
"Yes, Sir, God willing."
" Do you promise God and Mary, our
hands, and said " Sir, I am come before God,
before you and the brethren, and pray and dear Lady, your life long to observe the
beseech you, for God and our dear Lady's laudable manners and customs of our Orsake, to admit me into your fellowship and der, those which now are and those which
:

KNIGHT
the Master

and knights

KNIGHT
may

hereafter

ordain?"
" Yes, Sir,

God

willing."

"Do you

promise God and Mary, our

dear Lady, that your life long you will,
with the power and strength that God gives
you, help to conquer the holy land of Jerusalem, and with your best power you will
help to keep and guard that which the

Christians possess ? "

"Yes, Sir, God willing."
" Do you promise God and Mary, our
dear Lady, never to hold this Order for
stronger or weaker, for worse or for better,
but with the permission of the Master or
the convent which has the authority ? "
"Yes, Sir, God willing."
" Finally, do you promise God and Mary,
our dear Lady, that you will never be present when a Christian shall be unjustly and
unlawfully despoiled of his heritage, and
that you will never by counsel or act take
part therein?"
"Yes, Sir, God willing."
Then the Master said: "Thus, in the
name of God and Mary our dear Lady,
and in the name of St. Peter of Eome, and
our Father the Pope, and in the name of
all the Brethren of the Temple, we receive
you to all the good works of the Order
which have been done from the beginning,
and shall be done to the end, you, your
father,

your mother, and

who you

all

your lineage,

are willing shall have a share

therein.
In like manner do you receive us
into all the good works which you have
done or shall do.
assure you bread
and water, and the poor clothing of the Order, and toil and labor in abundance."
The Chaplain then read the 133d Psalm
and the prayer of the Holy Ghost, Deus
qui cordafidelium, and the brethren repeated
the Lord's prayer.
The Prior and the
Chaplain gave the recipient the fraternal
kiss.
He was then seated before the Master, who delivered to him a discourse on
his duties and obligations as a member of
the Order.
These duties may be thus summed up.
He was never to assault a Christian, nor
swear, nor receive any attendance from a
woman without the permission of his superiors; not to kiss a woman, even his
mother or sister to hold no child to the
baptismal font and to abuse no man, but
to be courteous to all.
He was to sleep in
a linen shirt, drawers and hose, and girded
with a small girdle to attend divine service punctually, and to begin and end his
meals with a prayer.
Such is the formula of reception, which
has been collected by Miinter from the
most authentic sources. It is evident, however, that it is not complete.
The secret

We

425

parts of the ritual are omitted, so that the

formula is here something like what a
Freemason would call the monitorial part
of the instruction. Miinter does not even

give the form of the oath taken by the candidate; although Raynouard says that it is
preserved in the Archives of the Abbey of
Alcobaza, in Aragon, and gives it in the
following words, on the authority of Henriguez in his Regula, etc., Ordinis Cisterniensis.
" I swear to consecrate my discourse, my
arms, my faculties, and my life, to the defence of the sacred mysteries of the faith,
and to that of the unity of God. I also
promise to be submissive and obedient to
the Grand Master of the Order
At
all times that it may be necessary, I will
cross the seas to go to battle I will contribute succor against infidel kings and
princes I will not turn my back on three
;

foes

and even

if I

be alone, I will fight

them if they are infidels."

The fact that the Templars had a

secret

now

generally conceded, although a few writers have denied it. But

the circumstantial evidence in its favor is
too great to be overcome by anything except positive proof to the contrary, which
has never been adduced. It is known that
at these receptions none but members of the
Order were admitted a prohibition which
would have been unnecessary if the ceremonies had not been secret. In the meetings of the General Chapter of the Order,
even the Pope's Legate was refused admisinitiation is

sion.
It

would not be fair to quote the one

hundred and twenty accusations preferred
against the Templars by Clement, because
they were undoubtedly malicious falsehoods
invented by an unprincipled Pontiff pandering to the cupidity of an avaricious
monarch but yet some of them are of such
a nature as to indicate what was the gen;

men at the time. Thus, Art.

32 says " Quod receptiones istius clandestine faciebant " i. e. that they were wont to
have their receptions in secret. The 100th is
in these words " Quod sic se includunt ad
tenenda capitula ut omnes januas domus et
ecclesise in quibus tenent capitula ferment
adeo firmiter quod nullus sit nee esse possit accessus ad eos nee juxta: ut possit
quicunque videre vel audire de factis vel
eral belief of
:

dictis

eorum "

i.

e.,

that

when

they held

their Chapters, they shut all the doors of the

house or church in which they met so closely

no one could approach near enough to

hear what they were doing and saying.
And the next article is more particular, for
it states that, to secure themselves against
eavesdroppers,they were accustomed to place
a watch, as we should now say a tiler, upon
the roof of the house, " excubicum super
that

see or

KNIGHT

426

who

tectum/'
warning.

KNIGHT

could give the necessary

Of course it is impossible to obtain an

accurate knowledge of all the details of this
secret reception of the ancient Templars,
since it must have been generally oral but
I have always been inclined to think, from
allusions here and there scattered through
the history of their customs, that many of
its features have descended to us, and are
to be found in the ritual of initiation practised by the Masonic Knights Templars.
The dress of the Templars was prescribed
for them by St. Bernard, in the rule which
he composed for the government of the
Order, and is thus described in chapter xx.
"To all the professed knights, both in
winter and summer, we give, if they can be
procured, white garments, that those who
have cast behind them a dark life, may
know that they are to commend themselves
to their Creator by a pure and white life."
;

The white mantle was

therefore the peculiar

vestment of the Templars, as the black

was

of the Hospitallers.
Subsequently, for at
first

they

wore no
Euge-

Pope
cross,
nius III. gave

them a
red cross pattee as a
symbol of martyrdom, which they were directed to wear on the left breast, just over
the heart.
The general direction of St. Bernard as
to clothing was afterwards expanded, so that
the dress of a Templar consisted of a long,
white tunic, nearly resembling that of a
priest's in shape, with a red cross on the
front and back under this was his linen
Over all was the
shirt clasped by a girdle.
white mantle with the red cross pattee.
The head was covered by a cap or hood attached to the mantle. The arms were a
sword, lance, mace, and shield. Although
at first the Order adopted as a seal the representation of two knights riding on one
horse, as a mark of their poverty, subsequently each knight was provided with
three horses, and an esquire selected usually from the class of Serving Brethren.
To write the history of the Templar
Order for the two centuries of its existence
would, says Addison, be to write the Latin
history of Palestine, and would occupy a
volume. Its details would be accounts of
glorious struggles with the infidel in defence of the holy land, and of Christian
pilgrimage, sometimes successful and often
disastrous; of arid sands well moistened
with the blood of Christian and Saracen
warriors of disreputable contests with its
rival of St. John; of final forced departure
;

from the places which its prowess had

conquered, but which it had not strength
to hold, and of a few years of luxurious,
and it may be of licentious indolence, terminated by a cruel martyrdom and dissolution.

The fall of Acre in 1292, under the vigorous assault of the Sultan Mansour, led at
once to the evacuation of Palestine by the
Christians.
The Knights Hospitallers of
St. John of Jerusalem, afterwards called
Knights of Ehodes, and then of Malta, betook themselves to Ehodes, where the
former, assuming a naval character, resumed
the warfare in their galleys against the
Mohammedans. The Templars, after a
brief stay in the island of Cyprus, retired
to their different Preceptories in Europe.
Porter [Hist. K. of Malta, i. 174,) has no
panegyric for these recreant knights. After
eulogizing the Hospitallers for the perseverT
ing energy with which, from their island
home of Rhodes, they continued the war
with the infidels, he says
" The Templar, on the other hand, after
a brief sojourn in Cyprus, instead of rendering the smallest assistance to his chivalrous and knightly brethren in their new
undertaking, hurried with unseemly haste
to his numerous wealthy European Preceptories, where the grossness of his licentiousness, the height of his luxury, and
the arrogance of his pride, soon rendered
him an object of the most invincible hatred
among those who possessed ample power to
accomplish his overthrow. During these
last years of their existence little can be
said in defence of the Order and although
the barbarous' cruelty with which their extinction was accomplished has raised a
feeling of compassion in their behalf,
which bids fair to efface the memory of
their crimes, still it cannot be denied that
they had of late years so far deviated from
the original purposes of their Institution
as to render them highly unfit depositaries
of that wealth which had been bequeathed
to them for purposes so widely different
from those to which they had appropriated
;

it."

The act of cruelty and of injustice by

which the Templar Order was dissolved in
the fourteenth century, has bequeathed an
inglorious memory on the names of the infamous king, and no less infamous pope
who accomplished it. In the beginning of
the fourteenth century, the throne of France
was filled by Philip the Fair, an ambitious,
a vindictive, and an avaricious prince. In
his celebrated controversy with Pope Boniface, the Templars had, as was usual with
them, sided with the pontiff and opposed
the king

this act excited his hatred

the

Order was enormously wealthy this aroused

;

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

his avarice their power interfered with his

designs of political aggrandizement and this
alarmed his ambition. He, therefore, secretly
:

concerted with Pope Clement V. a plan for

their destruction, and the appropriation of
Clement, by his direction,
their revenues.
wrote in June, 1306, to De Molay, the
Grand Master, who was then at Cyprus, inviting him to come and consult with him
on some matters of great importance to the

Order. De Molay obeyed the summons,

and arrived in the beginning of 1307 at
Paris, with sixty knights and a large
amount of treasure. He was immediately
imprisoned, and, on the thirteenth of October following, every knight in France
was, in consequence of the secret orders of
the king, arrested on the pretended charge
of idolatry, and other enormous crimes, of
which Squin de Flexian, a renegade and
expelled Prior of the Order, was said to
have confessed that the knights were guilty
in their secret Chapters.
What these charges were has not been
Pope Clement sent a
left to conjecture.
list of the articles of accusation, amounting
to one hundred and twenty in number, to all
the archbishops, bishops, and Papal commissaries upon which to examine the knights
who should be brought before them. This
list is still in existence, and in it we find
such charges as these. 1. That they required those who were received into the
Order to abjure Christ, the Blessed Virgin,
and all the saints. 7. That they denied
that Christ had suffered for man's redemption. 9. That they made their recipient spit
upon the cross or the crucifix. 14. That
they worshipped a cat in their assemblies.
16. That they did not believe in the eucharistic sacrifice.
20. That they said that the
Grand Master had the power of absolution.
26. That they practised obscene ceremonies
in their receptions.
32. That their receptions were secret; a charge repeated in articles 97, 98, 99, 100, and 101, in different
forms. 42. That they had an idol, which
was a head with one or with three faces, and
sometimes a human skull. 52, 53. That
they exercised magic arts.
On such preposterous charges as these
the knights were tried, and of course, as a
foregone conclusion condemned. On the
12th of May, 1310, fifty-four of the knights
were publicly burnt, and on the 18th of
March, 1313, De Molay, the Grand Master,
and the three principal dignitaries of the
order, suffered the same fate.
They died
faithfully asserting their innocence of all
the crimes imputed to them. The Order was
now, by the energy of the king of France,
assisted by the spiritual authority of the
pope, suppressed throughout Europe. So
much of its vast possessions as were not

427

appropriated by the different sovereigns to

own use, or to that of their favorites,
was bestowed upon the Order of the Knights
of Malta, whose acceptance of the donation
did not tend to diminish the ill feeling which
had always existed between the members
of the two Orders.
As to the story of the continuation of the
Order, after the death of James de Molay,
by Johannes Larmenius, under the authority of a charter of transmission given
to him by De Molay a few days before his
death, that subject is more appropriately
treated in the history of the Order of the
Temple, which claims, by virtue of this
charter, to be the regular successor of the
ancient Order.
From the establishment of the Order by
Hugh de Payens, until its dissolution
during the Mastership of De Molay, twentytwo Grand Masters presided over the Order,
of whom the following is an accurate list,
compiled on the authority of Addison. The
roll of Grand Masters in the Eite of Strict
Observance, and that in the Order of the
Templar, differ in several names but these
rolls are destitute of authenticity.
elected in 1118.
1. Hugh de Payens,
"
1136.
2. Robert of Burgundy,
"
1146.
3. Everard de Barri,
"
1151.
4. Bernard de Tremellay,
"
1154.
5. Bertrand de Blanquefbrt,
"
1167.
6. Philip of Naplous,
"
1170.
7. Odo de St. Amand,
"
1180.
8. Arnold de Troye,
"
1185.
9. Gerard de Ridefort,
"
1189.
10. Brother Walter,
"
1191.
11. Robert de Sable,
"
1195.
12. Gilbert Horal,
"
1201.
13. Philip de Plessis,
"
1217.
14. William de Chartres,
"
1218.
15. Peter de Montaigu,
"
1236.
16. Hermann de Perigord,
"
1245.
William de Sonnac,
their

17.

18.

Reginald de Vichier,

19.

Thomas

22.

James de Molay,

Berard,
20. William de Beaujeu,
21. Theobald de Gaudini,

Knight

Templar,

"

1252.
1256.
1273.
1291.
1297.

"

"
"
"

Masonic.

The connection of the Knights Templars

with the Freemasons may much more
plausibly be traced than that of the Knights
of Malta. Yet, unfortunately, the sources
from which information is to be derived
are for the most part traditionary authentic dates and documents are wanting.
Tradition has always been inclined to trace
the connection to an early period, and to
give to the Templar system of secret reception a Masonic character, derived from
their association during the Crusades with
the mystical Society of the Assassins in
Syria.
Lawrie, {Hist, p. 87,) or Brewster,
;

KNIGHT

428

KNIGHT

The second division of Templars is that

who is said by some to have written the
work which bears Lawrie's name, embodies which is founded on the theory that Peter
the tradition in this form
" Almost all the secret associations of the
ancients either flourished or originated in
It was
Syria, and the adjacent countries.
here that the Dionysian artists, the Essenes
and the Kassideans, arose. From this
country also came several members of that
trading association of Masons which appeared in Europe during the dark ages;
and we are assured, that, notwithstanding
the unfavorable condition of that province,
there exists at this day, on Mount Libanus,
one of these Syriac fraternities. As the
Order of the Templars, therefore, was
originally formed in Syria, and existed
there for a considerable time, it would be
no improbable supposition that they received their Masonic knowledge from the
Lodges in that quarter. But we are fortunately, in this case, not left to conjecture,
for we are expressly informed by a foreign
author [Adler, de Drusis], who was well
acquainted with the history and customs
of Syria, that the Knights Templars were
actually members of the Syriac fraterni:

ties."

Even

hypothesis were true, almight probably suggest the origin

of the secret reception of the Templars, it
would not explain the connection of the
modern Templars with the Freemasons,
because there is no evidence that these
Syriac fraternities were Masonic.
There are four sources from which the
Masonic Templars are said to have derived
their existence making, therefore, as many

though

if this

it

different divisions of the Order.

1. The Templars who claim John Mark
Larmenius as the successor of James de
Molay.
2. Those who recognize Peter d' Aumont
as the successor of Molay.
3. Those who derive their Templarism
from the Count Beaujeu, the nephew of
Molay.
who claim an independent
4. Those
origin, and repudiate alike the authority
of Larmenius, of Aumont, and of Beaujeu.
From the first class spring the Templars
of France, who professed to have continued
the Order by authority of a charter given
by Molay to Larmenius. This body of
Templars designate themselves as the
"Order of the Temple." Its seat is in

The Duke of Sussex received from

the degree and the authority to establish
a Grand Conclave in England. He did so
and convened that body once, but only
once.
During the remaining years of his

Paris.
it

Templarism had no activity in England,

as he discountenanced all Christian and
chivalric Masonry. See Temple, Order of the.

life,

d' Aumont fled with several knights into

Scotland, and there united with the FreemaThis legend is intimately connected
sons.
with Ramsay's tradition that Freemasonry
sprang from Templarism, and that all Freemasons are Knights Templars. The Chapter of Clermont adopted this theory; and
in establishing their high degrees asserted
that they were derived from these Templars of Scotland. The Baron Hund carried the theory into Germany, and on it
established his Eite of Strict Observance,
which was a Templar system. Hence the
Templars of Germany must be classed under the head of the followers of Aumont.
See Strict Observance.
The third division is that which asserts
that the Count Beaujeu, a nephew of the
last Grand Master, Molay, and a member
of the Order of Knights of Christ,
the
name assumed by the Templars of Portugal,
had received authority from that
Order to disseminate the degree.
He
is said to have carried the degree and its
ritual into Sweden, where he incorporated
it with Freemasonry.
The story is, too,
that Beaujeu collected his uncle's ashes and
interred them in Stockholm, where a
monument was erected to his memory.
Hence the Swedish Templar Masons claim
their descent from Beaujeu, and the Swedish Rite is through this source a Templar
system.
Of the last class, or the Templars who
recognized the authority of neither of the
leaders who have been mentioned, there
were two subdivisions, the Scotch and the
English; for it is only in Scotland and
England that this independent Templarism
found a foothold.
It was only in Scotland that the Templars endured no persecution.
Long after
the dissolution of the Order in every other
country of Europe, the Scottish Preceptories
continued to exist, and the knights lived
undisturbed. One portion of the Scottish
Templars entered the army of Robert
Bruce, and, after the battle of Bannockburn, were merged in the " Royal Order
of Scotland," then established by him. See
Royal Order of Scotland.
Another portion of the Scottish Templars united with the Knights Hospitallers of St. John.
They lived amicably in
the same houses, and continued to do so
until the Reformation. At this time many
of them embraced Protestantism. Some
of them united with the Freemasons, and
established " the Ancient Lodge " at Stir-

where they conferred the degrees of

Knight of the Sepulchre, Knight of Malta,
and Knight Templar. It is to this division
ling,

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

that we are to trace the Masonic Templars

of Scotland.
The Koman Catholic knights remaining in the Order, placed themselves under
David Seaton. Lord Dundee afterwards
Charles
became their Grand Master.
Edward, the " Young Pretender," was admitted into the Order at Holyrood House,
Edinburgh, on September 24, 1745, and
made the Grand Master. He carried the
degree with him, of course, into France,
after the downfall of his enterprise, and
established the Chapter of Arras and the
To this branch, I think,
high degrees.
there can be but little doubt that we are
to attribute the Templar system of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite as developed in its degree of Kadosh.
The English Masonic Templars are most
probably derived from that body called the
"Baldwyn Encampment," or from some
one of the four co-ordinate Encampments
of London, Bath, York, and Salisbury,
which it is claimed were formed by the
members of the Preceptory which had long
existed at Bristol, and who, on the dissolution of their Order, are supposed to have
united with the Masonic fraternity. The
Baldwyn Encampment claims to have ex-

Knight Templar is also created a Knight

of Malta, involves an absurdity. No man
being a Knight Templar could, by the
original statutes, be a member of any other
Order; and it is to be regretted that the
wise provision of the Grand Encampment
in 1856, which struck the degree of Malta
from the ritual of the Commanderies, should
have been in 1862 unwisely repealed. The
secrets in which the candidate is instructed
are the modern inventions of the Masonic
Knights of Malta. The original Order had

isted from "time immemorial,"

an indefinite period,
but we can trace it back
far enough to give it a priority over all
other English Encampments. From this

division of the Templars, repudiating all

connection with Larmenius, with Aumont,

or any other of the self-constituted leaders,
but tracing its origin to the independent
action of knights who fled for security and
for perpetuity into the body of Masonry,
are we, I think, justly entitled to derive
the Templars of the United States.
Of this brief statement, we may make the
following summary
1. From Larmenius came the French
Templars.
2. From Aumont, the German Templars
of Strict Observance.
3. From Beaujeu, the Swedish Templars
of the Rite of Zinnendorf.
Protestant Templars of
4. From the
Scotland and the Ancient Lodge of Stirling, the Scotch Templars.
5. From Prince Charles Edward and his
adherents, the Templars of the Ancient

and Accepted Scottish

From

Rite.

Baldwyn Encampment and

its co-ordinates, the old English and the
American Templars.
The Government of Masonic Knights
6.

the

Templars in the United States is vested,

in Commanderies, which confer the
Red Cross and Templar degrees and instruct

first,

in the secrets of Malta. The usual expression, that a candidate after beinar made a

429

no secrets.
Commanderies are under the control of
Grand Commanderies in States in which
those bodies exist. Where they do not, the
Warrants are derived directly from the

Grand Encampment.
The supreme authority of the Order is
exercised by the Grand Encampment of
the United States, which meets triennially.
The presiding officer is a Grand Master.
The Costume of the Knights Templars
of the United States is of two kinds. First,
the original uniform, which was in general
use until the year 1859, and is still used

by Commanderies which were in existence

before that time. It is thus described
The suit is black, with black gloves.
black velvet sash, trimmed with silver lace,
crosses the body from the left shoulder to
right hip, having at its end a cross-hilted
dagger, a black rose on the left shoulder,
and a Maltese cross at the end. Where the
sash crosses the left breast, is a nine-pointed star in silver, with a cross and serpent
of gold in the centre, within a circle, around
which are the words, " in hoc signo vinces"
The apron is of black velvet, in triangular
form, to represent the delta, and edged with
silver lace.
On its flap is placed a triangle
of silver, perforated with twelve holes, with
a cross and serpent in the centre ; on the
centre of the apron are a skull and crossbones, between three stars of seven points,
having a red cross in the centre of each.
The belt is black, to which is attached a
The caps vary in form
cross-hilted sword.
and decoration in different Encampments.
The standard is black, bearing a nine-pointed cross of silver, having in its centre a
circle of green, with the cross and serpent
in gold, and the motto around " in hoc signo

vinces."

In 1859 the Grand Encampment enacted

a statute providing that all Commanderies
which might be thereafter chartered should
provide a new costume of an entirely different kind, which should also be adopted by
the old Commanderies whenever they should
change their uniform. This new costume
was further altered in 1862, and is now of
the following description, as detailed in the
statute

;;

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

430

Full Dress.
Black frock coat, black
pantaloons, scarf, sword, belt, shoulder
straps, gauntlets, and chapeau, with appropriate trimmings.
Fatigue Dress.
Same as full dress, except for chapeau a black cloth cap, navy
form, with appropriate cross in front, and

for gauntlets, white gloves.

Five inches wide in the whole,

Scarf.
of white, bordered with black one inch on
either side, a strip of navy lace one-fourth
of an inch wide, at the inner edge of the
black.
On the front centre of the scarf a
metal star of nine points, in allusion to the
nine founders of the Temple Order, inclosing the Passion Cross, surrounded by the
Latin motto, "In hoc signo vinces;" the
star to be three and three-quarter inches in
diameter. The scarf to be worn from the
right shoulder to the left hip, with the ends
extending six inches below the point of
intersection.

Chapeau.
The military chapeau, trimwith black binding, one white and two
black plumes, and appropriate cross on the

med

left side.

Of buff leather,

the flap to
extend four inches upwards from the wrist,
and to have the appropriate cross embroidered in gold, on the proper colored velvet,
two inches in length.
Sword.
Thirty-four to forty inches, inclusive of scabbard helmet head, cross handle, and metal scabbard.
Belt.
Eed enamelled or patent leather,
two inches wide, fastened round the body
with buckle or clasp.
From what has been said, it will appear
that there are two modes of dress or costume
in use among the Templars of the United
States one, the old or "black uniform,"
which was adopted at the first organization
of the Order in this country, and which is
still used by the old Commanderies which
were in existence previous to the year 1859
and the new or " black uniform," which was
adopted by the Grand Encampment in
that year, and which has been prescribed
for all Commanderies chartered since that
Gauntlets.

year.

This difference of costume has recently

been the occasion of much discussion in
the Order. In 1872, Sir J. Q. A. Fellows,
the Grand Master, thinking that it was his
duty to enforce a uniform dress in the
Order, issued his decree requiring all the
Commanderies in the United States which
were then using " the black uniform," to
abandon it, and to adopt " the white uniform," which had been originally ordered
in 1859, and subsequently amended in 1862,
Much opposition has been manifested to this
order in the Commanderies and Grand Commanderies where the black costume was in

The Grand Master's interpretation of

the statute of the Grand Encampment has
been doubted or denied, and the order has
been virtually disobeyed by most, if not by all
of them. The question has assumed great importance in consequence of the feeling that
has been created, and is therefore worthy of
discussion. The author's views were against
the correctness of the Grand Master's interpretation of the law, and so were those of
the living Past Grand Masters of the Order.
It is, however, but fair to say that some
distinguished Templars have been of a
different opinion.
The following views advanced by me in the National Freemason in
December, 1872, express what I am compelled to think is the true condition of the
use.

question.

Previous to the year 1859 the costume of

the Knights Templars of this country was
determined only by a traditional rule, and
consisted of a black dress, with the richly
decorated baldric and apron the latter intended to show the connection which existed between the Order and Ancient Craft
;

Masonry.
In 1856, at Hartford, a new Constitution
was proposed and adopted, with the exception of the part that referred to costume.
Sir Knight Mackey, from the committee on
the Constitution, made a report on the subject of dress, as a part of the Constitution
but the consideration of this report was
postponed until the next triennial meeting.
The changes in costume proposed by the
committee were not very great the baldric
and the essential apron were preserved, and
a white tunic, not hitherto used, was re;

commended.
At the session of 1859, at Chicago, the
subject of dress was alluded to by the
Grand Master in his address and his re;

marks, together with the report of the

committee made in 1856, were referred to a
special committee of seven, of which the
Grand Master was chairman, and Sir
Knights Doyle, Pike, Simons, Mackey,
Morris, and French were the members.
This committee reported a uniform which
made material differences in the dress theretofore worn, and especially by the rejection
of the apron and the introduction of a
white tunic and a white cloak. These last
were favorite notions of Grand Master
Hubbard, and they were, I think, adopted
by the committee mainly in deference to
his high authority.
The proposed measure met at first with
serious opposition, partly on account of the
.

rejection of the apron, which many Templars then held, as they do now, to be an
essential feature of Masonic Templarism,
and a tangible record of the union at a
specific period in history of the two Orders

"

;;

KNIGHT

KNIGHT
but mainly, perhaps, on account of the
very heavy expense and inconvenience
which would devolve on the old Commanderies, if they were required at once to throw
aside their old dress and provide a new
one.
I have a distinct recollection that this
opposition was only quelled by the agree-

ment on a compromise, by which the old

Commanderies were to be exempted from the
operation of the law. The regulations for
the new costume were then passed, and the
compromise immediately after adopted in
the words of the following resolution, which
was proposed by Sir Knight Doyle, who
was one of the committee
"Resolved, That the costume this day
adopted by the Grand Encampment be,
and the same is hereby, ordered to be worn
by all Commanderies chartered at this
Communication, or that shall hereafter be
:

established in this jurisdiction, and by all

Commanderies heretofore existing, whenever they shall procure a new costume
and all State Grand Commanderies were
directed to enforce it in all subordinates
that may hereafter be chartered in their respective jurisdictions.
I say that this was a compromise, nothing more or less, and so understood at the
The old Commanderies were then in
time.
the majority, and would not, I think, have
consented to any change involving so much
expenditure, unless they had been relieved
from the burden themselves.
But the white tunic and cloak were never
popular with the knights, who had been
required by the regulations of 1859 to wear
them. In consequence of this, at the session in 1862, on motion of Sir Knight
Bailey, " the subject-matter of costume and
the resolution relating thereto were referred
to a Select Committee of Five."
This committee made a report, in which
they " proposed " a uniform. The record
says that " the report was agreed to, and
the uniform was adopted." But there are
some points in this report that are worthy
of notice. In the first place, not a word is
said about the compromise resolution adopted in 1859, although it was referred to the
committee. That resolution was not repealed by any action taken at the session
of 1862, and still must remain in force. It
secured to the old Commanderies the right
to wear the old black costume; a right
which could not be taken from them, except by a repeal of the resolution conferring the right. I say nothing of the manifest injustice of repealing a resolution
granted by the friends of a measure to its
opponents to remove their opposition. In
1859, the promise was made to the old
Commanderies, that if they would agree to
;

431

new

a certain uniform, to be prescribed for

Commanderies, their own old, traditional

costume should never be interfered with.
Might could, it is true, repeal this compromise; but Right would, for that purBut the fact is,
pose, have to be sacrificed.
that the sense of right in the Grand Encampment prevented such an act of discourtesy, " not to put too fine a point upon
it," and no one can find in the proceedings
of the Grand Encampment any act which
repeals the compromise resolution of 1859
and this has been the opinion and the decision of all the Grand Masters who have
wielded the baculus of office, except the
present one.
But, in the second place, the report of
1862 shows clearly that the object of the
committee was to recommend a change in
the uniform that had been adopted for new

Commanderies in 1859, and which had become objectionable on account of the tunic
and cloak, and that they did not intend to
refer at all to the old dress of the old

Com-

manderies.
In the report the committee say " The
objections advanced to the costume adopted
at the last Triennial Conclave of this Grand
Body are want of adaptation to the requirements of our modern Templars, its liability
Now,
to injury, and its expensiveness."
who advanced these objections? Clearly,
They were
not the old Commanderies.
well satisfied with the mode of dress which
they had received from their fathers and
which was dear to them for its solemn
:

beauty and

its

traditional associations

and

the right to wear which had been secured

to them in 1859, with the understanding
that if they ever desired, of their own accord, to lay it aside, they would then adopt,
in its stead, the regulation dress of the

Grand Encampment.
for their
It was

own

But

this

was

to be

free action.

very evident that the old Commanderies had never complained that the
tunics and cloaks were from their material
expensive, and from their color liable to
injury.
The old Commanderies did not
use these expensive and easily - soiled
garments. It was the new Commanderies
that had made the objection, and for them
the legislation of 1862 was undertaken.
I hold, therefore, that the compromise
resolution of 1859 still remains in force
that even if the Grand Encampment had
the right to repeal it, which I do not believe
it has, it never has enacted any such repeal
that the old Commanderies have the right
to wear the old black uniform, and that the
legislation of 1862 was intended only to
affect

the

new Commanderies which had

been established since the year 1859, when

the first dress regulation was adopted.

':

KNIGHT

432

KNIGHT

would scarcely be proper to close this

on Masonic Templarism without
some reference to a philological controversy
which has recently arisen among the members of the Order in the United States in
reference to the question whether the proper
title in the plural is " Knights Templars " or
" Knights Templar." This subject was first
brought to the attention of the Order by

Brother Stansbury, in an article on this

question which he published in Mackey's
National Freemason, (i. 191,) has almost
exhausted the subject of authority and
" That it
grammatical usage. He says
is an innovation in violation of historic
truth is proved by reference to all historical authorities.
I have made diligent researches in the Congressional Library, and
the introduction, in the session of the Grand have invoked the aid of all my friends who
Encampment in 1871, of the following reso- were likely to be able to assist me in such
lutions by Sir Knight Charles F. Stansbury, an investigation, and so far from finding
any conflict of authority on the question,
of Washington city.
" Resolved, That the proper title of the I have never been able to discover a single
Templar Order is Knights Templars/ and historical authority in favor of any other
not Knights Templar/ as now commonly title than Knights Templars.'
" I refer to the following list of authorities
used under the sanction of the example of
this Grand Encampment.
Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia
" Resolved, That the use of the term Americana, Chambers' Encyclopedia, Lon'Knights Templar' is an innovation, in don Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Metroviolation of historic truth, literary usage, politana, Penny Cyclopedia, Cottage Cycloand the philology and grammar of the pedia, Rees' Cyclopedia, Wade's British
English language."
Chronology, Blair's Chronological Tables,
This report was referred to a committee, Chambers' Miscellany (Crusades), Chamwho reported "that this Grand Encamp- bers' Book of Days, Addison's Knights
ment has no authority to determine ques- Templars, Pantalogia, Boutelle's Heraldry,
tions of historic truth, literary usage, and Hallam's Middle Ages, Lingard's History
Glossographia Anglicana
the philology and grammar of the English of England;
language ; " and they asked to be dis- Nova, 1707; Blackstone's Commentaries,
charged from the further consideration of vol. i., p. 406 ; Appleton's Cyclopedia of
the subject. This report is not very credit- Biography, (Molai;) Townsend's Calendar
able to the committee, and puts a very low of Knights, London, 1828 Mosheim's Ecestimate on the character of the Grand clesiastical History, (ed. 1832,) vol. ii., p.
Encampment. Certainly, it is the duty of 481 ; Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum,
every body of men to inquire whether the vol. vi., p. 813 ; Hayden's Dictionary of
documents issued under their name are in Dates; Beeton's Dictionary of Universal
violation of these principles, and if so to Information Burne's Sketch of the History
correct the error. If a private man habit- of the Knights Templars Laurie's History
ually writes bad English, it shows that he of Freemasonry Taffe's History of Knights
is illiterate and the committee should have
of Malta; London Freemasons' Magazine;
sought to preserve the Grand Encampment Sutherland's Achievements of Knights of
from a similar charge. It should have in- Malta; Clark's History of Knighthood;
vestigated the subject, which to scholars is Ashmole's History of the Order of the
of more importance than they seemed to Garter; Turner's England in the Middle
consider it ; they should have defended the Ages; Brande's Encyclopedia; Tanner's
Grand Encampment in the use of the term, Notitia Monastica, 1744, pp. 307-310.
or have recommended its abandonment.
"These will, perhaps, sufiice to show
Moreover, the Grand Eecorder reports that what, in the opinion of historical authorion examination he finds that the title ties, is the proper title of the Order. In
Knights Templars was always used until all of them, the term ' Knights Templars
1856, when it was changed to Knights Tem- is the only one employed.
" They might, perhaps, be sufficient also
plar; and the committee should have inquired by whose authority the change was on the question of literary usage but on
made. But having failed to grapple with that point I refer, in addition, to the followthe question of good English, the Craft ing
afterwards took the subject up, and a long
"London Quarterly Review, 1829, p. 608.
discussion ensued in the different Masonic Article: 'History of the Knights Temjournals, resulting at last in the expression, plars.'
by the best scholars of the Order, of the
"Edinburgh Review, October, 1806, p.
opinion that Knights Templars was correct, 196.
Review of M. Renouard's work,
because it was in accordance with the rules ' Les Templiers.'
of good English, and in unexceptional
"Eclectic Review, 1842, p. 189. Review
agreement with the Msage of all literary of the ' History of the Knights Templars,
men who have written on the subject.
the Temple Church, and the Temple/ by
It

article

'

'

'

'

'

KNIGHT

KNIGHT

Chas. G. Addison. The running title is

History of the Knights Templars.'
"Retrospective Review, 1821, vol. iv., p.
History of the
Review of the
250.
Templars,' by Nicholas Gaulterius, Amsterdam, 1703. The running title is History of the Knights Templars.'
" In Dr. Mackey's various Masonic works
both titles are occasionally used but that
fact is fully explained in the letter from
that distinguished Masonic authority, with
which I shall conclude this article."
On the philological and grammatical
question, I would observe that it mainly
turns on the inquiry whether the word
Templar is a noun or an adjective. I think
may be safely asserted that every
it
dictionary of the English language in
which the word occurs, gives it as a noun,
and as a noun only. This is certainly the
fact as to Johnson's Dictionary, Webster's
Crabb's
Dictionary, Cole's Dictionary,
Dictionary (Technological), Imperial Dictionary, Craig's Dictionary (Universal), and
Worcester's Dictionary.
If, then, the word " Templar" is a noun,
" Knights
we have in the combination
Templar"
two nouns, referring to the
same person, one of which is in the plural,
and the other in the singular. The well-

Templar." We have Knights Commanders,

Knights Bachelors, Knights Bannerets,
Knights Baronets, and Knights Hospi-

'

'

'

known

rule of apposition, which prevails

in all the languages with which I am acquainted, requires nouns under these circumstances to agree in number and case.
This is, in fact, a principle of general
grammar, founded in common sense. The
combination " Knights Templar " is therefore false in grammar, if the word " Tem-

plar" is a noun. But some may say that

it is a noun used as an adjective
a qualifying noun
a very common usage in the
English tongue. If this were so, the com-

bination "Knights Templar" would still

be entirely out of harmony with the usage
of the language in regard to qualifying
nouns, the invariable practice being to
place the adjective noun before the noun
which it qualifies.
few familiar examples will show this. Take the following
mansion house, bird cage, sea fog, dog days,
mouse trap, devil fish, ink stand, and beer
cask.
In every case the generic word
follows the qualifying noun.
But if we even went to the length of admitting the word " Templar " to be an adjective,

the combination " Knights

Templar" would

433

tallers.

Against all this, the only thing that can be

pleaded is the present usage of the Grand
Encampment of the United States, and of

some Commanderies which have followed

The propriety of this usage
in its wake.
and it would
is the very question at issue
be curious reasoning, indeed, that would
;

the fact of the usage in proof of its

propriety. If the Templars of to-day are
the successors of De Molay and Hugh de
Payens, the preservation and restoration of
the correct title of the Order cannot be a
matter of indifference to them.
In reference to the varying use of the two
expressions in the author's Lexicon of Freemasonry, I find, on reference to that work,
that in the first part I used the phrase
" Knights Templars," and that in the latter
part I made a change of the expression to
" Knights Templar." I am unable now to
say from memory what led me to make the
change; but I suppose that I must have
used the first form in compliance with the
general usage of writers, and that I subsequently made the alteration in deference to
the action of the Grand Encampment of the
United States, which body about that time
cite

adopted the expression "Knights Templar;"

I must have made this alteration without any reference to the philological merits
of the question.
In coming to the consideration of the
question, it appears to me that it must be
examined in two ways, grammatically and
traditionally in other words, we must inquire, first, which of these two expressions
better accords with the rules of English
grammar and, secondly, which of them
has the support and authority of the best

and

English writers.

we examine the
we shall find that

subject grammatiits proper decision

depends simply on the question Is " Templar " a noun or an adjective? If it is an
1.

If

cally,

adjective, then "Knights Templar" is

correct, because adjectives in English have
no plural form. It would, however, be an

awkward and unusual phraseology, because

the almost invariable rule of the Englanguage that the adjective should precede and not follow the substantive which

it is

lish

it qualifies.

be contrary to the genius of the language,

But if " Templar " is a substantive or
which, except in rare cases, places the ad- noun, then, clearly, "Knights Templar"
jective before the noun which it qualifies. is an ungrammatical phrase, because " TemIn poetry, and in some technical terms of plar" would then be in apposition with
foreign origin, the opposite practice prevails. " Knights" and should be in the same regiThe analogy of the usage, in reference to men that is to say, two nouns coming tothe designations of other Orders of knight- gether, and referring to the same person or
hood, is also against the use of " Knights thing, being thus said to be in apposition.
still

3E

2S

KNIGHT

434

KONX

must agree in number and ease. Thus we

say King George or Duke William, when
King and George, and Duke and William
are in apposition and in the singular but
speaking of Thackeray's " Four Georges,"
and intending to designate who they were
by an explanatory noun in apposition, we
should put both nouns in the plural, and
gay "the four Georges, Kings of England."
So when we wish to designate a simple
Knight, who is not only a Knight, but also belongs to that branch of the Order
which is known as Templars, we should
call him a " Knight Templar " and if there
be two or more of these Templars, we
should call them " Knights Templars,"
just as we say "Knight Hospitaller" and
" Knights Hospitallers."
;

Now there is abundant evidence, in the

best works on the subject, of the use of the
word "Templar" as a substantive, and
none of its use as an adjective.
It would be tedious to cite authorities,
but a reference to our best English writers
will show the constant employment of
" Templar " as a substantive only.
The
analogy of the Latin and French languages
supports this view, for " Templarius " is a
noun in Latin, as " Templier " is in French.
2. As to traditional authority, the usage
of good writers, which is the "jus et norma
loquendi," is altogether in favor of" Knights
Templars," and not " Knights Templar."
In addition to the very numerous authorities collected by Brother Stansbury
from the shelves of the Congressional Library, I have collated all the authorities in

my own library.
All the English and American writers,
Masonic and unmasonic, except some recent
American ones, use the plural of Templar
to designate more than one Knight. I have
in a few instances found "Knight Templars," but never "Knights Templar."
The very recent American use of this latter phrase is derived from the authority of
the present Constitution of the Grand Encampment of the United States, and is
therefore the very point in controversy.
The former Constitution used the phrase
" Knights Templars." On the whole, I am
satisfied that the expression " Knights Tem-

plar" is a violation both of the grammatical laws of our language and of the usage
of our best writers on both sides of the Atlantic, and it should therefore, I think, be
abandoned.

Knight, Victorious.

Chevalier

Victorieux.)
degree contained in the collection of Hecart.

Knowledge.

In the dualism of Masonry, knowledge is symbolized by light, as

ignorance is by darkness. To be initiated,
to receive light is to acquire knowledge;

and the cry of the neophyte

for light is the

natural aspiration of the soul for knowledge.

Knowledge, Degrees

of.

See

Degrees of Knowledge.

Konx Ompax.

There is hardly anything that has been more puzzling to the

learned than the meaning and use of these
two apparently barbarous words. Bishop
Warburton says, {Div. Leg., I., ii. 4,) but
without giving his authority, that in the
celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries,
" the assembly was dismissed -with these
two barbarous words, KOrS OMIIAS;"
and he thinks that this " shows the Mysteries not to have been originally Greek."
Le Clerc [Bib. Univ., vi. 86,) thinks that
the words seem to be only an incorrect pronunciation of hots and omphets, which, he
says, signify in the Phoenician language,
"watch, and abstain from evil." Potter
also (Gr. Ant, 346,) says that the words
were used in the Eleusinian mysteries.
The words occur in none of the old
Greek lexicons, except that of Hesychius,
where they are thus defined
" Kdy ofnza^. An acclamation used by
those who have finished anything. It is
also the sound of the judge's ballots and
of the clepsydra. The Athenians used the

word blops."
The words were always deemed

inexplicable until 1797, when Captain Wilford

offered, in the Asiatic Researches, (vol. v.,
He
p. 300,) the following explanation.
there says that the real words are Candsha
Om Pacsha ; that they are pure Sanscrit ;
and are used to this day by the Brahmans
at the conclusion of their religious rites.
Candsha signifies the object of our most
ardent wishes. Om is the famous monosyllable used both at the beginning and conclusion of a prayer or religious rite, like our
word Amen. Pacsha exactly answers to
the obsolete Latin word vix ; it signifies
change, course, stead, place, turn of work,
duty, fortune, etc., and is particularly used
in pouring water in honor of the gods.
Uwaroff [Ess. sur les Myst. d'JEleus.) calls
this "the most important of modern discoveries." Creuzer, Schelling, and Miinter
also approve of it.

Not
mus,

so with Lobeck, who, in his Aglaopha-

(p. 775,)

denies not only that such

words were used in the Eleusinian mysteries, but the very existence of the words
themselves. He says that in the title of
the article in Hesychius there is a misprint.
Instead of n6y% "o/nrd^, it should be
ndytj 6{i. tt&Z, where 6/u is the usual abbreviation of djuoiiog, like or similar to so that
the true reading would be noyZ dftoiog nat;, or
konx, like pax; and he confirms this by referring to Traf to which Hesychius gives the
same meaning as he does to noyf;. This is
;

KORAN
too simple for Godfrey Higgins, who calls
it (AnacaL, i. 253,) " a pretended emendaIt is nevertheless very ingenious,
tion."
and is calculated to shake our belief that
these words were ever used in the Eleusinian rites, notwithstanding the learned authority of Meursius, Warburton, Lempriere,
Creuzer, Uwaroff, and others.
The sacred book of the Mohammedans, and believed by them to contain a record of the revelations made by
God to Mohammed, and afterwards dictated by him to an amanuensis, since the
prophet could neither read nor write. In
a Lodge consisting wholly of Mohammedans, the Koran would be esteemed as the
Book of the Law, and take the place on the
altar which is occupied in Christian Lodges
by the Bible. It would thus become the
symbol to them of the Tracing-Board of
the Divine Architect. But, unlike the Old

Koran.

New Testaments, the Koran has no

connection with, and gives no support to,
any of the Masonic legends or symbols, except in those parts which were plagiarized
by the prophet from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. Finch, however, in one of
his apocryphal works, produced a system
of Mohammedan Masonry, consisting of
twelve degrees, founded on the teachings
of the Koran, and the Hadeeses or traditions of the prophet.
This system was a
pure invention of Finch.
and

Krause, Carl Christian FrieOne of the most learned and

laborious Masons of Germany, and one who
received the smallest reward and the largest
persecution for his learning and his labors.
The record of his life reflects but little

derich.

contemporaries who were

but it would seem low in intellect.
Findel calls them "the antiquated
German Masonic world."
Dr. Krause
was born at Eisenberg, a small city of Altenberg, May 6, 1781. He was educated at
Jena, where he enjoyed the instructions of
Eeinhold, Fichte, and Schelling. While
making theology his chief study, he- devoted his attention at the same time to
philosophy and mathematics. In 1801, he
obtained his degree as Doctor of Philosophy, and established himself at the University of Jena as an extraordinary professor.
There he remained until 1805, marrying in
the meantime a lady of the name of Fuchs,
with whom he passed thirty years, leaving
as the fruit of his union eight sons and
credit

high in

on his
office,

five daughters.

In 1805, Krause removed to Dresden, and

remained there until 1813. In April, 1805,
he was initiated into Freemasonry in the
Lodge " Archimides." As soon as he had
been initiated, he commenced the study of
the Institution by the reading of every Ma-

KRAUSE
sonic

work that was

435

accessible.

It

was

at

time that Krause adopted his peculiar

system of philosophy, which was founded
on the theory that the collective life of
this

man that

is to say, of humanity
was an
organic and harmonious unity and he conceived the scheme of a formal union of the
whole race of mankind into one confederacy, embracing all partial unions of
church organizations, of State government,
and of private, social aggregations, into one
general confederation, which should labor,
irrespective of political, ecclesiastical, or
personal influences, for the universal and
uniform culture of mankind. Of such a
confederation he supposed that he could
see the germ in the Order of Freemasonry,
which, therefore, it was his object to elevate to that position.
He first submitted these views in a series
of lectures delivered before the Lodge " Zu
den drei Schwertern" in Dresden, of
which, he had been appointed the Orator.
They were received with much approbation, and were published in 1811 under the
title of the Spiritualization of the Genuine
Symbols of Freemasonry. In these lectures,
Krause has not confined himself to the received rituals and accustomed interpretations, but has adopted a system of his own.
This is the course that was pursued by
him in his greater work, the Kunsturkunden ; and it was this which partly gave so
much offence to his Masonic, but not his
;

In 1810, he pubintellectual, superiors.

lished, as the result of all his labors and researches, his greatest work, the one on

which his reputation principally depends,

and which, notwithstanding its errors, is
perhaps one of the most learned works that
ever issued from the Masonic press. This
is Die drei altesten Kunsturkunden der Freimaurerbriiderschaft, or "The Three Oldest
Professional Documents of the Brotherhood
of Freemasons."

The announcement that this work was

shortly to appear, produced the greatest excitement in the Masonic circles of Germany.
The progressive members of the Craft
looked with anxious expectation for the
new discoveries which must result from the
investigations of an enlightened mind.
The antiquated and unprogressive Masons,
who were opposed to all discussion of what
they deemed esoteric subjects, dreaded the
effects of such a work on the exclusiveness
of the Order. Hence attempts were made
by these latter to suppress the publication.
So far were these efforts carried, that one
of the German Grand Lodges offered the
author a large amount of money for his
book, which proposal was of course reAfter the publication, the Grand
jected.
Master of the three Grand Lodges sought

KRAUSE

KUM

every means of excommunicating Krause

and Mossdorf, who had sustained him in
After much angry discussion,
his views.
the Dresden Lodge, " Zu den drei Schwertern," was prevailed upon to act as executioner of this ignorant spirit of fanaticism,
and Krause and Mossdorf, two of the
greatest lights that ever burst upon the
horizon of Masonic literature, were excommunicated. Nor did the persecution here
Krause experienced its effects
cease.
through all the remaining years of his life.
He was prevented on frequent occasions, by
the machinations of his Masonic enemies,

therhood. To the rituals of the present day

he objected as wanting in scientific formula,
and he thought that out of these old records
they might well construct a better and more
practical system.
But with all his learning, while his ideas
of reform, if properly carried out, would
undoubtedly advance and elevate the Masonic institution, he committed grave errors
in his estimation of the documents that he
has made the groundwork of his system.
The three documents which he has presented as the oldest and most authentic records of the Fraternity are
1. The wellknown Leland Manuscript, a document of
whose authenticity there are the gravest
doubts 2. The Entered Apprentice's Lecture,
a document published early in the eighteenth century, to which, in his second edition, he has added what he calls the New
English Lecture; but it is now known that
Krause's Lecture is by no means the oldest
catechism extant and 3. The York Constitution, which, claiming the date of 926,
has been recently suspected to be not older
than the early part of the eighteenth cen-

436

from advancement in his literary and professional pursuits, and failed through their
influence to obtain professorships to which,
from his learning and services, he was
justly entitled.
Findel has approvingly
quoted Dr. Schauberg as calling this " the
darkest page in the history of German

Freemasonry."
In 1814, Krause removed to Berlin. In
1821 he travelled through Germany, Italy,
and France, and in 1823 established himself at Gottingen, where he gave lectures on
philosophy until 1830. He then removed
to Munich, where he died September 27,
Besides his contributions to Freemasonry, Krause was an extensive writer
on philosophical subjects. His most important works are his Lectures on the System
of Philosophy, 1828, and his Lectures on the
Fundamental Truths of Science, 1829 both
published at Gottingen.
His great work, however, to which he
owes his Masonic fame, is his Kunsturkunden.
He commences this work by a declaration of his design in writing it, which was
twofold first, to enlighten the brotherhood
in reference to the three oldest documents
in possession of the Craft, by a philological
and philosophical examination of these
records
and secondly, and with a higher
purpose, to call their attention to a clear
perception of the fundamental idea of a
general union of mankind, to be accomplished by a reorganization of their own bro1832.

tury.

Notwithstanding these assumptions of

authenticity for documents not really authentic, the vast learning of the author is
worthy of all admiration. His pages are
filled with important facts and suggestive
thoughts that cannot fail to exert an influence on all Masonic investigations. Krause
cannot but be considered as one of the
founders of a new Masonic literature, not
for Germany alone, but for the whole world
of Masonic students.
urn, Iiivi. These two words, pronounced koom and keevy, are found as ceremonial words in one of the high degrees.
They are from the Hebrew, and are interpreted as meaning arise ! and kneel! They
are not significant words, having no symbolic allusion, and seem to have been introduced merely to mark the Jewish origin of
the degree in which they are employed. la
the modern rituals they are disused.

LABARUM

LABORERS

437

L.
Labarum.

The monogram of the himself and to his brethren, or, at least, it

of Christ, formed by the first two let- must conduce to his own internal satisfacIt
XL tion.
As we build neither a visible Soloters of that name, XPI2T02, in Greek.
eea..
monic Temple nor an Egyptian pyramid,
is the celebrated sign which the
our industry must become visible in works
legend says appeared in the sky at
that are imperishable, so that when we
noonday to the Emperor Constantine, and which was afterwards
vanish from the eyes of mortals it may be
said of us that our labor was well done."
placed by him upon his standard.
Hence it is sometimes called the
As Masons, we labor in our Lodge to make
Cross of Constantine. It was adopted as a ourselves a perfect building, without blemsymbol by the early Christians, and frequent ish, working hopefully for the consummainstances of it are to be found in the cata- tion, when the house of our earthly tabercombs. According to Eusebius, the Laba- nacle shall be finished, when the lost
rum was surrounded by the motto EN T0YT12 WORD of divine truth shall at last be disNIKA, or "conquer by this," which has covered, and when we shall be found by
been Latinized into In hoc signo vinces, the our own efforts at perfection to have done
motto assumed by the Masonic Knights God service.
The derivation of the word
Templars.
Laborare est orare. To labor is to
Labarum is uncertain. See In hoc signo pray ; or, in other words, labor is worship.
vinces.
This was a saying of the Mediaeval monks,
Labor. It is one of the most beautiful which is well worth meditation. This docfeatures of the Masonic institution, that it trine, that labor is worship, has been adteaches not only the necessity, but the no- vanced and maintained, from time imbility of labor.
From the time of opening memorial, as a leading dogma of the Order
to that of closing, a Lodge is said to be at of Freemasonry. There is no other human
This is but one of the numerous in- institution under the sun which has set
labor.
stances in which the terms of Operative forth this great principle in such bold rehear constantly of Freemasonry
Masonry are symbolically applied to Spec- lief.
ulative for, as the Operative Masons were as an institution that inculcates morality,
engaged in the building of material edifices, that fosters the social feeling, that teaches
so Free and Accepted Masons are supposed brotherly love and all this is well, because
to be employed in the erection of a super- it is true; but we must never forget that
structure of virtue and morality upon the from its foundation-stone to its pinnacle,
foundation of the Masonic principles which all over its vast temple, is inscribed, in
they were taught at their admission into the symbols of living light, the great truth that
Order. When the Lodge is engaged in read- labor is worship.
ing petitions, hearing reports, debating
Laborers, Statutes of. Towards the
financial matters, etc., it is said to be occu- middle of the fourteenth century, a plague
pied in business ; but when it is engaged in of excessive virulence, known in history
the form and ceremony of initiation into as the Black Death, invaded Europe, and
any of the degrees, it is said to be at work. swept off fully one-half of the inhabitants.
Initiation is Masonic labor. This phrase- The death of so many workmen had the
ology at once suggests the connection of our effect of advancing the price of all kinds
speculative system with an operative art that of labor to double the former rate. In
preceded it, and upon which it has been England, the Parliament, in 1350, enacted
a statute, which was soon followed by
founded.
" Labor," says G'adicke, " is an important others, the object of which was to regulate
word in Masonry; indeed, we might say the rate of wages and the price of the necesthe most important. For this, and this saries of life. Against these enactments,
alone, does a man become a Freemason. which were called the Statutes of Laborers,
Every other object is secondary or inciden- the artisans of all kinds rebelled but the
tal.
Labor is the accustomed design of most active opposition was found among
every Lodge meeting. But does such meet- the Masons, whose organization, being
ings always furnish evidence of industry ? better regulated, was more effective. In
The labor of an Operative Mason will be 1360, statutes were passed forbidding their
visible, and he will receive his reward for " congregations, chapters, regulations, and
oaths," which were from time to time reit, even though the building he has constructed may, in the next hour, be over- peated, until the third year of the reign of
thrown by a tempest. He knows that he Henry VI., A. D. 1425, when the celebrated
has done his labor. And so must the Free- statute entitled " Masons shall not confedmason labor. His labor must be visible to erate themselves in chapters and congre-

name

We

LADDER

LABORERS

438

was enacted in the following

words
" Whereas, by yearly congregations and
confederacies, made by the Masons in their
General Assemblies, the good course and
effect of the Statutes for Laborers be openly
violated and broken, in subversion of the
gations,"

damage of all the

said sovereign lord the
king, willing in this case to provide a
remedy, by the advice and assent aforesaid,
and at the special request of the Commons,
hath ordained and established that such
chapters and congregations shall not be
hereafter holden and if any such be made,
they that cause such chapters and congregations to be assembled and holden, if they
thereof be convict, shall be judged for
felons, and that the other Masons that
come to such chapters and congregations
be punished by imprisonment of their
bodies, and make fine and ransom at the
king's will."
Findel (Hist., p. 94,) thus explains the
causes which led to the enactment of this
law. Henry VI. being then but four years
old, Gloucester and the Bishop of Winchester were both contending for the possession
of the government; the former was a great
patron and encourager of the Masons, who
naturally, therefore, took part with him in
law,

and

to the great

Commons, our

the political contest, and opposed, with

actual violence, the entrance of the Bishop
into the city of London. On the arrival of
the Duke of Bedford, who was the Regent
of France, and to whom the dispute had
been referred, a Parliament was convened,
and which, for the reason already assigned,
(see Bat Parliament,) has been known in
history as the "Bat Parliament." The
Bishop, not forgetting the assistance given
by the Masons to his opponent, succeeded
in obtaining the passage of this law,
which was to restrain the meetings of his
old enemies.
But the influence of the
Duke of Gloucester prevented its enforcement during the king's minority and Anderson tells us that the king, when he arrived to man's estate, became the encourager
and patron of the Masons. So that, according to the same authority, the law has
always existed as a dead letter on the
statute-book, and the Freemasons have
never considered it worth while to use their
;

influence for its repeal.

All the Statutes of Laborers were repealed
in the fifth year of Elizabeth
and Lord
Coke gave the opinion that this act of
Henry VI. became, in consequence, " of no
force or effect " a decision which led Anderson, very absurdly, to suppose that
'"
this most learned judge really belonged
to the ancient Lodge, and was a faithful
brother " as if it required a judge to be a
;

Mason

to give a just judgment concerning

the interests of Masonry.
Ijacorne. The Count of Clermont,
who was Grand Master of France, having
abandoned all care of the French Lodges,
left them to the direction of his Deputies.
In 1761, he appointed one Lacorne, a dancing-master, his Deputy; but the Grand
Lodge, indignant at the appointment, refused to sanction it or to recognize Lacorne
as a presiding officer.
He accordingly constituted another Grand Lodge, and was supported by adherents of his own character,
who were designated by the more respectaIn
ble Masons as the "Lacorne faction."
1762, the Count of Clermont, influenced by
the representations that were made to him,
revoked the commission of Lacorne, and
appointed M. Chailous de Joinville his SubIn consequence of this,
stitute General.
the two rival Grand Lodges became reconciled, and a union was effected on the 24th
of June, 1762. But the reconciliation did
not prove altogether satisfactory. In 1765,
at the annual election, neither Lacorne nor
any of his associates were chosen to office.
They became disgusted, and, retiring from
the Grand Lodge, issued a scandalous protest, for which they were expelled and subsequently they organized a spurious Grand
Lodge and chartered several Lodges. But
from this time Lacorne ceased to have a
place in regular Masonry, although the
dissensions first begun by him ultimately
gave rise to the Grand Orient as the successor of the Grand Lodge.
symbol of progressive adLadder.
vancement from a lower to a higher sphere,
;

which

is

common to Masonry and

to

many,

of the Ancient Mysteries. In

each, generally, as in Masonry, the number
of steps was seven. See Jacob's Ladder.

if

not

all,

Ladder, Brahmanical. The symbolic ladder used in the mysteries of BrahIt had seven steps, symbolic of the
seven worlds of the Indian universe. The
lowest was the Earth; the second, the
World of Re-existence the third, Heaven
the fourth, the Middle World, or intermediate region between the lower and the
upper worlds; the fifth, the World of Births,
in which souls are born again the sixth,
the Mansion of the Blessed; and the
seventh, or topmost round, the Sphere of
Truth, the abode of Brahma, who was himself a symbol of the sun.
Ladder, Jacob's. See Jacob's Lad-

ma.

der.

Ladder, Kabbalistic. The ladder

of the Kabbalists consisted of the ten SeThe
phiroths or emanations of Deity.
the
steps were in an ascending series,
Kingdom, Foundation, Splendor, Firmness, Beauty, Justice, Mercy, Intelligence,

LADDER

LANDMARKS

This ladder
"Wisdom, and the Crown.
formed the exception to the usual number
of seven steps or rounds.
Ladder, Mitliraitic. The symbolic
ladder used in the Persian mysteries of
It had seven steps, symbolic of
Mithras.
the seven planets and the seven metals.
Thus, beginning at the bottom, we have Saturn represented by lead, Venus by tin, Jupiter by brass, Mercury by iron, Mars by a
mixed metal, the Moon by silver, and the
Sun by gold the whole being a symbol of
;

the sidereal progress of the sun through the

universe.

Ladder of Kadosli. This ladder,

belonging to the high degrees of Masonry,
consists of the seven following steps, beginning at the bottom: Justice, Equity,
Kindliness, Good Faith, Labor, Patience,
and Intelligence or Wisdom. Its supports
are love of God and love of our neighbor,
and their totality constitute a symbolism
of the devoir of Knighthood and Masonry,
the fulfilment of which is necessary to
make a Perfect Knight and Perfect Mason.
Ladder, Rosicrucian.

Among

the symbols of the Rosicrucians is a ladder

of seven steps standing on a globe of the
earth, with an open Bible, square, and comBetween each
passes resting on the top.
of the steps is one of the following letters,
beginning from the bottom I. N. R. I. F.
S. C, being the initials of Iesus, Nazarenus,
Rex, Iudseorum, Fides, Spes, Caritas. But
a more recondite meaning is sometimes
given to the first four letters.
:

Ladder, Scandinavian. The symbolic ladder used in the Gothic mysteries.

Dr. Oliver refers it to the Yggrasil, or

But the symbolism is

sacred ash -tree.
either very abstruse or very doubtful. It
retains, however, the idea of an ascent from
a lower to a higher sphere, which was common to all the mystical ladder systems.
At its root lies the dragon of death at its
top are the eagle and hawk, the symbols
of life.
;

Ladder, Theological. The

sym-

It
bolic ladder of the Masonic mysteries.
refers to the ladder seen by Jacob in his
vision, and consists, like all symbolical
ladders, of seven rounds, alluding to the
four cardinal and the three theological
virtues.
See Jacob's Ladder.

Ladrian.

corruption of Edwin.
It occurs in the Sloane MS., " hee [Athelstane] had a sonne y' was named Ladrian."
Lady. In the androgynous Lodges of
Adoption, where the male members are
called Knights, the female members are
called Ladies as, the Knights and Ladies of
the Rose. The French use the word Dame.
Lalande. See De la Lande.
In ancient Craft Masonry the
;

Lamb.

lamb

439

is the symbol of innocence

thus in
the ritual of the first degree " In all ages
the lamb has been deemed an emblem of
innocence." Hence it is required that a
Mason's apron should be made of lambIn the high degrees, and in the deskin.
grees of chivalry, as in Christian iconography, the lamb is a symbol of Jesus
Christ.
The introduction of this Christian
symbolism of the lamb comes from the expression of St. John the Baptist, who exclaimed, on seeing Jesus, " Behold the
Lamb of God " which was undoubtedly
derived from the prophetic writers, who
compare the Messiah suffering on the cross
to a lamb under the knife of a butcher.
In the vision of St. John, in the Apocalypse,
Christ is seen, under the form of a lamb,
wounded in the throat, and opening the
book with the seven seals. Hence, in one
of the degrees of the Scottish Rite, the
seventeenth, or Knight of the East and
West, the lamb lying on the book with the
seven seals is a part of the jewel.
of God. See Lamb, Paschal.
Paschal. The paschal lamb
sometimes called the Holy Lamb, was tha
lamb offered up by the Jews at the paschal
This has been transferred to Chrisfeast.
tian symbolism, and naturally to chivalric
Masonry and hence we find it among the
symbols of modern Templarism. The paschal lamb, as a Christian and Masonic
symbol, called also the Agnus Dei, or the
Lamb of God, first appeared in Christian
It is depicted
art after the sixth century.
as a lamb standing on the ground, holding
by the left forefoot a banner, on which a
This paschal lamb, or
cross is inscribed.
Lamb of God, has been adopted as a symbol
by the Knights Templars, being borne in
one of the banners of the Order, and constituting, with the square which it surmounts, the jewel of the Generalissimo of
a Commandery. The lamb is a symbol of
Christ; the cross, of his passion; and the
banner, of his victory over death and hell.
;

Lamb

Lamb,

Mr. Barrington states (Archaiologia, ix. 134,)

that in a deed of the English Knights Templars, granting lands in Cambridgeshire,
the seal is a Holy Lamb, and the arms of
the Master of the Temple at London were
argent, a cross gules, and on the nombril
point thereof a Holy Lamb, that is, a paschal or Holy Lamb on the centre of a red
cross in a white field.

Lambskin Apron. See Apron.

Landmarks. In ancient times,

it

was the custom to mark the boundaries of

lands by means of stone pillars, the removal of which, by malicious persons,
would be the occasion of much confusion,
men having no other guide than these pillars by which to distinguish the limits of

LANDMARKS

440

their property.

To remove them,

LANDMARKS
there-

considered a heinous crime.

"Thou shalt not," says the Jewish law,
" remove thy neighbor's landmark, which
they of old time have set in thine inherHence those peculiar marks of
itance."
distinction by which we are separated
from the profane world, and by which we
are enabled to designate our inheritance as
the " sons of light," are called the landmarks of the Order. The universal language
and the universal laws of Masonry are landmarks, but not so are the local ceremonies,
laws, and usages, which vary in different
To attempt to alter or remove
countries.
these sacred landmarks, by which we examine and prove a brother's claims to share
in our privileges, is one of the most heinous
offences that a Mason can commit.
In the decision of the question what are
and what are not the landmarks of Masonry,
there has been much diversity of opinion
among writers. Dr. Oliver says, [Diet.
Symb. Mas.,) that "some restrict them to
the O. B. signs, tokens, and words. Others
include the ceremonies of initiation, passing,
and raising; and the form, dimensions, and
support; the ground, situation, and covering; the ornaments, furniture, and jewels
of a Lodge, or their characteristic symbols.
Some think that the Order has no landmarks beyond its peculiar secrets." But
all of these are loose and unsatisfactory
definitions, excluding things that are essential, and admitting others that are unfore,

was

essential.

safest method is to restrict

to those ancient, and therefore universal, customs of the Order, which either
gradually grew into operation as rules of
action, or, if at once enacted by any competent authority, were enacted at a period so
remote, that no account of their origin is
Both
to be found in the records of history.

Perhaps the

them

the enactors and the time of the enactment

have passed away from the record, and the
landmarks are therefore " of higher antiquity than memory or history can reach."
The first requisite, therefore, of a custom
or rule of action to constitute it a landmark,
is, that it must have existed from "time
whereof the memory of man runneth not
to the contrary."
Its antiquity is its essential element.
Were it possible for all the
Masonic authorities at the present day to
unite in a universal congress, and with the
most perfect unanimity to adopt any new
regulation, although such regulation would,
so long as it remained unrepealed, be obligatory on the whole Craft, yet it would
not be a landmark. It would have the
character of universality, it is true, but it
would be wanting in that of antiquity.
Another peculiarity of these landmarks

of Masonry is, that they are unrepealable.

As the congress to which I have just alluded

would not have the power to enact a landmark, so neither would it have the prerogative of abolishing one. The landmarks
of the Order, like the laws of the Medes
and the Persians, can suffer no change.
What they were centuries ago, they still
remain, and must so continue in force until

Masonry

itself shall cease to exist.

Until the year 1858, no attempt had been

made by any Masonic

writer to distinctly

enumerate the landmarks of Freemasonry,

and to give to them a comprehensible form.
In October of that year, the author of this
work published in the American Quarterly
Review of Freemasonry (vol. ii., p. 230,) an
article on "The Foundations of Masonic
Law," which contained a distinct enumeration of the landmarks, which was the first
time that such a list had been presented to
the Fraternity. This enumeration was subsequently incorporated by the author in his
Text Book of Masonic Jurisprudence. It has
since been very generally adopted by the
Fraternity, and republished by many writers
on Masonic law; sometimes without any
acknowledgment of the source whence they
derived their information. According to
this recapitulation, the result of

much

labor

and research, the landmarks are twenty-five

in number, and are as follows
1. The modes of recognition are, of all
the landmarks, the most legitimate and
unquestioned. They admit of no variation
and if ever they have suffered alteration or
;

addition, the evil of such a violation of the

ancient law has always made itself subsequently manifest.
2. The division of symbolic Masonry
into three degrees is a landmark that has
been better preserved than almost any other

although even here the mischievous spirit

of innovation has left its traces, and, by the
disruption of its concluding portion from
the third degree, a want of uniformity has
been created in respect to the final teaching
of the Master's Order and the Royal Arch
of England, Scotland, Ireland, and America, and the "high degrees" of France and
;

Germany, are all made to differ in the

in which they lead the neophyte to
the great consummation of all symbolic
Masonry. In 1813, the Grand Lodge of
England vindicated the ancient landmark,
by solemnly enacting that ancient Craft
Masonry consisted of the three degrees of
Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and
Master Mason, including the Holy Royal
Arch. But the disruption has never been

mode

healed, and

the landmark,

knowledged

in its integrity
tinues to be violated.
3.

The legend of the

although ac-

by

all, still

third degree

con-

is

an

LANDMARKS

LANDMARKS

important landmark, the integrity of

which has been well preserved. There is
no rite of Masonry, practised in any coun-

thus established are called " Lodges under

dispensation." See Lodges under Dispensa-

try or language, in which the essential elements of this legend are not taught. The
lectures may vary, and indeed are constantly
changing, but the legend has ever remained
And it is necessary
substantially the same.
that it should be so, for the legend of the
Temple Builder constitutes the very essence
and identity of Masonry. Any rite which
should exclude it, or materially alter it,
would at once, by that exclusion or alteration, cease to be a Masonic rite.
4.

The government of the Fraternity by

officer called a Grand Master.

a presiding

who

is elected from the body of the Craft,

a fourth landmark of the Order. Many
persons suppose that the election of the
Grand Master is held in consequence of a
law or regulation of the Grand Lodge.
Such, however, is not the case. The office
is indebted for its existence to a landmark

is

of the Order.

Grand Masters, or persons

performing the functions under a different

but equivalent title, are to be found in the
records of the Institution long before Grand
Lodges were established and if the present
system of legislative government by Grand
Lodges were to be abolished, a Grand
Master would still be necessary.
5. The prerogative of the Grand Master
to preside over every assembly of the Craft,
wheresoever and whensoever held, is a fifth
landmark.
It is in consequence of this
law, derived from ancient usage, and not
from any special enactment, that the Grand
Master assumes the chair, or as it is called
in England, " the throne," at every communication of the Grand Lodge and that
he is also entitled to preside at the communication of every subordinate Lodge, where
he may happen to be present.
6. The prerogative of the Grand Master
to grant dispensations for conferring degrees at irregular times, is another and a
very important landmark. The statutory
law of Masonry requires a month, or other
determinate period, to elapse between the
;

presentation of a petition and the election

of a candidate. But the Grand Master has
the power to set aside or dispense with this
probation, and to allow a candidate to
be initiated at once. This prerogative he
possessed before the enactment of the law
requiring a probation, and as no statute can
impair his prerogative, he still retains the

power.
7.

The prerogative

Grand Master
opening and holdanother landmark. He may
of the

to give dispensations for

ing Lodges

is

grant, in virtue of this, to a sufficient number of Masons, the privilege of meeting together and conferring degrees. The Lodges

3F

441

tion.

The prerogative
make Masons at

of the Grand Master

sight is a landmark
which is closely connected with the preceding one. There has been much misapprehension in relation to this landmark,
which misapprehension has sometimes led
to a denial of its existence in jurisdictions
where the Grand Master was, perhaps, at
the very time substantially exercising the
prerogative, without the slightest remark
or opposition. See /Sight, Making Masons at.
9. The necessity for Masons to congregate in Lodges is another landmark. It
is not to be understood by this that any
ancient landmark has directed that permanent organization of subordinate Lodges
which constitutes one of the features of
the Masonic system as it now prevails.
But the landmarks of the Order always
prescribed that Masons should, from time
to time, congregate together for the purpose of either Operative or Speculative
labor, and that these congregations should
be called Lodges. Formerly, these were extemporary meetings called together for
special purposes, and then dissolved, the
brethren departing to meet again at other
times and other places, according to the
necessity of circumstances. But Warrants
of constitution, by-laws, permanent officers,
and annual arrears are modern innovation?
wholly outside the landmarks, and dependent entirely on the special enactments of
a comparatively recent period.
10. The government of the Craft, when
so congregated in a Lodge, by a Master and
contwo Wardens, is also a landmark.
gregation of Masons meeting together
under any other government, as that, for instance, of a president and vice-president,
or a chairman and sub-chairman, would
not be recognized as a Lodge. The presence of a Master and two Wardens is as
essential to the valid organization of a
Lodge as a Warrant of constitution is at
the present day. The names, of course,
vary in different languages; but the officers,
their number, prerogatives, and duties are
8.

to

everywhere

identical.

that every Lodge, when

congregated, should be duly tiled, is an important landmark of the Institution which
The necessity of this
is never neglected.
law arises from the esoteric character of
Masonry. The duty of guarding the door,
and keeping off cowans and eavesdroppers,
is an ancient one, which therefore constitutes a landmark.
12. The right of every Mason to be represented in all general meetings of the
11.

Craft,

The necessity

and

to instruct his representatives,

LANDMARKS

LANDMARKS

Formerly, these
a twelfth landmark.
general meetings, which were usually held
"
General Assemonce a year, were called
blies," and all the Fraternity, even to the
youngest Entered Apprentice, were permitted to be present. Now they are called
" Grand Lodges," and only the Masters and
Wardens of the subordinate Lodges are
summoned. But this is simply as the repOriginally,
resentatives of their members.
each Mason represented himself; now he
See Repreis represented by his officers.
sentatives of Lodges.
13. The right of every Mason to appeal
from the decision of his brethren, in Lodge
convened, to the Grand Lodge or General
Assembly of Masons, is a landmark highly
essential to the preservation of justice, and
the prevention of oppression.
few modern Grand Lodges, in adopting a regulation that the decision of subordinate
Lodges, in cases of expulsion, cannot be
wholly set aside upon an appeal, have violated this unquestioned landmark, as well
as the principles of just government.
14. The right of every Mason to visit and
sit in every regular Lodge is an unquesThis
tionable landmark of the Order.
This
is called "the right of visitation."
right of visitation has always been recognized as an inherent right which inures to
every Mason as he travels through the
world. And this is because Lodges are
justly considered as only divisions for convenience of the universal Masonic family.
This right may, of course, be impaired or
forfeited on special occasions by various
circumstances but when admission is refused to a Mason in good standing, who
knocks at the door of a Lodge as a visitor,
it is to be expected that some good and sufficient reason shall be furnished for this violation of what is, in general, a Masonic
right, founded on the landmarks of the
Order.
15. It is a landmark of the Order, that
no visitor unknown to the brethren present,
or to some one of them as a Mason, can
enter a Lodge without first passing an examination according to ancient usage. Of
course, if the visitor is known to any
brother present to be a Mason in good
standing, and if that brother will vouch for
his qualifications, the examination may be
dispensed with, as the landmark refers
only to the cases of strangers, who are not
to be recognized unless after strict trial,
due examination, or lawful information.
16. No Lodge can interfere in the business of another Lodge, nor give degrees to
brethren who are members of other Lodges.
This is undoubtedly an ancient landmark,
founded on the great principles of courtesy
and fraternal kindness, which are at the

very foundation of our Institution. It has

been repeatedly recognized by subsequent
statutory enactments of all Grand Lodges.
17. It is a landmark that every Freemason is amenable to the laws and regulations of the Masonic jurisdiction in which
he resides, and this although he may not
be a member of any Lodge. Non-affiliation, which is, in fact, in itself a Masonic
offence, does not exempt a Mason from

442
is

Masonic jurisdiction.
18. Certain qualifications of candidates
for initiation are derived from a landmark

Of the Order.
These qualifications are
that he shall be a man
unmutilated, free
born, and of mature age. That is to say,
a woman, a cripple, or a slave, or one born

in slavery, is disqualified for initiation into

rites of Masonry.
Statutes, it is true,
have from time to time been enacted, enforcing or explaining these principles ; but
the qualifications really arise from the very
nature of the Masonic institution, and from
its symbolic teachings, and have always existed as landmarks.
19.
belief in the existence of God as

the

the Grand Architect of the Universe, is one

of the most important landmarks of the
Order. It has been always admitted that
a denial of the existence of a Supreme and
Superintending Power is an absolute disqualification for initiation.
The annals of
the Order never yet have furnished or
could furnish an instance in which an
avowed Atheist was ever made a Mason.
The very initiatory ceremonies of the first
degree forbid and prevent the possibility
of such an occurrence.
20. Subsidiary to this belief in God, as a
landmark of the Order, is the belief in a
resurrection to a future life. This landmark is not so positively impressed on the
candidate by exact words as the preceding;
but the doctrine is taught by very plain
implication, and runs through the whole
symbolism of the Order. To believe in
Masonry, and not to believe in a resurrection, would be an absurd anomaly, which
could only be excused by the reflection,
that he who thus confounded his belief and
his skepticism was so ignorant of the meaning of both theories as to have no rational
foundation for his knowledge of either.
21. It is a landmark that a "Book of
the Law" shall constitute an indispensable
part of the furniture of every Lodge. I
say, advisedly, Book of the Law, because it
is not absolutely required that everywhere
the Old and New Testaments shall be used.
The " Book of the Law " is that volume
which, by the religion of the country, is
believed to contain the revealed will of the
Grand Architect of the Universe. Hence,
in all Lodges in Christian countries, the

LANGUAGE

LANDMARKS

443

* Book of the Law " is composed of the Old cause such change of its character would
and New Testaments in a country where be social suicide, and the death of the
Judaism was the prevailing faith, the Old Order would follow its legalized exposure.
Testament alone would be sufficient and Freemasonry, as a secret association, has
in Mohammedan countries, and among lived unchanged for centuries as an open
Mohammedan Masons, the Koran might be society, it would not last for as many years.
;

substituted.
Masonry does not attempt to
interfere with the peculiar religious faith
of its disciples, except so far as relates to
the belief in the existence of God, and what
The
necessarily results from that belief.
" Book of the Law " is to the Speculative
Mason his spiritual trestle-board ; without
whatever he believes
this he cannot labor
to be the revealed will of the Grand Architect constitutes for him this spiritual
trestle-board, and must ever be before him
in his hours of speculative labor, to be the
The landrule and guide of his conduct.
mark, therefore, requires that a "Book of the
Law," a religious code of some kind, pur;

porting to be an exemplar of the revealed

will of God, shall form an essential part of
the furniture of every Lodge.
22. The equality of all Masons is another
landmark of the Order.
This equality
has no reference to any subversion of those

gradations of rank which have been instituted by the usages of society. The monarch, the nobleman, or the gentleman is
entitled to all the influence, and receives all
the respect, which rightly belong to his
position.
But the doctrine of Masonic
equality implies that, as children of one
great Father, we meet in the Lodge upon
the level
that on that level we are all
travelling to one predestined goal
that
in the Lodge genuine merit shall receive
more respect than boundless wealth, and
that virtue and knowledge alone should be
the basis of all Masonic honors, and be rewarded with preferment. When the labors
of the Lodge are over, and the brethren
have retired from their peaceful retreat, to
mingle once more with the world, each will
then again resume that social position, and
exercise the privileges of that rank, to
which the customs of society entitle him.
23. The secrecy of the Institution is
another and most important landmark.
The form of secrecy is a form inherent in
it, existing with it from its very foundation, and secured to it by its ancient landmarks. If divested of its secret character,
it would lose its identity, and would cease
to be Freemasonry. Whatever objections
may, therefore, be made to the Institution
on account of its secrecy, and however
much some unskilful brethren have been
unwilling in times of trial, for the sake of
expediency, to divest it of its secret character, it will be ever impossible to do so,
even were the landmark not standing before us as an insurmountable obstacle be-

The foundation of
upon an operative

speculative
and the
symbolic use and explanation of the terms
of that art, for the purposes of religious or
moral teaching, constitute another landmark of the Order. The Temple of Solomon was the symbolic cradle of the Institution, and, therefore, the reference to the
Operative Masonry which constructed that
magnificent edifice, to the materials and
implements which were employed in its
construction, and to the artists who were
engaged in the building, are all component
and essential parts of the body of Freemasonry, which could not be subtracted
from it without an entire destruction of
the whole identity of the Order. Hence,
all the comparatively modern rites of Masonry, however they may differ in other
respects, religiously preserve this Temple
history and these operative elements, as
the substratum of all their modifications
of the Masonic system.
24.

science

25.

The

last

art,

and crowning landmark of

that these landmarks can never be

changed. Nothing can be subtracted from
all

is,

them nothing can be added to them not

the slightest modification can be made in
them.
As they were received from our
predecessors, we are bound by the most
solemn obligations of duty to transmit

them

to our successors.

Iiandsdowne Manuscript. An
old Constitution, preserved in the British

Museum. The date

1600.

It

was

first

is supposed to be about
published in the Free-

mason's Magazine for February 24, 1858.

language, Universal.

The

in-

vention of a universal language, which

men of all nations could understand and
through which they could communicate
their thoughts, has always been one of the
Utopian dreams of certain philologists.
In the seventeenth century, Dalgarno had
written his Ars Signorum to prove the possibility of a universal character and a
philosophical language. About the same
time Bishop Wilkins published his Essay
towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language ; and even the mathematical
Leibnitz entertained the project of a uniIt is
versal language for all the world.
not, therefore, surprising, that when the socalled Leland Manuscript stated that the
Masons concealed a "universelle longage/'
Mr. Locke, or whoever was the commentator on that document, should have been
attracted by the statement. " A universal

444

LATOMIA

LAPICIDA

language," he says, "has been much deby the learned of many ages. It is a
thing rather to be wished than hoped for.
But it seems the Masons pretend to have
such a thing among them. If it be true,
I guess it must be something like the language of the Pantomimes among the ancient Romans, who are said to be able,
by signs only, to express and deliver any
oration intelligibly to men of all nations
and languages."
The "guess" of the commentator was
universal language
near the truth.
founded on words is utterly impracticable.
Even if once inaugurated by common consent, a thing itself impossible, the lapse of
but a few years, and the continual innovation of new phrases, would soon destroy its
universality. But there are signs and symbols which, by tacit consent, have always
been recognized as the exponents of certain ideas, and these are everywhere underIt is well known that such a sysstood.
tem exists over the vast territory occupied
by the North American savages, and that
the Indians of two tribes, which totally
differ in language, meeting on the prairie
or in the forest, are enabled, by conventual
signs of universal agreement, to hold long
and intelligible intercourse. On such a basis
the "universal language" of Freemasonry is
founded. It is not universal to the world,
but it is to the Craft and a Mason of one
country and language meeting a Mason of
another can make himself understood for
all practical purposes of the Craft, simply
because the system of signs and symbols
has been so perfected that in every language they convey the same meaning and
make the same impression. This, and this
only, is the extent to which the universal
language of Masonry reaches. It would be
an error to suppose that it meets the expectations of Dalgarno or Wilkins, or any
other dreamer, and that it is so perfect as
to supersede the necessity of any other
method of intercommunication.
Iiapicida. A word sometimes used in
Masonic documents to denote a Freemason.
It is derived from lapis, a stone, and ccedo,
sired

Larmenius, Johannes Marcus.

According to the tradition of the Order of
the Temple,
the credibility of which is,
however, denied by most Masonic scholars,
John Mark Larmenius was in 1314 appointed by James de Molay his successor
as Grand Master of the Templars, which
power was transmitted by Larmenius to his

in a document known as the

"Charter of Transmission." See Temple,

successors,

Order of

the.

Larudan, Abbe". The

author of a
Les Franc- Magons ecrase's.
Suite du livre intitule I'Ordre des FrancMagons trahi, traduit du Latin. The first
edition was published at Amsterdam in
1746.
In calling it the sequel of L'Ordre
des Franc-Magons trahi, by the Abbe Perau,
Larudan has sought to attribute the authorship of his own libellous work to Perau,
but without success, as the internal evidence of style and of tone sufficiently distinguishes the two works.
Kloss says

work

entitled

(Bibliog., No. 1874,) that this work is the

armory from which all subsequent enemies
of Masonry have derived their weapons.
Larudan was the first to broach the theory
that Oliver Cromwell was the inventor of

Freemasonry.

Latin Lodge.

In the year 1784, the

Grand Lodge of Scotland granted a Warrant for the establishment of Roman Eagle
Lodge at Edinburgh the whole of whose
work was conducted in the Latin language.
Of this Lodge, the celebrated and learned
Dr. John Brown was the founder and
Master. He had himself translated the
ritual into the classical language of Rome
but it required his abilities as a linguist to
keep the Lodge alive, which became ex;

on his removal to London.

This word has sometimes
been used in modern Masonic documents
as the Latin translation of the word Lodge,
with what correctness we will see. The
Greek harofielov, latomeion, from the roots
laas, a stone, and temno, to cut, meant a
place where stones were cut, a quarry.

tinct

Latomia.

From

this the

Romans

got their latomia,

more usually spelled lautomia, which also,

to cut, and is employed by Varro and Livy in pure Latinity, meant a stone-quarry.
But in the But as slaves were confined and made to
to signify "a stone-cutter."
low Latin of the Mediaeval age it took work in the quarries by way of punishanother meaning and Du Cange defines it ment, the name was given to any prison
in his Glossarium as "iEdeficiorum structor. excavated out of the living rock and below
Gall. Ma<jon," i. e., "A builder of edifices; the surface of the earth, and was especially
in French, a Mason " and he quotes two so applied to the prison excavated by Serauthorities of 1304 and 1392, where lapicidce vius Tullius under the Capitoline hill at
evidently means builders. In the Vocabu- Rome, and to the state prison at Syracuse.
larium of Ugutio, Anno 1592, Lapicedius is Du Cange gives the same meaning to the
defined " a cutter of stones." The Latin word lautumice in his Glossarium, and refers
word now more commonly used by Masonic for an example to the Syracusan prison.
;

writers for Freemason is Latomus ; but I think

that Lapicida is purer Latin. See Latomus.

Lathomia, he defines a cutting of stone. It

seems to have lost and never recovered its

LATOMUS

LAWRIE

primitive meaning as a stone-quarry, and

is, therefore, inappropriately applied to a

been ignorant of the true meaning, and

Masonic Lodge.

Latomus.

By Masonic writers used

as a translation of Freemason into Latin
thus, Thory entitles his valuable work,
Acta Latomorum, i. e., " Transactions of the
Freemasons." This word was not used in
In the low Latin of the
classical Latinity.
Middle Ages it was used as equivalent to
Du Cange defines it, in the form
lapicida.
of lathomus, as a cutter of stones, " Caesor
lapidum." He gives an example from one
of the ecclesiastical Constitutions, where
we find the expression "carpentarii ac
Latomi," which may mean Carpenters and
Masons or Carpenters and Stone-cutters. Du
Cange also gives Latomus as one of the definitions of Magonetus, which he derives from
the French Magon. But Ma^onetus and
Latomus could not have had precisely the
same meaning, for in one of the examples
cited by Du Cange, we have " Joanne de
Bareno, Maconeto, Latonio de Gratianopolis," i. e., "John de Bareno, Mason and
Stone-cutter (?) of Grenoble." Latomus is
here evidently an addition to Macon etus,
showing two different kinds of occupation.
We have abundant evidence in Mediaeval
documents that a Maconetus was a builder,
and a Latomus was most probably an inferior order, what the Masonic Constitutions
I doubt the procall a " rough Mason."
The
priety of applying it to a Freemason.
word is sometimes found as Lathomus and
Latonius.

Latres. This word has given much

unnecessary trouble to the commentators
In the
on the old Kecords of Masonry.
legend of the Craft contained in all the
old Constitutions, we are informed that the
children of Lamech "knew well that God
would take vengeance for sinne, either by
fire or water, wherefore they did write these
sciences that they found in twoe pillars of
stone, that they might be found after that
God had taken vengeance the one was of
marble and would not burne, the other was
Latres and could not drowne in water."
(Harleian MS.) It is the Latin word later,
a brick.
The legend is derived from
Josephus, (Antiq., I., ii.,) where the same
story is told. Whiston properly translates
the passage, " they made two pillars the
one of brick, the other of stone." The
original Greek is nXlvdog, which has the
same meaning. The word is variously corrupted in the manuscript. Thus the Harleian MS. has laters, which comes nearest
to the correct Latin plural lateres ; the
Cooke MS. has laterus; the Dowland, laterns;
the Landsdowne, latherne; and the Sloane,
getting furthest from the truth, has letera.
It is strange that Halliwell should have
;

445

that Phillips, in commenting on the Harleian MS., should have supposed that it
alluded " to some floating substance." The
Latin word later and the passage in Josephus ought readily to have led to an explication.

Laurel Crown. A

decoration used

in some of the higher degrees of the AnThe

cient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
laurel is an emblem of victory; and the

corona triumphalis of the Romans, which

was given to generals who had gained a
triumph by their conquests, was made of
laurel leaves.
The laurel crown in Masonry is given to him who has made a conquest over his passions.

A French Masonic
Ii.
and the author of an Essai historique

Laurens, J.
writer,

antique sur la Franche-Magonnerie, published at Paris in 1805. In this work he

gives a critical examination of the principal works that have treated of the InstituIt contains also a refutation of the
tion.
imputations of anti-Masonic writers. In
1808 he edited an edition of the Vocabulaire des Franc-Magons, the first edition of
which had been issued in 1805. In 1825
he published a Histoire des Initiations de
et

Vancienne Egypt.
this last

Of

the authorship of

work

of Kloss, who

I have only the statement

attributes it to J. L. Laurens.

Laurie.

See Lawrie, Alexander.

See Information, Lawful.
Law, Moral. See Moral Law.
Law, Oral. See Oral Law.
Law, Parliamentary. See Par-

Lawful Information.

liamentary Law.

Lawrie, Alexander. He was

ori-

ginally a stocking-weaver, and afterwards

became a bookseller and stationer in Parliament Square, Edinburgh, and printer of

the Edinburgh Gazette. He was appointed

bookseller and stationer to the Grand Lodge
of Scotland, and afterwards Grand SecIn 1804 he published a book enretary.
titled " The History of Freemasonry, drawn
from authentic sources of information
with an Account of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, from its Institution in 1736 to
the present time, compiled from the Records; and an Appendix of Original PaOf this valuable and interesting
pers."
work, Lawrie has always been deemed the
author, notwithstanding that the learning
exhibited in the first part, and the numerous references to Greek and Latin authorities, furnished abundant internal evidence
of his incapacity, from previous education,
to have written it. The doubt which naturally arises, whether he was really the author,
derives great support from the testimony of
the late Dr. David Irving, Librarian to the

LAW

446

LAX

Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh.

on

May

A writer

and

Queries, (3d Ser., iii. 366,)

9, 1863, stated that at the sale

in the Notes

of the library of Dr. Irving, on Saturday,

March 28, 1862, a copy of Lawrie's History
of Freemasonry was sold for 1. In that
copy there was the following memorandum
in the handwriting of Dr. Irving
" The history of this book is somewhat
curious, and perhaps there are only two individuals now living by whom it could be
divulged.
The late Alexander Lawrie,

Grand Stationer,' wished to recommend

himself to the Fraternity by the publication
of such a work. Through Dr. Anderson,
he requested me to undertake its compilation, and offered a suitable remuneration.
As I did not relish the task, he made a
similar offer to my old acquaintance David
Brewster, by whom it was readily undertaken, and I can say was executed to the
entire satisfaction of his employers.
The
title-page does not exhibit the name of the
author, but the dedication bears the signature of Alexander Lawrie, and the volume
is commonly described as Lawrie's History
of Freemasonry."
There can be no doubt of the truth of
this statement.
It has never been unusual
for publishers to avail themselves of the
labors of literary men and affix their own
names to books which they have written by
proxy. Besides, the familiarity with abstruse learning that this work exhibits,
although totally irreconcilable with the
attainments of the stocking - weaver, can
readily be assigned to Sir David Brewster
the philosopher.
Lawrie had a son, William Alexander
Laurie, (he had thus, for some unknown
reason, changed the spelling of his name,)
who was for very many years the Grand
Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland,
and died in office in 1870, highly esteemed.
In 1859 he published a new edition of the
History, with many additions, under the title
of " The History of Freemasonry and the
Grand Lodge of Scotland, with chapters
on the Knights Templar, Knights of St.
John, Mark Masonry, and the R. A. De'

gree."

Law, Sacred. See Sacred Law, Add.

Laws, General. See Laws of Masonry.

Laws, Local. See Laws of Masonry.

Laws of Masonry. The laws of
Masonry, or those rules of action by which
the Institution is governed, are very properly divided into three classes
1. Landmarks. 2. General Laws or Regulations.
3. Local Laws or Regulations.
1. Landmarks.
These are the unwritten
laws of the Order, derived from those ancient and universal customs which date at
:

so remote a period that we have no record

of their origin.
2. General Laws.
These are all those
Regulations that have been enacted by
such bodies as had at the time universal
jurisdiction. They operate, therefore, over
the Craft wheresoever dispersed; and
as the paramount bodies which enacted
them have long ceased to exist, it would
seem that they are unrepeatable. It
is generally agreed that these General or
Universal Laws are to be found in the old
Constitutions and Charges, so far as they
were recognized and accepted by the Grand
Lodge of England at the revival in 1717,
and adopted previous to the year 1721.
These are the Regula3. Local Laws.
tions which, since 1721, have been and

continue to be enacted by Grand Lodges.

They are of force only in those jurisdictions which have adopted them, and are repealable by the bodies which have enacted
them. They must, to be valid, be not repugnant to the Landmarks or the General
Laws, which are of paramount authority.
Lawsuits. In the Old Charges which
were approved in 1722, and published in
1723, by Anderson, in the Book of Constitutions, the regulations as to lawsuits are
thus laid down " And if any of them do
you injury, you must apply to your own or
his Lodge, and from thence you may appeal
to the Grand Lodge, at the Quarterly Communication, and from thence to the Annual
Grand Lodge, as has been the ancient laudable conduct of our forefathers in every
nation
never taking a legal course but
:

when

the case cannot be otherwise decided,

and patiently listening to the honest and
friendly advice of Master and Fellows,
when they would prevent you going to law
with strangers, or would excite you to put
a speedy period to all lawsuits, that so you
may mind the affair of Masonry with the
more alacrity and success but with respect
to Brothers or Fellows at law, the Master
;

and Brethren should kindly offer their mediation, which ought to be thankfully submitted to by the contending brethren ; and
if that submission is impracticable, they
must, however, carry on their process or
lawsuit without wrath and rancor, (not in
the common way,) saying or doing nothing
which may hinder brotherly love and good
that
offices to be renewed and continued
all may see the benign influence of Masonry,
as all true Masons have done from the beginning of the world, and will do to the
end of time."
Observantia
Observance.
(
Lata.) When the Rite of Strict Observ;

Lax

ance was instituted in Germany by Von

Hund, its disciples gave to all the other
German Lodges which refused to submit to

LAYER

LECTURE

obedience and adopt its innovations, but

preferred to remain faithful to the English
Kite, the title of " Lodges of Lax Observance." Ragon, in his Orthodoxie Maconnique, (p. 236.) has committed the unaccountable error of calling it a schism,
established at Vienna in 1767; thus evidently confounding it with Starck's Rite
of the Clerks of Strict Observance.
term used in the old
Records to designate a workman inferior
to an Operative Freemason. Thus " Alsoe

still

that no Mason set noe layer within a Lodge

or without to have mould stones with one
mould of his workeing." In the Harleian
and Kilwinning MSS., it is layer ; in the
Sloane, Iyer; and in the Alnwick, rough layer.
In the contract for Fotheringay Church,
we find the word under the form of leye.
The word, I think, means one who builds
in brick, and is familiar to us in the compound term bricklayer; a word not unknown
at the time of the writing of those manuscripts.
Thus in The Boo ke for a Justice of
Peace, (fol. 17,) published in 1559, we find
this passage: "None artificer nor labourer
hereafter named, take no more nor greater
wages than hereafter is limited .... that
is to say, a free mason, master carpenter,
rough mason, bricke layer" etc.
mountain, or rather a
Lebanon.
range of mountains in Syria, extending
from beyond Sidon to Tyre, and forming
the northern boundary of Palestine. Lebanon is celebrated" for the cedars which it
produces, many of which are from fifty to
eighty feet in height, and cover with their
branches a space of ground the diameter
of which is still greater. Hiram, King of
Tyre, in whose dominions Mount Lebanon
was situated, furnished these trees for the
building of the Temple of Solomon.
In
relation to Lebanon, Kitto, in his Biblical
" The forCyclopedia, has these remarks

on

tts

Layer.

447

preserve there a secret organization.

See Druses.

Lebanon, Prince

of.

See Prince

of Lebanon.

Le Bauld de Nans, Claude

A distinguished Masonic

Etienne.

Besanqon in 1736. He was

by profession a highly respected actor, and
a man of much learning, which he devoted

writer, born at

the cultivation of Freemasonry. He

for seven years Master of the Lodge
St. Charles de l'Union, in Mannheim; and

to

was

his

removal to Berlin, in 1771, became

the Orator of the Lodge Royale York de

PAmitie', and editor of a Masonic journal.
He delivered, while Orator of the Lodge,
a position which he resigned in 1778,
a large number of discourses, a collection
of which was published at Berlin in 1788.
He also composed many Masonic odes and
songs, and published, in 1781, a collection
of his songs for the use of the Lodge Royale
York, and in 1786, his Lyre Maconnique.
He is described by his contemporaries as a
man of great knowledge and talents, and
Fessler has paid a warm tribute to his
learning and to his labors in behalf of
Masonry. He died at Berlin in 1789.
Lechangeur. An officer of one of
the Lodges of Milan, Italy, of whom Rebold [Hist, des Trois G. Loges, p. 573,) gives
the following account.
When, in 1805, a
Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was established at
Milan, Lechangeur became a candidate for
membership. He received some of the degrees; but subsequently the founders of the
Council, for satisfactory reasons, declined
to confer upon him the superior grades.

Incensed at this, Lechangeur announced to

them that he would elevate himself above
them by creating a Rite of ninety degrees,
into which they should not be admitted.
He carried this project into effect, and the
ests of the Lebanon mountains only could
result was the Rite of Mizraim, of which
supply the timber for the Temple. Such he declared himself to be the Superior
of these forests as lay nearest the sea were Grand Conservator. His energies seem to
:

in the possession of the Phcenicians, among

in such constant demand,
that they had acquired great and acknowledged skill in the felling and transportation thereof; and hence it was of such
importance that Hiram consented to employ large bodies of men in Lebanon to
hew timber, as well as others to perform
the service of bringing it down to the sea-

whom timber was

whence it was to be taken along the

coasts in floats to the port of Joppa, from
which place it could be easily taken across
the country to Jerusalem."

side,

The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite

has dedicated to this mountain its twentysecond degree, or Prince of Lebanon. The
Druses now inhabit Mount Lebanon, and

have been exhausted in the creation of his

unwieldy Rite, for no Chapters were estabBut
lished except in the city of Naples.
in 1810 a patent was granted by him to
Michel Bedarride, by whom the Rite was
propagated in France. Lechangeur's fame,
as the founder of the Rite, was overshadowed by the greater zeal and impetuosity
of Bedarride, by whom his self- assumed
He died in
prerogatives were usurped.
1812.

Lecture. Each degree of Masonry

contains a course of instruction, in which
the ceremonies, traditions, and moral instruction appertaining to the degree are
This arrangement is called a
set forth.
lecture.
Each lecture, for the sake of con-

LECTURE

448

venience, and for the purpose of conforming to certain divisions in the ceremonies,
is divided into sections, the number of
which have varied at different periods,
although the substance remains the same.
According to Preston, the lecture of the
first degree contains six sections ; that of
the second, four; and that of the third,
twelve. But according to the arrangement
adopted in this country, commonly known
as the " Webb lectures," there are three
sections in the first degree, two in the
second, and three in the third.
In the Entered Apprentices', the first section is almost entirely devoted to a recapitulation of the ceremonies of initiation.
The initiatory portion, however, supplies
The second
certain modes of recognition.
section is occupied with an explanation of
the ceremonies that had been detailed in
the two together furnishing the
the first,
interpretation of ritualistic symbolism.
The third is exclusively occupied in explaining the signification of the symbols
peculiar to the degree.
In the Fellow Craft's degree, the first
section, like the first section of the Entered
Apprentice, is merely a recapitulation of
ceremonies, with a passing commentary on
some of them. The second section introduces the neophyte for the first time to the

differences between Operative and Speculative Masonry and to the Temple of King
Solomon as a Masonic symbol, while the candidate is ingeniously deputed as a seeker
after knowledge.
In the Master's degree the first section
The
is again only a detail of ceremonies.
second section is the most important and
impressive portion of all the lecturers, for it

contains the legend on which the whole

symbolic character of the Institution is
founded. The third section is an interpretation of the symbols of the degree, and is,
of all the sections, the one least creditable
to the composer.
In fact, it must be confessed that many
of the interpretations given in these lectures are unsatisfactory to the cultivated

mind, and seem to have been adopted on

the principle of the old Egyptians, who
made use of symbols to conceal rather than
to express their thoughts.
Learned Masons have been, therefore, always disposed
to go beyond the mere technicalities and
stereotyped phrases of the lectures, and to
look in the history and the philosophy of
the ancient religions, and the organization
of the ancient mysteries, for a true explanation of most of the symbols of Masonry,
and there they have always been enabled
to find this true interpretation.
The lectures, however, serve as an introduction or

preliminary essay, enabling the student, as

LECTURES
he advances in his

initiation, to

become

acquainted with the symbolic character of

the Institution. But if he ever expects to
become a learned Mason, he must seek in
other sources for the true development of
Masonic symbolism.
The lectures alone
are but the primer of the science.

!Lecturer,

Grand. An officer known

only in the United States. He is appointed by the Grand Master or the Grand
Lodge. His duty is to visit the subordinate Lodges, and instruct them in the ritual
of the Order as practised in his jurisdic-

which he receives compensation

partly from the Grand Lodge and partly
from the Lodges which he visits.
tion, for

lectures, History of the.

To

each of the degrees of Symbolic Masonry

a catechetical instruction is appended, in
which the ceremonies, traditions, and other
esoteric instructions of the degree are con-

A knowledge of these lectures

which must, of course, be communicated
by oral teaching constitutes a very important part of a Masonic education; and,
tained.

until the great progress made within the

present century in Masonic literature,
many " bright Masons," as they are technically styled, could claim no other foundation than such a knowledge for their high
Masonic reputation. But some share of
learning more difficult to attain, and more
sublime in its character than anything to
be found in these oral catechisms, is now

necessary to form a Masonic

scholar.
Still, as the best commentary on
the ritual observances is to be found in the
lectures, and as they also furnish a large
portion of that secret mode of recognition,

considered

or that universal language, which has always been the boast of the Institution, not
only is a knowledge of them absolutely necessary to every practical Freemason, but a
history of the changes which they have from
time to time undergone constitutes an interesting part of the literature of the Order.
Comparatively speaking, (comparatively
in respect to the age of the Masonic institution,) the system of Lodge lectures is undoubtedly a modern invention. That is to
say, we can find no traces of any forms of
lectures like the present before the middle,
or perhaps the close, of the seventeenth century.
Examinations, however, of a technical nature, intended to test the claims of
the person examined to the privileges of
the Order, appear to have existed at an
early period.
They were used until at
least the middle of the eighteenth century,
but were perpetually changing, so that the
tests of one generation of Masons constituted no tests for the succeeding one. Oliver very properly describes them as being
"something like the conundrums of the

LECTURES

LECTURES

difficult of comprehension
present day
admitting only of one answer, which ap-

peared to have no direct correspondence

with the question, and applicable only in
consonance with the mysteries and sym[On the Masonic
bols of the Institution."
Golden ReTests of the Eighteenth Century.
mains, vol. iv., p. 16.) These tests were
sometimes, at first, distinct from the lectures, and sometimes, at a later period, incorporated with them. A specimen is the
answer to the question, "How blows the

wind ? " which was, " Due east and west."

The " Examination of a German Stonemason," which is given by Findel in the
appendix to his History, was most probably
in use in the fourteenth century.
Dr.
Oliver was in possession of what purports
to be a formula, which he supposes to have
been used during the Grand Mastership of
Archbishop Chichely, in the reign of Henry
VI., and from which [Rev. of a Sq. p. 11,)
he makes the following extracts
" Q. Peace be here? A. I hope there is.
Q. What o'clock is it? A. It is going to
six, or going to twelve.
Q. Are you very
busy? A. No. Q. Will you give or take?
A. Both or which you please.
Q. How go
squares ? A. Straight.
Q. Are you rich or
poor? A. Neither. Q. Change me that?
A. I will.
Q. In the name of the King and
the Holy Church, are you a Mason ? A.I
am so taken to be. Q. What is a Mason ?
man begot by a man, born of a woA.
man, brother to a king. Q. What is a fellow? A.
companion of a prince, etc."
There are other questions and answers of
a similar nature, conveying no instruction,
and intended apparently to be used only as
tests.
Dr. Oliver attributes, it will be seen,
the date of these questions to the beginning of
the fifteenth century ; but I doubt the correctness of this assumption. They have no internal evidence in style of having been the invention of so early a period of the English tongue.
The earliest form of catechism that we
have on record is that contained in the
Sloane MS., No. 3329, contained in the
British Museum, and for the publication
of which we are indebted to that laborious
exhumer of old documents, W. J. Hughan.
One familiar with the catechisms of the
eighteenth century will detect the origin of
much that they contain in this early specimen. It is termed in the manuscript the
Mason's "private discourse by way of question and answer," and is in these words
" Q. Are you a mason? A. Yes, I am a
Freemason. Q. How shall I know that ? A.
By perfect signes and tokens and the first
poynts of my Ent'rance.
Q. Which is the
first signe or token, shew me the first and I
will shew you the second ? A. The first is
heal and conceal or conceal and keep sef

3G

29

449

by no less paine than cutting my tongue

my throat. Q. Where were you made
a mason? A. In a just and perfect or just
and lawfull lodge. Q. What is a just and
perfect or just and lawfull lodge? A. A just
and perfect lodge is two Interprintices two
fellow craftes and two Mast'rs, more or fewer
the more the merrier the fewer the better
chear but if need require five will serve that
is, two Interprintices, two fellow craftes and
one Mast'r on the highest hill or lowest valley
of the world without the crow of a cock or
the bark of a dogg.
Q. From whom do
you derive your principalis? A. From a
great'r than you.
Q. Who is that on earth
that is great'r than a freemason? A. He
y't was caryed to y'e highest pinnicall of
the temple of Jerusalem.
Q. Whith'r is
your lodge shut or open? A. It is shut.
crett

from

Q. Where lyes the keys of the lodge doore?

A. They ley in a bound case or under a
three cornered pavem't about a foot and
halfe from the lodge door.
Q. What is
the key of your lodge doore made of? A.
It is not made of wood stone iron or steel
or any sort of mettle but the tongue of
good report behind a Broth'rs back as well
as before his face.

Q.

How many

jewels

belong to your lodge? A. There are three

the square pavem't the blazing star and the
Danty tassley. Q. How long is the cable
rope of your lodge? A. As long as from
the top of the liver to the root of the tongue.
Q. How many lights are in your lodge?
A. Three the sun the mast'r and the square.
Q. How high is your lodge ? A. Without
foots yards or Inches, it reaches to heaven.
Q. How stood your lodge? A. East and
west as all holly Temples stand.
Q. W'ch
A. The
is the mast'rs place in the lodge?
east place is the mast'rs place in the lodge
and the Jewell resteth on him first and he
sitteth men to worke w't the m'rs have in
the forenoon the wardens reap in the
afternoon.

Q.

Where was

the word

first

A. At the tower of Babylon.

Q. Where did they first call their lodge ?
A. At the holy chapell of St. John. Q.
How stood your lodge? A. As the said
holy chapell and all other holy Temples

given?

How

many
(viz.) east and west.
Q.
A. Two one to
lights are in your lodge?
see to go in and another to see to work.
stand

Q. What were you sworne by ? A. By God

and the square. Q. Whither above the
cloathes or und'r the cloathes ? A. Und'r the
cloathes. Q. Und'r what arme? A. Und'r

the right arme. God is gratfull to all Worshipfull Mast'rs and fellows in that worshipfull lodge from whence me last came and to
you good fellow w't is your name. A. I or
B then giving the grip of the hand he will
say Broth'r John greet you well you. A.
Goes good greeting to you dear Broth'r."

"

LECTURES

LECTURES

450

But when we speak of the lectures, in the the " Mosaic pavement, blazing star, and
modern sense, as containing an exposition indented tassel," emblems which are now
of the symbolism of the Order, we may con- more properly, I think, designated as
But the present furniture
sider it as an established historical fact, that " ornaments."
the Fraternity were without any such sys- of a Lodge is also added to the pavement,
tem until after the revival in 1717. Pre- star, and tassel, under the name of " other
vious to that time, brief extemporary ad- furniture." The " greater lights " of Madresses and charges in addition to these sonry are entirely omitted, or, if we are to
test catechisms were used by the Masters suppose them to be meant by the expresof Lodges, which, of course, varied in excellence with the varied attainments and
talents of the presiding officer.
know,
however, that a series of charges were in
use about the middle and end of the seventeenth century, which were ordered "to
be read at the making of a Freemason."
These "Charges and Covenants," as they
were called, contained no instructions on
the symbolism and ceremonies of the Order,
but were confined to an explanation of the

We

duties of Masons to each other. They were

altogether exoteric in their character, and
have accordingly been repeatedly printed
in the authorized publications of the Fra-

ternity.
Dr. Oliver,
ties

who had ampler opportunithan any other Masonic writer of in-

vestigating this subject, says that the earliest authorized lectures with which he has
met were those of 1720. They were arranged by Drs. Anderson and Desaguliers,
perhaps, at the same time that they were

compiling the Charges and Regulations

from the ancient Constitutions.
They
were written in a catechetical form, which
form has ever since been retained in all
subsequent Masonic lectures. Oliver says
that " the questions and answers are short
and comprehensive, and contain a brief digest of the general principles of the Craft
as it was understood at that period."
The
"digest" must, indeed, have been brief,
since the lecture of the third degree, or
what was called "the Master's Part," contained only thirty-one questions, many of
which are simply tests of recognition. Dr.
Oliver says the number of questions was
only seven but I have very carefully collated what purports to be a copy of them,
and can only explain his statement by the
probable supposition that he refers to the
;

seven tests which conclude the lecture.

There are, however, twenty-four other questions that precede these.
A comparison of these the primitive
lectures, as they may be called
with those
in use in America at the present day, demonstrate that a great many changes have
taken place. There are not only omissions
of some things, and additions of others,
but sometimes the explanations of the same
points are entirely different in the two systems. Thus the Andersonian lectures describe the " furniture " of a Lodge as being

sion " fixed lights," then these are referred,

differently from our system, to the three
windows of the Lodge.
In the first degree I notice, among others,
the following points in the Andersonian
lectures which are omitted iu the American system the place and duty of the
Senior and Junior Entered Apprentices,
the punishment of cowans, the bone bonebox, and all that refers to it the clothing
of the Master, the age of an Apprentice,
the uses of the day and night, and the direction of the wind. These latter, however,
are, strictly speaking, what the Masons of
that time denominated "tests." In the
same degree, the following, besides many
other important points in the present system, are altogether omitted in the old lectures of Anderson the place where Masons
anciently met, the theological ladder, and
Important changes
the lines parallel.
have been made in several particulars ; as,
for instance, in the " points of entrance,"
the ancient lecture giving an entirely different interpretation of the expression, and
designating what are now called " points
of entrance " by the term " principal signs
the distinctions between Operative and
Speculative Masonry, which are now referred to the second degree, are there given
in the first and the dedication of the Bible,
compass, and square is differently explained.
In the second degree, the variations of
the old from the modern lectures are still
greater. The old lecture is, in the first place,
very brief, and much instruction deemed
important at the present day was then altogether omitted. There is no reference to
:

the distinctions between Operative and

Speculative Masonry, (but, as I have already observed, this topic is adverted to in
the former lecture ;) the approaches to the
middle chamber are very differently arranged and not a single word is said of the
It must be confords of the river Jordan.
fessed that the ancient lecture of the Fellow-Craft is immeasurably inferior to that
contained in the modern system, and especially in that of Webb.
The Andersonian lecture of the third
degree is brief, and therefore imperfect.
The legend is, of course, referred to, and its
explanation occupies nearly the whole of
the lecture but the details are meagre, and
many important facts are omitted, while
;

LECTURES

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there are in other points striking differences

between the ancient and the present system.
But, after all, there is a general feature of
persimilarity
a substratum of identity
the anvading the two systems of lectures
which shows that
cient and the modern
the one derives its parentage from the other.
In fact, some of the answers given in the year
1730 are, word for word, the same as those
used in America at the present time.
Yet it was not long before the developments of Masonic science, and the increasing intelligence of its disciples, made it
necessary to prepare an improved system.
The lectures of Anderson and Desaguliers
were the production of the infantile age of
lecture-making. They were imperfect and
unsatisfactory and it was determined that
Accorda new course should be arranged.
ingly, in 1732, Martin Clare, A. M., was
commissioned by the Grand Lodge to prepare a system of lectures, which should be
" adapted to the existing state of the Order,
without infringing on the ancient land-

paired by any sectarian references in religion.

But it must be confessed that, from
the time of these lectures to the last arrangement by Hemming, there has always
been in the Grand Lodge of England a
disposition to Christianize Masonry. The

451

system completed by Anderson was comparatively free from this defect; and we
will find in the lectures in use in 1730
very few allusions that can be tortured into
a religious meaning beyond the universal
religion recognized in the charges of 1722.
Anderson, in speaking of the winding stairs,
had mentioned, as I have already said, only

the

number

seven,

which he explained by

referring to the fact that "seven or more

made a just and perfect Lodge." As to the

man

point within the circle, now one of the

most important symbols, he had only alluded to it, almost parenthetically, when, in
describing the Point, Line, Superficies, and
Solid as the " four principles of Masonry,"
he explains the point as being "the centre
round which the Master cannot err." It
will be readily seen how, since his day, this
slight idea has been amplified by modern
lecture-makers, beginning with Martin
Clare and ending with Thomas Smith

habits, as

Webb.

Jewish Masons were never in sufficient

preponderance in the Order in England to
effect so important an alteration.
It was
made, I rather apprehend, by those sensible
brethren who were unwilling to see the cosmopolitan character of the Institution im-

But lecture-making seems to have been

a popular fancy at that early period of what
may be called the Masonic renaissance.
The Clare lectures did not very long occupy
their authoritative position in the Order.
Though longer and more elevated than
those of Anderson, they were, in the course
of a few years, found to be neither long
enough, nor sufficiently elevated, for the increasing demands of Masonic progress.
Accordingly, some time about the year
1770, (I am unable precisely to fix the date,)
the Grand Lodge of England authorized
Thomas Dunckerley, Esq., to prepare a new
course of lectures, which were to take the
place of those of Martin Clare.
Dunckerley was a brother of much distinction in those days. Preston calls him
" that truly Masonic luminary " and Oliver
says that "he was the oracle of the Grand
Lodge, and the accredited interpreter of its
He held the position of a
Constitutions."
Provincial Grand Master, and, for his eminent services to the Craft, had been honored
by the Grand Lodge with the titular rank
of a Past Senior Grand Warden.
Dunckerley's lectures are said to have
been a very considerable amplification of
those of Clare. To him is ascribed the
adoption of the " lines parallel," as symbolic of the two Saints John and he also
introduced the theological ladder, with its
three principal rounds, a beautiful and
instructive symbol, that has been retained
to the present day, but imperfectly ex-

marks."
Martin Clare, to
trust

whom this important

was confided, appears to have been a

of learning, or at least of literary

he is recorded as a Master of
Arts, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He is first mentioned in Masonic history as
one of the Grand Stewards, in 1735. In
the same year he was appointed Junior
Grand Warden, and delivered an address
before the Quarterly Communication of the
Grand Lodge. In 1741, he received from
the Earl of Morton the appointment of
Deputy Grand Master. Oliver says, that
his version of the lectures was so judiciously
drawn up, that its practice was enjoined on
all the Lodges.
The Clare lectures were, of course, (for
that was the object of their compilation,)
an amplification and improvement of
those of Anderson. In them the symbol
of the point within the circle was for the
first time mentioned, and the numbers
Three, Five, and Seven were introduced, and
referred to the Christian Trinity, the human senses, and the institution of the Sabbath.
Subsequently, but at what period
we are not informed, these references were
changed to the three divisions of the Temple, the five most sacred treasures of the
Sanctum Sanctorum, and the seven years
occupied in the construction of the Temple.
Dr. Oliver says that this change was made
by the Jewish Masons. I doubt it, for the

LECTURES

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plained. Webb, it is true, referred to its

" three principal rounds," leaving room, by
implication, for the addition of others.
But Cross, who was wholly unacquainted
with ancient symbolism, drew a picture,
(for which, by the by, he takes great credit,)
in which he absolutely made the rounds
three in number, and no more; thus fixing an incorrect theory on the Masonic
mind.
The Masonic ladder, like its prototype in all the mysteries, consists of
seven rounds.

therefore suppose to be a commentary on

his lectures.
If so, they introduced for the
first time a scientific element into Masonic
lectures
an element unknown to those

452

But by

far

the most important change

made by Dunckerley was in respect

Master's word. It is known that,

to the
in the

pursuit of his Masonic studies, he at one

time frequented the Ancient or Athol
Lodges, whose greatest point of difference
from the Moderns was, that they had dissevered the third degree, and established a
portion of it as their fourth, or Royal Arch.
Dunckerley was pleased with this arrangement, and, in imitation of it, reconstructed
Dermott's Royal Arch, and introduced it
This of course
into the legal Grand Lodge.
led to the necessity of transferring the
word formerly used in the third to the
fourth degree, and confining the former to
the substitute. This was undoubtedly an
innovation, and was at first received with
disapprobation by many brethren but in
time they became reconciled to the change,
which perhaps no one with less influence
than Dunckerley could have ventured to
;

propose.

But even Dunckerley, with all the influence of his talents, and his virtues, and his
social position, was at length forced to succumb at the approach of greater lights in
Masonry. At the very time that Dunckerley was establishing his course of lectures
in the London and adjacent Lodges,
William Hutchinson, as the Master of
Bernard Castle Lodge, in the county of
Durham, in the north of England, was
preparing and using a system of his own,
which, on account of its excellence, was
readily adopted by many Lodges in his
vicinity.
What was the precise form of
the Hutchinsonian lectures I am unable to
say, as no ritual of his is perhaps existing
but their general spirit may well be conjectured from the admirable treatise which
he published in 1775, and which was the
most, if not the first, scientific work on
Masonry that up to that period had appeared in England. From the contents of
this book we may collect the ideas which
were entertained by the author on the subject of the Institution, and which we have
every reason to believe he incorporated
into the lectures with which he instructed
the Lodge over which he presided. The
treatise on the Spirit of Masonry we may

compiled by Anderson and Clare and

Dunckerley. Above all, we are indebted
to Hutchinson for restoring the ancient
symbolism of the third degree, and for
showing that, in all past times, its legend
was but typical of a resurrection from the
grave; a thought that does not seem to
have attracted the early lecturers, although
always existing in the Masonic system.
Even Webb, twenty-five years after Hutchinson's book appeared, could only find in
the legend of the third degree " an instance
of virtue, fortitude, and integrity seldom
equalled and never excelled in the history
of man." And to teach this lesson only
was the Institution preserved for centuries,
Alas for such lectures.
Eminently philosophical must have been
the lectures of Hutchinson, and far superior to the meagre details with which the
Craft had been previously content. Their
influence is undoubtedly still felt in the In!

stitution ; if not in its catechetical lectures, at all events in the general notions

of symbolism which are now entertained

by the Craft.
But while Hutchinson was laboring in

the north of England, another light, of almost equal splendor, appeared in the south
and a system of lectures was prepared by
William Preston, which soon superseded
all those that had previously been in use.
It is supposed that Hutchinson and Preston
at length united in this undertaking, and
that the Prestonian lectures, which were
afterwards universally adopted, were the
result of the combined labors of the two.
If such was the case
and Oliver suggests
it, though I know not on what authority
it will rationally account for the fact that
the lectures of Hutchinson no longer exist.
They were merged in those of Preston.
The Prestonian lectures, which were arranged by that distinguished writer in
the last quarter of the last century, continued to be used authoritatively in England until the union of the two Grand
Lodges in 1813, nor are they yet entirely
abandoned in that country. Though not
generally accessible to the Craft, they have,
it is said, been preserved in their integrity,
and the " Prestonian lectures " are annually
delivered in London, although now more
as a matter of curiosity than of instruction,
by a competent brother, who is appointed
for that purpose by the Grand Master of

England.
Preston divided the lecture on the first
degree into six sections, the second into
four,

and the third into twelve. But of the

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453

twelve sections of the third lecture, seven and then, as the first exercise of this newlyonly strictly appertain to the Master's de- combined authority, it was determined " to
gree, the remaining five referring to the revise " the system of lectures.
This duty was intrusted to the Rev. Dr.
ceremonies of the Order, which, in the
American system, are contained in the Past Hemming, the Senior Grand Warden, and
Master's lecture. Preston has recapitulated the result was the Union or Hemming lecthe subjects of these several lectures in his tures, which are now the authoritative
Illustrations of Masonry ; and if the book standard of English Masonry.
In these
were not now so readily accessible, it would lectures many alterations of the Prestonian
be worth while to copy his remarks. It is system were made, and some of the meet
sufficient, however, to'say that he has pre- cherished symbols of the Fraternity were
sented us with a philosophical system of abandoned, as, for instance, the twelve grand
Masonry, which, coming immediately after points, the initiation of the free born, and the
the unscientific and scanty details which lines parallel. Preston's lectures were reup to his time had been the subjects of jected in consequence, it is said, of their
Lodge instructions, must have been like Christian references; and Dr. Hemming,
the bursting forth of a sun from the midst in attempting to avoid this error, fell into
of midnight darkness. There was no twi- a greater one, of omitting in his new course
light or dawn to warn the unexpectant Fra- some of the important ritualistic landmarks
ternity of the light that was about to shine of the Order.
Hence it is that many
upon them. But at once, without prepara- Lodges still prefer the Prestonian to the
tion
without any gradual progress or Hemming lectures, and that the Grand
growth from almost nothing to superfluity Master still appoints annually a skilful
the Prestonian lectures were given to brother to deliver the Prestonian lectures,
the Order in all their fulness of illustra- although the Lodges no longer work under
tion and richness of symbolism and science, their directions.
I have thus rapidly run through the hisas a substitute for the plain and almost unmeaning systems that had previously pre- tory of the changes in the lectures in Engvailed. Byron I think it was who said that land from 1717 to 1813.
But all this time
he awoke one morning and found himself there was an undercurrent working with
famous. Personifying Freemasonry, she silent influence, of which it is necessary to
too might have said, on the day that Pres- take some notice.
In 1739 a schism octon propounded his system, that she had curred in England, and the Grand Lodge
been awakened from the sleep of half a cen- of Ancient York Masons was established in
tury to find herself a science. Not that opposition to the old Grand Lodge. The
Freemasonry had not always been a science, latter was reproachfully denominated the
but that for all that time, and longer, her " Moderns," while the former assumed the
had been in name of the " Ancients." The assumpscience had been dormant
abeyance. From 1717 the Craft had been tion made by the latter body (whether corengaged in something less profitable, but rectly or not, this is not the place to inquire)
more congenial than the cultivation of was, that the Moderns had lost, changed, or
Masonic science. The pleasant suppers, never knew the true work, especially in the
the modicums of punch, the harmony of third degree. Of course, under this consong, the miserable puns, which would have viction, the " Ancients " were compelled,
provoked the ire of Johnson beyond any- for the sake of consistency at least, to arthing that Boswell has recorded, left no range a set of lectures peculiar to themtime for inquiry into abstruser matters. selves. Of the history of lecture making
The revelations of Dr. Oliver's square fur- in the schismatic body we have no particnish us abundant positive evidence of the ulars, as the records of that body were not
low state of Masonic literature in those published, as were those of the Moderns by
days; and if we need negative proof, we Preston, Smith, Anderson, and his succeswill find it in the entire absence of any sors. But we know that Laurence Dermott
readable book on Scientific Masonry, until was the Coryphaeus of that band of schisthe appearance of Hutchinson's and Pres- matics, and to him, as a man of talents
ton's works. Preston's lectures were, there- and Masonic intelligence,
a man, too, of
fore, undoubtedly the inauguration of a great zeal and energy, (for, say what we will
new era in the esoteric system of Freema- of him, we cannot deny him that praise,)
sonry.
it is almost certain that the task of
These lectures continued for nearly half preparing the Ancient lectures must have
a century to be the authoritative text of the been intrusted.
while the
So, then,
Order in England. But in 1813 the two " Moderns " were practising the systems of
Grand Lodges
the "Moderns" and the Anderson and Clare and Dunckerley, the
"Ancients," as they were called
after "Ancients" were contenting themselves
years of antagonism, were happily united, with that of Dermott, and did so content

LECTURES

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454

themselves, as we have every reason to believe, until the union in 1813, when, perhaps, we are truly to look for the origin of
the Hemming lectures in the fact that they
were a compromise between the two systems of the Ancients and the Moderns.
But there is something more that

"hangs" upon

this

history,

which

it

is

important for us to know. It has already

been seen that Dunckerley visited the
Ancient Lodges, and that he derived from
them the idea of dissevering the Royal
an innoArch from the Master's degree
vation which he successfully introduced
Now, to
into the Modern Grand Lodge.
enable him to do this, it was necessary that
he should incorporate something of the
know
Ancient lectures into his own.
our
this only from logical deduction
he could not
proof is ex necessitate rei
have done otherwise. Adopting Dermott's
Royal Arch, he must have adopted Dermott's illustrations of it, if not in exact

We

words, at least substantially and in spirit.

Here was the first influence exerted on the
lectures of the Modern Grand Lodge by
the system of the^ Ancients.
But again we know that Preston was
initiated in a Dermott or Ancient Lodge,
and was afterwards induced to withdraw
from that body and unite with the Moderns.
But we have every reason to suppose that
the influences of his early Masonic education were not altogether forgotten, and that,
like a wise man, as he was, in arranging
his new system, he " borrowed sweets from
every flower," and incorporated the best
parts of the Ancient system, so far as he
legally could, into his own. Here, then, was
a second instance of the influence exerted
by the one society upon the other, all of
which must have rendered the compromise
in 1813 a matter of still easier accomplish:

ment.
This episode in the history of the lectures of the regular system was necessary
to enable us to lay a conjectural foundation
for the same history in America.
I say a
" conjectural foundation " for in the treatment of an esoteric subject like this, where
the greatest pains have necessarily been
taken to preserve secrecy, and where there
are no books of authority, and few manuscripts to reward our researches, it is absolutely necessary that much must be left to
conjecture.
But this conjecture must be
within the bounds of analogical reason.
;

When we conjecture a fact, and assign a

reason for the conjecture, we are to be
governed by the rules of circumstantial
evidence.
The reason we assign must not
only account in every way for the fact, but
it must be the only reason that will.
I am unable to say definitely what lec-

tures were generally used in the United

States during the last century but there is
every reason for believing that the full
Prestonian lecture was not adopted. In
fact, a number of the Lodges in America
derived their charters from the Athol
Grand Lodge, or from Grand Lodges in
;

correspondence and union with it. DerAhiman Rezon was a more popular
work among the American Masons than
Anderson's Constitutions.
The Royal
Arch was dissevered from the Master, and
given as a distinct degree. And hence we
may well suppose that the Dermott lectures
were more in use than the Prestonian.
This is, however, mere conjecture; for
manuscripts anterior to 1800 are rare
perhaps do not exist; and we have no
Prichards, or Finches, or Brownes to give
us an inkling of the Lodge work in those
Neither had we any lecture makers
days.
among us and whatever was first received
was retained without other change than
that which might have resulted from the
infirmity of memory in Masters and lecmott's

turers.

But in the last decennium of the eighteenth century, a lecture maker did arise
among the American Masons; and to
Thomas Smith Webb we are indebted for
our present system of Lodge lectures.
Webb was a man of some talent not
equal, it is true, to Hutchinson or Preston
but one who had paid more attention to

Masonry, and knew more about it, than any

man

of his times in this country.

It is

I know not, but

I think the fact is credible, that he visited
said,

upon what authority

England, and obtained instructions from

Preston himself. At the same time, such
a man would not, have undertaken such a
voyage without making himself acquainted
with the other systems prevailing in England, and his subsequent course shows that
he extended his investigations to the continental science of Masonry as developed
On his return
in the "hautes grades."
home, he availed himself of all these varied advantages to compile and arrange
that system, not only of lectures, but of
degrees, which has ever since been practised in this country.
The lectures of Webb contained much that

was almost a verbal copy of parts of Preston

but the whole system was briefer, and the
paragraphs were framed with an evident
view to facility in committing them to
memory. It is an herculean task to acquire the whole system of Prestonian lectures, while that of Webb may be mastered
in a comparatively short time, and by much
inferior intellects.
There have, in consequence, in former years, been many " bright
;

Masons" and

"skilful

lecturers"

whose

LEFRANC

LEGATE

brightness and skill consisted only in the

easy repetition from memory of the set
form of phrases established by Webb, and
who were otherwise ignorant of all the
science, the philosophy, and the history of
Masonry. But in the later years, a perfect
verbal knowledge of the lectures has not
been esteemed so highly in this country as
in England, and our most erudite Masons
have devoted themselves to the study of
those illustrations and that symbolism of
the Order which lie outside of the lectures.
that is, the study of the
Book Masonry
principles of the Institution as any other
science is studied, by means of the various
treatises which have been written on these
has been, from year to year, getsubjects
ting more popular with us and the American Masonic public is becoming emphatically a reading people.
This is not in any way to be regretted.

tion contre la religion Catholique ct les

souverains, dont le projet, concri eu France,
doit s'executer dans l'univers entier," 1792.
In these scandalous books, and especially
in the former, Lefranc has, to use the language of Thory, " vomited the most unde-

Nay,

it is

something upon which we

455

served abuse of the Order." Of the Veil

Lifted, the two great detractors of Masonry,
Eobison and Barruel, entertained different
opinions.
Robison made great use of it in
his Proofs of a Conspiracy; but Barruel,
while speaking highly of the Abbe's virtues, doubts his accuracy and declines to

Lefranc was slain

trust to his authority.
in the massacre of September 2, at the
Convent of the Carmelites, in Paris, with

one hundred and ninetv-one other

Thory

{Act. Lat.,

i.

192,) says that

priests.

M. Led-

Freemason, who was present at the

sanguinary scene, attempted to save the life

hui, a

of Lefranc, and lost his own in the effort.

Abbe' says that, on the death of a
friend, who was a zealous Mason and Master of a Lodge, he found among his papers
a collection of Masonic writings containing the rituals of a great many degrees,
and from these he obtained the information
on which he has based his attacks upoo the
Order. Some idea may be formed of bis
accuracy and credibility, from the fact that
he asserts that Faustus Socinus, the Father
of Modern Unitarianism, was the contriver
a
and investor of the Masonic system
theory so absurd that even Robison and
Barruel both reject it.
Among the ancients the
Left
left hand was a symbol of equity and justice.
Thus, Apuleius, (Met, 1. xi.,) when
describing the procession in honor of Isis,
says one of the ministers of the sacred rites
" bore the symbol of equity, a left hand,
fashioned with the palm extended which
seems to be more adapted to administering
equity than the right, from its natural in-

may The

congratulate ourselves, that a library is beas indispensable to a Masonic student as a tool-chest to a mechanic. But,
at the same time, it is desirable that the
lectures, too, which contain, or ought to
contain, the elements of the science, should
be made the subject of special study. And
it is, above all, to be wished that our lectures were more scientific
that Webb had
made them a little more Prestonian in their
character, and that they contained something elevated enough to entice and gratify

coming

intellectual Masons.
The lecture on the third degree is, it is
true, less objectional on this ground than
the others. It is eminently Hutchinsonian
in its character, and contains the bud
from which, by a little cultivation, we
might bring forth a gorgeous blossom of

symbolism. Hence, the third degree has

always been the favorite of American Masons.
But the lectures of the first and
second degrees, the latter particularly, are
meagre and unsatisfactory. The explanations, for instance, of the form and extent
of the Lodge, of its covering, of the theological ladder, and especially of the point
within the circle, will disappoint any intellectual student who is seeking, in a symbolical science, for some rational explanation of its symbols that promises to be
worthy of his investigations.

L-e franc. The Abbe Lefranc, SuHouse of the Eudistes at Caen,

was a very bitter enemy of Freemasonry,
and the author of two libellous works

perior of the

against Freemasonry, both published in

Paris; the first and best known, entitled
" Le Voile leve pour les curieux, ou le
secret des revolutions, revele k l'aide de la
Franc-Maconnerie," 1791, (republished at
Liege in 1827,) and the other, "Conjura-

Hand.

ertness, and its being

craft and no subtlety."

endowed with no

!Left Side. In the symbolism of Mafirst degree is represented by the

sonry, the

which is to indicate that as the

the weaker part of the body, so is
the Entered Apprentice's degree the weakThis doctrine, that
est part of Masonry.
the left is the weaker side of the body, is
very ancient. Plato says it arises from the
but Arisfact that the right is more used
totle contends that the organs of the right
side are by nature more powerful than
those of the left.
Legally Constituted. See Conleft side,

left is

stituted, Legally.

^Legate. In the Middle Ages, a legate,

was one who was, says Du

or legatus,

Cange, (Glossar.,) "in provincias a Principe ad exercendas

judicias mittebalur,"

::

LEGEND

LEGEND

sent

by a prince into the provinces to exThe word is now

applied by the Supreme Council of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Kite to

teach the doctrine of the restoration from

ercise judicial functions.

death to eternal life.

The legends of Freemasonry constitute
a considerable and a very important part
of its ritual. Without them, its most valuable portions as a scientific system would
cease to exist. It is, in fact, in the traditions and legends of Freemasonry, more,
even, than in its material symbols, that we
are to find the deep religious instructions
which the Institution is intended to inculcate.
It must be remembered that Freemasonry has been defined to be " a system

456

designate certain persons who are sent

into unoccupied territory to propagate
the Rite. The word is, however, of recent
origin, not having been used before 1866.
legate should be in possession of at least
the thirty-second degree.
Legend. Strictly speaking, a legend,
from the Latin, legendus, "to be read,"
should be restricted to a story that has
been committed to writing; but by good
usage the word has been applied more
extensively, and now properly means a
narrative, whether true or false, that has
been traditionally preserved from the time
of its first oral communication. Such is
the definition of a Masonic legend. The
authors of the Conversations- Lexicon, referring to the monkish lives of the saints
which originated in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, say that the title legend
was given to all fictions which made pretensions to truth. Such a remark, however
correct it may be in reference to these
monkish narratives, which were often in-

vented as ecclesiastical exercises,

means applicable

is

by no

to the legends of Free-

masonry. These are not necessarily fictitious, but are either based on actual and
historical facts which have been but slightly
modified, or they are the offspring and expansion of some symbolic idea in which
latter respect they differ entirely from the
monastic legends, which often have only
the fertile imagination of some studious
;

monk

for the basis of their construction.

The

of Freemasonry are
modes by the symbol
and by the legend. The symbol is a material, and the legend a mental, representation of a truth. The sources of neither can
be in every case authentically traced.
Many of them come to us, undoubtedly,
from the old Operative Masons of the mediaeval gilds.
But whence they got them is
a question that naturally arises, and which

instructions
given to us in two

remains unanswered. Others have

sprung from a far earlier source perhaps,
as Creuzer has suggested in his Symbolik,
from an effort to engraft higher and purer
still

knowledge on an imperfect religious idea.

If so, then the myths of the Ancient Mysteries, and the legends or traditions of
Freemasonry, would have the same remote
and the same final cause. They would differ ki construction, but they would agree in
design. For instance, the myth of Adonis in
the Syrian mysteries, and the legend of
Hiram Abif in the third degree, would difvery widely in their details ; but the object of each would be the same, namely, to

fer

of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." Symbols, then, alone,

do not constitute the whole of the system
allegory comes in for its share ; and this
allegory, which veils the divine truths of
Masonry, is presented to the neophyte in
the various legends which have been traditionally preserved in the Order.
They may be divided into three classes
1. The Mythical legend.
2. The Philosophical legend. 3. The Historical legend.
And these three classes may be defined as
follows
1. The myth may be engaged in the transmission of a narrative of early deeds and
events having a foundation in truth, which
truth, however, has been greatly distorted
and perverted by the omission or introduction of circumstances and personages, and
then it constitutes the mythical legend.

Or

may have been

medium of

invented and
enunciating a
particular thought, or of inculcating a certain doctrine, when it becomes a philosophic
2.

it

adopted as the

cal legend.
3. Or, lastly, the truthful elements of actual history may greatly predominate over
the fictitious and invented materials of the
myth; and the narrative may be, in the
main, made up of facts, with a slight coloring of imagination, when it forms a histori-

cal legend.

Legend of Enoch. See Enoch.

Legend of Euclid. See Euclid.
Legend of the Craft. The Old
Eecords of the Fraternity of Operative
Freemasons, under the general name of
" Old Constitutions" or " Constitutions of
Masonry," were written in the fourteenth,

and seventeenth cenmany of these by the

indiscretion of over-zealous brethren was
deplored by Anderson but a few of them
have been long known to us, and many
more have been recently recovered, by the
labors of such men as Hughan, from the
archives of old Lodges and from manuscript collections in the British Museum.
fifteenth, sixteenth,
turies.

The

loss

of

In these

is

to

be found a history of Free-

of absurdities and
anachronisms, and yet exceedingly inter-

masonry

full, it is true,

LEGEND

LEGEND

eating, as giving us the belief of our an-

and

cient brethren on the subject of the origin

of the Order. This history has been called
by Masonic writers the " Legend of the
Craft," because it is really a legendary
narrative, having little or no historic authenticity.
In all these "Old Constitutions," the legend is substantially the same
showing, evidently, a common origin ; most
probably an oral teaching which prevailed
in the earliest ages of the confraternity. In
giving it, I have selected that contained in
what is called the Dowland Manuscript, because it is believed to be a copy of an older
one of the beginning of the sixteenth century, and because its rather modernized
spelling makes it more intelligible to the
general reader.

And when

and the daughter found the craft of

Weavinge. And these children knew well
that God would take vengeance for synn,
either by fire or by water wherefore they
writt their science that they had found in
two pillars of stone, that they might be
found after Noyes flood. And that one
stone was marble, for that would not bren
with fire. And that other stone was clepped laterns, and would not drown in noe
;

water.
" Our intent is to tell you trulie how and
in what manner these stones were found,
that thise science were written in. The
great Hermarynes that was Cubys son, the
which Cub was Sem's sonn, that was Noy's
son.
This Hermarynes, afterwards was
called Harmes the father of wise men he
found one of the two pillars of stone, and
found the science written there, and he
taught it to other men. And at the making
of the Tower of Babylon there was Ma:

sonrye first made much of. And the Kinge

of Babylon that height Nemrothe, was a
mason himselfe; and loved well the science,

3H

is

said with masters of histories.

the City of Nyneve, and other

of the East should be made, Nemrothe, the King of Babylon, sent thither
threescore Masons at the rogation of the
King of Nyneve his cosen. And when he
sent them forth, he gave them a charge on
this manner: That they should be true
each of them to other, and that they should
love truly together, and that they should
cities

serve their lord truly for their pay; soe

that the master may have worshipp, and
that long to him. And other moe charges
he gave them. And this was the first tyme
that ever Mason had any charge of his
science.

" Moreover,

when Abraham and Sara

his

wife went into Egipt, there he taught the

Seaven Sciences to the Egiptians and he
had a worthy Scoller that height Ewclyde,
and he learned right well, and was a master
of all the vij Sciences liberall. And in his
dayes it befell that the lord and the estates
of the realme had soe many sonns that
they had gotten some by their wifes and
some by other laydes of the realme; for
that land is a hott land and a plentious of
generacion. And they had not competent
livehode to find with their children wherefor they made much care.
And then the
King of the land made a great counsell and
a parliament, to witt, how they might find
their children honestly as gentlemen.
And
they could find no manner of good way. And
then they did crye through all the realme,
if there were any man that could enforme
them, that he should come to them, and
he should be soe rewarded for his travail,
that he should hold him pleased.
" After that this cry was made, then came
this worthy clarke Ewclyde, and said to the
King and to all his great lords ' If yee
will, take me your children to governe,
and to teache them one of the Seaven Sciences, wherewith they may live honestly as
gentlemen should, under a condicion that
yee will grant me and them a commission
that I may have power to rule them after
the manner that the science ought to be
ruled.'
And that the King and all his
counsell granted to him anone, and sealed
their commission. And then this worthy
tooke to him these lords' sonns, and taught
them the science of Geometrie in practice,
for to work in stones all manner of worthy
worke that belongeth to buildinge churches,
temples, castells, towres, and mannors, and
all other manner of buildings and he gave
them a charge on this manner:
" The first was, that they should be true
to the Kinge, and to the lord that they owe.
And that they should love well together,
and be true each one to other. And that
they should call each other his felloe, or
;

THE LEGEND OF THE CRAFT.

" Before Noyes floode there was a man
called Lameche as it is written in the Byble,
th
in the iiij
chapter of Genesis
and this
Lameche had two wives, and the one height
Ada and the other height Sella by his first
wife Ada he gott two sonns, and that one
Jabell, and thother Tuball.
And by that
other wife Sella he gott a son and a daughAll these four children founden the
ter.
begining of all the sciences in the world.
And this elder son Jabell found the science
of Geometrie, and he departed flocks of
sheepe and lambs in the field, and first
wrought house of stone and tree, as is
noted in the chapter above said. And his
brother Tuball found the science of Musicke, songe of tonge, harpe, and orgaine.
And the third brother Tuball Cain found
Smithcraft of gold, silver, copper, iron, and
Steele

it

457

;;

LEGEND

LEGEND

and not by servant, nor his

knave, nor none other foule name. And
that truly they should deserve their paie of
the lord, or of the master that they serve.
And that they should ordaine the wisest of
them to be master of the worke; and
neither for love nor great lynneadge, ne
riches ne for no favour to lett another that
hath little conning for to be master of the
lord's worke, wherethrough the lord should
be evill served and they ashamed. And
also that they should call the governors of
the worke. Master, in the time that they
worke with him. And other many moe
charges that longe to tell. And to all these
charges he made them to sweare a great oath
that men used in that time and ordayned
them for reasonable wages, that they might
live honestly by.
And also that they should
come and semble together every yeare once,
how they might worke best to serve the
lord for his profitt, and to their owne worshipp; and to correct within themselves
him that had trespassed against the science.
And thus was the science grounded

ence of Masonrye confirmed in the country

of Jerusalem, and in many other kingdomes.
"Curious craftsmen walked about full
wide into divers countryes, some because
of learning more craft and cunninge, and
some to teach them that had but little
cunynge. And soe it befell that there was
one curious Mason that height Maymus
Grecus, that had beene at the making of

458
else brother,

Solomon's Temple, and he came into

Fraunce, and there he taught the science
of Masonrye to men of Fraunce. And
there was one of the Regal lyne of Fraunce,
that height Charles Martell and he was a
man that loved well such a science, and
drew to this Maymus Grecus that is abovesaid, and learned of him the science, and
tooke upon him the charges and manners
and afterwards, by the grace of God, he
was elect to be Kinge of Fraunce. And
when he was in his estate he tooke Masons, and did helpe to make men Masons
that were none; and set them to worke,
and gave them both the charge and the
manners and good paie, as he had learned
there; and that worthy Master Ewclyde of other Masons; and confirmed them a
gave it the name of Geometric And now Charter from yeare to yeare, to hold their
it is called through all this land Masonrye.
cemble wher they would; and cherished
" Sythen longe after, when the Children them right much; And thus came the
of Israeli were coming into the Land of science into Fraunce.
" England in all this season stood voyd as
Beheast, that is now called amongst us the
Country of Jhrlm, Kinge David began the for any charge of Masonrye unto St. AlTemple that they called Templum D'ni and bones tyme. And in his days the King of
it is named with us the Temple of JerusaEngland that was a Pagan, he did wall the
lem. And the same King David loved towne about that is called Sainct Albones.
Masons well and cherished them much, and And Sainct Albones was a worthy knight,
gave them good paie. And he gave the and steward with the Kinge of his Housecharges and the manners he had learned of hold, and had governance of the realme,
Egipt given by Ewclyde, and other moe and also of the making of the town walls
charges, that ye shall heare afterward. and loved well Masons and cherished them
And after the decease of Kinge David, Sal- much. And he made their paie right good,
amon, that was David's sonn, performed standinge as the realm did, for he gave
out the Temple that his father begonne; them ijs. vjd. a weeke, and iijd. to their
and sent after Masons into divers coun- nonesynches.
And before that time,
tries and of divers lands; and gathered through all this land, a Mason took but
them together, so that he had fourscore a penny a day and his meate, till Sainct
thousand workers of stone, and were all Albones amanded it, and gave them a
named Masons. And he chose out of them chartour of the Kinge and his counsell for
three thousand that were ordayned to be to hold a general councell, and gave it the
Maisters and governors of his worke. And name of Assemble; and thereat he was
furthermore, there was a Kinge of another himselfe, and helped to make Masons, and
region that men called Iram, and he loved gave them charges as yee shall heare afterwell Kinge Solomon, and he gave him ward.
" Right soone after the decease of Sainct
tymber to his worke. And he had a son
that height Anyon, and he was a Master Albone, there came divers wars into the
of Geometrie, and was chief Master of all realme of England of divers Nations, soe
his Masons, and was Master of all his that the good rule of Masonrye was degravings and carvinge, and of all other stroyed unto the tyme of Kinge Athelmanner of Masonrye that longed to the stone's days that was a worthy Kinge of
Temple; and this is witnessed by the England and brought this land into good
;

Begum the third chapter. rest and peace; and builded many great
Solomon confirmed both charges works of Abbyes and Towres, and other
and the manners that his father had given many divers buildings; and loved well
to Masons. And thus was that worthy sci- Masons.
And he had a son that height
Bible, in libro

And

this

LEGEND

LEGEND

Edwinne, and he loved Masons much more

than his father did. And he was a great
practiser in Geometry and he drew much
to talke and to commune with Masons,

from the fact that it has given a complexion

to all subsequent Masonic history.
In dis-

and to learn of them science and afterwards, for love that he had to Masons, and
to the science, he was made a Mason, and
he gatt of the Kinge his father a chartour
and commission to hold every yeare once
an Assemble, wher they ever would within
the realme of England; and to correct
within themselves defaults and trespasses
that were done within the science. And he
held himself an Assemble at Yorke, and
there he made Masons, and gave them
charges, and taught them the manners,
and commanded that rule to be kept
ever after, and tooke then the chartour and
commission to keepe, and made ordinance
that it should be renewed from kinge to
kinge.
" And when the assemble was gathered
he made a cry that all old Masons and
young that had any writeinge or understanding of the charges and the manners
that were made before in this land or in
any other, that they should show them
forth.
And when it was proved, there were
founden some in Frenche, and some in
Greek, and some in English, and some in
other languages and the intent of them
all was founden all one. And he did make
a booke thereof, and how the science was
founded. And he himselfe had and commanded that it should be readd or tould,
when that any Mason should be made, for
And fro that day
to give him his charge.
unto this tyme manners of Masons have
been kept in that form as well as men
might governe it. And furthermore divers
;

Assembles have beene put and ordayned

certaine charges by the best advice of Masand fellowes."
If any one carefully examines this legend, he will find that it is really a history
of the rise and progress of architecture, with
which is mixed allusions to the ancient
gilds of the Operative Masons.
Geometry
also, as a science essentially necessary to
the proper cultivation of architecture, receives a due share of attention.
In thus
confounding architecture, geometry, and
Freemasonry, the workmen of the Middle
Ages were but obeying a natural instinct
which leads every man to seek to elevate
the character of his profession, and to give
to it an authentic claim to antiquity.
It is
this instinct which has given rise to so
much of the mythical element in the modern history of Masonry. Anderson has
thus written his records in the very spirit
of the legend of the Craft, and Preston and
Oliver have followed his example. Hence
this legend derives its great importance
ters

459

it with critical hands, we shall be

enabled to dissever its historical from its
mythical portions, and assign to it its true
value as an exponent of the Masonic sentiment of the Middle Ages.

secting

Legend of the Gild. A

by
sometimes designated in reference to the Gild
of Operative Masons.

which the Legend of the Craft

title

is

Legend of the Royal Areh DeMuch of this legend is a myth,

aving very little foundation, and some of
it none, in historical accuracy.
But underneath it all there lies a profound stratum of
philosophical symbolism. The destruction
and the rebuilding of the Temple by the
efforts of Zerubbabel and his compatriots,
free.

the captivity and the return of the captives,

are matters of sacred history but many of
the details have been invented and introduced for the purpose of giving form to a
symbolic idea. And this idea, expressed
in the symbolism of the Royal Arch, is the
very highest form of that which the ancient
Mystagogues called the euresis, or the discovery.
There are some portions of the
legend which do not bear directly on
the symbolism of the second Temple as
a type of the second life, but which still
have an indirect bearing on the general
Thus the particular legend of the
idea.
three weary sojourners is undoubtedly a mere
myth, there being no known historical testimony for its support but it is evidently
the enunciation symbolically of the religious and philosophical idea that divine
truth may be sought and won only by successful perseverance through all the dangers, trials, and tribulatious of life, and that
it is not in this, but in the next life, that it
;

is

fully attained.

The legend

of the

American systems

English

and the

identical ; that of the

Irish is very different as to the time and
is

events and the legend of the Royal Arch

of the Scottish Rite is more usually called
the legend of Enoch.
;

Legend of the Third Degree.

The most important and

significant of the
legendary symbols of Freemasonry is, undoubtedly, that which relates to the fate of
Hiram Abif, commonly called, " by way of
excellence," the Legend of the Third Degree.

The first written record that I have been

able to find of this legend is contained in
the second edition of Anderson's Constitutions, published in 1738, and is in these
words
"It (the Temple) was finished in the
short space of seven years and six months,
when
to the amazement of all the world
;

LEGEND

LEGEND

the capestone was celebrated by the FraBut their joy was

ternity with great joy.
soon interrupted by the sudden death of
their dear master, Hiram Abif, whom they
decently interred in the Lodge near the
Temple, according to ancient usage."
In the next edition of the same work,
published in 1754, a few additional circumstances are related, such as the participation of King Solomon in the general grief,
and the fact that the King of Israel " ordered his obsequies to be conducted with
great solemnity and decency." With these
exceptions, and the citations of the same
passages, made by subsequent authors, the
narrative has always remained unwritten,
and descended, from age to age, through
the means of oral tradition.
The legend has been considered of so
much importance that it has been preserved
in the symbolism of every Masonic rite. No
matter what modifications or alterations
the general system may have undergone
no matter how much the ingenuity or the
imagination of the founders of rites may
have perverted or corrupted other symbols,
abolishing the old and substituting new
ones
the legend of the Temple Builder
has ever been left untouched, to present
itself in all the integrity of its ancient
mythical form.
What, then, is the signification of this
symbol so important and so extensively
diffused ? What interpretation can we give
to it that will account for its universal
adoption ? How is it that it has thus become so intimately interwoven with Freemasonry as to make, to all appearances, a
part of its very essence, and to have been
always deemed inseparable from it ?
To answer these questions satisfactorily,
it is necessary to trace, in a brief investigation, the remote origin of the institution of
Freemasonry and its connection with the
ancient systems of initiation.
It was, then, the object of all the rites
and mysteries of antiquity to teach the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.
This
dogma, shining as an almost solitary beaconlight in the surrounding gloom of Pagan
darkness, had undoubtedly been received
from that ancient people or priesthood,
among whom it probably existed only in
the form of an abstract proposition or a
simple and unembellished tradition. But
in the more sensual minds of the Pagan
philosophers and mystics, the idea, when
presented to the initiates in their mysteries,
was always conveyed in the form of a scenic
representation. The influence, too, of the
early Sabian worship of the sun and heavenly bodies, in which the solar orb was
adored on its resurrection, each morning,
from the apparent death of its evening set-

ting, caused this rising sun to be adopted

in the more ancient mysteries as a symbol
of the regeneration of the soul.
Thus, in the Egyptian mysteries we find
a representation of the death and subsequent regeneration of Osiris ; in the Phoenician, of Adonis in the Syrian, of Dionysus ; in all of which the scenic apparatus
of initiation was intended to indoctrinate
the candidate into the dogma of a future life.
It will be sufficient here to refer to the
theory of Oliver, that through the instrumentality of the Tyrian workmen at the
Temple of King Solomon, what he calls the
spurious and pure branches of the Masonic
system were united at Jerusalem, and that
the same method of scenic representation
was adopted by the latter from the former,
and the narrative of the Temple Builder
substituted for that of Dionysus, which
was the myth peculiar to the mysteries
practised by the Tyrian workmen.
The idea, therefore, proposed to be communicated in the myth of the ancient mysteries was the same as that which is now
conveyed in the Masonic legend of the
third degree.
Hence, then, Hiram Abif is, in the Masonic system, the symbol of human nature,
as developed in the life here and the life to

460

come; and so, while the Temple was the

symbol of the world, its builder became the mythical symbol of man, the
dweller and worker in that world.
Man, setting forth on the voyage of life,
with faculties and powers fitting him for
the due exercise of the high duties to
whose performance he has been called,
holds, if he be "a curious and cunning
workman," skilled in all moral and invisible

tellectual purposes, (and it is only of such

men that the Temple Builder can be the

symbol,) within the grasp of his attainment,
the knowledge of all that divine truth imparted to him as the heir-loom of his race
that race to whom it has been granted to look,
with exalted countenance, on high which
divine truth is symbolized by the word.
Thus provided with the word of life, he
occupies his time in the construction of a
spiritual temple, and travels onward in the
faithful discharge of all his duties, laying
down his designs upon the trestle- board of
the future, and invoking the assistance and
direction of God.
But is his path always over flowery
meads and through pleasant groves? Is
there no hidden foe to obstruct his progress?
Is all before him clear and calm, with joyous sunshine and refreshing zephyrs? Alas
not so. "Man is born to trouble, as the
sparks fly upward." At every "gate of
as the Orientalists have beautifully
life"
called the different ages he is beset by
;

LEGEND

LEGEND
Temptations allure his youth misperil.
fortunes darken the pathway of his manhood, and his old age is encumbered with
But clothed in the
infirmity and disease.
armor of virtue he may resist the temptation he may cast misfortunes aside and
rise triumphantly above them
but to the
;

461

have said that this mythical history of the

Temple Builder was universal

in all nations

and all rites, and that in no place and at

no time had it, by alteration, diminution,
or addition, acquired any essentially new or
different

form: the myth has always

re-

mained the same.

last
But it is not so with its interpretation.
the direst, the most inexorable foe
of his race
he must eventually yield, and, That which I have just given, and which I
stricken down by death, he sinks prostrate conceive to be the correct one, has been
into the grave, and is buried in the rubbish very generally adopted by the Masons of
But elsewhere, and by vaof his sin and human frailty.
this country.
Here then, in Masonry, is what was rious writers, other interpretations have
;

called the aphanism, concealment or disapEearance in the Ancient Mysteries. The

itter, but necessary lesson of death has
been imparted. The living soul, with the
lifeless body which encased it, has disappeared, and can nowhere be found. All is
darkness
confusion
despair.
Divine
truth
the word
for a time is lost, and
the Master Mason may now say, in the
language of Hutchinson "I prepare my
sepulchre.
I make my grave in the pollution of the earth.
I am under the shadow

of death."
But if the mythic symbolism ended here,
with this lesson of death, then were the
lesson incomplete. That teaching would
be vain and idle
nay more, it would be
corrupt and pernicious
which should
stop short of the conscious and innate in-

stinct for another existence.

And hence
the succeeding portions of the legend are
intended to convey the sublime symbolism
of a resurrection from the grave and a new
birth into a future life. The discovery of
the body, which, in the initiations of the
ancient mysteries, was called the euresis ;
and its removal, from the polluted grave

which it had been cast, to an honored

and sacred place within the precincts of the
temple, are all profoundly and beautifully
into

symbolic of that great truth, the discovery

of which was the object of all the ancient
initiations, as it is almost the whole design
of Freemasonry, namely, that when man
shall have passed the gates of life and have
yielded to the inexorable fiat of death, he
shall then (not in the pictured ritual of
an earthly Lodge, but in the realities of
that eternal one, of which the former is
but an antitype,) be raised, at the omnific
word of the Grand Master of the Universe,
from time to eternity
from the tomb of
corruption to the chambers of hope
from
the darkness of death to the celestial beams
of life
and that his disembodied spirit
shall be conveyed as near to the holy of
holies of the divine presence as humanity
can ever approach to deity.
Such I conceive to be the true interpretation of the symbolism of the legend of

the third degree.

been made, very different in their characalthough always agreeing in retaining

ter,

the general idea of a resurrection or regeneration, or a restoration of something from

an inferior to a higher sphere or function.
Thus, some of the earlier continental
writers have supposed the myth to have
been a symbol of the destruction of the
Order of the Templars, looking upon its
restoration to its original wealth and dignities as being prophetically symbolized.
In some of the high philosophical degrees it is taught that the whole legend refers to the sufferings and death, with the
subsequent resurrection of Christ.
Hutchinson, who has the honor of being
the earliest philosophical writer on Freemasonry in England, supposes it to have
been intended to embody the idea of the
decadence of the Jewish religion and the
substitution of the Christian in its place
and on its ruins.
Dr. Oliver thinks that it is typical of the
murder of Abel and Cain, and that it symbolically refers to the universal death of
our race through Adam and its restoration
to life in the Redeemer, according to the
expression of the Apostle, " as in Adam we
all died, so in Christ we all live."

Eagon makes Hiram

a symbol of the sun

vivifying rays and fructifying
power by the three winter months, and its
restoration to prolific heat by the season of
spring.
And, finally, Des Etangs, adopting, in
part, the interpretation of Eagon, adds to
it another which he calls the moral symbolism of the legend, and supposes that
Hiram is no other than eternal reason,
whose enemies are the vices that deprave
and destroy humanity.
To each of these interpretations it seems
to me that there are important objections,
though perhaps to some less so than to

shorn of

its

others.
As to those

who seek for an astronomical

interpretation of the legend, in which the
annual changes of the sun are symbolized,
while the ingenuity with which they press
their argument cannot but be admired, it
is evident that, by such an interpretation,

"

LEGISLATION

LELAND

all that Masonry has gained of

development in past ages, and fall
back upon that corruption and perversion
of Sabaism from which it was the object,
even of the Spurious Freemasonry of anti-

formerly Grand Master of Florida, has

wisely said " Too much legislation is the
vice of the present day, as well in Masonic
as in civil government.
The same thirst
for change and innovation which has

quity, to rescue its disciples.

prompted tyros and demagogues to legislate

upon constitutional law, and write expositions of the common law, has prompted uninformed and unscrupulous Masons to legislate upon the landmarks of Masonry."
Lehrling. German for an Entered

462
they yield
religious

interpretation of the myth

must at once be discarded if we would
avoid the difficulties of anachronism, unless
we deny that the legend existed before the
abolition of the Order of Knights Templars,
and such denial would be fatal to the antiquity of Freemasonry.
And as to the adoption of the Christian
reference, Hutchinson and, after him, Oliver, profoundly philosophical as are the Masonic speculations of both, have, I am constrained to believe, fallen into a great error
in calling the Master Mason's degree a
Christian institution.
It is true that it
embraces within its scheme the great
truths of Christianity upon the subject of
the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body but this was to be presumed, because Freemasonry is truth, and
Christianity is truth, and all truth must be
identical.
But the origin of each is different; their histories are dissimilar. The
creed of Freemasonry is the primitive one
of Noah and his immediate descendants.
If Masonry were simply a Christian institution, the Jew and the Moslem, the Brahman and the Buddhist, could not conscientiously partake of its illumination ; but its
universality is its boast.
In its language,
citizens of every nation may converse ; at
its altar men of all religions may kneel
to its creed, disciples of every faith may
subscribe.
But the true ancient interpretation of
the legend
the universal, Masonic one
for all countries and all ages undoubtedly
was that the fate of the Temple Builder is
but figurative of the pilgrimage of man
on earth, through trials and temptations,
through sin and sorrow, until his eventual
fall beneath the blow of death and his final
and glorious resurrection to another and
an eternal life.
And now, in conclusion, a word of historical criticism may not be misplaced. It is
not at all essential to the value of the symbolism that the legend shall be proved to be
historical. Whether considered as a truthful narrative of an event that actually
transpired during the building of the Temple, or simply as a myth embodying the
utterance of a religious sentiment, the
symbolic lesson of life and death and immortality is still contained in its teachings,
and commands our earnest attention.
Legislation. On the subject of that
over-legislation
crying sin of the Order,

The Templar

by Grand Lodges,

Gov. Thomas

Brown,

Apprentice.

Leland, John. An

eminent Eng-

antiquary, the chaplain of King

Henry VIII., who appointed him "King's
Antiquary," a title which he was the first
and last to bear. The king also directed
him to search after the antiquities of England, " and peruse the libraries of all cathe-

lish

drals, abbies, priories, colleges, etc., as also

all places wherein records, writings, and
secrets of antiquity were deposited."
Le-

land, accordingly, travelled over England

for several years, and made many collections
of manuscripts, which were afterwards deposited in the Bodleian Library. He was a
man of great learning and industry. He
was born in London in the beginning of
the sixteenth century, (the exact year is
uncertain,) and died on the 18th of April,
Anthony Wood says that he was
1552.
by far the most eminent historian and antiquary ever born in England. His connection with Freemasonry arises from the

manuscript containing the questions of

VI., which he is said to have
copied from the original. See Leland Man-

King Henry
uscript.

Iceland Manuscript. There is no

one of the old Records of Freemasonry, except, perhaps, the Charter of Cologne, that
has given rise to more controversy among
the critics than the one generally known as
the " Leland Manuscript." It derives this

name from
which

the statement

made

in

its title,

"Certayne questyons with answeres to the same, concernynge the mystery of maconrye wryttene by the hande
of Kynge Henry the Sixthe of the name,
and faythfullye copied by me, Johan Leylande Antiquarius, by the commaunde of
His Highnesse." It first appeared in the
Gentleman's Magazine for 1753, (p. 417,)
where it purports to be a reprint of a pamphlet published five years before at Frankis:

The

of the paper in the Gentle" Copy of a small pamis

phlet, consisting of twelve pages in 8vo,
printed in Germany in 1748, entitled Ein
Brief von dem beriihmten Heren Heren
fort.

title

man's Magazine

'

betreffend die Frey-MaureSo auf einem Schreib-Tisch eines

Johann Locke
rein.

verstorbnen Bruders ist gefunden worden.'

That is, " A Letter of the famous Mr. John

LELAND

LELAND

relating to Freemasonry. As found

in the writing-desk of a deceased brother."
Hearne copied it in his Life of Leland, (p.

Locke

with the remark that " it

an ancient manuscript of
Leland's has long remained in the Bodleian Library, unnoticed in any account of
our author yet published." Hearne speaks
of it thus

" The original is said to be in the handwriting of King Henry VI., and copied by
Leland by order of His Highness (King
67,) prefacing it

also appears that

Henry

If the authenticity of this

ancient monument of literature remains
unquestioned, it demands particular notice
in the present publication, on account of
the singularity of the subject, and no less
from a due regard to the royal writer, and
our author, his transcriber, indefatigable
in every part of literature it will also be

VIII.).

admitted acknowledgment is due to the

learned Mr. Locke, who, amidst the closest
studies and the most strict attention to human understanding, could unbend his mind
in search of this ancient treatise, which he
first brought from obscurity in the year
1696."

The Manuscript purports to be a series of

questions proposed by Henry VI. and answers given by the Masons. It is accompanied by an introductory letter and a
commentary by Mr. Locke, together with
a glossary of the archaic words. The best
account of the Manuscript is contained in
the letter of Locke to a nobleman, said to
be the Earl of Pembroke, da^ed May 6th,
1696, in which, after stating that he had
procured a copy of it from the Bodleian
Library, he adds
" The Manuscript of which this is a copy
appears to be about one hundred and sixty
years old yet (as your Lordship will observe by the title) it is itself a copy of one
yet more ancient by about one hundred
years.
For the original is said to have
been in the handwriting of King Henry
the VI.
Where that prince had it is an
uncertainty; but it seems to me to be an
examination (taken, perhaps, before the
King) of some one of the Brotherhood of
Masons, among whom he entered himself,
as 'tis said, when he came out of his minority, and thenceforth put a stop to a persecution that had been raised against
;

them?"
After its appearance in the Gentleman's
Magazine, which first introduced the knowledge of it to the world, and in Huddesford's
L, of Leland, who evidently copied it from
the Magazine, it next appeared, in 1764, in
the Pocket Companion, and in 1769 in Calcott's

Candid

Disquisition.

In 1775, Hutch-

inson introduced it into his Spirit of Masonry. Dermott published it in his Ahiman

463

Rezon, and

Preston in his Illustrations.

Noorthouck, in 1784, embodied it in his
edition of the Constitutions; and it has
since been repeatedly published in England
and America, so that the Craft have had
every opportunity of becoming familiar
with its contents. Translations of it have
also been given in French by Thory, in his
Acta Latomorum ; in German by Lenning,
in his Encyclopddie ; by Krause, in his
Kunsturkunden, and also by Fessler and
several other

French and German

writers.

This document
so important, if true, as
a record of the condition of Freemasonry
in the beginning of the fifteenth century
has been from an early period attacked
and defended with equal vehemence by
those who have denied and those who have
maintained its authenticity. As early as
1787, the Baron de Chefdebien, in a discourse entitled Recherches Maconnigues a
V usage des Frlres de Regime primif de Narbonne, read before the Congress of the
Philalethans, attacked the authenticity of
the document. Thory also, although acknowledging that he wished that the Manuscript was true, presented his objections
to its authenticity in a memoir read in
1806 before the Tribunal of the Philosophic Rite. His objections are eight in

number, and are to this effect. 1. That it

was not published in any of the early editions of the works of Locke. 2. That it was
printed for the
1748.
3. That

first

time at Frankfort, in

was not known in England until 1753. 4. That Anderson makes

no mention of it. 5. That it is not in any
of the editions of Leland's works printed
before 1772.
6. That Dr. Plot contends
that Henry VI. was never made a Mason.
7. That the Manuscript says that Masonry
was brought from the East by the Venetians.
8. That the troubles in the reign of Henry
VI., and his incapacity, render it improbable that he would have occupied his mind
it

with the subject of Freemasonry.

The

sixth and eighth of these objections merely

beg the question; and the seventh is puerile, founded on ignorance of the meaning
of the word " Venetian." But the other
objections have much weight. Soane, in
his New Curiosities of Literature, (1849, vol.
ii., p. 80,) attacks the document with the
bitterness which he usually displays wherever Freemasonry is concerned.
Halliwell, in his Early History of Free-

masonry in England, (p. 40,) has advanced

the following arguments against its authenticity

" It is singular that the circumstances attending its publication should have led no
one to suspect its authenticity. I was at
the pains of making a long search in the
Bodleian Library last summer, in the hopes

LELAND

LENOIR

of finding the original, but without success.

In fact, there can be but little doubt that
this celebrated and well-known document
is a forgery
"In the first place, why should such
a document have been printed abroad?
Was it likely that it should have found its
way to Frankfort, nearly half a century
afterwards, and been published without
any explanation of the source whence it
was obtained ? Again, the orthography is
most grotesque, and too gross ever to have
been penned either by Henry VI. or LeFor instance, we
land, or both combined.
have Peter Gower, a Grecian, explained
for who else
in a note by the fabricator
to be Pythagoras!
could have solved it?
As a whole, it is but a clumsy attempt at
deception, and is quite a parallel to the recently discovered one of the first Englishe
Mercurie."
Among the German opponents of the
Manuscript are Lessing, Keller, and Findel ; and more recently, the iconoclasts of
England, who have been attacking so many
of the ancient records of the Craft, have
not left this one unspared.
On the other hand, it has ranked among
its advocates some of the most learned
Masons of England, Germany, and France,
of whom may be named Krause, Fessler,
Lenning, Reghellini, Preston, Hutchinson, Calcott, (these three, perhaps, without
critical examination,) and Oliver. Of these
the language of the last may be cited as a
specimen of the arguments adduced in its

But no attempt was ever made to invalidate

claim to be a genuine document."
After enumerating the several books in
which it had been published, he resumes

464

favor.

" This famous Manuscript," says Dr. Oli(Freemason's Quart. Rev., 1840, p. 10,)
" possesses the reputation of having converted the learned Locke, who was initiated after carefully perusing and analyzing
it.
Before any faith can be placed on this
invaluable document, it will be necessary
to say a word respecting its authenticity. I
admit that there is some degree of mystery
about it, and doubts have been entertained
whether it be not a forgery.
have the
strongest presumptive proofs that it was
in existence about the middle of the last
century, because the utmost publicity was
given to it; and as at that time Freemasonry was beginning to excite a considerable share of public attention, the deception,
had it been such, would have been publicly
exposed by its opponents, who appear to
have used the lash of ridicule very freely,
as witness Hogarth's picture of Night,
where the principal figures represent some
brethren, decorated with aprons and jewels,
returning from the Lodge in a state of intoxication
the broad sheet of the Scald
Miser ables, and other prints and publications in which Freemasonry is burlesqued.
ver,

We

its

his argument, as follows

" Being thus universally diffused, had it

been a suspected document, its exposure
would certainly have been attempted particularly about the close of4he last centurv,
when the progress of Masonry was sensibly
checked by the publication of works which
charged it with being the depository of
principles fatal equally to the peace and
religion of civil society and if a forgery,
it would have been unable to have endured
the test of a critical examination. But no
such attempt was made and the presump;

tion therefore

is

that the document

is

au-

thentic.
" I should

be inclined to pronounce, from

evidence only, that the 'Letter
and Annotations ' were written by Locke
but there are corroborating facts which
appear conclusive ; for this great philosopher was actually residing at Oates, the
country-seat of Sir Francis Masham, at the
time when the paper is dated and shortly
afterwards he went up to town, where he
internal

These facts
initiated into Masonry.
are fully proved by Locke's Letters to Mr.

was

Molyneaux, dated March 30 and July 2,

For these reasons I entertain no
1696.
doubt of the genuineness and authenticity
of this valuable Manuscript."
If my own opinion is worth giving on this
subject, I should say with much reluctance,
and against my own wishes, that there is
neither internal nor external evidence of
the authenticity of this document to make
it a suflicient foundation for historical evidence.
zealous French MaLemanceau.
son, and the possessor of a fine collection
of degrees, the nomenclature of which is
preserved by Thory in his Acta Latomorum.
The most important are referred to in the
present work.
Length of the Lodge. See Extent
of the Lodge.
celebrated
Lenoir, Alexandre.
archaelogist, who was born at Paris in 1761.
Having studied at the Mazarin College, he
entered the studio of Doyeu, and successfully
cultivated painting. In 1790, the National
Assembly having decreed that the treasures of art in the suppressed churches
and convents should be collected at the
Petits-Augustins, he was appointed the
Conservator of the depot, which was subsequently called the Museum, of which he
was then made the Director. He there col-

lected

more than

five

hundred monuments

rescued from destruction, and classified them

with great care. On the conversion of the

LEPAGE

LESSONS

garden of Moasseaux into a Museum of

Monuments, he was appointed one of the
administrators, and subsequently the administrator of the monuments of the Church

of much learning, and is said to have supplied several of his Masonic contemporaries
with assistance in the preparation of their

of St. Denis. In all these appointments,

Lenoir exhibited his taste and judgment as
an archaeologist. He was a member of the
Society of Antiquaries of France, to whose
Transactions he contributed several memoirs.
The Metropolitan Chapter of France
had, from the year 1777, annually held
philosophical conventions, at which lectures on Masonic subjects were delivered
by such men as Court de Gebelin. In
1789 these conventions were discontinued
in consequence of the political troubles of
the times, but they were renewed in 1812
by M. Lenoir, who delivered before the
Chapter a course of eight lectures on the
relations which exist between the ancient
mysteries of the Egyptians and the Greeks
and those of Freemasonry. In 1814, he
published the substance of these lectures in
a work entitled La Franche-Maconnerie vendue a sa veritable origine, ou VAntiquite de la
Franche-Maconnerie prouve'e par V Explication des Mysteres Anciens et Modernes, (Paris,
The theory of the author
4to, pp. 304.)
being that the mysteries of Freemasonry
are only a repetition of those of antiquity,
he attempts to support it by investigations
into the ancient initiations that are marked
with profound learning, although the work
was severely criticised in the Journal de
DSats. He had previously published, in
1809, a work in three volumes, entitled
Nouvelle Explication des Hieroglyphes ou
Anciens Allegories sacrees des Egiptiennes.
He died at Paris, June 12, 1839.
Lepage. One of those French Masons who in the latter part of the last century occupied themselves in the accumulation of cahiers or rituals of Masonic deMost of the degrees in his collecgrees.
tion, which is said to have been a valuable
one, are referred to by Thory in the nomenclature contained in his Acta Lato-

In the lecture of the

degree we are told that a Lodge has
three symbolic lesser lights one of these is
in the East, one in the West, and one in the
South. There is no light. in the North, because King Solomon's Temple, of which
every Lodge is a representation, was placed
so far north of the ecliptic that the sun
and moon, at their meridian height, could
dart no rays into the northern part thereof.
The north we therefore Masonically call a
place of darkness.
This symbolic use of the three lesser
lights is very old, being found in the earliest lectures of the last century.
The three lights, like the three principal
officers and the three principal supports, refer, undoubtedly, to the three stations of
the sun
its rising in the east, its meridian
in the south, and its setting in the west
and thus the symbolism of the Lodge, as
typical of the world, continues to be pre-

465

works.

^Lesser Lights.

first

served.

The use
nies

is

of lights in

ceremoThere was a

all religious

an ancient custom.

seven-branched candlestick in the tabernacle, and in the Temple " were the golden
candlesticks, five on the right hand and
five on the left."
They were always typical
of moral, spiritual, or intellectual light.

Lessing, Gottfried JEphraiin.

learned litterateur of Germany, who was

born at Kaumitz, in the Neiderlausetz, 22d
January, 1729, and died on the 15th February, 1781, at Woefenbutal, where he was
librarian to the Duke of Brunswick.
Lessing was initiated in a Lodge at Hamburg,
and took great interest in the Institution.
His theory, that it sprang out of a secret association of Templars who had long existed
in London, and was modified in form by Sir

Christopher Wren, has long been rejected, if

was ever admitted by any but in his two
morum.
works Ernst und Folk and Nathan der Weise,
Leroiige, Andre Joseph Eti- he has given profound and comprehensive
man of letters and zealous Ma- views on the genius and spirit of Freeenne.
son of Paris, born at Commercy, April 25, masonry. Lessing was the most eminent
1766.
He made a large and valuable col- litterateur of his age, and has been styled
lection of manuscript and printed degrees. " the man who was the forerunner of the
He died in 1834, and on the 7th of January, philosophers, and whose criticisms supplied
1835, his collection was sold at public auc- the place of poetry." See Ernest and Folk.
tion.
Thory has made use of it in his
Lessons. The passages of Scripture
Nomenclature des Grades. Lerouge was recited by the Prelate in the ceremony of
the author of several didactic writings on inducting a candidate into the Masonic
Masonic subjects, all of which, however, Order of Knights Templars. It is an ecclehave had but an ephemeral existence. He siastical term, and is used by the Templars
was one of the editors of the French Ma- because these passages are intended to insonic journal Hermes, published in 1819, and struct the candidate in reference to the inof the Melanges de Philosophic, oVHistoire cidents of our Saviour's life which are reet de Literature Maconnique.
He was a man ferred to in the ritual.

31

30

it

LETTER

466

Letter

of Application.

LEWIS
More

properly called a Petition, which see.

Letters Patent. See Patents.
Lettuce. A sacred plant used in the
mysteries of Adonis, and therefore the
analogue of the Acacia in the mysteries of

Masonic charlatan of the

eighteenth century, better known by his
assumed name of Johnson, which see.
Level. In Freemasonry, the level is
a symbol of equality; not of that social
equality which would destroy all distinctions of rank and position, and beget contusion, insubordination, and anarchy; but
of that fraternal equality which, recognizing the fatherhood of God, admits as a
necessary corollary the brotherhood of
man. It, therefore, teaches us that, in the
sight of the Grand Architect of the Universe, his creatures, who are at an immeasurable distance from him, move upon
the same plane as the far- moving stars,
which though millions of miles apart, yet
seem to shine upon the same canopy of the
In this view, the level teaches us
sky.
that all men are equal, subject to the same
infirmities, hastening to the same goal,
and preparing to be judged by the same
;

immutable law.

The level is deemed, like the square and

the plumb, of so much importance as a
symbol, that it is repeated in many different relations.
First, it is one of the
jewels of the Lodge; in the English system
a movable, in the American an immovable
one. This leads to its being adopted as the
proper official ensign of the Senior Warden,
because the Craft when at labor, at which
time he presides over them, are on a
common level of subordination. And then
it is one of the working-tools of a Fellow
Craft, still retaining its symbolism of
equality.

Levi, Eliplias.

The pseudonym of

Louis Alphonse Constance, a prolific writer

on Magical Masonry, or of works in which
he seeks to connect the symbols of Masonry
with the dogmas of the High Magic. His
principal works, which abound in dreamy
speculations, are Dogme et Rituel de la Haute
Magie, Paris, 1860 ; JBistoire de la Magie,
same place and year and Le Clef des Grand
MysUres, published a year afterwards.
;

Levite, Knight.

The Knight Lewas the fourth section of the seventh

degree of the Rite of Clerks of Strict Obvite

servance.

Levite of the External Guard.

The

lowest of the nine Orders of the

Priesthood, or highest of the Masonic degrees in the Order of the Temple as modified by Fabre-Palaprat.
It was equivalent
to Kadosh.

descendants of Levi
in the lowest minis-

Temple, and were thus

subordinate to the priests, who were the
lineal descendants of Aaron.
They are
represented in some of the high degrees.
degree in the
Levite, Sacriflcer.
collection of the Mother Lodge of the
Philosophic Scottish Rite.
Levitikon. There is a spurious Gospel of St. John, supposed to have been
forged in the fifteenth century, which
contradicts the genuine Gospel in many
particulars.
It contains an introduction
terial duties of the

Freemasonry.

Leucht.

Levites. Those
who were employed

and a commentary, said to have been

by Nicephorus, a Greek monk of
Athens.
This commentary is called the
" Levitikon."
Out of this gospel and its
commentary, Fabre-Palaprat, about the
year 1814, composed a liturgy for the sect
of Johannites, which he had established and
attached to the Order of the Temple at Paris.

written

collection of men raised for

Levy.
a particular purpose. The lectures tell us
that the timbers for building the Temple
at Jerusalem were felled in the forests of
Lebanon, where a levy of thirty thousand
men of Jerusalem were employed by
monthly courses of ten thousand. Adoniram was placed over this levy. The facts
are derived from the statement in 1 Kings
" And King Solomon raised a
v. 13, 14
levy out of all Israel; and the levy was
:

And he sent them

thirty thousand men.
to Lebanon ten thousand a month by
courses; a month they were in Lebanon
and two months at home and Adoniram
was over the levy." These wood-cutters
:

were not Tyrians, but all Israelites.

Lewis. I. An instrument in OperaIt is an iron cramp which
tive Masonry.
is inserted in a cavity prepared for that
purpose in any large stone, so as to give
attachment to a pulley and hook whereby
the stone may be conveniently raised to
any height and deposited in its proper
It is well described by Mr. Gibposition.
son, in the British Archceologia, (vol. x., p.
127 ;) but he is in error in attributing its
invention to a French architect in the
time of Louis XIV., and its name to that
monarch. The contrivance was known to
the Romans, and several taken from old
In the
ruins are now in the Vatican.
ruins of Whitby Abbey, in England, which

was founded by Oswy, king of Northumberland, in 658, large stones were discovered, with the necessary excavation for
the insertion of a lewis. The word is most
probably derived from the old French levis,
any contrivance for lifting. The modern
French call the instrument a louve.
2. In the English system, the lewis is
found on the tracing-board of the Entered

LEWIS

LIBAVIUS

Apprentice, where it is used as a symbol

of strength, because, by its assistance, the
Operative Mason is enabled to lift the
heaviest stones with a comparatively trifling exertion of physical power.
It has
not been adopted as a symbol by the
American Masons, except in Pennsylvania,
where, of course, it receives the English

" What is the duty of a lewis, the son

of a Mason, to his aged parents ?
" To bear the heavy burden in the heat
of the day and help them in time of need,
which, by reason of their great age, they
ought to be exempted from, so as to render
the close of their days happy and comfort-

interpretation.

The son of a Mason

in England,
called a lewis, because it is his duty to support the sinking powers and aid the failing
strength of his father or, as Oliver has expressed it, " to bear the burden and heat
3.

is,

of the day, that his parents may rest in

their old age thus rendering the evening
of their lives peaceful and happy." In the
rituals of the middle of the last century
he was called a louffton. From this the
French derived their word lufton, which
they apply in the same way. They also
;

employ the word

louveteau, and call the

daughter of a Mason louvetine. Louveteau
is probably derived directly from the louve,
the French name of the implement but it
is a singular coincidence that louveteau
also means a young wolf, and that in the
Egyptian mysteries of Isis the candidate
was made to wear the mask of a wolfs
head. Hence, a wolf and a candidate in
these mysteries were often used as synonymous terms. Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, says, in reference to this custom,
that the ancients perceived a relationship
between the sun, the great symbol in these
mysteries, and a wolf, which the candidate
represented at his initiation. For, he remarks, as the flocks of sheep and cattle fly
;

and disperse

at the sight of the wolf, so the

flocks of stars disappear at the approach
of the sun's light.
The learned reader will
also recollect that in the Greek language
lukos signifies both the sun and a wolf.

Hence some etymologists have sought to

derive louveteau, the son of a Mason, from
louveteau, a young wolf.
But I prefer the
more direct derivation from louve, the
operative instrument.
In Browne's Master Key, which is supposed to represent the Prestonian lecture,
we find the following definition
" What do we call the son of a Freemason?

able.

" His privilege for so doing ?

" To be made a Mason before

any other
person, however dignified by birth, rank,
or riches, unless he, through complaisance,
waves this privilege."
The lecture does not state, in exact
terms, the whole nature of the privileges
of a lewis. Not only has he, in an initiation, the precedence of all other candidates,
but in England and France the right to be
initiated at an earlier age.
For while the
general law in both these countries requires
a candidate to have reached the age of
twenty-one, a lewis can be received when
only eighteen. No such regulation is, it is
true, to be found in the English Constitution
but, as Oliver says, it is " a traditional custom " and a provision seems to have been
made for it by allowing the prerogative of
dispensing with the usual requirement of
age in certain cases. In this country,
where the symbolism of the lewis is unknown, no such right is -now recognized,
It is, however, probable that the custom
formerly existed, derived from England;
and it has been thus attempted, I think
reasonably enough, to explain the fact that
;

Washington was initiated when he was only

twenty years and eight months old.

Lexington, Congress of. This

Congress was convoked in 1853, at Lexington, Kentucky, for the purpose of attempting to form a General Grand Lodge. A
plan of constitution was proposed, but a
sufficient number of Grand Lodges did not
accede to the proposition to give it efficacy.
Iiibanus. The Latin name of Lebwhich see.
Iiibation. Among the Greeks and
Bomans the libation was a religious ceremony, consisting of the pouring of wine or
other liquid upon the ground, or, in a sacrifice, upon the head of the victim after it
had been first tasted by* the priest and by
anon,

who stood next to him. The libawere usually of unmixed wine, but
were sometimes of mingled wine and water.
Libations are used in some of the chivalric
and the high degrees of Masonry.

those

"
lewis.
" What does that denote?
" Strength.
" How is a lewis depicted in a Mason's

Lodge?

467

" As^ a cramp of metal, by which, when

fixed into a stone, great and ponderous
weights are raised to a certain height *and
fixed upon their proper basis, without
which Operative Masons could not so conveniently do.

tions

Libavius, Andreas. A learned

physician, who was born at Halle,

German

in Saxony, and died at Coburg, where he

was rector of the Gymnasium in 1616. He

was a vehement opponent of Paracelsus and

of the Bosicrucians. In 1613 he published
at Frankfort his Syntagma selectorum al~

LIBERAL

LIBERTINE

chimia arcanorum, in two folio volumes, and

after, an Appendix, in which he
attacks the Society of the Rosicrucians, and
analyzes the Confessio of Valentine Andrea."
De Quincey has used the works of Libavius
in his article on Secret Societies.

Craft of Masonry is one." And then the

writer proceeds to define them in the order

468

two years

Iiioeral Arts

and Sciences. We

are indebted to the Scholastic philosophers of the Middle Ages for the nomenclature by which they distinguished the
seven sciences then best known to them.
With the metaphorical spirit of the age in
which they lived, they called the two classes
into which they divided them the trivium, or
meeting of three roads, and the quadrivium,
or meeting of four roads ; calling grammar,
logic, and rhetoric the trivium, and arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy the
quadrivium. These they styled the seven
liberal arts and sciences, to separate them
from the mechanical arts which were pracThe liberal
tised by the handicraftsmen.
man, liberalis homo, meant, in the Middle
Ages, the man who was his own master
free, independent, and often a nobleman.
Mosheim, speaking of the state of literature in the eleventh century, uses the following language : " The seven liberal arts,

as they were now styled, were taught in

the greatest part of the schools that were
erected in this century for the education
of youth. The first stage of these sciences
was grammar, which was followed successively by rhetoric and logic. When the
disciple, having learned these branches,
which were generally known by the
name of trivium, extended his ambition
further, and was desirous of new improvement in the sciences, he was conducted
slowly through the quadrivium /arithmetic,
music, geometry, and astronomy) to the
very summit of literary fame."
The Freemasons of the Middle Ages, always anxious to elevate their profession
above the position of a mere operative art,

readily assumed these liberal arts and sciences as a part of their course of knowledge,
thus seeking to assimilate themselves rather
to the scholars who were above them than to

the workmen who were below them. Hence

in all the Old Constitutions we find these
liberal arts and sciences introduced at the
beginning as forming an essential part of
the body of Masonry. Thus, in the Landsdo wne MS., whose date is about 1560, (and
it may be taken as a fair specimen of all
the others,) these sciences are thus referred
to:

"We minde to shew you the charge that

belongs to every treu Mason to keep, for in
good Faith if you take good heed it is well
worthy to be kept for
worthy Craft and
curious science,
Sirs, there be Seaven
Liberall Sciences of the which the Noble

which they still retain. It is noteworthy,

however, that that order must have been
changed; for in what is probably the earliest
of the manuscripts
the one edited by Mr.
Halliwell
geometry appears as the last,
instead of the fifth of the sciences, and
arithmetic as the sixth.
It is not therefore surprising that, on the
revival of Masonry in 1717, these seven
liberal arts and sciences were made a part
of the system of instruction. At first, of
course, they were placed in the Entered
Apprentice's degree, that being the most
important degree of the period, and they
were made to refer to the seven Masons who
composed a Lodge. Afterwards, on the
more methodical division of the degrees,
they were transferred to the Fellow Craft,
because that was the degree symbolic of
science, and were made to refer to seven of
the steps of the winding stairs, that being
itself, when properly interpreted, a symbol
of the progress of knowledge. And there
they still remain.

Liibertas.

Latin.

Liberty.

A signifi-

cant word in the Red Cross degree. It

refers to the "liberty of passage" gained by
the returning Jews over their opponents at
the river Euphrates, as described in the
Scottish Rite degree of Knight of the East,
where the old French rituals have " liberte

du passer."
liibertine. The Charges of 1722 commence by saying that " a Mason is obliged
by his tenure to obey the moral law and
;

he rightly understands the art, he will

never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious libertine." The word " libertine " there
used conveyed a meaning different from
that which it now bears. In the present
if

usage of language

it signifies

a profligate

and licentious person, but originally it

meant a freethinker, or Deist. Derived
from the Latin " libertinus," a man that
was once a bondsman but who has been
made free, it was metaphorically used to
designate one who had been released, or
who had released himself from the bonds
of religious belief, and become in matters
of faith a doubter or denier. Hence "a
stupid Atheist" denoted, to use the language of the Psalmist, " the fool who has
said in his heart there is no God," while an
"irreligious libertine" designated the man
who, with a degree less of unbelief, denies
the distinctive doctrines of revealed religion.
And this meaning of the expression connects itself very appropriately with the
succeeding paragraph of the Charge. " But
though in ancient times, Masons were
charged in every country to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever it

LIGHT

LIBERTY
was, yet it is now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion
in which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves."
The expression "irreligious libertine,"
alluding, as it does, to a scoffer at religious
truths, is eminently suggestive of the religious character of our Institution, which,
founded as it is on the great doctrines of
religion, cannot be properly appreciated by
any one who doubts or denies their truth.

Liberty of Passage.
phrase in the high degrees.

significant

See Libertas.

children which

its

to do.

469

obligation requires

it

Of two Lodges the one without and

the other with a library
the difference is
this, that the one will have more ignoIf a Lodge
rance in it than the other.
takes delight in an ignorant membership,
If it thinks there
let it forego a library.
is lionor and reputation* and pleasure in
having its members well informed, it will
give them means of instruction.

Lieutenant Grand Com-

mander.

The

title

of the second and

in the

The French rituals designate it by the letters

third officers of a

L.\ D.\ P.*. as the initials of liberte de

passer, or liberty of passage.
But Brother
Pike proposes to interpret these letters as
liberte depenser, liberty of thought ; the pre-

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and

the second officer in a Supreme Council.

rogative of a freeman

and a Freemason.

Library.

It is the duty as well as the

interest of Lodges to facilitate the efforts of

the members in the acquisition of Masonic

knowledge, and I know of no method more
appropriate than the formation of Masonic
libraries.
The establishment of a Grand
Lodge library is of course not objectionable, but it is of far less value and importance than a Lodge library. The original
outlay of a few dollars in the beginning for
its establishment, and of a few more annually for its maintenance and increase,
would secure to every Lodge in the land a
rich treasury of Masonic reading for the information and improvement of its members.
The very fact that Masonic books
were within their reach, showing themselves on the well-filled shelves at every
meeting, and ready at their hands for the
mere asking or the trouble of taking them
down, would induce many brethren to read
who never yet have read a page or even a
line upon the subject of Masonic history

and

science.

Considering the immense number of

books that have been published on the
subject of Speculative Masonry, many of
which would be rendered accessible to
every one by the establishment of Lodge
libraries, the Mason who would then be
ignorant of the true genius of his art
would be worthy of all shame and reproach.
As thoughtful municipalities place public fountains in their parks and at the corners of streets, that the famished wayfarer

may

allay his thirst and receive physical

refreshment, so should Masonic Lodges
place such intellectual fountains in reach
of their members, that they might enjoy
mental refreshment. Such fountains are
libraries and the Lodge which spends fifty
dollars, more or less, upon a banquet, and
yet does without a library, commits a grave
Masonic offence; for it refuses, or at least
neglects, to diffuse that light among its
;

Grand Consistory

Life. The three stages of human life

are said in the lectures to be symbolized
by the three degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry, and the doctrine is illustrated in the
third degree by the emblem of the Three
Steps on the Master's Carpet, which see.
Life, Sternal. See Eternal Life.
It is the custom in
Life
some Lodges to permit a member to become
a life member by the immediate payment
of a sum of money, after which he is released
from any subsequent payment of quarterly
dues. Such a system is of advantage in a
pecuniary sense to the Lodge, if the money
paid for life membership is invested in
profitable stock, because the interest continues to accrue to the Lodge even after
Lodge consistthe death of a member.
ing entirely of life members would be a
Lodge the number of whose members
might increase, but could never decrease.
Life members are subject to all the discipline of the Lodge, such as suspension or
expulsion, just as the other members.
Light. Light is an important word in
the Masonic system. It conveys a far more
recondite meaning than it is believed to
possess by the generality of readers. It is
in fact the first of all the symbols presented
to the neophyte, and continues to be presented to him in various modifications
throughout all his future progress in hii
Masonic career. It does not simply mean,
as might be supposed, truth or wisdom, but
it contains within itself a far more abstruse allusion to the very essence of Speculative Masonry, and embraces within its
capacious signification all the other symFreemasons are embols of the Order.
phatically called the " sons of light," be#
cause they are, or at least are entitled to
of
meaning
of
the
true
possession
be, in
the symbol while the profane or uninitiated
who have not received this knowledge are,
by a parity of expression, said to be in
darkness.
The connection of material light with
this emblematic and mental illumination,

Member.

.
:

470

LIGHT

LIGHT

was prominently exhibited in all the an- prevailed among the ancients, that there
cient systems of religion and esoteric mys- were two antagonistic principles continually contending for the government of the
teries.
Among the Egyptians, the hare was the world.
"Light," says Duncan, (Eelig. of Prof
hieroglyphic of eyes that are open, because
that animal was supposed to have his eyes Ant., 187, " is a source of positive happiness
)

always open. The priests afterwards adopted the hare as the symbol of the moral illumination revealed to the neophytes in the
contemplation of the divine truth, and
hence, according to Champollion, it was
also the symbol of Osiris, their principal
divinity,
tic rites,

and the chief

object of their

mys-

thus showing the intimate con-

nection that they maintained in their symbolic language between the process of initiation and the contemplation of divinity.
On this subject a remarkable coincidence
has been pointed out by M. Portal (Symb.
des Egypt, 69,) in the Hebrew language.
There the word for "hare" is arnebet, which
seems to be compounded of aur, "light,"
and nabat, " to see; " so that the word which
among the Egyptians was used to designate
an initiation, among the Hebrews meant
to see the light.
If we proceed to an examination of the
other systems of religion which were practised by the nations of antiquity, we shall
find that light always constituted a principal object of adoration, as the primordial
source of knowledge and goodness, and that
darkness was with them synonymous with
Dr. Beard (Encyc.
ignorance and evil.
Bib. Lit.) attributes this view of the divine
origin of light among the Eastern nations,
to the fact that "light in the East has a
clearness and brilliancy, is accompanied by
an intensity of heat, and is followed in its
influence by a largeness of good, of which
the inhabitants of less genial climates have
no conception. Light easily and naturally
became, in consequence, with Orientals, a
representative of the highest human good.
All the more joyous emotions of the mind,
all the pleasing sensations of the frame, all
the happy hours of domestic intercourse,
were described under imagery derived from
from
light.
The transition was natural,
earthly to heavenly, from corporeal to
spiritual things; and so light came to
typify true religion and the felicity which
it imparts.
But as light not only came
from God, but also makes man's way clear
before him, so it was employed to signify
moral truth, and pre-eminently that divine
system of truth which is set forth in the
Bible, from its earliest gleamings onward to
the perfect day of the Great Sun of Righteousness."
As light was thus adored as the source
of goodness, darkness, which is the negation of light, was abhorred as the cause of
evil, and hence arose that doctrine which

man could barely exist. And

since all religious opinion is based on the
ideas of pleasure and pain, and the corresponding sensations of hope and fear, it is
not to be wondered if the heathen reverenced light. Darkness, on the contrary, by
replunging nature, as it were, into a state
of nothingness, and depriving man of the
pleasurable emotions conveyed through the
organ of sight, was ever held in abhorrence, as a source of misery and fear.
The
two opposite conditions in which man thus
found himself placed, occasioned by the enjoyment or the banishment of light, induced him to imagine the existence of two
antagonistic principles in nature, to whose
dominion he was alternately subjected."
Such was the dogma of Zoroaster, the
great Persian philosopher, who, under the
without

it

names of Ormuzd and Ahriman, symbolized these two principles of light and darkness.

Such was also the doctrine, though somewhat modified, of Manes, the founder of
the sect of Manichees, who describes God
the Father as ruling over the kingdom of
light and contending with the powers of
darkness.
Pythagoras also maintained this doctrine
of two antagonistic principles. He called
the one, unity, light, the right hand, equality, stability, and a straight line ; the other
he named binary, darkness, the left hand,
inequality, instability, and a curved line.
Of the colors, he attributed white to the
good principle, and black to the evil one.
The Jewish Kabbalists believed that, before the creation of the world, all space
was filled with the Infinite Intellectual
Light, which afterwards withdrew itself to
an equal distance from a central point iu
space, and afterwards by its emanation pro-

duced future worlds. The first emanation

of this surrounding light into the abyss
of darkness produced what they called the
"Adam Kadmon," the first man, or the
first production of the divine energy.
In the Bhagvat Geeta, (one of the religious books of the Brahmans,) it is said:
"Light and darkness are esteemed the
world's eternal ways he who walketh in
the former path returneth not, that is, he
goeth immediately to bliss whilst he who
walketh in the latter cometh back again
upon the earth."
In fact, in all the ancient systems, this
reverence for light, as an emblematic representation of the Eternal Principle of
;

;
;

LINGAM

LIGHTS
is predominant.
In the mysteries,
the candidate passed, during his initiation,
through scenes of utter darkness, and at
length terminated his trials by an admission to the splendidly illuminated sacellum, where he was said to have attained

Good,

pure and perfect

light,

and where he

re-

the necessary instructions which

were to invest him with that knowledge of
the divine truth which had been the object of all his labors.
Lights, Fixed. According to the old
rituals of the last century, every Lodge
room was furnished, or supposed to be furnished, with three windows, situated in the
east, west, and south. They were called the
Fixed Lights, and their uses were said to
be " to light the men to, at, and from their
ceived

471

the decorations of art, was a different flower

probably a species of

lilium.

This

is

also

represented in all pictures of the salutation

of Gabriel to the Virgin Mary; and, in
fact, has been held in mysterious veneration by people of all nations and times.
'It is the symbol of divinity, of purity,
and abundance, and of a love most complete in perfection, charity, and benediction
as in Holy Scripture, that mirror of purity,
Susanna is defined Susa, which signified
the lily flower, the chief city of the Persians, bearing that name for excellency.
Hence, the lily's three leaves in the arms
of France meaneth Piety, Justice, and
Charity.' So far, the general impression
of a peculiar regard to this beautiful and
flagrant flower but the early Persians atmust
tached to it a peculiar sanctity."
not, however, forget the difference between
the lotus of the Old Testament and the lily
of the New. The former is a Masonic plant
the latter is scarcely referred to. Nevertheless, through the ignorance of the early
translators as to sacred plants, the lotus is
constantly used for the lily ; and hence the
same error has crept into the Masonic
;

We

work."

Lights, Greater. The Bible, and the

Square and Compasses : which see. In the
Persian initiations, the Archimagus informed the candidate, at the moment of illumination, that the Divine Lights were displayed before him.
Light, to Bring to. A technical
expression in Masonry meaning to initiate

"He

was brought to light in such a rituals. See Lotus.

is, he was initiated in it.
Lily Work. The lily work which is
Ligiire. Oti' ?. The first stone in the described as a part of the ornamentation
third row of the high priest's breastplate. of the two pillars in the porch of Solomon's
Commentators have been divided in opinion Temple is said to be, from the whiteness of
as to the nature of this stone but it is now the plant, symbolic of purity and peace.
supposed by the best authorities to have Properly, it is lotus work. See Lily, Lotus,
been the rubellite, which is a red variety of and Pillars of the Porch.
as,

Lodge," that

the tourmaline. The ligure in the breastLimbs. See Qualifications, Physical.

plate was referred to the tribe of Dan.
Lindner, Friederich Wilhelm.
Lily. The plant so frequently menprofessor of philosophy in Leipsic, who
tioned in the Old Testament under the published in 1818-1819 an attack on Freename of lily, as an emblem of purity and masonry under the title of Mac Benac; Er
peace, was the lotus lily of Egypt and India. lebet im Sohne ; oder das Positive der FreiIt occupied a conspicuous place among the maurerei.
This work contains some good
ornaments of the Temple furniture. The ideas, although taken from an adverse
brim of the molten sea was wrought with point of view but, as Lenning has observed,
flowers of the lotus ; the chapiters on the these bear little fruit because of the fanatitops of the pillars at the porch, and the cal spirit of knight errantry with which he
tops of the pillars themselves, were adorned attacks the Institution.
with the same plant.
Sir Eobert Ker
Line. One of the working-tools of a
Porter, describing a piece of sculpture Past Master, and presented to the Master
which he found at Persepolis, says, " Al- of a Lodge at his installation. See Plumb
most every one in this procession holds in Line.
his hand a figure like the lotus.
This
Linear Triad. Oliver says that the
flower was full of meaning among the Linear Triad is a figure which appears in
ancients, and occurs all over the East. some old Royal Arch floor-cloths.
It bore
Egypt, Persia, Palestine, and India pre- a reference to the sojourners, who represent it everywhere over their architecture, sented the three stones on which prayers
in the hands and on the heads of their and thanksgivings were offered on the dissculptured figures, whether in statue or in covery of the lost Word ; thereby affording
bass-relief.
also find it in the sacred an example that it is our duty in every
vestments and architecture of the taber- undertaking to offer up our prayers and
nacle and Temple of the Israelites. The thanksgivings to the God of our salvation.
lily which is mentioned by our Saviour, as
Lines, Parallel. See Parallel Lines.
an image of peculiar beauty and glory,
The lingam and the youi
when comparing the wprks of nature with of the Indian mysteries were the same as

We

Lingam.

LODGE

LINK

472

the phallus and cteis of the Grecian.

See

Phallus.

Link. A

degree formerly conferred in

England, in connection with the Mark degree, under the title of the " Mark and Link
or Wrestle."

It is

now

obsolete.

Limiecar, Richard. The

author
of the celebrated Masonic anthem beginning
" Let there be Light th' Almighty spoke ;
Refulgent beams from chaos broke,
T' illume the rising earth."
!

is known of his personal history except that he was the Coroner of Wakefield,
England, and for many years the Master
of the Lodge of Unanimity, No. 238, in that
town. He was a zealous and studious MaIn 1789 he published, at Leeds, a
son.
volume of plays, poems, and miscellaneous
writings, among which was an essay entitled Strictures on Freemasonry, and the anthem already referred to. He appears to
have been a man of respectable abilities.
mode of recognition
Lion's
so called because of the rude resemblance
made by the hand and fingers to a lion's
paw. It refers to the " Lion of the tribe of

Little

Paw. A

Judah."

Literature of Masonry. Freema-

their servants. The trading

gilds of England began about
the time of Edward I. to wear a suit of cloth-

by masters to
companies or

ing of a form, color, and material peculiar

to each company, which was called its
livery, and also its clothing.
To be admitted into the membership and privileges
of the company was called " to have the
clothing." The Grocers' Company, for instance, were ordered " to be clothed once a
year in a suit of livery ; " and there is an
order in the reign of Henry V. to purchase
cloth " for the clothing of the brethren of
the brewers' craft." There can be no doubt
that the usage of speaking of a Mason's
clothing, or of his being clothed, is derived from the custom of the gilds.
Mason's clothing, " black dress and white
loves and apron," is, in fact, his livery,
Clothing.
ee
Livre d'Or. French. The Booh of
Gold, which see.
Local Laws. See Laws of Masonry.
Locke's Letter. The letter of John
Locke which is said to have accompanied
the Leland MS., and which contains his
comments on it. See Leland Manuscript.
Lodge. There are three definitions
which, in the technical language of Masonry, apply to the word Lodge.
1. It is a place in which Freemasons meet.
In this sense the words more generally used
are Lodge Room, which see.
2. It is the assembly or organized body
of Freemasons duly congregated for labor
or for business. These two distinctions are
precisely the same as those to be found in
the word "church," which is expressive
both of the building in which a congregation meets to worship and the congregation
of worshippers themselves. This second
definition is what distinguishes a meeting
of symbolic Masons, who constitute a Lodge,
from one of Eoyal Arch Masons, whose
meeting would be called a Chapter, or of

sonry has its literature, which has been

rapidly developed in the last few decades
of the present century, far more than in
any preceding ones. This literature is
not to be found in the working of its degrees, in the institution of its Lodges, in
the diffusion of its charities, or in the extension of its fraternal ties. Of all these,
although necessary and important ingredients of the Order, its literature is wholly
independent. This is connected with its
ethics as a science of moral, social, and religious philosophy; with its history and
archaeology, as springing up out of the past
times; with its biography as the field in
which men of intellect have delighted to
labor; and with its bibliography as the Cryptic Masons, whose assembly would be
record of the results of that labor. It is a Council.
The word appears in French as loge
connected, too, incidentally, with many
other arts and sciences. Mythology affords German, loge ; Spanish, logia ; Portuguese,
an ample field for discussion in the effort loja; and Italian, loggia. This is irrefrato collate the analogies of classic myths gible evidence that the word was, with the
and symbols with its own. Philology sub- Institution, derived by the continent of
mits its laws for application to the origin Europe from England.
of its mystic words, all of which are conThe derivation of the word is, I think,
nected with its history. It has, in fine, its plain. Kagon says that it comes from the
science and its philosophy, its poetry and Sanscrit loga, signifying the world. There
romance. No one who has not studied the would, at first sight, seem to be a connecliterature of Masonry can even dream of tion between this etymology and the symits beauty and extent; no one who has bolic meaning of a Lodge, which represtudied it can have failed to receive the re- sents the world; but yet it is evidently
far-fetched, since we have a much simpler
ward that it bestows.
root immediately at hand. Mr. Hope says,
Litigation. See Lawsuits.
Livery. The word livery is supposed speaking of the Freemasons of the Middle
to be derived from the clothing delivered Ages, (and Wren had previously said the

LODGE

LODGE

same thing,) that wherever they were engaged to work, they "set themselves to
building temporary huts, for their habitation, around the spot where the work was to
be carried on." These huts the German

right of assembling was voluntarily surrendered by the brethren and the Lodges,
and vested in the Grand Lodge. And from
this time Warrants of Constitution date
The first Warrant granted
their existence.
by the Grand Lodge of England, after its
reorganization, is dated 1718.
The mode of bringing a Lodge into existence under the present system in America is as follows
Seven Master Masons,
being desirous of establishing a Lodge,
apply by petition to the Grand Master,
who will, if he thinks proper, issue his dispensation authorizing them to congregate
as Masons in a Lodge, and therein to confer the three degrees of Ancient Craft
Masonry. This instrument is of force during the pleasure of the Grand Master. At
the next meeting of the Grand Lodge it expires, and is surrendered to the Grand Lodge,
which, if there be no objection, will issue
a Charter, technically called a Warrant of
Constitution, whereby the body is permanently established as a Lodge, and as one
of the constituents of the Grand Lodge.
The power of granting Warrants of Constitution is vested in the Grand Lodges of
Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and France,
as it is in America but in England the
rule is different, and there the prerogative
is vested in the Grand Master.
A Lodge thus constituted consists, in the
American system, of the following officers.
Worshipful Master, Senior and Junior
Wardens, Treasurer, Secretary, Senior and
Junior Deacons, two Stewards, and a Tiler.
In the York Rite, as practised in England, the officers are, in addition to these, a
Director of Ceremonies, a Chaplain, and an
Inner Guard.
In a Lodge of the French Rite, the
They are
officers are still more numerous.
Le Venerable or Worshipful Master, Premier and Second Surveillants or Senior
and Junior Wardens, Orator, Treasurer,
Secretary, Hospitaller or collector of alms,
the Expert, combining the duties of the
Senior Deacon and an examining committee, Master of Ceremonies, Architecte,
who attends to the decoration of the Lodge,
and superintends the financial department,
Archiviste or Librarian, Keeper of the
Seal, Master of the Banquets or Steward,
and Guardian of the Temple or Tiler.
The officers in a Lodge of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite are a Master,

Masons called hutten ; the English, lodges,

which is from the Anglo-Saxon; logian, to
dwell.
Lodge, therefore, meant the dwelling-place or lodging of the Masons and
this is undoubtedly the origin of the mod;

To

corroborate this,
we find Du Cange (Gloss.) defining the
Mediaeval Latin, logia or logium, as "a
He refers to the
house or habitation."
Italian, loggia, and quotes Lambertus Ardensis as saying that " logia is a place next
to the house, where persons were accustomed
to hold pleasant conversation."
Hence
Lambertus thinks that it comes from the
Greek, logos, a discourse. Du Cange asserts
that there is no doubt that in the Middle
Ages logia or logium was commonly used
for an apartment or dwelling connected
with the main building. Thus, the smallest apartments occupied by the cardinals
when meeting in conclave were called logioe
or Lodges. A,ll of which sustains the idea
that the Lodges of the old Operative Masons were small dwellings attached, or at
least contiguous, to the main edifice on

ern use of the word.

which they were at work.

In the Old Constitutions, the word is not
generally met with. The meeting of the
Craft is there usually called the Assembly.
But there are instances of its employment
in those documents. Thus in the Lodge of
Antiquity MS. whose date is 1786, and still
earlier in the York MS. No. 1, dated about
1600, it is said, "no Fellow within the
Lodge or without shall misanswer," etc.

There is also abundant documentary evidence to show that the word Lodge was,
long before the eighteenth century, applied
meeting by the Freemasons of

to their

England and Scotland.

Before the restoration of the Grand
Lodge of England in 1717, Preston tells
us that any number of brethren might assemble at any place for the performance
of work, and, when so assembled, were authorized to receive into the Order brothers
and fellows, and to practise the rites of
Masonry. The ancient charges were the
only standard for the regulation of their
conduct. The Master of the Lodge was
elected pro tempore, and his authority terminated with the dissolution of the meeting over which he had presided, unless the
Lodge was permanently established at any
particular place. To the general assembly
of the Craft, held once or twice a year, all
the brethren indiscriminately were amenable, and to that power alone.
But on the
formation of Grand Lodges, this inherent

3K

473

two Wardens, Orator, Treasurer, Secretary,

Almoner, Expert, Assistant Expert, Master
of Ceremonies,

Almoner Steward,

Tiler,

and sometimes a few others as Pursuivant,

and Keeper of the Seals.
In other Rites and countries the officers
vary to a slight extent, but everywhere
there are

four

officers

who always

are

474

LODGE

LODGE

found, and who may therefore be considered

as indispensable, namely, the Master, two

which

its

members had no Warrant nor

authority, simply placed itself on the

points of a degree in which it was about to
give instruction.
Some of the rituals speak, it is true, of
Lodges composed in ancient times of Masters and Fellow Crafts or Masters and Apprentices; and the Webb lectures tell us
that at the Temple of Solomon the Lodges
of Entered Apprentices consisted of one
Master and six Apprentices, and the
Lodges of Fellow Crafts of two Masters
and three Fellow Crafts. But all this is
purely symbolic, and has no real existence
in the practical working of the Order. No
one in these days has seen a Lodge of one
Master Mason and six Apprentices. The
Masons working in the first degree are as
much Master Masons as the same Masons
are when they are working in the third.
The Lodge legally is the same, though it
may vary the subjects of its instruction so
as to have them in the first, second, or third
degree.
So important a feature in Masonry as a
Lodge, the congregations of Masons for
work or worship, cannot be without its appropriate symbolism.
Hence a Lodge

Wardens, and Tiler.

A Lodge thus constituted is a Lodge of
Master Masons. Strictly and legally speaking, such a body as a Lodge of Entered
Apprentices or of Fellow Crafts is not
known under the present Masonic system.
No Warrant is ever granted for an Apprentices' or Fellow Crafts' Lodge, and without a Warrant a Lodge cannot exist. The
Warrant granted is always for a Masters'
Lodge, and the members composing it are
all Master Masons. The Lodges mentioned
by Wren and Hope, to which allusion
has been made, and which were congregated, in the Middle Ages, around the edifices which the Masons were constructing,
were properly Fellow Crafts' Lodge, because all the members were Fellow Crafts
even the Master being merely a gradation of
rank, not a degree of knowledge. So at the
revival of Masonry in 1717, the Lodges were
Entered Apprentices' Lodges, because in
them nothing but the first degree was conferred, and nearly all the members were
Entered Apprentices. But when the Grand
Lodge, where only at first the Fellow Craft
and Master's degree were conferred, per- when duly opened becomes a symbol of
mitted them to be conferred in the subordinate Lodges, then the degree of Master
Mason was sought for by all the Craft, and
became the object of every Mason's ambition.
From that time the Craft became
Master Masons, and the first and second
degrees were considered only as preliminary

So it has remained to this day and

modern Lodges, wherever Masonry has
extended, are Masters' Lodge, and nothing

steps.

all

less.

Sometimes

secretaries, ignorant of these

record in their minutes that " the
Lodge of Master Masons was closed and a
Lodge of Entered Apprentices was opened."
Neither written nor unwritten law sanctions any such phraseology.
If the Lodge
of Master Masons is closed, there is an end
of the Masonic congregation. Where is
the Warrant under which a Lodge of Entered Apprentices is opened, and how can
a Lodge, in which there is not, probably, a
single Apprentice, but where all the officers
and all the members are Master Masons, be
called a Lodge of Apprentices ? The ritual
has wisely provided for the avoidance of
such an anomaly, and, seeing that the Warrant says that the Lodge of Master Masons
facts, will

empowered to make Apprentices and

Fellow Crafts, it says "the Lodge was
opened on the first degree." That is to say,
the Lodge of Masters still retaining its
character as a Masters' Lodge, without
which it would lose its legality, and not
venturing to open a kind of Lodge for

is

the world. Its covering is like the world's,

a sky or clouded canopy, to reach which, as
the abode of those who do the will of the
Grand Architect, it is furnished with the
theological ladder, which reaches from
earth to heaven and it is illuminated as is
the world, by the refulgent rays of the sun,
symbolically represented in his rising in
the east, his meridian height in the south,
and his setting in the west and lastly, its
very form, a long quadrangle or oblong
square, is in reference to the early tradition
that such was the shape of the inhabited
world.
3. The Lodge, technically speaking, is a
piece of furniture made in imitation of the
Ark of the Covenant, which was constructed
by Bazaleel, according to the form prescribed by God himself, and which, after
the erection of the Temple, was kept in the
Holy of Holies. As that contained the table of the laws, the Lodge contains the
Book of Constitutions and the Warrant of
Constitution granted by the Grand Lodge.
It is used only in certain ceremonies, such
as the constitution and consecration of Dew
Lodges.
Lodge, Chartered. See Chartered
Lodge.
Lodge, Clandestine. See Clandestine Lodge.
Lodge, Constituted. See Constituted
;

Legally.

Lodge, Dormant.
Lodge.

See

Dormant

LODGE
Lodge. Emergent,

LODGE

475

another local and distinctive one. In all

Masonic documents the words ran formerly
" From the Lodge of the holy
as follows
St. John of Jerusalem, under the distinctive appellation of Solomon's Lodge, No. 1,"
or whatever might be the local name.
In this style foreign documents still run
and it is but a few years since it has been

See Emergent

Lodge.

Lodge, Extinct. See Extinct Lodge.

Lodge, Holy. See Holy Lodge.
Lodge Hours. Dermott says (Ahim.

Rez., p. xxiii.,) " that Lodge hours, that is,

the time in which it is lawful for a Lodge
to work or do business, are from March
25th to September 25th, between the hours
of seven and ten and from September 25th
tc March 25th, between the hours of six
and nine." I know not whence he derived
the law but it is certain that it has never
been rigidly observed even by the " ancient
Lodges," for whom his Ahim an Rezon was

at all disused in this country.

Hence we
say that every Mason hails from such a
Lodge, that is to say, from a just and legally constituted Lodge.
In the earliest
catechisms of the eighteenth century we
find this formula.
"Q. What Lodge are
you of? A. The Lodge of St. John." And
written.
another question is, " How many angles in
Lodge, Just. See Just Lodge.
St. John's Lodge ? "
In one of the high
Lodge Master, English. [Maitre degrees it is stated that Lodges receive this
de Lodge Anglais.)
degree in the nomen- title " because, in the time of the Crusades,
clature of Thory, inserted on the authority the Perfect Masons communicated a knowlof Lemanceau.
edge of their Mysteries to the Knights of
Lodge Master, French. [Maitre St. John of Jerusalem," and as both were
de Loge Erangais.) The twenty -sixth de- thus under the same law, the Lodges were
gree of the collection of the Metropolitan called St. John's Lodges. But this was
Chapter of France.
only one of the attempts to connect FreeLodge, Occasional. See Occasional masonry with the Templar system.
Lodge.
Lodge, Perfect. See Perfect Lodge.
;

Lodge of Instruction. These are

assemblies of brethren congregated without a Warrant of Constitution, under the
direction of a lecturer or skilful brother, for
the purpose of improvement in Masonry,
which is accomplished by the frequent rehearsal of the work and lectures of each
degree. These bodies should consist exclusively of Master Masons and though they
possess no Masonic power, it is evident to
every Mason that they are extremely useful as schools of preparation for the duties
that are afterwards to be performed in the
regular Lodge. In England, these Lodges
of Instruction are attached to regularly
Warranted Lodges, or are specially licensed
by the Grand Master. But they have an
independent set of officers, who are elected
sometimes for a year,
at no stated periods
sometimes for six or three months, and
sometimes changed at every night of meeting.
They of course have no power of
initiation, but simply meet for purposes of
practice in the ritual.
They are, however,
bound to keep a record of their transactions, subject to the inspection of the superior powers.
Lodge of St. John. The Masonic
tradition is that the primitive or mother
Lodge was held at Jerusalem*, and dedicated to St. John, first the Baptist, then
the Evangelist, and finally to both. Hence
this Lodge was called " The Lodge of the
Holy St. John of Jerusalem." From this
Lodge all other Lodges are supposed figuratively to descend, and they therefore receive
the same general name, accompanied by

Lodge, Regular.

See Regular

Lodge.

Room.

The Masons on the

Lodge
continent of Europe have a prescribed form
or ritual of building, according to whose
directions it is absolutely necessary that
every hall for Masonic purposes shall be
erected.
Iso such regulation exists among
the Fraternity of this country or Great
Britain.
Still, the usages of the Craft, and
the objects of convenience in the administration of our rites, require that certain
general rules should be followed in the
construction of a Lodge room. These rules,
as generally observed in this country, are as
follows
Lodge room should always, if possible,
be situated due east and west This position is not absolutely necessary and yet it
is so far so as to demand that some sacrifices should be made, if possible, to obtain
so desirable a position. It should also be

isolated, where it is practicable, from all

surrounding buildings, and should always
be placed in an upper story. No Lodge
should ever be held on the ground
floor.

The form of a Lodge room should be

that of a parallelogram or oblong square,
at least one-third larger from east to west
than it is from north to south. The ceiling
should be lofty, to give dignity to the appearance of the hall, as well as for the purposes of health, by compensating, in some
degree, for the inconvenience of closed
windows, which necessarily will deteriorate
the quality of the air in a very short time

LODGE

476

LOST

straight en-

Lodge. Royal. See Royal Lodge.

lodge. Sacred. See Sacred Lodge.
Lodge, Symbol of the. The mod-

unmasonic, and cannot be tolerated." There should be two entrances to

the room, which should be situated in the
west, and on each side of the Senior Warden's station. The one on his right hand

ern symbol or hieroglyphic of the word

Lodge is the figure CZD, which undoubtedly
refers to the form of the Lodge as an " oblong square." But in the old rituals of
the early part of the last century we

mem-

The cross here,

find this symbol:
as Krause [Kunsturh, i. 37,) suggests, refers to the "four angles" of
the Lodge,
as in the question:

The approaches to the

Lodge room from without should be angu-

in a low room.
lar, for,

trance

as Oliver says,

"A

is

is for

the introduction of visitors and

bers,

and leading from the

Tiler's

room,

is

called the Tiler's, or the outer door; the

other, on his left, leading from the preparation room, is known as the " inner door,"
and sometimes called the " north-west door."
The situation of these two doors, as well as
the rooms with which they are connected,
and which are essentially necessary in a
well- constructed Lodge room, may be seen

from the diagram annexed to this article,

which also exhibits the seats of the officers
and the arrangement of the altar and lights.
For further observations, see Halls, Masonic.

East.
Platform

or Dais
Past Masters.

for

Senior Deacon.

* Treasurer.

Secretary.

Light.
Altar.

* Light.

*
Steward.
Junior "Warden. *
*
Steward.

Light

o 2
Inner

i-3

Outer
door.

A
&

itf

P^^l

^^ "How

Room.

Door.

Tiler's

Room.

angles in St. John's

of Divine Providence watching over the

Lodge. This symbol has long since be-

come obsolete.
!Loge. The French word for Lodge.
IiOgic. The art of reasoning, and one
of the seven liberal arts and sciences,
whose uses are inculcated in the second degree. The power of right reasoning, which
distinguishes the man of sane mind from
the madman and the idiot, is deemed essential to the Mason, that he may comprehend

And hence

both his rights and his duties.

the unfortunate beings just named, who are

without this necessary mental quality, are
denied admission into the Order. The Old
Constitutions define logic to be the art
" that teacheth to discern truth from falsehood."
IiOmbardy. At the close of the dark
ages, Lombardy and the adjacent Italian
states were the first which awakened to industry.
New cities arose, and the kings,
lords, and municipalities began to encourage the artificers of different professions.
Among the arts exercised and improved in
Lombardy, the art of building held a preeminent rank, and from that kingdom, as
from a centre, Masons were dispersed over
all Europe.
See Travelling Freemasons.
London. With the city of London,
the modern history of Freemasonry is intimately connected.
congress of Masons,
as it may properly be called, was convened
there by the four old Lodges, at the AppleTree Tavern, in February, 1717. Its results
were the formation of the Grand Lodge
of England, and a modification of the Masonic system, whence the Freemasonry of
the present day has descended. Anderson,
in his second edition of the Book of Constitutions, (1738,) gives the account of this,
as it is now called, Revival of Masonry,

which
Preparation

many

Lodge? A. Four, bordering on squares;"

and the delta is the Pythagorean symbol

see.

IiOSt

Word.

The mythical

WORD

claiming a profound veneration that this

Word was known to but few that it was
at length lost and that a temporary sub;

Door-

West.

history of

Freemasonry informs us that there once

existed a
of surpassing value, and
;

LOTUS

LOWEN

was adopted. But as the very

philosophy of Masonry teaches us that
there can be no death without a resurrecno decay without a subsequent restion,
on the same principle it follows
toration,
that the loss of the Word must suppose its
eventual recovery.

of the mountain Meru, the residence of the

Among the Egyptians, the lotus was
the symbol of Osiris and Isis.
It was
esteemed a sacred ornament by the priests,
and was placed as a coronet upon the heads
of many of the gods. It was also much
used in the sacred architecture of the Egyptians, being placed as an erj ablature upon
the columns of their tempLs. Thence it
was introduced by Solomon into Jewish
architecture, being found, under the name
of " lily work," as a part of the ornaments
of the two pillars at the porch of the TemSee Lily and Pillars of the Porch.
ple.
Louisiana. Masonry was introduced
into Louisiana in 1793 by the organization
of Perfect Union Lodge, under a Charter
issued by the Grand Lodge of South Carolina.
second Lodge was established by
the Mother Lodge of Marseilles, in France
and three others were subsequently chartered by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
These five Lodges instituted a Grand Lodge
on July 11, 1812, and Francis du Bourg
was elected the first Grand Master. A difference of nationality and of Masonic rites
have been a fertile source of controversy in
Louisiana, the results of which it would be

titute for it

Now, this it is, precisely, that constitutes

myth of the Lost Word and the search
for it.
No matter what was the word, no
matter how it was lost, nor why a substitute was provided, nor when nor where it
the

was recovered. These are all points of subsidiary importance, necessary, it is true, for
knowing the legendary history, but not
necessary for understanding the symbolism.
The only term of the myth that is to be
regarded in the study of its interpretation,
is the abstract idea of a word lost and afterwards recovered.
therefore, I conceive to be
The

WOED,

the symbol of Divine Truth ; and all its

modifications
the loss, the substitution,
are but component
and the recovery
parts of the mythical symbol which repreIn a general
sents a search after truth.
sense, the Word itself being then the symbol of Divine Truth, the narrative of its
loss and the search for its recovery becomes
a mythical symbol of the decay and loss of
the true religion among the ancient nations,
at and after the dispersion on the plains of
Shinar, and of the attempts of the wise
men, the philosophers, and priests, to find
and retain it in their secret mysteries and

initiations,

which have hence been desigSpurious Freemasonry of

nated as the

Antiquity.
But there is a special or individual, as
well as a general interpretation, and in this
special or individual interpretation the
Word, with its accompanying myth of a
loss, a substitute, and a recovery, becomes
a symbol of the personal progress of a candidate from his first initiation to the completion of his course, when he receives a
full development of the mysteries.
Lotus. The lotus plant, so celebrated
in the religions of Egypt and Asia, is a species of Nymphsea, or water-lily, which grows
abundantly on the banks of streams in warm
climates. Although more familiarly known
as the lotus of the Nile, it was not indigenous
to Egypt, but was probably introduced into
that country from the East, among whose
people it was everywhere consecrated as a
sacred symbol. The Brahmanical deities
were almost always represented as either
decorated with its flowers, or holding it as a
sceptre, or seated on it as a throne. Coleman
says, (Mythol. Hindus, p. 388,) that to the
Hindu poets the lotus was what the rose was
to the Persians.
Floating on the water it is
the emblem of the world, and the type also

477

gods.

In 1848, there
were two Grand Lodges, which were united
in 1850 to constitute the present Grand
Lodge.
The Grand Chapter of Louisiana was instituted on 5th March, 1813 a Grand Council of Eoyal and Select Masters on 16th
February, 1856 and a Grand Commandery
of Knights Templars on 4th February, 1864.
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Bite
has always held a prominent position in
the Masonry of Louisiana, and it has a
Grand Consistory and many subordinate
bodies of the Rite in active and successful
tedious to follow in detail.

The obedience of the Grand

Consistory is to the Supreme Council for
the Southern Jurisdiction.
IiOUveteau. See Lewis.
Lowen. In the Landsdowne Manu" that a
script we meet with this charge
Master or Fellow make not a mouldstone
square, nor rule to no Lowen, nor sett no
Lowen worke within the Lodge." The London Freemason's Magazine, and Brother
Hughan, also, say, " this no doubt is a mistake for 'Cowan.' " I was at one time inclined to think so myself. But subsequent
operation.

investigations have led me to change my

opinion. I can find Cowan only in one
manuscript, namely, the Scottish one of
William Schaw. In the MS. Constitutions
from the York Archives, first published by
Brother Hughan, we have in the parallel
passage "Pough Mason." This gives us the
idea intended to be conveyed by the word,
whatever it was. It pointed to a handi-

: :

LOW

LUX

inferior character and

standing. For "Rough Mason" we have
in the Alnwick MS. "Layer" and "Hough
Layer." In the Harleian and EdinburghKilwinning MSS. we find " Layer ; " in the
Sloane MS. it is " Lyer ; " and in the Dowland MS., which I have already said seems
almost identical in origin with the Landsdo wne, in the exactly parallel passage we
ha.Ye"Layer" twice, just as "Lowen" is twice

perious duties of the Mason, and he is forbidden at all times from engaging in plots

478
craftsman of an

Layer is as easily corrupted

into Lowen as Cowan would be, in copying
the abbreviated writing of these Old Eecords, and indeed more easily, since it is
more likely that small letters should be
used here.

mistaken and changed than capitals.

Twelve. In Masonic language
midnight is so called. The reference is to
the sun, which is then below the earth.
Low twelve in Masonic symbolism is an

Low

unpropitious hour.

Loyalty. Notwithstanding

the calum-

nies of Barruel, Eobison, and a host of other

anti-Masonic writers who assert that Masonry is ever engaged in efforts to uproot

and conspiracies."

Hence

it

is

must be a true

evident that the true

Mason

patriot.

Luchet, Jean Pierre Louis,

Marquis de. A French historical
born at Saintes in 1740, and died in
He was the writer of many works
of but little reputation, but is principally
distinguished in Masonic literature as the
author of an attack upon Illuminism under
writer,

1791.

the

title

of Essai sur la Secte des Illumines.

appeared anonymously in 1789.

editions of it were published.
The
third and fourth with augmentations and
revisions, which were attributed to Mirabeau, were printed with the outer title of
Histoire secret dela Gourde Berlin (parMirabeau.)
This work was published, it is
known, without his consent, and was
burned by the common executioner in consequence of its libellous character. Luchet' s essay has become very scarce, and is
now valued rather on account of its rarity
than for its intrinsic excellence.
It

first

Four

governments within which it may

nothing more evident than
Luminaries. The first five officers
that Freemasonry is a loyal institution, in a French Lodge, namely, the Master, two
and that it inculcates, in all its public in- Wardens, Orator, and Secretary, are called
structions, obedience to government. Thus, luminaires or luminaries, because it is by
in the Prestonian charge given in the last them that light is dispensed to the Lodge.
century to the Entered Apprentice, and
Lustration. A religious rite praccontinued to this day in the same words in tised by the ancients, and which was perEnglish Lodges, we find the following formed before any act of devotion. It conwords
sisted in washing the hands, and sometimes
" In the State, you are to be a quiet and the whole body, in lustral or consecrated
peaceable subject, true to your sovereign, water. It was intended as a symbol of the
and just to your country; you are not internal purification of the heart. It was
to countenance disloyalty or rebellion, but a ceremony preparatory to initiation in all
patiently submit to legal authority, and the Ancient Mysteries. The ceremony is
conform with cheerfulness to the govern- practised with the same symbolic import in
ment under which you live, yielding obe- some of the high degrees of Masonry. So
dience to the laws which afford you protec- strong was the idea of a connection between
tion, but never forgetting the attachment lustration and initiation, that in the low
you owe to the place of your nativity, or Latin of the Middle Ages lustrare meant to
the allegiance due to the sovereign or pro- initiate. Thus Du Gange ( Glossarium) cites
the

exist, there is

" In the State, you are to be a quiet and

peaceful subject, true to your government,
and just to your country you are not to
countenance disloyalty or rebellion, but patiently submit to legal authority, and conform with cheerfulness to the government
of the country in which you live."
The charge given in French Lodges,
though somewhat differing in form from
both of these, is couched in the same spirit
and teaches the same lesson. It is to this

the expression " lustrare religione Christianorum " as signifying " to initiate into the
Christian religion."
Lux. Latin for light, which see. Freemasonry anciently received, among other
names, that of " Lux," because it is that
sublime doctrine of truth by which the
pathway of him who has attained it is to
be illumined in the pilgrimage of life.
Among the Kosicrucians, light was the
knowledge of the philosopher's stone ; and
Mosheim says that in chemical language
the cross was an emblem of light, because
it contains within its figure the forms of
the three figures of which LVX, or light,

effect

is

tectors of that spot."

The charge given in

American Lodges is
of the same import, and varies but slightly

in

its

language.

" Obedience to the laws and submission

to the authorities are among the most im-

composed.

Lux e tenebris.
ness.

Light out of darkin the

motto very commonly used

LUX

MAC
Lyons, Congress

caption of Masonic documents as expresMasonry, and of what

the true Mason supposes himself to have
It has a recondite meaning.
attained.
In the primeval ages and in the early my" In the
thology, darkness preceded light.
thought," says Cox, " of these early ages,
the sun was the child of night or darkSo lux being
ness," (Aryan Myth., i. 43.)
truth or Masonry, and tenebrce, or darkness,
the symbol of initiation, lux e tenebris is
Masonic truth proceeding from initiation.
Fit. Latin. " Let
Fiat et

Lux

Labor
Convenit.
also engraved

is

suitable for men.

on their

It

seals.

Masonic

there be light, and there was light. " A motto

sometimes prefixed to Masonic documents.
L. YT . C. Letters inscribed on the rings
of profession, worn by the Knights of Baron von Hund's Templar system. They
are the initials of the sentence Labor Viris

was

of.

congress was convoked in 1778, at the city

of Lyons, France, by the Lodge of Chevaliers Bienfaisants.
It was opened on the
26th November, and continued in session until the 27th December, under the presidency
Its ostensible object was
of M. Villermoz.
to procure a reformation in Masonry by
the abjuration of the Templar theory but
it wasted its time in the correction of rituals
and in Masonic intrigues, and does not appear to have been either sagacious in its
methods, or successful in its results. Even
its abjuration of the Strict Observance doctrine that Templarism was the true origin
of Freemasonry, is said to have been insincere, and forced upon it by the injunctions of the political authorities, who were
opposed to the propagation of any system
which might tend to restore the "Order of

sive of the object of

Lux

479

Knights Templars.

M.
Maacha.

In the tenth degree of the

are informed that certain
traitors fled to "Maacha king of Cheth,"
by whom they were delivered up to King
Solomon on his sending for them. In 1
Kings ii. 39, we find it recorded that two
of the servants of Shimei fled from Jerusalem to " Achish, son of Maacha king of
Gath." There can be little doubt that the
Scottish Rite

derivation

The manuscripts of the Ancient

and Accepted Scottish Rite, too often
copied by unlearned persons, show many
such corruptions of Hebrew names, which
modern researches must eventually correct.
Delaunay, in his Thuileur, makes him King
of Tyre, and calls him Mahakah.
Mac. Masonic writers have generally
given to this word the meaning of "is
smitten," deriving it probably from the

father.

nacha, to smite. Others,

the word pD, male, rottenness, and suppose that it means " he is
rotten" Both derivations are, I think, incorrect.

Mac is a constituent part of the word

macbenac, which is the substitute Master's
word in the French Rite, and which is interpreted by the French ritualists as meaning "he lives in the son." But such a

no support in any
Another interpreta-

James the Second, who was the son of

Henrietta Maria, the widow of Charles the
First.
So, instead of the old Master's word
which had hitherto been used, they invented macbenac out of the Gaelic, which
to them was, on account of their Highland

Hebrew verb Hp5>

it is

root.

tion must be sought.

I think there is
evidence, circumstantial at least, to show
that the word was, if not an invention of
the Ancient or Dermott Masons, at least
adopted by them in distinction from the
one used by" the Moderns, and which latter
I
is the word now in use in this country.
am disposed to attribute the introduction
of the word into Masonry to the adherents
of the house of Stuart, who sought in
every way to make the institution of Freemasonry a political instrument in their
schemes for the restoration of their exiled
Thus the old phrase, "the
monarch.
widow's son," was applied by them to

carelessness of the early copyists of the

ritual led to the double error of putting
Cheth for Gath and of supposing that Maacha was its king instead of its king's

again, think

can find

known Hebrew

we

supporters, almost a sacred language in the

place of Hebrew. Now, in Gaelic, Mac is\son,
and benach is blessed, from the active verb
The latest dictionary
beannaich, to bless.
published by the Highland Society gives
this

" Benach De Righ Albane,

Mac Alexander," etc., i. e., Bless

example

Alexander,

King

of Scotland, Alexander, son of

Therefore we find, withetc.
out any of those distortions to which ety-

the

Alexander,

480

MACBENAC

MAGIC

mologists so often recur, that -macbenac

means in Gaelic "the blessed son." This
word the Stuart Masons applied to their
idol, the Pretender, the son of Charles I.
Macbenac. 1. significant word in
the third degree according to the French
Rite and some other rituals. See Mac.
2. In the Order of Beneficent Knights
of the Holy City, the recipiendary, or novice, is called Macbenac.
heroic family, whose
Maccabees.
patriotism and valor form bright pictures
in the Jewish annals. The name is generally supposed to be derived from the letwhich were
ters *. 3. 3. ., M. C. B. I.,
being the
inscribed upon their banners,
initials of the Hebrew sentence, " Mi Ca-

mocha, Baalim, Iehovah," Who

is like

unto

Jehovah. The Hethee among the gods,

brew sentence has been appropriated in
some of the high Scottish degrees as a significant word.

Macerio. Du Cange gives this as one

of the Middle Age Latin words for mason,
deriving it from maceria, a wall but maceria was a corruption of materia, materials
for building.
The word is now never employed.
;

Macio. Du Cange (Gloss.)

defines

Ma-

Mattio, or Machio, on the authority of

Isidore, as Macon, latomus, a mason, a constructor of walls, from machinis, the machines on which they stood to work on
account of the height of the walls. He
gives Mago also.
Macon. The French for Mason, supposed to be derived from maison, a house.
Maconetus. Low Latin, signifying a
mason, and found in documents of the
fourteenth century.
Macoime. French word signifying
a female Mason, that is to say, the degrees
of the Rite of Adoption. It is a very convenient word. The formation of the English language would permit the use of the
equivalent word Masoness, if custom would
sanction it.
Egyptienne. The third
degree in Cagliostro's Rite of Adoption.
Maconner. Du Cange gives citations
from documents of the fourteenth century,
where this word is used as signifying to
cio,

Maconne

build.

Maczo. Latin of the Middle Ages for

a mason. Du Cange quotes a Computum
of the year 1324, in which it is said that
the work was done "per manum Petri,
maczonis de Lagnicio."

Made.
initiated into

technical

Masonry.

word signifying
See Make.

Madman.

Madmen are specially designated in the oral law as disqualified for

initiation.

See Qualifications.

Magazine. The earliest Masonic magazine was published in Germany.

It

was

the Freimaurerzeitung

issued for a short

time at Berlin, in 1783. But the Journal
fur Freimaurer, which appeared the next
year at Vienna, had a more protracted existence.
In England, the first work of this
kind was The Freemason's Magazine or Gen,

and Complete Library, begun in 1793,

and continued for several years. In France,
the earliest Masonic magazine of which I
can find any notice was Hermes, the first
number of which appeared in 1808. Of
American Masonic magazines the earliest
is the Freemason- s Magazine and General

eral

Miscellany, published at Philadelphia in

1811. Since then more than sixty Masonic
journals have been established in the United
States, of which about twenty still exist.
The oldest living periodical devoted to Ma-

sonry is the Freemason's Monthly Magazine,

published by Charles W. Moore, at Boston.
It was established in the year 1842.
Magi. The ancient Greek historians
so term the hereditary priests among the
Persians and Medians. The word is derived from mog or mag, signifying priest in
the Pehlevi language. The Illuminati first
introduced the word into Masonry, and employed it in the nomenclature of their degrees to signify men of superior wisdom.
Magic. The idea that any connection
exists between Freemasonry and magic is
to be attributed to the French writers, especially to Ragon, who gives many pages
of his Masonic Orthodoxy to the subject
of Masonic magic ; and still more to Louis
Constance, who has written three large vol-

umes on the History

of Magic, on the
Ritual and Dogma of the Higher Magic,
and on the Key of the Grand Mysteries, in
all of which he seeks to trace an intimate
connection between the Masonic mysteries
and the science of magic. Ragon designates this sort of Masonry by the name of
"Occult Masonry." But he loosely confounds magic with the magism of the ancient Persians, the mediaeval philosophy
and modern magnetism, all of which, as
identical sciences, were engaged in the investigation of the nature of man, the mechanism of his thoughts, the faculties of
his soul, his power over nature, and the essence of the occult virtues of all things.
Magism, he says, is to be found in the sentences of Zoroaster, in the hymns of Orpheus, in the invocations of the Hierophants, and in the symbols of Pythagoras
and it is reproduced in the philosophy of
Agrippa and of Cardan, and is recognized
under the name of Magic in the marvellous
Cagliostro, it is
results of magnetism.
well known, mingled with his Spurious
Freemasonry the Superstitions of Magic
and the Operations of Animal Magnetism.
But the writers who have sought to establish a scheme of Magical Masonry refer

MAGNANIMOUS

MAGICIANS
almost altogether to the supposed power of
mystical names or words, which they say is
common to both Masonry and magic. It
is certain that onomatology, or the science
of names, forms a very interesting part of
the investigations of the higher Masonry,
and it is only in this way that any connection can be created between the two sciences.
Much light, it must be confessed, is thrown
on many of the mystical names in the
higher degrees by the dogmas of magic;
and hence magic furnishes a curious and
interesting study for the Freemason.

Magicians, Society of the.

society founded at Florence, which became

a division of the Brothers of Rose Croix.
They wore in their Chapters the habit of
members of the Inquisition.

magic square is
Magic Squares.
a series of numbers arranged in an equal
number of cells constituting a square figure, the enumeration of all of whose columns, vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, will give the same sum. The Oriental
philosophers, and especially the Jewish
Talmudists, have indulged in many fanciful
speculations in reference to these magic
squares, many of which were considered
as talismans.
The following figure of nine
squares, containing the nine digits so ar-

Thus arranged, they

it

by the

name of the planet Saturn, ZaHaL, because

the sum of the 9 digits in the square was
equal to 45, (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9,)
which is the numerical value of the letters
in the word ZaHaL, in the Arabic alphabet.
The Talmudists also esteemed it as a sacred
talisman, because 15 is the numerical value
of the letters of the word n*> JaH, which
is one of the forms of the Tetragrammaton.
The Hermetic philosophers called these
magic squares "tables of the planets,"
to them many occult virtable of Saturn consisted of 9
squares, and has just been given. The
table of Jupiter consisted of 16 squares of
numbers, whose total value is 136, and the
sum of them added, horizontally, perpendicularly, and diagonally, is always 34;

and attributed
tues.

The

thus:

ranged as to make fifteen when counted in

every way, was of peculiar import
4

called

481

14

15

'

12

ii

10

16

13

So the table of Mars consists of 25

squares, of the Sun of 36, of Venus of 49,
of Mercury of 64, and of the Moon of 81.
These magic squares and their values have
been used in the symbolism of numbers in
some of the high degrees of Masonry.

Magister Ccementariorum.

applied in the Middle Ages to one who

presided over the building of edifices
Master of the Masons.
Magister Hospitalis. See Master
of the Hospital.
title

There was no talisman more sacred than

this among the Orientalists,
in the following figure

when arranged

Magister Lapidum. Du Cange

fines this as

Master Mason

and he

de-

cites

the statutes of Marseilles as saying " Tres

Magistros Lapidis bonos et legales," i. e.,
three good and lawful Master Masons
"shall be selected to decide on all questions about water in the city."
:

Magister Militias Christi.

Master of the Chivalry of Christ.

Magister Perrerius.

See

name

given in the Middle Ages to a Mason literally, a Master of Stones, from the French
pierre, a stone.
Magister Templi. See Master of
;

the Temple.

Magistri Comacini.

See Como.
applied
in modern usage to the Order of Knighte
Templars.

Magnanimous.

The

title

MAGNETIC

MAJORITY

Magnetic Masonry. This is a form

of Freemasonry which, although long ago
practised by Cagliostro as a species of charlatanism, was first introduced to notice as a
philosophic system by Ragon in his treatise
on Maconnerie Occulte. " The occult sciences," says this writer, " reveal to man the
mysteries of his nature, the secrets of his
organization, the means of attaining perand, in short, the
fection and happiness
decree of his destiny. Their study was
that of the high initiations of the Egyptians it is time that they should become
the study of modern Masons." And again
Masonic society which should
he says "
establish in its bosom a magnetic academy
would soon find the reward of its labors in
the good that it would do, and the happiness which it would create." There can be
no doubt that the Masonic investigator
has a right to search everywhere for the
means of moral, intellectual, and religious

of his contemporaries having denied the

existence of the Rosicrucian Order, Maier
in his writings has refuted the calumny
and warmly defended the society, of which,
in one of his works, he speaks thus " Like
the Pythagoreans and Egyptians, the Rosicrucians exact vows of silence and secrecy.
Ignorant men have treated the
whole as a fiction; but this has arisen
from the five years' probation to which
they subject even well -qualified novices
before they are admitted to the higher
mysteries, and within this period they are
to learn how to govern their own tongues."
Maine. Until the year 1820, the District of Maine composed a part of the
political territory of the State of Massachusetts, and its Lodges were under the obedience of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
In that year, a political division having

and if he can find anything in

magnetism which would aid him in the
search, it is his duty and wisest policy to

Masons of Maine took the preliminary

steps towards an independent Masonic or-

482

perfection

avail himself of it. But, nevertheless, Magnetic Masonry, as a special regime,will hardly
ever be adopted by the Fraternity.
1. The fourteenth degree, and

MagUS.

of the Greater Mysteries of the

system of Illuminism. 2. The ninth and
last degree of the German Rose Croix.
It
is the singular of Magi, which see.
the

first

Man. The Hebrew interrogative pronoun nO> signifying what? It is a component part of a significant word in Masonry. The combination mahhah, literally
" what the," is equivalent, according to
the Hebrew method of ellipsis, to the ques!

tion, "

What

is

this the

"

Maher - Shalal -Hash - Baz.

HeFour Hebrew
words which the prophet Isaiah was ordered to write upon a tablet, and which
brew.

12

SS&?

tyn

T1D.

were afterwards to be the name of his son.

taken
erected

place,
into

and Maine having been

an independent State, the

ganization, in obedience to the universally

recognized law that political territory
makes Masonic territory, and that changes
of political jurisdiction are followed by

corresponding changes of Masonic jurisdicA memorial was addressed to the

Grand Lodge of Massachusetts praying for
its consent to the organization of an independent Grand Lodge and a just division
of the charity and other funds. A favorable response having been received, a convention was held at Portland on June 1,
1820, consisting of delegates from twentyfour Lodges, when the Grand Lodge of

tion.

Maine was organized, and William King

elected Grand Master.
The Grand Royal Arch Chapter was organized in 1821, the Grand Council of
Royal Arch Masons in 1855, and the
Grand Commandery in 1852.
Maitre Macon. The name of the

They signify, "make haste to the prey,

fall upon the spoil," and were prognostic

third degree in French.

of the sudden attack of the Assyrians.

They may be said, in their Masonic use, to
be symbolic of the readiness for action
which should distinguish a warrior, and
are therefore of significant use in the system of Masonic Templarism.
celebrated RosiMaier, Michael.
crucian and interpreter and defender of
Rosicrucianism. He was born at Resinsburg, in Holstein, in 1568, and died at

The title of the presiding officer of

a female Lodge in the Egyptian Rite of Cag-

Magdeburg in 1620. He is said to have

been the first to introduce Rosicrucianism
into England.
He wrote many works on
thd system, among which the most noted
are Atlanta Fugiens, 1618 Septimana PhilDe Fraternitate Bosw Cruosophica, 1620
;

ris,

1618; and

Lwus

Serius,

1617.

Some

Mattresse Agissante.

Acting Mis-

tress.

liostro.

Mattresse Macon. The third degree of the French Rite of Adoption.

have no equivalent word in English. It
signifies a Mistress in Masonry.
Maitrise. This expressive word wants
an equivalent in English. The French use
la Maitrise to designate the third or Mas-

We

ter's degree.

Major. The sixth degree of the German Rose Croix.

Major Illuminate. (Illuminatus Major.)

The eighth degree of

the Illuminati

of Bavaria.

Majority.

Elections

in

Masonic

MAKE

MANNINGHAM

bodies are as a general rule decided by a

majority of the votes cast.
plurality
vote is not admissible unless it has been
provided for by a special by-law.

Make. "To make Masons" is a very

ancient term; used in the oldest charges
extant as synonymous with the verb to initiate or receive into the Fraternity.
It is
found in the Landsdowne MS., whose date
" These be all the charges . .
is 1560.
read at the making of a Mason."
.

Malach. yhn. An

angel.

signifi-

cant word in the high degrees. Lenning

gives it improperly as Meleac.
Malachi or Malachias. The last of
the prophets. A significant word in the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.
Mallet. One of the working-tools of
a Mark Master, having the same emblematic meaning as the common gavel in the
Entered Apprentice's degree. It teaches
us to correct the irregularities of temper,
and, like enlightened reason, to curb the
aspirations of unbridled ambition, to depress
the malignity of envy, and to moderate the
ebullition of anger.
It removes from the
mind all the excrescences of vice, and fits it,
as a well-wrought stone, for that exalted
station in the great temple of nature to
which, as an emanation of the Deity, it is
entitled.

483

tween the different parts and qualities of

his nature and those of the universe.
But
in Masonic symbolism the idea is borrowed
from Christ and the Apostles, who repeatedly refer to man as a symbol of the Temple.

man was inscribed on the standard

2.
of the tribe of Reuben, and is borne on the
Royal Arch banners as appropriate to the
Grand Master of the second veil. It was
also the charge in the third quarter of the
arms of the Athol Grand Lodge.
3. Der Mann, or the man, is the second
degree of the German Union.
4. To be " a man, not a woman," is one
of the qualifications for Masonic initiation.
It is the first, and therefore the most important, qualification mentioned in the
ritual.

Mandate.

That which

is

commanded.

The Benedictine editors of Du Cange define

mandatum as " breve aut edictum regium,"
i. e., a royal brief or edict, and mandamentum
as " literse quibus magistratus aliquid rnandat," i. e., letters in which a magistrate

commands anything. Hence the orders

and decrees of a Grand Master or a Grand
Lodge are

called

obedience to them

mandates, and implicit

of Masonic obligation.
There is an appeal, yet not a suspensive
one, from the mandate of a Grand Master
to the Grand Lodge, but there is none from
is

The mallet or setting maul is also an emblem of the third degree, and is said to have the latter.
been the implement by which the stones
Mangourit, Michel Ange Berwere set up at the Temple. It is often nard de. A distinguished member of
improperly confounded with the common the Grand Orient of France. He founded
gavel.

The French Masons,

whom

the word
unknown, uniformly use maittet, or
to

gavel is
mallet, in

its stead, and confound its symbolic use, as the implement of the presiding

with the mallet of the English and

American Mark Master.
Malta. Anciently, Melita. A small
island in the Mediterranean Sea, which,
although occupying only about 170 sq.
miles, possessed for several centuries a
greater degree of celebrity than was attached to any other territory of so little exofficer,

tent.

It is

now

a possession of the British

government, but was occupied from 1530

to 1798 by the Knights Hospitallers, then
called Knights of Malta, upon whom it was
conferred in the former year by Charles the
Fifth.

Malta, Cross of.

Malta, Knight

See Cross of Malta.

See Knight
of.

of Malta.

Maltese Cross. See Cross of Malta.

Man. 1. Man has been called the
microcosm, or little world, in contradistinction to the macrocosm, or great world, by

some

fanciful writers on metaphysics, by

reason of a supposed correspondence be-

in 1776, at Rennes, the Rite of Sublimes Elus

de la Verite, or Sublime Elects of Truth,
and at Paris the androgynous society of
Dames of Mount Thabor. He also created

the Masonic Literary Society of Free

Thinkers, which existed for three years.
He delivered lectures which were subsequently published under the title of Cours de
Philosophie Magonnique, in 500 pp., 4to. He
also delivered a great many lectures and
discourses before different Lodges, several
of which were published. He died, after a
long and severe illness, February 17, 1829.
Pot of. Among the articles
laid up in the ark of the covenant by Aaron
was a pot of manna. In the substitute ark,
commemorated in the Royal Arch degree,
there was, of course, a representation of it.
Manna has been considered as a symbol of
life; not the transitory, but the enduring
one of a future world. Hence the Pot of
Manna, Aaron's rod that budded anew, and
the Book of the Law, which teaches Divine
Truth, all found together, are appropriately
considered as the symbols of that eternal life
which it is the design of the Royal Arch
degree to teach.
Dr.
Thomas.

Manna,

Manningham,

MANTLE

484

MANUSCRIPTS

Thomas Manningham was a physician, cially reserved as an insignia of knightof London, of much repute in the last cen- hood, and was worn by the knight as the

He took an active interest in the

concerns of Freemasonry, having been appointed Deputy Grand Master, in the year
He was the au1752, by Lord Carysfort.
thor of the prayer now so well known to
the Fraternity, which was presented by him
to the Grand Lodge, and adopted as a form
of prayer to be used at the initiation of a canBefore that period, no prayer was
didate.
used on such occasions, and the one composed by Manningham (Oliver says with
the assistance of Anderson, which I doubt,
as Anderson died in 1746,) is here given as
a document of the time. It will be seen
that in our day it has been somewhat modified, Preston making the first change and
that, originally used as one prayer, it has
since been divided, in this country at least,
into two, the first part being used as a
prayer at the opening of a Lodge, and the
latter at the initiation of a candidate.
"Most Holy and Glorious Lord God,
thou Architect of heaven and earth, who
art the giver of all good gifts and graces
and hath promised that where two or three
are gathered together in thy name, thou
wilt be in the midst of them in thy Name
we assemble and meet together, most humbly beseeching thee to bless us in all our
undertakings to give us thy Holy Spirit,
to enlighten our minds with wisdom and
understanding; that we may know and
serve thee aright, that all our doings may
tend to thy glory and the salvation of our
souls.
And we beseech thee, O Lord God,
to bless this our present undertaking, and
to grant that this our Brother may dedicate
his life to thy service, and be a true and
faithful Brother amongst us.
Endue him
with Divine wisdom, that he may, with the
secrets of Masonry, be able to unfold the
mysteries of godliness and Christianity.
This we humbly beg, in the name and for
the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and
Saviour, Amen."
Dr. Manningham rendered other important services to Masonry by his advocacy of healthy reforms and his determined
opposition to the schismatic efforts of the
" Ancient Masons." He died February 3,
1794. The fourth edition of the Book of
Constitutions speaks of him in exalted
terms as "distinguished for his affection
tury.

and

zeal for

Mantle.

Masonry."

dress placed over all the

very ancient date, being a
part of the costume of the Hebrews, Greeks,
others.

It is of

most august and noble decoration that he

could have, when he was not dressed in his
armor. The general color of the mantle,
in imitation of that of the Roman soldiers,
was scarlet, which was lined with ermine
or other precious furs.
But some of the
Orders wore mantles of other colors. Thus
the Knights Templars were clothed with a
white mantle having a red cross on the
breast, and the Knights Hospitallers a black
mantle with a white cross. The mantle is
still worn in England and other countries
of Europe as a mark of rank on state occasions by peers, and by some magistrates
as a token of official rank.

Mantle of Honor. The mantle worn

by a knight was called the Mantle of
Honor. This mantle was presented to a
knight whenever he was made by the king.
Manual. Relating to the hand, from
the Latin manus, a hand. See the Masonic
use of the word in the next two articles.

Manual Point of Entrance.

Masons

are, in a peculiar manner, reminded, by the hand, of the necessity of a

prudent and careful observance of all their
pledges and duties, and hence this organ
suggests certain symbolic instructions in

relation to the virtue of prudence.

Sign. In the early English
lectures this term is applied to what is now
called the Manual Point of Entrance.

Manual

Manuscripts. Anderson tells us, in

the second edition of his Constitutions,
that in the year 1717 Grand Master Payne
"desired any brethren to bring to the
Grand Lodge any old writings and records
concerning Masons and Masonry, in order
to show the usages of ancient times, and
several old copies of the Gothic Constitutions were produced and collated " but
in consequence of a jealous supposition
that it would be wrong to commit anything
;

to print

which related

to

Masonry, an act

of Masonic vandalism was perpetrated.

For Anderson further informs us that in
1720, " at some private Lodges, several
very valuable manuscripts (for they had
nothing yet in print), concerning the Fraternity, their Lodges, Regulations, Charges,
Secrets, and Usages, (particularly one written by Mr. Nicholas Stone, the Warden of
Inigo Jones,) were too hastily burnt by
some scrupulous Brothers, that those papers might not fall into strange hands."
The recent labors of Masonic scholars

and Romans. Among the Anglo-Saxons it

was the decisive mark of military rank,

among whom William James

Hughan, of Truro, Cornwall, deserves especial notice, have succeeded in rescuing

being confined to the cavalry.

In the
Mediaeval ages, and on the institution of
chivalry, the long, trailing mantle was espe-

many of the old Masonic manuscripts from

oblivion, and we are now actually in possession of more of these heretofore unpub-

in England,

MAKCHESHVAN

MARK

treasures of the Craft than were

probably accessible to Anderson and his
contemporaries. See Records, Old.
Marctaeshvan. ptsmn. The second
month of the Jewish civil year. It begins
with the new moon in November, and corresponds, therefore, to a part of that month
and of December.
Mark. The appropriate jewel of a

a positive law of the Order, that no Mark

Master shall " pledge his mark a second
time until he has redeemed it from its previous pledge." By this wise provision, the
unworthy are prevented from making an
improper use of this valuable token, or
from levying contributions on their hospitable brethren.
Marks or pledges of this
kind were of frequent use among the ancients, under the name of tessera hospitalis
and "arrhabo." The nature of the tessera hospitalis, or, as the Greeks called it,
av/nj3oAov, cannot be better described than
in the words of the Scholiast on the Media
of Euripides, v. 613, where Jason promises
Medea, on her parting from him, to send
her the symbols of hospitality which should
procure her a kind reception in foreign
countries.
It was the custom, says the
Scholiast, when a guest had been entertained, to break a die in two parts, one of
which parts was retained by the guest, so
that if, at any future period he required
assistance, on exhibiting the broken pieces
of the die to each other, the friendship was
renewed. Plautus, in one of his comedies,
gives us an exemplification of the manner
in which these tesseroz or pledges of friendship were used at Rome, whence it appears
that the privileges of this friendship were
extended to the descendants of the contracting parties. Pcenulus is introduced,
inquiring for Agorastocles, with whose
family he had formerly exchanged the

iished

Mark Master. It is made of gold or silver,

usually of the former metal, and must be
On the obverse
in the form of a keystone.
or front surface, the device or " mark " selected by the owner must be engraved
within a circle composed of the following
letters: H. T. W. S. S. T. K. S.
On the
reverse or posterior surface, the name of
the owner, the name of his chapter, and
the date of his advancement, may be inscribed, although this is not absolutely
necessary. The "mark" consists of the
device and surrounding inscription on the
obverse. The Mark jewel, as prescribed by
the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland,
The circle on one
is of mother-of-pearl.
side is inscribed with the Hebrew letters
B'lDNB'lOyn, and the circl e on the
other side with letters containing the same
meaning in the vernacular tongue of the
country in which the chapter is situated,
and the wearer's mark in the centre. The
Hebrew letters are the initials of a Hebrew
sentence equivalent to the English one
It is but a
familiar to Mark Masons.
translation into Hebrew of the English
mystical sentence.
It is not requisite that the device or
mark should be of a strictly Masonic character, although Masonic emblems are frequently selected in preference to other

Ag.

Siquidem Antidi march i

485

quseris adopta-

titium.

Ego sum
Pcen.

Ag.

ipsus quern tu quseris.

Hem quid ego audio ?

Antidamse me gnatum esse.
!

Si ita est, tesseram

Conferre si vis hospitalem, eccam, attuli.
Ag. Agedum hue ostende; est par probe;

Pcen.

As soon as adopted it should be

drawn or described in a book kept by the
Chapter for that purpose, and it is then nam habeo domum.
Posn. O mi hospes, salve multum nam mini
said to be "recorded in the Book of
Marks," after which time it can never be tuus pater,
Pater tuus ergo hospes, Antidamas fuit
changed by the possessor for any other, or Hsec mihi hospitalis tessera cum illo fuit.
subjects.

altered in the slightest degree, but remains

as his " mark " to the day of his death.
This mark is not a mere ornamental appendage of the degree, but is a sacred
token of the rites of friendship and
brotherly love, and its presentation at any
time by the owner to another Mark Master,
would claim, from the latter, certain acts
of friendship which are of solemn obligation among the Fraternity.
mark thus
presented, for the purpose of obtaining a
favor, is said to be pledged; though remaining in the possession of the owner, it
ceases, for any actual purposes of advantage, to be his property; nor can it be
again used by him until, either by the return of the favor, or the consent of the
benefactor, it has been redeemed for it is

Pcenul., act.

v., s. c. 2,

ver. 85.

Antidimarchus' adopted son,

If you do seek, I am the very man.
Pcen. How do I hear aright ?
Ag. I am the son
Of old Antidamus.
Pcen. If so, I pray you
Compare with me the hospitable die
P ve brought this with me.
Ag. Prithee, let me see it.
It is, indeed, the very counterpart

Ag.

Of mine

at home.
welcome guest,
Pcen. All hail,
Your father was my guest, Antidamus.
Your father was my honored guest, and then
This hospitable die with me he parted.

my

These tesserce, thus used, like the Mark

Master's mark, for the purposes of perpetuating friendship and rendering its union

MARK

JVIAKK

486

Mark Master

more sacred, were constructed in the following manner they took a small piece of

been incorporated into the

the American System.

bone, ivory, or stone, generally of a square

or cubical form, and dividing it into equal
parts, each wrote his own name, or some
other inscription, upon one of the pieces ;
they then made a mutual exchange, and,
lest falling into other hands it should give
occasion to imposture, the pledge was preserved with the greatest secrecy, and no
one knew the name inscribed upon it except the possessor.
The primitive Christians seem to have
adopted a similar practice, and the tessera
was carried by them in their travels, as a
means of introduction to their fellow Christians.
favorite inscription with them
were the letters II. T. A. II., being the initials of TLaTTjp, Tcog, Ayiov Tlvevfia, or Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost. The use of these
tesserce, in the place of written certificates,
continued, says Dr. Harris, (Diss, on the
Tess. Hosp.,) until the eleventh century,
at which time they are mentioned by Burchardus, Archbishop of Worms, in a visitation charge.
The " arrhabo " was a similar keepsake,
formed by breaking a piece of money in
two. The etymology of this word shows
distinctly that the Romans borrowed the
custom of these pledges from the ancient
Israelites.
For it is derived from the Hebrew arabon, a pledge.
With this detail of the customs of the
ancients before us, we can easily explain

Master. The fourth degree

of the American Rite. The traditions of
the degree make it of great historical importance, since by them we are informed
that by its influence each Operative Mason
at the building of the Temple was known
and distinguished, and the disorder and
confusion which might otherwise have at-

the well-known passage in Eevelation ii.

" To him that overcometh will I give
17.
a white stone, and in it a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that
receiveth it." That is, to borrow the interpretation of Harris, " To him that overcometh will I give a pledge of my affection,

which
entitle

shall constitute him my friend, and

him to privileges and honors of

which none

else

can know the value or the

extent."

Mark Man.

According to Masonic
tradition, the Mark Men were the Wardens, as the Mark Masters were the Masters of the Fellow Craft Lodges, at the
building of the Temple. They distributed
the marks to the workmen, and made the
first inspection of the work, which was
afterwards to be approved by the overseers.
As a degree, the Mark Man is not recognized in the United States. In England
it is sometimes, but not generally, worked
as preparatory to the degree of Mark Master.
In Scotland, in 1778, it was given to Fellow Crafts, while the Mark Master was restricted to Master Masons.
It is not recognized in the present regulations of the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland. Much
of the esoteric ritual of the Mark Man has

of

Mark

tended so immense an undertaking was

completely prevented. Not less useful is it
in its symbolic signification. As illustrative of the Fellow Craft, the fourth degree
particularly directed to the inculcation
of order, regularity, and discipline.
It
teaches us that we should discharge all the
duties of our several stations with precithat the work of
sion and punctuality
our hands and the thoughts of our hearts
not unfinished
should be good and true
and imperfect, not sinful and defective
but such as the Great Overseer and Judge
of heaven and earth, will see fit to approve
as a worthy oblation from his creatures.
If the Fellow Craft's degree is devoted to
the inculcation of learning, that of the
Mark Master is intended to instruct us how
that learning can most usefully and judiciously be employed for our own honor and
the profit of others. And it holds forth to
the desponding the encouraging thought,
that although our motives may sometimes
be misinterpreted by our erring fellow mortals, our attainments be underrated, and
our reputations be traduced by the envious
and malicious, there is one, at least, who
sees not with the eyes of man, but may yet
make that stone which the builders rejected,
the head of the corner. The intimate connection then, between the second and fourth
degrees of Masonry, is this, that while one
inculcates the necessary exercise of all the
duties of life, the other teaches the importance of performing them with systematic
The true Mark Master is a
regularity.
type of that man mentioned in the sacred
parable who received from his master this
"Well done, good
approving language
and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler
over many things enter thou into the joys
of thy Lord."
In this country, the Mark Master's is i;he
first degree given in a Royal Arch Chapter.
Its officers are a Right Worshipful Master,
Senior and Junior Wardens, Secretary,
Treasurer, Senior and Junior Deacons,
Master, Senior and Junior Overseers. The
degree cannot be conferred when less than
six are present, who, in that case, must be
the first and last three officers above named.
The working-tools are the Mallet and Indenting Chisel, (which see.) The symbolic
is

MARK

MARKS

487

The Mark Master's degree confined to Germany, and are to be found

is purple.
now given in England under the author- only since the twelfth or thirteenth cenity of the Grand Lodge of Mark Mastei-s, turies. More recent researches have shown
color

is

which was established in June, 1856, and

is a jurisdiction independent of the Grand
Lodge. The officers are the same as in
America, with the addition of a Chaplain,
Director of Ceremonies, Assistant Director,
Registrar of Marks, Inner Guard or Time
Keeper, and two Stewards. Master Masons are eligible for initiation. Bro. Hughan says that the degree is virtually the
same in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
It differs, however, in some respects from
the American degree.
of tlie Craft, Regular. In
the Mark degree there is a certain stone
which is said, in the ritual, not to have
upon it the regular mark of the Craft. This
expression is derived from the following
tradition of the degree. At the building
of the Temple, each workman placed his
own mark upon his own materials, so that
the workmanship of every mason might be
readily distinguished, and praise .or blame
be justly awarded. These marks, according to the lectures, consisted of mathematical figures, squares, angles, lines, and perpendiculars, and hence any figure of a
different kind, such as a circle, would not
be deemed " the regular mark of the Craft."
Of the three stones used in the Mark degree, one is inscribed with a square and
another with a plumb or perpendicular,
because these were marks familiar to the
Craft; but the third, which is inscribed
with a circle and certain hieroglyphics, was
not known, and was not, therefore, called
" regular."

+ m 2*

Mark

Marks of the

Craft.

In former

times, Operative Masons, the "Steinmetzen"

of Germany, were accustomed to place some
mark or sign of their own invention,
which, like the monogram of the painters,
would seem to identify the work of each.
They are to be found upon the cathedrals,
churches, castles, and other stately buildings erected since the twelfth century, or a
little earlier, in Germany, France, EngAs Mr. Godwin has
land, and Scotland.
observed in his History in Ruins, it is
curious to see that these marks are of the
same character, in form, in all these different countries. They were principally

mathematical
were religious
symbols. Specimens taken from different
buildings supply such forms as follow.
The last of these is the well-known
vesica piscis, the symbol of Christ among the
primitive Christians, and the last but one
is the Pythagorean pentalpha.
A writer
in the London Times (August 13th, 1835,)
crosses, triangles, and other
figures, and many of them

is

incorrect in stating that these

marks are

1^X3

that they existed in many other countries,

especially in Scotland, and that they were
practised by the builders of ancient times.
Thus Ainsworth, in his Travels, (ii. 167,)
tells us, in his description of the ruins of
Al-Hadhv in Mesopotamia, that " every
stone, not only in the chief building, but
in the walls and bastions and other public
monuments, when not defaced by time, is
marked with a character which is for the
most part either a Chaldean letter or numeral." M. Didron, who reported a series
of observations on the subject of these Masons' marks to the Comite Historique des
Arts et Monumens, of Paris, believes that he
can discover in them references to distinct
schools or Lodges of Masons. He divides
them into two classes those of the overseers, and those of the men who worked the
stones.
The marks of the first class consist of monogrammatic characters
those of
the second, are of the nature of symbols,
such as shoes, trowels, mallets, etc.
correspondent of the Freemason's
Quarterly Review states that similar marks
are to be found on the stones which compose the walls of the fortress of Allahabad,
which was erected in 1542, in the East In" The walls," says this writer, " are
dies.
composed of large oblong blocks of red
granite, and are almost everywhere covered
by Masonic emblems, which evince some:

thing more than mere ornament. They

are not confined to one particular spot, but
are scattered over the walls of the fortress,
in many places as high as thirty or forty
feet from the ground.
It is quite certain
that thousands of stones on the walls, bearing these Masonic symbols, were carved,
marked, and numbered in the quarry previous to the erection of the building."
In the ancient buildings of England and
France, these marks are to be found in
great abundance.
In a communication,
on this subject, to the London Society of

MARROW

488

MARYLAND

Antiquaries, Mr. Godwin states, " that, in his

opinion, these marks, if collected and compared, might assist in connecting the various bands of operatives, who, under the promystically united
tection of the Church
spread themselves ^over Europe during
the Middle Ages, and are known as FreeMr. Godwin describes these
masons."
marks as varying in length from two to

seven inches, and as formed by a single

Martel.

who died in
actually king, reigned
over France under the title of Mayor of the
Palace. Rebold {Hist. Gen., p. 69,) says
that " at the request of the Anglo-Saxon
kings, he sent workmen and Masters into
England." The Operative Masons of the
Middle Ages considered him as one of their
patrons, and give the following account of
him in their Legend of the Craft. " There
Charles Martel,

741, although not

was one of the Royal line of France called

Charles Marshall, and he was a man that
loved well the said Craft and took upon
him the Rules and Manners, and after that
By the Grace of God he was elect to be
the King of France, and when he was in his
Estate, he helped to make those Masons
he "found that many Masons [all who that were now, and sett them on Work and
were Freemasons) had their mystic marks gave them Charges and Manners and good
handed down from generation to genera- pay as he had learned of other Masons, and
tion; this man had his mark from his confirmed them a Charter from yeare to
father, and he received it from his grand- yeare to hold their Assembly when they
would, and Cherished them right well, and
father."
Marrow in the Bone. An absurd thug came this Noble Craft into France."
corruption of a Jewish word, and still more
Martha. The fourth degree of the
absurdly said to be its translation. It has Eastern Star a Rite of American Adopno appropriate signification in the place to tive Masonry.
which it is applied, but was once religiously
Martinism. The Rite of Martinism,
called also the Rectified Rite, was instituted
believed in by many Masons, who, being ignorant of the Hebrew language, accepted it at Lyons, by the Marquis de St. Martin, a
It is now univerdisciple of Martinez Paschalis, of whose Rite
as a true interpretation.
it was pretended to be a reform.
Martinsally rejected by the intelligent portion of
ism was divided into two classes, called Temthe Craft.
Marseilles, Mother Lodge of. A ples, in which were the following degrees.
Temple.
I.
1. Apprentice.
2. Fellow
Lodge was established in 1748, at Marseilles,
in France, Thory says, by a travelling Ma- Craft. 3. Master Mason. 4. Past Master.
6. Grand Architect.
son, under the name of St. Jean d'Ecosse. 5. Elect.
7. Mason
It afterwards assumed the name of Mother of the Secret.
II. Temple.
8. Prince of Jerusalem.
Lodge of Marseilles, and still later the
9.
name of Scottish Mother Lodge of France. Knight of Palestine. 10. Kadosh.
The degrees of Martinism abounded in
It granted Warrants of its own authority
the reveries of the Mystics.
for Lodges in France and in the colonies
See Saint
among others for one at New Orleans, in Martin.

line,

slightly indented, consisting chiefly

of crosses, known Masonic symbols, emblems of the Trinity and of eternity, the
double triangle, trowel, square, etc.
The same writer observes that, in a conversation, in September, 1844, with a Mason at work on the Canterbury Cathedral,

Martin, Louis Claude de

Louisiana.

Marshal.

An

common

to
is to

officer

several Masonic bodies, whose duty

regulate processions and other public solemIn Grand bodies he is called a
nities.

Grand Marshal. In the American Royal

Arch System, the Captain of the Host acts
on public occasions as the Marshal. The
Marshal's ensign of
short rod.

The

office

office

is

a baton or

of Marshal in State

very ancient. It was found in the

court of the Byzantine emperors, and was
introduced into England from France at the
period of the conquest. His badge of office
was at first a rod or verge, which was afterfwards abbreviated to the baton, for, as an
old writer has observed, (Thinne,) "the
verge or rod was the ensign of him who
had authority to reform evil in warre and in
peace, and to see quiet and order observed
among the people."
affairs is

St.

See Saint Martin.

Martyr, A title bestowed by the

Templars on their last Grand Master, James
If,
as Du Cange says, the
de Molay.
Church sometimes gives the title of martyr
to men of illustrious sanctity, who have
suffered death not for the confession of the
name of Christ, but for some other cause,
being slain by impious men, then De Molay,
as the innocent victim of the malignant
schemes of an atrocious pope and king,
was clearly entitled to the appellation.

Martyrs, Four Crowned. See

Four Crowned Martyrs.
Maryland. Freemasonry was introduced into Maryland, in 1750, by the ProGrand Lodge of Massachusetts,
which issued a Charter for the establishment of a Lodge at Annapolis. Five other
Lodges were subsequently chartered by the
vincial

MASON

MASON

489

Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, May, 1844, deriving Mason from Aidorofiog,

and one in 1765, at Joppa, by the Grand Lithotomos, " a Stone-cutter." But although
Lodge of England. On the 31st of July, fully aware of the elasticity of etymologi1783, these five Lodges held a convention cal rules, it surpasses our ingenuity to get
at Talbot Court-House, and informally or- Mason etymologically out of Lithotomos.
Bro. Giles F. Yates sought for the deriganized a Grand Lodge. But 'as the Lodge
at Annapolis had taken no part in this vation of Mason in the Greek word Ma(,oveq,
movement, another convention of all the Mazones, a festival of Dionysus, and he
Lodges was held at Baltimore on the 17th thought that this was another proof of the
of April, 1787, and the Grand Lodge of lineal descent of the Masonic order from
Maryland was duly organized, John Coates the Dionysiac Artificers.
The
The late William S. Eockwell, who was
being elected the Grand Master.
accustomed to find all his Masonry in the
Grand Chapter was established in 1812.
Mason Crowned. [Macon Couronne.) Egyptian mysteries, and who was a thorA degree in the nomenclature of Fus- ough student of the Egyptian hieroglyphic
tier.
system, derives the word Mason from a comMason, Derivation of the bination of two phonetic signs, the one
Word. The search for the etymology being MAI, and signifying "to love," and
or derivation of the word Mason has given the other being SON, which means "a
brother." Hence, he says, " this combinarise to numerous theories, some of them
ingenious, but many of them very absurd. tion, MAISON, expresses exactly in sound
Thus, a writer in the European Magazine, our word MASON, and signifies literally

Provincial

for

February, 1792,

who

signs his

name

as

"George Drake," lieutenant of marines,

attempts to trace the Masons to the Druids,
and derives Mason from May's on, May's
being in reference to May-day, the great festival of the Druids, and on meaning men, as
in the French on dit, for homme dit.
According to this, May's on therefore means
the Men of May. But this idea is not
original with Drake, since the same derivation was urged in 1766 by Cleland, in his
essays on The Way to Things in Words, and
on The Real Secret of Freemasons.
Hutchinson, in his search for a derivation, seems to have been perplexed with
the variety of roots that presented themselves, and, being inclined to believe that
the name of Mason " has its derivation from
a language in which it implies some strong
indication or distinction of the nature of
the society, and that it has no relation to
architects," looks for the root in the Greek
tongue. Thus he thinks that Mason may
come from Maw laov, Mao Soon, "I seek
salvation," or from Mwn/f, Mystes, " an initiate " and that Masonry is only a corruption of Meaovpaveu, Mesouraneo, "I am in
the midst of heaven " or from Ma^opovd,
Mazourouth, sl constellation mentioned by
Job, or from Mvorr/pcov, Mysterion, " a mys;

tery."

Lessing says, in his Ernst und Folk, that

in the Anglo-Saxon signifies a table,
and that Masonry, consequently, is a society
of the table.
Nicolai thinks he finds the root in the
Low Latin word of the Middle Ages Massonya, or Masonia, which signifies an exclusive society or club, such as that of the

Masa

round-table.

Coming down
C.

W.

to later times,

we find Bro.

Moore, in his Boston Magazine, of

3

loving brother, that is, philadelphus, brother

of an association, and thus corresponds also

in sense."

But all of these fanciful etymologies,

which would have terrified Bopp, Grimm,
or Miiller, or any other student of linguistic relations, forcibly remind us of the
French epigrammatist, who admitted that
alphina came from equus, but that, in so
coming, it had very considerably changed
its route.

What, then, is the true derivation of the

word Mason ? Let us see what the orthcepists, who had no Masonic theories, have
said upon the subject.
Webster, seeing that in Spanish masa
means mortar, is inclined to derive Mason,
as denoting one that works in mortar, from
the root of mass, which of course gave
birth to the Spanish word.
In Low or Mediaeval Latin, Mason was
machio or macio, and this Du Cange derives
from the Latin maceria, " a long wall."

Others find a derivation in machines, because the builders stood upon machines to
But Richardson takes a
raise their walls.
common sense view of the subject. He
"
It appears to be obviously the same
says,
word as maison, a house or mansion, applied to the person who builds, instead of
the thing built. The French Maissoner is
to build houses; Masonner, to build of
The word Mason is applied by usage
stone.
to a builder in stone, and Masonry to work
in stone."

Carpenter gives Massom, used in 1225,

for a building of stone, and Massonus, used
in 1304, for a Mason ; and the Benedictine
editors of
Cange define Massoneria " a

Du

building, the French Maqonnerie, and Massonerius," as Latomus or a Mason, both

words in manuscripts of 1385.

MASONEY

MASSACHUSETTS

As a practical question, we are compelled to reject all those fanciful derivations which connect the Masons etymologically and historically with the Greeks, the
Egyptians, or the Druids, and to take the
word Mason in its ordinary signification of a
worker in stone, and thus indicate the origin of the Order from a society or association of practical and operative builders.
need no better root than the Mediaeval
Latin Magonner, to build, or Magonetus, a

was " admitted into the fellowship of Free-

We

[Magons, Empereur de tons les. )

degree
cited in the nomenclature of Fustier.
Mason, Speculative. See Specula-

builder.

tive

490

masons."

Mason, Scottish Master.

Masons, Emperor of

such English word.

Peuvret.

Archives of the
Mother Lodge of the Eclectic Philosophic

Mason.

Lessing, in his Ernst und

Falk, gives this word as signifying in English Masonry. He is in error. There is no

{Magon Herme-

all the.

Mason, Stone.

Masoney.

Mason Hermetic.
tique.)
A degree in the

[Magon

Ecossais Maltre.) Also called Perfect Elect,

degree in the Archives of
Eluparfait.
the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Eite.

See Stonemasons.
[Magon sublime.)
degree in the manuscript collection of

Mason Sublime.

Mason, Sublime Operative.

[Magon Sublime Pratique.) A degree in the

manuscript collection of Peuvret.

Mason's Wife and Daughter.

Masonic Hall. See Hall, Masonic. A degree frequently conferred in the United
Mason, Illustrious and Sub- States on the wives, daughters, sisters, and
lime Grand Master. [Magon Illustre mothers of Masons, to secure to them, by
Eite.

Sublime Grand Maltre.) A degree in the

manuscript collection of Peuvret.
Mason of the Secret. [Magon du
Secret.)
1. The sixth degree of the Rite of
Tschoudy.
2. The seventh degree of the

et

Eite of Saint Martin.

Mason, Operative.

See Operative

Mason.

Mason, Perfect. [Magon Par/ait.)

The twenty-seventh degree of the collection
of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
Philosopher. [Magon Philosophe.)
degree in the manuscript collection of Peuvret.

Mason
A

Mason, Practical. The

French so

an Operative Mason, Magon de Pratique.

Although Masonry is of
two kinds, Operative and Speculative, yet
Masonic writers frequently employ the word
Masonry as synonymous with Freemasonry.
Masonry, Operative. See Opera-

call

Masonry.

tive

Masonry.

Masonry, Origin

of.

Masonry, Speculative.

See

Origin

See Spec-

Masonry.

Company

Masons,
of. One of the
ninety-one livery companies of London, but
not one of the twelve greater ones. Their
arms are azure, on a chevron, between three
castles argent, a pair of compasses somewhat extended of the 1st crest, a castle of
the 2d and motto, " The Lord is all our
trust." These were granted by Clarencieux,
Kiug of arms, in 1477, but they were not
incorporated until Charles II. gave them a
charter in 1677.
They are not to be confounded with the Fraternity of Freemasons,
but originally there was some connection
between the two. At their hall in Basinghall Street, Ashmole says that in 1682 he
;

Masoretic Points.

The Hebrew

without vowels, which were traditionally supplied by the reader from oral
instruction, and hence the true ancient
sounds of thewords have been lost. But about
the eighth and ninth centuries a school of
Eabbins, called Masorites, invented vowel
points, to be placed above or below the consonants, so as to give them a determined
pronunciation. These Masoretic points are
never used by the Jews in their rolls of the
law, and in all investigations into the derivation and meaning of Hebrew names,
alphabet

of Masonry.
ulative

investing them with a peculiar mode of

recognition,the aid and assistanceof the Fraternity.
It may be conferred by any Master
Mason, and the requirement is that the recipient shall be the wife, unmarried daughter,
unmarried sister, or widowed mother of a
Master Mason. It is sometimes called the
Holy Virgin, and has been by some deemed
of so much importance that a Manual of it,
with the title of The Ladies Masonry, or
Hieroglyphic Monitor, was published at
Louisville, Kentucky, in 1851, by Past
Grand Master William Leigh, of Alabama.
deMason, True. [Magon Vrai.)
gree composed by Pernetty. It is the only
one of the high hermetic degrees of the
Eite of Avignon, and it became the first
degree of the same system after it was
transplanted to Montpellier. See Academy
of True Masons.
is

Masonic scholars and other etymologists

always reject them.

Massachusetts.

Freemasonry was

introduced into Massachusetts, in 1733, by

a Deputation granted to Henry Price as
Grand Master of North America, dated
April 30th, 1733. Price, on July 30th of
the same year, organized the "St. John's

MASSONUS

MASTER

Grand Lodge," which immediately granted

a Warrant to " St. John's Lodge" in Boston.
On Nov. 30th, 1752, the Grand Lodge of
Scotland granted a Warrant to "St. Andrew's Lodge " and thus the dissensions

{Maitre Architecte Prussien.)

A degree in
the Archives of the Mother Lodge of the
Philosophic Scottish Rite.

Master Architect, Prussian.

Master, Blue.

of the Ancients and Moderns began in MasOn Dec. 27th,^ 1769, St. Ansachusetts.
drew's Lodge, with the assistance of three
travelling Lodges in the British army, organized the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts,
and elected Joseph Warren Grand Master.
In 1792, the two Grand Lodges united and
formed the " Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and
Accepted Masons for the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts," and elected John Cutler
Grand Master.
The Grand Chapter of Massachusetts was
organized June 12th, 1798, and the Grand
Council of Royal and Select Masters in

The Grand Commandery, which

1826.
exercises jurisdiction over both Massachusetts and Rhode Island, was established
May 6th, 1805. In 1807 it extended its
jurisdiction, and called itself "The United
States Grand Encampment." In 1816, it
united with other Encampments at a convention in Philadelphia, where a General
Grand Encampment of the United States
was formed and in 1819, at the meeting
of that body, the representatives of the
;

"Grand Encampment of Massachusetts

and Rhode Island " are recorded as being

And

from that time

tained that title, only changing
present.

it

has re-

it,

in 1859,

"Grand Commandery," in compliance

with the new Constitution of the Grand
Encampment of the United States.
to

491

name sometimes

given, in the Scottish Rite, to Master Masons of the third degree, in contradistinction to some of the higher degrees, and in
reference to the color of their collar.

Master Builder. Taking the word

master in the sense of one possessed of the
highest degree of skill and knowledge, the
epithet " Master Builder " is sometimes
used by Masons as an epithet of the Grand
Architect of the Universe. Urquhart {Pillars of Hercules, ii. 67,) derives it from the
ancient Hebrews, who, he says, "used algabil, the Master Builder, as an epithet of
God."

Master, Cohen. {Maitre Coen.)

degree in the collection of the Mother
Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
Master, Crowned. {Maitre Couronne.)
degree in the collection of the
Lodge of Saint Louis des Amis-Reunis at

Calais.

Master, Egyptian.

(Maitre Egypdegree in the Archives of the

Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish
_

tien.)

Rite.

Master, Elect. See Elect Master.

Master, English. {Maitre Anglais.)
The eighth degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
Master, English Perfect. {Maitre
Parfait Anglais.)
tion of Le Rouge.

degree in the collec-

Master, Four Times Tenerable.

Grand.

{Maitre quatre fois Venerable.)

degree
introduced into Berlin by the Marquis de
Bernez.
Master, Grand. See Grand Master.
Master Hermetic. {Maitre Hermetique.)
degree in the collection of Le-

The

manceau.

Massonus. Used

in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, according to Carpenter, {Gloss.,) for Mason.

Master, Absolute Sovereign

(Souverain Grand Maitre absolu.)
ninetieth and last degree of the Rite

Master, Illustrious.

of Mizraim.

Master ad Vitam.

In the French

tre.)

{Maitre Illusdegree in the collection of Leman-

Masonry of the earlier part of the last century, the Masters of Lodges were not elected
annually, but held their office for life.
Hence they were called Masters ad Vitam,
or Masters for life.
Master, Ancient. {Maitre Ancien.)
The fourth degree of the Rite of Martinism.

ceau.

This would more properly be translated

Past Master, for it has the same position in
the regime of St. Martin that the Past Master has in the English system.
Master Architect, Grand. See
Grand Master Architect.
Master Architect, Perfect. {Maitre Architecte Parfait.)
A degree in the
Archives of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite, and in some other

{Maitre en la Parfaite Architecture.)

degree in the nomenclature of Fustier.
Master in the Chair. {Meisterim

collections.

the degree which he subsequently called

Master, Illustrious Symbolic.

{Maitre Symbolique lllustre.)
the nomenclature of Fustier.

Master in Israel.

degree in

See Intendant of

the Building.

Master in Perfect Architecture.

The name given in Germany to

the presiding officer of a Lodge. It is the
same as the Worshipful Master in EngStuhl.)

lish.

Master, Irish. {Maitre Irlandais.)

The seventh degree of the Rite of Mizraim. Ramsay gave this name at first to

MASTER

MASTER

492

Maitre Ecossais or Scottish Master. It is still

the seventh degree of the Rite of Mizraim.

Kabbalistic.

Master,
Cabalistique.)

of the Mother
Scottish Rite.

A degree

[Maitre

in the collection

Lodge of the Philosophic

tution, and to labor diligently in the tasks it

prescribes, just as the man is required to
enlarge his mind by the acquisition of new
ideas, and to extend his usefulness to his
fellow-creatures; but, as a Master Mason,

Maitre
du.) A degree in the Archives of the
Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish

he is taught the last, the most important,

and the most necessary of truths, that having been faithful to all his trusts, he is at
last to die, and to receive the reward of his

Rite.

fidelity.

Master, Little Elect.

Master Mason.

In

[Petit

the Rites of
Masonry, no matter how variant may be
their organization in the high degrees, the
Master Mason constitutes the third degree.
In form this degree is also every where substantially the same, because its legend is an
essentia] part of it and, as on that legend
the degree must be founded, there can nowhere be any important variation, because
the tradition has at all times been the same.
The Master Mason's degree was originally
called the summit of Ancient Craft Masonry and so it must have been before the
disseverance from it of the Royal Arch, by
which I mean not the ritual, but the symbolism of Arch Masonry. But under its
present organization the degree is actually
incomplete, because it needs a complement
that is only to be supplied in a higher one.
all

Hence

symbolism

necessarily
stricted, in it3 mutilated form, to the
its

re-

is

Temple and the present

life,

first

although

it

gives the assurance of a future one.

As the whole system of Craft Masonry is
intended to present the symbolic idea of
man passing through the pilgrimage of life,
each degree is appropriated to a certain
portion of that pilgrimage. If, then, the
first degree is a representation of youth, the
time to learn, and the second of manhood
or the time to work, the third is symbolic
of old age, with its trials, its sufferings, and
its final termination in death.
The time
for toiling is now over
the opportunity
to learn has passed away
the spiritual
temple that we all have been striving to
erect in our hearts, is now nearly completed,
and the wearied workman awaits only the
word of the Grand Master of the Universe,
to call him from the labors of earth to the
eternal refreshments of heaven. Hence,
this is, by far, the most solemn and sacred of
the degrees of Masonry and it has, in consequence of the profound truths which it
inculcates, been distinguished by the Craft
as the sublime degree.
As an Entered Apprentice, the Mason was taught those elementary instructions which were to fit him
for further advancement in his profession,
just as the youth is supplied with that ru-

dimentary education which is to prepare

him for entering on the active duties of life
as a Fellow Craft, he is directed to continue
his investigations in the science of the Insti-

It
rites

was the single object of all the ancient

and mysteries practised in the very

bosom of Pagan darkness, shining

as a soli-

tary beacon in all that surrounding gloom,

and cheering the philosopher in his weary
pilgrimage of life, to teach the immortality
of the soul. This is still the great design of
the third degree of Masonry. This is the
scope and aim of its ritual. The Master Mason represents man, when youth, manhood,
old age, and life itself, have passed away as
fleeting shadows, yet raised from the grave
of iniquity, and quickened into another and

a better existence. By its legend and all its

implied that we have been redeemed from the death of sin and the sepulchre of pollution. " The ceremonies and
the lecture," says Dr. Crucefix, "beautiritual, it is

fully illustrate this all-engrossing subject

and the conclusion we arrive at is, that
youth, properly directed, leads us to honor-

able and virtuous maturity, and that the

of man, regulated by morality, faith,
and justice, will be rewarded at its closing
hour, by the prospect of eternal bliss."
Masonic historians have found much difficulty in settling the question as to the
time of the invention and composition of
the degree. The theory that at the building of the Temple of Jerusalem the Craft
were divided into three or even more delife

grees, being only a symbolic myth, must be

discarded in any historical discussion of
the subject. The real question at issue is
whether the Master Mason's degree, as a

degree, was in existence among the Operative Freemasons before the eighteenth century, or whether we owe it to the Revivalists
J. Hughan, in a very
of 1717. Bro.
able article on this subject, published in
1873, in the Voice of Masonry, says that " so

Wm.

far the

evidence respecting

its

history goes

no farther back than the early part of the

The evidence, however, is
last century."
There is none
all of a negative character.
that the degree existed in the seventeenth
century or earlier, and there is none that
All the old manuscripts speak
it did not.
of Masters and Fellows, but these might
have been and probably were only titles of
rank. The Sloane MS., No. 3329, speaks,
it is true, of modes of recognition peculiar
to Masters and Fellows, and also of a Lodge
consisting of Masters, Fellows, and Appren-

MASTER

MASTEK
But even

tices.

if

we

give to this

MS.

its

which is assigned to it
by Findel, near the end of the seventeenth
earliest date, that

century, it will not necessarily follow that

these Masters, Fellows, and Apprentices
had each a separate and distinct degree.
Indeed, it refers only to one Lodge, which
was, however, constituted by three different
ranks and it records but one oath, so that
it is possible that there was only one common form of initiation.
The first positive historical evidence that
we have of the existence of a Master's degree is to be found in the General EegulaIt is
tions compiled by Payne in 1720.
there declared that Apprentices must be
admitted Masters and Fellow Crafts only
in the Grand Lodge. The degree was then
But this record would not
in existence.
militate against the theory advanced by
some that Desaguliers was its author in
1717. Dermott asserts that the degree, as
;

we now have it, was the work of Desaguliers

and seven others, who, being Fellow Crafts,
but not knowing the Master's part, boldly
invented it, that they might organize a
Grand Lodge. He intimates that the true
Master's degree existed before that time,
and was in possession of the Ancients. But
Dermott's testimony is absolutely worth
nothing, because he was a violent partisan,
and because his statements are irreconcilable with other facts. If the Ancients were
in possession of the degree which had
existed before 1717, and the Moderns were
not, where did the former get it, since they
sprang out of the latter ?
Documentary evidence is yet wanting to
settle the precise time of the composition of
the third degree as we now have it. But it
would not be prudent to oppose too positively the theory that it must be traced to
the second decade of the eighteenth century.
The proofs, as they arise day by day, from
the resurrection of old manuscripts, seem
to incline that way.
But the legend, I think,- is of much older
date.
It may have made a part of the
general initiation but I have no doubt that,
like the similar one of the Compagnons de
la Tour in France, it existed among the
Operative Guilds of the Middle Ages as an
esoteric narrative.
Such a legend all the
histories of the Ancient Mysteries prove to
us belongs to the spirit of initiation.
There would have been no initiation worth
preservation without it.
;

Master, Most

High and Puis-

sant. (Maitre trls haut et tres puissant.)

The sixty-second degree of the Eite of
Mizraim.

Master, Mystic.

(Maitre Mystique.)
degree in the collection of Pyron.

Master of all Symbolic Lodges,

Grand. See Grand Master of all /Symbolic Lodges.

Master of a Lodge.

The title of
of a Chapter of Eose
Croix, usually abbreviated as Most Wise.
officer

See Worship-

ful Master.

Master of Cavalry. An
a Council of Knights of the

officer

in

Eed

Cross,
whose duties are, in some respects, similar
to those of a Junior Deacon in a symbolic

The two offices of Master of Cavand Master of Infantry were first appointed by Constantine the Great.
Lodge.

alry

Master of Ceremonies. An officer

found in many of the Lodges of England
and the Continent. In English Lodges the
office is almost a nominal one, without any
duties, but in the continental Lodges he
acts as the conductor of the candidate.
Oliver says that the title should be properly, Director of Ceremonies, and he objects
to Master of Ceremonies as " unmasonic."

Master of Dispatches. The Secretary of a Council of Knights of the Eed

Cross. The Magister Epistolarura was the
officer under the Empire who conducted the
correspondence of the Emperor.
Master of Finances. The Treasurer of a Council of Knights of the Eed
Cross.
Master of Hamburg, Perfect.
(Maitre parfait de Hamburg.)
the nomenclature of Fustier.

degree in

Master of Infantry. The Treasurer of a Council of Knights of the Eed

See Master of Cavalry.
Cross.
Master of Lodges. (Maitre des Loges.
The sixty-first degree of the Eite of Mizraim.

Master
(

of Masters,

Grand Maitre

des Maltres.)

Grand.

The fifty-ninth

degree of the Metropolitan Chapter of

France.
Master of Paracelsus. (Maitre
de Paracelse.)
degree in the collection
of Pyron.

Master of Secrets, Perfect.

Mai-

degree in the
manuscript collection of Peuvret.
Master of St. Andrew. The fifth
degree of the Swedish Eite; the same as
the Grand Elu Ecossais of the Clermont
system.
tre parfait des Secrets.)

Master of the Chivalry of

Christ.

So

St.

Bernard addresses

Hugh

de Payens, Grand Master of the Templars.

" Hugoni Militi Christi et Magistro Militias Christi, Bernardus Clercevallus," etc.

Master of the Hermetic SeGrand. {Maitre des Secrets Her-

crets,

Master, Most "Wise.

a presiding

493

metique, Grand.)
degree in the
script collection of Peuvret.

manu-

Master of the Hospital.

" Sacri

MATERIALS

MASTER

494

Domus Hospitalis Sancto Joannis Hierosolymitani Magister," or Master of the Sacred House of the Hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem, was the official title of the
chief of the Order of Knights of Malta
briefly, "Magister Hospitalis," or
Master of the Hospital. Late in their history, the more imposing title of " Magnus
Magister," or Grand Master, was sometimes assumed; but the humbler designa-

more

tion was still maintained.

of Zacosta, who died in

"Magnus Magister;"

On

the tomb

1467,

but

we

find

twenty -three

D'Aubusson signs

himself
"Magister Hospitalis Hierosolymitani."

years

after,

Master of the Key to Masonry,

Grand Maitre de la Clef de la
Grand.
(

Magonnerie.) The twenty-first degree of

the Chapter of the Emperors of the East

and West.

Master ofthe Legitimate Lodges,

Grand. (Maitre des Loges legitimes.) A
degree in the Archives of the Mother Lodge
of the Eclectic Philosophic Rite.

Master of the Palace. An

officer

in a Council of Knights of the Red Cross,

whose duties are peculiar to the degree.

Master of the Sages. The fourth

degree of the Initiated Knights and Brothers
of Asia.
Master of the Seven Kabbalistic Secrets, Illustrious.

(Maitre IIA degree

in the manuscript collection of Peuvret.
Master of the Temple. Originally the official title of the Grand Master
of the Templars. After the dissolution of
the Order in England, the same title was
incorrectly given to the custos or guardian
of the Temple Church at London, and the
error is continued to the present day.
The chief
Master of the
builder or architect of a cathedral or other
important edifice in the Middle Ages was
(jailed the Master of the work ; thus, Jost
Dotzinger was, in the fifteenth century,
called the Master of the work at the cathedral of Strasburg.
In the Middle Ages
the " Magister operis " was one to whom
lustre des sept Secrets Cabalistiques.)

Work.

the public works was intrusted. Such an

officer existed in the monasteries.
He was
also called operarius and magister operarum.
Du Cange says that kings had their operarii,
magistri operarum or masters of the works.
It is these Masters of the works whom
Anderson has constantly called Grand
Masters. Thus, when he says (second edit.
69,) that "King John made Peter de ColeChurch Grand Master of the Masons in rebuilding London bridge," he should have
said that he was appointed operarius or
Master of the works. The use of the correct title would have made Anderson's history more valuable.

Master, Past. See Past Master.

Master, Perfect. See Perfect Master.

Master, Perfect Architect.

The

twenty-seventh degree of the Rite of Mizraim.

Master, Perfect Irish.

See Per-

fect Irish Master.

Master Philosopher by the

Number 3. (Maitre philosophe par

le

Nombre

degree in the manuscript

collection of Peuvret.
3.)

Master Philosopher by the

Number 9. (Maitre philosophe par
Nombre 9.) A degree in the manuscript
le

collection of Peuvret.

Master Philosopher Hermetic.

(Maitre philosophe Hermetique.)

degree
in the collection of Peuvret.
Master, Private. (Maitre Particulier.)
The nineteenth degree of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.

Master

Provost and Judge.

(Maitre Prevot et Juge.) The eighth degree

of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.

Master, Puissant

Irish.

See

Puissant Irish Master.

Master, Pythagorean.

{Maitre

Pythagoricien.)
Thory says that this is the
third and last degree of the Masonic system
instituted according to the doctrine of Pythagoras.
Master, Royal. See Royal Master.
Master, Secret. See Secret Master.
Master, Select. See Select Master.

Master, Supreme Elect. (Maitre

supreme Elu.) A degree in the Archives of
the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
Master Theosophist. (Maitre Theosophie.)
The third degree of the Rite of
Swedenborg.

Master through Curiosity.

tre

par

Curiosite.)

1.

(Mai-

The sixth degree of

2. The sixth degree

the Rite of Mizraim

of the collection of the Metropolitan ChapIt is a modification of the
ter of France.
Intimate Secretary of the Scottish Rite.
15. (MaiMaster to the
degree in the manutre au Nombre 15.)
script collection of Peuvret.
Master, True. ( Vrai Maitre.) A
degree of the Chapter of Clermont.
Master, Worshipful. See Wor;

dumber
A

shipful Master.

Materials of the Temple.

Ma-

sonic tradition tells us that the trees out of

which the timbers were made for the Temple were felled and prepared in the forest
of Lebanon, and that the stones were hewn,
cut, and squared in the quarries of Tyre.
But both the Book of Kings and Josephus
concur in the statement that Hiram of Tyre
furnished only cedar and fir-trees for the
Temple. The stones were most probably

MATERS

MELCHIZEDEK

(and the explorations of modern travellers

confirm the opinion) taken from the quarries which abound in and around Jerusalem. The tradition, therefore, which derives these stones from the quarries of Tyre,

which was struck at Brunswick in 1743.

The number have since so greatly increased,
that it would be impossible to give even a
catalogue of them. They are struck every
year by Lodges to commemorate some distinguished member or some remarkable

is

incorrect.

825,)
Maters.
and
the only Old Constitution in
which occurs, we find the word maters

In the Cooke MS.,

(line

it is

it

" Hit

seyd in y e art of Masonry y* no

scholde make ende so well of worke
begonne bi another to y e profite of his lorde
as he began hit for to end hit bi his maters
or to whom he scheweth his maters," where,
evidently, maters is a corruption of the Latin
matrix, a mould this latter being the word
used in all the other Old Constitutions in
the same connection. See Mould.
Matriculation Book. In the Kite
of Strict Observance, the register which
contained the lists of the Provinces, Lodges,
and members of the Rite was called the
Matriculation Book. The term was borrowed from the usage of the Middle Ages,
where matricula meant " a catalogue." It
was applied by the ecclesiastical writers of
that period to lists of the clergy, and also
of the poor, who were to be provided for
by the churches, whence we have matricula
clericorum and matricula pauperum.
Mature Age. The Charges of 1722
prescribe that a candidate for initiation
must be of "mature and discreet age; " but
the usage of the Craft has differed in various
countries as to the time when maturity of
age is supposed to have arrived. In the Regulations of 1663, it is set down at twenty-one
years and this continues to be the construction of maturity in all English Lodges both
in Great Britain and this country.
France
and Switzerland have adopted the same
is

man

period.
At Frankfort-on-the-Main it is
fixed at twenty, and in Prussia and Hanover at twenty-five. The Grand Lodge of
Hamburg has decreed that the age of Masonic maturity shall be that which is determined by the laws of the land to be the
age of legal majority
Maul, or Setting Maul. See Mallet.
Medals.
medal is defined to be a
piece of metal in the shape of a coin, bearing figures or devices and mottoes, struck
and distributed in memory of some person
or event.
When Freemasonry was in its
operative stage, no medals were issued.
The medals of the Operative Masons were
the monuments which they erected in the
form of massive buildings, adorned with
all the beauties of architectural art.
But
it was not long after its transformation into
a Speculative Order before it began to issue

medals.
The earliest Masonic medal of
which we have an authentic account is
that

known

as the "

Freemason's ducat,"

495

event in the annals of the Lodge. Many

Lodges in Europe have cabinets of medals,
of which the Lodge Minerva of the Three
Palms at Leipsic is especially valuable.
In America no Lodge has made such a collection, except Pythagoras Lodge at New
York.

Mediterranean Pass. A

side de-

gree sometimes conferred in this country

on Royal Arch Masons. It has no lecture

or legend, and should not be confounded,
as it sometimes is, with the very different
degree of Knight of the Mediterranean
Pass.

It

is,

however,

now

nearly obsolete.
See Con-

Meeting of a Chapter.
vocation.

Meeting of a Lodge.

See,

Communi-

cation.

Meet on the Level. In the Prestonian lectures as practised in the beginning

of this century, it was said that Masons
met on the square and hoped to part on the
level.
In the American system of Webb
a change was made, and we were instructed
that they meet on the level and part on the
square.

And

vention

made a

in 1842 the Baltimore Constill further change, by

adding that they act by the plumb; and this
formula is now, although quite modern,
generally adopted by the Lodges in this
country.
Meister. The German for Master.
Stuhl. {Master in the
Meister
Chair.)
The Germans so call the Master
of a Lodge.

im

Melanethon, Philip. The name

of this celebrated reformer is signed to the
Charter of Cologne as the representative
of Dantzic. The evidence of his connection with Freemasonry depends entirely on
the authenticity of that document.
Melehizedek. King of Salem, and
a priest of the Most High God, of whom
all that we know is to be found in the passages of Scripture read at the conferring of
the degree of High Priesthood. Some theologians have supposed him to have been
Shem, the son of Noah. The sacrifice of
offering bread and wine is first attributed
to Melehizedek; and hence, looking to the
similar Mithraic sacrifice, Higgins is inclined to believe that he professed the religion of Mithras.
He abandoned the
sacrifice of slaughtered animals, and, to
quote the words of St. Jerome, " offered
bread and wine as a type of Christ."
Hence, in the New Testament, Christ is
represented as a priest after the order of

MELCHIZEDEK

MEMPHIS

Melchizedek. In Masonry, Melchizedek is

connected with the order or degree of High
Priesthood, and some of the high degrees.
Melchizedek, Degree of. The
sixth degree of the Order of Brothers of

permanent Lodges became a part of the

Masonic organization, it seems to have been

496

required that every

Mason should belong

and this is explicitly stated in the

charges approved in 1722. See Affiliation.

to one,

Membership, Right of. The first

Asia.

Melech.

Malach, a messenger, and hence an angel, because the

angels were supposed to be the messengers
In the ritual of one of the high
of God.
degrees we meet with the sentence hamelech
Gebalim, which has been variously transThe French ritualists handle Helated.
brew words with but little attention to Hebrew grammar, and hence they translate
this sentence as "Jabulum est un bon
Macon." The former American ritualists
gave it as meaning " Guibulum is a good
man." Guibulum is undoubtedly used as
a proper name, and is a corrupt derivation from the Hebrew Masonic Giblim,
which means stone-squarers or masons, and
melach for malach means a messenger, one
sent to accomplish a certain task. Bros.
Pike and Rockwell make the first word
hamalek, the king or chief.
If the words
were reversed, we should have the Hebrew
vocative, " O Gibulum the messenger." As
it is, Bro. Pike makes it vocative, and interprets it, " Oh thou glory of the Builders."
I am inclined to think that the inventor of
the degree meant simply to say that Gibulum was a messenger, or one who had been
sent to make a discovery, but that he did
not perfectly express the idea according to
the Hebrew idiom, or that his expression
has since been corrupted by the copyists.
Melesino, Rite of. This is a Eite
scarcely known out of Russia, where it was
founded about the year 1765, by Melesino,
a very learned man and Mason, a Greek by
birth, but high in the military service of
Russia.
It consisted of seven degrees, viz.
1. Apprentice.
2. Fellow Craft.
3. Master
Mason. 4. The Mystic Arch. 5. Scottish
Master and Knight. 6. The Philosopher.
7. The Priest or High Priest of the Templars.
The four higher degrees abounded
in novel traditions and myths unknown to
any of the other Rites, and undoubtedly invented by the founder. The whole Rite was
a mixture of Kabbalism, magic, gnosticism,
and the hermetic philosophy mixed in almost inextricable confusion. The seventh
or final degree was distinctly Rosicrucian,
and the religion of the Rite was Christian,
recognizing and teaching the belief in the
Messiah and the dogma of the Trinity.
Melita. The ancient name of the
island of Malta.
Member, Honorary. See Honorary Member.
Member, Life. See Life Member.
of a Lodge. As soon as
Properly,

Member

right which a Mason acquires, after the reception of the third degree, is that of claiming membership in the Lodge in which he
has been initiated. The very fact of his
having received that degree makes him at
once an inchoate member of the Lodge
that is to say, no further application is necessary, and no new ballot is required but
the candidate, having now become a Master
Mason, upon signifying his submission to
the regulations of the Society, by affixing
his signature to the book of by-laws, is
constituted, by virtue of that act, a full
member of the Lodge, and entitled to all
the rights and prerogatives accruing to that
position.
Rite of. In 1839, two
French Masons, named respectively Marconis and Moullet, but of whom the former
was undoubtedly the leader, instituted, first
at Paris, then at Marseilles, and afterwards
at Brussels, a new Rite which they called
the " Rite of Memphis," and which consisted of ninety-one degrees. Subsequently,

Memphis,

another degree was added to this already

too long list. The Rite, however, has repeatedly undergone modifications.
The
Rite of Memphis was undoubtedly founded
on the extinct Rite of Mizraim for, as Ra;

gon

Egyptian Rite seems to have

inspired Marconis and Moullet in the organization of their new Rite. It is said by
Ragon, who has written copiously on the
says, the

Rite, that the first series of degrees, extending to the thirty-fifth degree, is an assumption of the thirty-three degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, with scarcely a

The remaining degrees

of the Rite are borrowed, according to the
same authority, from other well-known
systems, and some, perhaps, the invention
of their founders.
The Rite of Memphis was not at first recognized by the Grand Orient of France,
and consequently formed no part of legal
French Masonry. So about 1852 its Lodges
were closed by the civil authority, and the
Rite, to use a French Masonic phrase,
change of name.

"

went

to sleep."

In the year 1862, Marconis, still faithful

to the system which he had invented, applied to the Grand Master of France to
give to it a new life. The Grand. College
of Rites was consulted on the subject, and
the Council of the Order having made a
favorable decree, the Rite of Memphis was
admitted, in November, 1862, among those
Masonic systems which acknowledge obe-

MEMPHIS

MEMPHIS

Grand Orient of France, and

perform their functions within its bosom.
To obtain this position, however, the onlyone which, in France, preserves a Masonic
system from the reputation of being clandestine, it was necessary that Marconis,
who was then the Grand Hierophant,
should, as a step preliminary to any favorable action on the part of the Grand Orient,
take an obligation by which he forever
after divested himself of all authority, of
any kind whatsoever, over the Rite. It

Secretary of the Grand Orient ; these titles

were then to be vise or approved and regularized, but only as far as the degree of
Master Mason no Mason of the Rite of
Memphis was to be permitted to claim any
higher degree, and if he attempted to assume any such title of a higher degree
which was not approved by the Grand
Master, he was to be considered as irregular, and was not to be affiliated with by the
members of any of the regular Lodges.
Such is now the condition of the Rite
of Memphis in France. It has been absorbed into the Grand Orient; Marconis,
its founder and head, has surrendered all
claim to any jurisdiction over it there are
Lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand
Orient which originally belonged to the
Rite of Memphis, and they practise its
ritual, but only so far as to give the degrees of Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and
Master Mason. Its "Sages of the Pyramids," its " Grand Architects of the Mysterious City," its "Sovereign Princes of
the Magi of the Sanctuary of Memphis,"
with its " Sanctuary," its " Mystical Temple," its " Liturgical College," its " Grand
Consistory," and its " Supreme Tribunal,"
exist no longer except in the diplomas and

dience to the

passed entirely out of his hands, and, going into "obedience" to the Grand Orient,
that body has taken complete and undivided possession of it, and laid its high degrees upon the shelf, as Masonic curiosities,
since the Grand Orient only recognizes, in
practice, the thirty-three degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.
This, then, is the present position of the
Rite of Memphis in France. Its original
possessors have disclaimed all further conIt has been adtrol or direction of it.

mitted by the Grand Orient among the

eight systems of Rites which are placed
"under its obedience; " that is to say, it admits its existence, but it does not suffer it
Like all Masonic Rites that
to be worked.
have ever been invented, the organization
of the Rite of Memphis is founded on the
first three degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry.
These three degrees, of course, are
given in symbolic Lodges. In 1862, when
Marconis surrendered the Rite into the
hands of the ruling powers of French Masonry, many of these Lodges existed in
various parts of France, although in a dormant condition, because, as we have already seen, ten years before they had been
closed by the civil authority. Had they
been in active operation, they would not
have been recognized by the French Masons they would have been looked upon
as clandestine, and there would have been
no affiliation with them, because the Grand
Orient recognizes no Masonic bodies as
legal which do not in return recognize it as
the head of French Masonry.
But when Marconis surrendered his
powers as Grand Hierophant of the Rite
of Memphis to the Grand Orient, that
body permitted these Lodges to be resuscitated and reopened only on the conditions
that they would acknowledge their subordination to the Grand Orient; that they
would work only in the first three degrees
and never confer any degree higher than
that of Master Mason; the members of
these Lodges, however high might be their
dignities in the Rite of Memphis, were to
be recognized only as Master Masons every
Mason of the Rite of Memphis was to deposit his Masonic titles with the Grand
32
3N
;

497

charters which have been quietly laid away

on the shelves of the Secretariat of the

Orient. To attempt to propagate

the Rite is now in France a high Masonic

Grand

offence.

The Grand Orient alone has the

power, and there

will ever exercise

is

no likelihood that

it

Some

circumstances
which have recently occurred in the Grand
Orient of France very clearly show the
true condition of the Rite of Memphis.
meeting was holden in Paris on the 26th
of August last, by the Council of the
Order, a body which, something like the
Committee of General Purposes of the
Grand Lodge of England, does all the preliminary business for the Grand Orient,
but which is possessed of rather extensive
legislative and administrative powers, as it
directs the Order during the recess of the
Grand Orient. At that meeting, a communication- was received from a Lodge in
Moldavia, called " The Disciples of Truth,"
which Lodge is under the jurisdiction of
the Grand Orient of France, having been
chartered by that body. This communication stated that certain brethren of that
Lodge had been invested by one Carence
with the degree of Rose Croix in the Rite
of Memphis, and that the diplomas had
been dated at the "Grand Orient of
Egypt," and signed by Bro. Marconis as
Grand Hierophant. The commission of
the Council of the Order, to whom the subject was referred, reported that the conferring of these degrees was null and void
it.

MEMPHIS

MEMPHIS

that neither Carence nor Marconis had

any commission, authority, or power to
confer degrees of the Memphis Rite or to
organize bodies; and that Marconis had,
by oath, solemnly divested himself of all
right to claim the title of Grand Hierophant of the Eite which oath, originally

pretended he had ceded his Eite to the

Grand Orient of France for France alone,
Bro. Harry J. Seymour assumed the title
of Grand Master of the Eite of Memphis
in America, and founded in New York a
Sovereign Sanctuary of this Eite. A correspondence ensued between this new power
and the Grand Orient of France, and even,
the name of this Sovereign Sanctuary appeared in our Calendar for 1867. But when
the Grand Orient of France learned that
this power went beyond the three symbolic
degrees, and that its confidence had been
deceived, the Grand Orient broke off all
connection with this power, and personally
with Bro. Harry J. Seymour; and, in fact,
since that period, neither the name of Bro.
Harry J. Seymour, as Grand Master, nor

498

taken in May, 1862, had at several subsequent times, namely, in September, 1863,
March, 1864, September, 1865, and March,
1866, been renewed. As a matter of clemency, the Council determined not, for the
present at

least, to prefer

charges against

Marconis and Carence before the Grand

Orient, but to warn them of the error they
committed in making a traffic of Masonic
degrees. It also ordered the report to be
published and widely diffused, so that the
Fraternity might be apprised that there the Masonic power which he founded, have
was no power outside of the Grand Orient any longer appeared in the Masonic Calenwhich could confer the high degrees of any dar of the Grand Orient.

"Your

Eite.

An

attempt having been made, in 1872,

to establish the Eite in England, Bro. Montague, the Secretary General of the Supreme
Council, wrote to Bro. Thevenot, the Grand
Secretary of the Grand Orient of France,
for information as to its validity.
From
him he received a letter containing the following statements, from which official authority we gather the fact that the Eite of
Memphis is a dead Eite, and that no one
has authority in any country to propagate it.
" Neither in 1866, nor at any other period, has the Grand Orient of France recognized the Ancient and Primitive Eite of
Masonry,' concerning which you inquire,
and which has been recently introduced in
Lancashire.
"At a particular time, and with the intention of causing the plurality of Eites to
disappear, the Grand Orient of France annexed and absorbed the Eite of Memphis,
under the express condition that the Lodges
of that Eite, which were received under its
jurisdiction, should confer only the three
symbolic degrees of Apprentice, Fellow
Craft, and Master, according to its special
rituals, and refused to recognize any other
degree, or any other title, belonging to such
i

letter

leads

me

to believe that

Seymour is endeavoring, I
do not know with what object, to introduce
a new Eite into England, in that country
of the primitive and only true Masonry,
Bro.

Harry

J.

one of the most respectable that I know of

I consider this event as a misfortune.
" The Grand Orient of France has

made

the strongest efforts to destroy the Eite of

Memphis it has succeeded. The Lodges
of the Eite, which it at first received
within its jurisdiction, have all abandoned
the Eite of Memphis to work according to
the French Eite. I sincerely desire that
it may be the same in the United Kingdom,
and you will ever find me ready to second
;

your efforts.
"Eeferring to this letter, I have, very
illustrious brother, but one word to add,
and that is, that the Constitution of the
Grand Orient of France interdicts its founding Lodges in countries where a regular
Masonic power already exists; and if it
cannot found Lodges a fortiori, it cannot
grant charters to establish Grand Masonic
Powers in other terms, the Grand Orient
of France never has given to Bro. Harry
J. Seymour, nor to any other person, powers to constitute a Lodge, or to create a
Bro. Harry J.
Eite, or to make Masons.
Eite.
Seymour may perfectly well have the sig"At the period when this treaty was natures of the Grand Master and of the
negotiated with the Supreme Chief of this Chief of the Secretary's office of the Grand
Eite by Bro. Marconis de Negre, Bro. H. J. Orient of France on a diploma, as a fraSeymour was at Paris, and seen by us, but no ternal vise ; but certainly he has neither a
power was conferred on him by the Grand charter nor a power. I also beg you to make
Orient of France concerning this Eite and, every effort to obtain the textual copy of
what is more, the Grand Orient of France the documents of which Bro. Harry J. Seydoes not give, and has never given, to any mour takes advantage. It is by the inspecsingle person the right to make Masons or tion of this document it will be necessary
to create Lodges.
to judge the question, and I await new
" Afterwards, and in consequence of the communications on this subject from your
bad faith of Bro. Marconis de Negre, who fraternal kindness."
:

METAL

MENATZCHIM
Menatzchiin.

In 2 Chron.

ii.

18, it

said that at the building of the Temple

there were " three thousand and six hundred
The
overseers to set the people awork."
word translated "overseers" is, in the oriIs

MeNaTZCHIM.

ginal, D'nVJO,
son, in his catalogue of

workmen

Anderat the

Temple, calls these Menatzchim "expert

Master Masons " and so they have been
;

considered in all subsequent rituals.

Mental Qualifications.

See Qual-

ifications.

Menu.

In the Indian mythology, Menu

the son of Brahma, and the founder of
the Hindu religion. Thirteen other Menus
are said to exist, seven of whom have already reigned on earth. But it is the first
one whose instructions constitute the whole
civil and religious polity of the Hindus.
The code attributed to him by the Branmans has been translated by Sir William
Jones, with the title of The Institutes of
is

Menu,

Mercy. The
plar's

sword

is

point of a Knight Temsaid to be characterized by

the quality of " mercy unrestrained ;" which

reminds us of the Shakspearian expression
" the quality of mercy is not strained."
In the days of chivalry, mercy to the conquered foe was an indispensable quality of
a knight.
An act of cruelty in battle was
considered infamous, for whatever was contrary to the laws of generous warfare was
also contrary to the laws of chivalry.
Mercy, Prince of. See Prince of
Mercy.
Mercy-Seat. The lid or cover of the
ark of the covenant was called the Mercyseat or the Propitiatory, because on the day
of the atonement the High Priest poured
on it the blood of the sacrifice for the sins
of the people.
Meridian Sun. The sun in the
south is represented in Masonry by the
Junior Warden, for this reason when the
sun has arrived at the zenith, at which
time he is in the south, the splendor of his
beams entitle him to the appellation which
he receives in the ritual as " the beauty and
glory of the day." Hence, as the Pillar of
Beauty which supports the Lodge is referred to the Junior Warden, that officer is
said to represent " the sun in the south at
High Twelve," at which hour the Craft are
called by him to refreshment, and therefore
is he also placed in the South that he may
the better observe the time and mark the
progress of the shadow over the dial-plate
as it crosses the meridian line.
Merit. The Old Charges say, "all

preferment

upon

among Masons "is grounded

real worth and personal merit only

that so the Lords may be well served, the
Brethren not put to shame, nor the Royal

499

Therefore no Master or
chosen by seniority, but for his
See Preferment.

Craft despised.

Warden

is

merit."

Mesmer, Friedrieh Anton.

German physician who was born

in Suabia,

1734, and, after a life a part of which was

passed in notoriety and the closing years in
obscurity, died in 1815. He was the founder
of the doctrine of animal magnetism, called
after him Mesmerism.
He visited Paris,
and became there in some degree intermixed with the Masonic charlatanism of
Cagliostro, who used the magnetic operations of Mesmer's new science in his initia-

See Mesmeric Masonry.

tions.

Mesmeric Masonry.

In the year

Mesmer

established in Paris a society

which he called " the Order of Universal
Harmony." It was based on the principles
of animal magnetism or mesmerism, and
had a form of initiation by which the
founder claimed that its adepts were purified and rendered more fit to propagate the
doctrines of his science. French writers
have, I scarcely known why, dignified this
Order by the title of " Mesmeric Masonry."
Mesopolyte. The fourth degree of
the German Union of XXII.
1782,

Mesouraneo. A

Greek word,

fiecov-

signifying, lam in the centre of heaven.

Hutchinson fancifully derives from it the
word Masonry, which he says is a corruption of the Greek, and refers to the constellation Magaroth mentioned by Job; but he
fails to give a satisfactory reason for his
etymology. Nevertheless, Oliver favors it.
Metals. In the divestiture of metals as
a preliminary to initiation, we are symbolically taught that Masonry regards no man
on account of his wealth. The Talmudical
treatise " Beracoth," wT ith a like spirit of
symbolism, directs in the Temple service
that no man shall go into the mountain of
the house, that is, into the Holy Temple,
"with money tied up in his purse."
are told in ScripMetal Tools.
ture that the Temple was " built of stone
made ready before it was brought thither
so that there was neither hammer, nor axe,
nor any tool of iron heard in the house
while it was in building." (1 Kings vi. 7.)
Masonry has adopted this as a symbol of
pavecj,

We

the peace and

harmony which should

reign

in a Lodge, itself a type of the world.

But
Clarke, in his commentary on the place,
suggests that it was intended to teach us
that the Temple wr as a type of the kingdom
of God, and that the souls of men are to
be prepared here for that place of blessed-

There is no repentance, tears, nor

the stones must be all squared, and
fitted here for their place in the New Jerusalem and, being living stones, must be built
up a holy temple for the habitation of God.
ness.

prayers
;

METROPOLITAN

500

Metropolitan Chapter

MIDDLE
of

France.

There existed in France, towards

the end of the last century, a body calling itself the Grand Chapter General of France.
It was formed out of the debris of the
Council of Emperors of the East and West,
and the Council of Knights of the East,
which had been founded by Pirlet. In
1786, it united with the schismatic Grand
Orient, and then received the title of the
Metropolitan Chapter of France.. It possessed in its archives a large collection of

manuscript cahiers of degrees, most of them

being mere Masonic curiosities.

Mexico. The

precise date of the first

appearance of organized Masonry in Mexico is unknown, but there is evidence that

it existed there prior to the establishment
of the Republic in 1824. It was introduced by the civil and military officers of
the monarchy, and was principally confined
to Europeans and their immediate descend-

Michigan. On

September 7th, 1794,

Deputy Grand Master of
the Athol Grand Lodge of Canada, granted
a Warrant for the organization of Zion
Lodge, No. 10, at Detroit and this appears

Thomas

Ainslie,

to

have been the date of the introduction

of Masonry into that province.

This
Lodge probably ceased to exist about 1805,
and a dispensation for its revival was
issued in 1807 by De Witt Clinton, Grand
Master of New York. Other Lodges were
subsequently established, and on July 31st,
1826, a Grand Lodge was organized by
them and Lewis Cass elected Grand Master.
In consequence of the political pressure of
the anti-Masonic party at that time, the

Grand Lodge suspended its labors in

and remained in a dormant condition

1829,
until

1840, when, at a general meeting of the

Masons of the State, it was resolved that

the old Grand officers who were still alive
should, on the principle that their prerogatives had never ceased but only been in

The working was in the Scottish

which was propagated with much cir- abeyance, grant dispensations for the revicumspection and reserve. In 1825, Joel R. val of the Lodges and the renewal of labor.
Poinsett, who had been sent to Mexico as But this course having been objected to as
resident Minister by the United States, irregular by most of the Grand Lodges of
disseminated among the Mexicans who were the United States, a constitutional number
his friends an attachment for York Mason- of Lodges met in June, 1841, and organized
ry so that in the same year authority was the Grand Lodge, electing Gen. Lewis Cass
obtained from the Grand Lodge of New Grand Master.
York for the establishment of three Lodges
The Grand Chapter was organized in
The Grand Lodge 1848, the Grand Council in 1858, and the
in the city of Mexico.
was organized, and Jose Ignacio Esteva Grand Commandery in 1857.
elected the first Grand Master.
Microcosm. See Man.
Soon afterwards a Grand Chapter was
Middle Ages. These are supposed
established, and Masonry extended with by the best historians to extend from the
such rapidity that, by the end of the year year 400 B. c. to the end of the fifteenth
1826, there were more than twenty-five century, the last important event being the
Lodges in the country, there being one at doubling of the Cape of Good Hope in 1497.

ants.
Rite,

least in the capital of each of the States

which composed the federation. Politics

seem, however, from the first, to have intruded into the Masonic temples, and this
at length excited the suspicions of the

government, by whom all secret societies

were prescribed. Masonry continued to
be practised for a few years in secret, but
gradually disappeared.
But Masonry is again in a prosperous
condition, and between twenty and thirty
Lodges are now in operation under the
obedience of the Supreme Council of Mexico, which was established in 1860, by authority of the Supreme Council at Charles-

This period of twelve centuries is one of

great importance to the Masonic student,
because it embraces within its scope events
intimately connected with the history of
the Order, such as the diffusion throughout
Europe of the Roman'Colleges of Artificers,
the establishment of the architectural
school of Como, the rise of the gilds, the
organizations of the building corporations
of Germany, and the company of Freemasons of England, as well as many customs and usages which have descended
with more or less modification to the

modern

Institution.

Middle Chamber.

There were three

chambers built around the

ton, S. C.

stories of side

Who is like unto

Stfzrnchief of the seven archangels.
He is the leader of the celestial host, as
Lucifer is of the infernal spirits, and the
He is promiespecial protector of Israel.
nently referred to in the twenty-eighth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, or Knight of the Sun.

Temple on three

Michael.

God.

The

sides ; what, therefore, is

called in the authorized version a middle
chamber was really the middle story of those
yatsang.
The Hebrew word is
three.
They are thus described in I Kings vi. 5,

V^

"

And

against the wall of the house

he built chambers round about, against the
walls of the house round about, both of the
6, 8.

MILES

MINUTES

temple and of the oracle: and he made

chambers round about. The nethermost

sions of the Grand Lodge Constitution.

They are strictly limited to the purposes for
which the Warrants were granted, and no
new Lodge can be established in a regiment

chamber was

five

cubits broad,

and the

middle was six cubits broad, and the third

was seven cubits broad for without in the
wall of the house he made narrowed rests
round about, that the beams should not be
:

fastened in the walls of the house. The

door for the middle chamber was in the right
side of the house and they went up with
winding stairs into the middle chamber, and
out of the middle into the third."
These chambers, after the Temple was
completed, served for the accommodation
of the priests when upon duty in them
they deposited their vestments and the sacred vessels. But the knowledge of the
purpose to which the middle chamber was
appropriated while the Temple was in the
course of construction, is only preserved in
Masonic tradition. This tradition is, however, altogether mythical and symbolical in
its character, and belongs to the symbolism
of the Winding Stairs, which see.
Miles. 1. In pure Latin, miles means
a soldier; but in Mediaeval Latin the
word was used to designate the military
knights whose institution began at that
period. Thus a Knight Templar was called
Miles Templarius, and a Knight Banneret,
Miles Bannerettus. The pure Latin word
eques, which signified a knight in Rome, was
never used in that sense in the Middle
Ages. See Knighthood.
2. The seventh degree of the Rite of Af:

501

without the concurrence of the commanding oflicer. They cannot make Masons of
any but military men who have attained
some rank in the army above that of a private soldier, although the latter may by
dispensation be admitted as Serving Brethren and they are strictly enjoined not to
interfere with the Masonic jurisdiction of
any country in which they may be stationed.
Military Lodges also exist on the continent
find one at Berlin, in
of Europe.
Prussia, as far back as 1775, under the
name of the "Military Lodge of the Blazing Star," of which Wadzeck, the Masonic
writer, was the orator.
Militia. In Mediaeval Latin, this word
signifies chivalry or the body of knighthood. Hence Militia Templi, a title sometimes given to Knights Templars, does not
signify, as it has sometimes been improperly
translated, the army of the Temple, but the
chivalry of the Temple.
Minerval. The third degree of the
Illuminati of Bavaria.
Minister of State. An officer in the
;

We

Supreme Councils, Grand Consistories, and

some of the high degrees of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Minnesota. Masonry was introduced
into this State in 1849 by the constitution in
the city of St. Paul of a Lodge under a
rican Architects.
Warrant issued by the Grand Lodge of
Military Lodges. Lodges estab- Ohio. Two other Lodges were subselished in an army. They are of an early quently constituted by the Grand Lodges
date, having long existed in the British of Wisconsin and Illinois.
A convention
army. In America, the first Lodge of this of delegates from these Lodges was held at
kind of which we have any record was one St. Paul, and a Grand Lodge organthe Warrant for which was granted by the ized on Feb. 12, 1853. A. E. Ames was
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in 1738, to elected Grand Master. The Grand ChapAbraham Savage, to be used in the expedi- ter was organized Dec. 17, 1859, and the
tion against Canada. A similar one was Grand Commandery was organized in
granted by the same authority, in 1756, to 1866.
Richard Gridley, for the expedition against
Minor. The fifth degree of the GerCrown Point. In both of these instances man Rose Croix.
the Warrants were of a general character,
Minor, Illuminate. {Illuminatm
and might rather be considered as deputa- Minor.) The fourth degree of the Illumitions, as they authorized Savage and Grid- nati of Bavaria.
ley to congregate Masons into one or more
Minute Book. The records of a
Lodges.
In 1779, the Grand Lodge of Lodge are kept by the Secretary in a
Pennsylvania granted a Warrant to Col. journal, which is called the Minute Book.
Proctor, of the artillery, to open a Military The French call it Planche tracee, and the
Lodge, which in the Warrant is called a Minutes a Morceau d Architecture.
" Movable Lodge." In the civil war in
Minutes. The records of a Lodge are
the United States between 1861 and 1865, called its minutes. The minutes of the promany Military Lodges were established on ceedings of the Lodge should always be
both sides but it is questionable whether read just before closing, that any alterathey had a good effect. They met, cer- tions or amendments may be proposed by
tainly, with much opposition in many ju- the brethren and again immediately after
1

risdictions. In England, the system of Military Lodges is regulated by special provi-

opening at the next communication, that

they may be confirmed. But the minuteg

MISCONDUCT

502

MITHRAS

of a regular communication are not to be read

at a succeeding extra one, because, as the

proceedings of a regular communication

cannot be discussed at an extra, it would
be unnecessary to read them, for, if incorrect, they could not be amended until the
next regular communication.

Misconduct. The Constitution of

the Grand Lodge of England provides that
" if any brother behave in such a manner
as to disturb the harmony of the Lodge, he
shall be thrice formally admonished by the
and if he persist in his irregular
conduct, he shall be punished according to

Master

the by-laws of that particular Lodge, or

the case may be reported to higher Masonic authority."
similar rule prevails

wherever Masonry

exists.

Every Lodge
over any

may exercise instant discipline

member or visitor who violates

the rules
of order and propriety, or disturbs the
harmony of the Lodge, by extrusion from
the room.

Miserable Scald Masons.

See

Scald Miserables.

Mishna. See Talmud.

Mississippi. Masonry
duced into

was

intro-

back
which year the Grand Lodge
of Kentucky chartered a Lodge at Natchez,
which became extinct in 1814. The Grand
Lodge of Kentucky subsequently granted
charters to two other Lodges in 1812 and
1815. Two Lodges were also constituted
by the Grand Lodge of Tennessee. The
delegates of three of these Lodges met in
convention at the city of Natchez in July
and August, 1818, and on the 25th of the
latter month organized the Grand Lodge
this State at least as far

as 1801, in

of Mississippi, Henry Tooley being elected

Grand Master. The Grand Chapter was
organized at Vicksburg, May 18, 1846 the
Grand Council of R. and S. Master Jan.
19, 1856; and the Grand Commandery Jan.
22, 1857. Scottish Masonry was introduced
into the State in 1815 by the establishment
of a Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem
under the obedience of the Southern Supreme Council.
Missouri. Masonry was introduced
into this State in 1807 by the constitution
of a Lodge in the town of St. Genevieve,
under a charter granted by the Grand Lodge
of Pennsylvania, which body granted a
charter for another Lodge in 1809. Several charters were subsequently granted by
the Grand Lodge of Tennessee. In 1821
there appear to have been but three
Lodges in the State. Delegates from these
organized, April 23, 1821, a Grand Lodge
at St. Louis and elected Thomas F. Eiddick Grand Master. The Grand Chapter
was organized May 18, 1846, and the
;

Grand Commandery May

22, 1860.

Mistletoe.

sacred plant

among

the

was to them a symbol of immortality, and hence an analogue of the

Masonic Acacia.
"The mistletoe," says
Druids.

It

Vallancey, in his Grammar of the Irish

Language, " was sacred to the Druids, because not only its berries but its leaves also
grow in clusters of three united to one
stock.
The Christian Irish hold the shamrock (clover, trefoil) sacred, in like manner, because of the three leaves united to

one stalk."

Mithras, Mysteries of. There are

none of the Ancient Mysteries which afford
a more interesting subject of investigation
to the Masonic scholar than those of the
Persian god Mithras. Instituted, as it is
supposed, by Zeradusht or Zoroaster, as an
initiation into the principles of the religion

which he had founded among the ancient

they in time extended into
Europe, and lasted so long that traces of
them have been found in the fourth century.
"With their penances," says Mr. King,
Persians,

{Gnostics, p. 47,) "and tests of the courage

of the candidate for admission, they have
been maintained by a constant tradition
through the secret societies of the Middle
Ages and the Eosicrucians down to the
modern faint reflex of the latter the Freemasons."
Of the identity of Mithras with other
deities there have been various opinions.
Herodotus says he was the Assyrian Venus
and the Arabian Alitta Porphyry calls
him the Demiurgos, and Lord of Generation; the Greeks identified him with Phoebus and Higgins supposed that he was
generally considered the same as Osiris.
But to the Persians, who first practised his
mysteries, he was a sun god, and worshipped
as the god of Light.
He was represented
as a young man covered with a Phrygian
turban, and clothed in a mantle and tunic.
He presses with his knee upon a bull, one
of whose horns he holds in his left hand^
while with the right he plunges a dagger
into his neck, while a dog standing near
laps up the dripping blood.
This symbol has been thus interpreted.
His piercing the throat with his dagger
signifies the penetration of the solar rays
into the bosom of the earth, by which
action all nature is nourished the last idea
being expressed by the dog licking up the
blood as it flows from the wound. But it
will be seen .hereafter that this last symbol
admits of another interpretation.
The mysteries of Mithras were always
celebrated in caves. They were divided
into seven stages or degrees, (Suidas says
twelve,) and consisted of the most rigorous
proofs of fortitude and courage. Nonnus
the Greek poet says, in his Dionysiaca, that

MITHRAS

MITHRAS

these proofs were eighty in number, graduNo one, says

ally increasing in severity.
Gregory Nazianzen, could be initiated into

pastoral staff or crozier, alluding to the influence of the sun in the labors of agriculture, and the golden serpent, which was
placed in his bosom as an emblem of his
having been regenerated and made a disciple of Mithras, because the serpent, by
casting its skin annually, was considered in
these mysteries as a symbol of regeneration.
He was instructed in the secret doctrines
of the rites of Mithras, of which the history of the creation, already recited, formed
a part. The mysteries of Mithras passed
from Persia into Europe, and were introduced into Rome in the time of Pompey.
Here they flourished, with various success,
until the year 378, when they were proscribed by a decree of the Senate, and the
sacred cave, in w hich they had been celebrated, was destroyed by the Praetorian

the mysteries of Mithras unless he had

passed through all the trials, and proved
himself passionless and pure. The aspirant at first underwent the purifications by
water, by fire, and by fasting after which
he was introduced into a cavern representing the world, on whose walls and roof
were inscribed the celestial signs. Here
he submitted to a species of baptism, and
He was
received a mark on his forehead.
presented with a crown on the point of a
sword, which he was to refuse, declaring
at the same time, " Mithras alone is my
crown." He was prepared, by anointing
;

him with oil, crowning him with olive, and

him in enchanted armor, for the

clothing

seven stages of initiation through which

he was about to pass. These commenced
in the following manner In the first cavern
he heard the howling of wild beasts, and
was enveloped in total darkness, except
when the cave was illuminated by the fitful
:

glare of terrific flashes of lightning.

He
was hurried to the spot whence the sounds
proceeded, and was suddenly thrust by his
silent guide through a door into a den of
wild beasts, w\here he was attacked by the
initiated in the disguise of lions, tigers,
hyenas, and other ravenous beasts. Hurried
through this apartment, in the second
cavern he was again shrouded in darkness,
and for a time in fearful silence, until it
was broken by awful peals of thunder,
whose repeated reverberations shook the
very walls of the cavern, and could not
fail to inspire the aspirant with terror. He
was conducted through four other caverns,
in which the methods of exciting astonish-

ment and fear were ingeniously varied.

He was made to swim over a raging flood
was subjected

to a rigorous fast
exposed
to all the horrors of a dreary desert ; and
finally, if we may trust the authority of
Nicsetas, after being severely beaten with
rods, was buried for many days up to the
neck in snow. In the seventh cavern or
;

Sacellum, the darkness was changed to

and the candidate was introduced
into the presence of the Archimagus, or
chief priest, seated on a splendid throne,
and surrounded by the assistant dispensers
of the mysteries.
Here the obligation
of secrecy was administered, and he was
made acquainted with the sacred words.
He received also the appropriate investiture, which, says Maurice, (Ind. Antiq., V.,
ch. i.,) consisted of the Kara or conical cap,
and candys or loose tunic of Mithras, on
which was depicted the celestial constellations, the zone, or belt, containing a representation of the figures of the zodiac, the

light,

503

prefect.

The Mithraic monuments that are still

extant in the museums of Europe evidently
show that the immortality of the soul was
one of the doctrines taught in the Mithraic
The candidate was at one time
initiation.
made to personate a corpse, whose restoration to life dramatically represented the
Figures of this corpse are
resurrection.
found in several of the monuments and
talismans.
There is circumstantial evidence that there was a Mithraic death in
the initiation, just as there w as a Carbiric
death in the mysteries of Samothrace, and
a Dionysiac in those of Eleusis. Commodus, the Roman emperor, had been initiated
into the Mithraic mysteries at Rome, and
is said to have taken great pleasure in the
ceremonies. Lampridius, in his Lives of
the Emperors, records, as one of the mad
freaks of Commodus, that during the Mithraic ceremonies, where " a certain thing
was to be done for the sake of inspiring
terror, he polluted the rites by a real murder;" an expression which evidently shows
that a scenic representation of a fictitious
murder formed a part of the ceremony of
The dog sw allow ing the blood
initiation.
of the bull was also considered as a symbol
of the resurrection.
It is in the still existing talismans and
gems that we find the most interesting memorials of the old Mithraic initiation. One
of these is thus described by Mr. C. W.
King, in his valuable work on the Gnostics
and their Remains, (London, 1864:)
" There is a talisman which, from its frequent repetition, would seem to be a badge
of some particular degree amongst the initiated, perhaps of the first admission.
man blindfolded, with hands tied behind
his back, is bound to a pillar, on which
stands a gryphon holding a wheel the latter a most ancient emblem of the sun.
Probably it was in this manner that the
r

504

MITRE

MIZRAIM

candidate was tested by the appearance of

imminent death when the bandage was suddenly removed from his eyes"
As Mithras was considered as synonymous with the sun, a great deal of solar

symbolism clustered around his

his doctrines, and his initiation.

name,
Thus,

MEI9PA2 was

found, by the numerical

value of the letters in the Greek alphabet,
to be equal to 365, the number of days in a
solar year; and the decrease of the solar
influence in the winter, and its revivification in the summer, was made a symbol of
the resurrection from death to life.
Mitre. The head covering of the high
priest of the Jews was called JlJ&>
metznephet, which, coming from the verb
NAPHAT, to roll around, signified something rolled around the head, a turban and
this was really the form of the Jewish mitre.
It is described by
;

Leusden, in his Philologus Hebrceo-Mixtus, as being made of dark linen

twisted in many folds
around the head. Many
writers contend that the
mitre was peculiar to the high priest but
Josephus and the Mishna assert that it was
worn by all the priests, that of the high
priest being distinguished from the rest by
the golden band, or holy crown, which was
attached to its lower rim and fastened
around the forehead, and on which was
inscribed the words mrrS BHp,
L'YEHOVAH, Holiness to Jehovah, or, as
;

KADOSH

Mizraim, Rite

This Rite

of.

origi-

nated, says Clavel, at Milan, in the year

1805, in consequence of several brethren
having been refused admission into the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted
Rite, which had just been established in
that city. One Lechangeur has the credit
of organizing the Rite and selecting the
statutes by which it was to be governed.
It consisted at first of only eighty-seven degrees, to which three others were subsequently added. Sixty-six of the ninety degrees thus formed are said to have been

taken from the Ancient and Accepted Rite,

while the remaining twenty-four were either
borrowed from other systems or were the
invention of Lechangeur and his colleagues,
Joly and Bedarride. The system of Mizraim spread over Italy, and in 1814 was introduced into France. Dissensions in the
Rite soon took place, and an attempt was
unsuccessfully made to obtain the recognition of the Grand Orient of France. This
having been refused, the Supreme Council
was dissolved in 1817 but the Lodges of the
Rite still continued to confer the degrees,
although, according to the constitution of
French Masonry, their non-recognition by
the Grand Orient had the effect of making
them illegal. But eventually the Rite
;

ceased altogether to exist as an active and

independent system, and its place in Masonic history seems only to be preserved bytwo massive volumes on the subject, written by Mark Bedarride, the most intelligent and indefatigable of its founders, who
published at Paris, in 1835, a history of the
Rite, under the title of "De l'Ordre de

commonly translated, Holiness to the

The mitre is worn by the High
Priest of a Royal Arch Chapter, because he Misraim."
The Rite of Mizraim consisted of 90 derepresents the Jewish high priest but the
form is inaccurate. The vestment, as usu- grees, divided into 4 series and 17 classes.
ally made, is a representation rather of the Some of these degrees are entirely original,
modern Episcopal than of the Jewish mitre. but many of them are borrowed from the
The modern mitre which is but an imi- Scottish Rite.
it is

Lord.

tation of the Phrygian cap,

and peculiar to
bishops of the Christian Church, and which
should therefore be worn by the
Prelate of a Commandery of
Knights Templars, who is supposed to hold Episcopal rank
differs in form from the Jewish
vestment. It is a conical cap,
divided in the middle so as to
come to two points or horns,
one in front and one behind,
which, Durandus says, are
symbolic of the two laws of the Old and
New Testament.
Mizraim. Often by Masonic writers
improperly spelled Misraim. It is the ancient Hebrew name of Egypt, and was
adopted as the name of a Rite to indicate
the hypothesis that it was derived from
the old Egyptian initiation.

For the gratification of the curious inspector, the following list of these degrees
is subjoined.
The titles are translated as
literally as possible from the French.
I.

Series

Symbolic.

Apprentice 2, Fellow Craft

2d Class: 4, Secret Master; 5,
3, Master.
Perfect Master; 6, Master through Curiosity 7, Provost and Judge or Irish Master
3d Class : 9, Elect of
8, English Master.
Nine; 10, Elect of the Unknown 11, Elect
1st Class

1,

of Fifteen 12, Perfect Elect; 13, Illustrious

Elect.
4th Class : 14, Scottish Trinitarian
15, Scottish Fellow Craft 16, Scottish Master; 17, Scottish panisiere; 18, Master
Ecossais 19, Ecossais of the three J. J. J.
20, Ecossais of the Sacred Vault of James
VI. 21, Ecossais of St. Andrew. 5th Class :
22, Little Architect; 23, Grand Architect;
;

:;;

MIZRAIM

MOLART

Architecture 25, Apprentice Perfect

Architect 26, Fellow Craft Perfect Architect 27, Master Perfect Architect 28, Perfect Architect; 29, Sublime Ecossais; 30,
Sublime Ecossais of Heroden. 6th Class :

The chiefs of this Rite demanded the

which, of course, was never conprivilege
ceded to them of directing and controlling
all the other Rites of Freemasonry, as
Its friends claimed
their common source.
for it an eminently philosophical character.

24,

Grand Royal Arch 32, Grand Axe 33,

Sublime Knight of Election, chief of the
31,

first

symbolic
II.

series.

Philosophic.

Series

7th
34, Knight of the Sublime
Election 35, Prussian Knight 36, Knight
of the Temple 37, Knight of the Eagle
38, Knight of the Black Eagle 39, Knight
of the Red Eagle 40, White Knight of the
East; 41, Knight of the East. &th Class:
42, Commander of the East; 43, Grand
Class:

Commander of the East 44, Architecture

of the Sovereign Commanders of the Tem9th Class
ple 45, Prince of Jerusalem.
46, Sovereign Prince Rose Croix of Kilwinning and Heroden 47, Knight of the West
48, Sublime Philosopher; 49, Chaos the
first, discreet
50, Chaos the second, wise
10th Class : 52, Su51, Knight of the Sun.
preme Commander of the Stars 53, Sublime Philosopher 54, First degree of the
Key of Masonry, Minor 55, Second degree,
Washer; 56, Third degree, Bellows-blower;
57, Fourth degree, Caster 58, True Mason
Adept 59, Sovereign Elect 60, Sovereign
of Sovereigns 61, Grand Master of Sym;

Lodges; 62, Most High and Most

Powerful Grand Priest Sacrificer; 63,

bolic

Knight of Palestine; 64, Grand Knight of

the White and Black Eagle; 65, Grand
Elect Knight Kadosh 66, Grand Inquiring
Commander, Chief of the Second Series.
;

III.

Series

11th Class: 67, Benevolent Knight; 68,

69, Knight Cha70, Most Wise Is12th Class : 71, Sovereign
;

The organization of the Rite

is,

however,

too complicated and diffuse to have ever

been practically convenient. Many of its
degrees were founded upon, or borrowed
from, the Egyptian rites, and its ritual is
a very close imitation of the ancient system

of initiation.
The legend of the third degree in this
is said to have reRite is abolished.
turned to his family, after the completion
of the Temple, and to have passed the remainder of his days in peace and opulence.
The legend, substituted by the Rite of Mizraim for that admitted by all the other
rites, is carried back to the days of Lamech, whose son Jubal, under the name of
Hario-Jubal-Abi, is reported to have been
slain by three traitors Hagava, Hakina,

HAB

and Haremda.
Lenning calls the Rite of Mizraim " one
of the latest of the monstrous visionary
schemes introduced into Freemasonry " and
Ragon characterizes it as a " fantastical connection of various rites and degrees."
Moabon. This word is found in some
of the high degrees according to the French
ritual, where it is explained as expressing
" the satisfaction we feel in seeing the crime
and the criminal punished." There is no
such word in Hebrew, and the explanation
is a fanciful one. The word is undoubtedly
a Gallic corruption, first in sound and then
in letters, of the Master's Word.
name given, says
Masons.
Noorthouck, to the unfaithful brethren and
profanes who, in 1747, got up a procession
in ridicule of that made at the Grand Feast.
See Scald Miserable.
;

Mock

Mystical.

Knight of the Rainbow

nuka, called Hynaroth

505

Modern Rite. {Rite Modeme.) See

Talmudim 72, Sovereign Prince French Rite.
Grand
Haram.
l<tth
Class
:
73,
Moderns. The Masons who seceded
74, Sovereign Princes Haram 75, Sovereign in 1738 from the legal Grand Lodge of
Princes Hasidim 77, Grand Inspector In- England, which had been organized in
tendant, Regulator General of the Order, 1717, called the Masons who remained
raelitish Prince.

Princes

Zadkim

Chief of the Third Series.

IV.

and 16th

lbth

faithful in their allegiance to that body

Moderns, while for themselves they assumed
the title of Ancients. See Ancients.

Series Kabbalistic.
Classes

Molart. William.

78, 79, 80, 81, 82,

In Preston's

Il-

whose names are con-

lustrations (p. 151) is the following state-

cealed from all but the possessors.

17th
Class: 87, Sovereign Grand Princes, constituted Grand Masters, and legitimate
representatives of the order for the First
Series 88, Ditto for the Second Series 89,
Ditto for the Third Series; 90, Absolute
Sovereign Grand Master, Supreme Power
of the Order, and Chief, of the Fourth

ment: "The Latin Register of William

Molart, prior of Canterbury, in manuscript,

83, 84, 85, 86, degrees

Series.

88, entitled Liberatio generalis Domini

Oulielmi Prioris Fcclesice Christi Cantuariensis, erga Festurn Natalis Domini 1429,
informs us that in the year 1429, during
the minority of this prince, [Henry VI.,
a respectable Lodge was held at Canterbury,
under the patronage of Henry Chicheley,
p.

MOLAY

506

MONTANA

the archbishop; at which were present

Thomas Stapylton, the Master John Morris, with fifteen fellow-crafts, and three entered apprentices all of whom are particularly named."
The fact of the existence of such a Register rests entirely upon the testimony of
Preston. If authentic, it supplies an important point of Masonic history in reference to the organization of the Craft at
that period.
de. The twenty-secMolay,
ond and last Grand Master of the Templars
at the destruction of the Order in the fourteenth century. He was born about the
year 1240, at Besancon, in Burgundy, being
descended from a noble family. He was
received into the Order of Knights Templars in 1265, by Imbert de Peraudo, Preceptor of France, in the Chapel of the Temple at Beaune. He immediately proceeded
to Palestine, and greatly distinguished himself in the wars against the infidels, under
the Grand Mastership of William de BeauIn 1298, while absent from the Holy
jeu.
;

James

Land, he was unanimously elected Grand

Master upon the death of Theobald Gaudinius.
In 1305, he was summoned to France
by Pope Clement V., upou the pretence
of a desire, on the part of the Pontiff, to
effect a coalition between the Templars and
He was received by
the Hospitallers.
Philip the Fair, the treacherous King of
France, with the most distinguished honors,
and even selected by him as the god-father
of one of his children. In April, 1307, he
repaired, accompanied by three of his
knights, to Poitiers, where the Pope was
then residing, and as he supposed satisfactorily exculpated the Order from the charges
which had been preferred against it. But
both pope and king were guilty of the most

infamous

On

Monitor.

Those manuals published

convenience of Lodges, and containing the charges, general regulations,
emblems, and account of the public ceremonies of the Order, are called Monitors.
The amount of ritualistic information contained in these works has gradually increased: thus the monitorial instructions
for the

in Preston's Illustrations, the earliest Monitor in the English language, are far more
scanty than those contained in Monitors of
the present day. As a general rule, it may
be said that American works of this class
give more instruction than English ones,
but that the French and German manuals

are

either.

published for monitorial instruction, the

was by Preston, in 1772. This has
been succeeded by the following authors:
Webb, 1797; Dalcho, 1807; Cole, 1817;
Hardie, 1818; Cross, 1819; Tannehill,
1824; Parmele, 1825; Charles W. Moore,
1846 Cornelius Moore, 1846 Dove, 1847
Davis, 1849; Stewart, 1851; Mackey, 1852;
Macoy, 1853 Sickels, 1866.

first

Monitorial Instruction.

The in-

struction contained in Monitors is called

monitorial, to distinguish it from esoteric
instruction, which is not permitted to be
written, and can be obtained only in the
precincts of the Lodge.
sign given in
Monitorial Sign.
the English system, but not recognized in
Oliver says of it that it "rethis country.
minds us of the weakness of human nature,

unable of itself to resist the power of Darkness, unless aided by that Light which is
from above."
Monitor, Secret. See Secret Monitor.

Monogram. An

abbreviation of a
cipher composed of
two or more letters intertwined
-p
'^m with each other. The Constantinian monogram of Christ is

name by means of a

deceit.

the 12th of September, 1307, the

order was issued for the arrest of the Templars, and De Molay endured an imprisonment for five years and a half, during which
period he was subjected to the utmost indignities and sufferings for the purpose of
extorting from him a confession of the
guilt of his Order.
But he was firm and
loyal, and on the 11th of March, 1314, he
was publicly burnt in front of the CatheWhen
dral of Notre Dame, in Paris.
about to die, he solemnly affirmed the innocence of the Order, and, it is said, summoned Pope Clement to appear before the
judgment-seat of God in forty days and
the King of France within a year, and
both, it is well known, died within the
periods specified.
Monad. The monad in the Pythagorean system of numbers was unity or the
number one. See Numbers and One.

more communicative than

Of the English and American manuals

^B
^m^

used by Knights Templars.

ry\ often
The Triple Tau, or Eoyal Arch
also a monogram; ala difference of opinion as
to its real meaning, some supposing that it is a monogram of
Templum Hierosolymae or the
Temple of Jerusalem, others of
Hiram of Tyre, and others, again,

badge,

though there
"

III
i

bestowing on

is

is

it

different significations.

Montana.

April 27, 1863, the Grand

Lodge of Nebraska granted a Warrant for
a Lodge at Bannack, in Montana; but in

consequence of the removal of the petitioners, the Lodge was never organized.
Three
other Lodges were subsequently established
by Warrants from the Grand Lodges of

Kansas and Colorado. On January 24,

1866, three Lodges met in convention at

MOON

MONTFAUgON

507

Virginia City, and organized the Grand French Masonic documents such dates as
Lodge of Montana, John J. Hull being this: "Le lOme jour du 3me mois Maqonnique," that is, the 10th day of the 3d
elected Grand Master.
Royal Arch Masonry and Templarism Masonic month, or the 10th of May.
Montpellier, Hermetic Rite of.
were introduced, the one by the General
Grand Chapter, and the other by the Grand The Hermetic Rite of Pernetty, which had
been established at Avignon in 1770, was
Encampment of the United States.

Montfaucon, Prior of. One of

the two traitors on whose false accusations
was based the persecution of the Templars.
See Squin de

Fleocian.

Months, Hebrew. Masons

of the

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite use in

their documents the Hebrew months of the
civil year. Hebrew months commence with
the full moon and as the civil year began
about the time of the autumnal equinox,
the first Hebrew month must have begun
with the new moon in September, which is
also used by Scottish Masons as the beginning of their year. Annexed is a table of
the Hebrew months, and their correspondence with our own calendar.
;

Sept. and Oct.

Khesvan, Oct. and Nov.

Tisri,

Kislev,

roco

11

1"K
JVD

non
nN

hbx

Tebeth,
Schebet,
Adar,
Nisan,

Nov. and Dec.

Dec. and Jan.
Jan. and Feb.
Feb. and March.
March and April.

Sivan,

April and May.

May and June.

Tamuz,

June and July.

Ab,

July and Aug.

EM,

August and

Ijar,

Sept.

As the Jews computed time by the appearance of the moon, it is evident that
there soon would be a confusion as to the
keeping of these feasts, if some method
had not been taken to correct it since the
lunar year is only 354 days, 8 hours, and 48
minutes, and the solar year is 365 days, 6
hours, 15 minutes, and 20 seconds.
Accordingly, they intercalated a month after
their 12th month, Adar, whenever they
found that the 15th day of the following
month, Abib, would fall before the vernal
equinox.
This intercalated month was
named 11JO, Ve-adar, or "the second
Adar," and was inserted every second or
third year, as they saw occasion; so that
the difference between the lunar and solar
year could never, in this way, be more
than a month.
Months, Masonic. In the French
Rite the old calendar is retained, and the
year begins with the month of March, the
months being designated numerically and
not by their usual names. Thus we find in
;

1778 transported to Montpellier, in

France, by a Past Master, and some of the
members of the Lodge of Persecuted Virtue
in the former place, who laid the foundations of the Academy of True Masons,
(which see.) Hence the degrees given in
that Academy constituted what is known
as the Hermetic Rite of Montpellier.
It is impossible to say
exactly at what period the idea of a monument in the third degree was first introduced into the symbolism of Freemasonry.
The early expositions of the eighteenth
century, although they refer to a funeral,
make no allusion to a monument. The
monument adopted in the American system, and for which we are indebted, it is
said, to the inventive genius of Cross, consists of a weeping virgin, holding in one
hand a sprig of acacia and in the other an
urn; before her is a broken column, on
which rests a copy of the Book of Constitutions, while Time behind her is attempting to disentangle the ringlets of her hair.
The explanation of these symbols will be
found in their proper places in this work.
in

Monument.

Oliver, in his Landmarks, (ii. 146,) cites

this monument without any reference to
its American origin.
Early in the last

century the Master's monument was introduced into the French system, but its form
was entirely different from the one adopted
in this country. It is described as an obelisk,
on which is inscribed a golden triangle, in
the centre of which the Tetragrammaton is
engraved.

On

the top of the obelisk

is

sometimes seen an urn pierced by a sword.

In the Scottish Rite an entire degree has
been consecrated to the subject of the Hiramic monument. Altogether, the monument is simply the symbolic expression of
the idea that veneration should always be
paid to the

Moon.

memory of departed worth.

The adoption of the moon

in

the Masonic system as a symbol is analogous to, but could hardly be derived from,
the employment of the same symbol in the
ancient religions. In Egypt, Osiris was
the sun, and Isis the moon
in Syria,
Adonis was the sun, and Ashtoroth the
moon the Greeks adored her as Diana,
and Hecate; in the mysteries of Ceres,
while the hierophant or chief priest represented the Creator, and the torch-bearer
the sun, the ho epi bomos, or officer nearest
the altar, represented the moon. In short,
moon-worship was as widely disseminated
;

MOORE

MORIAH

as sun-worship. Masons retain her image

in their Rites, because the Lodge is a
representation of the universe, where, as
the sun rules over the day, the moon presides over the night; as the one regulates
the year, so does the other the months, and
as the former is the king of the starry hosts
of heaven, so is the latter their queen but
both deriving their heat, and light, and
power from him, who, as the third and the
greatest light, the master of heaven and
earth, controls them both.
He was, in 1808,
Moore,

one who reads our ancient Charges can fail

to see that Freemasonry is a strictly moral

508

James.

the Senior Grand Warden of the Grand

Lodge of Kentucky, and in conjunction
with Carey L. Clarke compiled, by order
of that body, the Masonic Constitutions or
Illustrations of Masonry, Lexington, 1808,
pp. 191, 12mo. This was the first Masonic
work published in the Western States.
tVith the exception of the Constitution of
the Grand Lodge, it is little more than a
compilation taken from Anderson, Preston,
and Webb. It was adopted by the Grand
Lodge of Kentucky as its official Book of
Constitutions.
Mopses. In 1736 Pope .Clement XII.
issued a bull, condemning and forbidding
the practice of the rites of Freemasonry.
Several brethren in the Catholic States of
Germany, unwilling to renounce the Order, and yet fearful of offending the ecclesiastical authority, formed at Vienna, September 22, 1738, under the name of Mopses,
what was pretended to be a new association, but which was in truth nothing else
than an imitation of Freemasonry under a
It was patronless offensive appellation.
ized by the most illustrious persons of Germany, and many Princes of the Empire
were its Grand Masters the Duke of Bava;

ria especially took it

under his protection.

derived from the German word

mops, signifying a young mastiff, and was
indicative of the mutual fidelity and attachment of the brethren, these virtues
being characteristic of that noble animal.
The alarm made for entrance was to imitate the barking of a dog.
In 1776, the Mopses became an androgynous Order, and admitted females to all
the offices, except that of Grand Master,
which was held for life. There was, however, a Grand Mistress, and the male and
female heads of the Order alternately assumed, for six months each, the supreme
authority.
With the revival of the spirit
of Masonry, which had been in some degree paralyzed by the attacks of the church,
the society of Mopses ceased to exist.
Morality. In the American system it
is one of the three precious jewels of a

The

title is

Master Mason.

Morality of Freemasonry. No

and that the principles which

inculcates inevitably tend to make the
brother who obeys their dictates a more
virtuous man. Hence the English lectures
very properly define Freemasonry to be "a
science of morality."
Mason," say the
old Charges of 1722, "is obliged by his
tenure to obey the moral law." Now, this
moral law is not to be considered as confined to the decalogue of Moses, within
which narrow limits the ecclesiastical
writers technically restrain it, but rather as
alluding to what- is called the lex natural^
or the law of nature. This law of nature
has been defined, by an able but not recent
writer on this subject, to be "the will of
God, relating to human actions, grounded
on the moral differences of things and because discoverable by natural light, obligatory upon all mankind." (Grove System of Moral Philosophy, vol. ii., p. 122.
London, 1749.) This is the "moral law,"
to which the old Charge already cited refers,
and which it declares to be the law of
Masonry. And this was wisely done, for
it is evident that no law less universal
could have been appropriately selected for
the government of an Institution whose
prominent characteristic is its universality.
Institution,

it

Moral Law. "A

Moravian Brethren.

The

reli-

gious sect of Moravian Brethren, which was

founded in Upper Lusatia, about 1722, by
Count Zinzendorf, is said at one time to
have formed a society of religious Freemasons. For an account of which, see

Mustard

Seed, Order of.

Morgan, William.

Born in Cul-

pepper County, in Virginia, in 1775. He

published in 1826 a pretended Exposition
of Masonry, which attracted at the time
more attention than it deserved. Morgan
soon after disappeared, and the Masons
were charged by some enemies of the Order
with having removed him by foul means.
What was the real fate of Morgan has
never been ascertained. There are various
myths of his disappearance, and subsequent
residence in other countries.

They may

or

may

not be true, but it is certain that there

is no evidence of his death that would be
admitted in a Court of Probate. He was
a man of questionable character and dissolute habits, and his enmity to Masonry is
said to have originated from the refusal of
the Masons of Le Roy to admit him to
membership in their Lodge and Chapter.

Moriah, Mount. An

eminence

sit-

uated in the south-eastern part of Jerusalem. In the time of David it must have
been cultivated, for it is called " the threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite," from whom

MORIN

MORTALITY

that monarch purchased it for the purpose

of placing there an altar. Solomon subsequently erected there his magnificent Tem-

was a Jew but as these writers have judaized all the founders of the Scottish Rite in
America, we have no right to place any
confidence in their statements. The name

Mount Moriah was always profoundly

among whom there
is an early tradition that on it Abraham
was directed to offer up his son. The truth

ple.

venerated by the Jews,

of this tradition has, it is true, been recently denied by some Biblical writers, but it
has been as strenuously maintained by
others. The Masons, however, have always
accepted it, and to them, as the site of the
Temple, it is especially sacred, and, com-

bining with this the Abrahamic legend,

they have given to Mount Moriah the appellation of the ground-floor of the Lodge,
and assign it as the place where what are
called "the three grand offerings were

made."

Morin, Stephen. The founder of

the Scottish Rite in America. On the 27th
of August, 1761, the " Deputies General of
the Royal Art, Grand Wardens, and officers
of the Grand and Sovereign Lodge of St.
John of Jerusalem established at Paris,"
(so reads the document itself) granted a
Patent to Stephen Morin, by which he was
empowered " to multiply the sublime degrees of High Perfection, and to create Inspectors in all places where the sublime
degrees are not established." This Patent
was granted, Thory, Ragon, Clavel, and
Lenning say, by the Grand Council of Emperors of the East and West. Others say by
the Grand Lodge. Dalcho says by the
Grand Consistory of Princes of the Royal
Secret at Paris. Brother Albert Pike, who
has very elaborately investigated the question says that the authority of Morin was
" a joint authority " of the two then contending Grand Lodges of France and the
Grand Council, which is, I suppose, what
Dalcho and the Supreme Council of Charleston call the Grand Consistory. From the
Grand Lodge he received the power to
establish a symbolic Lodge, and from the
Grand Council or Consistory the power to
confer the higher degrees.
Not long after receiving these powers,
Morin sailed for America, and established
Bodies of the Scottish Rite in St. Do-

509

of Morin has been borne by many French

Christians of literary reputation, from
Peter Morin, a learned ecclesiastical writer
of the sixteenth century, to Stephen Morin,
an antiquary and Protestant clergyman,
who died in 1700, and his son Henry, who
became a Catholic, and died in 1728.

Moritz, Carl Pliilipp.

Privy

Councillor, Professor, and Member of the

Academy of Sciences in Berlin, was born
at Hameln on the 15th of September, 1757,
and died 26th of June, 1793. G'adicke says
that he was one of the most celebrated authors of his age, and distinguished by his
works on the German language. He was
the author of several Masonic works, among
which are his Contributions to the Philosophy
of Life and the Diary of a Freemason, Berlin,
1793, and a Book of Masonic Songs.
The name of one of the
twelve Inspectors in the eleventh degree of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
This name, like the others in the same catalogue, bids defiance to any Hebraic derivation.
They are all either French corruptions, worse even than Jahinai for Shekinah,
or they have some allusion to names or
events connected with the political intrigues
of the exiled house of Stuart, which had,
it is known, a connection with some of the
higher degrees sprung up at Arras, and
other places where Masonry was patronized by the Pretender. This word Morphey may, for instance, be a corruption of

Morphey.

James Murray, the second son

of Lord Stormont, escaped to the court of
the Stuarts in 1715. He was a devoted adherent of the exiled family, and became the
governor of the young prince and the chief
minister of his father, who conferred upon
him the empty title of Earl of Dunbar.
He died at Avignon in 1770. But almost
every etymology of this kind must be enMurray.

tirely conjectural.

Mortality, Symbol of. The ancient

Egyptians introduced a skeleton at their
feasts, to impress the idea of the evanescence of all earthly enjoyments; but the
skeletons or deaths' heads did not make
their appearance in Grecian art, as symbols

mingo and Jamaica. He also appointed

M. M. Hayes a Deputy Inspector General
for North America.
Hayes, subsequently,
appointed Isaac da Costa a Deputy for of mortality, until later times, and on
South Carolina, and through him the Sub- monuments of no artistic importance. In
lime degrees were disseminated among the
Masons of the United States. (See Scottish
Rite.)
After appointing several Deputies
and establishing some Bodies in the West
India Islands, Morin is lost sight of. We
know not anything of his subsequent history, or of the time or place of his death.
Ragon, Thory, and Clavel say that Morin

the earliest periods of ancient

art,

the

Greeks and Romans employed more pleasing representations, such as the flower
plucked from its stem, or the inverted
torchi The moderns have>, however, had
recourse to more offensive symbolization.
In their hatchments or funeral achievements the heralds employ a death's head and

MORTAK

MOSAIC

crossed bones, to denote that the deceased

person is the last of his family. The Masons have adopted the same symbol, and in
all the degrees where it is necessary to impress the idea of mortality, a skull, or a
skull and crossed bones, are used for that
purpose.
Mortar, Untempered. See Untempered Mortar.

gion of Moses, more than in any other

which preceded or followed it, is symbolism
the predominating idea. From the tabernacle, which may be considered as the central point of the whole system, down to the
vestments which clothed the servants at
the altar, there will be found an underlying
principle of symbolism. Long before the
days of Pythagoras the mystical nature of
numbers had been inculcated by the Jewish lawgiver, and the very name of God
was constructed in a symbolical form, to
indicate his eternal nature.
Much of the
Jewish ritual of worship, delineated in the
Pentateuch with so much precision as to
its minutest details, would almost seem
puerile were it not for the symbolic idea
that is conveyed. So the fringes of the

510

Mosaic Pavement.

Mosaic work

consists properly of many little stones of

different colors united together in patterns
It was much practo imitate a painting.
tised among the Eomans, who called it
musivum opus, whence the Italians get their
musaico, the French their mosaique, and
we our mosaic. The idea that the work is
derived from the fact that Moses used a
pavement of colored stones in the tabernacle has been long since exploded by etymologists. The Masonic tradition is that

garments are patiently described, not as

decorations, but that by them the people,
in looking upon the fringe, might " remem-

commandments

the floor of the Temple of Solomon was

decorated with a Mosaic pavement of
black and white stones. There is no historical evidence to substantiate this statement. Samuel Lee, however, in his diagram of the Temple, represents not only
the floors of the building, but of all the
outer courts, as covered with such a pavement. The Masonic idea was perhaps first
suggested by this passage in the Gospel of
St. John, (xix. 13,) " when Pilate, there-

ber

heard that saying, he brought Jesus

and sat him down in the judgmentseat in a place that is called the Pavement,
but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha." The word
here translated Pavement is in the original
Lithostroton, the very word used by Pliny
to denote a Mosaic pavement.
The Greek
word, as well as its Latin equivalent, is
used to denote a pavement formed of ornamental stones of various colors, precisely
what is meant by a Mosaic pavement.
There was, therefore, a part of the Temple which was decorated with a Mosaic
pavement. The Talmud informs us that
there was such a pavement in the conclave

sonry has derived and transmitted for its

own uses many of the most precious treasIndeed,
ures of its own symbolical art.
except in some of the higher, and therefore
more modern degrees, the symbolism of
Freemasonry is almost entirely deduced
from the symbolism of Mosaism. Thus the
symbol of the Temple, which persistently
pervades the whole of the ancient Masonic
system, comes to us directly from the symbolism of the Jewish tabernacle. If Solomon is revered by the Masons as their traditional Grand Master, it is because the
Temple constructed by him was the symbol
of the divine life to be cultivated in every

where the Grand Sanhedrim held its sessions.

heart.

fore,

forth,

By

torsion of historical accuracy,

have asserted that the ground-

little

the Masons
floor of the Temple was a Mosaic pavement,
and hence, as the Lodge is a representation
of the Temple, that the floor of the Lodge
should also be of the same pattern.
The Mosaic pavement is an old symbol
of the Order. It is met with in the earliest
rituals of the last century.
It is classed
among the ornaments of the Lodge in combination with the indented tessel and the
blazing star. Its party-colored stones of
black and whiter have been readily and appropriately interpreted as symbols of the
evil and good of human life.
Mosaic Symbolism. In the reli-

all

the

of the Lord and

do them." Well, therefore, has a modern

writer remarked, that in the symbolism of
the Mosaic worship it is only ignorance
that can find the details trifling or the prescriptions minute; for if we recognize the
worth and beauty of symbolism, we shall
in vain seek in the Mosaic symbols for one
superfluous enactment or one superstitious
idea.
To the Mason the Mosaic symbolism
is very significant, because from it Freema-

And this symbol was borrowed from

the Mosaic tabernacle and the Jewish

thought, that every Hebrew was to be a
tabernacle of the Lord, has been transmitted to the Masonic system, which teaches
that every Mason is to be a temple of the
Grand Architect. The Papal Church, from
which we get all ecclesiastical symbolism,
borrowed its symbology from the ancient
Eomans. Hence most of the high degrees
of Masonry which partake of a Christian
character are marked by Roman symbolism transmuted into Christian. But Craft
Masonry, more ancient and more universal,
finds its symbolic teachings almost exclusively in the Mosaic symbolism instituted
in the wilderness.
;

MOTHER

MOSES
If we inquire whence the Jewish lawgiver derived the symbolic system which
he introduced into his religion, the history
of his life will readily answer the question.
Philo-Judseus says that "Moses was instructed by the Egyptian priests in the
philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphics
as well as in the mysteries of the sacred
animals." The sacred historian tells us
that he was " learned in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians;" and Manetho and other
traditionary writers tell us that he was
educated at Heliopolis as a priest, under
his Egyptian name of Osarsiph, and that
there he was taught the whole range of
literature and science, which it was customary to impart to the priesthood of
Egypt. When, then, at the head of his
people, he passed away from the servitude
of Egyptian taskmasters, and began in the
wilderness to establish his new religion, it
is not strange that he should have given a
holy use to the symbols whose meaning he
had learned in his ecclesiastical education
on the banks of the Nile.
Thus is it that we find in the Mosaic
symbolism so many identities with the
Egyptian ritual. Thus the Ark of the
Covenant, the Breast-plate of the High
Priest, the Mitre, and many other of the
Jewish symbols, will find their analogies
in the ritualistic ceremonies of the EgypReghellini, who has written an
tians.
elaborate work on " Masonry considered as
the result of the Egyptian, Jewish, and
Christian Religions," says on the subject
"Moses, in his mysteries, and after him
Solomon, adopted a great part of the Egyptian symbols, which, after them, we Masons have preserved in our own."

Three Most Ancient Records of the Masonic

and wrote and published in
1809 a critical review of the work, in consequence of which the Grand Lodge commanded him to absent himself for an indefinite period from the Lodge.
Mossdorf
then withdrew from any further connection with the Fraternity. His most valuable contributions to Masonic literature are
his additions and emendations to Lenning's
Encyclopddie der Freimaurerei. He is the
author also of several other works of great
Fraternity,

value.

'

Moses,

nC^lO, which means

drawn

out; but the true derivation is from two

Egyptian words, /uo, mo, and owe, oushes, signifying saved from the water. The lawgiver
of the Jews, and referred to in some of the
higher degrees, especially in the twentyfifth degree, or Knight of the Brazen Serpent in the Scottish Rite, where he is represented as the presiding officer. He plays
also an important part in the Royal Arch
of the York and American Rites, all of
whose ritual is framed on the Mosaic symbolism.

Mossdorf, Friedrich. An eminent

German Mason, who was born March

2,

1757, at Eckartsberge, and died about

1830. He resided in Dresden, and took
an active part in the affairs of Masonry.

He

was a warm supporter of Fessler's Masonic reforms, and made several contributions to the Freyberg Freimaurerischen
Taschenbuche in defence of Fessler's system. He became intimately connected with
the learned Krause, the author of The

511

Most Excellent. The title given to

a Royal Arch Chapter, and to its presiding
officer, the High Priest; also to the presiding officer of a Lodge of Most Excellent
Masters.

Most
j

Excellent Master,

The

sixth degree in the York Rite. Its history

refers to the dedication of the Temple by
King Solomon, who is represented by its

presiding officer under the title of Most

Excellent. Its officers are the same as those
in a symbolic Lodge.
I have, however,
seen some rituals in which the Junior
Warden is omitted. This degree is peculiarly American, it being practised in no
other country. It was the invention of
Webb, who organized the capitular system
of Masonry as it exists in this country, and
established the system of lectures which
is the foundation of all subsequent systems taught in America.
Most Puissant. The title of the
presiding officer of a Grand Council of
Royal and Select Masters.
Most Worshipful. The title given
to a Grand Lodge and to its presiding
officer the Grand Master.
de Se"mestre. Half yearly
word. Every six months the Grand Orient
of France sends to each of the Lodges of
its obedience a password, to be used by its
members as an additional means of gaining admission into a Lodge. Each Mason
obtains this word only from the Venerable
of his own Lodge. It was instituted October 28th, 1773, when the Duke of Chartres was elected Grand Master.

Mot

Mother Council.

The Supreme

Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of
the United States of America, which was
organized in 1801, at Charleston, is called
the " Mother Council of the World," because from it have issued directly or indirectly all the other Supreme Councils of
the Rite which are now in existence, or

have existed since

its

Mother Lodge.

organization.
In the last century

certain Lodges in France and Germany assumed an independent position, and issued
Charters for the constitution of Daughter

;;

MOTION

MUNKHOUSE

Lodges claiming the prerogatives of Grand

Lodges. Thus we find the Mother Lodge
of Marseilles, in France, which constituted
many Lodges. In Scotland the Lodge of
Kilwinning took the title of Mother Lodge,
and issued Charters until it was merged in

workmen, especially by Masons, as a guide

in working mouldings and ornaments. It

512

the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The system

is altogether irregular, and has no sanction
in the present laws of the Fraternity.
Motion. A motion when made by a
member cannot be brought before the
Lodge for deliberation unless it is seconded
by another member. Motions are of two

and subsidiary ; a principal

one that presents an indepen-

kinds, principal

motion

is

dent proposition for discussion. Subsidiary

motions are those which are intended to afsuch as to amend
fect the principal motion
it, to lay it on the table, to postpone it defi-

consists of a thin board or plate of metal,

cut to represent the exact section of the
mouldings to be worked from it." In the
Cooke MS. the word maters is used, which
is evidently a corruption of the Latin matrix.
Stone. In the quotation from
the Harleian MS. in the preceding article,
the expression mould stones occurs, as it
does in other Constitutions and in many
old contracts. It means, probably, large
and peaked stones for those parts of the
building which were to have mouldings cut
upon them, as window and door-jambs.
CalTary. See Calvary.

Mould

Mount
Mount Moriah. See Moriah.
Mount Sinai. See Sinai.

Mourning. The mourning color has

been various in different times and counThus, the Chinese mourn in white
tries.
the Turks in blue or in violet the Egyptians
the spirit and genius of the Masonic or- in yellow the Ethiopians in gray. In all
ganization. See the author's Treatise on the degrees and rites of Masonry, with a
Parliamentary Law as applied to Masonic single exception, black is the symbol of
grief, and therefore the mourning color.
Bodies.
Motto. In imitation of the sentences But in the highest degrees of the Scottish
appended to the coats of arms and seals of Rite the mourning color, like that used by
the gilds and other societies, the Masons the former kings of France, is violet.
have for the different branches of their
Mouth to Car. The Mason is taught,
Order mottoes, which are placed on their by an expressive symbol, to whisper good
banners or put at the head of their docu- counsel in his brother's ear, and to warn
ments, which are expressive of the character him of approaching danger. " It is a rare
and design, either of the whole Order or thing," says Bacon, " except it be from a
of the particular branch to which the perfect and entire friend, to have counsel
motto belongs. Thus, in Ancient Craft given that is not bowed and crooked to
Masonry we have as mottoes the sentences, some ends which he hath that giveth it."
Ordo ab Chao, and Lux e tenebris; in Capit- And hence it is an admirable lesson, which
ular Masonry, Holiness to the Lord; in Masonry here teaches us, to use the lips
Templar Masonry, In hoc signo vinces; in and the tongue only in the service of a
Scottish Masonry, Ne plus ultra is the brother.
motto of the thirtieth degree, and Spes meo
Movahle Jewels. See Jewels of a
nitely or indefinitely, or to reconsider it, all
of which are governed by the parliamentary law under certain modifications to suit

in deo est of the thirty-second ; while the

thirty-third has for its motto JDeus meumque Jus. All of these will be found with
their signification and origin in their appropriate places.
Mould. This word is very common in
the Old Constitutions, where it is forbidden
that a Freemason should give a mould to
a rough Mason, whereby, of course, he would
be imparting to him the secrets of the Craft.
Thus, in the Harleian MS. " Alsoe that no
Mason shall make any mould, square, or
rule to any Rough Mason alsoe that no
Mason, within the Lodge or without, sett
or lay any mould stones without moulds of
find the word in
his own making."
:

We

Piers Ploughman's Vision

" If eny Mason there do makede a molde

With alle here wyse castes."
{Gloss. Architect., p. 313,) thus de-

Parker
fines it

"

The model

or pattern used by

Lodge.

Muenter, Friederich.
and died in 1830. He was

Born in
Professor
of Theology in the University of Copenhagen, and afterwards Bishop of Seeland.
He was the author of a treatise On the Symbols and Art Representations of the Early
Christians.
In 1794 he published his Statute Book of the Order of Knights Templars,
" Statutenbuch' des Ordens der Templeherren " a work which is one of the most
valuable contributions that we have to the
history of Templarism.
I>. !>..
c Richard. The author of Discourse in Praise
of Freemasonry, 8vo, Lond., 1805 An Exhortation to the Practice of those Specific Virtues
which ought to prevail in the Masonic Character, with Historical Notes, 8vo, Lond., 1805
and Occasional Discourses on Various Subjects, with Copious Annotations, 3 vols., 8vo,
Lond., 1805. This last work contains many
1761,

Munkhouse,

Rev
;

MURR

MYSTERIES

discourses on Masonic subjects. Dr. Munkhouse was an ardent admirer and defender
of Freemasonry, into which he was initiated in the Phoenix Lodge of Sunderland.
On his removal to Wakefield, where he was
rector of St. John the Baptist's Church, he
united with the Lodge of Unanimity, under
the Mastership of Richard Linnecar, to
whose virtues and Masonic knowledge he
has paid a high tribute. Dr. Munkhouse

died in the early part of this century.

Murr, Christopli Gottlieb Ton.

A

distinguished historical and archaeologi-

who was born at Nuremberg, in

and died April 8, 1811. In 1760 he

cal writer,

1733,

published an Essay on the History of the

Greek Tragic Poets; in 1777-82, six volumes
of Antiquities of Herculanceum, and several
other historical works. In 1803 he published an essay On the True Origin of the
Orders of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry,
with an Appendix on the History of the Order of Templars. In this work, Murr attempts to trace Freemasonry to the times
of Oliver Cromwell, and maintains that it
and Rosicrucianism had an identical origin,
and the same history until the year 1633,
when they separated.
Muscus Domus. In the early rituals of the last century, the tradition is
given, that certain Fellow Crafts, while
pursuing their search, discovered a grave
covered with green moss and turf, when
they exclaimed, Muscus Domus, Deo gratias,

which was interpreted, "Thanks be to

God, our Master has a mossy house."
Whence a Mason's grave came to be called
Muscus Domus.
But both the tradition
and its application have become obsolete
in the modern rituals.

Music.

One of

the seven liberal arts

whose beauties are inculcated

in the Fellow Craft's degree.
Music is
recommended to the attention of Masons,
and

sciences,

because as the " concord of sweet sounds "

elevates the generous sentiments of the
soul, so should the concord of good feeling
reign among the brethren, that by the
union of friendship and brotherly love the
boisterous

harmony

passions

may be

lulled,

and

exist throughout the Craft.

Mustard Seed, Order

of.

{Der

vom SenfJcorn.) This association,

whose members also called themselves
" The Fraternity of Moravian Brothers of
the Order of Religious Freemasons," was
Orden

one of the first innovations introduced into

German Freemasonry. It was instituted in
the year 1739. Its mysteries were founded
on that passage in the fourth chapter of
St. Mark's Gospel in which Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard
seed.
The brethren wore a ring, on which
was inscribed Keiner von uns lebt ihm sel-

3P

33

ber,

e.,

i.

"

No

one of us

513

lives for himself."

The jewel of the Order was a cross of gold

surmounted by a mustard plant in full
bloom, with the motto, Quod fuit ante

"What was before nothing."

i. e.,
was suspended from a green ribbon.

nihil,

It

The professed object of the association

was, through the instrumentality of Freemasonry, to extend the kingdom of Christ
over the world. It has long been obsolete.
Myrtle. The sacred plant of the Eleusinian mysteries, and analogous in its symbolism to the acacia of the Masons.
Mystagogue. The one who presided
at the Ancient Mysteries, and explained
the sacred things to the candidate.
He
was also called the hierophant. The word,
which is Greek, signifies literally one who
makes or conducts an initiate.
Mysteries, Ancient. Each of the
Pagan gods, says Warburton, (Div. Leg,,
I., ii. 4,) had, besides the public and open, a
which none
were admitted but those who had been
selected by preparatory ceremonies called
Initiation.
This secret worship was termed
secret worship paid to him, to

And

this is supported by
cap. 3,) who says that it
was common, both to the Greeks and the
Barbarians, to perform their religious cere-

the Mysteries.
Strabo,

(lib. x.,

monies with the observance of a festival,

and that they are sometimes celebrated
publicly and sometimes in mysterious privacy. Noel [Diet, de la Fable) thus defines
them Secret ceremonies which were practised in honor of certain gods, and whose
secret was known to the initiates alone,
who were admitted only after long and
painful trials, which it was more than their
life was worth to reveal.
:

As to their origin, Warburton is probably not wrong in his statement that the
first of which we have any account are
those of Isis and Osiris in Egypt; for
although those of Mithras came into Europe from Persia, they were, it is supposed,
^carried from Egypt by Zoroaster.
The most important of these mysteries
were the Osiric in Egypt, the Mithraic in
Persia, the Cabiric in Thrace, the Adonisian in Syria, the Dionysiac and Eleusinian in Greece, the Scandinavian among
the Gothic nations, and the Druidical
among the Celts.
In all these mysteries we find a singular
unity of design, clearly indicating a common origin, and a purity of doctrine as
evidently proving that this common origin
was not to be sought for in the popular
theology of the Pagan world. The ceremonies of initiation were all funereal in
their character. They celebrated the death
and the resurrection of some cherished being, either the object of esteem as a hero,

MYSTERIES

MYSTERIES

or of devotion as a god. Subordination of

degrees was instituted, and the candidate
was subjected to probations varying in
their character and severity; the rites
were practised in the darkness of night,
and often amid the gloom of impenetrable
forests or subterranean caverns; and the
full fruition of knowledge, for which so
much labor was endured, and so much
danger incurred, was not attained until the
aspirant, well tried and thoroughly purified, had reached the place of wisdom and
of light.
These mysteries undoubtedly owed their
origin to the desire to establish esoteric
philosophy, in which should be withheld
from popular approach those sublime truths
which it was supposed could only be intrusted
to those who had been previously prepared
Whence these docfor their reception.
trines were originally derived it would be
impossible to say ; but I am disposed to accept Creuzer's hypothesis of an ancient and
highly instructed body of priests, having
their origin either in Egypt or in the East,
from whom was derived religious, physical,
and historical knowledge, under the veil of
symbols.
By this confinement of these doctrines to
a system of secret knowledge, guarded by
the most rigid rites, could they only expect
to preserve them from the superstitions, innovations, and corruptions of the world as
" The distinguished few,"
it then existed.
says Oliver, (Hist. IniL, p. 2,) "who retained their fidelity, uncontaminated by
the contagion of evil example, would soon
be able to estimate the superior benefits of
an isolated institution, which afforded the
advantage of a select society, and kept at
an unapproachable distance the profane
scoffer, whose presence might pollute their
pure devotions and social converse, by contumelious language or unholy mirth." And
doubtless the prevention of this intrusion,
and the preservation of these sublime truths,
was the original object of the institution
of the ceremonies of initiation, and the
adoption of other means by which the initiated could be recognized, and the uniniSuch was' the opinion of
tiated excluded.
Warburton, who says that " the mysteries
were at first the retreats of sense and virtue,
till time corrupted them in most of the
gods."
The Abbe Robin in a learned work on
this subject entitled Becker ches sur les Initiations Anciens et Modemes, (Paris, 1870,)
places the origin of the initiations at that
remote period when erimes first began to

solitude to avoid the contagion of growing

corruption, devoted themselves to a life
of contemplation and the cultivation of
several of the useful sciences. The periodical return of the seasons, the revolution
of the stars, the productions of the earth,
and the various phenomena of nature,
studied with attention, rendered them useful guides to men, both in their pursuits of
industry and in their social duties. These
recluse students invented certain signs to

514

appear upon earth. The vicious, he remarks, were urged by the terror of guilt to
seek

among

the virtuous for intercessors

with the deity.

The

latter, retiring into

recall to the remembrance of the people

the times of their festivals and of their
rural labors, and hence the origin of the
symbols and hieroglyphics that were in use
among the priests of all nations. Having
now become guides and leaders of the people, these sages, in order to select as associates of their learned labors and sacred
functions only such as had sufficient merit
and capacity, appointed strict courses of
trial and examination, and this, our author
thinks, must have been the source of the
initiations of antiquity.
The Magi, Brah%
mans, Gymnosophists, Druids, and priests
of Egypt, lived thus in sequestered habitations and subterranean caves, and obtained
great reputation by their discoveries in astronomy, chemistry, and mechanics, by
their purity of morals, and by their knowledge of the science of legislation. It was
in these schools, says M. Robin, that the
first sages and legislators of antiquity were
formed, and in them he supposes the doctrines taught to have been the unity of God
and the immortality of the soul ; and it
was from these mysteries, and their symbols
and hieroglyphics, that the exuberant fancy
of the Greeks drew much of their mythology.
Warburton deduces from the ancient
from Cicero and Porphyry, from
writers
Origen and Celsus, and from others
what
was the true object of the mysteries. They
taught the dogma of the unity of God in
opposition to the polytheistic notions of the
people, and in connection with this the
doctrine of a future life, and that the initiated should be happier in that state than
all other mortals ; that while the souls of
the profane, at their leaving the body,
stuck fast in mire and filth and remained
in darkness, the souls of the initiated winged
their flight directly to the happy islands
and the habitations of the gods. " Thrice
happy they," says Sophocles, "who descended to the shades below after having
beheld these rites for they alone have life
in Hades, while all others suffer there every
kind of evil." And Isocrates declares that
" those who have been initiated in the mysteries, entertain better hopes both as to the
end of life and the whole of futurity."
Others of the ancients have given us the

MYSTERIES

MYSTERIES

515

same testimony as to their esoteric char- strong bearing upon susceptibilities and
"All the mysteries," says Plu- capacities of individuals, according as their
acter."
tarch, "refer to a future life and to the several dispositions inclined them more to
In another reflection and observation, or to a resigned
state of the soul after death."

We

place, addressing his wife, he says, "

have been instructed, in the religious rites

of Dionysus, that the soul is immortal, and

that there is a future state of existence."
Cicero tells us that, in the mysteries of
Ceres at Eleusis, the initiated were taught
to live happily and to die in the hope of a
blessed futurity. And, finally, Plato informs us that the hymns of Musaeus, which
were sung in the mysteries, celebrated the
rewards and pleasures of the virtuous in
another life, and the punishments which
awaited the wicked.
These sentiments, so different from the
debased polytheism which prevailed among
the uninitiated, are the most certain evidence that the mysteries arose from a purer
source than that which gave birth to the
religion of the vulgar.
I must not pass unnoticed Faber's notion
Finding, as he did,
of their arkite origin.
a prototype for every ancient cultus in the
ark of Noah, it is not surprising that he
should apply his theory to the mysteries.

"The

he says, (Orig. Pag.

"into the mysteries scenically represented the mythic descent into
Hades and the return from thence to the
light of day, by which was meant the entrance into the ark and the subsequent liberation from its dark enclosure. They all
equally related to the allegorical disappearance, or death, or descent of the great
initiations,"

Idol., II., iv. 5,)

their commencement; and his

invention, or revival, or return from Hades,
at their conclusion."
Dollinger (Gent, and Jew., i. 126,) says,
speaking of the mysteries, " the whole was
a drama, the prelude to which consisted in
purifications, sacrifices, and injunctions
with regard to the behavior to be observed.
The adventures of certain deities, their
sufferings and joys, their appearance on
earth, and relations to mankind, their
death, or descent to the nether world, their
return, or their rising again
all these, as
symbolizing the life of nature, were represented in a connected series of theatrical
scenes.
These representations, tacked on
to a nocturnal solemnity, brilliantly got up,
particularly at Athens, with all the resources of art and sensual beauty, and accompanied with dancing and song, were
eminently calculated to take a powerful
father, at

hold on the imagination and the heart,

credulity."

Bunsen (Ood in History, II., B. iv., ch. 6,)

gives the most recent and the most philosophic idea of the character of the mysteries.
They did, he says, " indeed exhibit to the initiated coarse physical symbols of the generative powers of Nature, and of the universal Nature herself, eternally, self-sustaining
through all transformations but the religious element of the mysteries consisted in
;

the relations of the universe to the soul,

more especially after death. Thus, even
without philosophic proof, we are justified
in assuming that the Nature symbolism referring to the Zodiac formed a mere framework for the doctrines relating to the soul
and to the ethical theory of the universe.
So, likewise, in the Samothracian worship
of the Kabiri, the contest waged by the
orb of day was represented by the story
of the three brothers (the seasons of the
year), one of whom is continually slain by
the other two, but ever and anon arises to
life again.
But here, too, the beginning
and end of the worship were ethical. A
sort of confession was demanded of the
candidates before admission, and at the
close of the service the victorious God
(Dionysus) was displayed as the Lord of
the spirit. Still less, however, did theorems of natural philosophy form the subject-matter of the Eleusinian mysteries, of
which, on the contrary, psychical conceptions were the beginning and the end. The
predominating idea of these conceptions
was that of the soul as a divine, vital force,
held captive here on earth and sorely tired
but the initiated were further taught to
look forward to a final redemption and
blessedness for the good and pious, and
eternal torments after death for the wicked
;

and unjust."

The esoteric character of the mysteries was

preserved by the most powerful sanctions.
An oath of secrecy was administered in the
most solemn form to the initiate, and to
violate it was considered a sacrilegious
crime, the prescribed punishment for which
was immediate death, and we have at least
one instance in Livy of the infliction of
the penalty. The ancient writers were therefore extremely reluctant to approach the
subject, and Lobeck gives in his Aglaophamus
(vol.

i.,

app. 131, 151

ii.

12, 87,) several

examples of the cautious manner in which

and to excite in the spectators alter- they shrunk from divulging or discussing
nately conflicting sentiments of terror, any explanation of a symbol which had
and calm, sorrow, and fear, and hope. been interpreted to them in the course of
They worked upon them, now by agitating, initiation. I would forbid, says Horaoe,
now by soothing, and meanwhile had a (L. iii., Od. 2,) that man who would divulge

MYSTERIES

MYSTERIES

the sacred rites of mysterious Ceres from

being under the same roof with me, or
from setting sail with me in the same precarious bark.
On the subject of their relation to the
rites of Freemasonry, to which they bear
in many respects so remarkable a resemblance, that some connection seems necessarily implied, there are five principal the :
ories.
The first is that embraced and
taught by Dr. Oliver, namely, that they are
but deviations from that common source,
both of them and of Freemasonry, the
patriarchal mode of worship established
by God himself. With this pure system of
truth, he supposes the science of Freemasonry to have been coeval and identified.
But the truths thus revealed by divinity
came at length to be doubted* or rejected
through the imperfection of human reason,
and though the visible symbols were retained in the mysteries of the Pagan world,
their true interpretation was lost.
There is a second theory which, leaving
the origin of the mysteries to be sought in
the patriarchal doctrines, where Oliver has
placed it, finds the connection between
them and Freemasonry commencing at the
building of King Solomon's Temple. Over
the construction of this building, Hiram,
the Architect of Tyre, presided. At Tyre
the mysteries of Bacchus had been introduced by the Dionysian Artificers, and into

links in a supposed chain of descent from

the mysteries to Freemasonry, and would
attribute their close resemblance to a natural coincidence of human thought. The
legend of the third degree, and the legends
of the Eleusinian, the Cabiric, the Dionysian, the Adonic, and all the other mys-

their fraternity Hiram, in all probability,

had, it is necessarily suggested, been admitted.
Freemasonry, whose tenets had
always existed in purity among the immediate descendants of the patriarchs, added
now to its doctrines the guard of secrecy,
which, as Dr. Oliver himself remarks, was
necessary to preserve them from perversion
or pollution.

the hitherto inaccessible portals of their

mysterious rites. The strict scrutiny of
the candidate's past life, and the demand
for proofs of irreproachable conduct, were
no longer deemed indispensable. The vile
and the vicious were indiscriminately, and

516

third theory has been advanced

by the

Abbe Robin,
masonry

in which he connects Freeindirectly with the mysteries,

through the intervention of the Crusaders.

In the work already cited, he attempts to
deduce, from the ancient initiations, the
orders of chivalry, whose branches, he
says, produced the institution of Freemasonry.
fourth theory, and this has been recently advanced by the Rev. Mr. King in
his treatise On the Gnostics, is that as some
of them, especially those of Mithras, were
extended beyond the advent of Christianity,
and even to the very commencement of the
Middle Ages, they were seized upon by the
secret societies of that period as a model
for their organization, and that through
these latter they are to be traced to Free-

masonry.
is

But perhaps, after all, the truest theory

that which would discard all successive

are identical in their object to teach

the reality of a future life and this lesson
is taught in all by the use of the same symbolism, and, substantially, the same scenic
representation.
And this is not because
the Masonic rites are a lineal succession
from the Ancient Mysteries, but because
there has been at all times a proneness of
the human heart to nourish this belief in a
future life, and the proneness of the human
mind to clothe this belief in a symbolic
And if there is any other more
dress.
direct connection between them it must be
sought for in the Roman Colleges of Artificers, who did, most probably, exercise some
influence over the rising Freemasons of
the early ages, and who, as the contemporaries of the mysteries, were, we may well
suppose, imbued with something of their
teries,

organization.

with a notice of their ultimate

flourish until long
after the Christian era but they at length
degenerated. In the fourth century, Christianity had begun to triumph. The Pagans,
desirous of making converts, threw open
I conclude

fate.

They continued to
;

even with avidity, admitted to participate

in privileges which were once granted only
to the noble and the virtuous.
The sun of
Paganism was setting, and its rites had become contemptible and corrupt. Their
character was entirely changed, and the
initiations were indiscriminately sold by
peddling priests, who wandered through
the country, to every applicant who was
willing to pay a trifling fee for that which
had once been refused to the entreaties of
a monarch. At length these abominations
attracted the attention of the emperors, and
Constantine and Gratian forbade their celebration by night, excepting, however, from
these edicts, the initiations at Eleusis. But
finally Theodosius, by a general edict of
proscription, ordered the whole of the Pagan
mysteries to be abolished, in the four hundred and thirty-eighth year of the Christian era, and eighteen hundred years after
their first establishment in Greece.
Clavel, however, says that they did not
entirely cease until the era of the restoration of learning, and that during a part of

MYSTERY

MYTH

the Middle Ages the mysteries of Diana,

under the name of the "Courses of Diana,"
and those of Pan, under that of the " Sabbats," were practised in country places.
But these were really only certain superstitious rites connected with the belief in
witchcraft.
The mysteries of Mithras,
which, continually attacked by the Fathers
of the Church, lived until the beginning of
the fifth century, were, I think, the last of
the old mysteries which had once exercised
so much influence over the Pagan world
and the Pagan religions.
Mystery. From the Greek [xvorripiov,
a secret, something to be concealed. The
gilds or companies of the Middle Ages, out
of which we trace the Masonic organization, were called mysteries, because they had
trade-secrets, the preservation of which was
a primary ordination of these fraternities.
" Mystery " and " Craft " came thus to be
synonymous words. In this secondary sense
we speak of the " Mystery of the Stonemasons " as equivalent to the " Craft of the
Stonemasons." But the Mystery of Freemasonry refers rather to the primary meaning of the word as immediately derived
from the Greek.
Mystes. (From the Greek uvo, to shut

nation, as opposed to that reasonable belief

in which the intellect and the heart, the
inward witness and the outward, are alike
engaged." The Pantheism of some of the
ancient philosophers and of the modern
Spinozaists, the Speculations of the Neoplatonists, the Anabaptism of Munster, the
system of Jacob Behmen, the Quietism of
Madame Guyon, the doctrines of the Bavarian Illuminati, and the reveries of Swe-'
denborg, all partake more or less of the

the eyes.

One who had been

initiated into

the Lesser Mysteries of Paganism. He was

now blind but when he was initiated into
the Greater Mysteries, he was called an
Epopt, or one who saw.
The Mystes was permitted to proceed no
farther than the vestibule or porch of the
temple. To the Epopts only was accorded
the privilege of admission to the adytum or
sanctuary.
female initiate was called a
Mystis.
Mystical. A word applied to any language, symbol, or ritual which is understood only by the initiated. The word was
first used by the priests to describe their
mysterious rites, and then borrowed by the
philosophers to be applied *to the inner,
esoteric doctrines of their schools.
In this
sense we speak of the mystical doctrines
of Speculative Masonry. Suidas derives
the word from the Greek uva, to close, and
especially to close the lips.
Hence the mystical is that about which the mouth should
be closed.
Mysticism.
word applied in religious phraseology to any views or tenden;

which aspire to more direct communication between God and man by the inward perception of the mind than can be
obtained through revelation. " Mysticism,"
says Vaughan, {Hours with the Mystics, i.

cies

"presents itself in all its phases as

more or less the religion of internal as opposed to external revelation
of heated
feeling, sickly sentiment, or lawless imagi19,)

517

The Germans have

the
two words, mystik and mysticismus,
former of which they use in a favorable, the
Mysticism
latter in an unfavorable sense.
is with them only another word for Pantheism, between which and Atheism there
Hence a belief in
is but little difference.
mysticism is with the German Freemasons

spirit of mysticism.

disqualification

for initiation into

the

Thus the second article of

the Statutes of the Grand Lodge of Hanover prescribes that " ein Freimaurer muss
vom Mysticismus und Atheismus gleich
weit entfernt stehen," i. e., "a Freemason
must be equally distant from Mysticism
and Atheism." Gadicke {Freimaurer-LexiMasonic

rites.

con) thus expresses the

" Etwas mystisch sollte

seyn, aber
ticismus,"

man

German sentiment
wohl jeder Mensch
vor grobem Mys-

hlite sich

i. e., " Every man

ought to be
somewhat mystical, but should guard against

coarse mysticism"

Mystic Tie. That

sacred and inviobond which unites men of the most

discordant opinions into one band of
brothers, which gives but one language to
men of all nations and one altar to men
of all religions, is properly, from the mysterious influence it exerts, denominated the
mystic tie and Freemasons, because they
alone are under its influence, or enjoy its
lable

benefits, are called "

Brethren of the mystic

tie."

Myth. The word myth, from the Greek

a story, in its original acceptation,
signified simply a statement or narrative
of an event, without any necessary implication of truth or falsehood but, as the word

fivdog,

now

used, it conveys the idea of a personal narrative of remote date, which, although not necessarily untrue, is certified
only by the internal evidence of the tradiThis definition, which is subtion itself.
stantially derived from Mr. Grote, {Hist, of
Greece, vol. i., ch. xvi., p. 479,) may be applied without modification to the myths of
Freemasonry, although intended by the
author only for the myths of the ancient

is

Greek

religion.

The myth,

then,

is

a narrative of remote

date, not necessarily true or false, but whose

truth can only be certified by internal evidence. The word was first applied to those

'

MYTH

MYTH

fables of the Pagan gods which have descended from the remotest antiquity, and
in all of which there prevails a symbolic
idea, not always, however, capable of a
positive interpretation. As applied to Freemasonry, the words myth and legend are

the legend, like the myths of the ancient

poets, becomes a symbol, which is to enunciate some sublime philosophical or religious truth. Eead in this way, and in this
way only, the myths or legends and traditions of Freemasonry will become interesting and instructive. See Legend.
historical
Historical.

518

synonymous.

From this definition it will appear that

the myth is really only the interpretation
of an idea. But how we are to read these
myths will best appear from these noble
words of Max Mutter, {Science of Lang., 2d
Ser., p. 578 :) "Everything is true, natural,
significant, if we enter with a reverent
spirit into the meaning of ancient art and
ancient language. Everything becomes
false, miraculous, and unmeaning, if we
interpret the deep and mighty words of
the seers of old in the shallow and feeble
sense of modern chroniclers."
A fertile source of instruction in Masonry
to be found in its traditions and mythical legends ; not only those which are incorporated into its ritual and are exemplified in its ceremonies, but those also which,
is

although forming no part of the Lodge

lec-

have been orally transmitted as portions of its history, and which, only within
a comparatively recent period, have been
committed to writing. But for the proper
tures,

appreciation of these traditions some preparatory knowledge of the general characIf all
ter of Masonic myths is necessary.
the details of these traditions be considered
as asserted historical facts, seeking to con-

vey nothing more nor less than historical

information, then the improbabilities and
anachronisms, and other violations of historical truth

which distinguish many of

them, must cause them to be rejected by

the scholar as absurd impostures. But
there is another and a more advantageous
view in which these traditions are to be
considered. Freemasonry is a symbolic ineverything in and about it is'
stitution
and nothing more eminently so
symbolic
than its traditions. Although some of
them as, for instance, the legend of the
third degree
have in all probability a
deep substratum of truth lying beneath,
over this there is superposed a beautiful
structure of symbolism. History has, perhaps, first suggested the tradition ; but then

Myth,

a myth that has a known and recognized foundation in historical truth, but
with the admixture of a preponderating
amount of fiction in the introduction of
Between
personages and circumstances.
the historical myth and the mythical history, the distinction cannot always be preserved, because we are not always able to
determine whether there is a preponderance
of truth or of fiction in the legend or narrative under examination.

myth

is

Mythical History. A myth

or le-

gend, in which the historical and truthful

greatly preponderate over the inventions
of fiction, may be called a mythical history.
Certain portions of the legend of the third
degree have^such a foundation in fact that
they constitute a mythical history, while
other portions, added evidently for the purposes of symbolism, are simply a historical

myth.

Mythology.
myths

Literally, the science of

and this is a very appropriate defifor mythology is the science which

nition,
treats of the religion of the ancient Pagans,

which was almost altogether founded on

myths, or popular traditions and legendary
tales
and hence Keightly (Mythol. of An;

and Italy, p. 2,) says that "mythology may be regarded as the repository
of the early religion of the people." Its
interest to a Masonic student arises from
the constant antagonism that existed between its doctrines and those of the Primitive Freemasonry of antiquity and the light
that the mythological mysteries throw upon
the ancient organization of Speculative
cient Greece

Masonry.

Myth Philosophical.

This is a
almost wholly unhistorical, and which has been invented
only for the purpose of enunciating and illustrating a particular thought or dogma.
The legend of Euclid is clearly a philosophical myth.

myth

or legend that

is

NAME

NAAMAH

619

N.
tfaamah. The

daughter of Lamech.
the " Legend of the Craft " attributes the invention of the art of weaving,
and she is united with her three brothers,
by the same legend, in the task of inscribing the several sciences on two pillars, that
the knowledge of them might be preserved
after the flood.
]Vabaiiii. See Schools of the Prophets,
In Scriptural symbology,
nakedness denoted sin, and clothing, protection.
But the symbolism of Masonry on
this subject is different.
There, to be
" neither naked nor clothed " is to make no
claim through worldly wealth or honors to
preferment in Masonry, where nothing but
internal merit, which is unaffected by the
outward appearance of the body, is received
as a recommendation for admission.

To her

Naked.

Name

reverential alluof God.

sion to the name of God, in some especial
and peculiar form, is to be found in the
doctrines and ceremonies of almost all nations.
This unutterable name was respected
by the Jews under the sacred form of the word
Jehovah. Among the Druids, the three letters I. O. W. constituted the name of Deity.
They were never pronounced, says Giraldus
Cambrensis, but another and less sacred
name was substituted for them. Each
The first is
letter was a name in itself.
the Word, at the utterance of which in the
beginning the world burst into existence
;

the second is the Word, whose sound still

continues, and by which all things remain
in existence the third is the Word, by the
utterance of which all things will be consummated in happiness, forever approaching to the immediate presence of the
Deity. The analogy between this and the
past, present, and future significations contained in the Jewish Tetragrammaton, will
;

give him false names." The Mohammedans believe that God has ninety -nine
names, which, with that of Allah, make
one hundred and, therefore, their chaplets
or rosaries are composed of one hundred
beads, at each of which they invoke one of
these names and there is a tradition, that
;

whoever frequently makes

this invocation
will find the gates of Paradise open to

ALLAH

him. With them

is the Ismal
adhem, the Great Name, and they bestow
upon it all the miraculous virtues which
the Jews give to the Tetragrammaton.
This, they say, is the name that was engraven on the stone which Japheth gave to
his children to bring down rain from
heaven and it was by virtue of this name
that Noah made the ark float on the waters,
and governed it at will, without the aid of
;

oars or rudder.
Among the Hindus there was the same
veneration of the name of God, as is evinced
in their treatment of the mystical name
AUM. The "Institutes of Menu" continually refer to the peculiar efiicacy of
this word, of which it is said, "All rites
ordained in the Veda, oblations to fire, and
solemn sacrifices pass away; but that which
passes not away is the syllable AUM, thence
called aishara, since it is a symbol of God,
the Lord of created beings."
There was in every ancient nation a
sacred name given to the highest god of its
religious faith, besides the epithets of the
other and subordinate deities.
The old
Aryans, the founders of our race, called
their chief god DYAUS, and in the Vedas
we have the invocation to Dyaus Pitar,
which is the same as the Greek Zev narrip,
and the Latin, Jupiter, all meaning the
Heaven-Father, and at once reminding us
of the Christian invocation to " Our Fa-

ther which art in heaven."

There is one incident in the Hindu mythere is a
science called ISM ALLAH, or the science thology which shows how much the old
of the name of God. "They pretend," Indian heart yearned after this expression
says Niebuhr, " that God is the lock of this of the nature of Deity by a name. There
science, and Mohammed the key; that, was a nameless god, to whom, as the "source
consequently, none but Mohammedans can of golden light," there was a worship.
attain it that it discovers what passes in This is expressed in one of the Veda
different countries that it familiarizes the hymns, where the invocation in every
possessors with the genii, who are at the stanza closes with the exclamation, " Who
command of the initiated, and who in- is the god to whom we shall offer our sacstruct them ; that it places the winds and rifice ? "
Now, says Bunsen, ( God in Histhe seasons at their disposal, and heals the tory, i. 302,) "the Brahmanic expositors
bites of serpents, the lame, the maimed, must needs find in every hymn the name
and the blind."
of a god who is invoked in it, and so, in this
In the chapter of the Koran entitled case, they have actually invented a gram"
God has many ex- matical divinity, the god Who." What
Araaf, it is written
cellent names. Invoke him by these names, more pregnant testimony could we have of
and separate yourselves from them who 'the tendency of man to seek a knowledge

be evident.

Among

the

Mohammedans

NAME

NAME

of the Divine nature in the expression of a

The Jews had, besides the Tetragrammaton or four-lettered name, two others one
consisting of twelve and the other of forty-

520

name?
The Assyrians worshipped
rac,

as their chief god.

Assur, or Asa-

On an

obelisk,

taken from the palace of Nimrod, we find

the inscription, ".to Asarac, the Great
Lord, the King of all the great gods."
Of the veneration of the Egyptians for
the name of their supreme god, we have a
striking evidence in the writings of Herodotus, the Father of History, as he has
been called, who during a visit to Egypt

was initiated into the Osirian mysteries.

Speaking of these initiations, he says, (B.
ii., c. 171,)
"the Egyptians represent by
night his sufferings, whose name I refrain
from mentioning" It was no more lawful
among the Egyptians than it was among
the Jews, to give utterance aloud to that

Holy Name.
At Byblos the Phoenicians worshipped
Eliun, the Most High God.
From him
was descended El, whom Philo identifies
with Saturn, and to whom he traces the
Hebrew Elohim. Of this EL, Max Mtiller
says that there was undeniably a primitive
religion of the whole Semitic race, and that
the Strong One in Heaven was invoked
under this name by the ancestors of the
Semitic races, before there were Babylonians in Babylonia, Phoenicians in Sidon and
Tyre, or Jews in Mesopotamia and Jerusalem. If so, then the Mosaic adoption
of Jehovah, with its more precise teaching
of the Divine essence, was a step in the
progress to the knowledge of the Divine
Truth.
In China there is an infinite variety of
names of elemental powers, and even of
ancestral spirits, who are worshipped as
subordinate deities but the ineffable name
is TIEN, compounded of the two signs for
great and one, and which the Imperial Dictionary tells us signifies " the Great One
He that dwells on high, and regulates all
below."
Drummond ( Origines) says that
was the name of the Supreme Deity among
the ancient Chaldeans. It is evidently
the Hebrew T)fr{ 3tf, and signifies "The
Father of Light."
The Scandinavians had twelve subordinate gods, but their chief or supreme deity
was Al-Fathr, or the All Father.
Even among the red men of America
we find the idea of an invisible deity,
whose name was to be venerated. Garcilasso de la Vega tells us that while the
Peruvians paid public worship to the sun,
it was but as a symbol of the Supreme
Being, whom they called Pachacamac, a
word meaning " the soul of the world," and
which was so sacred that it was spoken
only with extreme dread.
;

ABAUR

two

letters.

But Maimonides, in

his

More

Nevochim, (p. i., clxii.,) remarks that it is

impossible to suppose that either of these
constituted a single name, but that each
must have been composed of several words,
which must, however, have been significant
in making man approximate to a knowledge of the true essence of God. The Kabbalistical book called the Sohar confirms
this when it tells us that there are ten
names of God mentioned in the Bible, and
that when these ten names are combined
into one word, the number of the letters
amounts to forty-two. But the Talmudists,
although they did not throw around the
forty-tvvo-lettered name the sanctity of the
Tetragrammaton, prescribed that it should
be communicated only to men of middle
age and of virtuous habits, and that its
knowledge would confirm them as heirs of
the future as well as the present life. The
twelve-lettered name, although once common, became afterwards occult and when,
on the death of Simon the First, the priests
ceased to use the Tetragrammaton, they
were accustomed to bless the people with
Maimonides
the name of twelve letters.
very wisely rejects the idea, that any power
was derived from these letters or their pronunciation, and claims that the only virtue
of the names consisted in the holy ideas
expressed by the words of which they were
composed.
The following are the ten Kabbalistic
names of God, corresponding to the ten
Sephiroth: 1. Eheyeh; 2. Jah; 3. Jehovah; 4. El; 5. Eloah; 6. Elohim; 7. Jehovah Sabaoth; 8. Elohim Sabaoth; 9.
Elhi; 10. Adonai.
Lanzi extends his list of divine names to
twenty-six, which, with their signification,
;

are as follows
The
1. At.

Aleph and Tau, that is,

Alpha and Omega. A name figurative of
the Tetragrammaton.

The eternal, absolute principle

2. Ihoh.
of creation, and
destruction, the male and fe3. Hohi,
male principle, the author and regulator
of time and motion.
The Lord and Remunerator.
4. Jah.
5. Oh.
The severe and punisher.
The author of life.
6. Jao.
The author of death.
7. Azazel.
God of the co-ordina8. Jao-Sabaoth.
tions of loves and hatreds.
Lord of the
solstices and the equinoxes.
9. Ehie.
The Being the Ens.
10. El.
The first cause. The principle
or beginning of all things.
;

11. Elo-hi.

The good

principle.

NAMES

NAMES

The evil principle.

The succoring principle.
El-cannura. The abhorring principle.
Ell.
The most luminous.
II.
The omnipotent.
Ellohim. The omnipotent and benefi-

12. Elo-ho.

13. El-raccum.

14.
15.

16.

17.
cent,
18. Elohim.
The most beneficent.
19. Elo.
The Sovereign, the Excelsus.
20. Adon.
The Lord, the dominator.
21. Eloi.
The illuminator, the most effulgent.
22.

521

their numbers.
Thus, in the first edition
of the Book of Constitutions, published in
1723, we find a list of twenty Lodges, registered by their numbers, from " No. 1 " to
"No. 20," inclusive. Subsequently, they
were further designated by the name
of the tavern at which they held their
meetings. Thus, in the second edition of
the same work, published in 1738, we meet
with a list of one hundred and six Lodges,
designated sometimes, singularly enough,
as Lodge No. 6, at the Bummer Tavern, in

The most firm, the strongest. Queen Street No. 84, at the Black Bog, in
The most high.
Castle Street; or No. 98, at the Bacchus
Shaddai. The most victorious.
Tavern, in Little Bush Lane.
With such
Yeshurun. The most generous.
names and localities, we are not to wonder
Noil.
The most sublime.
that the " three small glasses of punch," of
Adonai.

23. Elion.
24.

25.
26.

Like the Mohammedan Ism Allah, Freemasonry presents us as its most important
feature with this science of the names of
God. But here it elevates itself above Talmudical and Rabbinical reveries, and becomes a symbol of Divine Truth. The
names of God were undoubtedly intended
originally to be a means of communicating
the knowledge of God himself. The name
was, from its construction and its literal
powers, used to give some idea, however
scanty, in early times, of the true nature
and essence of the Deity. The ineffable

name was

the symbol of the unutterable

sublimity and perfection of truth which
emanate from the Supreme God, while the
subordinate names were symbols of the
subordinate manifestations of truth. Freemasonry has availed itself of this system,
and, in its reverence for the Divine Name,
indicates its desire to attain to that truth
as the ultimate object of all its labor.
The
significant words of the Masonic system,
which describe the names of God wherever
they are found, are not intended merely as
words of recognition, but as indices, pointing
like the symbolic ladder of Jacob of
the first degree, or the winding stairs of
the second, or the three gates of the third
the way of progress from darkness to
light, from ignorance to knowledge, from
the lowest to the highest conceptions of Divine Truth. And this is, after all, the real
object of all Masonic science.

Names of Lodges.

The precedency

of Lodges does not depend on their names,

but on their numbers. The rule declaring
that " the precedency of Lodges is grounded
on the seniority of their Constitution " was

adopted on the 27th of December, 1727.

The number of the Lodge, therefore, by
which its precedency is established, is always to be given by the Grand Lodge.
In England, Lodges do not appear to have
received distinctive names before the latter
part of the last century. Up to that period
the Lodges were distinguished simply by

3Q

which Dr. Oliver so feelingly speaks in his

Book of the Lodge, were duly appreciated
nor, as he admits, that " there were some
brethren who displayed an anxiety to have
the allowance increased."
In 1766 we read of four Lodges that were
erased from the Register, under the similar
designations of the Globe, Fleet Street;
the Red Cross Inn, South wark ; No. 85, at
the George, Ironmongers' Lane; and the
Mercers' Arms, Mercers' Street. To only
one of these, it will be perceived, was a

number annexed.

The name and

locality

of the tavern was presumed to be a sufficient distinction.

It was not until about
the close of the eighteenth century, as has
been already observed, that we find distinctive names beginning to be given to the
Lodges for in 1793 we hear of the Shakspeare Lodge, at Stratford-on-Avon ; the
Royal Brunswick, at Sheffield ; and the
Lodge of Apollo, at Alcester. From that
time it became a usage among our English
brethren, from which they have never since
departed.
But a better taste began to prevail at a
much earlier period in Scotland, as well as
in the continental and colonial Lodges. In
Scotland, especially, distinctive names appear to have been used from a very early
period,, for in the very old charter granting
the office of Hereditary Grand Masters to
the Barons of Rosslyn, and whose date cannot be more recent than 1600, we find
among the signatures the names of the
officers of the Lodge of Dunfermline and the
Lodge of St. Andrew's. Among the name3
in the list of the Scotch Lodges in 1736
are those of St. Mary's Chapel, Kilwinning,
Aberdeen, etc. These names were undoubtedly borrowed from localities but in 1763,
while the English Lodges were still content
with their numerical arrangement only,
we find in Edinburgh such designations
as St. Luke's, Saint Giles's, and St. David's
Lodges.
The Lodges on the continent, it is true,
;

;;

NAMES

NAMES

first adopted the English method of

borrowing a tavern sign for their appellation; whence we find the Lodge at the
Golden Lion, in Holland, in 1734, and before that the Lodge at Hure's Tavern, in
But they soon abandoned
Paris, in 1725.

American Masonic nomenclature. The examination of a very few Eegisters, taken at

random, will readily evince this fact. Thus,
eighty-eight, out of one hundred and sixty
Lodges in Wisconsin, are named after towns

522
at

or counties
of four hundred and thirtyand inelegant mode of no- seven Lodges in Indiana, two hundred and
menclature; and accordingly, in 1739, a fifty-one have names derived from the
Lodge was organized in Switzerland under same source geographical names are found
the appropriate name of Stranger's Perfect in one hundred and eighty-one out of four
Union. Tasteful names, more or less sig- hundred and three Lodges in Ohio, and in
But,
nificant, began thenceforth to be adopted twenty out of thirty- eight in Oregon.
by the continental Lodges. Among them to compensate for this, we have seventy-one
we may meet with the Lodge of the Three Lodges in New Hampshire, and only two
Globes, at Berlin, in 1740; the Minerva local geographical appellations in the list.
Lodge, at Leipsic, in 1741 Absalom Lodge,
There are, however, some geographical
at Hamburg, in 1742 St. George's Lodge, names which are admissible, and, indeed,
the Lodge of highly appropriate. These are the names
at the same place, in 1743
the
Crowned Column, at Brunswick, in of places celebrated in Masonic history
1745 and an abundance of others, all with Such titles for Lodges as Jerusalem, Tyre,
distinctive names, selected sometimes with Lebanon, and Joppa are unexceptionable.
much and sometimes with but little taste. Patmos, which is the name of a Lodge in
But the worst of them was undoubtedly Maryland, seems, as the long residence of
better than the Lodge at the Goose and Grid- one of the patrons of the Order, to be uniron, which met in London in 1717.
objectionable. So, too, Bethel, because it
In America, from the very introduction signifies " the house of God " Mount Moof Masonry into the continent, significant riah, the site of the ancient Temple Calnames were selected for the Lodges and vary, the small hill on which the sprig of
hence we have, in 1734, St. John's Lodge, at acacia was found Mount Ararat, where the
;

this inefficient

Boston a Solomon's Lodge, in 1735, at both

Charleston and Savannah and a Union Kilwinning, in 1754, at the former place.
This brief historical digression will serve
as an examination of the rules which should
govern all founders in the choice of Lodge
names. The first and most important rule
is that the name of a Lodge should be
;

that is, it must allude to some Masonic fact or characteristic

in other words, there must be something
Masonic about it. Under this rule, all
names derived from obscure or unmasonic
localities should be rejected as unmeaning
and inappropriate. Dr. Oliver, it is true,
thinks otherwise, and says that " the name
of a hundred, or wahpentake, in which the
Lodge is situated, or of a navigable river,
which confers wealth and dignity on the
town, are proper titles for a Lodge." But
a name should always convey an idea, and
there can be conceived no idea worth treasuring in a Mason's mind to be deduced
from bestowing such names as New York,
Philadelphia, or Baltimore, on a Lodge.
The selection of such a name shows but
little originality in the chooser; and, besides, if there be two Lodges in a town,
each is equally entitled to the appellation
and if there be but one, the appropriation
of it would seem to indicate an intention
to have no competition in the future.
Yet, barren of Masonic meaning as are
such geographical names, the adoption of
them is one of the most common faults in
technically significant

ark of our father Noah rested; Ophir,

whence Solomon brought the gold and precious stones with which he adorned the
Temple; Tadmor, because it was a city
built by King Solomon; and Salem and
Jebus, because they are synonyms of Jerusalem, and because the latter is especially
concerned with Oman the Jebusite, on
whose "threshing-floor" the Temple was
are all excellent and
subsequently built,
But all
appropriate names for Lodges.
Scriptural names are not equally admissible.
Cabul, for instance, must be rejected,
because it was the subject of contention

between Solomon and Hiram of Tyre and

Babylon, because it was the place where
"language was confounded and Masonry
;

lost,"

and the scene of the subsequent cap-

tivity of

our ancient brethren

Jericho, be-

was under a curse and Misgab and

Tophet, because they were places of idol
worship. In short, it may be adopted as a
rule, that no name should be adopted whose

cause

it

antecedents are in opposition to the principles of Masonry.

The ancient patrons and worthies of
Freemasonry furnish a very fertile source
of Masonic nomenclature, and have been
very liberally used in the selection of
names of Lodges. Among the most important may be mentioned St. John, Solomon, Hiram, King David, Adoniram, Enoch,
The Widow's
Archimedes, and Pythagoras.
Son Lodge, of which there are several instances in the United States, is an affecting

NAMES

NAMES
and

significant

title,

which can hardly be

too often used.

is also to be had to the names
modern distinguished men who have

Recourse
of

523

Truth,
Union, and Virtue. Frequently, by a transposition of the word
" Lodge " and the distinctive appellation,
with the interposition of the preposition
" of," a more sonorous and emphatic name
Relief,

honored the Institution by their adherence

to it, or who, by their learning in Masonry, is given by our English and European
and by their services to the Order, have brethren, although the custom is but rarely
merited some marks of approbation. And followed in this country. Thus we have
hence we meet, in England, as the names by this method the Lodge of Regularity, the
of Lodges, with Sussex, Moira, Frederick, Lodge of Fidelity, the Lodge of Industry, and
Zetland, and Robert Burns; and in this the Lodge of Prudent Brethren, in England
country with Washington, Lafayette, Clin- and in France, the Lodge of Benevolent
Care must, how- Friends, the Lodge of Perfect Union, the
ton, Franklin, and Clay.
ever, be taken that no name be selected Lodge of the Friends of Peace, and the celeexcept of one who was both a Mason and brated Lodge of the Nine Sisters.
himself, either by services to his country, to the world, or to the
Order.
Oliver says that " the most appropriate titles are those which are assumed

had distinguished

from the name of some ancient benefactor

or meritorious individual who was a native
of the place where the Lodge is held as, in
a city, the builder of the cathedral church."
In this country we are, it is true, precluded
from a selection from such a source but
there are to be found some of those old benefactors of Freemasonry, who, like Shakspeare and Milton, or Homer and Virgil,
have ceased to belong to any particular
country, and have now become the common
property of the world-wide Craft. There
;

are, for instance, Carausius, the first royal

patron of Masonry in England; and St.

Alban, the first Grand Master and Athelstan and Prince Edwin, both active encouragers of the art in the same kingdom.
There are Wykeham, Gundulph, Giffard,
Langham, Yevele, (called, in the old records,
the King's Freemason,) and Chicheley, Jermyn, and Wren, all illustrious Grand Masters of England, each of whom would be
well entitled to the honor of giving name
to a Lodge, and any one of whom would be
better, more euphonious, and more spiritstirring than the unmeaning, and oftentimes crabbed, name of some obscure village or post-office, from which too many
of our Lodges derive their titles.
And then, again, among the great bene;

factors to Masonic literature and laborers

in Masonic science there are such names as
Anderson, Dunckerley, Preston, Hutchinson,
Town, Webb, and a host of others, who,
though dead, still live by their writings in

our memories.

The virtues and tenets

the inculcation
and practice of which constitute an important part of the Masonic system
form
very excellent and appropriate names for
Lodges, and have always been popular
among correct Masonic nomenclators.
Thus we everywhere find such names as

Concord, Equality, Faith, Fellowship, Harmony, Hope, Humility, Mystic Tie,

Charity,

As the names of

illustrious

men

will

sometimes stimulate the members of the

Lodges which bear them to an emulation
of their characters, so the names of the Masonic virtues may serve to incite the brethren to their practice, lest the inconsistency
of their names and their conduct should
excite the ridicule of the world.
Another fertile and appropriate source
of names for Lodges is to be found in the
symbols and implements of the Order.
Hence, we frequently meet with such titles
as Level, Trowel, Rising Star, Rising Sun,
Olive Branch, Evergreen, Doric, Corinthian,
Delta, and Corner-Stone Lodges. Acacia is
one of the most common, and at the same
time one of the most beautiful, of these symbolic names; but, unfortunately, through
gross ignorance, it is often corrupted into
Cassia
an insignificant plant, which has
no Masonic or symbolic meaning.
An important rule in the nomenclature
of Lodges, and one which must at once
recommend itself to every person of taste,
is that the name should be euphonious.
This principle of euphony has been too little attended to in the selection of even geographical names in this country, where
names with impracticable sounds, or with
ludicrous associations, are often affixed to
our towns and rivers. Speaking of a certain island, with the unpronounceable name
of " Srh," Lieber says, " If Homer himself
were born on such an island, it could not
become immortal, for the best - disposed
scholar would be unable to remember the
name " and he thinks that it was no trifling obstacle to the fame of many Polish
heroes in the revolution of that country,
that they had names which left upon the
mind of foreigners no effect but that of ut-

An error like this must always be avoided in bestowing a name upon

a Lodge. The word selected should be soft,
ter confusion.

vocal

not

above

all,

and,
too long nor too short
be accompanied in its sound or

meaning by no low, indecorous, or ludicrous association. For this reason such

names of Lodges should be rejected as She~

NAMES

NAMES

boygan and Oconomowoc from the registry

of Wisconsin, because of the uncouthness
of the sound and Bough and Ready and
Indian Diggings from that of California, on
account of the ludicrous associations which
these names convey. Again, Pythagoras
Lodge is preferable to Pythagorean, and
Archimedes is better than Archimedean, because the noun is more euphonious and
more easily pronounced than the adjective.

the Gulf, receiving in its stately progress,

mighty children to its bosom but
the same name has no significance whatever when applied to a Lodge. Mississippi,
as the name of a river, has a meaning, and
an appropriate one, too as the name of a
Lodge it has none, or a wholly inappropri-

524

But this rule is difficult to illustrate or enforce; for, after all, this thing of euphony
is a mere matter of taste, and we all know
the adage, " de gustibus."
few negative rules, which are, however,
easily deduced from the affirmative ones
already given, will complete the topic.
No name of a Lodge should be adopted
which is not, in some reputable way, connected with Masonry. Everybody will acknowledge that Morgan Lodge would be an
anomaly, and that Cowan Lodge would, if
But there are some
possible, be worse.
names which, although not quite as bad as
these, are on principle equally as objectionable.
Why should any of our Lodges, for
instance, assume, as many of them have,
the names of Madison, Jefferson, or Taylor,
since none of these distinguished men were
Masons or patrons of the Craft?
The indiscriminate use of the names of
saints unconnected with Masonry is for a
similar reason objectionable. Besides our
patrons St. John the Baptist and St. John
the Evangelist, but three other saints can
lay any claims to Masonic honors, and these
are St. Alban, who introduced, or is said to
have introduced, the Order into England,
and has been liberally complimented in the
nomenclature of Lodges and St. Swithin,
who was at the head of the Craft in the
reign of Ethel wolf and St. Benedict, who
was the founder of the Masonic fraternity
of Bridge Builders. But St. Mark, St.
Luke, St. Andrew, all of whom have given
names to numerous Lodges, can have no
pretensions to assist as sponsors in these
Masonic baptisms, since they were not at
all connected with the Craft.
To the Indian names of Lodges there is
a radical objection. It is true that their
names are often very euphonious and always significant, for the red men of our
continent are tasteful and ingenious in their
selection of names
much more so, indeed,
than the whites, who borrow from them;
but their significance has nothing to do
with Masonry.
"The Father of the
Waters" is a profoundly poetic name in
the original Indian tongue, now represented
by the word " Mississippi," and beautifully
expresses the name of that majestic river,
which pursues its long course of three
thousand miles from beyond the lakes to

all its

Such names, therefore, as Tulahoma, Tohepeka, Tuscarawas, or Keozanqua,

mellifluous as some of them are in sound,
should be rejected, because, if they have an
appropriate meaning, scarcely any one
ate one.

knows what

it

is;

and

it

is

much more

probable that they have no appropriate

meaning at all. The Indian names of
rivers, mountains, and towns should be
preserved, because they are the memorials
of the original owners of the soil but the
Indians have no such claims upon Masonry.
There is, in the jurisdiction of New York,
a Manhattan Lodge now it is said that,
in the aboriginal language, Manhattan
means " the place where we all got drunk,"
and the island was so called because it was
there that the savages first met the white
men, and tasted to excess their " fire water."
It is not difficult to decide whether a name
with such a meaning is appropriate for a
Lodge, one of whose cardinal principles is
temperance
a principle which I have not
the least doubt that the worthy members
of Manhattan Lodge duly observe. There
is, besides all this, an incongruity in borrowing the appellations of a great religious
and scientific association from the language
of savage and idolatrous tribes.
The. same incongruity forbids the name
of the heathen deities. The authors of the
"Helvetian Code" condemn the use of
such names as the Apollo, the Minerva, or
the Vesta, " as being heathen, and furnishing ideas of idolatry and superstition."
From this rule should, however, be excepted
a few names of Pagan divinities, which
have in philosophical language become the
symbols of ideas appropriate to the Masonic system. Thus Hermes, as the symbol
of science, or Vesta, as denoting the fire of
Masonry, which burns undimmed upon its
but such titles as
altars, may be tolerated
Venus and Mars, both of which are to be
found in old lists of Eussian Lodges, are
;

clearly inadmissible.
These rules and the principles on which
they are founded are by no means unim*
portant. If the old Latin adage be true
"bonum nomen, bonum omen" if, in

every circumstance of life, a good name is

found to be more propitious than a bad
one, then it is essential that a new Lodge,
making choice of a name by which it shall
forever thereafter be known, should rather
select one that is appropriate, euphonious,
and expressive, than one that is unfitting,

NAMUK

NAYMUS

uncouth, and meaningless. And it is useful that some rules should be established
by which the members may be enabled
without difficulty to make this selection.
It is not meant to exaggerate the importance of names but, while it is admitted
that a good Lodge with a bad name is
better than a bad Lodge with a good one,
it is certain that a good Lodge with a good
name is better than either.
What has been said of Lodges may with
equal propriety be said, mutatis mutandis,
of Chapters, Councils, and Commanderies.
Xaiuiir. A city of Belgium, where the
Primitive Scottish Rite was first established
hence sometimes called the Rite of Namur.
Xaplitali. The territory of the tribe
of Naphtali adjoined, on its western border,
to Phoenicia, and there must, therefore,
have been frequent and easy communication
between the Phoenicians and the Naphtal;

ites, resulting sometimes in intermarriage.

This will explain the fact that Hiram the
Builder was the son of a widow of Naphtali

and a man of Tyre.

Naples. Freemasonry must have been
practised in Naples before 1751, for in that
year King Charles issued an edict forbid-

25

on the accession of the Bour-

in 18i5,
bons.

Napoleonic Masonry An Order

under this name, called also the French
Order of Noachites, was established at
Paris, in 1816, by some of the adherents of
the Emperor Napoleon. It was divided
into three degrees: 1. Knight; 2. Com<>

mander

3.

Grand

Elect.

The

last

degree

was subdivided into three points i. Secret

Judge ii. Perfect Initiate iii. Knight of
the Crown of Oak. The mystical ladder
:

in this Rite consisted of eight steps or

whose names were Adam, Eve,

Noah, Lamech, Naamah, Peleg, Oubal,
and Orient. The initials of these words,
properly transposed, compose the word Napoleon, and this is enough to show the
stages,

character of the system.

General Bertrand was elected Grand Master, but, as he
was then in the island of St. Helena, the
Order was directed by a Supreme Commander and two Lieutenants. It was Masonic in form only, and lasted but for a few
years.

National Grand Lodge of Ger-

many.

The Royal Mother Lodge of the

Three Globes, which had been established
The author of at Berlin in 1740, and recognized as a
ding it in his dominions.
Anti-Saint Nicaise says that there was a Grand Lodge by Frederick the Great in
Grand Lodge at Naples, in 1756, which was 1744, renounced the Rite of Strict Observin correspondence with the Lodges of Ger- ance in 1771, and, declaring itself free and
many. But its meetings were suspended independent, assumed the title of "The
by a royal edict in Sept., 1775. In 1777 Grand National Mother Lodge of the Three
this edict was repealed at the instigation Globes," by which appellation it is still
of the Queen, and Masonry was again toler- known.
ated. This toleration lasted, however, only
for a brief period.
In 1781 Ferdinand IV.
renewed the edict of suppression, and from
that time until the end of the century
Freemasonry was subjected in Italy to the

The Grand Orient

first acts,

of France,

established, as

among

its

an integral part

of itself, a National Grand Lodge of France,

to take the place of the old Grand
Lodge, which, it declared, had ceased to
exist.
But the year after, in 1773, the National Grand Lodge was suppressed by the
power which had given it birth and no such
power is now recognized in French Masonry.

which was

combined persecutions of the Church and

State, and the Masons of Naples met only
in secret. In 1793, after the French Revolution, many Lodges were openly organized.
A Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite Xaymus Grecus. The Sloane MS.
was established on the 11th of June, 1809, contains the following passage " Y befell
of which King Joachim was elected Grand that their was a curious Masson that height
Master, and the Grand Orient of Naples on [was called] Naymus Grecus that had byn
the 24th of the same month. The fact that at the making of Sallomon's Temple, and
the Grand Orient worked according to the he came into France, and there he taught,
French Rite, and the Supreme Council ac- the science of Massonrey to men of France."
cording to the Scottish, caused dissensions Who was this "Naymus Grecus"? The
between the two bodies, which, however, writers of these old records of Masonry are
were finally healed. And on the 23d of notorious for the way in which they mangle
May, 1811, a Concordat was established all names and words that are in a foreign
between the Supreme Council and the tongue. Hence it is impossible to say who
Grand Orient, by which the latter took the or what is meant by this word. It is difsupervision of the degrees up to the eigh- ferently spelled in the various manuscripts
teenth, and the former of those from the Namas Grecious in the Landsdowne, Naymus
eighteenth to the thirty-third. In October, Gr&cus in the Sloane, Grecus alone in the
1812, King Joachim accepted the presi- Edinburgh-Kilwinning, and Maynus Grecus
dency of the Supreme Council as its Grand in the Dowland. Anderson, in the second
Commander. Both bodies became extinct edition of his Constitutions, (1738,). calls
;

NAZARETH

NEGRO

Orecus.
Now, it would not be
an altogether wild conjecture to suppose
that some confused idea of Magna Graecia
was floating in the minds of these unlettered
Masons, especially since the Leland Manuscript records that in Magna Grsecia Pythagoras established his school, and then sent
Masons into France. Between Magna Grcecia and Maynus Greeus the bridge is a short
one, not greater than between Tubal -mm
and Wackan, which we find in a German
Middle Age document. The one being the
name of a place and the other of a person
would be no obstacle to these accommodating record writers; nor must we flinch
at the anachronism of placing one of the
disciples of Pythagoras at the building of
the Solomonic Temple, when we remember
that the same writers make Euclid and

a siege of eighteen months, reduced it.

The city was levelled with the ground, the
Temple pillaged and burned, and the inhabitants carried captive to Babylon. These

526

him Mimus

Abraham

contemporaries.
of Galilee, in which
our Saviour spent his childhood and much
of his life, and whence he is often called,
in the New Testament, the Nazarene, or
Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus Nazarenus was a
portion of the inscription on the cross.
(See I. N. R. I.) In the Rose Croix, Nazareth is a significant word, and Jesus is
designated as " our Master of Nazareth,"
to indicate the origin and nature of the new
dogmas on which the Order of the Rosy
Cross was instituted.
Nebraska. Masonry was introduced
?
into Nebraska in Oct., 1855, by a Charter
from the Grand Lodge of Illinois to Nebraska Lodge. Two other Lodges were subsequently chartered by the Grand Lodges
of Missouri and Iowa. In Sept., 1857, the
Grand Lodge of Nebraska was organized
by a convention of delegates from these
three Lodges, and R. C. Jordan was elected
Grand Master. The Grand Chapter was
organized March 19, 1867.
The Grand
Commandery of Nebraska was instituted
at Omaha, December 28, 1871.
Nebuehadnezzar. About 630 years
b. c. the empire and city of Babylon were
conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of
the Chaldeans, a nomadic race, who, descending from their homes in the Caucasian mountains, had overwhelmed the
Nebuchadcountries of Southern Asia.
nezzar was engaged during his whole reign
in wars of conquest.
Among other nations

Nazareth. A city

who

fell beneath his victorious arms was

Judea, whose king, Jehoiakim, was slain
by Nebuchadnezzar, and his son, Jehoiachin, ascended the Jewish throne. After
a reign of three years, he was deposed by
Nebuchadnezzar, and his kingdom given
to his uncle, Zedekiah, a monarch distinguished for his vices. Having repeatedly
rebelled against the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar repaired to Jerusalem, and, after

events are commemorated in the first section

of the English and American Royal Arch
system.
captain, or, as we
Nebuzaradan.
would now call him, a general of Nebuchadnezzar, who commanded the Chaldean
army at the siege of Jerusalem, and who
executed the orders of his sovereign by
the destruction of the city and Temple, and
by carrying the inhabitants, except a few
husbandmen, as captives to Babylon.
Negro Lodges. The subject of
Lodges of colored persons, commonly called
"Negro Lodges," was for many years a
source of agitation in the United States,
not on account, generally, of the color of
the members of these Lodges, but on account of the supposed illegality of their
charters.
The history of their organization
was thoroughly investigated, many years
ago, by Bro. Philip S. Tucker, of Vermont,
and Charles W. Moore, of Massachusetts,
and the result is here given, with the addition of certain facts derived from a statement made by the officers of the Lodge in

1827.

On the 20th of Sept., 1784, a Charter for

a Master's Lodge was granted, although not
received until 1787, to Prince Hall and
others, all colored men, under the authority
of the Grand Lodge of England. The
Lodge bore the name of " African Lodge,
No. 429," and was situated in the city of
Boston. This Lodge ceased its connection
with the Grand Lodge of England for many
years, and about the beginning of the present century its registration was stricken
from the rolls of that Grand Lodge, its legal
existence, in the meantime, never having
been recognized by the Grand Lodge of
Massachusetts, to which body it had always
refused to acknowledge allegiance.
After the death of Hall and his colleagues, to whom the Charter had been
granted, the Lodge, for want of some one
to conduct its affairs, fell into abeyance, or,
to use the technical phrase, became dormant. After some years it was revived, but
by whom, or under what process of Masonic law, is not stated, and information of
the revival given to the Grand Lodge of
England, but no reply or recognition was
received from that body. After some hesitation as to what would be the proper
course to pursue, they came to the conclusion, as they have themselves stated, " that,
with what knowledge they possessed of Masonry, and as people of color by themselves,
they were, and ought by rights to be, free
and independent of other Lodges." Ac-

NETHERLANDS

NEIGHBOR
cordingly, on the 18th of June, 1827, they
issued a protocol, in which they said "
publicly declare ourselves free and independent of any Lodge from this day, and
we will not be tributary or governed by any
Lodge but that of our own." They soon
after assumed the name of the "Prince
Hall Grand Lodge," and issued charters
for the constitution of subordinates, and
from it have proceeded all the Lodges of
colored persons now existing in the United
:

We

States.

Admitting even the legality of the English charter of 1784,

which,

however,

is

questionable, as there was already a Masonic authority in Massachusetts upon

whose prerogatives of jurisdiction such
charter was an invasion, it cannot be denied that the unrecognized self-revival of
1827, and the subsequent assumption of
Grand Lodge powers, were illegal, and rendered both the Prince Hall Grand Lodge

and

the Lodges which emanated from

And this has been the
unanimous opinion of all Masonic jurists in
this country.
Neighbor. All the Old Constitutions
have the charge that " every Mason shall
keep true counsel of Lodge and Chamber/'
(Sloane MS.)
This is enlarged in the Andersonian Charges of 1722 thus " You are
it

all

clandestine.

not to let your family, friends, and neighbors

know the concerns of the Lodge." However loquacious a Mason may be in the
natural confidence of neighborhood intercourse, he must be reserved in all that relates to the esoteric concerns of Masonry.

Xekaiu.

Dp J.

But properly, accord-

ing to the Masoretic pointing,

NAKAM.

Hebrew word

signifying Vengeance, and a

significant word in the high degrees. See
Vengeance.
ilDpJ.
Hebrew, signifying Vengeance, and, like Nakam, a significant word in the high degrees.
corruption of Nimrod,
Nembroth.
frequently used in the Old Records.

Nekamah.

Neophyte,
planted.

Greek, veo<pvroc, newly

In the primitive church, it signi-

one who had recently abandoned Judaism or Paganism and embraced Christian-

fied

and in the Roman Church those recently admitted into its communion are
still so called.
Hence it has also been applied to the young disciple of any art or
ity;

science.
Thus Ben Jonson calls a young
actor, at his first entrance " on the boards,"
a neophyte player. In Freemasonry the
newly initiated and uninstructed candidate
is

sometimes so designated.

Neoplatonisui.

philosophical

school, founded at Alexandria in Egypt,

which added to the theosophic theories of
Plato many mystical doctrines borrowed

527

from the East. The principal disciples of

this school were Philo, Judaeus, Plotinus,
Porphyry, Jamblichus, Proclus, and Julian
the Apostate. Much of the symbolic teaching of the higher degrees of Masonry has
been derived from the school of the Neoplatonists, especially from the writings of
Jamblichus and Philo Judaeus.
plus ultra. Latin. Nothing more
beyond.
The motto adopted for the degree
of Kadosh by its founders, when it was
supposed to be the summit of Masonry, beyond which there was nothing more to be
sought.
And, although higher degrees
have been since added, the motto is still

Ne

retained.

Netherlands. Speculative Masonry

was first introduced in the Netherlands by
the opening at the Hague, in 1731, of an occasional Lodge under a Deputation granted by
Lord Lovel, G. M. of England, of which Dr.
Desaguliers was Master, for the purpose of
conferring the first and second degrees on the
Duke

of Lorraine, afterwards the Emperor

Francis I. He received the third degree
subsequently in England. But it was not
until September 30th, 1734, that a regular
Lodge was opened by Brother Vincent de
la Chapelle, as Grand Master of the United
Provinces, who may therefore be regarded
as the originator of Masonry in the Netherlands.
In 1735, this Lodge received a
Patent or Deputation from the Grand Lodge
of England, John Cornelius Rademaker,
being appointed Provincial Grand Master,
and several daughter Lodges were established by it. In the same year the
States General prohibited all Masonic
meetings by an edict issued Nov. 30th, 1735.
The Roman clergy actively persecuted the
Masons, which seems to have produced a reaction, for in 1737 the magistrates repealed
the edict of suppression, and forbade the
clergy from any interference with the
Order, after which Masonry flourished in
the United Provinces. The Masonic innovations and controversies that had affected
the resfof the continent never successfully
obtruded on the Dutch Masons, who practised with great fidelity the simple rite of
the Grand Lodge of England, although
an attempt had been made in 1757 to introduce them. In 1798, the Grand Lodge
adopted a Book of Statutes, by which it accepted the three symbolic degrees, and referred the four high degrees of the French
Rite to a Grand Chapter. In 1816, Prince
Frederick attempted a reform in the degrees, which was, however, only partially
successful.
The Grand Lodge of the
Netherlands, whose Orient is at the Hague,
tolerates the high degrees without actually
recognizing them. Most of the Lodges
confine themselves to the symbolic degrees

NET-WORK

NICOLAI

of St. John's Masonry, while a few practhe reformed system of Prince Fred-

prerogative by the establishment of Lodges

in that province, but presume that he did.
On Dec. 18, 1786, a convention was held
at New Brunswick, and a Grand Lodge organized, the Hon. David Brearley, Chief
Justice of the State, being elected Grand
Master. The Grand Chapter was organized at Burlington, Dec. 30, 1856; the
Grand Council, Nov. 26, I860; and the
Grand Commandery, Feb. 14, 1860.
Tiew York. If we exclude the Deputation of David Coxe for New Jersey,
which included New York and several
other provinces, the first Deputation for
New York was that granted in 1737, during the Grand Mastership of the Earl of
Darnley, to Eichard Eiggs as Provincial
Grand Master; but there is no record of
his having established any Lodges.
In
1747 another Deputation was issued, during
the Grand Mastership of Lord Byron, to
Francis Goelet. In 1753, Lord Carysfort
being Grand Master of England, a Deputation was issued to George Harrison. As
Provincial Grand Master, he organized
several Lodges. In 1760, Sir John Johnson was appointed Provincial Grand Master, and he held the office until the commencement of the Eevolutionary War.
During that war most, if not all, of the
Lodges suspended labor. On Sept. 5, 1781,
a Warrant was obtained from the Athol
Grand Lodge, and a Provincial Grand
Lodge was opened in the city of New
York.
After the close of the war, this
body abandoned its provincial character, and
assumed the title of the " Grand Lodge of
Free and Accepted Masons of the State of
New York," and under that title it continues to exist. Dissensions and schisms
have, from time to time, arisen, but for
many years past there has been uninterrupted harmony and union. The Grand
Chapter was organized March 4, 1798 the
Grand Council of Eoyal and Select Masters in 1807 ; and the Grand Commandery,
June 18, 1814. The Scottish Eite was first
legally introduced as a governing body in
1813, by the formation, in the city of New
York, of a Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction by the Mother Council at
Charleston.
Lodge of Perfection had,
however, long before existed at Albany.

528

tise

erick.

^et-Worlt. One of the decorations

of the pillars at the porch of the Temple.
See Pillars of the Porch.
UJevada. Nevada was originally a
part of California, and when separated
from it in 1865, there were eight Lodges
in it working under Charters from the
Grand Lodge of California. These Lodges
in that year held a convention at Virginia,
and organized the Grand Lodge of Nevada.
Tie Varietur, Latin. Lest it should
These words refer to the Mabe changed.
sonic usage of requiring a brother, when he
receives a certificate from a Lodge, to affix
his name, in his own handwriting, in the
margin, as a precautionary measure, which
enables distant brethren, by a comparison
of the handwriting, to recognize the true
and original owner of the certificate, and
to detect any impostor who
tiously have obtained one.

may

surrepti-

Tiew Brunswick. Freemasonry was

introduced into this province about the
middle of the last century by both the
Grand Lodges of Scotland and England,
and afterwards by that of Ireland. The
former two bodies appointed, at a later
period, Provincial Grand Masters, and in
1844 the Provincial Grand Lodge of Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick was organized
on the registry of Scotland. The province
of New Brunswick becoming an independent portion of the Dominion of Canada, a

Grand Lodge was

established in Septem-

ber, 1867, by a majority of the Lodges of

the territory, and B. Lester Peters was
Capitular, Cryptic,
elected Grand Master.
and Templar Masonry each have bodies in

the province.

New

Hampshire. Freemasonry
was introduced into New Hampshire in
June, 1734, by the constitution of St.
John's Lodge at Portsmouth, under a
Charter from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
Several other Lodges were subsequently constituted by the same auIn 1789 a convention of these
thority.
Lodges was held at Dartmouth, and the
A
Grand Lodge of New Hampshire organized, and John Sullivan, the President of
the State, was elected Grand Master. A
Xicolai, Curistoph Friedricu.
Grand Chapter was organized in 1819, and a Christopher Frederick Nicolai, author of
a very interesting essay on the origin of
Grand Commandery in 1860.
New Jersey. We do not know at the Society of Freemasons, was a bookwhat precise period Freemasonry was in- seller of Berlin, and one of the most dis~
;

New Jersey. Preston says

that in 1729, during the Grand Mastership
of the Duke of Norfolk, Mr. Daniel Coxe
was appointed Provincial Grand Master
I have not been able to
for New Jersey.
obtain any evidence that he exercised his
troduced into

tinguished of the German savans of that

Augustan age of German literature in which
he lived. He was born at Berlin on the
18th of March, 1733, and died in the same
city on the 8th of January, 1811. He was the
editor of, and an industrious contributor to,

NICOLAI

NIGHT

two German periodicals of high literary character, a learned writer on various subjects
of science and philosophy, and the intimate
friend of Lessing, whose works he edited,
and of the illustrious Mendelssohn.
In 1782-3, he published a work with the

naturally adopted the Masonic implements

Although this association, like
as symbols.
the Royal Society, sought, but by a different
method, to inculcate the principles of natural science and philosophy, it subsequently
Most of its
took a political direction.
members were strongly opposed to the
puritanism of the dominant party and were
in favor of the royal cause, and hence their
meetings, ostensibly held for the purpose
of scientific investigation, were really used
to conceal their secret political efforts to
From
restore the exiled house of Stuart.

following

title:

Versuch iiber die Besschuldi-

gungen welche dem Tempelherrnorden gemacht

worden und iiber dessen Geheimniss ; nebst
einem Anhange

iiber

maurergesellschaft;
accusations made

das Enstehen der Frei"An Essay on the

against the Order of

i. e.,

Knights Templars and their mystery with

an Appendix on the origin of the Fraternity of Freemasons." In this work Nicolai
advanced his peculiar theory on the origin
of Freemasonry, which is substantially as
;

follows

Lord Bacon, taking certain hints from

the writings of Andrea, the founder of
Rosicrucianism and his English disciple,
Fludd, on the subject of the regeneration
of the world, proposed to accomplish the
same object, but by a different and entirely
opposite method. For, whereas, they explained everything esoterically, Bacon's
plan was to abolish all distinction between
the esoteric and the exoteric, and to demonstrate everything by proofs from nature.
This idea he first promulgated in his
Instauratio Magna, but afterwards more
fully developed in his New Atlantis.
In
this latter work, he introduced his beautiful apologue, abounding in Masonic ideas,
in which he described the unknown island
of Bensalem, where a king had built a
large edifice, called after himself, Solomon's

House.

Charles

I.,

it

is

said,

had been

much

attracted by this idea, and had intended to found something of the kind

upon the plan of Solomon's Temple, but

the occurrence of the civil war prevented
the execution of the project.
The idea lay for some time dormant, but
was subsequently revived, in 1646, by Wallis, Wilkins, and several other learned men,
who established the Royal Society for the
purpose of carrying out Bacon's plan of
communicating to the world scientific and
philosophical truths. About the same time
another society was formed by other learned
men, who sought to arrive at truth by the investigations of alchemy and astrology. To
this

society such

men

as

which subsequently underwent

this society,

a decadence, sprang out the revival in

1717, which culminated in the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England.
Such was the theory of Nicolai. Few
will be found at the present day to concur
in all his views, yet none can refuse to
award to him the praise of independence of
opinion, originality of thought, and an entire avoidance of the beaten paths of hearsay testimony and unsupported tradition.

His

results

may

of attaining

be rejected, but his method

them must be commended.

Night. Lodges, all over the world,

meet, except on special occasions, at night.
In this selection of the hours of night and
darkness for initiation, the usual coincidence will be found between the ceremonies
of Freemasonry and those of the Ancient
Mysteries, showing their evident derivation
from a common origin. Justin says that
at Eleusis, Triptolemus invented the art of
sowing corn, and that, in honor of this invention, the nights were consecrated to
initiation.
The application is, however,
rather abstruse.
In the Bacchce of Euripides, that author introduces the god Bacchus, the supposed inventor of the Dionysian mysteries,
as replying to the question of King Pentheus in the following words
ITEN.

A 01.

Ta

S'lepd viKTwp,

NvktwP ra

Jj

P-tB' fipipav

7roX>i atpvoTriT

nXets;

8xi OKorog.

Eurip. Bacch. Act

II.,

1.

485.

By night or day, these sacred

perform'st thou
Bacchus. Mostly by night, for venerable
"

" Pentheus.

rites

darkness

is

Ashmole and and in all the other mysteries the same reason

Lily were attached, and they resolved to

construct a House of Solomon in the island
of Bensalem, where they might communicate their instructions by means of secret
symbols. To cover their mysterious designs, they got themselves admitted into
the Mason's Company, and held their meetings at Masons' Hall, in Masons' Alley,
Basinghall Street. As freemen of London,
they took the name of Freemasons, and

3R

529

34

was assigned for nocturnal celebrations, since

night and darkness have something solemn
and august in them which is disposed to fill
the mind with sacred awe. And hende
black, as an emblem of darkness and night,
was considered as the color appropriate to
the mysteries.
In the mysteries of Hindustan, the candidate for initiation, having been duly prepared by previous purifications, was led at

NINE

NILE

530

the dead of night to the gloomy cavern, in

which the mystic rites were performed.
The same period of darkness was adopted
for the celebration of the mysteries of MiAmong the Druids of
thras, in Persia.
Britain and Gaul, the principal annual initiation commenced at "low twelve," or
midnight of the eve of May- day. In short,
it is indisputable that the initiations in all
the Ancient Mysteries were nocturnal in
their character.

The reason given by the ancients for this

selection of night as the time for initiation,
is equally applicable to the system of Freemasonry. " Darkness," says Oliver, " was
an emblem of death, and death was a preIt will be at once
lude to resurrection.
seen, therefore, in what manner the doctrine
of the resurrection was inculcated and exemplified in these remarkable institutions."
Death and the resurrection were the doctrines taught in the Ancient Mysteries and
night and darkness were necessary to add to
the sacred awe and reverence which these
doctrines ought always to inspire in the raThe same
tional and contemplative mind.
doctrines form the very groundwork of
Freemasonry and as the Master Mason, to
use the language of Hutchinson, " represents a man saved from the grave of iniquity
and raised to the faith of salvation," darkness and night are the appropriate accompaniments to the solemn ceremonies which
demonstrate this profession.
Uiile. There is a tradition in the old
Masonic Records that the inundations of
the river Nile, in Egypt, continually destroying the perishable landmarks by which one
man could distinguish his possessions from
those of another, Euclid instructed the
people in the art of geometry, by which
they might measure their lands and then
taught them to bound them with walls and
ditches, so that after an inundation each
man could identify his own boundaries.
The tradition is given in the Cooke MS.
thus " Euclyde was one of the first founders
of Geometry, and he gave hit name, for in
his tyme there was a water in that lond of
;

Egypt that

is

called Nilo,

and

hit flowid so

ferre into the londe that men myght not

dwelle therein.
Then this worthi clerke

Enclide taught hem to make grete wallys

and diches to holde owt the watyr, and he
by Gemetria mesured the londe and departyd hit in divers partys, and made every
man to close his owne parte with walles
and diches." This legend of the origin of
the art of geometry was borrowed by the
old Operative Masons from the Origines of
St. Isidore of Seville, where a similar story
is told.

H\\ nisi claTis.

but the key

is

wanting.

Latin.

Nothing

motto or device

often

attached to the double triangle of

Royal Arch Masonry. It is inscribed on

the Royal Arch badge or jewel of the
Grand Chapter of Scotland, the other devices being a double triangle and a triple
tau.

jNimrod. The legend of the Craft in

the Old Constitutions refers to Nimrod as
one of the founders of Masonry. Thus in
the York Manuscript we read: "At y"
makeing of y e Toure of Babell there was
Masonrie first much esteemed of, and the
King of Babilon y* was called Nimrod was
mason himselfe and loved well Masons."
And the Cooke Manuscript thus repeats the
story: "And this same Nembroth began
the towre of babilon and he taught to his
werkemen the craft of Masonrie, and he

had with him many Masons more than

forty thousand. And he loved and cherished
them well." The idea no doubt sprang out
of the Scriptural teaching that Nimrod
was the architect of many cities a statement not so well expressed in the authorized version, as it is in the improved one
of Bochart, which says: "From that land
Nimrod went forth to Asshur, and builded
Nineveh, and Rehoboth city, and Calah,
and Resen between Nineveh and Calah, that
is the great city."
Wine. If the number three was celebrated among the ancient sages, that of
three times three had no less celebrity because, according to them, each of the three
elements which constitute our bodies is
ternary: the water containing earth and
fire the earth containing igneous and aqueous particles and the fire being tempered
by globules of water and terrestrial corpusNo one of the
cles which serve to feed it.
three elements being entirely separated
from the others, all material beings composed of these three elements, whereof each
is triple, may be designated by the figurative number of three times three, which has
become the symbol of all formations of
Hence the name of ninth envelop
bodies.
given to matter. Every material extension,
every circular line, has for its representative
sign the number nine among the Pythagoreans, who had observed the property
which this number possesses of reproducing
itself incessantly and entire in every multiplication thus offering to the mind a very
striking emblem of matter, which is incessantly composed before our eyes, after having undergone a thousand decompositions.
The number nine was consecrated to the
Spheres and the Muses. It is the sign of
every circumference; because a circle or
360 degrees is equal to 9, that is to say, 3 -fNevertheless, the ancients re9.
6
garded this number with a sort of terror
they considered it a bad presage; as the
;

+ =

;;

NINEVEH

NOACHITE

symbol of

emblem

versatility, of change, and the

of the frailty of human affairs.

Wherefore they avoided all numbers where

nine appears, and chiefly 81, the produce
of 9 multiplied by itself, and the addition
whereof, 8+1, again presents the number 9.
As the figure of the number 6 was the
symbol of the terrestrial globe, animated
by a divine spirit, the figure of the number
9 symbolized the earth, under the influence
of the Evil Principle; and thence the
terror it inspired. Nevertheless, according
to the Kabbalists, the cipher 9 symbolizes
the generative egg, or the image of a little
globular being, from whose lower side seems
to flow its spirit of life.

The Ennead, signifying an aggregate of

nine things or persons, is the first square of
unequal numbers.
Every one is aware of the singular properties of the number 9, which, multiplied
by itself or any other number whatever,
gives a result whose final sum is always 9,
or always divisible by 9.
9, multiplied by each of the ordinary
numbers, produces an arithmetical progression, eacn member whereof, composed
of two figures, presents a remarkable fact
for

example

1.2.
9

18

The

3. 4. 5. 6.
27

first

36

45

54

7.8.
63

72

9.
81

10
90

line of figures gives the regular

from 1 to 10.
The second reproduces this line doubly
first ascending from the first figure of 18,
and then returning from the second figure
series,

of 81.

In Freemasonry, 9 derives its value from

being the product of 3 multiplied into
itself, and consequently in Masonic language the number 9 is always denoted by
the expression 3 times 3. For a similar
reason, 27, which is 3 times 9, and 81, which
is 9 times 9, are esteemed as sacred numbers
in the higher degrees.
its

Kineveh. The capital of the ancient

kingdom of Assyria, and built by Nimrod.
The traditions of its greatness and the magnificence of its buildings were familiar to

the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Romans.

discoveries of Rich, of Botta,
and other explorers, have thrown much
light upon its ancient condition, and have
shown that it was the seat of much architectural splendor and of a profoundly symbolical religion, which had something of
the characteristics of the Mithraic worship.
In the mythical relations of the Old Constitutions, which make up the legend of
the Craft, it is spoken of as the ancient
birthplace of Masonry, where Nimrod, who

The modern

was

its

builder,

and "was a Mason and

531

loved well the Craft," employed 60,000 Masons to build it, and gave them a charge
" that they should be true," and this, says
the Harleian Manuscript, was the first time
that any Mason had any charge of Craft.
Msan. jD 1 :. The seventh month of
the Hebrew civil year, and corresponding
to the months of March and April, commencing with the new moon of the former.
JVoachidse. The descendants of Noah.
term applied to Freemasons on the theory, derived from the " legend of the Craft,"
that Noah was the father and founder of
And
the Masonic system of theology.
hence the Freemasons claim to be his descendants, because in times past they preserved the pure principles of his religion
amid the corruptions of surrounding faiths.
Dr. Anderson first used the word in this
sense in the second edition of the Book of
Mason is obliged by his
Constitutions "
tenure to observe the moral law as a true
Noachida." But he was not the inventor
of ^the term, which, as indicating a Mason,
was derived by Anderson, most probably,
from the Chevalier Ramsay.

UToachite, or

Prussian Knight.

1. The
(Noachite ou Chevalier Prussien.)
twenty-first degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The history as well
as the character of this degree is a very singular one. It is totally unconnected with
the series of Masonic degrees which are
founded upon the Temple of Solomon, and
Hence the
is traced to the tower of Babel.
Prussian Knights call themselves Noachites,
or Disciples of Noah, while they designate
all other Masons as Hiramites, or Disciples
of Hiram. The early French rituals state
that the degree was translated in 1757 from
the German by M. de Beraye, Knight of
Eloquence in the Lodge of the Count St.
Gelaire, Inspector General of Prussian
Lodges in France. Lenning gives no credit
to this statement, but admits that the origin of the degree must be attributed to the
year above named. The destruction of the
tower of Babel constitutes the legend of the
degree, whose mythical founder is said to
have been Peleg, the chief builder of that
edifice. A singular regulation is that there
shall be no artificial light in the Lodge
room, and that the meetings shall be held
on the night of the full moon of each month.
The degree was adopted by the Council
of Emperors of the East and West, and in
that way became subsequently a part of the
system of the Scottish Rite. But it is misplaced in any series of degrees supposed to
emanate from the Solomonic Temple. It
is, as an unfitting link, an unsightly interruption of the chain of legendary symbolism substituting Noah for Solomon, and
Peleg for Hiram Abif. The Supreme

NOACHITES

NOAH

Council for the Southern Jurisdiction has

abandoned the original ritual and made
the degree a representation of the VehmgeBut
richt or Westphalian Franc Judges.
this by no means relieves the degree of the

script Constitutions that are extant, Noah

and the flood play an important part of
the "Legend of the Craft." Hence, as the

532

objection of Masonic incompatibility. That

it was ever adopted into the Masonic system is only to be attributed to the passion
for high degrees which prevailed in France
in the middle of the last century.
In the modern ritual the meetings are
called Grand Chapters. The officers are a

Lieutenant Commander, two Wardens, an

Orator, Treasurer, Secretary, Master of
Ceremonies, Warder, and Standard Bearer.
The apron is yellow, inscribed with an arm
holding a sword and the Egyptian figure
of silence. The order is black, and the
jewel a full moon or a triangle traversed
by an arrow. In the original ritual there
is a coat of arms belonging to the degree,
which is thus emblazoned: Party per fess;
in chief, azure, seme of stars, or a full moon,
argent ; in base, sable, an equilateral trian-

having an arrow suspended from

upper point, barb downwards, or.

gle,

The legend of

its

the degree describes the

from Babel to the north

of Europe, and ends with the following
narrative " In trenching the rubbish of the
salt-mines of Prussia was found in A. d.
553, at a depth of fifteen cubits, the appearance of a triangular building in which was
a column of white marble, on which was
written in Hebrew the whole history of
travels of Pel eg
:

the Noachites. At the side of this column

was a tomb of freestone on which was a
piece of agate inscribed with the following
epitaph Here rest the ashes of Peleg, our
Grand Architect of the tower of Babel.
The Almighty had pity on him because he
:

became humble."
This legend, although wholly untenable
historic grounds, is not absolutely puerile.
The dispersion of the human race
in the time of Peleg had always been a
topic of discussion among the learned.
Long dissertations had been written to

on

show that

the nations of the world,

even America, had been peopled by the
three sons of Noah and their descendants.
The object of the legend seems, then, to have
been to impress the idea of the thorough
dispersion.
The fundamental idea of the
degree is, under the symbol of Peleg, to
teach the crime of assumption and the virtue of humility.
2. The degree was also adopted into the
Eite of Mizraim, where it is the thirty-fifth.
^oachites. The same as Noachidce,

which

all

see.

Noachite, Sovereign.
Souverain.)

(Noachite
degree contained in the no-

menclature of Fustier.

Xoali.

In

all

the old Masonic

manu-

Masonic system became developed, the

Patriarch was looked upon as what was
called a patron of Masonry.
And this connection of Noah with the mythic history
of the Order was rendered still closer by
the influence of many symbols borrowed
from the Arkite worship, one of the most
predominant of the ancient faiths. So intimately were incorporated the legends of
Noah with the legends of Masonry that
Freemasons began, at length, to be called,
and are still called, "Noachidse," or the
descendants of Noah, a term first applied
by Anderson, and very frequently used at
the present day.
It

is

scholar

necessary, therefore, that every

desires to investigate the le-

who

gendary symbolism of Freemasonry should

make himself acquainted with the Noachic
myths upon wlich much of it is founded.
Dr. Oliver, it is true, accepted them all with
a child-like faith; but it is not likely that
the sceptical inquirers of the present day
will attribute to them any character of au-

Yet they are interesting, because they show us the growth of legends
out of symbols, and they are instructive
because they are for the most part sym-

thenticity.

bolic.

The " Legend of the Craft " tells us that

the three sons of Lamech and his daughter,
Naamah, " did know that God would take
vengeance for sin, either by fire or water
wherefore they wrote these sciences which
they had found in two pillars of stone, that
they might be found after the flood." Subsequently, this legend took a different form,
and to Enoch was attributed the precaution
of burying the stone of foundation in the
bosom of Mount Moriah, and of erecting
the two pillars above it.
;

The first Masonic myth

that,

referring to

Noah

one which tells us

while he was piously engaged in the

that presents itself

is

task of exhorting his contemporaries to

repentance, his attention had often been
directed to the pillars which Enoch had
erected on Mount Moriah. By diligent
search he at length detected the entrance
to the subterranean vault, and, on pursuing
his inquiries, discovered the stone of foun-

he was unable to comprehend the mystical characters there deposited,

Leaving these, therefore, where be
had found them, he simply took away the
stone of foundation on which they had
been deposited, and placed it in the ark as
dation, although

a convenient altar.
Another myth, preserved in one of the
ineffable degrees, informs us that the ark

NOAH

NOAH

cedars which grew upon

that Noah employed
the Sidonians to cut them down, under the
superintendence of Japheth. The successors of these Sidonians, in after times,
according to the same tradition, were employed by King Solomon to fell and prepare cedars on the same mountain for his

quently, we shall find some allusion to it

in the annals of every people and some
memorial of the principal circumstances
connected with it, in their religious observances.
At first, it is to be supposed that a
veneration for the character of the second
parent of the human race must have been
long preserved by his descendants.
Nor
would they have been unmindful of the
proper reverence due to that sacred vessel
sacred in their eyes
which had preserved their great progenitor from the fury
of the waters. "They would long cherish," says Alwood, {Lit. Antiq. of Greece, p.
182,) "the memory of those worthies who
were rescued from the common lot of utter
ruin; they would call to mind, with an
extravagance of admiration, the means
adopted for their preservation they would
adore the wisdom which contrived, and the
goodness which prompted to, the execution
of such a plan." So pious a feeling would

was

built

of

Mount Lebanon, and

stupendous Temple.
The record of Genesis lays the foundation for another series of symbolic myths
connected with the dove, which has thus
been introduced into Masonry.
After forty days, when Noah opened the
window of the ark that he might learn if
the waters had subsided, he despatched a
raven, which, returning, gave him no satHe then sent forth
isfactory information.
a dove three several times, at an interval
of seven days between each excursion. The
first time, the dove, finding no resting-place,
quickly returned; the second time she came
back in the evening, bringing in her mouth
an olive-leaf, which showed that the waters
must have sufficiently abated to have exposed the tops of the trees; but on the
third departure, the dry land being entirely
uncovered, she returned no more.
In the Arkite rites, which arose after
the dispersion of Babel, the dove was always considered as a sacred bird, in commemoration of its having been the first
discoverer of land. Its name, which in
Hebrew is ionah, was given to one of the
and, as the
earliest nations of the earth
emblem of peace and good fortune, it became the bird of Venus. Modern Masons
have commemorated the messenger of
Noah in the honorary degree of " Ark and
Dove," which is sometimes conferred on
Royal Arch Masons.
On the 27th day of the second month,
equivalent to the 12th of November, in the
year of the world 1657, Noah, with his
It was exactly one
family, left the ark.
year of 365 days, or just one revolution of
;

the sun, that the patriarch was enclosed in

the ark. This was not unobserved by the
descendants of Noah, and hence, in consequence of Enoch's life of 365 days, and
Noah's residence in the ark for the same
apparently mystic period, the Noachites
confounded the worship of the solar orb
with the idolatrous adoration which they
paid to the patriarchs who were saved
from the deluge. They were led to this,
too, from an additional reason, that Noah,
as the restorer of the human race, seemed,
in some sort, to be a type of the regenerating powers of the sun.
So important an event as the deluge,
must have produced a most impressive
effect upon the religious dogmas and rites
of the nations which succeeded it. Conse-

533

exist, and be circumscribed within its

proper limits of reverential gratitude, while
the legends of the deluge continued to be
preserved in their purity, and while the

divine preserver of Noah was remembered

god of his posterity. But when,
by the confusion and dispersion at Babel,
the true teachings of Enoch and Noah
were lost, and idolatry or polytheism was
substituted for the ancient faith, then
Noah became a god, worshipped under
different names in different countries, and
the ark was transformed into the temple
of the Deity. Hence arose those peculiar
systems of initiations which, known under
the name of the " Arkite rites," formed a
part of the worship of the ancient world,
and traces of which are to be found in
almost all the old systems of religion.
It was in the six hundredth year of his
age, that Noah, with his family, was reGrateful for his
leased from the ark.
preservation, he erected an altar and prepared a sacrifice of thank-offerings to the
Masonic tradition says, that for
Deity.
this purpose he made use of that stone of
foundation which he had discovered in the
subterranean vault of Enoch, and which
he had carried with him into the ark. It
was at this time that God made his covenant with Noah, and promised him that
the earth should never again be destroyed
by a flood. Here, too, he received those
commandments for the government of
himself and his posterity which have
been called "the seven precepts of the
Noachidse."
It is to be supposed that Noah and his
immediate descendants continued to live
for many years in the neighborhood of the
mountain upon which the ark had been
thrown by the subsidence of the waters.
as the one

NOAH

534

NOMINATION

There is indeed no evidence that the patriarch ever removed from it. In the nine
hundred and fiftieth year of his age he
died, and, according to the tradition of the
Orientalists, was buried in the land of
Mesopotamia. During that period of his
life which was subsequent to the deluge,
he continued to instruct his children in the
Hence, Masons
great truths of religion.
are sometimes called Noachidse, or the sons
of Noah, to designate them, in a peculiar
manner, as the preservers of the sacred
deposit of Masonic truth bequeathed to

them by

their

great

ancestor;

and

cir-

cumstances intimately connected with the

transactions of the immediate descendants
of the patriarch are recorded in a degree
which has been adopted by the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite under the
name of " Patriarch Noachite."

The

primitive teachings of the patriarch,

which were simple but comprehensive, continued to be preserved in the line of the
patriarchs and the prophets to the days of
Solomon, but were soon lost to the other
descendants of Noah, by a circumstance to
which we must now refer. After the death of
Noah, his sons removed from the region of
Mount Ararat, where, until then, they had
resided, and "travelling from the East,
found a plain in the land of Shinar, and
dwelt there." Here they commenced the
building of a lofty tower. This act seems
to have been displeasing to God, for in
consequence of it, he confounded their
language, so that one could not understand
what another said the result of which was
that they separated and dispersed over the
face of the earth in search of different
dwelling-places.
With the loss of the
original language, the great truths which
that language had conveyed, disappeared
from their minds. The worship of the one
true God was abandoned.
multitude of
Idolatry took
deities began to be adored.
the place of pure theism. And then arose
the Arkite rites, or the worship of Noah
and the Ark, Sabaism, or the adoration of
the stars, and other superstitious observances, in all of which, however, the priesthood, by their mysteries or initiations into
a kind of Spurious Freemasonry, preserved,
among a multitude of errors, some faint
allusions to the truth, and retained just so

served as the Constitutions of our ancient

brethren, are seven in number, and are as
follows

4.

Renounce all idols.

Worship the only true God.
Commit no murder.
Be not defiled by incest.

5.

Do

not

6.

Be

just.

1.

2.
3.

steal.

Eat no

flesh with blood in it.

"proselytes of the gate," as the
Jews termed those who lived among them
without undergoing circumcision or observing the ceremonial law, were bound to
obey the seven precepts of Noah. The
Talmud says that the first six of these pre7.

The

cepts

were

given originally by

God

to

Adam, and the seventh

afterwards to Noah.
These precepts were designed to be obligatory on all the Noachidae, or descendants of
Noah, and consequently, from the time of
Moses, the Jews would not suffer a stranger
to live among them unless he observed
these precepts, and never gave quarter in
battle to an enemy who was ignorant of

them.

Noflbdei. The name of this person is

differently spelled by different writers. Villani, and after him Burnes, call him Noffo
Dei, Reghellini Neffodei, and Addison Nosso
de Florentin; but the more usual spelling is

He and Squin de Flexian were

Noffodei.
the first to make those false accusations
against the Knights Templars which led to
the downfall of the Order. Naffodei, who
was a Florentine, is asserted by some writers
to have been an apostate Templar, who
had been condemned by the Preceptor and
Chapter of France to perpetual imprisonment for impiety and crime. But Dupui
denies this, and says that he never was a
Templar, but that, having been banished
from his native country, he had been condemned to rigorous penalties by the Prevost of Paris for his crimes. For a history
of his treachery to the Templars, see Squin
de Flexian.
Nomenclature. There are several
Masonic works, printed or in manuscript,
which contain lists of the names of degrees
in Masonry.
Such a list is called by the
French writers a nomenclature. Thfc most
important of these nomenclatures are those
of Peuvret, Fustier, Pyron, and Lemanceau.
much light as to make their "darkness Ragon has a nomenclature of degrees in his
Tuileur Generate. And Thory has an exvisible."
Such are the Noachic traditions of Ma- haustive and descriptive one in his Acta
Oliver also gives a nomenclasonry, which, though if considered as ma- Latomorum.
terials of history, would be worth but little, ture, but an imperfect one, of one hundred
yet have furnished valuable sources of sym- and fifty degrees in his Historical Landbolism, and in that way are full of wise marks.
instruction.
Nomination. It is the custom in
Noah, Precepts of. The precepts some Grand Lodges and Lodges to nomiof the patriarch Noah, which were pre- nate candidates for election to office, and in
;

NORTH

NON-AFFILIATION
others this custom is not adopted. But the
practice of nomination has the sanction of
Thus the records of the
ancient usage.
Grand Lodge of England, under date of
June 24, 1717, tell us that " before dinner
the oldest Master Mason ... in the chair
proposed a list of candidates, and the brethren, by a majority of hands, elected Mr.
Anthony Sayre, Gent., Grand Master of
Masons." And the present Constitution
of the Grand Lodge of England requires
that the Grand Master shall be nominated
in December, but that the election shall not
take place until the following March.
Nominations appear, therefore, to be the
correct Masonic practice yet, if a member
be elected to any office to which he had not
previously been nominated, the election will
be valid, for a nomination is not essential.
Won- Affiliation. The state of being
;

unconnected by membership with a Lodge.

See Unaffiliated Masons.
Nonesynches. In the Old Constitutions known as the Dowland MS. is found
the following passage: " St. Albann loved
well Masons and cherished them much.
And he made their paie right good, ....
for he gave them ijs. a weeke, and iijd. to
their nonesynches." This word, which cannot, in this precise form, be found in any
archaic dictionary, evidently means food or
refreshment, for in the parallel passage in
other Constitutions the word used is cheer,
which has the same meaning. The old
English word from which we get our
luncheon is noonshun, which is defined to be
the refreshment taken at noon, when laborers desist from work to shun the heat.
Of
this nonesynches is a corrupt form.
Nonis. A word in the high degrees,
for

which see Salix and Tengu.

Won nobis.

It is prescribed that the

motto beneath the Passion Cross on the

Grand Standard of a Commandery of
Knights Templars shall be "Non nobis
Domine! non nobis, sed nomini tuo da
Gloriam." That is, Not unto us,
Lord!
not unto us, but unto Thy name give Glory.
It is the commencement of the 115th Psalm,
which is sung in the Christian Church on
occasions of thanksgiving. It was the ancient Templar's shout of victory.
Non-resident. The members of a
Lodge who do not reside in the locality of
a Lodge, but live at a great distance from
it

in another State, or, perhaps, country,

still continue members of it, and contribute to its support by the payment of
Lodge dues, are called " non-resident members."
Many Lodges, in view of the fact
that such members enjoy none of the local
privileges of their Lodges, require from
them a less amount of annual arrears than
they do from their resident members.

but

535

Noorthouck, John. The

the

fifth,

and by

editor of

far the best, edition

of

the Book of Constitutions, which was pubHe was the son of Herlished in 1784.
man Noorthouck, a bookseller, and was
born in London in 1745. Oliver describes
him as " a clever and intelligent man, and
an expert Mason." His literary pretensions
were, however, greater than this modest
was patencomium would indicate.
ronized by the celebrated printer,
Strahan, and passed nearly the whole of
his life in the occupations of an author,
an index maker, and a corrector of the
He was, besides his edition of the
press.
Book of Constitutions, the writer of a History of London, 4to, published in 1775, and
a Historical and Classical Dictionary, 2 vols.,
To him also, as
8vo, published in 1776.
well as to some others, has been attributed
the authorship of a once popular book enIn
titled, The Man after God's own Heart.
1852, J. E. Smith, a bookseller of London,
advertised for sale " the original autograph

HI

Wm.

manuscript of the life of John Noorthouck."

He calls this " a very interesting piece of
autobiography, containing many curious
literary anecdotes of the last century, and
deserving to be printed." I think it never

has been.
70 years.

North.

Noorthouck died in 1816, aged

The north

is

Masonically

called a place of darkness. The sun in his

progress through the ecliptic never reaches
/
farther than 23 28 north of the equator.

wall being erected on any part of the earth

farther north than that, will therefore, at
meridian, receive the rays of the sun only
on its south side, while the north will be
entirely in shadow at the hour of meridian.
The use of the north as a symbol of darkness is found, with the present interpretation, in the early rituals of the last century.
It is a portion of the old sun worship, of
which we find so many relics in Gnosticism, in Hermetic philosophy, and in Freemasonry. The east was the place of the
sun's daily birth, and hence highly revered
the north the place of his annual death, to
which he approached only to lose his vivific heat, and to clothe the earth in the
darkness of long nights and the dreariness
of winter.
North Carolina. The early history
of Masonry in no State is more uncertain
than in that of North Carolina, in consequence of the carelessness of the authorities
who have attempted to write its early anThus, Eobert Williams, the Grand
nals.
Secretary, in a letter written to the Grand
Lodge of Kentucky in 1808, said that " the
Grand Lodge of North Carolina was constituted by Charter issued from the Grand
Lodge of Scotland in the year 1761, signed

NOVA

NORTH

536

by Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort

and attested by George
as Grand Master
.

North-east Corner.

In the "Insti-

Menu," the sacred book of the

as Grand Brahmans, it is said: "If any one has an
John Spencer, Earl of Spencer
Secretary." Now this statement contains incurable disease, let him advance in a
on its face the evidences of flagrant error. straight path towards the invincible northeast point, feeding on water and air till his
1. The Duke of Beaufort never was Grand
Master of Scotland. 2. The Grand Master mortal frame totally decays, and his soul
of Scotland in 1761 was the Earl of Elgin. becomes united with the supreme."
It is at the same north-east point that
3. The Earl of Spencer never was Grand
Secretary either of England or Scotland, those first instructions begin in Masonry
but Samuel Spencer was Grand Secretary which enable the true Mason to commence
of the Grand Lodge of England from 1757 the erection of that spiritual temple in
which, after the decay of his mortal frame,
4. The Duke of
to 1767, and died in 1768.
Beaufort was not Grand Master of England "his soul becomes united with the su;

tutes of

in 1761, but held that office from 1767 to preme."

In the important ceremony which refers
1771. There is no mention in the printed
records of the Grand Lodge of England of to the north-east corner of the Lodge, the
a Charter at any time granted for a Pro- candidate becomes as one who is, to all
outward appearance, a perfect and upright
vincial Grand Lodge in North Carolina.
But in two lists of Lodges chartered by man and Mason, the representative of a
spiritual corner-stone, on which he is to
that body, I find that on August 21st, 1767,
a Warrant was granted for the establish- erect his future moral and Masonic edifice.
This symbolic reference of the cornerment of "Koyal White Hart Lodge," at
Halifax in North Carolina. I am inclined stone of a material edifice to a Mason
when, at his first initiation, he commences
to believe that this is the true date of the
introduction of Masonry into that State. the moral and intellectual task of erecting
record in the transactions of the St. a spiritual temple in his heart, is beautiJohn's Grand Lodge of Massachusetts says fully sustained when we look at all the
that on October 2d, 1767, that body grant- qualities that are required to constitute a
ed a deputation to Thomas Cooper, Master "well-tried, true, and trusty" corner-stone.
of Pitt County Lodge, as Deputy Grand The squareness of its surface, emblematic
its cubical form,, emblematic
Master of the province ; but there is no evi- of morality
and
dence that he ever exercised the preroga- of firmness and stability of character
Judge Martin, in a dis- the peculiar finish and fineness of the matives of the office.
course delivered on June 24th, 1789, says terial, emblematic of virtue and holiness
that Joseph Montford was appointed, to- show that the ceremony of the north-east
wards the year 1769, as Provincial Grand corner of the Lodge was undoubtedly inMaster by the Duke of Beaufort, and that tended to portray, in the consecrated lanin 1771 he constituted St. John's Lodge at guage of symbolism, the necessity of integNewbern. This was probably the true date rity and stability of conduct, of truthfulness
of the Provincial Grand Lodge of North and uprightness of character, and of purity
Carolina, for in 1787 we find nine Lodges and holiness of life, which, just at that
in the territory, five of which, at' least, time and in that place, the candidate is
had the provincial numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and most impressively charged to maintain.
Notuma. A significant word in some
8, while the Royal Hart Lodge retained its
number on the English Register as 403, a of the high degrees of the Templar system.
number which agrees with that of the Eng- It is the anagram of Aumont, who is said
On December to have been the first Grand Master of the
lish lists in my possession.
16th, 1787, a convention of Lodges met at Templars in Scotland, and the restorer of
Tarborough and organized the " Grand the Order after the death of De Molay.
Lodge of the State of North Carolina," electScotia. Freemasonry was introduced into Nova Scotia, at the middle
ing Hon. Samuel Johnston Grand Master.
There was a Grand Chapter in North of the last century, by the constitution of a
Carolina at an early period in the present Lodge at Halifax, in 1749, under the regiscentury, which ceased to exist about the try of England. For the next hundred
year 1827 but Royal Arch Masonry was years, Lodges were instituted and Provincultivated by four Chapters instituted by cial Masters appointed by England and
the General Grand Chapter. On June 28, Scotland, and Lodges alone without superior provincial authority by Ireland.
In
1847, the Grand Chapter was reorganized.
The Grand Council was organized in June, 1866, an independent Grand Lodge
June, 1860, by Councils which had been es- was instituted and recognized by most of
tablished by the author of this work, under the Masonic powers of the United States.
the authority of the Supreme Council of But as none of the Lodges holding Warthe Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
rants from the Grand Lodge of Scotland

Nova

NUMBERS

NOVICE

537

would recognize it, a subsequent and more We know that the symbolism of numbers
satisfactory arrangement took place, and was the basis of what is called the PythagJune 24, 1869, a Grand Lodge was organ- orean philosophy. But it would be wrong
ized by the union of all the subordinate to suppose that from it the Masons derived
Lodges, and Alexander Keith was elected their system, since the two are in some
points antagonistic; the Masons, for inGrand Master.
IVovice. 1. The second degree of the stance, revere the nine as a sacred number
Illuminati of Bavaria. 2. The fifth degree of peculiar significance, while the Pythagoreans looked upon it with detestation. In
of the Rite of Strict Observance.
Novice Ma^onne. That is to say, the system of the Pythagoreans, ten was, of
a female Mason who is a Novice. It is all numbers, the most perfect, because it
the first degree of the Moral Order of the symbolizes the completion of things but in
Masonic symbolism the number ten is unDames of Mount Tabor.
Novice, Mythological. (Novice known. Four is not, in Masonry, a numMythologique.)
The first degree of the ber of much representative importance but
Historical Order of the Dames of Mount it was sacredly revered by the Pythago;

Tabor.

Novice, Scottish.
The

saise.)

first

{Novice Ecosdegree of initiation in the

Order of Mount Tabor.

lumbers. The symbolism which is
derived from numbers was common to the
Pythagoreans, the Kabbalists, the Gnostics,
and all mystical associations. Of all superstitions, it is the oldest and the most
Allusions are to be
generally diffused.
found to it in all systems of religion the
;

Jewish Scriptures,
it,

for instance,

abound in

and the Christian show a share of

its

It is not, therefore, surprising

influence.

that the most predominant of all symbolism in Freemasonry is that of numbers.

The doctrine of numbers as symbols is
most familiar to us because it formed the
fundamental idea of the philosophy of
Pythagoras. Yet it was not original with
him, since he brought his theories from
Egypt and the East, where this numerical
symbolism had always prevailed. Jamblichus tells us ( Vit. Pyth., c. 28,) that Pythagoras himself admitted that he had received
the doctrine of numbers from Orpheus,
who taught that numbers were the most
provident beginning of all things in heaven, earth, and the intermediate space, and
the root of the perpetuity of divine beings,
of the gods and of demons. From the
disciples of Pythagoras we learn (for he

himself taught only orally, and left no

writings,) that his theory was that numbers contain the elements of all things, and
even of the sciences. Numbers are the invisible covering of beings as the body is the
They are the primary causes
visible one.
upon which the whole system of the universe rests and he who knows these numbers knows at the same time the laws
;

through which nature

oreans, said

make

exists.

Aristotle,

The Pythag-

(Metaph.,

xii.

8,)

things proceed from numbers.

it is true, denies that
this was the doctrine of Pythagoras, and
contends that it was only a corruption of
all

Dacier,

Vie de Pyth.,)

his disciples.
3 S

It

is

an immaterial point.

reans as the tetractys, or figure derived

from the Jewish Tetragrammaton, by which
they swore.
Plato also indulged in a theory of symbolic numbers, and calls him happy who
understands spiritual numbers and perceives their mighty influences.
Numbers,
according to him, are the cause of univer-

harmony, and of the production of all

The Neoplatonists extended and
developed this theory, and from them it
passed over to the Gnostics; from them
probably to the Rosicrucians, to the Hermetic philosophers, and to the Freemasons.
Cornelius Agrippa has descanted at great
length, in his Occult Philosophy, on the subject of numbers.
"That there lies," he
says, "wonderful efficacy and virtue in
numbers, as well for good as for evil, not
only the most eminent philosophers teach,
but also the Catholic Doctors." And he
sal

things.

quotes St. Hilary as saying that the seventy

Elders brought the Psalms into order by the
efficacy of numbers.
Of the prevalence of what are called
representative numbers in the Old and
New Testament, there is abundant evidence. " However we may explain it," says
Dr. Mahan, (Palmoni, p. 67,) " certain numerals in the Scriptures occur so often in
connection with certain classes of ideas, that
we are naturally led to associate the one
with the other. This is more or less admitted with regard to the numbers Seven,
Twelve, Forty, Seventy, and it may be a few
more. The Fathers were' disposed to admit
it with regard to many others, and to see in
it the marks of a supernatural design.^
Among the Greeks and the Romans there
was a superstitious veneration for certain

numbers. The same practice is found among

the Eastern nations it entered more or
less into all the ancient systems of philosoall

phy

constituted a part of all the old religions was accepted to a great extent by
the early Christian Fathers constituted an
important part of the Kabbala was adopted
by the Gnostics, the Rosicrucians, and all
;

538

OATH

NUMEKATION

and

the mystical societies of the Middle Ages

finally has carried its influence into

sum

Freemasonry.

is

bolize the solar year of 365 days, because th

of the value of the letters of the word

365 thus, a
100, a
1, (3
2, p
1,

The respect paid by Freemasons to certain = 60, a =1, and g = 200. To

numbers, all of which are odd, is founded

not on the belief of any magical virtue,
but because they are assumed to be the
types or representatives of certain ideas.
That is to say, a number is in Masonry a
symbol, and no more. It is venerated, not
because it has any supernatural efficacy, as
thought the Pythagoreans and others, but
because it has concealed within some allusion to a sacred object or holy thought,
which it symbolizes. The number three,
for instance, like the triangle, is a symbol
the number nine, like the triple triangle,
another. The Masonic doctrine of sacred
numbers must not, therefore, be confounded
with the doctrine of numbers which prevailed in other systems.
The most important symbolic or sacred

Hebrew.

is a Kabbalistical process especially used in

the Hebrew language, but sometimes applied to other languages, for instance, to the
Greek, by which a mystical meaning of a
word is deduced from the numerical value
of the words of which it is composed, each
letter of the alphabet being equivalent to a
number. Thus in Hebrew the name of
God, jf*> JAH, is equivalent to 15, because
*
10 and
5, and 15 thus becomes a
sacred number. In Greek, the Kabbalistic
word Abraxas, or appagag, is made to sym-

H=

2
J

2
3

5
6
7

n
tD
t

D
b

&D

There

Greek.

in Masonry are three, five, seven,

nine, twenty-seven, and eighty-one.
Their
interpretation will be found under their
respective titles,

tetters.

Kabbalistic operations, which are sometimes

used in the high and especially the hermetical Masonry, the numerical value of the
Hebrew and Greek letters is here given.

numbers

Numeration by

facilitate these

I
V
p

A, a
B,/5

r,y

A, d
E, e

4
5
6
8
9
10
20
30

z, ?
B.,7,

8
9

e,e

10
20

K,K

30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
200
300
400

i,i

A, A

M,fi
N, v

S,
O, o

n,

7T

p,p
2

>

o, ?>

T,r
r,v
*,

<?>

x,

*>

V*

S2, o)

40
50
60
70
80
100
200
300

400
500
600
700
800

urser y . The first of the three els

into which Weishaupt divided his Order
of Illuminati, comprising three degrees.
See Illuminati.

o.
Oath.

In the year 1738, Clement XII.,

at that time

Pope of Eome, issued a

bull

of excommunication against the Freemasons, and assigned, as the reason of his

condemnation, that the Institution confederated persons of all religions and sects in
a mysterious bond of union, and compelled
them to secrecy by an oath taken on the
Bible, accompanied by certain ceremonies,
and the imprecation of heavy punishments.
This persecution of the Freemasons, on
account of their having an obligatory
promise of secrecy among their ceremonies, has not beeD confined to the Papal see.
shall find it existing in a sect which

We

we should

suppose, of all others, the least

likely to follow in the footsteps of a Roman pontiff. In 1757, the Associate Synod

of Seceders of Scotland adopted an act,

concerning what they called "the Mason
oath," in which it is declared that all
persons who shall refuse to make such revelations as the Kirk Sessions may require,
and to promise to abstain from all future
connection with the Order, "shall be reputed under scandal and incapable of admission to sealing ordinances," or, as Pope
Clement expressed it, be "ipso facto ex-

communicated."
In the preamble

to the act, the

Synod

:;

OATH

OATH

539

The purposes of such an oath would

be completely frustrated, by revealing the
thing to be concealed before the promise
of concealment was made. In that case, it
would be optional with the candidate to
give the obligation, or to withhold it, as
best suited his inclinations.
If it be conceded that the exaction of a solemn promise
of secrecy is not, in itself, improper, then
certainly the time of exacting it is before
and not after the revelation.
Dr. Harris [Masonic Discourses, Disc.
IX., p. 184,) has met this objection in the
following language
"What the ignorant call 'the oath,' is
simply an obligation, covenant, and promise, exacted previously to the divulging of
the specialties of the Order, and our means
heads
of recognizing each other that they shall
First.
It is an oath.
be kept from the knowledge of the world,
Secondly. It is administered before the lest their original intent should be thwarted,
secrets are communicated.
and their benevolent purport prevented.

assign the reasons for their objections to

this oath, and for their ecclesiastical censure
of all who contract it. These reasons are
" That there were very strong presumptions,
that, among Masons, an oath of secrecy
is administered to entrants into their society, even under a capital penalty, and
before any of those things, which they
swear to keep secret, be revealed to them
and that they pretend to take some of these
secrets from the Bible besides other things
which are ground of scruple in the manner
of swearing the said oath."
These have, from that day to this, constituted the sum and substance of the objections to the obligation of Masonic secrecy,
and, for the purpose of brief examination,
they may be classed under the following

smile.

Thirdly. It is accompanied
superstitious ceremonies.

Fourthly.
Fifthly.

by certain

It is attended by a penalty.
It is considered, by Masons, as

what harm is there in this ? Do

when you have anything of a
private nature which you are willing to

Now,

pray,

you not

all,

confide in a particular friend, before you

tell

demand a solemn promise of

paramount to the obligations of the laws

him what

of the land.
In replying to these statements, it is evident that the conscientious Freemason
labors under great disadvantage. He is at
every step restrained by his honor from
either the denial or admission of his adversaries in relation to the mysteries of the
Craft.
But it may be granted, for the sake
of argument, that every one of the first
four charges is true, and then the inquiry
will be in what respect they are offensive or

secrecy.
priety in

immoral.

and reverence of the act. The ancient

Hebrews, when they took an oath, placed

it is,

And

is

there not the utmost pro-

knowing whether your friend is

termined to conceal your

presume to reveal
futes your cavil."
Thirdly.

it?

secret, before

Your answer

de-

you
con-

The objection that the oath

is

accompanied by certain superstitious ceremonies does not seem to be entitled to much

weight. Oaths, in all countries and at all
times, have been accompanied oy peculiar
rites,

intended to increase the solemnity

The oath or promise cannot, in

be sinful, unless there is something the hand beneath the thigh of the person
immoral in the obligation it imposes. Sim- to whom they swore. Sometimes the anply to promise secrecy, or the performance cients took hold of the horns of the altar,
of any good action, and to strengthen this and touched the sacrificial fire, as in the
promise by the solemnity of an oath, is league between Latinus and iEneas, where
not, in itself, forbidden by any divine or the ceremony is thus described by Virgil
First.

itself,

human law. Indeed, the infirmity of human nature demands, in many instances,
the sacred sanction of such an attestation
and it is continually exacted in the transactions of man with man, without any notion
of sinfulness. Where the time, and place,
and circumstances are unconnected with
levity, or profanity, or crime, the administration of an obligation binding to secrecy,
or obedience, or veracity, or any other virtue, and the invocation of Deity to witness, and to strengthen that obligation, or
to punish its violation, is incapable, by any
perversion of Scripture, of being considered
a criminal act.
Secondly. The objection that the oath
is administered before the secrets are made
known, is sufficiently absurd to provoke a

"

Tango

aras

rnediosque ignes,

et

numina,

testor."

Sometimes they extended the right hand to

heaven, and swore by earth, sea, and stars.
Sometimes, as among the Romans in private contracts, the person swearing laid his
hand upon the hand of the party to whom
he swore. In all solemn covenants the oath
was accompanied by a sacrifice and some
of the hair being cut from the victim's
head, a part of it was given to all present,
that each one might take a share in the
oath, and be subject to the imputation.
Other ceremonies were practised at various
;

times and in different countries, for the

purpose of throwing around the act of attestation an increased amount of awe and

OATH

540

The oath

respect.

without them

is

OATH

equally obligatory

but they have their significance, and there can be no reason why the
Freemasons should not be allowed to adopt
the mode most pleasing to themselves of
exacting their promises or confirming their
;

covenants.
Fourthly. It is objected that the oath is
attended with a penalty of a serious or
If this be the case, it does
capital nature.
not appear that the expression of a penalty
of any nature whatever can affect the purport or augment the solemnity of an oath,
which is, in fact, an attestation of God to
the truth of a declaration, as a witness and
avenger and hence every oath includes in
itself, and as its very essence, the covenant
of God's wrath, the heaviest of all penalties, as the necessary consequence of its violation.
writer, in reply to the Synod of
Scotland, (/Scot's Mag., Oct. 1757,) quotes the
opinion of an eminent jurist to this effect:
" It seems to be certain that every promissory oath, in whatever form it may be
conceived, whether explicitly or implicitly,
virtually contains both an attestation and
an obsecration for in an oath the execration supposes an attestation as a precedent,
and the attestation infers an execration as
a necessary consequence.
" Hence, then, to the believer in a superintending Providence, every oath is an
affirmation, negation, or promise, corroborated by the attestation of the Divine Being." This attestation includes an obsecration of divine punishment in case of a
violation, and it is, therefore, a matter of
no moment whether this obsecration or
penalty be expressed in words or only implied its presence or absence does not, in
any degree, alter the nature of the obligation.
If in any promise or vow made by
Masons, such a penalty is inserted, it may
probably be supposed that it is used only
;

and paraph rastical

signification, and for the purpose of symbolic or historical allusion.
Any other interpretation but this would be entirely at
variance with the opinions of the most intelligent Masons, who, it is to be presumed,

with a metaphorical

know

untiring pertinacity, and believed with a

credulity that owes its birth to rancorous
prejudice alone. To repeat the denial is
but to provoke a repetition of the charge.

The answer

is, however, made by one who,

once a Mason, was afterwards an opponent
and an avowed enemy of the Institution,
W. L. Stone (Letters on Masonry and AntiMasonry, Let. VII., p. 69,) uses the following language
" Is it, then, to be believed that men of
acknowledged talents and worth in public

stations, and of virtuous and, frequently,

religious habits, in the walks of private
life,

with the Holy Bible in their hands,

which they are solemnly pledged to receive as the rule and guide of their faith
and practice,
and under the grave and
positive charge from the officer administer-

ing the obligation, that it is to be taken in

strict subordination to the civil laws,
can
understand that obligation, whatever may
be the peculiarities of its phraseology, as
requiring them to countenance vice and
criminality even by silence ? Can it for a
moment be supposed that the hundreds of
eminent men, whose patriotism is unquestioned, and the exercise of whose talents
and virtues has shed a lustre upon the
church history of our country, and who, by
their walk and conversation, have, in their
own lives, illustrated the beauty of holiness ? Is it to be credited that the tens of
thousands of those persons, ranking among
the most intelligent and virtuous citizens
of the most moral and enlightened people
is it, I ask, possible that any
on earth,
portion of this community can, on calm
reflection, believe that such men have oaths
upon their consciences binding them to
eternal silence in regard to the guilt of any
man because he happens to be a Freemason, no matter what be the grade of offence,
whether it be the picking of a pocket or
the shedding of blood? It does really seem
to me impossible that such an opinion

could, at any moment, have prevailed, to

any considerable extent, amongst reflecting
and intelligent citizens."

Oath, Corporal. The modern

form

the intent and meaning of their of taking an oath is by placing the hands
own ceremonies.
on the Gospels or on the Bible. The corFifthly. The last, and, indeed, the most porate, or corporal cloth, is the name of the
important objection urged is, that these linen cloth on which, in the Eoman Cathoaths are construed by Masons as being of olic Church, the sacred elements consehigher obligation than the law of the land. crated as "the body of our Lord" are
It is vain that this charge has been repeat- placed. Hence the expression corporal oath
edly and indignantly denied it is in vain originated in the ancient custom of swearthat Masons point to the integrity of char- ing while touching the corporal cloth.
The
acter of thousands of eminent men who Relics were sometimes made use of.
have been members of the Fraternity it laws of the Allemanni (cap. 657) direct
is in vain that they recapitulate the orderthat he who swears shall place his hand
loving and law-fearing regulations of the upon the coffer containing the relics. The
Institution; the charge is renewed with idea being that something sacred must be

best

OATH

OBEDIENCE

touched by the hand of the jurator to give

validity to the oath, in time the custom was
adopted of substituting the holy Gospels for
the corporal cloth or the relics, though the
same title was retained. Haydn {Diet, of
Dates) says that the practice of swearing
on the Gospels prevailed in England so
early as A. d. 528. The laws of the Lombards repeatedly mention the custom of
swearing on the Gospels. The sanction of
the church was given at an early period to
the usage. Thus, in the history of the
Council of Constantinople, (Anno 381,) it
is stated that "George, the well-beloved
of God, a deacon and keeper of the records,
having touched the Holy Gospels of God,
swore in this manner," etc. And a similar
practice was adopted at the Council of
Nice, fifty-six years before.
The custom
of swearing on the book, thereby meaning
the Gospels, was adopted by the mediaeval
gild of Freemasons, and allusions to it are
found in all the Old Constitutions. Thus
in the York Manuscript, about the year
you
1600, it is said, "These charges
shall well and truly keep to your power so
help you God and the contents of that
book." And in the Grand Lodge Manuscript in 1632 we find this " These charges
ye shall keepe, so healpe you God, and your
haly dome and by this booke in your hands."
The form of the ceremony required that the
corporal oath should be taken with both
hands on the book, or with one hand, and
then always the right hand.
Oath of the Gild. The oath that was
administered in the English Freemasons'
gild of the Middle Ages is first met with
in the Harleian Manuscript, written about
the year 1676. The 31st article prescribes
" That noe person shall bee accepted a Free
Mason, or know the secrets of the said
Society, until hee hath first taken the oath
of secrecy hereafter following
" I, A. B. Doe, in the presence of Almighty God and my Fellowes and Brethren
here present, promise and declare that I
will not at any time hereafter, by any act
or circumstance whatsoever, directly or indirectly, publish, discover, reveale, or make
knowne any of the secrets, priviledges or
counsells of the Fraternity or fellowship of
Free Masonry, which at this time, or any
.

time hereafter, shall be made knowne unto

mee; soe helpe mee God and the holy contents of this booke."
In the Roberts' Constitutions, published in 1722, this oath,
substantially in the
first

same words,

"I, A. B., do hereby and hereon solemnand sincerely swear that I have been
regularly initiated, passed, and raised to
the sublime degree of a Master Mason in
a just and legally constituted Lodge of such;
that I do not now stand suspended or expelled; and know of no reason why I
ly

should not hold Masonic communication

with my brethren."
It is called the " Tiler's oath," because it
is usually taken in the Tiler's room, and
was formerly administered by that officer, whose duty it is to protect the Lodge
from the approach of unauthorized visitors,
It is now administered by the committee
of examination, and not only he to whom
it is administered, but he who administers

and all who are present, must take it at

same time. It is a process of purgation, and each one present, the visitor as
well as the members of the Lodge, is entiit,

the

tled to know that all the others are legally

qualified to be present at the esoteric examination which is about to take place.

OB. A

is for

the

time printed with the amendment of

" privities " for " priviledges."

Oath, Tiler's. Before any strange
and unknown visitor can gain admission
into a Masonic Lodge, he is required to
take the following oath

541

word

Masonic abbreviation of the

sometimes written 0. B.

Obligation,

Obedience. The doctrine of obedience to constituted authority is strongly

inculcated in all the Old Constitutions as
necessary to the preservation of the association.
In them it is directed that "every
Mason shall prefer his elder and put him
to worship." Thus the Master Mason obeys
the order of his Lodge, the Lodge obeys
the mandates of the Grand Lodge, and the
Grand Lodge submits to the landmarks and
the old regulations. The doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance in politics, however much it may be supposed to
be inimical to the progress of free institutions, constitutes undoubtedly the great
principle of Masonic government. Such a
principle would undoubtedly lead to an unbearable despotism, were it not admirably
modified and controlled by the compensating principle of appeal.
The first duty of
every Mason is to obey the mandate of the
Master. But if that mandate should have
been unlawful or oppressive, he will find
his redress in the Grand Lodge, which will
review the case and render justice. This
spirit of instant obedience and submission
to

authority constitutes the

guard of the Institution.

great

safe-

Freemasonry

more resembles a military than a political

organization. The order must at once be
obeyed ; its character and its consequences
may be matters of subsequent inquiry. The
Masonic rule of obedience is like the nau" Obey orders, even if
tical, imperative
:

you break owners."

Obedience of a Grand Body.

Obedience, used in the sense of being under
the jurisdiction, is a technicality borrowed

542

OBELISK

OBVERSE

only recently by Masonic authorities from

the French, where it has always been

to do some act, the doing of which thus

becomes his duty. By his obligation, a
regularly used. Thus "the Grand Lodge Mason is bound or tied to his Order.
has addressed a letter to all the Lodges of Hence the Romans called the military
oath which was taken by the soldier his
its obedience" means "to all the Lodges
under its jurisdiction." In French, " a obligation, and hence, too, it is said that it is
toutes les Loges de sou obedience." It the obligation that makes the Mason.
Becomes originally from the usage of the Mid- fore that ceremony, there is no tie that
dle Ages, in the low Latin of which obedi- binds the candidate to the Order so as to
entia meant the homage which a vassal make him a part of it after the ceremony,
owed to his lord. In the ecclesiastical lan- the tie has been completed, and the candiguage of the same period, the word signi- date becomes at once a Mason, entitled to
fied the duty or office of a monk towards all the rights and privileges and subject to
his superior.
all the duties and responsibilities that enObelisk. The obelisk is a quadrangu- ure in that character. The jurists have
lar, monolithic column, diminishing updivided obligations into imperfect and perwards, with the sides gently inclined, but fect, or natural and civil.
In Masonry
not so as to terminate in a pointed apex, there is no such distinction.
The Mabut to form at the top a flattish, pyramidal sonic obligation is that moral one which,
figure, by which the whole is finished off although it cannot be enforced by the
and brought to a point. It was the most com- courts of law, is binding on the party who
mon species of monument in ancient Egypt, makes it, in conscience and according to
where they are still to be found in great moral justice. It varies in each degree,
numbers, the sides being covered with hiero- but in each is perfect. Its different clauses,
glyphic inscriptions. Obelisks were, it is in which different duties are prescribed,
supposed, originally erected in honor of the are called its points, which are either afsun god. Pliny says (Holland's trans.), firmative or negative, a division like that
" The kings of Egypt in times past made of the precepts of the Jewish law. The
of this stone certain long beams, which they affirmative points are those which require
called obelisks, and consecrated them unto certain acts to be performed the negative
the sun, whom they honored as a god and, points are those which forbid certain other
indeed, some resemblance they carry of sun- acts to be done. The whole of them is
beams." In continental Masonry the mon- preceded by a general point of secrecy,
ument in the Master's degree is often made common to all the degrees, and this point
in the form of an obelisk, with the letters is called the tie.
;

And this form

B. inscribed upon it.
appropriate, because in Masonic, as in
Christian, iconography the obelisk is a
symbol of the resurrection.
M.

is

Objections to Freemasonry. The

principal objections that have been urged
by its opponents to the institution of Freemasonry may be arranged under six heads.
1. Its secrecy ; 2. The exclusiveness of its charity 3. Its admission of unworthy members ;
4. Its claim to be a religion ; 5. Its administration of unlawful oaths; and 6. Its
puerility as a system of instruction.^ Each
of these objections is replied to in this
work under the respective heads of the
words which are italicized above.
Obligated. To be obligated, in Masonic language, is to be admitted into the
covenant of Masonry. " An obligated Mason " is tautological, because there can be
no Mason who is not an obligated one.
;

Obligation. The solemn promise

made by a Mason on his admission into

Oblong

parallelogram,
Square.
or four-sided figure, all of whose angles are
equal, but two of whose sides are longer

than the others.

This is the symbolic form of a Masonic
Lodge, and it finds its prototype in many
of the structures of our ancient brethren.
The ark of Noah, the camp of the Israelites, the ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, and, lastly, the Temple of Solomon,
See Groundwere all oblong squares.
Floor of the Lodge.

Observance, Clerks of
See Clerks of

Strict.

Strict Observance.

Observance, Lax.

See

Lax

Observ-

ance.

Observance, Relaxed.

(Observ-

the term by which

Ragon translates the lata observantia or
lax observance applied by the disciples
of Von Hund to the other Lodges of Germany. Ragon (Orth. Macon., p. 236,) calls
ance -Eelachee.)

This

is

it incorrectly a Rite, and confounds it with

any degree is technically called his obliga- the Clerks of Strict Observance. See Lax
In a legal sense, obligation is sy- Observance.
tion.
Observance, Strict. See Strict Obnonymous with duty. Its derivation shows
servance.
its true meaning, for the Latin word obli-

gatio literally signifies a tying or binding.

The obligation is that which binds a man

Obverse. In numismatics that side

of a coin or medal which contains the

OHIO

OCCASIONAL
principal figure, generally a face in profile
or a full or half-length figure, is called the
obverse.

Occasional Lodge. A

temporary

Lodge convoked by a Grand Master for

the purpose of making Masons, after which
the Lodge is dissolved. The phrase was
first used by Anderson in the second edition
of the Book of Constitutions, and is repeated
by subsequent editors. To make a Mason
in an Occasional Lodge is equivalent to
making him "at sight." But any Lodge,
called temporarily by the Grand Master
for a specific purpose and immediately afterwards dissolved,

is

an Occasional Lodge.

Its organization as to officers, and its regulations as to ritual, must be the same as in

a permanent and properly warranted Lodge.

See Sight, Making Masons at.
Occult Masonry. Eagon, in his Orthodoxie Magonnique, proposes the establishment of a Masonic system, which he
It consists of
calls "Occult Masonry."
three degrees, which are the same as those
of Ancient Craft Masonry, only that all the
symbols are interpreted after alchemical
principles.
It is, in fact, the application
of Masonic symbolism to hermetic symbolism two things that never did, according
to Hitchcock, materially differ.

Occult Sciences.

This

name is given

to the sciences of alchemy, magic, and astrology, which existed in the Middle Ages.
Many of the speculations of these so-called
sciences were in the eighteenth century
made use of in the construction of the high
have even a " Hermetic Kite"
degrees.
which is based on the dogmas of alchemy.
state or
Territory.
kingdom where there is a Grand Lodge or-

We

Occupied

ganization and subordinate Lodges working under it is said to be occupied territory,

and, by the American and English law, all
other Grand Lodges are precluded from entering in it and exercising jurisdiction.
See Jurisdiction of a Grand Lodge.
Octagon. The regular octagon is a
geometrical figure of eight equal sides and
It is a favorite form in Christian
angles.
ecclesiology, and most of the ChapterHouses of the cathedrals in England are
eight sided. It is sometimes used in rituals
of Knights of Malta, and then, like the
eight-pointed cross of the same Order, is
referred symbolically to the eight beatitudes
of our Saviour.
lumbers. In the numerical
philosophy of the Pythagoreans, odd numbers were male and even numbers female.
It is wrong, however, to say, as Oliver and
some others after him have, that odd numbers were perfect and even numbers imperfect.
The combination of two odd num-

Odd

bers

would make an even number, which

543

was the most perfect. Hence, in the Pythagorean system, 4, made by the combination of 1 and 3, and 10, by the combination
of 3 and

7, are the most perfect of all

numbers. Herein the Pythagorean differs
from the Masonic system of numerals. In

this latter all the sacred numbers are odd,

such as 3, 5, 7, 9, 27, and 81. Thus it is

evident that the Masonic theory of sacred

numbers was derived,

not, as it has

been

supposed, from the school of Pythagoras,

but from a much older system.
Offences, Masonic. See Crimes,
Masonic.

Offerings,

The Three Grand.

See Ground-Floor of the Lodge.

The officers of a Grand
Officers.
Lodge, Grand Chapter, or other Supreme

body in Masonry, are divided into Grand

and Subordinate the former, who are the
Grand and Deputy Grand Master, the
Grand Wardens and Grand Treasurer, Secretary, and Chaplain, are also sometimes
;

called the Dignitaries.

Lodge or Chapter are

The

officers of a
divided into the
Elected and the Appointed, the former in
this country being the Master, Wardens,
Treasurer, and Secretary.

Officers' Jewels.

See Jewels,

Offi-

cial.

Office, Tenure of. In Masonry the

tenure of every office is not only for the
time for which the incumbent was elected
or appointed, but extends to the day on
which his successor is installed. During
the period which elapses from the election
of that successor until his installation, the
old officer is technically said to " hold
over."

Oheb Eloah. mSx

SHK. Love of God.

and Oheb Karobo, Love of our

Neighbor, are the names of the two supports
of the Ladder of Kadosh. Collectively, they
This

allude to that divine passage, " Thou shalt

love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,

and with

thy soul, and with all thy

the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto
it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the
law and the prophets." Hence the Ladder
of Kadosh is supported by these two Chris-

mind.

tian

all

This

is

commandments.

Oheb Rarobo.

See Oheb Eloah.

was introduced
into Ohio early in the present century.
On January 4, 1808, a convention of delegates from the five Lodges then in the

Ohio.

Freemasonry

State met at Chillicothe, and on January

7 organized a Grand Lodge, electing Eufus Putnam first Grand Master. The
Grand Chapter of Ohio was organized in
1816, the Grand Council in 1829, and the
Grand Commandery in 1843.

544

OLIVER

OIL

Oil. The Hebrews anointed their kings,

prophets, and high priests with oil mingled
with! the richest spices. They also anointed

The new Order was

themselves with oil on all festive occasions,

whence the expression in Psalm xlv. 7,
"God hath anointed thee with the oil of
gladness." See Corn.
Old Man. Old men in their dotage
are by the laws of Masonry disqualified for
For the reason of this law, see
initiation.
Dotage.

manent

Old Regulations. The

regulations

government of the Craft, which were

compiled by Grand Master Payne in
1720, and approved by the Grand Lodge in
1721, were published by Anderson in 1723,

for the
first

in the first edition

of the

Book of Constitu-

under the name of General Regulations, In 1738 Anderson published a second

edition of the Book of Constitutions, and
inserted these regulations under the name
of Old Kegulations, placing in an opposite
column the alterations which had been made
in them by the Grand Lodge at different
times between 1723 and 1737, and called
these New Kegulations. When Dermott published his Ahiman Eezon, or Book of Constitutions of the schismatic Grand Lodge,
he adopted Anderson's plan, publishing in
two columns the Old and the New Regulations. But he made some important changes
in the latter to accommodate the policy of
The Old Regulahis own Grand Lodge.
tions, more properly known as the " General
tions,

Regulations of

1722/'' are recognized as the

better authority in questions of Masonic
law.
Olive. In a secondary sense, the olive
plant is a symbol of peace and victory but
in its primary sense, like all the other sacred plants of antiquity, it was a symbol of
resurrection and immortality. Hence in
;

the Ancient Mysteries it was the analogue

of the Acacia of Freemasonry.

Olive-Branch in the East, Brotherhood of the. A new Order, which

was proposed at Bombay, in 1845, by Dr.
James Burnes, the author of a History of the
Knights Templars, who was then the Provincial Grand Master of England for Scotland.
It was intended to provide a substitute to native MasOns for the chivalric
degrees, from which, on account of their

For the

first, it

requisite that the candidate should have

been initiated into Masonry for the second,
;

that he should be a Master Mason and for

the third it was recommended, but not imperatively required, that he should have
attained the Royal Arch degree. The
badge of the Order was a dove descending
with a green olive-branch in its mouth.
;

existence.

Oliver, George.

The Rev. George

most distinguished
and learned of English Masons, was descended from an ancient Scottish family of
that name, some of whom came into England in the time of James I., and settled
Oliver, D.D., one of the

He

at Clipstone Park, Nottinghamshire.

was the eldest son of the Rev. Samuel
Oliver, rector of Lambley, Nottinghamshire, and Elizabeth, daughter of George

He was born at Pepple5th, 1782, and received a

liberal education at Nottingham.
In 1803,
when but twenty-one years of age, he was
elected second master of the grammarschool at Caiston, Lincoln. In 1809 he
was appointed to the head-mastership of
King Edward's Grammar-School at Great
Grimsby. In 1813 he entered holy orders
in the Church of England, and was ordained
Whitehead, Esq.
wick,

November

a deacon.
The subsequent year he was
a priest. In the spring of 1815,
Bishop Tomline collated him to the living
of Clee, his name being at the time placed
on the boards of Trinity College, Cambridge, as a ten-year man by Dr. Bayley,
Sub-dean of Lincoln and examining Chaplain to the Bishop.
In the same year he
was admitted as Surrogate and a Steward
of the Clerical Fund. In 1831, Bishop
Kaye gave him the living of Scopwick,
which he held to the time of his death.
He graduated as Doctor of Divinity in
1836, being then rector of Wolverhampton,
and a prebendary of the collegiate church
at that place, both of which positions had
been presented to him by Dr. Hobart, Dean
of Westminster. In 1846, the Lord Chancellor conferred on him the rectory of
South Hykeham, which vacated the incumbency of Wolverhampton. At the age* of
seventy- two Dr. Oliver's physical powers
began to fail, and he was obliged to confine
the charge of his parishes to the care of
curates, and he passed the remaining years
of his life in retirement at Lincoln. In
1805 he had married Mary Ann, the
youngest daughter of Thomas Beverley,

made

Esq.,

by

whom

he

left five children.

He

March 3d, 1867, at Eastgate, Lincoln.

To the literary world Dr. Oliver was
was well known as a laborious antiquary, and

religious faith, they were excluded.

It
consisted of three classes, Novice, Com-

panion, and Officer.

received with much

enthusiasm by the most distinguished Masons of India, but it did not secure a per-

died

on ecclesiastical antiquities during fifty, years of his life, from 1811 to 1866,
earned for him a high reputation. Of
these works the most important were,
" History and Antiquities of the Collegiate
Church of Beverley," " History and Antiquities of the Collegiate Church of Wolverhampton," " History of the Conventual
his works

OLIVER

OLIVER
Church of Grimsby," " Monumental Antiquities of

Grimsby," " History of the Gild

Letters
of the Holy Trinity, Sleaford,"
on the Druidical Remains near Lincoln,"
" Guide to the Druidical Temple at Nottingham," and " Remains of Ancient Britons between Lincoln and Sleaford."
But it is as the most learned Mason and
the most indefatigable and copious Masonic
l

author of his age that Dr. Oliver principally claims our attention. He had inherited a love of Freemasonry from his
father, the Rev. Samuel Oliver, who was an
expert Master of the work, the Chaplain of
his Lodge, and contributed during a whole
year, from 1797 to 1798, an original Masonic
song to be sung on every Lodge night. His
son has repeatedly acknowledged his indebtedness to him for valuable information
in relation to Masonic usages.
Dr. Oliver was initiated by his father, in
the year 1801, in St. Peter's Lodge, in the
He was at that time
city of Peterborough.
but nineteen years of age, and was admitted
by dispensation during his minority, according to the practice then prevailing, as
a lewis, or the son of a Mason.
Under the tuition of his father, he made
much progress in the rites and ceremonies
then in use among the Lodges. He read
with great attention every Masonic book
within his reach, and began to collect that
store of knowledge which he afterwards
used with so much advantage to the Craft.

Soon

after his

appointment as head mas-

King Edward's Grammar-School at

Grimsby, he established a Lodge in the

ter of

borough, the chair of which he occupied

for fourteen years.
So strenuous were his
exertions for the advancement of Masonry,
that in 1812 he was enabled to lay the first
stone of a Masonic hall in the town, where,
three years before, there had been scarcely
a Mason residing.
About this time he was exalted as a
Royal Arch Mason in the Chapter attached
to the Rodney Lodge at Kingston-on-Hull.
In Chapters and Consistories connected
with the same Lodge he also received the
high degrees and those of Masonic Knighthood.
In 1813, he was appointed a
Provincial Grand Steward in 1816, Provincial Grand Chaplain; and in 1832,
Provincial Deputy Grand Master of the
Province of Lincolnshire. These are all
the official honors that he received, except
that of Past Deputy Grand Master, conferred, as an honorary title, by the Grand
Lodge of Massachusetts. In the year 1840,
Dr. Crucefix had undeservedly incurred
the displeasure of the Grand Master, the
Duke of Sussex. Dr. Oliver, between whom
and Dr. Crucefix there had always been a
warm personal friendship, assisted in a pub;

35

545

demonstration of the Fraternity in honor

of his friend and brother. This involved
him in the odium, and caused the Provincial Grand Master of Lincolnshire, Brother
Charles Tennyson D'Eyncourt, to request
the resignation of Dr. Oliver as his Deputy.
He complied with the resignation, and
after that time withdrew from all active
participation in the labors of the Lodge.
The transaction was not considered by any
means as creditable to the independence
of character or sense of justice of the Provincial Grand Master, and the Craft very
generally expressed their indignation of
the course which he had pursued, and their
warm appreciation of the Masonic services
of Dr. Oliver. In 1844, this appreciation
was marked by the presentation of an offering of plate, which had been very generally
subscribed for by the Craft throughout the

lie

kingdom.
Dr. Oliver's first contribution to the literature of Freemasonry, except a few Masonic sermons, was a work entitled " The
Antiquities of Freemasonry, comprising
illustrations of the five Grand Periods of
Masonry, from the Creation of the World
to the Dedication of King Solomon's Temple," which was published in 1823.
His
next production was a little work entitled
" The Star in the East," intended to show,
from the testimony of Masonic writers, the

connection between Freemasonry and reliIn 1841 he published twelve lectures

on the "Signs and Symbols" of Freemasonry, in which he went into a learned detail
of the history and signification of all the
recognized symbols of the Order. His next
important contribution to Freemasonry was
" The History of Initiation, in twelve lectures; comprising a detailed account of
the Rites and Ceremonies, Doctrines and
Discipline, of all the Secret and Mysterious
Institutions of the Ancient World," pub-

gion.

lished in 1840. The professed object of the

author was to show the resemblances between these ancient systems of initiation
and the Masonic, and to trace them to a
common origin a theory which, under
some modification, has been very generally
accepted by Masonic scholars.
Following this was "The Theocratic Philosophy of Freemasonry," a highly interesting work, in which he discusses the speculative character of the Institution. "A History
;

of Freemasonry from 1829 to 1840" has

proved a valuable appendix to the work of
Preston, an edition of which he had edited
in the former year.
His next and his
most important, most interesting, and most
learned production was his "Historical
Landmarks and other Evidences of Freemasonry Explained." No work with such an
amount of facts in reference to the Masonic

ON

OLIVER

546

system had ever before been published by

any author. It will forever remain as a

monument of his vast research and his exBut it would be no brief

tensive reading.
task to enumerate merely the titles of the
many works which he produced for the infew of them must
struction of the Craft.
These are the "Bevelations of a
suffice.
Square," a sort of Masonic romance, detailing, in a fictitious form, many of the usages
of the last centuries, with anecdotes of the
principal Masons of that period; "The
Golden Remains of the Early Masonic
Writers," in 5 volumes, each of which contains an interesting introduction by the
editor; "The Book of the Lodge," a useful
manual, intended as a guide to the ceremonies of the Order ; " The Symbol of Glory,"
intended to show the object and end of
Freemasonry "A Mirror for the Johannite
Masons," in which he discusses the question of the dedication of Lodges to the
two Saints John " The Origin and Insignia of the Eoyal Arch Degree," a title
which explains itself; "A Dictionary of
Symbolic Masonry," by no means the best
of his works. Almost his last contribution
to Masonry was his " Institutes of Masonic
Jurisprudence," a book in which he expressed views of law that did not meet with
the universal concurrence of his English
readers. Besides these elaborate works, Dr.
Oliver was a constant contributor to the
early volumes of the London Freemasons'
Quarterly Review, and published a valuable article, " On the Gothic Constitutions,"
in the American Quarterly Review of Free-

masonry.
The great error of Dr. Oliver, as a Masonic teacher, was a too easy credulity or a
too great warmth of imagination, which
led him to accept without hesitation the
crude theories of previous writers, and to
recognize documents and legends as unquestionably authentic whose truthfulness
subsequent researches have led most Masonic scholars to doubt or to deny. His
statements, therefore, as to the origin or
the history of the Order, have to be received
with many grains of allowance. Yet it must
be acknowledged that no writer in the English language has ever done so much to elevate the scientific character of Freemasonry.
Dr. Oliver was in fact the founder of
what may be called the literary school of
Masonry. Bringing to the study of the
Institution an amount of archaeological
learning but seldom surpassed, an inexhaustible fund of multifarious reading,
and all the laborious researches of a genuine scholar, he gave to Freemasonry a literary and philosophic character which has
induced many succeeding scholars to devote themselves to those studies which he

had made

so attractive.

While

his errone-

ous theories and his fanciful speculations

will be rejected, the form and direction that
he has given to Masonic speculations will
remain, and to him must be accredited the
enviable title of the Father of Anglo-Saxon

Masonic literature.
In reference to the personal character
of Dr. Oliver, a contemporary journalist
[Stanford Mercury) has said that he was
of a kind and genial disposition, charitable in the highest sense of the word, courteous, affable, self-denying,

and beneficent;

humble, unassuming, and unaffected ever

ready to oblige, easy of approach, and
;

amiable, yet firm in the right.

Dr. Oliver's theory of the system of
Freemasonry may be briefly stated in these
words. He believed that the Order was to
be found in the earliest periods of recorded
It was taught by Seth to his descendants, and practised by them under the
name of Primitive or Pure Freemasonry.
It passed over to Noah, and at the dispersion of mankind suffered a division into
Pure Freemasonry
Pure and Spurious.
descended through the Patriarchs to Solomon, and thence on to the present day.
The Pagans, although they had slight
glimmerings of'the Masonic truths which
had been taught by Noah, greatly corrupted
them, and presented in their mysteries a
system of initiation to which he gave the
name of the Spurious Freemasonry of An-

history.

These views he had developed

and enlarged and adorned out of the simitiquity.

lar but less definitely expressed teachings

Like that writer also,
of Hutchinson.
while freely admitting the principle of religious tolerance, he contended for the strictly
Christian character of the Institution, and
that, too, in the narrowest sectarian view,
since he believed that the earliest symbols
taught the dogma of the Trinity, and that
Christ was meant by the Masonic reference to the Deity under the title of Grand
Architect of the Universe.

Omega.

See Alpha and Omega.

Omnific Word. The

Tetragramma-

so called because of the omnific

powers attributed by the Kabbalists to its
(See
possession and true pronunciation.
Tetragrammaton.) The term is also applied
to the most significant word in the Eoyal

ton

is

Arch system.

On. This is a significant word in

Royal Arch Masonry, and has been generally explained as being the name by which
Jehovah was worshipped among the Egyptians.
As this has been recently denied,
and the word asserted to be only the name
of a city in Egypt, it is proper that some
inquiry should be made into the authorities
on the subject. The first mention of On in

ON

OPENING

in the history of Joseph, to

gave " to wife Asenath, the
daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On."
The city of On was in Lower Egypt, between the Nile and the Red Sea, and
" adorned," says Philippson, " by a gorgeous

as showing that the name AIN or

was
the name of a triad of gods in the Irish
"All etymologists," Higgins
language.
continues, " have supposed the word On to
mean the sun but how the name arose has
not before been explained." In another
work, (Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 109,) Higgins
makes the following important remarks:
" Various definitions are given of the word
but they are all unsatisfactory. It is
;
written in the Old Testament in two ways,
ana< 3N> an
1^ i s usually
3*1 ^> aun
rendered in English by the word On. This
word is supposed to mean the sun, and the
Greeks translated it by the word 7}?aoc, or
Sol.
But I think it only stood for the sun,
as the emblem of the procreative power of
nature." Bryan says, (Ant Mythol., i. 19,)
when speaking of this word " On, Eon or
Aon, was another title of the sun among
the Amonians. The Seventy, where the
word occurs in the Scriptures, interpret it the
sun, and call the city of On, Heliopolis ; and
the Coptic Pentateuch renders the city On
by the city of the sun." Plato, in his
" Tell me of the god ON,
Timceus, says
which is, and never knew beginning."
And although Plato may have been here
thinking of the Greek word 2N, which
means Being, it is not improbable that he
may have referred to the god worshipped
at On, or Heliopolis, as it was thence that
the Greeks derived so much of their learning.
It would be vain to attempt to make
an analogy between the Hindu sacred word
and the Egyptian ON. The fact
in the former word is the initial
that the
of some secret word, renders the conversion of it into
impossible, because it
would thereby lose its signification.
The old Masons, misled by the authority
of St. Cyril, and by the translation of the
name of the city into " City of the Sun "

the Bible

is

whom Pharaoh

temple of the sun, in which a numerous

priesthood officiated."

The
gists

investigations of

modern Egyptolo-

this is an error.
On
of a city where the sun -god

have shown that

was the name

was worshipped, but

On was

not the

name

of that god.

Champollion, in his Didionnaire Egypgives the phonetic characters, with the figurative symtien,

bols of a serpent and disk, and

a seated figure, as the name of the sun-god.
Now, of these two characters, the upper one
has the power of R, and the lower of A,

and hence the name of the god

is

Ba.

And

this is the concurrent testimony of Bunsen,

Lepsius, Gliddon, and all recent authorities.
But although On was really the name of

a city, the founders of the Royal Arch had,

with the lights then before them, assumed
that it was the name of a god, and had so
incorporated it with their system. With
better light than theirs, we can no longer
accept their definition yet the word may
still be retained as a symbol of the Egyptian god.
I know not who has power to
;

and if scholars preserve, outside

of the symbolism, the true interpretation,
no harm will be done. It is not the only
significant word in Masonry whose old
and received meaning has been shown to
be incorrect, and sometimes even absurd.
And yet the word is still retained as the
expression of an old idea.
Wilkinson says of it " This city was in

reject it;

ages a sort of ecclesiastical metropolis

the prime seat of the
of Lower Egypt
sacred mysteries and higher science of the
country, and was, as such, the fountain
from which the Greek philosophers and
historians were allowed to draw the scanty
information which they have transmitted
The sun, which was there worto us."
shipped, was in the Egyptian, as in other
idolatrous systems, one of the chief deities.
In another place in the Bible, (Jer. xliii.
13,) the city of On is called Bethshemesh,
the city of the sun and the Greeks called
it Heliopolis, which had precisely the same
meaning.
Now, what was actually the
signification of the word
In the lan?
guage of the hieroglyphics, the sun, it is
true, is called
but St. Cyril, who, as
Bishop of Alexandria, should have known
something of this subject, says that On signified, among the Egyptians, the sun, ("fiv Si
all

ON

RA

eon

kclt"

avrolg

faioc.)

Higgins

(Celt.

Druids, 171,) quotes an Irish commentator

547

ON

ON

AUM

by the Hebrews and the Greeks, very

naturally supposed that On was the Egyptian sun-god, their supreme deity, as the
sun always was, wherever he was worshipped.

name

Hence, they appropriated that

as a sacred

word explanatory of the

Jewish Tetragrammaton.

Onyx, DHI^. (Shohem.) The second

stone in the fourth row of the high priest's
breastplate.
It is of a bluish-black color,
and represented the tribe of Joseph.
Opening of the Lodge. The necessity of some preparatory ceremonies, of
a more or less formal character, before proceeding to the despatch of the ordinary
business of any association, has always
been recognized. Decorum and the dignity of the meeting alike suggest, even in
popular assemblies called only for a temporary purpose, that a presiding officer
shall, with some formality, be inducted

OPENING

OPENING

into the chair, and he then, to use the ordinary phrase, " opens " the meeting with
the appointment of his necessary assistants,
and with the announcement, in an address
to the audience, explanatory of the objects
that have called them together.
If secular associations have found it expedient, by the adoption of some preparatory forms, to avoid the appearance of an
unseeming abruptness in proceeding to
business, it may well be supposed that religious societies have been still more observant of the custom, and that, as their
pursuits are more elevated, the ceremonies
of their preparation for the object of their
meeting should be still more impressive.
In the Ancient Mysteries, (those sacred
rites which have furnished so many models

proceed, than he directs his attention to an

inquiry into the knowledge possessed by
his officers of the duties that they will be
respectively called upon to perform.
5. Satisfied upon this point, the Master
then announces, by formal proclamation,
his intention to proceed to business; and,
mindful of the peaceful character of our
Institution, he strictly forbids all immoral
or unmasonic conduct whereby the harmony of the Lodge may be impeded,
under no less a penalty than the by-laws
may impose, or a majority of the brethren
present may see fit to inflict. Nor, after
this, is any brother permitted to leave the

548

Masonic symbolism,) the opening ceremonies were of the most solemn character.

for

The

sacred herald

commenced the

cere-

monies of opening the greater initiations

by the solemn formula of " Depart hence,
ye profane " to which was added a proclamation which forbade the use of any
language which might be deemed of unfavorable augury to the approaching rites.
In like manner a Lodge of Masons is
opened with the employment of certain
!

ceremonies in which, that attention may

be given to their symbolic as well as practical importance, every member present is
expected to take a part.
These ceremonies, which slightly differ
in each of the degrees
but differ so
slightly as not to affect their general character
may be considered, in reference to
the several purposes which they are designed to effect, to be divided into eight

successive steps or parts.

1.

The Master having

signified his in-

tention to proceed to the labors of the

Lodge, every brother is expected to assume
his necessary Masonic clothing and, if an
officer, the insignia of his office, and silently and decorously to repair to his appropriate station.
2. The next step in the ceremony is,
with the usual precautions, to ascertain
the right of each one to be present. It is
scarcely necessary to say that, in the performance of this duty, the officers who are
charged with it should allow no one to
remain who is not either well known to
themselves or properly vouched for by
some discreet and experienced brother.
3. Attention is next directed to the external avenues of the Lodge, and the officers
within and without who are intrusted with
the performance of this important duty, are
expected to execute it with care and fidelity.
4.

By

a wise provision,

it is

no sooner

timated to the Master that he

may

insafely

Lodge during Lodge hours

(that

is,

from

the time of opening to that of closing,)

without having first obtained the Worshipful Master's permission.
6. Certain mystic rites, which can here
be only alluded to, are then employed, by
which each brother present signifies his
concurrence in the ceremonies which have
been performed, and his knowledge of the
degree in which the Lodge is about to be
opened.
7. It is a lesson which every Mason is
taught, as one of the earliest points of his
initiation, that he should commence no important undertaking without first invoking
the blessing of Deity. Hence the next step
in the progress of the opening ceremonies
is to address a prayer to the Supreme Architect of the Universe.
This prayer, although offered by the Master, is to be participated in by every brother, and, at its
conclusion, the audible response of "So

mote

it

be

Amen," should be made by

all

present.
8. The Lodge is then declared, in the
name of God and the Holy Saints John, to

be opened in due form on the first, second,

or third degree of Masonry, as the case

may

be.

Lodge. is said to be opened in the name

of God and the Holy Saints John, as a declaration of the sacred and religious purposes of the meeting, of profound reverence
for that Divine Being whose name and
attributes should be the constant themes
of contemplation, and of respect for those
ancient patrons whom the traditions of
Masonry have so intimately connected with
the history of the Institution.
It is said to be opened in due form, to intimate that all that is necessary, appropriate, and usual in the ceremonies, all that
the law requires or ancient usage renders
indispensable, have been observed.
And it is said to be opened on, and not in,
a certain degree (which latter expression is
often incorrectly used), in reference rather
to the speculative than to the legal character of the meeting, to indicate, not that

"

OPERATIVE

ORAL

the members are to be circumscribed in the

limits of a particular degree, but that they
are met together to unite in contemplation

option to perform or omit any part of it, it is

not to be supposed that such option is to
be only his arbitrary will or unreasonable
choice.
On. the contrary, in exercising it,
he must be governed and restrained by the
principles of right and duty, and be controlled by the circumstances which surround the case, so that this option, which
at first would seem to be a favor, really involves a great and responsible duty, that
of exercising a just judgment in the premThat which at one time would be
ises.
proper to perform, at another time and in
different circumstances it would be equally
proper to omit.
Oral Instruction. Much of the

on the symbolic teachings and divine lesis the peculiar ob-

sons, to inculcate which

ject of that degree.

The manner

of opening in each degree

In the English system, the
opened in the first degree "in the

slightly varies.

Lodge

is

;"

of God and Universal Benevolence

in the second, " on the square, in the name
of the Great Geometrician of the Universe
and in the third, "on the centre, in the
name of the Most High."
It is prescribed as a ritual regulation that
the Master shall never open or close his
Lodge without a lecture or part of a
Hence, in each of the degrees a
lecture.
portion of a part of the lecture of that degree is incorporated into the opening and
closing ceremonies.
There is in every degree of Masonry,
from the lowest to the highest, an opening
This
ceremony peculiar to the degree.
ceremony has always more or less reference
to the symbolic lesson which it is the
design of the degree to teach, and hence
the varieties of openings are as many as the
degrees themselves.
Operative Art. Masonry is divided
by Masonic writers into two branches, an
operative art and a speculative science.
The operative art is that which was practised by the Free Stonemasons of the Middle Ages. The speculative science is that
which is practised by the Freemasons of
The technicalities and
the present day.
usages of the former have been incorporated into and modified by the latter.
Hence, Freemasonry is sometimes defined
as a speculative science founded on an
operative art.

name

Operative Masonry.

Freemason-

character as an operative art, is

familiar to every one. As such, it is engaged in the application of the rules and
principles of architecture to the construction of edifices for private and public use,
houses for the dwelling-place of man, and
temples for the worship of the Deity. It
abounds, like every other art, in the use of
technical terms, and employs, in practice,
an abundance of implements and materials
which are peculiar to itself.
This operative art has been the foundation on which has been built the speculative science of Freemasonry.
See Specury, in its

lative

Masonry.

Operative Masons.

Workers in
construct material edifices, in
contradistinction to Speculative Masons,
who construct only spiritual edifices.
Option. When a Masonic obligation
leaves to the person who assumes it the

stone,

who

instruction

which

549

communicated in

is

Freemasonry, and, indeed, all that is esoteric, is given orally

and there is a law of
the Institution that forbids such instruction
to be written.
There is in this usage and
regulation a striking analogy to what prevailed on the same subject in all the secret
;

institutions of antiquity.
In all the ancient mysteries, the same
reluctance to commit the esoteric instructions of the hierophants to writing is apparent; and hence the secret knowledge
taught in their initiations was preserved in

symbols, the true meaning of which was

closely concealed from the profane.
The Druids had a similar regulation
and Caesar informs us that, although they
made use of the letters of the Greek alphabet to record their ordinary or public transactions, yet it was not considered lawful to
intrust their sacred verses to writing, but
these were always committed to memory by
their disciples.
The secret doctrine of the Kabbala, or

the mystical philosophy of the Hebrews,

was also communicated in an oral form,
and could be revealed only through the
medium of allegory and similitude. The
Kabbalistic knowledge, traditionally received, was, says Maurice, (Ind. Antiq., iv.
548,) "transmitted verbally down to all the
great characters celebrated in Jewish antiquity, among whom both David and Solomon were deeply conversant in its most

hidden mysteries. Nobody, however, had

ventured to commit anything of this kind
to paper."

The Christian Church also, in the age

immediately succeeding the apostolic, observed the same custom of oral instruction.
The early Fathers were eminently cautious
not to commit certain of the mysterious
dogmas of their religion to writing, lest
the surrounding Pagans should be made
acquainted with what they could neither
St. Basil, (De
Spiritu Sancto,) treating of this subject in
receive the
the fourth century, says "

understand nor appreciate.

:

We

ORAL

ORAL

dogmas transmitted to us by writing, and

those which have descended to us from the
apostles, beneath the mystery of oral tradition for several things have been handed
to us without writing, lest the vulgar, too
familiar with our dogmas, should lose a
due respect for them." And he further
asks, " How should it ever be becoming to
write and circulate among the people an
account of those things which the uninitiated are not permitted to contemplate ? "

of perversion, because the truth could only

be ascertained by those persons who were
intrusted with the secret of their interpretation.
And if the symbols were of doubtful character, and carried a double meaning, as many of the Egyptian hieroglyphics
of a subsequent age actually did, the legends
which they embodied might sustain very

550

A custom, so ancient as this, of keeping

the landmarks unwritten, and one so invariably observed by the Masonic fraternity,
it may very naturally be presumed, must
have been originally established with the
wisest intentions; and, as the usage was
adopted by many other institutions whose
organization was similar to that of Freemasonry, it may also be supposed that it
was connected, in some way, with the character of an esoteric instruction.
Two reasons, it seems to me, may be assigned for the adoption of the usage among
Freemasons.
In the first place, by confining our secret
doctrines and landmarks to the care of
tradition, all danger of controversies and
schisms among Masons and in Lodges is
effectually avoided.
Of these traditions,
the Grand Lodge in each jurisdiction is the

interpreter,

and

pretation every
the jurisdiction

to its authoritative interin

is bound to submit.
There

Mason and every Lodge

no book, to which every brother may

whose language each one may interpret according to his own views, and whose

is

refer,

expressions

sometimes,

perhaps, equivo-

and sometimes obscure

might afford
ample sources of wordy contest and verbal
cal,

criticism.
The doctrines themselves, as
well as their interpretation, are contained
in the memories of the Craft; and the
Grand Lodges, as the lawful representatives
of the Fraternity, are alone competent to
decide whether the tradition has been correctly preserved, and what is its true interAnd hence it is that there is no
pretation.
institution in which there have been so few
and such unimportant controversies with respect to essential and fundamental doctrines.
In illustration of this argument, Dr. Oliver, while speaking of what he calls the
antediluvian system of Freemasonry,
a
part of which must necessarily have been
traditional, and transmitted from father to
son, and a part intrusted to symbols,
makes the following observations
" Such of the legends as were communicated orally would be entitled to the greatest degree of credence, while those that
were committed to the custody of symbols,
which, it is probable, many of the collateral legends would be, were in great danger

considerable alteration in sixteen or seventeen hundred years, although passing

through very few hands."

Maimonides (More Nevochim

c.

lxxi.) as-

signs a similar reason for the unwritten

preservation of the Oral Law. "This," he
says, "was the perfection of wisdom in our
law, that by this means those evils were
avoided into which it fell in succeeding
times, namely, the variety and perplexity
of sentiments and opinions, and the doubts
which so commonly arise from written doctrines contained in books, besides the errors
which are easily committed by writers and
copyists, whence, afterwards, spring up controversies, schisms, and confusion of parties."

second reason that may be assigned for

the unwritten ritual of Masonry is, that by
compelling the craftsman who desires to
make any progress in his profession, to
commit its doctrines to memory, there is a
greater probability of their being thoroughly
studied and understood. In confirmation
of this opinion, it will, I think, be readily
acknowledged by any one whose experience is at all extensive, that, as a general
rule, those skilful brethren who are technically called "bright Masons," are better
acquainted with the esoteric and unwritten
portion of the lectures, which they were
compelled to acquire under a competent
instructor, and by oral information, than
with that which is published in the Monitors, and, therefore, always at hand to be read.
Caesar {Bell. Gall., vi. 14,) thought that
this was the cause of the custom among
the Druids, for, after mentioning that they
did not suffer their doctrines to be committed to writing, he adds " They seem to
:

me

to

have adopted

this

method

for

two

that their mysteries might be

hidden from the common people, and to
exercise the memory of their disciples,
which would be neglected if they had
reasons:

books on which they might

rely, as,

we

the case."
A third reason for this unwritten doctrine of Masonry, and one, perhaps, most
familiar to the Craft, is also alluded to by
Caesar in the case of the Druids, " because
they did not wish their doctrines to be divulged to the common people." Maimonides, in the conclusion of the passage
which we have already quoted, makes a
similar remark with respect to the oral law
find, is often

ORAL

ORDER

of the Jews. " But if," says he, " so much

care was exercised that the oral law should
not be written in a book and laid open to
all persons, lest, peradventure, it should
become corrupted and depraved, how much
more caution was required that the secret
interpretations of that law should not be
divulged to every person, and pearls be
thus thrown to swine." " Wherefore," he
adds, " they were intrusted to certain private persons, and by them were transmitted
to other educated men of excellent and extraordinary gifts." And for this regulation he quotes the Eabbins, who say that
the secrets of the law are not delivered to
any person except a man of prudence and

law and its explanation, as he

had received it from God. Aaron then
rose and seated himself on the right hand
of Moses. Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons
of Aaron, now entered the tent, and Moses
repeated to them all that he had communi-

wisdom.

It is, then, for these excellent reasons,

to avoid idle controversies and endless disputes ; to preserve the secrets of our Order

from decay; and, by increasing the difficulties by which they are to be obtained,
to diminish the probability of their being
forgotten and, finally, to secure them from
the unhallowed gaze of the profane,
that
the oral instruction of Masonry was first
instituted, and still continues to be reli;

giously observed. Its secret doctrines are

the precious jewels of the Order, and the
memories of Masons are the well-guarded
caskets in which those jewels are to be preserved with unsullied purity. And hence
it is appropriately said in our ritual, that
" the attentive ear receives the sound from
the instructive tongue, and the secrets of
Freemasonry are safely lodged in the depositary of faithful breasts."
Oral Law. The Oral Law is the name
given by the Jews to the interpretation of
the written code, and which is said to have
been delivered to Moses at the same time,
accompanied by the Divine command:
" Thou shalt not divulge the words which
I have said to thee out of my mouth." The
Oral Law was, therefore, never intrusted to
books but, being preserved in the memories of the judges, prophets, priests, and
other wise men, was handed down, from
one to the other, through a long succession
;

of ages.

Maimonides has described, according to

the Rabbinical traditions, the mode adopted
by Moses to impress the principles of this
Oral Law upon the people. As an example
of perseverance in the acquirement of information by oral instruction, it may be
worthy of the consideration and imitation
of all those Masons who wish to perfect
themselves in the esoteric lessons of their
Institution..

When

Moses had descended from Mount

Sinai, and had spoken to the people, he retired to his tent.

Here he was visited by
Aaron, to whom, sitting at his feet, he re-

551

cited the

cated to their father

after which, they
seated themselves, one on the left hand of
Moses and the other on the right hand of
Aaron. Then went in the seventy elders,
and Moses taught them, in the same
;

manner

as he had taught Aaron and his

Afterwards, all of the congregation
who desired to know the Divine will came
in; and to them, also, Moses recited the
law and its interpretation, in the same
manner as before. The law, thus orally
delivered by Moses, had now been heard
four times by Aaron, three times by his
sons, twice by the seventy elders, and once
After this,
by the rest of the people.
Moses withdrawing, Aaron repeated all
that he had heard from Moses, and retired;
then Eleazar and Ithamar repeated it, and
also withdrew and, finally, the same thing
was done by the seventy elders so that each
of them having heard the law repeated
four times, it was thus, finally, fixed in
sons.

their memories.
The written law, divided
lawgivers into 613 precepts,

by the Jewish

contained in
But the Oral law, transthe Pentateuch.
mitted by Moses to Joshua, by him to the
elders,

is

and from them conveyed by

tradi-

tionary relation to the time of Judah the

Holy, was by him, to preserve it from being
forgotten and lost, committed to writing
in the work known as the Mishna. And
now, no longer an Oral Law, its precepts are to be found- in that book, with
the subsidiary aid of the Constitutions of
the prophets and wise men, the Decrees of
the Sanhedrim, the decisions of the Judges,
and the Expositions of the Doctors.
Orator. An officer in a Lodge whose
duty it is to explain to a candidate after
his initiation the mysteries of the degree
into which he has just been admitted. The
office is therefore, in many respects, simiThe office was
lar to that of a lecturer.
created in the French Lodges early in the
eighteenth century, soon after the introduction of Masonry into France.
writer
in the London Freemasons' Magazine for
1859 attributes its origin to the constitutional deficiency of the French in readiness of public speaking. From the French
it passed to the other continental Lodges,
and was adopted by the Scottish Rite. The
office is not recognized in the English and
American system, where its duties are performed by the Worshipful Master.
Order. An Order may be defined to
be a brotherhood, fellowship, or associa-

ORDER

ORDER

tion of certain persons, united by laws and

statutes peculiar to the society, engaged in a
common object or design, and distinguished
by particular habits, ensigns, badges or

Name in each was different. Thus

Bode, as an Illuminatus, was, we have seen,
called " Amelius," but as a Strict Observant, he was known as " Eques a lilio convallium," or Knight of the Lily of the
Valleys.
The following examples may
suffice.
A full list will be found in Thory's
Acta Latomorum.
Hund was Eques ab ense Knight of the
Sword.
Jacobi was Eques a stella
Knight of the

552

symbols.
Johnson's definition is that an Order is
" a regular government, a society of dignified persons distinguished by marks of
honor, and a religious fraternity." In all
of these senses Freemasonry may be styled
an Order. Its government is of the most
regular and systematic character men the
most eminent for dignity and reputation
have been its members; and if it does not
constitute a religion in itself, it is at least
;

religion's handmaid.
The ecclesiastical writers define an Order
to be a congregation or society of religious
persons, governed by particular rules, living under the same superior, in the same

manner, and wearing the same habit; a

definition equally applicable to the society
of Freemasons. These ecclesiastical Orders
are divided into three classes : 1. Monastic,
such as the Benedictines and the Augustinians. 2. The Mendicant, as the Domin-

Order

=
=

Star.

Count Bruhl was Eques a gladio ancipiti

Knight of the Double-edged Sword.
Bode was Eques a lilio convallium
Knight

of the Lily of the Valleys.

Beyerle was Eques a fascia
Knight of the

Girdle.

Berend was Eques a septem stellis

Knight
of the Seven Stars.
Decker was Eques a plagula
Knight of

the Curtain.

Lavater was Eques ab JEsculapio

Knight
of Esculapius.
Seckendorf was Eques a capricorno
Knight of Capricorn.
Prince Charles Edward was Eques a sole
3. The Milicans and the Franciscans.
Knight of the Golden Sun.
aureo
itary, as the Hospitallers, the Templars,
and the Teutonic Knights. Only the first Zinnendorf was Eques a lapide nigro
Knight of the Black Stone.
and the third have any connection with FreeOrder of Business. In every Mamasonry the first because it was by them
that architecture was fostered, and the Ma- sonic body, the by-laws should prescribe
an " Order of Business," and in proportion
sonic gilds patronized in the Middle Ages
and the third because it was in the bosom as that order is rigorously observed will be
of Freemasonry that the Templars found a the harmony and celerity with which the
refuge after the dissolution of their Order. business of the Lodge will be despatched.
In Lodges whose by-laws have prescribed
Order Itfame. The name or designation assumed by the Illuminati, the mem- no settled order, the arrangement of business
bers of the Rite of Strict Observance, and is left to the discretion of the presiding
of the Royal Order of Scotland, was called officer, who, however, must be governed,
the Order Name, or the Characteristic to some extent, by certain general rules
founded on the principles of parliamentary
Name. See Eques.
The Illuminati selected classical names, law, or on the suggestions of common sense*.
The order of business may, for convenof which the following are specimens
ience of reference, be placed in the following
tabular form
was Spartacus.
Weishaupt
(i
1. Opening of the Lodge.
Philo.
Knigge
u Amelius.
and confirmation of the
2. Reading
Bode
11
minutes.
Lucian.
Nicolai
IC
3. Reports on petitions.
Pythagoras
Westenreider
It
4. Balloting for candidates.
Diomedes.
Constanza
CI
5. Reports of special committees.
Cato.
Zwack
6. Reports of standing committees.
Count Savioli a Brutus.
(t
7. Consideration of motions made at a
Bayard.
Busche
a Saladin.
former meeting, if called up by a member.
Ecker

8.

New

The members of the Strict Observance

formed their Order Names in a different

9.

Initiations.

Following the custom of the com-

tion

way.

business.

Reading of the minutes

and correction.

10.

for informa-

11. Closing of the Lodge.

batants in the old tournaments, each called
Order of Christ. See Christ, Order
himself an eques, or knight of some particular object; as, Knight of the Sword, Knight of
Order of the Temple. See Temof the Star, etc. Where one belonged both
to this Rite and to that of Illuminism, his ple, Order of the.

ORDER

ORDERS

Order, Rules
deliberative

of. Every permanent

body adopts a code of rules of

order to suit itself; but there are certain

rules derived from what may be called the

common law of Parliament, the wisdom of

which having been proven by long experience, that have been deemed of force at all
times and places, and are, with a few necessary exceptions, as applicable to Lodges as
to other societies.
The rules of order, sanctioned

by uninterrupted usage and approved by all authorities, may be enumerated under the
following distinct heads, as applied to a

Masonic body
1. Two independent original propositions
cannot be presented at the same time to'

the meeting.
2. A subsidiary motion cannot be offered
out of its rank of precedence.
3. When a brother intends to speak, he
is required to stand up in his place, and
to address himself always to the presiding
officer.
4.

When

two

nearly at the

or

same

more brethren
time,

rise

the presiding

officer will indicate, by mentioning his

name, the one who, in his opinion, is en-

titled to the floor.

5.

A brother

is

not to be interrupted by
for the purpose

any other member, except

of calling him to order.

6. No brother can speak oftener than the
rules permit; but this rule may be dispensed with by the Master.
7. No one is to disturb the speaker by
hissing, unnecessary coughing, loud whispering, or other unseemly noise, nor should
he pass between the speaker and the presiding officer.
8. No personality, abusive remarks, or
other improper language should be used by
any brother in debate.
9. If the presiding officer rises to speak
while a brother is on the floor, that brother
should immediately sit down, that the presiding officer may be heard.
10. Every one who speaks should speak
to the question.
11. As a sequence to this, it follows that
there can be no speaking unless there be
a question before the Lodge. There must
always be a motion of some kind to authorize a debate.
Orders of Architecture. An order
in architecture is a system or assemblage
of parts subject to certain uniform established proportions regulated by the office
which such part has to perform, so that the
disposition, in a peculiar form, of the members and ornaments, and the proportion of
the columns and pilasters, is called an order.
There are five orders of architecture, the
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Com3

553

posite
the first three being of Greek and
the last two of Italian origin. See each

under

its

respective

title.

Considering that the orders of architecture must have constituted one of the most
important subjects of contemplation to the
Operative Masons of the Middle Ages, and
that they afforded a fertile source for their
symbolism, it is strange that so little allusion is made to them in the primitive lectures and in the earliest catechisms of the
In the earliest catechism exlast century.
tant, they are simply enumerated, and said
"
to the base, perpendicular, dito answer
ameter, circumference, and square;" but no
explanation is given of this reference. Nor
are they referred to in the "Legend of the
Craft," or in any of the Old Constitutions.
Preston, however, introduced them into his
system of lectures, and designated the three
the Ionic, Doric, and
most ancient orders
Corinthian as symbols of wisdom, strength,
and beauty, and referred them to the three
This symbolism
original Grand Masters.
has ever since been retained and, notwithstanding the reticence of the earlier ritualists, there is abundant evidence, in the
architectural remains of the Middle Ages,
that it was known to the old Operative Freemasons.

Orders of Architecture, Egyptian.

The Egyptians had a system of

architecture peculiar to themselves, which,

says Barlow, (Essays on Symbolism, p. 30,)
"would indicate a people of grand ideas,
and of confirmed religious convictions." It
was massive, and without the airy proportions of the Greek orders. It was, too, eminently symbolic, and among its ornaments
the lotus leaf and plant predominated as a
symbol of regeneration. Among the peculiar forms of the Egyptian architecture
were the fluted column, which suggested the
Ionic order to the Greeks, and the basket
capital adorned with the lotus, which afterwards became the Corinthian. To the Masonic student, the Egyptian style of architecture becomes interesting, because it was
undoubtedly followed by King Solomon in
The great
his construction of the Temple.
similarity between the pillars of the porch
and the columns in front of Egyptian
temples is very apparent. Our translators
have, however, unfortunately substituted
the lily for the lotus in their version.
Orders of Knighthood. An order
of knighthood is a confraternity of knights
bound by the same rules. Of these there
are many in every kingdom of Europe, bestowed by sovereigns on their subjects as
marks of honor and rewards of merit. Such
for instance, are in England the Knights
of the Garter; in Scotland the Knights of
Saint Andrew ; and in Ireland the Knights

554

ORDERS

ORIENT

But the only Orders of A motto,of the 33d degree, and having the
Knighthood that have had any historical same allusion as lux e tenebris, which see.
of Saint Patrick.

relation to Masonry, except the Order of

Charles XII. in Sweden, are the three great
religious and military Orders which were
established in the Middle Ages.
These are

the Knights Templars, the Knights Hospitallers or Knights of Malta, and the Teutonic Knights, each of which may be seen
under its respective title. Of these three,
the Masons can really claim a connection
only with the Templars.
They alone
had a secret initiation, and with them
there is at least traditional evidence of a
fusion.
The Knights of Malta and the
Teutonic Knights have always held themselves aloof from the Masonic Order.
They never had a secret form of initiation
their reception was open and public and
the former Order, indeed, during the latter
part of the eighteenth century, became the
willing instruments of the* Church in the
persecution of the Masons who were at
that time in the island of Malta. There
is, indeed, a Masonic degree called Knight
of Malta, but the existing remnant of the
historical order has always repudiated it.
With the Teutonic Knights, the Freemasons have no other connection than this,
that in some of the high degrees their
peculiar cross has been adopted.
An attempt has been made, but I think without
reason, to identify the Teutonic Knights
with the Prussian Knights, or Noachites.
Orders of the Day. In parliamentary law, propositions which are appointed
for consideration at a particular hour and
day are called the orders of the day.
When the day arrives for their discussion,
they take precedence of all other matters,
unless passed over by mutual consent or
postponed to another day. The same rules
in reference to these orders prevail in Masonic as in other assemblies. The parliamentary law is here applicable without
modification to Masonic bodies.
Ordinacio. The Old Constitutions
known as the Halliwell MS. (14th cent.)
speak of an ordinacio in the sense of a law.
" Alia ordinacio artes geometrios." It is borrowed from the Roman law, where ordinatio
signified an imperial edict.
In the Middle
Ages, the word was used in the sense of a
statute, or the decision of a judge.
Ordination. At the close of the reception of a neophyte into the order of
Elect Cohens, the Master, while communicating to him the mysterious words, touched
him with the thumb, index, and middle
fingers (the other two being closed) on the
forehead, heart, and side of the head, thus
making the figure of a triangle. This
ceremony was called the ordination.
Ordo ab CUao. Order out of Chaos.
;

The invention

of this motto is to be atSupreme Council of the

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at
Charleston, and it is first met with in the
Patent of Count de Grasse, dated February
1, 1802. When De Grasse afterwards carried
the Rite over to France and established a
Supreme Council there, he changed the
motto, and, according to Lenning, Ordo ab
hoc was used by him and his Council in all
the documents issued by them. If so, it
was simply a blunder.
tributed to the

Oregon. The

first Lodges instituted

Oregon were under Warrants from the
Grand Lodge of California, in the year
1849.
On August 16th, 1851, a convention
of three Lodges was held in Oregon City,
and the Grand Lodge of Oregon was there
organized, Berryman Jennings being elected
Grand Master. The Grand Chapter was
organized at Salem, September 18th, 1860.
Tempi arism was introduced by the organization of Oregon Commandery, No. 1, at
Oregon City, on July 24th, 1860.

in

Organist, Grand.

An officer in the

Grand Lodge of England, Scotland, and

Ireland whose duty it is to superintend the
musical exercises on private and public
occasions.
He must be a Master Mason,
and is required to attend the Quarterly
and other communications of the Grand
Lodge. His jewel is an antique lyre.
Grand Lodges in this country do not recognize such an officer. But an organist has
been recently employed since the introduction of musical services into Lodge ceremonies by some Lodges.

Organization of Grand Lodges.

See Grand Lodge.

Orient. The East. The place where

is situated is sometimes called its
" Orient," but more properly its " East."
The seat of a Grand Lodge has also sometimes been called its "Grand Orient;" but
here "Grand East" would, I think, be
better. The term " Grand Orient " has been
used to designate certain of the Supreme
a Lodge

Bodies on the continent of Europe, and

also in South America; as, the Grand Orient
of France, the Grand Orient of Portugal,
the Grand Orient of Brazil, the Grand
Orient of New Grenada, etc. The title
always has reference to the East as the
See East,
place of honor in Masonry.
Grand.
Orient, Grand. See Grand Orient.

Orient,
tlie.

The

Grand Commander of

[Grand
forty-third

Commandeur

d' Orient.)

degree of the

Rite

of

Mizraim.

Orient, Interior.
in Germany

times used

A
to

name somedesignate a

ORIENT

ORIGINAL

or superintending body of
the higher degrees.

old lectures of the last century, that it

was " because all chapels and churches are,
or ought to be so," has become obsolete,
and other symbolic reasons are assigned.
Yet there can be no doubt that such was
really the origin of the usage.
The orientation of churches was a principle of ecclesiastical architecture very generally observed by builders, in accordance with
ecclesiastical law from the earliest times
after the apostolic age.
Thus in the Apostolic Constitutions, which, although falsely
attributed to St. Clement, are yet of great
antiquity, we find the express direction,
" sit sedes oblonga ad orientem versus,"
let the church be of an oblong form, directed
to the east,
a direction which would be
strictly applicable in the building of a
Lodge room. St. Charles Borromeo, in his

Grand Chapter

Orient of France, Grand.

See

France.

Orient, Order of

the.

(Ordre

An

Order founded, says Thory,

i. 330,) at Paris, in 1806, on the
system of the Templars, to whom it traced
d'Orient.\
{Act. Lot.,

its origin.

Oriental Chair of Solomon. The

seat of the Master in a symbolic Lodge,
and so called because the Master is supposed symbolically to fill the place over the
Craft once occupied by King Solomon. For
the same reason, the seat of the Grand
Master in the Grand Lodge receives the
same appellation. In England it is called

the throne.

Oriental Philosophy.

A peculiar

system of doctrines concerning the Divine

said to have originated in
Persia, its founder being Zoroaster, whence
it passed through Syria, Asia Minor, and

Nature which

is

Egypt, and was finally introduced among

the Greeks, whose philosophical systems
Pliny calls it " a
it at times modified.
magical philosophy," and says that Democritus, having travelled into the East for
the purpose of learning it, and returning
home, taught it in his mysteries. It gave
birth to the sect of Gnostics, and most of
it being adopted by the school of Alexandria, it was taught by Philo, Jamblichus,
and other disciples of that school. Its essential feature was the theory of emanaIt is evident from his
tions, (which see.)
Travels of Cyrus, that the Chevalier Ramsay was not only well acquainted with
this philosophy, but held it in high esteem
and it is not wonderful, therefore, that it
influenced him in the high degrees of Masonry which he established, and from which
all the other higher Masonry has been directly or indirectly derived.
And so it
happens that the Oriental Philosophy permeates, sometimes to a very palpable extent, Ineffable, Philosophic, and Hermetic
Masonry, being mixed up and intertwined
with the Jewish and Kabbalistic Philosophy.
knowledge of the Oriental Philosophy is therefore essential to the proper
understanding of these high degrees.

Oriental Rite. The title first assumed by the Rite of Memphis.

Orientation. The orientation of a
Lodge is its situation due east and west.
The word is derived from the technical
language of architecture, where

it

is

ap-

plied, in the expression " orientation of

churches," to designate a similar direction

in building.
Although Masonic
are still, when circumstances will
built in an east and west direction,
planation of the usage, contained

Lodges
permit,
the exin the

555

Instructiones Fabrics Ecclesiastical, is still

precise, and directs that the rear or
altar part of the church shall look directly
to the east, " in orientem versus recta spectat," and that it shall be not " ad solstiti-

more

alem sed ad sequinoctialem orientem,"

not to the solstitial east, which varies by
the deflection of the sun's rising, but to the
equinoctial east, where the sun rises at the
equinoxes, that is to say, due vast. But, as
Bingham (Antiq., B. viii., c. iii.,) admits,
although the usage was very general to
erect churches towards the east, yet " it

admitted of exceptions, as necessity or expediency;" and the same exception prevails in the construction of Lodges, which,
although always erected due east and west,
where circumstances will permit, are sometimes from necessity built in a different
direction.
But whatever may be externally
the situation of the Lodge with reference
to the points of the compass, it is always
considered internally that the Master's
seat is in the east, and therefore that the
is " situated due east and west."
to the original interpretation of the

Lodge

As

is no doubt that the Masonic

was derived from the ecclesiastical, that is,
that Lodges were at first built east and

usage, there

west because churches were; nor can we

help believing that the church borrowed
and Christianized its symbol from the Pagan reverence for the place of sunrising.
The admitted reverence in Masonry for the
east as the place of light, gives to the usage
the modern Masonic interpretation of the
symbol of orientation.

Original Points. The old lectures

of the last century, which are now obsolete,
contained the following instruction " There
are in Freemasonry twelve original points,
which form the basis of the system and
comprehend the whole ceremony of initiation. Without the existence of these points,
no man ever was, or can be, legally and
:

"

ORPHAN

ORIGIN

556

Every
essentially received into the Order.
person who is made a Mason must go
through all these twelve forms and ceremonies, not only in the first degree, but in
every subsequent one."

Origin of Freemasonry.

The

origin and source whence first sprang the

institution of Freemasonry, such as we
now have it, has given rise to more difference of opinion and discussion among Masonic scholars than any other topic in the
Writers on
literature of the Institution.
the history of Freemasonry have, at different times, attributed its origin to the folthe Patriarchal
lowing sources.
1. To

To the Ancient Pagan MysTo the Temple of King Solomon. 4. To the Crusaders. 5. To the
Knights Templars. 6. To the Roman Col7. To the Operative
leges of Artificers.
Masons of the Middle Ages. 8. To the
religion.
teries.

2.

3.

Rosicrucians of the sixteenth century. 9.

To Oliver Cromwell, for the advancement
of his political schemes. 10. To the Pretender, for the restoration of the House of
Stuart to the British throne. 11. To Sir
Christopher Wren at the building of St.
Paul's Cathedral. 12. To Dr. Desaguliers
and his associates in the year 1717. Each
of these twelve theories has been from
time to time, and the twelfth within a recent period, sustained with much zeal, if
not always with much judgment, by their
few of them, however, have
advocates.
long since been abandoned, but the others

attract attention

and

find defenders.
own views on the subject are expressed
in the article Antiquity of Freemasonry, to
which the reader is referred.
still

My

Orleans, Duke of.

Duke of Orleans,

Louis Philippe

known in
history by his revolutionary name of Egalite, was the fifth Grand Master of the Masonic Order in France. As Duke of CharJoseph,

better

the title which he held during the life

of his father, he was elected Grand Master
in the year 1771, upon the death of the
Having appointed
Count de Clermont.
the Duke of Luxemburg his Substitute,
he did not attend a meeting of the Grand
Lodge until 1777, but had in the meantime
paid much attention to the interests of Masdhry, visiting many of the Lodges, and
laying the foundation-stone of a Masonic

tres,

nal de Paris, and which contains the

lowing passages ;

fol-

"This is my Masonic history. At one

time, when certainly no one could, have
foreseen our revolution, I was in favor of
Freemasonry, which presented to me a sort
of image of equality, as I was in *favor of
the parliament, which presented a sort of
image of liberty. I have since quitted the phantom for the reality. In the month of December last, the secretary of the Grand
Orient having addressed himself to the
person who discharged the functions, near
me, of secretary of the Grand Master, to
obtain my opinion on a question relating to the affairs of that society, I replied to him on the 5th of January as
follows
'As I do not know how the
Grand Orient is composed, and as, besides,
I think that there should be no mystery
nor secret assembly in a republic, especially
at the commencement of its establishment,
I desire no longer to mingle in the affairs
of the Grand Orient, nor in the meetings
of the Freemasons.'
In consequence of the publication of
this letter, the Grand Orient on May 13th,
1793, declared the Grand Mastership vacant, thus virtually deposing their recreant
chief.
He soon reaped the reward of his
treachery and political debasement. On
the 6th of November in the same year he
suffered death on the guillotine.
Orinus or Ormesius. See Rose
:

Croix, Golden.

Ormuzd and Ahriman.

Ormuzd

was the principle of good and the symbol

of light, and Ahriman the principle of evil
and the symbol of darkness, in the old Persian religion.

See Zoroaster.

Ornaments of a Lodge.

The

lec-

tures describe the ornaments of a Lodge as

consisting of the Mosaic Pavement, the Indented Tessel, and the Blazing Star. They
are called ornaments because they are really

the decorations with which a properly furnished Lodge is adorned. See these respective words.

Oman the Jebusite.

He was an in-

Hall at Bordeaux.
His abandonment of his family and his
adhesion to the Jacobins during the revolution, when he repudiated his hereditary
title of Duke of Orleans and assumed the
republican one of Egalit, forms a part of
the history of the times. On the 22d February, 1793, he wrote a letter to Milsent,

habitant of Jerusalem, at the time that that

city was called Jebus, from the son of Canaan, whose descendants peopled it. He
was the owner of the threshing-floor situated on Mount Moriah, in the same spot
on which the Temple was afterwards built.
This threshing-floor David bought to erect
on it an altar to God. (2 Chron. xxi. 18On the same spot Solomon afterwards
25.)
Hence, in Masonic lanbuilt the Temple.
guage, the Temple of Solomon is sometimes
spoken of as "the threshing-floor of Oman
the Jebusite." See Threshing-Floor.

the editor, over the signature of " Citoyen

Egalite," which was published in the Jour-

should care for the children of their de-

Orphan. The obligation

that

Masons

ORPHEUS

OSIRIS

ceased brethren has been well observed in

the Institution by many Grand Lodges,
independent associations of Masons, and
of asylums for the support and education of Masonic orphans.
Among these,
perhaps one of the most noteworthy, is
the orphan asylum founded at Stockholm, in 1753, by the contributions of
the Swedish Masons, and which, by subsequent bequests and endowments, has become one of the richest private institutions
of the kind in the world.
Orpheus. There are no less than four
persons to whom the ancients gave the
name of Orpheus, but of these only one is
worthy of notice as the inventor of the
mysteries, or, at least, as the introducer of
them into Greece. The genuine Orpheus
is said to have been a Thracian, and a disciple of Linus, who nourished when the
kingdom of the Athenians was dissolved.
From him the Thracian or Orphic mysteries derived their name, because he first introduced the sacred rites of initiation and
mystical doctrines into Greece. He was,
according to fabulous tradition, torn to

of the school of Pythagoras, formed, after

the destruction of that school, by some of
its disciples, who, seeking to establish a re-

by Ciconian women, and after his

death he was deified by the Greeks. The
story, that by the power of his harmony he
drew wild beasts and trees to him, has
been symbolically interpreted, that by his
sacred doctrines he tamed men of rustic and
savage disposition. An abundance of fables has clustered around the name of Orpheus but it is at least generally admitted
by the learned, that he was the founder of
the system of initiation into the sacred
The
mysteries as practised in Greece.
Grecian theology, says Thomas Taylor,
himself the most Grecian of all moderns,
originated from Orpheus, and was promulgated by him, by Pythagoras, and by Plato
by the first, mystically and symbolically
by the second, enigmatically and through
images; and by the last, scientifically. The
mysticism of Orpheus should certainly have
given him as high a place in the esteem of
the founders of the present system of Speculative Masonry as has been bestowed upon
Pythagoras. But it is strange that, while
they delighted to call Pythagoras an " ancient friend and brother," they have been
utterly silent as to Orpheus.

In the day, the initiates were crowned

with fennel and poplar, and carried serpents in their hands, or twined them
around their heads, crying with a loud
voice, enos, sabos, and danced to the sound
of the mystic words, hyes, attes, attes, hyes.
At night the mystes was bathed in the lustral water, and having been rubbed over
with clay and bran, he was clothed in the
skin of a fawn, and having risen from the
bath, he exclaimed, " I have departed from
evil and have found the good."
The Orphic poems made Bacchus identical with Osiris, and celebrated the mutilation and palingenesis of that deity as a
symbol teaching the resurrection to eternal

Orphic Mysteries. These rites

were practised in Greece, and were a modification of the mysteries of Bacchus or
Dionysus, and they were so called because

with the other rites of paganism, a

victim to the rapid and triumphant progress of the gospel.
Osiris. He was the chief god of the
old Egyptian mythology, the husband of
Jabloniski
Isis, and the father of Horus.
says that Osiris represented the sun only
but Plutarch, whose opportunity of knowing was better, asserts that, while generally
considered as a symbol of the solar orb,
some of the Egyptian philosophers regarded

pieces

was falsely attributed to

They were, however, established

their institution

Orpheus.

much later period than his era. Indeed, M. Freret, who has investigated this
subject with much learning in the Memoires
de VAcademie des Inscriptions, (torn, xxiii.,)
regards the Orphics as a degenerate branch
at a

557

ligious association, devoted themselves to

the worship of Bacchus, with which they

mingled certain Egyptian practices, and

out of this mixture made up a species of
life which they called the Orphic life, and
the origin of which, to secure greater consideration, they attributed to Orpheus, publishing under his name many apocryphal

works.

The Orphic rites differed from the other

Pagan rites, in not being connected with
the priesthood, but in being practised by a
fraternity who did not possess the sacerdotal functions.
The initiated commemorated in their ceremonies, which were performed at night, the murder of Bacchus by
the Titans, and his final restoration to the
supreme government of the universe, under

name of Phanes.
Demosthenes, while reproaching Eschines for having engaged with his mother
the

in these mysteries, gives us

their nature.

some notion of

so that their design was similar to that

of the other Pagan mysteries.

life,

The Orphic

initiation, because it

was not

character, was not so celebrated among the ancients as the other

mysteries. Plato, even, calls its disciples
charlatans.
It nevertheless existed until
the first ages of the Christian religion, being at that time adopted by the philosophers as a means of opposing the progress
of the new revelation. It fell, however,- at

sacerdotal in

last,

its

OSIRIS

OZEE

and called him Nilus.

that Osiris represented the
male, active or generative, powers of nature
while Isis represented its female, passive
Thus, when Osiris was
or prolific, powers.
the sun, Isis was the earth, to be vivified
by his rays when he was the Nile, Isis was
the land of Egypt, fertilized- by his overSuch is the mythological or mystical
flow.
sense in which Osiris was received.
Historically, he is said to have been a
great and powerful king, who, leaving
Egypt, traversed the world, leading a host
of fauns or satyrs, and other fabulous beings in his train, actually an army of followers. He civilized the whole earth, and
taught mankind to fertilize the soil and to
perform the works of agriculture.
see
here the idea which was subsequently expressed by the Greeks in their travels of
Dionysus, and the wanderings of Ceres and
it is not improbable that the old Masons
had some dim perception of this story,
which they have incorporated, under the
figure of Euclid, in their "Legend of the
Craft."
Osiris, Mysteries of. The Osirian
mysteries consisted in a scenic representation of the murder of Osiris by Typhon,
the subsequent recovery of his mutilated
body by Isis, and his deification, or restoration to immortal life. Julius Firmicus,
in his treatise On the Falsity of the Pagan
Religions, thus describes the object of the
Osirian mysteries " But in those funerals
and lamentations which are annually celebrated in honor of Osiris, the defenders
of the Pagan rites pretend a physical
reason.
They call the seeds of fruit, Osiris
the earth, Isis the natural heat, Typhon; and because the fruits are ripened
by the natural heat and collected for the
life of man, and are separated from their
natural tie to the earth, and are sown again
when winter approaches, this they consider
is the death of Osiris ; but when the fruits,
by the genial fostering of the earth, begin again to be generated by a new procreation, this is the finding of Osiris."
This
explanation does not essentially differ from
that already given in the article Egyptian
Mysteries. The symbolism is indeed precisely
the same
that of a restoration or resurrection from death to life.
See Egyptian

derivation of this word, which is most

probably an anagram of a name. It was,
I think, invented by the Stuart Masons, and
refers to some person who was inimical to

558

him

as a river god,

But the truth

is,

We
;

Mysteries.

Oterfut. The name of the assassin at

the west gate in the legend of the third degree, according to some of the high degrees.
I have vainly sought the true meaning or

that party.

Otreb. The pseudonyme of the celebrated Rosicrucian Michel Mayer, under

which he wrote his book on Death and the
Resurrection.

See Mayer.

Out of the Lodge. The

charges of
a Freemason, compiled by Anderson from
the Ancient Records, contain the regulations for the behavior of Masons out of the
Lodge under several heads; as, behavior
after the Lodge is over, when brethren
meet without strangers, in the presence of
strangers, at home, and towards a strange
brother. Giidicke gives the same directions
in the following words
"A brother Freemason shall not only
conduct himself in the Lodge, but also out
of the Lodge, as a brother towards his
brethren and happy are they who are
convinced that they have in this respect
ever obeyed the laws of the Order."
Oval Temples. The temple in the
Druidical mysteries was often of an oval
form. As the oblong temple was a representation of the inhabited world, whence is derived the form of the Lodge; so the oval
temple was a representation of the mundane egg, which was also a symbol of the
world. The symbolic idea in both was the
same.
Overseer. The title of three officers
in a Mark Lodge, who are distinguished as
the Master, Senior, and Junior Overseer.
The jewel of their office is a square. In
Mark Lodges attached to Chapters, the
duties of these officers are performed by
the three Grand Masters of the Veils.
Ox. The ox was the device on the
banner of the tribe of Ephraim. The ox
on a scarlet field is one of the Royal Arch
banners, and is borne by the Grand Master of the Third Veil.
;

Oyres de Ornellas, Pracao. A

Portuguese gentleman, who was arrested
as a Freemason, at Lisbon, in 1776, and
thrown into a dungeon, where he remained
See Alincourt.
fourteen months.

Ozee. Sometimes Osee. The acclamation of the Scottish Rite is so spelled in

many French Cahiers. Properly Hoschea,
which Delaunay (Thuileur, p. 141,) derives
from the Hebrew JJfflfft, hossheah, deliverBut
ance, safety, or, as he says, a saviour.
see Hoschea, where another derivation is
suggested.

PALLADIUM

PAGANIS

559

P.
Paganis,

Hugo de.

The Latinized

form of the name of Hugh de Payens, the

See
first Grand Master of the Templars.

Pay ens.

Paganism.

general

appellation

religious worship of the whole

human race, except of that portion which
'has embraced Christianity, Judaism, or
Mohammedanism. Its interest to the Masonic student arises from the fact that its
^principal development was the ancient mythology, in whose traditions and mysteries
are to be found many interesting analogies
ffor

the

with the Masonic system.

tions of Religion

See Dispensa-

and Mythology.

Paine, Thomas.

political writer

eminence during the Revolutionary

War in America. He greatly injured his
reputation by his attacks on the Christian
He was not a Mason, but wrote
religion.
An Essay on the Origin of Freemasonry,
with no other knowledge of the Institution
than that derived from the writings of Smith
and Dodd, and the very questionable authority of Prichard's Masonry Dissected. He
sought to trace Freemasonry to the Celtic
Druids. For one so little acquainted with
his subject, he has treated it with considerable ingenuity. Paine was born in England, 1737, and died in Xew York, in 1809.
Palestine, called also the Holy
Land on account of the sacred character of
the events that have occurred there, is situated on the coast of the Mediterranean,
stretching from Lebanon south to the
borders of Egypt, and from the thirtyof

fourth to the thirty-ninth degrees of lonIt was conquered from theCanaanby the Hebrews under Joshua 1450
They divided it into twelve
years b. c.

gitude.
ites

confederate states according to the tribes.

Saul united it into one kingdom, and
David enlarged its territories. In 975 B. c.
was divided into the two kingdoms
it
of Israel and Judea, the latter consisting
of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and
the former of the rest of the tribes. About

740 B. oL, both kingdoms were subdued by

the Persians and Babylonians, and after
the captivity only the two tribes of Judah
and Benjamin returned to rebuild the
Temple.
With Palestine, or the Holy
Land, the mythical, if not the authentic,
history of Freemasonry has been closely
connected. There stood, at one time, the
Temple of Solomon, to which some writers
have traced the origin of the Masonic
Order there fought the Crusaders, among
whom other writers have sought, with
equal boldness, to find the cradle of the
Fraternity there certainly the Order of
;

the Templars was instituted, whose subsequent history has been closely mingled
with that of Freemasonry and there oc;

curred nearly all the events of sacred history that, with the places where they were
enacted, have been adopted as important
Masonic symbols.

Palestine, Explorations in. The

desire to obtain an accurate knowledge of
the archaeology of Palestine, gave rise in
1866 to an association, which was permanently organized in Londo"n, as the " Palestine Exploration Fund," with the Queen
as the chief patron, and a long list of the
nobility and the most distinguished gentlemen in the kingdom, added to which fol-

lowed the Grand Lodge of England and

forty-two subordinate and provincial Grand
Lodges and Chapters. Early in the year
1867 the committee began the work of examination, by mining in and about the various points which had been determined
upon by a former survey as essential to a
proper understanding of the ancient city,
which had been covered up by debris from
age to age, so that the present profiles of
the ground, in every direction, were totally
different from what they were in the days
of David and Solomon, or even the time
of Christ.

Lieutenant Charles Warren, K. E., was

sent out with authority to act as circumstances might demand, and as the delicacy
and the importance of the enterprise required. He arrived in Jerusalem February
17th, 1867, and continued his labors in excavating in many parts of the city, with
some interruptions, until 1871, when he returned to England. During his operations,
he kept the society in London constantly
informed of the progress of the work in
which he and his associates were so zealously engaged, in a majority of cases at the
imminent risk of their lives and always
that of their health. The result of these
labors has been a vast accumulation of facts
in relation to the topography of the holy
city which throw much light on its archaebranch of the society has been
ology.
established in this country, and it is still
in successful operation.

Palestine,

Knight of.

of Palestine.

Palestine,
of.

See Knight

of. St. John

John of Palestine.

Knight

See Knight of

St.

Palladic Masonry. The title given

Order of the Seven Sages and the
Order of the Palladium. See Palladium,
Order of the.

to the

Palladium, Order of the. An

androgynous society of Masonic adoption,

560

PALMER

PARIS

Ragon,

devoted his youth to the study and practice of astrology, alchemy, and magic, and
passed many years of his life in travelling
over Europe and acquiring information in
medicine, of which he proclaimed himself
to be the monarch.
He was, perhaps, the
most distinguished charlatan whoever^made
a figure in the world. The followers of his
school were called Paracelsists, and they
continued for more than a century after the
death of their master to influence the
schools of Germany. Much of the Kabbalistic and mystical science of Paracelsus
was incorporated into Hermetic Masonry
by the founders of the high degrees.
Paracelsus, Sublime. A degree to
be found in the manuscript collections of
Peuvret.
Parallel Lines. In every wellregulated Lodge there is found a point
within a circle, which circle is imbordered
by two perpendicular parallel lines. These
lines are representatives of St. John the
Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, the
two great patrons of Masonry to whom our

established, says
It

at Paris in 1737.
to high antiquity,
its origin in the in-

made great pretensions

claiming that it had

structions brought by Pythagoras from
Egypt into Greece, and having fallen into
decay after the decline of the Roman Emperor, it was revived in 1637 by Fenelon,

Archbishop of Canbray; all of which is altogether mythical. Fenelon was not born
It was a very moral society,
until 1651.
1. Adelph
2.
consisting of two degrees
Companion of Ulysses. When a female
took the second degree, she was called a
Companion of Penelope.
Palmer. From the Latin, palmifer, a
name given in the time of
palm-bearer.
the Crusades to a pilgrim, who, coming back
from the holy war after having accomplished his vow of pilgrimage, exhibited
upon his return home a branch of palm
bound round his staff in token of it.
Pantacle. The pentalpha of Pythagoras is so called in the symbolism of High
Magic and the Hermetic Philosophy. See
Pentalpha.
:

Papworth Manuscript. A
uscript in the possession
-

of Mr.

manWyatt

Papworth, of London, who purchased it

from a bookseller of that city in 1860. As
some of the water-marks of the paper on
which it is written bear the initials G. R.,
with a crown as a water-mark, it is evident
that the manuscript cannot be older than
1714, that being the year in which the first
of the Georges ascended the throne. It is
most probably of a still more recent date,
perhaps 1715 or 1716. The Rev. A. F. A.

Woodford has thus described its appearance: "The scroll was written originally
on pages of foolscap size, which were then
joined into a continuous roll, and afterwards, probably for greater convenience,
the pages were again separated by cutting
them, and it now forms a book, containing
twenty-four folios, sewed together in a
light-brown paper cover. The text is of a
bold character, but written so irregularly
that there are few consecutive pages which
have the same number of lines, the average being about seventeen to the page."
The manuscript is not complete, three or
four of the concluding charges being omitted, although some one has written, in a
hand different from that of the text, the
word Finis at the bottom of the last page.
The manuscript appears to have been simply
a copy, in a little less

antiquated language, of

some older Constitution. It has been published by Bro. Hughan in his Old Charges
of the British Freemasons.
Philippus Aureolus
Paracelsus.
Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus de

Hohenheim,
in

as

Germany in

he styled himself, was born

1493, and died in 1541.
He

Lodges are dedicated, and who are said to

have been "perfect parallels in Christianity
In those English
as well as Masonry."
Lodges which have adopted the "Union
System " established by the Grand Lodge of
England in 1813, and where the dedication
is "to God and his service," the lines
parallel represent Moses and Solomon. As
a symbol, the parallel lines are not to be
found in the earlier rituals of Masonry.
Although Oliver defines the symbol on the
authority of what he calls the " Old Lectures," I have been unable to find it in any
anterior to Preston, and even he only refers to the parallelism of the two Sts. John.
The fact is, that the symbol of the parallel
lines, with that of the point within a circle,
was first introduced by Dunckerley in the
last quarter of the eighteenth century.
Dedication.

See

Paris, Congresses of. Three important Masonic Congresses have been held
in the city of Paris. The first was convened by the Rite of Philalethes in 1785,
that by a concourse of intelligent Masons
of all rites and countries, and by a comparison of oral and written traditions, light
might be educed on the most essential subjects of Masonic science, and on the nature,
origin, and historic application as well as
the actual state of the Institution. SavaIt
lette de Lauges was elected President.
closed after a protracted session of three
months, without producing any practical
The second was called in 1787, as

result.

a continuation of the former, and closed

with precisely the same negative result.
The third was assembled in 1855, by Prince
Murat, for the purpose of effecting various

PAKLIAMENTARY

PASCHALIS

reforms in the Masonic system. At this

Congress, ten propositions, some of them
highly important, were introduced, and
their adoption recommended to the Grand
Lodges of the world. But the influence of
this Congress has not been more successful
than that of its predecessors.

gress of

Masonry

as a science

561

now

requires

something more than a mere knowledge

of the lectures to constitute a Masonie
scholar.

Parsees. The descendants of the original fire-worshippers of Persia, or the disciples of Zoroaster, who emigrated to India
Parliamentary I^aw. Parliamen- about the end of the eighth century. There
tary Law, or the Lex Parliamentarian is that they now constitute a body very little short
code originally framed for the government of a million of industrious and moral citiof the Parliament of Great Britain in the zens, adhering with great tenacity to the
transaction of its business, and subse- principles and practices of their ancient requently adopted, with necessary modifica- ligion. Many of the higher classes have
tions, by the Congress of the United States.
become worthy members of the Masonic
But what was found requisite for the fraternity, and it was for their sake prinregulation of public bodies, that order cipally that Dr. Burnes attempted some
might be secured and the rights of all be years ago to institute his new Order, entirespected, has been found equally necessary tled the Brotherhood of the Olive-Branch,
in private societies. Indeed, no associa- as a substitute for the Christian degrees of
tion of men could meet together for the Knighthood, from which, by reason of their
discussion of any subject, with the slightest religion, they were excluded.
probability of ever coming to a conclusion,
Particular Lodges. In the Eeguunless its debates were regulated by certain lations of 1721, it is said that the Grand
and acknowledged rules.
Lodge consists of the representatives of all
The rules thus adopted for its govern- the particular Lodges on record. In the
ment are called its parliamentary law, modern Constitutions of England, the term
and they are selected from the parliamen- used is private Lodges. In America, they
tary law of the national assembly, because are called subordinate Lodges.
that code has been instituted by the wisParts. In the old obligations, which
dom of past ages, and modified and per- may be still used in some portions of the
fected by the experience of subsequent country, there was a provision which forones, so that it is now universally acknowl- bade the revelation of any of the arts, parts,
edged that there is no better system of or points of Masonry. Oliver explains the
government for deliberative societies than meaning of the word parts by telling us
the code which has so long been in opera- that it was " an old word for degrees or
tion under the name of parliamentary law. lectures." See Points.
Not only, then, is a thorough knowledge
Parvis. In the French system, the
of parliamentary law necessary for the room immediately preceding a Masonic
presiding officer of a Masonic body, if he Lodge is so called. It is equivalent to the
would discharge the duties of the chair Preparation Eoom of the American and
with credit to himself and comfort to the English systems.
members, but he must be possessed of the
Paschal Feast. Celebrated by the
additional information as to what parts of Jews in commemoration of the Passover,
that law are applicable to Masonry, and by the Christians in commemoration of the
what parts are not ; as to where and when resurrection of our Lord.
The Paschal
he must refer to it for the decision of a Feast, called also the Mystic Banquet, is kept
question, and where and when he must lay by all Princes of the Eose Croix.
Where
it aside, and rely for his government upon
two are together on Maundy Thursday, it is
the organic law and the ancient usages of of obligation that they should partake of a
the Institution.
portion of roasted lamb. This banquet is
Parrot Masons. One who commits symbolic of the doctrine of the resurrection.
to memory the questions and answers of
Paschalis, Martinez. The founder
the catechetical lectures, and the formulas of a new Eite or modification of Masonry,
of the ritual, but pays no attention to the called by him the Eite of Elected Cohens or
history and philosophy of the Institution, Priests.
It was divided into two classes, in
is commonly called a Parrot Mason, bethe first of which was represented the fall
cause he is supposed to repeat what he has of man from virtue and happiness, and in
learned without any conception of its true the second, his final restoration. It conmeaning.
In former times, such super- sisted of nine degrees, namely: 1. Apprenficial Masons were held by many in high
4. Grand
3. Master
2. Fellow Craft
tice
repute, because of the facility with which Elect; 5. Apprentice Cohen; 6. Fellow
they passed through the ceremonies of a Craft Cohen 7. Master Cohen 8. Grand
reception, and they were generally desig- Architect; 9. Knight Commander.
Pasnated as " Bright Masons." But the pro- chalis first introduced this Eite into some
;

36

PASCHAL

562

of the Lodges of Marseilles, Toulouse, and

Past. An epithet applied in Masonry
Bordeaux, and afterwards, in 1767, he ex- to an officer who has held an office for the
tended it to Paris, where, for a short time, prescribed period for which he was elected,
it was rather popular, ranking some of the
and has then retired. Thus, a Past Master
Parisian literati among its disciples.
It is one who has presided for twelve months
has now ceased to exist.
over a Lodge, and the Past High Priest
Paschalis was a German, born about the one who, for the same period, has presided
year 1700, of poor but respectable parentage. over a Chapter. The French use the word
At the age of sixteen he acquired a knowl- passe in the same sense, but they have also
edge of Greek and Latin. He then trav- the word ancien, with a similar meaning.
elled through Turkey, Arabia, and Palestine, Thus, while they would employ Maitre
where he made himself acquainted with the passe to designate the degree of Past MasKabbalistic learning of the Jews. He sub- ter, they would call the official Past Master,
sequently repaired to Paris, where he es- who had retired from the chair at the expiration of his term of service, an Ancien
tablished his Rite.
Venerable, or Ancien Maitre.
Paschalis was the Master of St. Martin,
who afterwards reformed his Rite. After
Past Master. An honorary degree
living for some years at Paris, he went to conferred on the Master of a Lodge at his
installation into office.
In this degree the
St. Domingo, where he died in 1779.
Thory, in his Histoire de la Fondation du necessary instructions are conferred reGrand Orient de France, (pp. 239-253,) has specting the various ceremonies of the
given very full details of this Rite and of Order, such as installations, processions,
the laying of corner-stones, etc.
its receptions.
See Lamb, Paschal.
When a brother, who has never before
Paschal
Pas perdus. The French call the presided, has been elected the Master of
room appropriated to visitors the Salle des a Lodge, an emergent Lodge of Past Maspas perdus. It is the same as the Tiler's ters, consisting of not less than three, is
Room in the English and American Lodges. convened, and all but Past Masters retirPassages of the Jordan. See ing, the degree is conferred upon the newly
Fords of the Jordan.
elected officer.
candidate, on receiving
Some form of ceremony at the installaPassed.
the second degree, is said to be "passed as tion of a new Master seems to have been
a Fellow Craft." It alludes to his having adopted at an early period after the repassed through the porch to the middle vival. In the " manner of constituting a
chamber of the Temple, the place in which new Lodge," as practised by the Duke of
Fellow Crafts received their wages. In Wharton, who was Grand Master in 1723,
this country " crafted" is often improperly the language used by *the Grand Master
used in its stead.
when placing the candidate in the chair is
Passing of Conyng. That is, sur- given, and he is said to use " some other
passing in skill. The expression occurs in expressions that are proper and usual on
the Cooke MS., (line 676,) "The forsayde that occasion, but not proper to be written."
Maister Euglet ordeynet thei were passing Whence we conclude that there was an esoof conyng schold be passing honoured;" teric ceremony. Often the rituals tell us
i. e., The aforesaid Master, Euclid, ordained
that this ceremony consisted only in the
that they that were surpassing in skill outgoing Master communicating certain
should be exceedingly honored. It is a modes of recognition to his successor. And
fundamental principle of Masonry to pay this actually, even at this day, constitutes
all honor to knowledge.
the essential ingredient of the Past MasPassword. A word intended, like ter's degree.
the military countersign, to prove the
The degree is also conferred in Royal
friendly nature of him who gives it, and is Arch Chapters, where, it succeeds the Mark
a test of his right to pass or be admitted Master's degree. The conferring of this
into a certain place. Between a Word and degree, which has no historical connection
a Password there seems to me to be this with the rest of the degrees, in a Chapter,
difference the former is given for instruc- arises from the following circumstance.
tion, as it always contains a symbolic Originally, when Chapters of Royal Arch
meaning the latter, for recognition only. Masonry were under the government of
Thus, the author of the life of the celebrat- Lodges in which the degree was then aled Elias Ashmole says, "Freemasons are ways conferred, it was a part of the regulaknown to one another all over the world by tions that no one could receive the Royal
certain passwords known to them alone; Arch degree unless he had previously prethey have Lodges in different countries, sided in the Lodge as Master. When the
where they are relieved by the brotherhood Chapters became independent, the regulaif they are in distress."
tion could not be abolished, for that would
Se

Uamb.

PAST

PATRIARCHAL

PASTOPHORI
have been an innovation

the difficulty

Pastos.

(Greek,

iraarog,

a couch.)

563

The

by making pastos was a chest or close cell, in the

every candidate for the degree of Royal Pagan mysteries, (among the Druids, an
excavated stone,) in which the aspirant
Arch a Past Master before his exaltation.
Some extraneous ceremonies, by no was for some time placed, to commemorate
means creditable to their inventor, were the mystical death of the god. This conat an early period introduced into this stituted the symbolic death which was
country.
In 1856, the General Grand common to all the mysteries. In the ArkChapter, by a unanimous vote, ordered these ite rites, the pastos represented the ark in
ceremonies to be discontinued, and the which Noah was confined. It is represented
simpler mode of investiture to be used but among Masonic symbols by the coffin.
Patents. Diplomas or certificates of
the order has only been partially obeyed,
and many Chapters still continue what one the higher degrees in the Scottish Rite are
has, therefore, been obviated,

can scarcely help calling the indecorous

form of initiation into the degree.
For several years past the question has
been agitated in some of the Grand Lodges
of the United States, whether this degree
is within the jurisdiction of Symbolic or of
Royal Arch Masonry. The explanation of

The term is also sometimes

called Patents.
applied to commissions granted for the exercise of high Masonic authority. Literwpatentes or apertce, that is, letters patent or open
letters, was a term used in the Middle Ages
in contradistinction to literal clauses, or closed
letters, to designate those documents which
were spread out on the whole length of the
parchment, and sealed with the public seal
of the sovereign while the secret or private seal only was attached to the closed
patents. The former were sealed with green
wax, the latter with- white. There was also
a difference in their heading letters patent
were directed " universis turn prsesentibus

introduction into Chapters, just given,

manifestly demonstrates that the jurisdiction over it by Chapters is altogether an
assumed one. The Past Master of a Chapter is only a quasi Past Master; the true
and legitimate Past Master is the one who
has presided over a symbolic Lodge.
Past Masters are admitted to membership
in many Grand Lodges, and by some the quam futuris," i. e., to all present or to come;
inherent right has been claimed to sit in while closed letters were directed " univerthose bodies. But the most eminent Ma- sis prsesentibus literas inspecturis," i. e., to
sonic authorities have made a contrary de- all present who shall inspect these letters.
cision, and the general, and, indeed, almost Masonic diplomas are therefore properly
universal opinion now is that Past Masters called letters patent, or, more briefly, patents.
obtain their seats in Grand Lodges by
Patience. In the ritual of the third
courtesy, and in consequence of local regu- degree according to the American Rite, it
lations, and not by inherent right.
is said that " time, patience, and perseverThe jewel of a Past Master in the United ance will enable us to accomplish all things,
States is a pair of compasses extended to and perhaps at last to find the true Master's
sixty degrees on the fourth part of a circle, Word." The idea is similar to one expresswith a sun in the centre. In England it ed by the Hermetic philosophers. Thus
was formerly the square on a quadrant, but Pernetty tells us (Diet. Mythol. Herm.) that
is at present the square with the fortythe alchemists said " The work of the phiseventh problem of Euclid engraved on losopher's stone is a work of patience, on
a silver plate suspended within it.
account of the length of time and of labor
The French have two titles to express that is required to conduct it to perfection ;
this degree.
They apply Maitre passe to and Qreber says that many adepts have
the Past Master of the English and Amer- abandoned it in weariness, and others, wishican system, and they call in their own ing to precipitate it, have never succeeded."
system one who has formerly presided over With the alchemists, in their esoteric teacha Lodge an Ancien Maitre. The indiscrim- ing, the philosopher's stone had the same
inate use of these titles sometimes leads to symbolism as the
has in Freeconfusion in the translation of their rituals masonry.
its

WORD

and

Patriarchal Masonry. The

treatises.

Pastophori.

Couch

or shrine bear-

ers.
The company of Pastophori constituted a sacred college of priests in Egypt,
whose duty it was to carry in processions
the image of the god. Their chief, according to Apuleius, {Met. xi.,) was called a
Scribe.
Besides acting as mendicants in
soliciting charitable donations from the
populace, they took an important part in
the mysteries.

the-

ory of Dr. Oliver on this subject has, I

think, been misinterpreted. He does not
maintain, as has been falsely supposed, that
the Freemasonry of the present day is but
a continuation of that which was practised
by the patriarchs, but simply that, in the
simplicity of the patriarchal worship, unincumbered as it was with dogmatic creeds,
we may find the true model after which the
religious system of Speculative Masonry

PATRIARCH

564
has
"

been

Nor does

constructed.
it

PEACE

Thus he says:

(Freemasonry) exclude a sur-

vey of the patriarchal mode of devotion,

which indeed forms the primitive model
of Freemasonry. The events that occurred
in these ages of simplicity of manners and
purity of faith, when it pleased God to
communicate with his favored creatures,
necessarily, therefore, form subjects of interesting illustration in our Lodges, and
constitute legitimate topics on which the
Master in the chair may expatiate and exemplify, for the edification of the brethren
and their improvement in morality and the
(Hist Landm., i.
love and fear of God."
I see here no attempt to trace a his207.)
torical connection, but simply to claim an
identity of purpose and character in the
two religious systems, the Patriarchal and
the Masonic.
Patriarch, Grand. The twentieth
degree of the Council of Emperors of the
East and West. The same as the twentieth
degree, or Noachite, of the Ancient and
Accepted Eite.

Patriarch of the Crusades. One

of the names formerly given to the degree of Grand Scottish Knight of St. Andrew, the twenty-ninth of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite. The legend of
that degree connects it with the Crusades,
and hence the name; which, however, is
never used officially, and is retained by regular Supreme Councils only as a synonym.

Patriarch of the Grand Luminary. A degree contained in the nomenclature of

Le Page.

Patron.

In the year 1812, the Prince

of Wales, becoming Regent of the kingdom, was constrained by reasons of state
to resign the Grand Mastership of England, but immediately afterwards accepted
the title of Grand Patron of the Order in
England, and this was the first time that
the title was officially recognized. George
IV. held it during his life, and on his
death, William IV., in 1830, officially accepted the title of " Patron of the United
Grand Lodge." On the accession of Victoria, the title fell into abeyance, because it
was understood that it could only be assumed by a sovereign who was a member
of the Craft. The office is not known in
other countries.

Patrons of Masonry.

St.

John

the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist.

At an early period we find that the Christian church adopted the usage of selecting
for every trade and occupation its own
patron saint, who is supposed to have taken
And the seit under his especial charge.
lection was generally made in reference to
some circumstance in the life of the saint,
which traditionally connected him with the

profession of which he was appointed the

patron. Thus St. Crispin, because^he was
a shoemaker, is the patron saint* of the
" gentle craft," and St. Dunstan, who was
a blacksmith, is the patron of blacksmiths.
The reason why the two Saints John were
selected as the patron saints of Freemasonry will be seen under the head of Dedication of Lodges.

Paul, Confraternity of Saint.

In the time of the Emperor Charles V.
there was a secret community at Trapani,
in Sicily, which called itself La Confraternitd di San Paolo.
These people, when
assembled, passed sentence on their fellowcitizens;

and

any one was condemned,

if

the waylaying and putting him to death

was allotted to one of the members, which

he was obliged, without murmuring,

to execute, (Stolberg's Travels, vol. iii., p.
In the travels of Brocquire to and
472.)
from Palestine in 1432, (p. 328,) an instance is given of the power of the associaoffice

its members.
In the German
romance of Hermann of Unna, of which
there are an English and French translation, this tribunal plays an important part.
Paul I. This emperor of Russia was
induced by the machinations of the Jesuits,
whom he had recalled from banishment, to
prohibit in his domains all secret societies, and especially the Freemasons.
This
prohibition lasted from 1797 to 1803, when
it was repealed by his successor.
Paul had
always expressed himself an enthusiastic
admirer of the Knights of Malta; in 1797,
had assumed the title of Protector of the
Order, and in 1798 accepted the Grand

tion over

Mastership. This is another evidence, if

one was needed, that there was no sympathy between the Order of Malta and the

Freemasons.

Pavement, Mosaic.
Pavement.

Payens,
Hugo
first

Hugh

de Paganis.

de.

See Mosaic
In Latin,

The founder and

the

Grand Master of the Order of Knights

He was born at Troyes, in the

kingdom of Naples. Having, with eight

Templars.

others, established the Order at Jerusalem,

in 1118 he visited Europe, where, through his
representations, its reputation and wealth
and the number of its followers were greatly
increased. In 1129 he returned to Jerusalem, where he was received with great distinction, but shortly afterwards died, and
was succeeded in the Grand Mastership by

Robert de Craon,surnamed theBurgundian.

P. I>. E. P. Letters placed on the
ring of profession of the Order of the Temple, being the initials of the Latin sentence, Pro Deo et Patria, i. e. For God and
}

my country.
Peace. The

spirit

of Freemasonry

is

"

PELICAN

PECTORAL
Its tendency is to
antagonistic to war.
unite all men in one brotherhood, whose
ties must necessarily be weakened by all

dissension. Hence, as Brother Albert Pike

says, " Masonry is the great peace society

of the world. Wherever it exists, it strugto prevent international difficulties

and disputes, and to bind republics, kingdoms, and empires together in one great
band of peace and amity.
Pectoral. Belonging to the breast;
from the Latin pectus, the breast. The
heart has always been considered the seat
of fortitude and courage, and hence by this
word is suggested to the Mason certain
symbolic instructions in relation to the
virtue of fortitude. In the earliest lectures
of the last century it was called one of the
"principal signs," and had this hieroglyphic, X but in the modern rituals the
hieroglyphic has become obsolete, and the
word is appropriated to one of the perfect
points of entrance.
gles

Pectoral of the

High

Priest.

breastplate worn by the high priest of

the Jews was so called from pectus, the breast,
upon which it rested. See Breastplate.
Pedal. Belonging to the feet, from
the Latin pedes, the feet. The just man is
he who, firmly planting his feet on the
principles of right, is as immovable as a
rock, and can be thrust from his upright
position neither by the allurements of
flattery, nor the frowns of arbitrary power.

The

And

hence by this word is suggested to the

certain symbolic instructions in relation to the virtue of justice.
Like " Pectoral," this word was assigned, in the oldest
rituals, to the principal signs of a Mason,
having < for its hieroglyphic but in the
modern lectures it is one of the perfect

Mason

points of entrance, and the hieroglyphic is

no longer used.
Pedestal. The pedestal is the lowest
part or base of a column on which the
shaft is placed.
In a Lodge, there are supposed to be three columns, the column of
Wisdom in the east, the column of Strength
in the west, and the column of Beauty
in the south. These columns are not generally erected in the Lodge, but their pedestals always are, and at each pedestal sits
one of the three superior officers of the
Lodge. Hence we often hear such expressions as these, advancing to the pedestal, or
standing before the pedestal, to signify advancing to or standing before the seat of
the Worshipful Master.
The custom in
eome Lodges of placing tables or desks before the three principal officers is, of course,
incorrect.
They should, for the reason
above assigned, be representations of the
pedestals of columns, and should be painted
to represent marble or stone.

Pedum.

565

Literally, a shepherd's crook,

and hence sometimes used in ecclesiology

for the bishop's crozier. In the statutes of the
Order of the Temple at Paris, it is prescribed
that the Grand Master shall carry a "pedum
magistrale seu patriarchale." But the better
word for the staff of the Grand Master of
the Templars is baculus, which see.

Pelasgian Religion. The Pelasgians were the oldest, if not the aboriginal,
inhabitants of Greece. Their religion differed from that of the Hellenes, who succeeded them, in being less poetical, less
mythical, and more abstract.
know
little of their religious worship except by
but we may suppose it reconjecture
sembled in some respects the doctrines of
what Dr. Oliver calls the Primitive Freemasonry. Creuzer thinks that the Pelasgians were either a nation of priests or a
nation ruled by priests.

We

Peleg.

72, Division.

AsonofEber.

In his day the world was divided. A significant word in the high degrees.
In the
Noachite, or twentieth degree of the Scottish Eite, there is a singular legend of Peleg,

which of course is altogether mythical, in

which he is represented as the architect of
the

Tower

of Babel.

Pelican.

The

pelican feeding her

a prominent symbol
of the eighteenth or Rose Croix degree of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
and was adopted as such from the fact that
the pelican, in ancient Christian art, was
considered as an emblem of the Saviour.
Now this symbolism of the pelican, as a
representative of the Saviour, is almost
universally supposed to be derived from the
common belief that the pelican feeds her
young with her blood, as the Saviour shed
his blood for mankind and hence the bird
is always represented as sitting on her nest,
and surrounded by her brood of young ones,
who are dipping their bills into a wound in
But this is not the
their mother's breast.
exact idea of the symbolism,- which really
refers to the resurrection, and is, in this
point of view, more applicable to our Lord,
as well as to the Masonic degree of which
the resurrection is a doctrine.
In an ancient Bestiarium, or Natural
History, in the Royal Library at Brussels,
cited by Larwood and Hotten in a recent
work on The History of Sign- Boards, this
statement is made: "The pelican is very
fond of his young ones, and when they are
born and begin to grow, they rebel in their
nest against their parent, and strike him
with their wings, flying about him, and
beat him so much till they wound him in
his eyes.
Then the father strikes and kills
them. And the mother is of such a nature
that she comes back to the nest on the third

young with her blood

is

PENALTY

PELICAN

566

and sits down upon her dead young

and opens her side with her bill and
pours her blood over them, and so resuscifor the young ones,
tates them from death
by their instinct, receive the blood as soon
as it comes out of the mother, and drink it."
day,

ones,

The Ortus Vocabulorum, compiled early

in the fifteenth century, gives the fable
more briefly: "It is said, if it be true, that
the pelican kills its young, and grieves for
them for three days. Then she wounds
herself, and with the aspersione of her blood
And the writer
resuscitates her children."
cites, in explanation, the verses,
" Ut pelicaims fit matris sanguine sanus,
Sic Sancti sumus nos omnes sanguine nati."
i. e., " As the Pelican is restored by the blood
of its mother, so are we all born by the blood of
the Holy One," that is, of Christ.

St. Jerome gives the same story, as an

illustration of the destruction of man by the
old serpent, and his salvation by the blood
of Christ. And Shelton, in an old work entitled the Armorie of Birds, expresses the

same sentiment in the following words

" Then said the pelican,
When my birds be slain,
With my blood I them revive
Scripture doth record
The same did our Lord,
And rose from death to life."

This romantic story was religiously believed as a fact of natural history in the
ages of the church.
Hence the
pelican was very naturally adopted as a
symbol of the resurrection and, by consequence, of him whose resurrection is, as
Cruden terms it, "the cause, pattern, and
argument of ours."
But in the course of time the original
legend was, to some extent, corrupted, and
a simpler one was adopted, namely, that
the pelican fed her young with her own
blood merely as a means of sustenance, and
the act of maternal love was then referred
to Christ as shedding his blood for the sins
of the world.
In this view of the symbolism, Pugin has said that the pelican is
"an emblem of our Blessed Lord shedding
his blood for mankind, and therefore a
most appropriate symbol to be introduced
on all vessels or ornaments connected with
the Blessed Sacrament." And in the Antiquities of Durham Abbey, we learn that
"over the high altar of Durham Abbey
hung a rich and most sumptuous canopy
for the Blessed Sacrament to hang within
it, whereon stood a pelican, all of silver,
upon the height of the said canopy, very
finely gilt, giving her blood to her young
ones, in token that Christ gave his blood
for the sins of the world."
earliest

But

I think the true theory of the pelithat by restoring her young ones to
life by her blood, she symbolizes the resurrection.
The old symbologists said, after

can

is,

Jerome, that the male pelican, who destroyed his young, represents the serpent, or

which brought death into

while the mother, who resuscitates them, is the representative of that
Son of Man of whom it is declared, " except ye drink of his blood, ye have no life
in you."
And hence the pelican is very appropriately assumed as a symbol in Masonry,
whose great object is to teach by symbolism the doctrine of the resurrection, and
especially in that sublime degree of the
Scottish Eite wherein, the old Temple being destroyed and the old Word being lost,
a new temple and a new word spring forth
all of which is but the great allegory of
the destruction by death and the resurrecevil principle,

the world

tion to eternal

life.

Marquis of. One of

the pseudonyms assumed by Joseph Balsamo, better known as Count Cagliostro.
]Penal Sign. That which refers to a
Pellegrini,

penalty.

Penalty.

The

adversaries of Free-

masonry have found, or rather invented,

abundant reasons for denouncing the Institution; but on nothing have they more
strenuously and fondly lingered than on
the accusation that it makes, by horrid and
impious ceremonies, all its members the
willing or unwilling executioners of those
who prove recreant to their vows and violate the laws which they are stringently
bound to observe. Even a few timid and

uninstructed Masons have been found who

were disposed to believe that there was
some weight in this objection. The fate of
Morgan, apocryphal as it undoubtedly was,
has been quoted as an instance of Masonic
punishment inflicted by the regulations of
the Order; and, notwithstanding the solemn
asseverations of the most intelligent Masons to the contrary, men have been found,
and still are to be found, who seriously entertain the opinion that every member of
the Fraternity becomes, by the ceremonies
of his initiation and by the nature of the
vows which he has taken, an active Nemesis of the Order, bound by some unholy
promise to avenge the Institution upon
any treacherous or unfaithful brother. All
of this arises from a total misapprehension,
in the minds of those who are thus led
astray, of the true character and design of
vows or oaths which are accompanied by
an imprecation. It is well, therefore, for
the information both of our adversaries
who may thus be deprived of any further
who
excuse for slander, and of our friends

PENALTY

PENALTY

will be relieved of any continued burden

on their consciences, that we should show
that, however solemn may be the promises
of secrecy, of obedience, and of charity
which are required from our initiates, and

was accompanied by a sacrifice, or upon

some other sacred thing. In the military

however they may be guarded by the sancpunishment upon their offenders,

they never were intended to impose upon
so far as the
any brother the painful and
tions of

the
laws of the country are concerned
illegal task of vindicating the outrage committed by the violator. The only Masonic
penalty inflicted by the Order upon a
traitor, is the scorn and detestation of the
Craft whom he has sought to betray.
But that this subject may be thoroughly
understood, it is necessary that some consideration should be given to oaths generally, and to the character of the imprecations by which they are accompanied.
The obsecration, or imprecation, is that
part of every oath which constitutes its
sanction, and which consists in calling
some superior power to witness the declaration or promise made, and invoking his
protection for or anger against the person
making it, according as the said declaration
or promise is observed or violated. This
obsecration has, from the earliest times,
and an
constituted a part of the oath
important part, too
among every people,
varying, of course, according to the varieties of religious beliefs and modes of adoration.
Thus, among the Jews, we find such
obsecrations as these Co yagnasheh li Elohim, "So may God do to me."
very
common obsecration among the Greeks
was, isto Zeus or theon marturomai, " May
Jove stand by me," or " I call God to wit-

567

oath, for instance, the soldiers placed their

hands upon the signa, or standards.
The obsecration, with an accompanying
form of solemnity, was indeed essential to
the oath among the ancients, because the
crime of perjury was not generally looked
upon by them in the same light in which it
It was, it is
is viewed by the moderns.
true, considered as a heinous crime, but a
crime not so much against society as against

the gods, and its punishment was supposed

to be left to the deity whose sanctity had
been violated by the adjuration of his name
Hence,
to a false oath or broken vow.

Cicero says that "death was the divine

punishment of perjury, but only dishonor
was its human penalty." And therefore
the crime of giving false testimony under
oath was not punished in any higher degree than it would have been had it been
given without the solemnity of an oath.
Swearing was entirely a matter of conscience, and the person who was guilty of
false swearing, where his testimony did not
affect the rights or interests of others, was
considered as responsible to the deity alone
for his perjury.

The explicit invocation of God as a witness to the truth of the thing said, or, in
promissory oaths, to the faithful observance
of the act promised, the obsecration of divine punishment upon the jurator if what
he swore to be true should prove to be false,
or if the vow made should be thereafter

and the solemn form of lifting up

to heaven or placing it upon the
altar or the sacred victims, must necessarily
ness."
And the Romans, among an abun- have given confidence to the truth of the
dance of other obsecrations, often said, dii attestation, and must have been required
me perdant, "May the gods destroy me," or by the hearers as some sort of safeguard
violated,

the

hand

May I die."
or security for the confidence they were
These modes of obsecration were ac- called upon to exercise. This seems to
companied, to make them more solemn and have been the true reason for the ancient
sacred, by certain symbolic forms. Thus the practice of solemn obsecration in the adJews caused the person who swore to hold ministration of oaths.
up his right hand towards heaven, by which
Among modern nations, the practice has
action he was supposed to signify that he been continued, and from the ancient usage
appealed to God to witness the truth of of invoking the names of the gods and of
what he had averred or the sincerity of his placing the hands of the person swearing
intention to fulfil the promise that he had upon their altars, we derive the present
made.
So Abraham said to the king of method of sanctifying every oath by the
Sodom, " I have lift up my hand unto the attestation contained in the phrase " So
Lord,
that I will not take anything help me God," and the concluding form of
that is thine."
Sometimes, in taking an kissing the Holy Scriptures.
ne vivam, "

oath of fealty, the inferior placed his hand

under the thigh of his lord, as in the case
of Eliezer and Abraham, related in the
24th chapter of Genesis.
Among the
Greeks and Romans, the person swearing
placed his hands, or sometimes only the
right hand, upon the altar, or upon the
victims when, as was not unusual, the oath

And now

the question naturally occurs

as to what is the true intent of this obsecration, and what practical operation is expected to result from it. In other words,
what is the nature of a penalty attached to
an oath, and how is it to be enforced ?
the ancient Roman, in attesting with
the solemnity of an oath to the truth of

When

PENCIL

568
what he had

just said or was about to say,

concluded with the formula, "May the
gods destroy me," it is evident that he
simply meant to say that he was so convinced of the truth of what he had said
that he was entirely willing that his destruction by the gods whom he had invoked
should be the condition consequent upon
He had no notion that he
his falsehood.
was to become outlawed among his fellowcreatures, and that it should be not only the
right, but the duty, of any man to destroy
His crime would have been one
him.
against the divine law, and subject only to
a divine punishment.
In modern times, perjury is made a pe-

nal offence against human laws, and its

punishment is inflicted by human tribunals.
But here the punishment of the crime is
entirely different from that inferred by the
obsecration which terminates the oath.
The words " So help me God," refer exclusively to the withdrawal of divine aid
and assistance from the jurator in the case
of his proving false, and not to the human
punishment which society would inflict.
In like manner, we may say of what are
called Masonic penalties, that they refer in
no case to any kind of human punishment;
that is to say, to any kind of punishment
which is to be inflicted by human hand or
instrumentality. The true punishments of
Masonry affect neither life nor limb. They
are expulsion and suspension only. But
those persons are wrong, be they mistaken
friends or malignant enemies, who suppose
or assert that there is any other sort of
penalty which a Mason recreant to his
vows is subjected to by the laws of the

Order, or that it is either the right or duty

of any Mason to inflict such penalty on an
offending brother. The obsecration of a
Mason simply means that if he violates his
vows or betrays his trust he is worthy of
such penalty, and that if such penalty were

on him

just and
proper.
"May I die," said the ancient,
"if this be not true, or if I keep not this
vow." Not may any man put me to death,
nor is any man required to put me to death,
but only, if I so act, then would I be
worthy of death. The ritual penalties of
Masonry, supposing such to be, are in the
hands not of man, but of God, and are to
inflicted

be

it

would be but

PENNSYLVANIA
ing-tools of a Master

Mason

are the skirrit

and compasses.
In the French Kite " to hold the

pencil,"
crayon, is to discharge the functions
of a secretary during the communication
tener

le

of a Lodge.

Penitential Sign. Called also the

Supplicatory Sign. It is the third sign in
the English Eoyal Arch system. It denotes that frame of heart and mind without
which our prayers and oblations will not
obtain acceptance in other words, it is a
symbol of humility.
;

Pennsylvania. The

first

Lodge in

Pennsylvania was established in Philadelphia in 1734, by a Warrant from the Pro-

Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and

of this Lodge Benjamin Franklin was the
first Master.
second was established in
1758, by the Athol Grand Lodge of England, which also granted a Warrant for a
Provincial Grand Lodge in 1766, under the
Provincial Grand Mastership of William
Ball.
This Grand Lodge continued in
operation until the commencement of the
Eevolutionary War, when it was temporarily
suspended, but was revived in 1779. On
September 26, 1786, the Provincial Grand
Lodge was abolished, and the present
Grand Lodge organized by the delegates
of thirteen Lodges in a Convention held at
Philadelphia.
The Grand Chapter of Pennsylvania was
established in 1795, being the first Grand
Chapter instituted in the United States,
and two years before the organization of
the Grand Chapter of the six New England
States, which afterwards became the General Grand Chapter.
The Grand Chapter
was at first only an integral part of the
vincial

Grand Lodge, but

in 1824 it became an
independent body, except so far as that
members of the Grand Lodge, who were
Eoyal Arch Masons, were declared to be

members of the Grand Chapter.

The Eoyal and Select degrees were

for-

merly conferred in Pennsylvania by the

Chapters, but on October 16, 1847, a Grand
Council was organized.
A Grand Encampment, independent of
the General Grand Encampment of the
United States, was organized on February

On

April 14, 1854, a Grand

organized under the authority of the Grand Encampment of the
United States, and in February, 1857, both
of these bodies united to form the present
Grand Commandery of Pennsylvania.
16, 1814.

Commandery was

by God, and not by man.

In the English system this is
one of the working-tools of a Master Mason, and is intended symbolically to remind us that our words and actions are
Pennsylvania Work. The method
observed and recorded by the Almighty of Entering, Passing, and Eaising candiArchitect, to whom we must give an ac- dates in the Lodges of Pennsylvania difcount of our conduct through life. In the fers so materially from that practised in the
American system the pencil is not specifi- other States of the Union, that it cannot be
cally recognized.
The other English work- considered as a part of the American Eite
inflicted

Pencil.

"

PENNY

PENTALPHA

as first taught by Webb, but rather as an

independent, Pennsylvania modification of
the York Eite of England. Indeed, the
Pennsylvania system of work much more
resembles the English than the American.
Its ritual is simple and didactic, like the
former, and is almost entirely without the
impressive dramatization of the latter. Bro.
Vaux, a Past Grand Master of Pennsylvania, thus speaks of the Masonic work of
his State with pardonable, although not
with impartial, commendations: "The
Pennsylvania work is sublime from its simThat it is the ancient work is
plicity.
best shown conclusively, however, from

cation of the parable, where the " penny "

as has already been said, only a symbol,
meaning any reward or compensation.
geometrical figure of
Pentagon.
five sides and five angles.
It is the third
figure from the exterior, in the camp of the
Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, or
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.
In the Egyptian Rite of Cagliostro, he
constructed, with much formality, an implement called the " sacred pentagon," and
which, being distributed to his disciples,
gave, as he affirmed, to each one the power
of holding spiritual intercourse.
Pentagram. From the Greek pente,
five, and gramma, a letter.
In the science
of magic the pentalpha is called the holy

this single fact, it is so simple, so free

from

those displays of modern inventions to attract the attention, without enlightening,

improving, or cultivating the mind. In
this work every word has its significance.
Its types and symbols are but the language
in which truth is conveyed. These are to
be studied to be understood. In the spoken
language no synonyms are permitted. In
the ceremonial no innovations are tolerIn the ritual no modern verbiage
ated.
is allowed.
Penny. In the parable read in the
Mark degree a penny is the amount given
to each of the laborers in the vineyard for
Hence, in the ritual, a
his day's labor.
penny a day is said to be the wages of a
Mark Master. In several passages of the
authorized version of the New Testament,
penny occurs as a translation of the Greek,
drjvapiov, which was intended as the equivalent of the Roman denarius. This was the
chief silver coin of the Romans from the
beginning of the coinage of the city to the
early part of the third century. Indeed,
the name continued to be employed in the
coinage of the continental States, who
imitated that of the Byzantine empire, and
was adopted by the Anglo-Saxons. The
specific value of each of so many coins,
going under the same name, cannot be ascertained with any precision.
In its Masonic use, the penny is simply a symbol of
the reward of faithful labor. The smallness of the sum, whatever may have been
its exact value, to our modern impressions
is apt to give a false idea of the liberality
of the owner. Dr. Lightfoot, in his essay
on a Fresh Revision of the Nev) Testament,
remarks "It is unnecessary to ask what
impression the mention of this sum will
leave on the minds of an uneducated peasant or shopkeeper of the present day.
Even at the time when our version was
made, and when wages were lower, it must
have seemed wholly inadequate." However improper the translation is, it can
have no importance in the Masonic appli:

3W

569

is,

and mysterious pentagram. Eliphas Levi

says {Dog. et Bituel de la Haute Magie, ii.
55,) that the pentagram is the star of the
Magians it is the sign of the word made
flesh
and according to the direction of its
rays, that is, as it points upwards with one
point or with two, it represents the good or
;

the evil principle, order or disorder; the

blessed lamb of Ormuzd and of St. John,
or the accursed god of Mendes initiation
or profanation; Lucifer or Vesper; the
morning or the evening star; Mary or
Lilith victory or death light or darkness.
See Pentalpha.
Pentalpha. The triple triangle, or
the pentalpha of Pythagoras, is so called
from the Greek tcevte, pente, five, and a/.<?a,
alpha, the letter A, because in its configuration it presents the form
of that letter in five different
positions.
It was a doctrine of
Pythagoras, that all things proceeded from numbers, and the
number five, as being formed by the union
of the first odd and the first even, was deemed
of peculiar value; and hence Cornelius
Agrippa says (Philos. Occult.) of this figure,
that, "by virtue of the number five, it has
great command over evil spirits because of
its five double triangles and its five acute
angles within and its five obtuse angles
without, so that this interior pentangle
contains in it many great mysteries." The
;

disciples of Pythagoras, who were indeed

its real inventors, placed within each of its
interior angles one of the letters of the
Greek word YrEIA, or the Latin one
SALUS, both of which signify health; and
thus it was made the talisman of health.
They placed it at the beginning of their
epistles as a greeting to invoke a secure
health to their correspondent. But its use
was not confined to the disciples of Pythag-

As a talisman, it was employed all

over the East as a charm to resist evil
spirits.
Mone says that it has been found
oras.

PEEAU

570

in Egypt on the statue of the god Anubis.

Lord Brougham says, in his Italy, that it
was used by Antiochus Epiphanes, and a
writer in Notes and Queries (% Ser., ix.,511,)
says that he has found it on the coins of
Lysimmachus. On old British and Gaulit is often seen beneath the feet
of the sacred and mythical horse, which
was the ensign of the ancient Saxons. The
Druids wore it on their sandals as a symbol of Deity, and hence the Germans call
the figure " Druttenfuss," a word originally
signifying Druid's foot, but which, in the
gradual corruptions of language, is now
made to mean Witche's foot. Even at the
present day it retains its hold upon the
minds of the common people of Germany,

ish coins

on or affixed to cradles,
is drawn
thresholds of houses, and stable-doors, to
keep off witches and elves.
The early Christians referred it to the
five wounds of the Saviour, because, when
properly inscribed upon the representation
of a human body, the five points will respectively extend to and touch the side,
the two hands, and the two feet.
The Mediaeval Masons considered it a
symbol of deep wisdom, and it is found
among the architectural ornaments of most
of the ecclesiastical edifices of the Middle

and

PERFECTION
In general

literature,

he was distinguished

as the continuator of d'Avrigny's Vies des

Hommes illustres de la France; which, however, a loss of sight prevented him from
completing. In 1742, he published at Geneva a work entitled Les Secret des FrancMacons. This work at its first appearance
attracted much attention and went through
many editions, the title being sometimes
changed to a more attractive one by booksellers.
The Abbe Larudan attempted to
palm off his libellous and malignant work
on the Abbe Perau, but without success;

while the work of Larudan is marked

with the bitterest malignity to the Order
of Freemasonry, that of Perau is simply a
detail of the ceremonies and ritual of Masonry as then practised, under the guise,
which, I think, was not simulated, of friendfor

ship.

Perfect Ashlar. See Ashlar.

Perfect Initiates, Rite of.
name given
first

to

the Egyptian Rite

established at

Perfection.

Lyons by

Cagliostro.

The ninth and

gree of Fessler's Rite.

See

when

last de-

Fessler's Bite.

Perfectionists. The name by which

Weishaupt first designated the Order which
he founded in Bavaria, and which he subsequently changed for that of the Illuminati.

as a Masonic symbol it peculiarly

claims attention from the fact that it forms
the outlines of the five-pointed star, which
is typical of the bond of brotherly love
that unites the whole Fraternity. It is in
this view that the pentalpha or triple triangle is referred to in Masonic symbolism
as representing the intimate union which

But

existed between our three ancient Grand

Masters, and which is commemorated by
the living pentalpha at the closing of every

Royal Arch Chapter.

Many writers have confounded the pentalpha with the seal of Solomon, or shield
of David.

is almost inexcusaconstantly commits it,

This error

ble in Oliver,

who

because his Masonic and archaeological researches should have taught him the difference, Solomon's seal being a double, interlaced triangle, whose form gives the outline
of a star of six points.

Peran, Gabriel Louis Calabre.

A man of

letters, an Abbe, and a member

of the Society of the Sorbonne. He was
born at Semur, in Auxois, in 1700, and died

De Feller
at Paris, March 31st, 1767.
{Biog. Univ.) speaks of his uprightness
and probity, his frankness, and sweetness
of disposition which endeared many friends
Certainly, the only work which
to him.
gives him a place in Masonic history indicates a gentleness and moderation of
character with which we can find no fault.

Perfection, Lodge of.

The Lodge
which the fourteenth degree of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is conIn England and America this deferred.
gree is called Grand Elect Perfect and Sublime Mason, but the French designate it
Grand Scottish Mason of the Sacred Vault
of James VI., or Grand tcossais de la Voute
Sacree du Jacques VI. This is one of the
and a very pregnant one
evidences
of
the influence exercised by the exiled Stuarts
and their adherents on the Masonry of that
time in making it an instrument for the
restoration of James II., and then of his

in

son, to the throne of England.

This degree, as concluding all reference
to the first Temple, has been called the ultimate degree of ancient Masonry. It is
the last of what is technically styled the Ineffable degrees, because their instructions
relate to the Ineffable word.
Its place of meeting is called the Sacred

Vault. Its principal officers are a Thrice

Puissant Grand Master, two Grand Wardens, a Grand Treasurer, and Grand SecreIn the first organization of the Rite
tary.
in this country, the Lodges of Perfection
were called " Sublime Grand Lodges," and,
hence, the word " Grand " is still affixed to
the title of the officers.
The following mythical history is connected with and related in this degree.
When the Temple was finished,the Masons

;
:

PERFECTION

PERFECTION
who had been employed

in constructing it
acquired immortal honor. Their Order became more uniformly established and regulated than it had been before. Their caution and reserve in admitting new members
produced respect, and merit alone was reWith these
quired of the candidate.
principles instilled into their minds, many
of the Grand Elect left the Temple after
its dedication, and, dispersing themselves
among the neighboring nations, instructed
all who applied and were found worthy in
the sublime degrees of Ancient Craft Ma-

sonry.

The Temple was completed in the year

Thus far, the wise
of the world 3000.
King of Israel had behaved worthy of himbut
self, and gained universal admiration
in process of time, when he had advanced
in years, his understanding became impaired he grew deaf to the voice of the
Lord, and was strangely irregular in his
conduct. Proud of having erected an edifice to his Maker, and intoxicated with his
great power, he plunged into all manner
of licentiousness and debauchery, and profaned the Temple, by offering to the idol
Moloch that incense which should have
been offered only to the living God.
The Grand Elect and Perfect Masons
;

saw this, and were sorely grieved, afraid

that his apostasy would end in some dreadful consequences, and bring upon them
those enemies whom Solomon had vaingloriously and wantonly defied. The people,
copying the vices and follies of their king,
became proud and idolatrous, and neglected
the worship of the true God for that of
idols.

As an adequate punishment for this deGod inspired the heart of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to take vengeance on the kingdom of Israel. This
prince sent an army with Nebuzaradan,
Captain of the Guards, who entered Judah
fection,

and sword, took and sacked the

and destroyed the Temple. The people were carried captive to Babylon, and the conquerors
took with them all the vessels of silver and
gold.
This happened four hundred and
seventy years, six months, and ten days
with

fire

city of Jerusalem, razed its walls,

after its dedication.

When, in after times,

parted.

The valor and fortitude of these elected

knights was such, that they were admired by,
and took the lead of, all the princes of Jerusalem, who, believing that their mysteries
inspired them with courage and fidelity in
the cause of virtue and religion, became
desirous of being initiated. Upon being
found worthy, their desires were compiled
with and thus the royal art, meeting the
approbation of great and good men, became popular and honorable, was diffused
through their various dominions, and has
continued to spread through a succession
of ages to the present day.
The symbolic color of this degree is red
emblematic of fervor, constancy, and assiduity.
Hence, the Masonry of this degree
was formerly called red Masonry on the
continent of Europe.
The jewel of the degree is a pair of compasses extended on an arc of ninety degrees,
surmounted by a crown, and with a sun in
the centre. In the Southern Jurisdiction
the sun is on one side and a five-pointed
star on the other.
The apron is white with red flames,
bordered with blue, and having the jewel
painted on the centre and the stone of
foundation on the flap.
Perfection, Rite of. In 1754, the
Chevalier de Bonneville established a Chapter of the high degrees at Paris, in the College of Jesuits of Clermont, hence called
the Chapter of Clermont. The system of
Masonry he there practised received the
name of the Rite of Perfection, or Rite of
Heredom. The College of Clermont was,
says Rebold, [Hist, de 3 G. L., 46,) the
asylum of the adherents of the house of
Stuart, and hence the Rite is to some extent tinctured with Stuart Masonry. It
consisted of twenty-five degrees, as follows
1. Apprentice; 2. Fellow Craft; 3. Master;
6. In4. Secret Master ; 5. Perfect Master
timate Secretary; 7. Intendant of the
Building 8. Provost and Judge 9. Elect
of nine 10. Elect of fifteen 11. Illustrious
12. Grand
elect, Chief of the twelve tribes
13. Royal Arch
14.
Master Architect
Grand, Elect, Ancient, Perfect Master 15.
Knight of the Sword 16. Prince of Jerusalem 17. Knight of the East and West
;

18.

the princes of
Christendom entered into a league to free
the Holy Land from the oppression of the
infidels, the good and virtuous Masons,
anxious for the success of so pious an undertaking, voluntarily offered their services
to the confederates, on condition that they
should be permitted a chief of their own
election, which was granted they accordingly rallied under their standard and de-

571

Rose Croix Knight

Grand Patriarch
the Key of Masonry
20.

Grand Pontiff;
Grand Master of

19.

21.

22. Prince of LibaSovereign Prince Adept Chief

of the Grand Consistory; 24. Illustrious
Knight, Commander of the Black and
White Eagle 25. Most Illustrious Sovereign Prince of Masonry, Grand Knight,
Sublime Commander of the Royal Secret.
It will be seen that the degrees of this Rite
are the same as those of the Council of
Emperors of the East and West, which was

nus;

23.

PERFECT

PERJURY

established four years later, and to which

the Chapter of Clermont gave way. Of
course, they are therefore the same, so far
as they go, as those of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, which succeeded the
Council of Emperors.
The distinguishing principle of this Rite
Freemasonry was derived from
is, that
Templarism, and that consequently every

were first invented, the legend referred to

an unknown person, a tiller of the soil, to
whom King Solomon was indebted for the
information which led to the discovery of
the craftsmen who had committed the

572

Freemason was a Knight Templar.

there that the Baron

and from

It

was

Von Hund was

ini-

through him, proceeded

the Rite of Strict Observance; although he
discarded the degrees and retained only the
tiated,

it,

Templar theory.

Perfect Irish Master.

{Par/ait
of the degrees given
in the Irish Colleges instituted by Ramsay.
Perfect IiOdge. See Just Lodge.
Perfect Master. (Maltre Par/ait.)
The fifth degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The ceremonies of
this degree were originally established as
a grateful tribute of respect to a worthy
departed brother. The officers of the Lodge
are a Master, who represents Adoniram,
the Inspector of the works at Mount Lebanon, and one Warden. The symbolic color
of the degree is green, to remind the
Perfect Master that, being dead in vice, he
must hope to revive in virtue. His jewel
is a compass extended sixty degrees, to
teach him that he should act within measure, and ever pay due regard to justice and
equity.
The apron is white, with a green flap
and in the middle of the apron must be embroidered or painted, within three circles, a
cubical stone, in the centre of which the
letter J is inscribed, according to the old

Maltre Irlandais.)

One

but the Samaritan yod and he,

according to the ritual of the Southern

rituals

Jurisdiction.

Delaunay, in his Thuileur de I'JEcossisme,

gives the Tetragrammaton in this degree,
and says the degree should more properly
be called Past Master, Ancien Maltre, because the Tetragrammaton makes it in some
sort the complement of the Master's degree.

But the Tetragrammaton is not found in

any of the approved rituals, and Delaunay's
theory falls therefore to the ground. But
besides, to complete the Master's with this
degree would be to confuse all the symbolism of the Ineffable degrees, which really
conclude with the fourteenth.
Perfect Prussian. (Par/ait Prussien. )
degree invented at Geneva, in 1770,
as a second part of the Order of Noachites.

Perfect Union, Lodge

of.

Lodge at Ren nes, in France, where the Rite

of Elect of Truth was instituted.
See
Elect of Truth.

Perignan.

When

the Elu degrees

crime recorded in the third degree. This

person, at first designated as

unknown

" l'inconnu," afterwards received the name

of Perignan, and a degree between the elu
of nine and the elu of fifteen was instituted,
which was called the " Elu of Perignan,"
and which became the sixth degree of the
Adonhiramite Rite. I am utterly at a loss
as to the derivation or radical meaning
of the word, but am inclined to the theory
which gives to this, as well as to many
other words in the high degrees, a reference to the adherents, or to the enemies, of
the exiled house of Stuart, for whose sake
several of these degrees were established.
See Elect of Perignan.

Periods of the Grand ArchiSee Six Periods.

In the municipal law perjury is defined to be a wilful false swearing to a material matter, when an oath has
been administered by lawful authority.
The violation of vows or promissory oaths
taken before one who is not legally authorized to administer them, that is to say, one
who is not a magistrate, does not in law
involve the crime of perjury. Such is the
technical definition of the law; but the
moral sense of mankind does not assent to
such a doctrine, and considers perjury, as
the root of the word indicates, the doing
of that which one has sworn not to do, or
the omitting to do that which he has sworn
The old Romans seem to have
to do.
taken a sensible view of the crime of perjury. Among them oaths were not often
administered, and, in general, a promise
made under oath had no more binding
power in a court of justice than it would
have had without the oath. False swearing was with them a matter of conscience,
and the person who was guilty of it was
responsible to the Deity alone. The violation of a promise under oath and of one
not under such a form was considered
alike, and neither was more liable to human punishment than the other. But
perjury was not deemed to be without any
kind of punishment. Cicero expressed the
Roman sentiment when he said " perjurii
poena divina exitium humana dedecus
the divine punishment of perjury is destrucHence every
tion ; the human, infamy."
oath was accompanied by an execration, or
an appeal to God to punish the swearer
should he falsify his oath. "In the case
of other sins," says Archbishop Sharp,
" there may be an appeal made to God's
mercy, yet in the case of perjury there is

tect.

Perjury.

PERNETTY

PERSECUTIONS

for he that is perjured hath precluded himself of this benefit, because he

hath braved God Almighty, and hath in

none;

him to his face that if he was

foresworn he should desire no mercy."
It is not right thus to seek to restrict
God's mercy, but there can be no doubt
that the settlement of the crime lies more
Freemasons
with him than with man.
look in this light on what is called the
penalty ; it is an invocation of God's vengeance on him who takes the vow, should
he ever violate it men's vengeance is confined to the contempt and infamy which
the foreswearer incurs.
effect told

Pernetty, Antoine Joseph.

Persecutions.

573

Freemasonry,

like

every other good and true thing, has been

subjected at times to suspicion, to misinterpretation, and to actual persecution.
Like the church, it has had its martyrs,
who, by their devotion and their sufferings, have vindicated its truth and its
purity.

With the exception of the United States,

where the attacks on the Institution can
hardly be called persecutions,
not because
there was not the will, but because the
power to persecute was wanting,
all the
persecutions of Freemasonry have, for the
most part, originated with the Roman
Born Church. " Notwithstanding," says a writer

Roanne, in France, in 1716. At an early

age he joined the Benedictines, but in 1765
applied, with twenty-eight others, for a
dispensation of his vows. A short time
after, becoming disgusted with the Order,
he repaired to Berlin, where Frederick the
Great made him his librarian. In a short
time he returned to Paris, where the archbishop strove in vain to induce him to reenter his monastery. The parliament supported him in his refusal, and Pernetty
continued in the world. Not long after, Pernetty became infected with the mystical
theories of Swedenborg, and published a
translation of his Wonders of Heaven and
Hell. He then repaired to Avignon, where,
under the influence of his Swedenborgian
views, he established an academy of Illuminati, based on the three primitive grades
of Masonry, to which he added a mystical
one, which he called the True Mason. This
Rite was subsequently transferred to Montpellier by some of his disciples, and modified in form under the name of the " Academy of True Masons." Pernetty, besides
his Masonic labors at Avignon, invented
at

several other Masonic degrees, and to him

is attributed the authorship of the degree

of Knight of the Sun, now occupying the

twenty-eighth place in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. He was a very learned
man and a voluminous writer of versatile
talents, and published numerous works on
mythology, the fine arts, theology, geography, philosophy, and the mathematical sciences, besides some translations from the
Latin. He died at Valence, in Dauphiny,
in the year 1800.
Perpendicular. In a geometrical
sense, that which is upright and erect,
leaning neither one way nor another. In
a figurative and symbolic sense, it conveys
the signification of Justice, Fortitude,
Prudence, and Temperance. Justice, that
leans to no side but that of Truth ; Fortitude, that yields to no adverse attack;
Prudence, that ever pursues the straight
path of integrity; and Temperance, that
swerves not for appetite nor passion.

in

the

Freemasons'

Quarterly

Magazine,

"the greatest architectural

monuments of antiquity were reared by the
labors of Masonic gilds, and the Church of
Rome owes the structure of her magnificent
cathedrals, her exquisite shrines, and her
most splendid palaces, to the skill of the
(1851, p. 141,)

wise master-builders of former ages, she

been for four centuries in antagonism to the principles inculcated by the

has

Craft."

Leaving unnoticed the struggles of the

corporations of Freemasons in the fifteenth,
sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, we
may begin the record with the persecutions
to which the Order has been subjected since
the revival in 1717.
One of the first persecutions to which
Masonry, in its present organization, was
subjected, occurred in the year 1735, in
Holland. On the 16th of October of that
year, a crowd of ignorant fanatics, whose
zeal had been enkindled by the denunciations of some of the clergy, broke into a
house in Amsterdam, where a Lodge was
accustomed to be held, and destroyed all
the furniture and ornaments of the Lodge.
The States General, yielding to the popular
excitement, or rather desirous of giving no
occasion for its action, prohibited the future
meetings of the Lodges. One, however,
continuing, regardless of the edict, to meet
at a private house, the members were arrested and brought before the Court of JusHere, in the presence of the whole
tice.
city, the Masters and Wardens defended
themselves with great dexterity ; and while
acknowledging their inability to prove the
innocence of their Institution by a public
exposure of their secret doctrines, they
freely offered to receive and initiate any
person in the confidence of the magistrates,
and who could then give them information

upon which they might depend,

relative to

the true designs of the Institution. The

proposal was acceded to, and the town
clerk was chosen. He was immediately initiated, and his report so pleased his superiors, that all the magistrates and principal

PERSECUTIONS

PERSECUTIONS

persons of the city became members and

zealous patrons of the Order.
In France, the fear of the authorities
that the Freemasons concealed, within the
recesses of their Lodges, designs hostile to
the government, gave occasion to an attempt,
in 1737, on the part of the police, to proBut this
hibit the meeting of the Lodges.
unfavorable disposition did not long continue, and the last instance of the interference of the government with the proceedings of the Masonic body was in June,
1745, when the members of a Lodge, meeting at the Hotel de Soissons, were dispersed,
their furniture and jewels seized, and the
landlord amerced in a penalty of three thou-

means, we are at no loss to discover, from

the interpretation given to the bull by Car-

574

sand

The persecutions in Germany were owing

The malice of a few
to a singular cause.
females had been excited by their disappointed curiosity. A portion of this disposition they succeeded in communicating
to the Empress, Maria Theresa, who issued
an order for apprehending all the Masons
in Vienna, when assembled in their Lodges.
The measure was, however, frustrated by
the good sense of the Emperor, Joseph I.,
who was himself a Mason, and exerted his
power in protecting his brethren.
The persecutions of the church in Italy,
and other Catholic countries, have been
the most extensive and most permanent.
On the 28th of April, 1738, Pope Clement
XII. issued the famous bull against Freemasons whose authority is still in existIn this bull, the Roman Pontiff says,
ence.
"
have learned, and public rumor does
not permit us to doubt the truth of the report, that a certain society has been formed,
under the name of Freemasons, into which
persons of all religions and all sects are indiscriminately admitted, and whose members have established certain laws which
bind themselves to each other, and which,

We

in particular, compel their members, under

the severest penalties, by virtue of an oath
taken on the Holy Scriptures, to preserve
an inviolable secrecy in relation to every
thing that passes in their meetings." The
bull goes on to declare, that these societies
have become suspected by the faithful, and
that they are hurtful to the tranquillity of
the state and to the safety of the soul ; and

making use of the now threadbare

argument, that if the actions of Freemasons were irreproachable, they would
not so carefully conceal them from the
light, it proceeds to enjoin all bishops, superiors, and ordinaries to punish the Freemasons " with the penalties which they deserve, as people greatly suspected of heresy,
having recourse, if necessary, to the secular
arm.''

What

this

tries it

was better respected.

In Tuscany

livres.

after

dinal Firrao in his edict of publication in

the beginning of the following year, namely, " that no person shall dare to assemble
at any Lodge of the said society, nor be
present at any of their meetings, under pain
of death and confiscation of goods, the said
penalty to be without hope of pardon,"
The bull of Clement met in France with
no congenial spirits to obey it. On the
contrary, it was the subject of universal
condemnation as arbitrary and unjust, and
the parliament of Paris positively refused
to enroll it.
But in other Catholic coun-

the persecutions were unremitting.

man
named Crudeli was arrested at Florence,
thrown into the dungeons of the Inquisition, subjected to torture, and finally sentenced to a long imprisonment, on the
charge of having furnished an asylum to a
Masonic Lodge.
The Grand Lodge of
England, upon learning the circumstances,
obtained his enlargement, and sent him pecuniary assistance. Francis de Lorraine,
who had been initiated at the Hague in
1731, soon after ascended the grand ducal
throne, and one of the first acts of his
reign was to liberate all the Masons who
had been incarcerated by the Inquisition
and still further to evince his respect for
the Order, he personally assisted in the constitution of several Lodges at Florence, and
in other cities of his dominions.
The other sovereigns of Italy were, however, more obedient to the behests of the
holy father, and persecutions continued to
rage throughout the peninsula. Nevertheless, Masonry continued to flourish, and in
1751, thirteen years after the emission of
the bull of prohibition, Lodges were openly in existence in Tuscany, at Naples, and
even in the " eternal city " itself.
The priesthood, whose vigilance had
abated under the influence of time, became
once more alarmed, and an edict was issued
in 1751 by Benedict XIV., who then occupied the papal chair, renewing and enforcing the bull which had been fulminated by
Clement.
This, of course, renewed the spirit of
persecution.
In Spain, one Tournon, a
Frenchman, was convicted of practising
the rites of Masonry, and after a tedious
confinement in the dungeons of the Inquisition, he was finally banished from the

kingdom.
In Portugal, at Lisbon, John Coustos,
a native of Switzerland, was still more
severely treated. He was subjected to the
torture, and suffered so much that he was
unable to move his limbs for three months.
delivery to the secular arm Coustos, with two companions of his re-

PERSEVERANCE

PERSIA

575

Persia. Neither the Grand Lodge of

Euted crime, was sentenced to the galleys,
ut was finally released by the interposi- England, nor any other of the European
Powers, seem ever to have organized
tion of the English ambassador.
In 1745, the Council of Berne, in Swit- Lodges in the kingdom of Persia yet very
zerland, issued a decree prohibiting, under strange and somewhat incomprehensible
the severest penalties, the assemblages of stories are told by credible authorities of
In 1757, in Scotland, the the existence either of the Masonic instiFreemasons.
Synod of Sterling adopted a resolution de- tution, or something very much like it, in
barring all adhering Freemasons from the that country. In 1808, on November 24,
ordinances of religion. And, as if to prove Askeri Khan, the Ambassador of Persia
that fanaticism is everywhere the same, in near the court of France, was received into
1748 the Divan at Constantinople caused a the Order at Paris by the Mother Lodge of
Masonic Lodge to be demolished, its jewels the Philosophic Scottish Rite, on which
and furniture seized, and its members ar- occasion the distinguished neophyte prerested.
They were discharged upon the sented his sword, a pure Damascus blade,
interposition of the English minister; but to the Lodge, with these remarks
"I
the government prohibited the introduction promise you, gentlemen, friendship, fidelity, and esteem.
of the Order into Turkey.
I have been told, and I
Our own country has not been free from cannot doubt it, that Freemasons were vir;

the blighting influence of this demon of

fanaticism.
But the exciting scenes of
anti-Masonry are too recent to be treated
by the historian with coolness or impartiality.
The political party to which this
spirit of persecution gave birth was the
most abject in its principles, and the most
unsuccessful in its efforts, of any that our
times have seen. It has passed away the
clouds of anti-Masonry have been, we trust,
forever dispersed, and the bright sun of
;

Masonry, once more emerging from its

temporary eclipse, is beginning to bless
our land with the invigorating heat and
light of

its

meridian rays.

Perseverance. A virtue

inculcated,

by a peculiar symbol in the third degree,

in reference to the acquisition of knowledge,
and especially the knowledge of the True

Word.

See Patience.

Perseverance, Order

of.

An

Adoptive Order established at Paris, in

It had
1771, by several nobles and ladies.
but little of the Masonic character about it;
and, although at the time of its creation it
excited considerable sensation,

it

existed

but for a brief period. It was instituted

for the purpose of rendering services to
humanity. Ragon says {Tuileur Gen., p.
92,) that there was kept in the archives of
the Order a quarto volume of four hundred
leaves, in which was registered all the good
deeds of the brethren and sisters. This
volume is entitled Livre d'Honneur de V Ordre

tuous, charitable, and full of love and atfor their sovereigns.

Permit me
to make you a present worthy of true
Frenchmen. Receive this sabre, which has
served me in twenty-seven battles. May
this act of homage convince you of the sentiments with which you have inspired me,
and of the gratification that I feel in belonging to your Order." The Ambassador
subsequently seems to have taken a great
interest in Freemasonry while he remained
in France, and consulted with the Venerable of the Lodge on the subject of establishing a Lodge at Ispahan. This is the
first account that we have of the connection
of any inhabitant of Persia with the Order.
Thory, who gives this account, {Act. Lot.,
T
i. 237,) does not tell us w hether the project
of an Ispahan Lodge was ever executed.
But it is probable that on his return home
the Ambassador introduced among his
friends some knowledge of the Institution,
and impressed them with a favorable opinion of it. At all events, the Persians in
later times do not seem to have been ignorant of its existence.
Mr. Holmes, in his Sketches on the Shores
of the Caspian, gives the following as the
Persian idea of Freemasonry
" In the morning we received a visit

tachment

from the Governor, who seemed rather a

dull person, though very polite and civil.
He asked a great many questions regarding
the Feramoosh Khoneh, as they called the
de la Perseverance. Ragon intimates that Freemasons' Hall in London which is a
this document is still in existence.
Thory complete mystery to all the Persians who
[Fondation O. 0., p. 383,) says that there have heard of it. Very often, the first
was much mystification about the establish- question we have been asked is, What do
ment of the Order in Paris. Its institutors they do at the Feramoosh Khoneh ? What
contended that it originated from time im- is it?' They generally believe it to be a
memorial in Poland, a pretension to which most wonderful place, where a man may
the King of Poland lent his sanction. acquire in one day the wisdom of a thousand
Many persons of distinction, and among years of study but every one has his own
them Madame de Genlis, were deceived and peculiar conjectures concerning it. Some
became its members.
of the Persians who went to England be;

'

PERSIAN

576

came Freemasons

PETITION

and their friends com-

plain that they will not tell what they saw

at the Hall, and cannot conceive why they
should all be so uncommunicative."
And now we have, from the London Freemason, (June 28, 1873,) this further account
but the conjecture as to the time of the introduction of the Order unfortunately wants
confirmation
" Of the Persian officers who are present
in Berlin pursuing military studies and
making themselves acquainted with Prussian military organization and arrange*
ments, one belongs to the Masonic Order.
He is a Mussulman. He seems to have
spontaneously sought recognition as a
member of the Craft at a Berlin Lodge, and
his claim was allowed only after such an
examination as satisfied the brethren that
he was one of the brethren. From the
statement of this Persian Mason it appears
that nearly all the members of the Persian
Court belong to the mystic Order, even as
German Masonry enjoys the honor of
counting the emperor and crown prince
among its adherents. The appearance of
this Mohammedan Mason in Berlin seems
to have excited a little surprise among
some of the brethren there, and the surprise would be natural enough to persons
not aware of the extent to which Masonry
has been diffused over the earth. Account
for it as one may, the truth is certain that
the mysterious Order was established in
the Orient many ages ago. Nearly all of
the old Mohammedan buildings in India,
such as tombs, mosques, etc., are marked
with the Masonic symbols, and many of
these structures, still perfect, were built in
the time of the Mogul Emperor Akbar,
who died in 1605. Thus Masonry must
have been introduced into India from Middle Asia by the Mohammedans hundreds
of years ago."
Since then there was an initiation of a
Persian in the Lodge Clemente Amitie at
There is a Lodge at Teheran, of
Paris.
which many native Persians are members.

Persian Philosophical
Kite which

Rite.

founders asserted was

its

established in 1818, at Erzerum, in Persia,

and which was introduced into France in
It consisted of seven de-

the year 1819.

1. Listening Apprentice
Adept, Esquire of Benevolence; 3. Master, Knight of the Sun; 4.
Architect of all Eites, Knight of the Philosophy of the Heart 5. Knight of Eclecticism and of Truth 6. Master Good ShepThis
herd
7. Venerable Grand Elect.
Eite never contained many members, and
has been long extinct.
Personal Merit. All preferment

grees, as follows
2. Fellow Craft,

among Masons

is

grounded upon

real

worth and personal merit only, that so the

Lords may be well served, the Brethren not
put to shame, nor the Eoyal Craft despised.
Therefore no Master or Warden is chosen

by

seniority,

but for his merit.

Charges of

1723.

Peru. Freemasonry was first introduced into Peru about the year 1807, during the French invasion, and several
Lodges worked until the resumption of the
Spanish authority and the Papal influence,
in 1813, when their existence terminated.
In 1825, when the independence of the republic, declared some years before, was
completely achieved, several Scottish Eite
Lodges were established, first at Lima and
then at other points, by the Grand Orient

of Colombia.

Supreme Council of the

Ancient and Accepted Eite was instituted

in 1830.
In 1831 an independent Grand
Lodge, afterwards styled the Grand Orient
of Peru, was organized by the symbolic
Lodges in the republic. Political agitations have, from time to time, occasioned
a cessation of Masonic labor, but both the
Supreme Council and the Grand Orient are
now in successful operation. The Eoyal
Arch degree was introduced in 1852 by the
establishment of a Eoyal Arch Chapter at
Callao, under a Warrant granted by the
Supreme Chapter of Scotland.
Petition for a Charter. The next
step in the process of organizing a Lodge,
after the Dispensation has been granted by
the Grand Master, is an application for a
Charter or Warrant of Constitution. The
application may be, but not necessarily,
On the report
in the form of a petition.
of the Grand Master, that he had granted
a Dispensation, the Grand Lodge, if the

new Lodge

is

recommended by some

other,

generally the nearest Lodge, will confirm

the Grand Master's action and grant a
Charter although it may refuse to do so,
and then the Lodge will cease to exist.
Charters or Warrants for Lodges are
granted only by the Grand Lodge in
America, Ireland, and Scotland. In England this great power is vested in the
Grand Master. The Constitutions of the
Grand Lodge of England say that " every
application for a Warrant to hold a new
Lodge must be, by petition to the Grand
Master, signed by at least seven regularly
Although, in the
registered Masons."
United States, it is the general usage that
a Warrant must be preceded by a DispenI know of no general law which
sation.
would forbid the Grand Lodge to issue a
Charter in the first place, no Dispensation
having been previously granted.
The rule for issuing Charters to Lodges
prevails, with no modification in relation to
granting them by Grand Chapters, Grand
;

PHALLIC

PETITION

577

the society of the explainers of the mysteries of initiation.

Phallic Worship. The Phallus was
Petition for a Dispensation.
When it is desired to establish a new a sculptured representation of the memLodge, application by petition must be brum virile, or male organ of generation
made to the Grand Master. This petition and the worship of it is said to have origiought to be signed by at least seven Master nated in Egypt, where, after the murder of
Masons, and be recommended by the near- Osiris by TyP non > which is symbolically to
est Lodge and it should contain the pro- be explained as the destruction or deprivaposed name of the Lodge and the names of tion of the sun's light by night, Isis, his
the three principal officers. This is the wife, or the symbol of nature, in the search
usage of this country but it must be re- for his mutilated body, is said to have found
membered that the Grand Master's pre- all the parts except the organs of generarogative of granting Dispensations cannot tion, which myth is simply symbolic of the
be rightfully restricted by any law. Only, fact that the sun having set, its fecundashould the Grand Master grant a Dispen- ting and invigorating power had ceased.
sation for a Lodge which, in its petition, The Phallus, therefore, as the symbol of
had not complied with these prerequisites, the male generative principle, was very
universally venerated among the ancients,
it is not probable that, on subsequent application to the Grand Lodge, a Warrant of and that too as a religious rite, without the
slightest reference to any impure or lascivConstitution would be issued.

Councils, or Grand Commanderies for the

bodies subordinate to them.

Petition for Initiation. Any

per-

son who is desirous of initiation into the

mysteries of Masonry must apply to the

Lodge nearest to his place of residence, by

means of a petition signed by himself, and
recommended by at least two members of
the Lodge to which he applies. The application of a Mason to a Chapter, Council,
or Commandery for advancement to higher
degrees, or of an unaffiliated Mason for
membership in a Lodge, is also called a petition.
For the rules that govern the disposition of these petitions, see the author's
Text Book of Masonic Jurisprudence, Book
I., ch. ii.

Penvret, Jean Eustaehe.

An

usher of the parliament of Paris, and Past

Master of the Lodge of St. Pierre in Martinico, and afterwards a dignitary of the
Grand Orient at France. Peuvret was devoted to Hermetic Masonry, and acquired
some reputation by numerous compilations on Masonic subjects. During his life
he amassed a valuable library of mystical,
alchemical, and Masonic books, and a manuscript collection of eighty-one degrees of
Hermetic Masonry in six quarto volumes.
He asserts in this work that the degrees

were brought from England and Scotland

but this Thory {Act. Lat., i. 205,) denies, and
says that they were manufactured in Paris.
Peuvret's exceeding zeal without knowledge made him the victim of every charlatan who approached him. He died at
Paris in 1800.

Phai'noteletian Society.

{Soci-

society founded at
Paris, in 1840, by Louis Theodore Juge,.the
editor of the Globe, composed of members
of all rites and degrees, for the investigation of all non-political secret associations
of ancient and modern times. The title is
ety

Phainote'lete.)

taken from the Greek, and signifies

3X

literally

'37

ious application.
As a symbol of the generative principle
of nature, the worship of the Phallus appears to have been very nearly universal.
In the mysteries it was carried in solemn
procession. The Jews, in their numerous
deflections into idolatry, fell readily into
that of this symbol. And they did this at
a very early period of their history, for we
are told that even in the time of the Judges
(Jud. iii. 7,) they "served Baalim and the
groves."
Now the word translated, here
and elsewhere, as groves, is in the original
Asherah, and is by all modern interpreters
supposed to mean a species of Phallus.
Thus Movers (Phoniz., p. 56,) says that
Asherah is a sort of Phallus erected to the
telluric goddess Baaltes, and the learned
Holloway (Originals, i. 18,) had long before come to the same conclusion.
But the Phallus, or, as it was called
among the Orientalists, the Lingam, was a
representation of the male principle only.
To perfect the circle of generation, it is necessary to advance one step farther. Accordingly we find in the Cteis of the Greeks,
and the Yoni of the Indians, a symbol of
the female generative principle of co-extensive prevalence with the Phallus. The
Cteis was a circular and concave pedestal,
or receptacle, on which the Phallus or column rested, and from the centre of which
it sprang.
The union of these two, as the generative
and the producing principles of nature, in

one compound

figure,

was the most usual

mode of representation. And here, I think,

we undoubtedly find the remote origin of
the point within a

circle,

an ancient symbol

adopted by the old sun

worshippers, and then by the ancient astronomers, as a symbol of the sun surrounded by the earth or the universe, the

which was

first

PHALLUS

PHILALETHES

sun as the generator and the earth as the

and afterwards modified in its
producer,
signification and incorporated into the symbolism of Freemasonry. See Point within
a Circle.
Phallus. Donegan says from an Egyptian or Indian root. See Phallic Worship.
Pharaxal. A significant word in the
high degrees, and there said, in the old
rituals, to signify " we shall all be united."
Delaunay gives it as pharos hoi, and says

which Tyre and Sidon were the principal

cities.
The researches of Gesenius and
other modern philologers have confirmed
the assertions of Jerome and Augustine,
that the language spoken by the Jews and
the Phenicians was almost identical; a
statement interesting to the Masonic student as giving another reason for the bond
which existed between Solomon and Hiram, and between the Jewish workmen and

578

means "

explained." If it is derived from t^"n3, and the adverbial *7p, hoi,

" altogether," it certainly means not to be
united, but to be separated, and has the
same meaning as its cognate polhal. This
incongruity in the words and their accepted
explanation has led Bro. Pike to reject
them both from the degree in which they
are originally found. And it is certain
that the radical pal and phar both have
everywhere in Hebrew the idea of separation.
But my reading of the old rituals
compels me to believe that the degree in
which these words are found always contained an idea of separation and subsequent
reunion. It is evident that there was either
a blunder in the original adoption of the
word pharaxal, or more probably a corruption by subsequent copyists.
I am satisfied that the ideas of division, disunion, or
separation, and of subsequent reunion, are
correct but I am equally satisfied that the
Hebrew form of this word is wrong.
school among the
Pharisees.
Jews at the time of Christ, so called from
the Aramaic Perushim, Separated, because
they held themselves apart from the rest of
the nation. They claimed to have a mysterious knowledge unknown to the mass of
the people, and pretended to the exclusive
possession of the true meaning of the
Scriptures, by virtue of the oral law and
the secret traditions which, having been
received by Moses on Mount Sinai, had
been transmitted to successive generations
of initiates. They are supposed to have
been essentially the same as the Assideans
or Chasidim. The character of their organization is interesting to the Masonic stuThey held a secret doctrine, of
dent.
which the dogma of the resurrection was
an important feature; they met in sodalities or societies, the members of which
called themselves chabirim, fellows or assoiates and they styled all who were outside of their mystical association, yom haharetz, or people of the land.
Phenieia. The Latinized form of the
Greek PhoiniMa, from Qoivig, a palm, because of the number of palms anciently,
but not now, found in the country.
tract of country on the north of Palestine,
along the shores of the Mediterranean, of
it

all is

their fellow-laborers of Tyre, in the construction of the Temple. See Tyre.

Philadelphia.

Placed on the imsome Masonic works of the last

century as a pseudonym of Paris.
Philadelphians, Rite of the.

print of

See Primitive Bite.

Philadelphia, Lodge of the. The

name

of a Lodge at Narbonne, in Frauce,

which the Primitive Rite was first instituted; whence it is sometimes called the
"Rite of the Philadelphians." See Primi-

in

tive Rite.

Philalethes, Rite of the.

also the Seekers of

Truth,

Called

although the

word literally means Friends of Truth. It

was a Eite founded in 1773 at Paris, in the
Lodge of Amis Reunis, by Savalette de
Langes, keeper of the Royal Treasury,
with whom were associated the Vicomte
de Tavannes, Court de Gebelin, M. de
Sainte-Jamos, the President d'Hericourt,
and the Prince of Hesse. The Rite, which
was principally founded on the system of
Martinism, did not confine itself to any
particular mode of instruction, but in its reunions, called " convents," the members devoted themselves to the study of all kinds
of knowledge that were connected with the
occult sciences, and thus they welcomed to
their association all who had made themselves remarkable by the singularity or the
novelty of their opinions, such as Caglios-

Mesmer, and Saint Martin. It was

divided into twelve classes or chambers of
instruction.
The names of these classes or
degrees were as follows: 1. Apprentice;
2. Fellow Craft; 3. Master; 4. Elect; 5.
Scottish Master 6. Knight of the East
7.
Rose Croix 8. Knight of the Temple 9.
Unknown Philosopher 10. Sublime Philosopher; 11. Initiate; 12. Philalethes, or
The first six deSearcher after Truth.
grees were called Petty, and the last six
High Masonry.
The Rite did not increase very rapidly; nine years after its
institution, it counted only twenty Lodges
in France and in foreign countries which
were of its obedience. In 1785 it attempted
a radical reform in Masonry, and for this
purpose invited the most distinguished
Masons of all countries to a congress at
Paris. But the project failed, and Savalette
de Langes dying in 1788, the Rite, of which
tro,

PHILOSOPHIC

PHILIP

579

soul, ceased to exist, and manuscript collection of Peuvret.

Twelve
other degrees of Philosopher were conLodge of Amis Reunis was dissolved.
Philip IV. Surnamed"leBel," or tained in the same collection, namely, Grand
" the Fair," who ascended the throne of Neapolitan Philosopher, Grand Practical
France in 1285. He is principally dis- Philosopher, Kabbalistic Philosopher, Kab-

he alone was the

the

tinguished in history on account of his

persecution of the Knights Templars. With
the aid of his. willing instrument, Pope
Clement V., he succeeded in accomplishing
the overthrow of the Order. He died in
1314, execrated by his subjects, whose
hearts he had alienated by the cruelty,
avarice, and despotism of his administration.

Philippian Order.

Finch gives
Order insti-

name of a secret
tuted by King Philip " for the use only of
his first nobility and principal officers, who
thus formed a select and secret council in
which he could implicitly confide." It has
attracted the attention of no other Masonic
this as the

and was probably no more than a

coinage of a charlatan's brain.
Philocoreites, Order of. An androgynous secret society established in the
French army in Spain, in 1808. The members were called Knights and Ladies Philocoreites, or Lovers of Pleasure. It was not
Masonic in character. But Thory has thought
it worth a long description in his History of
the Foundation of the Grand Orient of France.
writer,

Phil Judseus. A Jewish philosopher of the school of Alexandria, who was

born about thirty years before Christ.
Philo adopted to their full extent the mystical doctrines of his school, and taught

that the Hebrew Scriptures contained, in a

system of allegories, the real source of all
religious and philosophical knowledge, the
true meaning of which was to be excluded
from the vulgar, to whom the literal signification alone was to be made known. Whoever, says he, has meditated on philosophy,
has purified himself by virtue, and elevated
himself by a contemplative life to God and
the intellectual world, receiving their inspiration, thus pierces the gross envelop
of the letter, and is initiated into mysteries
of which the literal instruction is but a
faint image.
fact, a figure, a word, a
rite or custom, veils the profoundest truths,
to be interpreted only by him who has the
true key of science. Such symbolic views
were eagerly seized by the early inventors
of the high, philosophical degrees of Masonry, who have made frequent use of the
esoteric philosophy of Philo in the construction of their Masonic system.
Philosopher, Christian. {Philosophe Chretien.)
The fourth degree of the
Order of African Architects.

Philosopher, Grand and Sublime Hermetic. {Grand et Sublime

Philosophe Hermetique.)

degree in the

Philosopher to the

Number

5, PerPerfect Master
Philosopher, Petty Neapolitan Philosopher, Petty Practical Philosopher, Sublime Philosopher, Sublime Philosopher to
the Number 9, and Sublime Practical PhilThey are probably all Kabbaosopher.
listic or Hermetic degrees.
{PhiPhilosopher of
losophe d' Hermes.)
degree contained in
the Archives of the Lodge of Saint Louis
des Amis Reunis at Calais.
Philosopher, Sublime. {Sublime
Philosophe.)
1. The fifty-third degree of
the Rite of Mizraim. 2. The tenth class
of the Rite of the Philalethes.

balistic
fect

Mason Philosopher,

Hermes.

Philosopher, Sublime Un-

known.

(Sublime Philosophe Inconnu.)

of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
Philosopher, the Iiittle. {Le petit Philosophe.)
degree in the collection
of Pyron.

The seventy-ninth degree

Philosopher, Unknown.

{Philo-

sophe Inconnu.) The ninth class of the Rite

of the Philalethes. It was so called in
reference to St. Martin, who had adopted
that title as his pseudonym, and was universally known by it among his disciples.
Philosopher's Stone. It was the
doctrine of the alchemists, that there was a
certain mineral, the discovery of which was
the object of their art, because, being mixed
with the baser metals, it would transmute
these into gold. This mineral, known only
to the adepts, they called lapisphilosophorum,
or the philosopher's stone. Hitchcock, who
wrote a book in 1857, {Alchemy and the Alchemists,) to maintain the proposition that
alchemy was a symbolic science, that its
subject was Man, and its object the perfection of men, asserts that the philosopher's stone was a symbol of man. He
quotes the old Hermetic philosopher, Isaac
Holland, as saying that " though a man be
poor, yet may he very well attain unto it
[the work of perfection,] and may be employed in making the philosopher's stone."
And Hitchcock, (p. 76,) in commenting on
" That is, every man, no matter
this, says
how humble his vocation, may do the best
may ' love mercy, do
he can in his place
:

and walk humbly with God

and
what more doth God require of any man?"
justly,

'

If this interpretation be correct, then the

philosopher's stone of the alchemists, and
the spiritual temple of the Freemasons are
identical symbols.
Philosophic Degrees. All the de-

;:

PHILOSOPHIC

PHYSICAL

grees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish

Rite above the eighteenth and below the
thirty-third, are called philosophical degrees, because, abandoning the symbolism
based on the Temple, they seek to develop a
system of pure theosophy. Some writers
have contended that the seventeenth and
eighteenth degrees should be classed with
the philosophic degrees. But I cannot agree
with them, since both of those degrees have
preserved the idea of the Temple system.
They ought rather to be called apocalyptic
degrees, the seventeenth especially, because
they do not teach the ancient philosophies,
but are connected in their symbolism with
the spiritual temple of the New Jerusalem.

It was resuscitated at the termination of the Revolution, and in 1805 the

Lodge of the Social Contract, and that of
St. Alexander of Scotland, assumed the
title of the " Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite in France."
This
body was eminently literary in its character, and in 1811 and 1812 possessed a
mass of valuable archives, among which
were a number of old charters, manuscript
rituals, and Masonic works of great interest,
in all languages.

580

labors.

Philosophy Sublime.

(Philoso-

phic Sublime.) The forty-eighth degree of

the Rite of Mizraim.
Phcenix. The old mythological legend of the phcenix is a familiar one. The
bird was described as of the size of an eagle,
with a head finely crested, a body covered
with beautiful plumage, and eyes sparkling

Philosophic Scottish Rite. This

Rite consists of twelve degrees, as follows
1. 2. 3. Knight of the Black Eagle or
Rose Croix of Heredom, divided into three
parts ; 4. Knight of the Phoenix 5. Knight like stars. She was said to live six hundred
of the Sun 6. Knight of the Rainbow
years in the wilderness, when she built for
herself a funereal pile of aromatic woods,
7. True Mason; 8. Knight of the Argonaut 9. Knight of the Golden Fleece 10. which she ignited with the fanning of her
Perfectly Initiated Grand Inspector; 11. wings, and emerged from the flames with a
Grand Scottish Inspector; 12. Sublime new life. Hence the phcenix has been
Master of the Luminous Ring.
adopted universally as a symbol of imThe three degrees of Ancient Craft Ma- mortality. Higgins (Anacalypsis, ii. 441,)
sonry form the necessary basis of this sys- says that the phcenix is the symbol of an
tem, although they do not constitute a part ever-revolving solar cycle of six hundred
of the Rite. In its formation it expressly and eight years, and refers to the Phenirenounced the power to constitute symbolic cian word phen, which signifies a cycle.
Lodges, but reserved the faculty of affiliat- Aumont, the first Grand Master of the
ing regularly constituted Lodges into its Templars after the martyrdom of De Mohigh degrees. Thory (Fond, du G. 0., p. lay, and called the " Restorer of the Order,"
162,) seems desirous of tracing the origin took, it is said, for his seal, a phcenix broodof the Rite to the Rosicrucians of the ing on the flames, with the motto, " Ardet
fourteenth century. But the reasons which ut vivat" She burns that she may live.
he assigns for this belief are by no means The phcenix was adopted at a very early
satisfactory. The truth is, that the Rite was period as a Christian symbol, and several
founded in 1775, in the celebrated Lodge representations of it have been found in the
of the Social Contract, (Control Social,) and catacombs. Its ancient legend, doubtless,
that its principal founder was M. Boileau, caused it to be accepted as a symbol of the
a physician of Paris, and who had been resurrection.
a disciple of Pernetty, the originator of the
Physical Qualifications. The
Hermetic Rite at Avignon, whose Hermetic physical qualifications of a candidate for
principles he introduced into the Philo- initiation into Masonry may be considered
sophic Scottish Rite. Some notion may be under the three heads of Sex, Age, and
formed of the nature of the system which Bodily Conformation. 1. As to Sex. It
was taught in this Rite, from the name of is a landmark that the candidate shall be
the degree which is at its summit. The a man. This, of course, prohibits the iniLuminous Ring is a Pythagorean degree. tiation of a woman. 2. As to Age. The
In 1780, an Academy of the Sublime Mas- candidate must, say the Old Regulations, be
The ritual
ters of the Luminous Ring was established of "mature and discreet age."
in France, in which the doctrine was forbids the initiation of an " old man in his
taught that Freemasonry was originally dotage, or a young man under age." The
founded by Pythagoras, and in which the man who has lost his faculties by an accumost important portion of the lectures was mulation of years, or not yet acquired them
engaged in an explanation of the peculiar in their full extent by immaturity of age,
is equally incapable of initiation.
(See
dogmas of the sage of Samos.
The chief seat of the Rite had always Dotage and Mature Age.) 3. As to Bodily
been in the Lodge of Social Contract until Conformation. The Gothic Constitutions
1792, when, in common with all the other of 926, or what is accepted as that docuMasonic bodies of France, it suspended its ment, prescribe that the candidate " must
;

PILGRIM

PICART'S
be without blemish, and have the full and
proper use of his limbs ;" and the Charges
of 1722 say " that he must have no maim

581

made the journey

to any shrine only once;

more usually accepted dis^
two classes.
In the Middle Ages, Europe was filled
or defect in his body that may render him
incapable of learning the art, of serving his with pilgrims repairing to Palestine to pay
Master's lord, and being made a brother." their veneration to the numerous spots conAnd although a few jurists have been dis- secrated in the annals of Holy Writ, more

posed to interpret this law with unauthorized laxity, the general spirit of the Institution, and of all its authorities, is to observe it rigidly. See the subject fully discussed in the author's Text Book of Masonic Jurisprudence, pp. 100-113.

Picart's Ceremonies.

An

instrument

used to

loosen the soil and prepare it for digging.

It is one of the working-tools of a Eoyal
Arch Mason, and symbolically teaches him
to loosen from his heart the hold of evil
habits.

Piece of Architecture.

{Morgeau

Architecture.)
The French so call a discourse, poem, or other production on the
The definition
subject of Freemasonry.
previously given in this work under the
title Architecture, in being confined to the
minutes of the Lodge, is not sufficiently

comprehensive.

Pilgrim.

A pilgrim (from the Italian

pelegrino, and that from the Latin peregrinus, signifying a traveller,) denotes one

who

visits holy places from a principle

of devotion. Dante ( Vita Nuova) distinguishes pilgrims from palmers thus palmers were those who went beyond the sea to
the East, and often brought back staves of
palm- wood while pilgrims went only to
the shrine of St. Jago, in Spain. But Sir
Walter Scott says that the palmers were
in the habit of passing from shrine to
shrine, living on charity; but pilgrims
:

this is the
tinction of the

especially to the sepulchre of our Lord.

"It is natural," says Robertson, [Hist.
ch. v., i. 19,) " to the human mind, to view
those places which have been distinguished

by being the residence of any illustrious

personage, or the scene of any great transBernard action, with some degree of delight and

Picart was a celebrated engraver of Amsterdam, and the author of a voluminous

work, which was begun in 1723, and continued after his death, until 1737, by J. F.
Bernard, entitled Ceremonies Religieuses de
second edition
tous les peuple du monde.
was published at Paris, in 1741, by the
Abbes Banier and Le Mascrier, who entirely remodelled the work; and a third in
1783 by a set of free-thinkers, who disfigured, and still further altered the text
Editions, professto suit their own views.
ing to be reprints of the original one, have
been subsequently published in 1807-9 and
1816.
The book has been recently deemed
of some importance by the investigators
of the Masonic history of the last century,
because it contains an engraved list in two
pages of the English Lodges which were in
existence in 1735. The plate is, however,
of no value as an original authority, since
it is merely a copy of the Engraved List of
Lodges, published by J. Pine in 1735.

Pickaxe.

and

veneration. From this principle flowed the

superstitious devotion with which Christians, from the earliest ages of the church,
were accustomed to visit that country
which the Almighty had selected as the inheritance of his favorite people, and in
which the Son of God had accomplished
As this disthe redemption of mankind.
tant pilgrimage could not be performed
without considerable expense, fatigue, and
danger, it appeared the more meritorious,
and came to be considered as an expiation
for almost every crime."
Hence, by a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land or to the shrine of some blessed
martyr, the thunders of the church, and
the more quiet, but not less alarming, reproaches or* conscience were often averted.
And as this was an act of penance, sometimes voluntarily assumed, but oftener imposed by the command of a religious superior, the person performing it was called a
" Pilgrim Penitent"
While the Caliphs of the East, a race of
monarchs equally tolerant and sagacious,
retained the sovereignty of Palestine, the
penitents were undisturbed in the performance of their pious pilgrimages. In fact,
their visits to Jerusalem were rather encouraged by these sovereigns as a commerce
which, in the language of the author already quoted, " brought into their dominions gold and silver, and carried nothing
out of them but relics and consecrated trinkets."

But in the eleventh century, the Turks,

whose bigoted devotion to their own creed
was only equalled by their hatred of every
other form of faith, but more especially of
Christianity, having obtained possession of
Syria, the pilgrim no longer found safety

He
or protection in his pious journey.
visit the sepulchre of his
Lord must be prepared to encounter the
hostile attacks of ferocious Saracens, and
the " Pilgrim Penitent" laying aside his
peaceful garb, his staff and russet cloak,
was compelled to assume the sword and
coat of mail and become a " Pilgrim Warwho would then

rior"

; ;:

PILGRIM

PILLAR

Having at length, through all the perils

of a distant journey, accomplished the
great object of his pilgrimage, and partlybegged his way amid poor or inhospitable
regions, where a crust of bread and a draught
of water were often the only alms that he
received, and partly fought it amid the
gleaming scimitars of warlike Turks, the
Pilgrim Penitent and Pilgrim Warrior
was enabled to kneel at the sepulchre of
Christ, and offer up his devotions on that
sacred spot consecrated in his pious mind

the Middle Ages. Spenser's description,

in the Fairie Queen, (B. I., c. vi., st. 35,) of a
pilgrim's weeds, does not much differ from

582

this:

"

A silly man in simple weeds foreworn,

And soiled with dust of the long dried way
His sandals were with toilsome travel torne,
And face all tann'd with scorching sunny
ray;

As he had travell'd many a summer's day,

Through boiling sands of Araby and Inde
And in his hand a Jacob's staff to stay
His weary limbs upon and eke behind
His scrip did hang, in which his needments
he did bind."
;

by so many religious associations.

But the experience which he had so
dearly bought was productive of a noble
an d a generous result. The Order of Knights
Pilgrim Templar. The part of the
Templars was established by some of those pilgrim represented in the ritual of the
devoted heroes, who were determined to Masonic Knights Templars' degree is a
protect the pilgrims who followed them symbolic reference to the career of the pilfrom the dangers and difficulties through grim of the Middle Ages in. his journey to
which they themselves had passed, at times the sepulchre in the Holy Land. See Pilwith such remote

prospects of success.
of the pilgrims having performed
their vow of visiting the holy shrine, returned home, to live upon the capital of
piety which their penitential pilgrimage
had gained for them but others, imitating
the example of the defenders of the sepulchre, doffed their pilgrim's garb and united
themselves with the knights who were
contending with their infidel foes, and thus
the Pilgrim Penitent, having by force of
necessity become a Pilgrim Warrior, ended
his warlike pilgrimage by assuming the
vows of a Knight Templar.
In this brief synopsis, the modern and
Masonic Knight Templar will find a
rational explanation of the ceremonies of
that degree.
term in the
Pilgrim Penitent.
ritual of Masonic Templarism.
It refers to
the pilgrimage, made as a penance for sin,
to the sepulchre of the Lord for the church
promised the remission of sins and various
spiritual advantages as the reward of the
pious and faithful pilgrim. See Pilgrim.
Pilgrim's Shell. See Scallop Shell.
Pilgrim's Weeds. The costume of
a pilgrim was thus called. It may be described as follows
In the first place, he
wore a sclavina, or long gown, made of the
darkest colors and the coarsest materials,
bound by a leathern girdle, as an emblem
of his humility and an evidence of his
poverty a bourdon, or staff, in the form of
a long walking stick, with two knobs at the
the rosary
top, supported his weary steps
and cross, suspended from his neck, denoted
the religious character he had assumed a
scrip, or bag, held his scanty supply of provisions a pair of sandals on his feet, and
a coarse round hat turned before, in the
front of which was fastened a scallop shell,
completed the rude toilet of the pilgrim of

Many

grim.

Pilgrim Warrior. A

term in the

It refers
ritual of Masonic Templarism.
to the pilgrimage of the knights to secure
possession of the holy places. This was

considered a pious duty. " Whoever goes

to Jerusalem/' says one of the canons of
the Council of Clermont, " for the liberation of the Church of God, in a spirit of
devotion only, and not for the sake of glory
or of gain, that journey shall be esteemed
a substitute for eveiy kind of penance."
The difference between the pilgrim penitent and the pilgrim warrior was this
that the former bore only his staff, but the
latter wielded his sword.
Pilier. The title given to each of the
conventual bailiffs or heads of the eight
languages of the Order of Malta, and by
which they were designated in all official
It signifies a pillar or support of
records.
an edifice, and was metaphorically applied
to these dignitaries as if they were the
supports of the Order.
Pillar. In the earliest times it was customary to perpetuate remarkable events, or
exhibit gratitude for providential favors,
by the erection of pillars, which by the
idolatrous races were dedicated to their
spurious gods. Thus Sanconiatho tells us
that Hypsourianos and Ousous, who lived
before the flood, dedicated two pillars to
Among the
the elements fire and air.
Egyptians the pillars were, in general, in
the form of obelisks from fifty to one hundred feet high, and exceedingly slender in
proportion. Upon their four sides hieroglyphics were often engraved. According
to Herodotus, they were first raised in
honor of the sun, and their pointed form
was intended to represent his rays. Many
of these monuments still remain.
In the antediluvian ages, the posterity of

PILLAR

PILLARS

Seth erected pillars " for/' says the Jewish

historian, "that their inventions might not
be lost before they were sufficiently known,
upon Adam's prediction, that the world
was to be destroyed at one time by the force
of fire, and at another time by the violence
of water, they made two pillars, the one of
brick, the other of stone
they inscribed

of the creative and generative energy of

Deity, and it is in these Phallic pillars
that we are to find the true origin of pillar
worship, which was only one form of
Phallic worship, the most predominant of
all the cults to which the ancients were

on them both, that in case

the pillar of brick should be destroyed by
the flood, the pillar of stone might remain,
and exhibit those discoveries to mankind,
and also inform them that there was another
pillar of brick erected by them."
Jacob

pillar of cloud that

their discoveries

erected a pillar at Bethel, to commemorate

his remarkable vision of the ladder, and
afterwards another one at Galeed as a memorial of his alliance with Laban. Joshua
erected one at Gilgal to perpetuate the remembrance of his miraculous crossing of

the Jordan. Samuel set up a pillar between Mizpeh and Shen, on account of a
defeat of the Philistines, and Absalom
erected another in honor of himself.
The doctrine of gravitation was unknown
to the people of the primitive ages, and
they were unable to refer the support of
,

the earth in its place to this principle.

Hence they looked to some other cause,
and none appeared to their simple and unphilosophic minds more plausible than that
it was sustained by pillars.
The Old Testament abounds with reference to this idea.
Hannah, in her song of thanksgiving, exclaims " The pillars of the earth, are the
Lord's, and he hath set the world upon
them." (1 Sam. ii. 8.) The Psalmist signifies the same doctrine in the following
text: "The earth and all the inhabitants
thereof are dissolved; I bear up the
(Ps. lxxv. 3.)
pillars of it."
And Job
" He shaketh the earth out of her
says
places, and the pillars thereof tremble."
All the old religions taught the
(xxvi. 7.)
same doctrine and hence pillars being regarded as the supporters of the earth, they
were adopted as the symbol of strength and
firmness. To this, Dudley {Naology, 123,)
attributes the origin of pillar worship,
which prevailed so extensively among the
" The revidolatrous nations of antiquity.
erence," says he, "shown to columns, as
symbols of the power of the Deity, was
readily converted into worship paid to
them as idols of the real presence." But
here I think he has fallen into a mistake.
The double pillars or columns, acting as
:

an architectural support, were, it is true,

symbols derived from a natural cause of
strength and permanent firmness.
But
there was another more prevailing sym-

The monolith, or circular pillar,

standing alone, was, to the ancient mind, a
representation of the Phallus, the symbol

bology.

583

addicted.

Pillars of Cloud

and Fire.

went before the

The

Israel-

by day, and the pillar of fire that preceded them by night, in their journey
through the wilderness, are supposed to be
alluded to by the pillars of Jachin and
Boaz at the porch of Solomon's Temple.
We find' this symbolism at a very early
period in the last century, having been incorporated into the lecture of the second
" The pillar
degree, where it still remains.
on the right hand," says Calcott, ( Cand.
Disq., 66,) "represented the pillar of the
cloud, and that on the left the pillar of fire,"
If this symbolism be correct, the pillars
of the porch, like those of the wilderness,
would refer to the superintending and proites

tecting

power of Deity.

Pillars of Enoch.

Two

pillars

erected by Enoch, for the preservation of

the antediluvian inventions, and which are
repeatedly referred to in the "Legend of the
Craft," contained in the Old Constitutions,
and in the high degrees of modern times.

See Enoch.

Pillars of the Porch.

The

pillars

most remarkable in Scripture history were

the two erected by Solomon at the porch of
the Temple, and which Josephus (Antiq.,
lib.

this

i.,

cap.

ii.,)

thus describes

Hiram made two hollow

" Moreover,

pillars,

whose

outsides were of brass, and the thickness

of the brass was four fingers' breadth, and
the height of the pillars was eighteen
cubits, (27 feet,) and the circumference
twelve cubits, (18 feet;) but there was cast
with each of their chapiters lily-work, that
stood upon the pillar, and it was elevated
five

cubits, (7^ feet,)

round about which

there was net- work interwoven with small

palms made of brass, and covered the lily-

work. To this also were hung two hundred

pomegranates, in two rows. The one of
these pillars he set at the entrance of the
porch on the right hand, {or south,) and
called it Jachin, and the other at the left
hand, {or north,) and called it Boaz."
It has been supposed that Solomon, in
erecting these pillars, had reference to the
pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire which
went before the Israelites in the wilderness,
and that the right hand or south pillar represented the pillar of cloud, and the left
hand or north pillar represented that of
Solomon did not simply erect them
fire.
as ornaments to the Temple, but as memorials of God's repeated promises of sup-

PILLARS

PILLARS

584

port to his people of Israel. For the pillar

yD"" (Jachin), derived from the words |"]*
(Jah), " Jehovah," and jOH (achin), " to establish," signifies that "God will establish
his house of Israel " while the pillar J]/^
(Boaz), compounded of J (&)> "in" and
ty {oaz), "strength," signifies that "in
strength shall it be established." And thus
were the Jews, in passing through the
porch to the Temple, daily reminded of
the abundant promises of God, and inspired with confidence in his protection
and gratitude for his many acts of kindness to his chosen people.
There
The construction of these pillars.
is no part of the architecture of the ancient
;

Temple which

is so difficult to be understood in its details as the scriptural account of these memorable pillars. Freemasons, in general, intimately as their
symbolical signification is connected with
some of the most beautiful portions of their
ritual, appear to have but a confused notion of their construction and of the true
disposition of the various parts of which
they are composed. Mr. Ferguson says
(Smith, Diet. Bib.,) that there are no features connected with the Temple which
have given rise to so much controversy, or
been so difficult to explain, as the form of
these two pillars.
Their situation, according to Lightfoot,
was within the porch, at its very entrance,
and on each side of the gate. They were
therefore seen, one on the right and the
other on the left, as soon as the visitor
stepped within the porch. And this, it
will be remembered, in confirmation, is the
very spot in which Ezekiel (xi. 49,) places
the pillars that he saw in his vision of the
Temple. " The length of the porch was
twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits ;
and he brought me by the steps whereby
they went up to it, and there were pillars
by the posts, one on this side, and another
on that side."
The assertion made by
some writers, that they were not columns
intended to support the roof, but simply
obelisks for ornament, is not sustained by
sufficient authority and as Ferguson very
justly says, not only would the high roof
look painfully weak, but it would have
been impossible to construct it, with the
imperfect science of those days, without
some such support.
These pillars, we are told, were of brass,
as well as the chapiters that surmounted
them, and were cast hollow. The thickness
of the brass of each pillar was " four fingers,
or a hand's breadth," which is equal to
three inches. According to the accounts
;

in 1

Kings

viii. 15,

and in Jeremiah

lii.

21,

the circumference of each pillar was twelve

cubits.
Now, according to the Jewish

computation, the cubit used in the meas-

urement of the Temple buildings was six

hands' breadth, or eighteen inches. According to the tables of Bishop Cumberland,
the cubit was rather more, he making it
about twenty-two inches but I adhere to
the measure laid down by the Jewish writers as probably more correct, and certainly more simple for calculation.
The circumference of each pillar, reduced by this
scale to English measure, would be eighteen
feet, and its diameter about six.
The reader of the scriptural accounts of
these pillars will be not a little puzzled
with the apparent discrepancies that are
found in the estimates of their height as
given in the Books of Kings and Chronicles.
In the former book, it is said that
their height was eighteen cubits, and in
the latter it was thirty-five, which latter
height Whiston observes would be contrary
But the
to all the rules of architecture.
discrepancy is easily reconciled by supposing which, indeed, must have been the
case that in the Book of Kings the pillars
are spoken of separately, and that in
Chronicles their aggregate height is calculated and the reason why, in this latter
book, their united height is placed at thirtyfive cubits instead of thirty-six, which
would be the double of eighteen, is because
they are there measured as they appeared
with the chapiters upon them. Now half
a cubit of each pillar was concealed in
what Lightfoot calls "the whole of the
chapiter," that is, half a cubit's depth of
the lower edge of the chapiter covered the
top of the pillar, making each pillar, apparently, only seventeen and a half cubits'
high, or the two thirty-five cubits as laid
down in the Book of Chronicles.
This is a much better method of reconciling the discrepancy than that adopted
by Calcott, who supposes that the pedestals
of the pillars were seventeen cubits high
a violation of every rule of architectural
proportion with which we would be reluctant to charge the memory of so " cunning
a workman " as Hiram the Builder. The
;

account in Jeremiah agrees with that in the

Book of Kings. The height, therefore, of
each of these pillars was, in English measure, twenty-seven feet.
The chapiter or
pomel was five cubits, or seven and a half
feet more
but as half a cubit, or nine
inches, was common to both pillar and
chapiter, the whole height from the ground
to the top of the chapiter was twenty-two
cubits and a half, or thirty-three feet and
nine inches.
Mr. Ferguson has come to a different
;

conclusion. He says in the article Temple,

in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, that " according to 1 Kings vii. 15, the pillars were

PILLARS
eighteen cubits high and twelve in circumference, with capitals five cubits in height.
Above this was (ver. 19) another member,
called also chapiter of lily-work, four cubits
in height, but which, from the second mention of it in ver. 22, seems more probably
to have been an entablature, which is necessary to complete the order. As these
members make out twenty-seven cubits,
leaving three cubits, or 4 feet, for the slope
of the roof, the whole design seems reasonHe calculates, of course,
able and proper."
on the authority of the Book of Kings,
that the height of the roof of the porch
was thirty cubits, and assumes that these
pillars were columns by which it was supported, and connected with it by an entablature.

Each of these

pillars

was surmounted by

a chapiter, which was five cubits, or seven

and a half feet in height. The shape and
construction of this chapiter require some
The Hebrew word which
consideration.
is used in this place is rniTO? (koteret.)
Its root is to be found in the word IfO?
(keter,) which signified " a crown," and is
so used in Esther vi. 8, to designate the
royal diadem of the king of Persia. The
Chaldaic version expressly calls the chapiter "a crown ;" but Rabbi Solomon, in his
commentary, uses the word S'DIS, \pomel,)
signifying "a globe or spherical body,"
and Rabbi Gershom describes it as "like
two crowns joined together." Lightfoot
says, " it was a huge, great oval, five cubits
high, and did not only sit upon the head
of the pillars, but also flowered or spread
them, being larger about, a great deal, than

the pillars themselves." The Jewish commentators say that the two lower cubits of
its surface were entirely plain, but that
the three upper were richly ornamented.
To this ornamental part we now come.
In the First Book of Kings, ch. vii., verses
17, 20, 22, the ornaments of the chapiters
are thus described
" And nets of checker- work and wreaths
of chain- work, for the chapiters which
were upon the tops of the pillars ; seven
for the one chapiter, and seven for the
other chapiter.
"And he made the pillars, and two rows
round about upon the one net-work, to
cover the chapiters that were upon the top,
with pomegranates ; and so did he for the
other chapiter.
" And the^ chapiters that were upon the
top of the pillars were of lily-work in the
porch, four cubits.
" And the chapiters upon the two pillars
had pomegranates also above, over against
the belly, which was by the pet-work; and
the pomegranates were two hundred in
rows, round about upon the other chapiter.
3

PILLARS
"

And upon

lily- work

so

585

the top of the pillars was

was the work of the

pillars

finished."

Let us endeavor to render this description,

and

which appears somewhat confused

and more com-

unintelligible, plainer

prehensible.
The " nets of checker-work"

ornament mentioned.
translated

are

in

is

the

first

The words thus

the original

QODC

wnich Lightfoot prefers

rendering thickets of branch work " and
he thinks that the true meaning of the
passage is, that " the chapiters were curiously wrought with branch work, seven
goodly branches standing up from the
belly of the oval, and their boughs and
leaves curiously and lovelily intermingled
and interwoven one with another." He
derives his reason for this version from
the fact that the same word, PODt^ * s

HDSE' iMP^S,

translated, "thicket" in the

passage in
Genesis (xxii. 13,) where the ram is described as being " caught in a thicket by
his horns ;" and in various other passages
the word is to be similarly translated.
But, on the other hand, we find it used in
the Book of Job, where it evidently signi" For he is cast
fies a net made of meshes
into a net by his own feet and he walketh
upon a snare." (Job xvii. 8.) In 2 Kings
i.
2, the same word is used, where our
translators have rendered it a lattice;
" Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in
his upper chamber."
I am, therefore, not
inclined to adopt the emendation of Lightfoot, but rather coincide with the received
version, as well as the Masonic tradition,
that this ornament was a simple net-work
or fabric consisting of reticulated lines
in other words, a lattice-work.
The "wreaths of chain-work" that are
next spoken of are less difficult to be
understood.
The word here translated
" wreath " is nD , S*J, and is to be found in
:

Deuteronomy Xxii. 12, where it distinctly

means fringes : " Thou shalt make thee
fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture."
Fringes it should also be translated
" The fringes of chain-work," I suphere.
pose, were therefore attached to, and hung

down

from, the net-work spoken of above,

and were probably in this case, as when
used upon the garments of the Jewish high
priest, intended as a "memorial of the
law."

The "lily-work" is the last ornament

that demands our attention. And here the
description of Lightfoot is so clear and evidently correct, that I shall not hesitate to
quote it at length. " At the head of the
pillar, even at the setting on of the chapiter, there was a curious and a large border
or circle of lily-work, which stood out four

586

PILLARS

PILLARS

cubits under the chapiter, and then turned net- work was carved, which extended over
down, every lily or long tongue of brass, its whole upper surface. To the bottom of
with a neat bending, and so seemed as a this net-work was suspended a series of
flowered crown to the head of the pillar, fringes, and on these again were carved two
and as a curious garland whereon the rows of pomegranates, one hundred being
in each row.
chapiter had its seat."
This description, it seems to me, is the
There is a very common error among
Masons, which has been fostered by the only one that can be reconciled with the
plates in our Monitors, that there were various passages in the Books of Kings,
on the pillars chapiters, and that these Chronicles, and Josephus, which relate to
chapiters were again surmounted by globes. these pillars, and the only one that can
The truth, however, is that the chapiters give the Masonic student a correct concept
themselves were " the pomels or globes," tion of the architecture of these important
to which our lecture, in the Fellow Craft's symbols.
degree, alludes. This is evident from what
And now as to the Masonic symbolism
has already been said in the first part of of these two pillars. As symbols they
the preceding description. The lily here have been very universally diffused and are
spoken of is not at all related, as might be to be found in all rites. Nor are they of a
supposed, to the common lily
that one very recent date, for they are depicted on
spoken of in the New Testament. It was the earliest tracing-boards, and are alluded
a species of the lotus, the Nymphaea lotos, to in the catechisms before the middle of
or lotus of the Nile. This was among the the last century. Nor is this surprising;
Egyptians a sacred plant, found every- for as the symbolism of Freemasonry is
where on their monuments, and used in founded on the Temple of Solomon, it was
their architectural decorations.
It is evi- to be expected that these important parts
dent, from their description in Kings, that of the Temple would be naturally included
the pillars of the porch of King Solomon's in the system. But at first the pillars apTemple were copied from the pillars of the pear to have been introduced into the lecEgyptian temples. The maps of the earth tures rather as parts of a historical detail
an idea which
and the charts of the celestial constella- than as significant symbols
tions which are sometimes said to have seems gradually to have grown up.
The
been engraved upon these globes, must be catechism of 1731 describes their name,
referred to the pillars, where, according to their size, and their material, but says
Oliver, a Masonic tradition places them
nothing of their symbolic import. Yet
an ancient custom, instances of which we this had been alluded to in the scriptural
find in profane history.
This is, however, account of them, which says that the names
by no means of any importance, as the bestowed upon them were significant.
symbolic allusion is perfectly well preWhat was the original or scriptural symserved in the shapes of the chapiters, with- bolism of the pillars has been very well exout the necessity of any such geographical plained by Dudley, in his Naology. He
or astronomical engraving upon them. says, (p. 121,) that " the pillars represented
For being globular, or nearly so, they may the sustaining power of the great God.
be justly said to have represented the celes- The flower of the lotus or water-lily rises
tial and terrestrial spheres.
from a root growing at the bottom of the
The true description, then, of these water, and maintains its position on the
memorable pillars, is simply this. Imme- surface by its columnar stalk, which bediately within the porch of the Temple, comes more or less straight as occasion reand on each side of the door, were placed quires it is therefore aptly symbolical of

two hollow brazen pillars. The height of the power of the Almighty constantly emeach was twenty-seven feet, the diameter ployed to secure the safety of all the world.
about six feet, and the thickness of the The chapiter is the body or mass of the
brass three inches. Above the pillar, and earth
the pomegranates, fruits remarkcovering its upper part to the depth of able for the number of their seeds, are
nine inches, was an oval body or chapiter symbols of fertility; the wreaths, drawn
seven feet and a half in height. Springing variously over the surface of the chapiter
out from the pillar, at the junction of the or globe, indicate the courses of the heavchapiter with it, was a row of lotus petals, enly bodies in the heavens around the
which, first spreading around the chapiter, earth, and the variety of the seasons. The
afterwards gently curved downwards to- pillars were properly placed in the porch
wards the pillar, something like the Acan- or portico of the Temple, for they suggested
thus leaves on the capital of a Corinthian just ideas of the power of the Almighty, of
column. About two-fifths of the distance the entire dependence of man upon him,
from the bottom of the chapiter, or just the Creator and doing this, they exhorted
below its most bulging part, a tissue of all to fear, to love, and obey him."
;

PINCEAU

PLOT

It was, however, Hutchinson who first

introduced the symbolic idea of the pillars
" The
into the Masonic system. He says
pillars erected at the porch of the Temple
were not only ornamental, but also carried
with them an emblematical import in their

other officers, places. This distinction is

not observed in the higher degrees. See

587

Stations.

Planche Tracee.

The name by

which the minutes are designated

in French
Literally, planche is a board, and
tracee, delineated.
The planche tracee is

Lodges.

names Boaz being, in its literal translation,

in thee is strength ; and Jachin, it shall be es- therefore the board on which the plans of
tablished, which, by a very natural transpo- the Lodge have been delineated.
O Lord, thou art
sition, may be put thus
Plans and Designs. The plans
mighty, and thy power is established from and designs on the Trestle-Board of the
Master, by which the building is erected,
everlasting to everlasting."
:

Preston subsequently introduced the

symbolism, considerably enlarged, into his
system of lectures. He adopted the reference to the pillars of fire and cloud, which
is still

retained.

The Masonic symbolism

of the two pilbe considered, without going into

minute details, as being twofold. First,
in reference to the names of the pillars,
they are symbols of the strength and staand then in referbility of the Institution
ence to the ancient pillars of fire and cloud,
they are symbolic of our dependence on the
superintending guidance of the Grand
Architect of the Universe, by which alone
lars

may

that strength and stability are secured.

Pinceau. French, a pencil ; but in
the technical language of French Masonry
Hence, in the minutes of
it is a pen.

French Lodges,

tenir

le

pinceau means

to act

as Secretary.

Pine Cone. The tops or points of the

rods of deacons are often surmounted by a
pine cone or pineapple. This is in imitation of the Thyrsus, or sacred staff of Bacchus, which was a lance or rod enveloped
in leaves of ivy, and having on the top
a cone or apple of the pine. To it surprising virtues were attributed, and it was
introduced into the Dionysiac mysteries as
a sacred symbol.
Pirlet. The name of a tailor of Paris,
who, in 1762, organized a body called
" Council of Knights of the East," in opposition to the Council of Emperors of the
East and West.

Pius Til. On the 13th August,

Pope Pius VII.

1814,
issued an edict forbidding

the meetings of all secret societies, and especially the Freemasons and Carbonari,
under heavy corporal penalties, to which
were to be added, according to the malignity of the cases, partial or entire confiscation of goods, or a pecuniary fine. The
edict also renewed the bull of Clement XII.,
by which the punishment of death was
incurred by those who obstinately persisted in attending the meetings of Free-

masons.

Place.

In

strict

Masonic ritualism

the positions occupied by the Master and

Wardens are called stations ; those of the

are, in Speculative

Masonry, symbolically

referred to the moral plans and designs of

life by which we are to construct our spiritual temple, and in the direction of which
we are to be instructed by some recognized
Divine authority. See Trestle- Board.

Platonic Academy.

See Academy,

Platonic.

Plenty. The ear of corn, or sheaf of

wheat, is, in the Masonic system, the symbol of plenty. In ancient iconography,
the goddess Plenty was represented by a
young nymph crowned with flowers, and
holding in the right hand the horn of
Amalthea, the goat that suckled Jupiter,
and in her left a bundle of sheaves of
wheat, from which the ripe grain is falling
profusely to the ground. There have been
some differences in the representation of
the goddess on various medals; but, as
Montfaucon shows, the ears of corn are an
indispensable part of the symbolism. See
Shibboleth.

Plot Manuscript. Dr. Plot, in his

History of Staffordshire, speaks of " a scrole
or parchment volume," in the possession
of the Masons of the seventeenth century,
in which it is stated that the " charges and
manners were after perused and approved
by King Henry VI." Dr. Oliver {Golden
thinks that Plot here reas the Leland MS.,
which, if true, would be a proof of the auBui Oliver
thenticity of that document.
gives no evidence of the correctness of his
assumption. It is more probable that the
manuscript which Dr. Plot loosely quotes
has not yet been recovered.

Remains,
ferred to

iii.

35,)

what

is

known

Plot, M.B., Robert. Born in 1651,

and died in 1696. He was a Professor of
Chemistry at Oxford, and Keeper of the
Ashmolean Museum, o which position he
had been appointed by Elias Ashmole, to
whom, however, he showed but little gratDr. Plot published, in 1686, The
itude.
Natural History of Staffordshire, a work
in which he went out of his way to attack
the Masonic institution. An able defence
against this attack will be found in the
third volume of Oliver's Golden Remains
of the Early Masonic Writers. The work
of Dr. Plot is both interesting and valu-

PLOT

PLUMB

able to the Masonic student, as it exhibits

the condition of Freemasonry in the latter
part of the seventeenth century, certainly,
if not at a somewhat earlier period, and
is an anticipated answer to the assertions
of the iconoclasts who would give Freemasonry its birth in 1717. For this purpose,
I insert so much of his account as refers to
the customs of the society in 1686.
" They have a custom in Staffordshire,
of admitting men into the Society of Freemasons, that in the Morelands of this
country seems to be of greater request
than anywhere else, though I find that the
custom spread more or less all over the
nation for here I found persons of the
most eminent quality that did not disdain
to be of this fellowship nor, indeed, need
they, were it of that antiquity and honor,
that is pretended in a large parchment
volume they have amongst them, containing the history and rules of the Craft of
Masonry, which is there deduced not only
from sacred writ, but profane story particularly that it was brought into England

can show any of these signs to a fellow of

whom they otherwise call an
Accepted Mason, he is obliged presently to
come to him, from what company or place
soever he be in nay, though from the top
of a steeple, what hazard or inconvenience
soever he run, to know his pleasure and
assist him
viz., if he want work, he is
bound to find him some or if he cannot
do that, to give him money, or otherwise
support him till work can be had, which is
one of their articles and it is another, that
they advise the masters they work for according to the best of their skill, acquainting them with the goodness or badness of
their materials, and if they be any way
out in the contrivance of the buildings,
modestly rectify them in it, that Masonry
be not dishonored; and many such like
that are commonly known but some others
they have (to which they are sworn after
their fashion) that none know but them-

588

Amphibalus, and first communicated to St. Alban, who set down the
charges of Masonry, and was made paymaster and governor of the king's works,
and gave them charges and manners as St.
Amphibalus had taught him, which were
after confirmed by King Athelstan, whose
youngest son Edwyn loved well Masonry,
took upon him the charges, and learned the
manners, and obtained for them of his
Whereupon he
father a free charter.
caused them to assemble at York, and to
bring all the old books of their Craft, and
out of them ordained such charges and
manners as they then thought fit which
charges in the said scrole, or parchment
volume, are in part declared and thus was
the Craft of Masonry grounded and confirmed in England. It is also there declared that these charges and manners
were after perused and approved by King
Henry VI. and his council, both as to
Masters and fellows of this Right Wor-

by

St.

shipful Craft.
" Into which Society, when they are admitted, they call a meeting (or Lodge, as
they term it in some places), which must
consist at least of five or six of the ancients
of the Order, whom Xhe candidates present
with gloves, and so likewise to their wives,
and entertain with a collation, according
to the custom of the place this ended, they
proceed to the admission of them, which
chiefly consists in the communication of
certain secret signs, whereby they are
known to one another all over the nation,
:

the Society,

selves." (Nat. Hist, of Staffordshire, ch.

viii.,

p. 316.)

Plumb. An instrument used

by Oper-

Masons

to erect perpendicular lines,

and adopted in Speculative Masonry as
one of the working-tools of a Fellow Craft.
It is a symbol of rectitude of conduct, and
inculcates that integrity of life and undeviating course of moral uprightness which
can alone distinguish the good and just
man. As the operative workman erects his
ative

temporal building with strict observance

of that plumb-line, which will not permit
him to deviate a hair's breadth to the right
or to the

left,

so the speculative

Mason,

guided by the unerring principles of right

and truth inculcated in the symbolic teachings of the same implement, is steadfast in
the pursuit of truth, neither bending beneath the frowns of adversity nor yielding
to the seductions of prosperity.
To the man thus just and upright, the
Scriptures attribute, as necessary parts of
his character, kindness and liberality, tem-

perance and moderation, truth and wisdom;

and the Pagan poet Horace (lib. iii., od. 3,)
pays, in one of his most admired odes, an
eloquent tribute to the stern immutability
of the man who is upright and tenacious
of purpose.
It is worthy of notice that, in most languages, the word which is used in a direct
sense to indicate straightness of course or
perpendicularity of position, is also employed in a figurative sense to express uprightness of conduct. Such are the Latin
" rectum," which signifies at the same time
a right line and honesty or integrity ; the
Greek bp$6g which means straight, standing
,

by which means they have maintenance upright, and also equitable, just, true ; and
whither ever they travel, for if any man the Hebrew tsedeh, which in a physical
appear, though altogether unknown, that sense denotes rightness, straightness, and in

POINTS

PLUMB-LINE

589

as a convenient method of assisting the

memory. But the imagination, which might
have been occupied in the higher walks of
ity,
crooked.
poetry, seems in Freemasonry to have been
As to the name, it may be remarked that expended in the construction of its symplumb is the word used in Speculative bolism, which may, however, be considered
Masonry. Webster says that as a noun often as the results of true poetic genius.
the word is seldom used except in compo- There are, besides the songs, of which the
sition.
Its constant use, therefore, in Ma- number in all languages is very great, an
sonry, is a peculiarity.
abundance of prologues and epilogues,
Plniub-Iiiue. A line to which a of odes and anthems, some of which are not

a moral, what

word

is

right

and

just.

Our own

RIGHT

partakes of this peculiarright being not wrong, as well as not

piece of lead is attached so as to make

it hang perpendicularly.
The plumb-line,
sometimes called simply the line, is one of
the working-tools of the Past Master.
According to Preston, it was
one of the instruments of Masonry
*yhich was presented to the Master
of a Lodge at his installation, and
he defines its symbolism as follows
"The line teaches the criterion of
rectitude, to avoid dissimulation in
conversation and action, and to direct our steps in the path which
leads to immortality."
This idea
of the immortal life was always
connected in symbology with that of the
perpendicular
something that rose directly upwards.
Thus in the primitive
church, the worshipping Christians stood up
at prayer on Sunday, as a reference to the
Lord's resurrection on that day. This symbolism is not, however, preserved in the
verse of the prophet Amos, (vii. 7,) which
is read in this country as the Scripture
passage of the second degree, where it
seems rather to refer to the strict justice
which God will apply to the people of Israel.
It there coincides with the first
Masonic definition that "the line
teaches the criterion of moral recti-

fe

tude.

Plumb-Role. A narrow board,

having a plumb-line suspended from
its top and a perpendicular mark
through its middle. It is one of the
working-tools of a Fellow Craft, but
in Masonic language is called the
Plumb, which see.
Plurality of Votes. See Majority.
Poetry of Masonry. Although
Freemasonry has been distinguished more
than any other single institution for the
number of verses to which it has given
birth, it has not produced any poetry of a
very high order, except a few lyrical effusions.
Ehyme, although not always of
transcendent merit, has been a favorite
form of conveying its instructions. The
oldest of the Constitutions, that known
as the Halliwell MS., is written in verse
and almost all the early catechisms of the
degrees were in the form of rhyme, which,
although often doggerel in character, served

discreditable to their authors or to the InBut I know of very few poems

on Masonic subjects of any length. The
French have indulged more than any other
nation in this sort of composition, and the

stitution.

earliest Masonic poem with which I am acquainted is one published at Frankfort,

1756, with the title of Noblesse des FrancMagons ou Institution de leur Societe avant le

deluge universel
le Deluge.

et

de son renouvellement apres

It was printed anonymously, but the authorship of it is attributed to M. Jartigue.

It is a transfer to verse of all the Masonic
myths contained in the " Legend of the
Craft" and the traditional history of Anderson. Neither the material nor the execution
exempt the author from Horace's denunciation of poetic mediocrity.
In the Old Constitutions
known as the Halliwell MS., there are fifteen regulations which are called points.
The fifteen articles which precede are said
to have been in existence before the meeting at York, and then only collected after
search, while the fifteen points were then
enacted. Thus we are told

Points.

Fifteen artyculus they there sougton, (sought,

found

And

out,)
fifteen

poyntys

they

there

wrogton,

(wrought, enacted.)

The points referred to in the ritualistic

phrase, " arts, parts, and points of the hidden mysteries of Masonry," are the rules
and regulations of the Institution. Phillips'
New World of Words (edit. 1706) defines
point as " an head or chief matter." It is
in this sense that we speak of the " points
of Masonry."

Points of Entrance, Perfect.

In the earliest lectures of the last century
these were called " Principal Points." The
designation of them as " Perfect Points of
Entrance " was of a later date. They are
described both in the English and the
American systems. Their specific names,
and their allusion to the four cardinal virtues, are the same in both
but the verbal
explanations differ, although not substantially. They are so called because they refer
to four important points of the initiation.
The Guttural refers to the entrance upon
;

POINT

POINTS

590

the penal responsibilities the Pectoral, to

the entrance into the Lodge the Manual,
to the entrance on the covenant and the
Pedal, to the entrance on the instructions
in the north-east.

footsteps to halt, or wrath turn them aside;

but with eager alacrity and swiftness of
foot, we should press forward in the exercise of charity and kindness to a distressed

Points or Fellowship, Five.

" Secondly. In our devotions to Almighty

God, we should remember a brother's welfare as our own
for the prayers of a fervent and sincere heart will find no less
favor in the sight of Heaven, because the
petition for self is mingled with aspirations
of benevolence for a friend.

There are duties owing by every Mason to

his brethren, and which, from their symbolic allusion to certain points of the body,
and from the lesson of brotherly love which
they teach, are called the " Five Points of

They

Fellowship."

are symbolically illus-

trated in the third degree, and have been

summed up by Oliver as "assisting a
brother in his distress, supporting him in
his virtuous undertakings, praying for his
welfare, keeping inviolate his secrets, and
vindicating his reputation as well in his absence as in his presence." (Landm., i. 185.)
Cole, in the Freemasons' Library, (p.
190,) gives the same ideas in diffuser language, as follows
the necessities of a
"First. When
brother call for my aid and support, I will
be ever ready to lend him such assistance,
to save him from sinking, as may not be
detrimental to myself or connections, if I
find him worthy thereof.
" Second. Indolence shall not cause my
footsteps to halt, nor wrath turn them aside
but forgetting every selfish consideration, I
will be ever swift of foot to serve, help, and
execute benevolence to a fellow-creature in
distress, and more particularly to a brother

Mason.

When I offer up my ejaculations

Almighty God, a brother's welfare I will
remember as my own for as the voices of
babes and sucklings ascend to the Throne of
Grace, so most assuredly will the breathings of a fervent heart arise to the man" Third.

to

sions of bliss, as our prayers are certainly

required of each other.
"Fourth.
brother's secrets, delivered
to me as such, I will keep as I would my
own; as betraying that trust might be
doing him the greatest injury he could sustain in this mortal life ; nay, it would be
like the villany of an assassin, who lurks
in darkness to stab his adversary, when
unarmed and least prepared to meet an

enemy.

" Fifth.
brother's character I will support in his absence as I would in his presence
I will not wrongfully revile him
myself, nor* will I suffer it to be done by
others, if in my power to prevent it."
The enumeration of these Points by some
other more recent authorities differs from
Cole's, apparently, only in the order in
which the Points are placed. The latter
order is given as follows in Mackey's Lexicon of Freemasonry :
" First. Indolence should not cause our
:

fellow-creature.

"Thirdly. When a brother intrusts to

our keeping the secret thoughts of his
bosom, prudence and fidelity should place
a sacred seal upon our lips, lest, in an unguarded moment, we betray the solemn
trust confided to our honor.
"Fourthly. When adversity has visited
our brother, and his calamities call for our
aid, we should cheerfully and liberally
stretch forth the hand of kindness, to save
him from sinking, and to relieve his necessities.

" Fifthly. While with candor and kindness we should admonish a brother of his
faults, we should never revile his character
behind his back, but rather, when attacked
others, support and defend it."
have said that the difference here is apparently only in the order of enumeration,
but really there is an important difference
in the symbols on which the instructions

by

are founded. In the old system, the symbols are the hand, the foot, the knee, the
In the new system,
breast, and the back.
the first symbol or the hand is omitted, and
the mouth and the ear substituted. I have
no doubt that this omission of the first and
insertion of the last are innovations, which
sprung up in 1842 at the Baltimore Convention, and the enumeration given by
Cole is the old and genuine one, which was
originally taught in England by Preston,
and in this country by Webb.
Points, Twelve Grand. See Twelve

Grand

Points.

Point within a Circle.

This is a
symbol of great interest and importance,
and brings us into close connection with
the early symbolism of the solar orb and
the universe, which was predominant in
the ancient sun-worship. The lectures of
Freemasonry give what modern Monitors
have made an exoteric explanation of the
symbol, in telling us that the point represents an individual brother, the circle the
boundary line of his duty to God and man,
and the two perpendicular parallel lines
St. John
the patron saints of the Order
the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist.
But that this was not always its symbolic
signification, we may collect from the true
history of its connection with the phallus

POLAND

POINT
of the Ancient Mysteries. The phallus, as
I have already shown under the word, was
among the Egyptians the symbol of fecundity, expressed by the male generative
It was communicated from the
principle.
rites of Osiris to the religious festivals
of Greece. Among the Asiatics the same
emblem, under the name of lingam, was, in
connection with the female principle, worshipped as the symbols of the Great Father
and Mother, or producing causes of the human race, after their destruction by the
deluge.
On this subject, Captain Wilford
{Asiat. Res.,) remarks "that it was believed
in India, that, at the general deluge, everything was involved in the common destruction except the male and female principles,
or organs of generation, which were destined to produce a new race, and to repeople the earth when the waters had subsided
from its surface. The female principle,
symbolized by the moon, assumed the form
of a lunette or crescent; while the male
principle, symbolized by the sun, assuming
the form of the lingam, placed himself erect
in the centre of the lunette, like the mast
of a ship. The two principles, in this
united form, floated on the surface of the
waters during the period of their prevalence
on the earth; and thus became the progenitors of a new race of men." Here, then,
was the first outline of the point within a
circle, representing the principle of fecundity, and doubtless the symbol, connected
with a different history, that, namely, of
Osiris, was transmitted by the Indian philosophers to Egypt, and to the other nations, who derived, as I have elsewhere
shown, all their rites from the East.
It was in deference to this symbolism

Higgins remarks (Anacal., ii. 306,)

circular temples were in the very earliest
ages universally erected in cyclar numbers
to do honor to the Deity.
In India, stone circles, or rather their
ruins, are everywhere found; among the
oldest of which, according to Moore, (Panth.
242,) is that of Dipaldiana, and whose execution will compete with that of the Greeks.
In the oldest monuments of the Druids we
find, as at Stonehenge and Abury, the circle of stones.
In fact, all the temples of
the Druids were circular, with a single
stone erected in the centre.
Druidical
monument in Pembrokeshire, called
Cromlech, is described as consisting of
several rude stones pitched on end in a circular order, and in the midst of the circle a
vast stone placed on several pillars. Near
Keswick, in Cumberland, says Oliver, (Signs
and Symbols, 174,) is another specimen of
this Druidical symbol.
On a hill stands a
circle of forty stones placed perpendicularly,
of about five feet and a half in height, and
that, as

591

one stone in the centre of greater

alti-

tude.

Among

the Scandinavians, the hall of

seats, disposed in
the form of a circle, for the principal gods,
with an elevated seat in the centre for Odin.
Scandinavian monuments of this form are
still to be found in Scania, Zealand, and
Jutland.
But it is useless to multiply examples of
the prevalence of this symbol among the
ancients. And now let us apply this knowledge to the Masonic symbol.
have seen that the phallus and the
point within a circle come from the same
source, and must have been identical in
But the phallus was the
signification.
symbol of fecundity, or the male generative
principle, which by the ancients was supposed to be the sun, (they looking to the
creature and not to the Creator, ) because by
the sun's heat and light the earth is made
prolific, and its productions are brought to
maturity. The point within the circle was
then originally the symbol of the sun and
as the lingam of India stood in the centre
of the lunette, so it stands within the centre
of the Universe, typified by the circle, impregnating and vivifying it with its heat.
And thus the astronomers have been led to
as their symbol
adopt the same figure
of the sun.
Now it is admitted that the Lodge represents the world or the universe, and the
Master and Wardens within it represent
the sun in three positions. Thus we arrive
at the true interpretation of the Masonic
symbolism of the point within the circle.
It is the same thing, but under a different
form, as the Master and Wardens of a
Lodge. The Master and Wardens are symbols of the sun, the Lodge of the universe,
or world, just as the point is the symbol of
the same sun, and the surrounding circle
of the universe.
Poland. Freemasonry was introduced
into Poland, in 1736, by the Grand Lodge of
England; but in 1739 the Lodges were closed
in consequence of the edict of King Augustus II., who enforced the bull of Pope

Odin contained twelve

We

Clement XII. From 1742 to 1749 Masonry

was revived and several Lodges erected,
which flourished for a time, but afterwards
In 1766 Count Mosrynski
fell into decay.
sought to put it on a better footing, and in
1769 a Grand Lodge was formed, of which
he was chosen Grand Master. The Grand
Lodge of England recognized this body as
a Provincial Grand Lodge. On the first
division of Poland, the labors of the Grand
Lodge were suspended but they were revived in 1773 by Count Bruhl, who introduced the ritual of the Strict Observance,
established several new Lodges, and ac;

592

POMEGRANATE

POLITICS

knowledged the supremacy of the United Gesenius says, everywhere implies separaLodges of Germany. There was a Lodge tion, and the adverbial Sj, kol, wholly,
in Warsaw, working in the French Rite, altogether.
under the authority of the Grand Orient
Polycronicon. Ranulf Higden, a
of France, and another under the English monk of Chester, who died in 1500, wrote
system. These differences of Eites created under this title a Latin chronicle, which
many dissensions, but in August, 1781, the was afterwards translated into English by
Lodge Catherine of the North Star received John Trevisa, and published by William
a Warrant as a Provincial Grand Lodge, Caxton, in 1482, as The Polycronicon;
and on December 27 of the same year the " conteynyng the Berynges and Dedes of
body was organized, and Ignatius Pococki many Tymes." Another edition was pubelected Grand Master of all Polish and lished (though, perhaps, it was the same
Lithuanian Lodges, the English system book with a new title) by Wynkyn de
being .provisionally adopted. In 1794, with Woorde, in 1485, as Policronicon, in which
the dissolution of the kingdom, the Lodges booke ben comprysed bryefly many wonderful
hystoryes, Englished by one Trevisa, vicarye
in the Russian and Austrian portions of
the partition were suppressed, and those of Barkley, etc., a copy of which sold in
only in Prussian Poland continued their 1857 for 37. There was another transexistence. Upon the creation, by Napoleon, lation in the same century by an unknown
of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, a Grand author. The two translations made the
Orient of Poland was immediately estab- book familiar to the English public, with
This body continued in operation whom it was at one time a favorite work.
lished.
until 1823, with more than forty Lodges It was much used by the compiler or comunder its obedience. In November of that pilers of the Old Constitutions now known
year the Order was interdicted in conse- as the Cooke Manuscript. Indeed, I have
quence of the ukase of the Emperor Alex- very little doubt that the writers of the old
ander prohibiting all secret societies, and Masonic records borrowed from the Polyall the Lodges were thereon closed.
Dur- cronicon many of their early legends of
ing the revolt of 1830 a few Lodges arose, Masonry. In 1865 there was published at
but they lasted only until the insurrection London, under the authority of the Master
of the Rolls, an edition of the original Latin
was suppressed.
Politics. There is no charge more chronicle, with both the English translafrequently made against Freemasonry than tions, that of Trevisa and that of the unthat of its tendency to revolution, and known writer.
conspiracy, and to political organizations
Pomegranate. The pomegranate,
which may affect the peace of society or as a symbol, was known to and highly esinterfere with the rights of governments.
teemed by the nations of antiquity. In
It was the substance of all Barruel's and
the description of the pillars which stood
Robison's accusations, that the Jacobinism at the porch of the Temple, (see 1 Kings
of France and Germany was nurtured in vii. 15,) it is said that the artificer "made
the Lodges of those countries it was the two chapiters of molten brass to set upon
theme of all the denunciations of the anti- the tops of the pillars." Now the Hebrew
Masons of our own land, that the Order word caphtorim, which has been translated
was seeking a political ascendancy and an " chapiters," and for which, in Amos ix. 1,
undue influence over the government it the word " lintel " has been incorrectly subhas been the unjust accusation of every stituted, (though the marginal reading corenemy of the Institution in all times past, rects the error,) signifies an artificial large
that its object and aim is the possession of pomegranate, or globe. The original meanpower and control in the affairs of state. ing is not preserved in the Septuagint,
It is in vain that history records no in- which has ocfxuptoTvp, nor in the Vulgate,
stance of this unlawful connection between which uses "sphserula," both meaning
Freemasonry and politics; it is in vain simply " a round ball." But Josephus, in
that the libeller is directed to the Ancient his Antiquities, has kept to the literal HeConstitutions of the Order, which expressly brew. It was customary to place such
forbid such connection; the libel is still ornaments upon the tops or heads of
written, and Masonry is again and again columns, and in other situations.
The
condemned as a political club.
skirt of Aaron's robe was ordered to be
Polkal. A significant word in the decorated with golden bells and pomehigh degrees, which means altogether sepa- granates, and they were among the ornarated, in allusion to the disunited condition ments fixed upon the golden candelabra.
of the Masonic Order at the time, divided There seems, therefore, to have been atas it was into various and conflicting rites. tached to this fruit some mystic significaThe word is corrupted from palcol, and is tion, to which it is indebted for the venera;

derived from the radical

Sfl,

pal, which, as

tion thus paid to

it.

If so, this mystic

POMEGRANATE
meaning should be traced

PONTIFF

into spurious

Freemasonry; for there, after all, if there

be any antiquity in our Order, we shall find
the parallel of all its rites and ceremonies.
The Syrians at Damascus worshipped an
This was
idol which they called Rimmon.
the same idol that was worshipped by Naa-

man before his conversion, as recorded in

the Second Book of Kings. The learned
have not been able to agree as to the nature
of this idol, whether he was a representation of Helios or the Sun, the god of the
Phenicians, or of Venus, or according to
Grotius, in his commentary on the passage
in Kings, of Saturn, or what, according to
Statius, seems more probable, of Jupiter
But it is sufficient for the present
Cassius.
purpose to know that Rimmon is the Hebrew and Syriac for pomegranate.
Cumberland, the learned Bishop of
Peterborough, (Orig. Gent. Ant., p. 60,)
quotes Achilles Statius, a converted Pagan,
and Bishop of Alexandria^ as saying that
on Mount Cassius (which Bochart places
between Canaan and Egypt) there was a
temple wherein Jupiter's image held a
pomegranate in his hand, which Statius
goes on to say, " had a mystical meaning."
Sanconiathon thinks this temple was built
by the descendants of the Cabiri. Cumberland attempts to explain this mystery
" Agreeably hereunto I guess that
thus
the pomegranate in the hand of Jupiter or
Juno, (because, when it is opened, it discloses a great number of seeds,) signified
only, that those deities were, being longlived, the parents of a' great many children,
and families that soon grew into nations,
which they planted in large possessions,
when the world was newly begun to be
peopled, by giving them laws and other useful inventions to make their lives com:

fortable."
<

Pausanias (Corinthiaca, p. 59,) says he

saw, not far from the ruins of Mycenae, an
image of Juno holding in one hand a sceptre, and in the other a pomegranate; but
he likewise declines assigning any explanation of the emblem, merely declaring that
it was aTToppijrorepog loyoq
"a forbidden
mystery." That is, one which was forbidden by the Cabiri to be divulged.
In the festival of the Thesmophoria, observed in honor of the goddess Ceres, it was
held unlawful for the celebrants (who were
women) to eat the pomegranate. Clemens
Alexandrinus assigns as a reason, that it
was supposed that this fruit sprang from
the blood of Bacchus.
Bryant {Anc. Myth., iii. 237,) says that
the Ark was looked upon as the mother
of mankind, and on this account it was
figured under the semblance of a pomegranate for as this fruit abounds with seeds,

3Z

38

593

was thought no improper emblem of the

Ark, which contained the rudiments of the
future world. In fact, few plants had among
the ancients a more mythical history than
the pomegranate.
From the Hebrews, who used it mystically at the Temple, it passed over to the
Masons, who adopted it as the symbol of
plenty, for which it is well adapted by its
swelling and seed-abounding fruit.
Pommel. A round knob a term applied to the globes or balls on the top of
the pillars which stood at the porch of Solomon's Temple. It was introduced into the
Masonic lectures from scriptural language.
The two pommels of the chapiters is in 2
Chron. iv. 13. It is, however, an architectural term, thus defined by Parker, [Gloss.
"Pommel denotes generArch., p. 365:)
ally any ornament of a globular form."
Pontifes Freres. See Bridge Buildit

ers.

Pontifex.

See Bridge Builders.

In addition to what has been
said of this word in the article on the
"Bridge Builders of the Middle Ages," the
following from Athanase Coquerel, fils, in
a recent essay entitled The Rise and Decline
of the Romish Church, will be interest-

Pontiff.

ing.

"What is the meaning of 'pontiff'?

'Pontiff' means bridge maker, bridge
builder.
are they called in that way ?
Here is the explanation of the fact In the
very first years of the existence of Rome,
at a time of which we have a very fabulous
history and but few existing monuments,
the little town of Rome, not built on seven
hills, as is generally supposed
there are
eleven of them now then there were within the town less than seven, even
that
little town had a great deal to fear from an
enemy which should take one of the hills
that were out of town
the Janiculum
because the Janiculum is higher than the
others, and from that hill an enemy could
very easily throw stones, fire, or any means
of destruction into the town. The Janiculum was separated from the town by the
Tiber. Then the first necessity for the defence of that little town of Rome was to
have a bridge. They had built a wooden
bridge over the Tiber, and a great point of
interest to the town was, that this bridge
should be kept always in good order, so
that at any moment troops could pass over.
Then, with the special genius of the Romans, of which we have other instances,
they ordained, curiously enough, that the
men, who were a corporation, to take care
of that bridge should be sacred that their
function, necessary to the defence of the
town, should be considered holy that they
should be priests and the highest of them

Why

PRAYER

PONTIFF

594

was called 'the high bridge maker.' So

it happened that there was in Rome a corporation of bridge makers
pontifices
of whom the head was the most sacred of

Romans

because in those days his life

of his companions was deemed
necessary to the safety of the town."
And thus it is that the title of Pontifex
Maximus, assumed by the Pope of Rome,
literally means the Grand Bridge Builder.
all

and the

life

arrested should suffer death, and his property be confiscated to the State and this law
was extended to foreigners residing in Portugal, as well as to natives.
This bigoted
sovereign, on his restoration to the throne,
promulgated in 1823 another decree against
the Order, and Freemasonry fell into abey;

ance

but in 1834 the Lodges were again

But dissensions in reference

revived.

to

Masonic

Ghristi.)

authority unfortunately arose

among the Fraternity of Portugal, which
involved the history of the Order in that
country in much confusion. There were
in a few years no less than four bodies

cients, the

claiming Masonic jurisdiction, namely, a

Grande Oriente Lusitano, which had existed
for more than a quarter of a century, and

Grand. See Grand Pontiff.

Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus

Pontiff,

Christ,

(Pauperes

commilitones

Jesu

This was the title first assumed

by the Knights Templars.
Poppy. In the mysteries of the aneration.

poppy was the symbol of regenThe somniferous qualities of the which,

plant expressed the idea of quiescence;

but the seeds of a new existence which it
contained were thought to show that nature,
though her powers were suspended, yet
possessed the capability of being called
Thus the poppy
into a renewed existence.
planted near a grave symbolized the idea
of a resurrection. Hence, it conveyed the
same symbolism as the evergreen or sprig
of acacia does in the Masonic mysteries.
Porcn of the Temple. See Temple
of Solomon.

Porta, Gambattista.
of Naples,
in 1615.
greti, or

who was born

He

physicist

and died
was the founder of the Sein 1545

"

Academy of Secrets," (which

devoted himself to the study of
the occult sciences, was the inventor of the
camera obscura, and the author of several
Physiognomy, and
treatises on Magic,
Secret Writing. De Feller (Biog. Univ.)
classes him with Cornelius Agrippa, Cardan, Paracelsus, and other disciples of occult philosophy.
see.)

He

Portugal. Freemasonry was introduced into Portugal in 1736, when a Lodge

was instituted at Lisbon, under a Deputation to George Gordon from Lord Weymouth, Grand Master of England. An attempt was made by John Coustos to establish a second in 1743, but he and his companions were arrested by the Inquisition,
and the Lodge suppressed. Freemasonry
must, however, have continued to exist,
although secretly practised, for in 1776
other arrests of Freemasons were made by
the Holy Office. But through the whole
of the eighteenth century the history of
in Portugal was the history of an
uninterrupted persecution by the Church
and the State. In 1805 a Grand Lodge
was established at Lisbon, and Egaz-Moritz
John "VI.,
was elected Grand Master.
during his exile, issued from Santa Cruz,
in 1818, a decree against the Masons, which
declared that every Mason who should be

Masonry

in

1846,

received

Letters-Patent

from the Supreme Council of Brazil for

the establishment of a Supreme Council a
Provincial Grand Lodge, under the juris;

of the Grand Lodge of Ireland,

a Chapter of Eose Croix working
under the authority of the Grand Council
of Eites of Ireland; and two Grand Orients
working under contending Grand Masters.
Many attempts were made to reconcile these
opposing bodies, but without success and,
to add to the difficulty, we find, about 1862,
another body calling itself the Orient of
the Masonic Confederation. But all embarrassments were at length removed by
the alliance, in 1871, of the United Grand
Orient with the Supreme Council, and the
Masonic interests of Portugal are now prosperously conducted by the " Grande Oriente
Lusitano Unido, Supremo Conselho de
Ma9onaria Portugueza."
Postulant. The title given to the
candidate in the degree of Knight Kadosh.
From the Latin postulans, asking for, wishing to have.
Pot of Incense. As a symbol of
the sacrifice which should be offered up to
Deity, it has been adopted in the third
See Incense.
degree.
Pot of Manna. See Manna, Pot of.
diction

with

Poursuivant. More
suivant,

which

correctly,

Pur-

see.

Practicus. The
German Eose Croix.

third degree of the

Prayer. Freemasonry

is a religious
regulations inculcate the use of prayer "as a proper tribute
of gratitude," to borrow the language of
Preston, " to the beneficent Author of Life."
Hence it is of indispensable obligation
that a Lodge, a Chapter, or any other Masonic body, should be both opened and
closed with prayer; and in the Lodges
working in the English and American systems the obligation is strictly observed.
The prayers used at opening and closing
in this country differ in language from the

institution,

and hence

its

PRAYER

PREFERMENT

early formulas found in the second edition

of Preston, and for the alterations we are
probably indebted to Webb. The prayers
used in the middle and perhaps the begining of the eighteenth century are to be
found in Preston (ed. 1775,) and are as
follows
" May the
favor
of
At Opening.
Heaven be upon this our happy meeting

than their English brethren, must have ob-

may

it be begun, carried on, and ended in

order, harmony, and brotherly love Amen."
" May the blessing of
At Closing.

Heaven be with us and

regular Masons,
to beautify and cement us with every
moral and social virtue Amen."
There is also a prayer at the initiation of
a candidate, which has, at the present day,
been very slightly varied from the original
form. This prayer, but in a very different
form, is much older than Preston, who
changed and altered the much longer formula which had been used previous to hi3
day. It was asserted by Dermott that the
prayer at initiation was a ceremony only
in use among the "Ancients" or Athol
Masons, and that it was omitted -by the
all

served the same custom.

As to the posture to be observed in Masonic prayer, it may be remarked that in
the lower degrees the usual posture is
standing.
At an initiation the candidate
kneels, but the brethren stand.
In the
higher degrees the usual posture is to kneel
on the right knee. These are at least the
usages which are generally practised in
this country.
degree contained
Preadamite.
in the Archives of the Mother Lodge of
the Philosophic Scottish Rite.

Precaution.

" Moderns." But this cannot be so, as is

proved by the insertion of it in the earliest
editions of Preston.
We have moreover a
form of prayer "to be used at the admission of a brother," contained in the
Pocket Companion, published in 1754, by
John Scott, an adherent of the " Moderns," which proves that they as well as
the "Ancients" observed the usage of
prayer at an initiation. There is a still
more ancient formula of " Prayer to be
used of Christian Masons at the empointing of a brother," said to have been used
in the reign of Edward IV., from 1461 to

595

In opening and closing

the Lodge, in the admission of visitors, in

conversation with or in the presence of
strangers, the Mason is charged to use the
necessary precaution, lest that should be
communicated to the profane which should
only be known to the initiated.

Precedency of Lodges. The precedency of Lodges is always derived from

the date of their Warrants of Constitution,
the oldest Lodge ranking as No. 1. As
this precedency confers certain privileges,
the number of the Lodge is always determined by the Grand Lodge, while the name
is left to the selection of the members.

Preceptor.

Grand Preceptor, or

Grand

Prior, or Preceptor, or Prior, was

the title indifferently given by the Knights
Templars to the officer who presided over
a province or kingdom, as the Grand Prior

Grand Preceptor of England, who was

or

called in the East the Prior or Preceptor

of England. The principal of these Grand

Preceptors were those of Jerusalem, Tripolis,

and Antioch.

Preceptory.

The houses

or resi-

and which is as follows

dences of the Knights Templars were called
"The might of God, the Father of Preceptories, and the superior of such a
Heaven, with the wisdom of his glorious residence was called the Preceptor. Some
Son through the goodness of the Holy of the residences were also called Command1483,

Ghost, that hath been three persons in one

Godhead, be with us at our beginning, give
us grace to govern in our living here, that
we may only come to his bliss that shall
never have an end."
The custom of commencing and ending
labor with prayer was adopted at an early
period by the Operative Freemasons of England. Findel says (Hist. p. 78,) that " their
Lodges were opened at sunrise, the Master
taking his station in the East and the
brethren forming a half circle around him.
After prayer, each craftsman had his daily
work pointed out to him, and received his
instructions.
At sunset they again assembled after labor, prayer was offered, and
their wages paid to them."
cannot
doubt that the German Stonemasons, who
were even more religiously demonstrative
,

We

eries.

The

latter

name has been adopted

by the Masonic Templars of this country.

An attempt was made in 1856, at the adoption of a new Constitution by the Grand
Encampment of the United States, which
met at Hartford, to abolish the title " Commanderies," and adopt that of " Preceptories," for the Templar organizations; a
change which would undoubtedly have
been more in accordance with history, but
unfortunately the effort to effect the change
was not successful.

Precious Jewels.

See Jewels, Pre-

cious.

Preferment.

In

all

the Old Consti-

find a reference made to ability

and skill as the only claims for preferment
or promotion. Thus in one of them, the

tutions

we

Landsdowne Manuscript, whose date

is

PRELATE

PREPARING

about 1560, it is said that Nimrod gave a

charge to the Masons that " they should
ordaine the most wise and cunninge man
to be Master of the King or Lord's worke
that was amongs them, and neither for love,
riches, nor favor, to sett another that had
little cunninge to be Master of that worke,
whereby the Lord should bee ill served and
the science ill defamed." And again, in
another part of the same Manuscript, it is
ordered, " that noe Mason take on him noe
Lord's worke nor other man's but if he
know himselfe well able to performe the
worke, so that the Craft have noe slander."

part of the chapel of Roslyn Castle, in

Scotland, is the celebrated column which
goes by this name, and with which a Masonic legend is connected. The pillar is a
plain fluted shaft, having a floral garland
twined around it, all carved out of the
solid stone.
The legend is, that when the
plans of the chapel were sent from Rome,
the master builder did not clearly understand about this pillar, or, as another account states, had lost this particular portion
of the plans, and, in consequence, had to go
to Rome for further instructions or to procure
a fresh copy. During his absence, a clever
apprentice, the only son of a widow, either
from memory or from his own invention,
carved and completed the beautiful pillar.
When the master returned and found the
work completed, furious with jealous rage,
he killed the apprentice, by striking him a
frightful blow on the forehead with a
heavy setting-maul. In testimony of the
truth of the legend, the visitor is shown
three heads in the west part of the chapel
the master's, the apprentice's, (with the
gash on his forehead,) and the widow's.
There can be but little doubt that this legend referred to that of the third degree,
which is thus shown to have existed, at
least substantially, at that early period.

596

Charges' to the same effect, almost, indeed,

same words, are to be found in all
the Old Constitutions. So Anderson, when
he compiled The Charges of a Freemason,
which he says were "extracted from the
ancient records," and which he published
in 1723, in the first edition of the Book of
Constitutions, lays down the rule of preferment in the same spirit, and in these
in the

words
"All preferment among Masons is
grounded upon real worth and personal
merit only that so the Lords may be well
served, the brethren not put to shame, nor
the royal Craft despised therefore no Master or Warden is chosen by seniority, but
:

Preparation of the Candidate.

for his merit."

And

then he goes on to show how the

skilful and qualified Apprentice may in due
time become a Fellow Craft, and, "when
otherwise qualified, arrive to the honor of
being the Warden, and then the Master of
the Lodge, the Grand Warden, and at length
the Grand Master of all the Lodges, according
This ought to be now, as it
to his merit."
has always been, the true law of Masonry
and when ambitious men are seen grasping
for offices, and seeking for positions whose
duties they are not qualified to discharge,
one is inclined to regret that the Old
Charges are not more strictly obeyed.

Prelate. The fourth officer in a Commandery of Knights Templars and in a

Council of Red Cross Knights. His duties
are to conduct the religious ceremonies of
the organization. His jewel is a triple triangle, the symbol of Deity, and within each
of the triangles is suspended a cross, in allusion to the Christian character of the chivalric institution of which he is an officer.
The corresponding officer in a Grand Commandery and in the Grand Encampment
is called a Grand Prelate.

Prelate of Lebanon.

[Pr'elat

du

A mystical degree in the collection

Liban.)
of Pyron.

Prentice. An archaism, or rather a

vulgarism for Apprentice, constantly found
It is now never used.
in the Old Records.
Prentice Pillar. In the southeast

Great care was taken of the personal condition of every Israelite who entered the

Temple

for divine worship.

treatise entitled Baracoth,
instructions as to the ritual

The Talmudic
which contains
worship among

the Jews, lays down the following rules for

the preparation of all who visit the Temple
" JSo man shall go into the Temple
with his staff, nor with shoes on his feet,
nor with his outer garment, nor with
money tied up in his purse." There are
certain ceremonial usages in Freemasonry
which furnish what may be called at least
very remarkable coincidences with this old
Jewish custom.
The preparation of the candidate for initiation in Masonry is entirely symbolic.
It varies in the different degrees, and therefore the symbolism varies with it.
Not
being arbitrary and unmeaning, but, on the
contrary, conventional and full of signification, it cannot be altered, abridged, or
added to in any of its details, without af:

fecting

its

esoteric design.

To

it,

in

its

every candidate must, without exception, submit.

Preparing Brother. The brother
who prepares the candidate for initiation.
In English, he has no distinctive title. In
French Lodges he is called " Frere terrible,"
and in German he is called " Vorbereitender Bruder," or " Furchterlicher Bruder."
His duties require him to have a compefullest extent,

PRESIDENT

PRESTON

tent knowledge of the ritual of reception,

and therefore an experienced member of
the Lodge is generally selected to discharge
the functions of this office.
President. The presiding officer in
a convention of High Priests, according to
The
the American system, is so called.
second officer is styled Vice President. On
September 6th, 1871, the Grand Orient
of France, in violation of the landmarks,
abolished the office of Grand Master, and
conferred his powers on a Council of the
Order. The President of the Council is
now the official representative of the Grand
Orient and the Craft, and exercises several
of the prerogatives hitherto administered
by the Grand Master.

with various modifications, since the revival of 1717, and were intended to confer
a higher literary character on the Masonic

597

Preston had devoted much time

to the compilation of these lectures, a syllabus of which will be found in
his Illustrations. They were adopted eagerly
by the English Fraternity, and continued to
be the authoritative system of the Grand
Lodge of England until the union in 1813,
when, for the sake of securing uniformity,
the new and inferior system of Dr. Hemming was adopted. But the Prestonian
lectures and ritual are still used by many
Lodges in England.
In America they
were greatly altered by Webb, and are no
longer practised here.
Presiding Officer. Whoever acts,
Preston, William. This distinalthough temporarily and pro hac vice, as guished Mason was born at Edinburgh on
the presiding officer of a Masonic body, as- the 7th August, 1742. The usual statesumes for the time all the powers and func- ment, that he was born on the 28th July,
tions of the officer whom he represents. refers to Old Style, and requires therefore to
Thus, in the absence of the Worshipful be amended. He was the son of William
Master, the Senior Warden presides over Preston, Esq., a writer of the Signet, and
the Lodge, and for the time is invested with Helena Cumming. The elder Preston wT as
all the prerogatives that pertain to the a man of much intellectual culture and
Master of a Lodge, and can, w hile he is abilities, and in easy circumstances, and
in the chair, perform any act that it would took therefore pains to bestow upon his son
be competent for the Master to perform an adequate education. He was sent to
school at a very early age, and having
were he present.
Prestonian [Lecture. In 1819, completed his preliminary education in
Bro. Preston, the author of the Illustrations English under the tuition of Mr. Stirling,
of Masonry, bequeathed 300 in the con- a celebrated teacher in Edinburgh, he ensols, the interest of which was to provide tered the High School before he was six
for the annual delivery of a lecture accord- years old, and made considerable progress
ing to the system which he had elaborated. in the Latin tongue. From the High
The appointment of the Lecturer was left School he went to college, where he acto the Grand Master for the time being. quired a knowledge of the rudiments of
Stephen Jones, a Past Master of the Lodge Greek.
After the death of his father he retired
of Antiquity, and an intimate friend of
Preston, received the first appointment; from college, and became the amanuensis
and it was subsequently given to Bro. Lau- of that celebrated linguist, Thomas Euddirence Thompson, the only surviving pupil man, to whose friendship his father had
Mr. Euddiman having
of Preston. He held it until his death, consigned him.
after which no appointment of a Lecturer greatly impaired and finally lost his sight
was made until 1857. Since that time the by his intense application to his classical
lecture has been regularly delivered in studies, Preston remained with him as his
London before some one of the Lodges. secretary until his decease. His patron
In the delivery of this lecture, which is in- had, however, previously bound young
tended to keep in remembrance the sys- Preston to his brother, Walter Euddiman,
tem which was taught by Preston, great a printer, but on the increasing failure of
care has been taken to observe not only his sight, Mr. Thomas Euddiman withdrew
the Prestonian arrangement, but the very Preston from the printing-office, and occuwords, so far as they can be ascertained. pied him in reading to him and translating
The original form of question and answer such of his works as were not completed,
is not, however, maintained; but the lecture
and in correcting the proofs of those that
being uninterrupted by interrogations, the were in the press. Subsequently Preston
prescribed answers are turned into a con- compiled a catalogue of Buddiman's books,
tinuous course.
under the title of Bibliotheca Ruddimana,
Prestonian Lectures. About the which is said to have exhibited much liteyear 1772, Preston submitted his course of rary ability.
lectures on the first three degrees to the
After the death of Mr. Euddiman, PresCraft of England. These lectures were a ton returned to the printing-office, where he
revision of those which had been practised, remained for about a year; but his inclinaT

ritual.

and labor

PRESTON

598
tions leading

him

to literary pursuits, he,

with the consent of his master, repaired to

London in 1760, having been furnished with
several letters of introduction by his friends
in Scotland. Among them was one to William Strahan, the king's printer, in whose
service, and that of his son and successor,
he- remained for the best years of his life
as a corrector of the press, devoting himself, at the same time, to other literary
vocations, editing for many years the London- Chronicle, and furnishing materials for
various periodical publications.
Mr. Preston's critical skill as a corrector
of the press led the literary men of that
day to submit to his suggestions as to style

and many of the most diswho were contemporary

with him honored him with their friend-

and language

tinguished authors

As an evidence of this, there were

found in his library, at his death, presentation copies of their works, with their autographs, from Gibbon, Hume, Robertson,
ship.

Blair, and many others.

It is, however, as a distinguished teacher
of the Masonic ritual, and as the founder
of a system of lectures which still retain
their influence, that William Preston more
especially claims our attention.
Stephen Jones, the disciple and intimate

friend of Preston, published in 1795, in the

Freemasons' Magazine, a sketch of Preston's life and labors and as there can be
no doubt, from the relations of the author
and the subject, of the authenticity of the
facts related, I shall not hesitate to use the
language of this contemporary sketch, interpolating such explanatory remarks as I
may deem necessary.
Soon after Preston's arrival in London,
a number of brethren from Edinburgh resolved to institute a Freemason's Lodge in
that city, under the sanction of a Constitution from Scotland; but not having succeeded in their application, they were recommended by the Grand Lodge of Scotland to the ancient Lodge in London, who
;

immediately granted them a Dispensation

to form a Lodge and to make Masons.

They accordingly met at the White Hart in

the Strand, and Mr. Preston was the second
person initiated under that Dispensation.
This was in 1762. Lawrie records the application as having been in that year to the
Grand Lodge of Scotland. It thus appears
that Preston was made a Mason under the
Dermott system. It will be seen, however,
that he subsequently went over to the legitimate Grand Lodge.
The Lodge was soon after regularly constituted by the officers of the ancient Grand
Lodge in person. Having increased considerably in numbers, it was found necessary to remove to the Horn Tavern in Fleet

PRESTON
where it continued some time, till,
that house being unable to furnish proper
Street,

accommodations,

it

Hall, Blackfriars.

was removed

Here

to Scots'

continued to
flourish about two years, when the decayed
it

state of that building obliged it to remove

to the Half Moon Tavern, Cheapside,

where

continued to meet for a consider-

it

able time.

At length Mr. Preston and some others

of the members having joined the Lodge,
under the regular English Constitution, at
the Talbot Inn, in the Strand, they prevailed on the rest of the Lodge at the Half
Moon Tavern to petition for a Constitution.
Lord Blaney, at that time Grand Master,
readily acquiesced with the desire of the
brethren, and the Lodge was soon after
constituted a second time, in ample form,
by the name of " The Caledonian Lodge."
The ceremonies observed, and the numerous assembly of respectable brethren who
attended the Grand officers on that occasion, were long remembered to the honor
of the Lodge.
This circumstance, added to the absence
of a very skilful Mason, to whom Mr. Preston was attached, and who had departed for
Scotland on account of his health, induced
him to turn his attention to the Masonic
lectures and to arrive at the depths of the
science, short of which he did not mean to
stop, he spared neither pains nor expense.
Preston's own remarks on this subject, in
the introduction to his Illustrations of Masonry, are well worth the perusal of every
brother who intends to take office. "When,"
says he, "I first had the honor to be elected
Master of a Lodge, I thought it proper to
inform myself fully of the general rules of
the society, that I might be able to fulfil
my own duty, and officially enforce obediThe methods which I
ence in others.
adopted, with this view, excited in some of
superficial knowledge an absolute dislike
of what they considered as innovations
and in others, who were better informed, a
jealousy of pre-eminence, which the principles of Masonry ought to have checked.
Notwithstanding these discouragements,
however, I persevered in my intention of
supporting the dignity of the society, and
of discharging with fidelity the trust reposed in me." Masonry has not changed.
still too often find the same mistaking
of research for innovation, and the same
ungenerous jealousy of pre-eminence of
which Preston complains.
Wherever instruction could be acquired,
thither Preston directed his course and
with the advantage of a retentive memory,
and an extensive Masonic connection, added
to a diligent literary research, he so far succeeded in his purpose as to become a com;

We

;;

PRESTON

PRESTON
petent master of the subject. To increase
the knowledge he had acquired, he solicited
the company and conversation of the most
experienced Masons from foreign countries
and, in the course of a literary correspondence with the Fraternity at home and abroad,
made such progress in the mysteries of the
art as to become very useful in the connecHe was frequently
tions he had formed.
heard to say, that in the ardor of his
inquiries he had explored the abodes of
poverty and wretchedness, and, where it
might have been least expected, acquired
very valuable scraps of information. The
poor brother in return, we are assured, had
no cause to think his time or talents ill bestowed. He was also accustomed to convene his friends once or twice a week, in
order to illustrate the lectures on which
occasion objections were started, and explanations given, for the purpose of mutual
improvement. At last, with the assistance
of some zealous friends, he was enabled to
arrange and digest the whole of the first

599

assembly which tended to add dignity to

the Craft, and in all the Lodges in which
his name was enrolled, which were very
numerous, he enforced a due obedience to
the laws and regulations of that body. By
these means the subscriptions to the charity
became much more considerable and daily
acquisitions to the society were made of
some of the most eminent and distinguished
characters.
At last he was invited by his
friends to visit the Lodge of Antiquity,
No. 1, then held at the Mitre Tavern, in
Fleet Street, when the brethren of that
Lodge were pleased to admit him a member, and, what was very unusual, elected
him at the same meeting.
He had been Master of the Philanthropic
Lodge at the Queen's Head, Gray's-inngate, Holborn, above six years, and of
several other Lodges before that time. But
he was now taught to consider the importance of the first Master under the English
Constitution and he seemed to regret that
some eminent character in the walks of
To establish its validity, he re- life had not been selected to support so
lecture.
solved to submit to the society at large the distinguished a station. Indeed, this too
progress he had made and for that pur- small consideration of his own importance
pose he instituted, at a very considerable ex- pervaded his conduct on all occasions;
pense, a grand gala at the Crown and An- and he was frequently seen voluntarily
chor Tavern, in the Strand, on Thursday, to assume the subordinate offices of an asMay 21, 1772, which was honored with the sembly, over which he had long presided,
'presence of the then Grand ofiicers, and on occasions where, from the absence of the
many other eminent and respectable breth- proper persons, he had conceived that his
services would promote the purposes of the
ren. On this occasion he delivered an oration on the Institution, which, having met meeting.
with general approbation, was afterwards
To the Lodge of Antiquity he now began
printed in the first edition of the Illustra- chiefly to confine his attention, and during
tions of Masonry, published by him the
his Mastership, which continued for some
years, the Lodge increased in numbers and
same year.
Having thus far succeeded in his design, improved in its finances.
That he might obtain a complete knowlMr. Preston determined to prosecute the
plan he had formed, and to complete the edge of the state of the society under the
He employed, therefore, a num- English Constitution, he became an active
lectures.
ber of skilful brethren, at his own expense, member of the Grand Lodge, was admitto visit different town and country Lodges, ted a member of the hall committee, and
for the purpose of gaining information
during the secretaryship of Mr. Thomas
and these brethren communicated the re- French, under the auspices of the Duke of
sult of their visits at a weekly meeting.
Beaufort, then Grand Master, had become
When by study and application he had a useful assistant in arranging the general
arranged his system, he issued proposals regulations of the society, and reviving the
for a regular course of lectures on all the foreign and country correspondence. Havdegrees of Masonry, and these were publicly ing been appointed to the office of Deputy
delivered by him at the Mitre Tavern, in Grand Secretary under James Heseltine,
Fleet Street, in 1774.
Esq., he compiled, for the benefit of the
For some years afterwards, Mr. Preston charity, the History of Remarkable Occurindulged his friends by attending several rences, inserted in the first two publications
schools of instruction, and other stated of the Freemason^ Calendar; prepared for
meetings, to propagate the knowledge of the press an Appendix to the Book of Conthe science, which had spread far beyond stitutions, and attended so much to the corhis expectations, and considerably enhanced respondence with the different Lodges as to
the reputation of the society. Having ob- merit the approbation of his patron. This
tained the sanction of the Grand Lodge, enabled him, from the various memoranda
he continued to be a zealous encourager he had made, to form the History of Maand supporter of all the measures of that sonry, which was afterwards printed in his
;

600

PRESTON

PRESTON

The office of Deputy Grand

Secretary he afterwards resigned.
An unfortunate dispute having arisen in
the society in 1779, between the Grand
Lodge and the Lodge of Antiquity, in which
Mr. Preston took the part of the Lodge and
his private friends, his name was ordered
to be erased from the hall committee and
he was afterwards, with a number of gentlemen, members of that Lodge, expelled.
The treatment he and his friends received
at that time was circumstantially narrated
in a well-written pamphlet, printed by
Mr. Preston at his own expense, and circulated among his friends, but never published, and the leading circumstances were
recorded in some of the later editions of
the Illustrations of Masonry.
Ten years
afterwards, however, on a reinvestigation
of the subject in dispute, the Grand Lodge
was pleased to reinstate Mr. Preston, with
all the other members of the Lodge of Antiquity, and that in the most handsome
manner, at the grand feast in 1790, to the
general satisfaction of the Fraternity.
During Mr. Preston's exclusion, he seldom or never attended any of the Lodges,
though he was actually an enrolled member of a great many Lodges at home and
abroad, all of which he politely resigned
at the time of his suspension, and directed his attention to his other literary
Illustrations.

which may fairly be supposed to

have contributed more to the advantage of
pursuits,

his fortune.

So much of the life of Preston we get

from the interesting sketch of Stephen
Jones. To other sources we must look for
a further elucidation of some of the circumstances which he has so concisely related.
The expulsion of such a man as Preston
from the Order was a disgrace to the Grand
Lodge which inflicted it. It was, to use
the language of Oliver, who himself, in
aftertimes, had undergone a similar act
of injustice, " a very ungrateful and inadequate return for his services."

The story was briefly this It had been

determined by the brethren of the Lodge of
Antiquity, held on December 17, 1777, that
at the annual festival on St. John's day, a
procession should be formed to St. Dunstan's Church, a few steps only from the
tavern where the Lodge was held a protest
of a few of the members was entered against
it on the day of the festival.
In consequence of this only ten members attended,
who, having clothed themselves as Masons
in the vestry room, sat in the same pew and
heard a sermon, after which they crossed
the street in their gloves and aprons to return to the Lodge room. At the next meeting of the Lodge, a motion was made to repudiate this act; and while speaking against
:

it,

Mr. Preston asserted the inherent

privi-

Lodge of Antiquity, which, not

working under a Warrant of the Grand

leges of the

Lodge, was, in his opinion, not subject in

the matter of processions to the regulations
of the Grand Lodge. It was for maintaining this opinion, which, whether right or
wrong, was after all only an opinion, Preston was, under circumstances which exhibited neither magnanimity nor dignity on
the part of the Grand Lodge, expelled from
the Order.
One of the unhappy results of

was that the Lodge

of Antiquity severed itself from the Grand
Lodge, and united with the Grand Lodge
at York, and Preston withdrew from all
share in the concerns of Masonry.
But ten years afterwards, in 1787, the
Grand Lodge saw the error it had committed, and Preston was restored with all

this act of oppression

and dignities. And now, while

name of Preston is known and revered
by all who value Masonic learning, the
his honors

the

names of

all his bitter enemies, with the

exception of Noorthouck, have sunk into a
well-deserved oblivion.
Preston had no sooner been restored to

his

Masonic

rights than he

resumed his

la-

bors for the advancement of the Order. In

1787 he organized the Order of Harodim, a
society in which it was intended to thoroughly teach the lectures which he had pre-'
pared. Of this Order some of the most distinguished Masons of the day became members, and it is said to have produced great
benefits by its well-devised plan of Masonic
instruction.

But William Preston is best known to

us by his invaluable work entitled Illustrations of Masonry.
The first edition of this
work was published in 1772. Although it
is spoken of in some resolutions of a Lodge,
published in the second edition, as " a very
ingenious and elegant pamphlet," it was
really a work of some size, consisting, in its
introduction and text, of 288 pages. It contained an account of the " grand gala," or
banquet, given by the author to the Fraternity in May, 1772, when he first proposed
his system of lectures.
This account was
omitted in the second and all subsequent

make room for more useful

matter." The second edition, enlarged to
324 pages, was published in 1775, and this
was followed by others 1776, 1781, 1788, 17 92,
editions "to

1799, 1801, and 1812. There must have been

three other editions, of which I can find no
account in the bibliographies, for Wilkie
calls his 1801 edition the tenth, and the
edition of 1812, the last published by the
author, is called the twelfth. The thirteenth
and fourteenth editions were published after
the
the author's death, with additions
former by Stephen Jones in 1821, and the

PRETENDER

PRICE

latter by Dr. Oliver in' 1829.

Other
lish editions have been subsequently

Eng-

pubThe work was translated into Gerlished.

man, and two editions published, one in
1776 and the other in 1780. In America,
two editions were published in 1804, one at
Alexandria, in Virginia, and the other,
with numerous important additions, by
George Richards, at Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. Both claim, on the title-page,
to be the "first American edition;" and it
that both works were pubis probable
lished by their respective editors about
the same time, and while neither had any
knowledge of the existence of a rival copy.
Preston died, after a long illness, in Dean
Street, Fetter Lane, London, on April 1st,
1818, at the age of seventy-six, and was
buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. In the
latter years of his life he seems to have taken
no active public part in Masonry, for in
the very full account of the proceedings at
the union in 1813 of the two Grand Lodges,
his name does not appear as one of the
actors, and his system was then ruthlessly
surrendered to the newer but not better
one of Dr. Hemming. But he had not lost
his interest in the Institution which he had
served so well and so long, and by which
he had been so illy requited. For he bequeathed at his death 300 in the consols,
the interest of which was to provide for
the annual delivery of a lecture according
to his system.
He also left 500 to the
Royal Freemasons' Charity, for female
children, and a like sum to the General
Charity Fund of the Grand Lodge. He
was never married, and left behind him
only his name as a great Masonic teacher
and the memory of his services to the
Craft.
Jones' edition of his Illustrations
contains an excellently engraved likeness
of him by Ridley, from an original portrait
said to be

by

S.

Drummond, Royal Acade-

mician. There is an earlier engraved likeness of him in the Freemasons' Magazine

for 1795, from a painting known to be by

Drummond, and taken in 1794. They present the differences of features which may
naturally be ascribed to a lapse of twentysix years. The latter print is said, by
those who personally knew him, to be an
excellent likeness.
Pretender. James Stuart, the son
of James II., who abdicated the throne of
Great Britain, and Charles Edward, his
son, are known in history as the Old and the
Young Pretender. Their intrigues with
Masonry, which they are accused of attempting to use as an instrument to aid in
a restoration to the throne, constitute a
very interesting episode in the history of
the Order. See Stuart Masonry.

Previous Question
4A

A parliamen

601

tary motion intended to suppress debate.

It is utterly unknown in the parliamentary
law of Masonry, and it would be always
out of order to move it in a Masonic body.
Prichard, Samuel. " An unprin-

cipled and needy brother," as Oliver calls

him, who published at London, in 1730, a
book with the folllowing title " Masonry
Dissected; being a Universal and Genuine
Description of all its Branches, from the
Original to this Present Time as it is delivered in the constituted, regular Lodges,
both in City and Country, according to the
several Degrees of Admission giving an
impartial account of their regular Proceed:

ings in initiating their New Members in

the whole Three Degrees of Masonry, viz.,
I. Entered Prentice; II. Fellow Craft; III.
Master. To which is added, The Author's
Vindication of Himself, by Samuel Prichard,
Late Member of a constituted Lodge." This
work, which contained a great deal of plausible matter, mingled with some truth as
well as falsehood, passed through a great
many editions, was translated into the
French, German, and Dutch languages, and
became the basis or model on which all the

subsequent so-called expositions, such as

Tubal-Cain, Jachin and Boaz, etc., were
framed. In the same year of the appearance of Pri chard's book, Dr. Anderson published a Defence of Masonry, as a reply
This pamphlet
to the Masonry Dissected.
was the first work of any value that had appeared from the Masonic press, and does
infinitely more credit to Anderson's genius
and learning than the Constitutions, which
he had published seven years before. It
is not, however, a reply to Prichard, but
rather an attempt to interpret the ceremo-

which are described in the Masonry Dissymbolic import, and this it

is that gives to the Defence a value which
ought to have made it a more popular work

nies

sected in their

among

the Fraternity than

it is.

Prichard

died, as I suppose he had lived, in obscurity; but the Abbe Larudan, in his Franc-

Macons ecrases, (p. 135), has manufactured

a wild tale about his death stating that he
was carried by force at night into the
Grand Lodge at London, put to death, his
body burned to ashes, and all the Lodges
in the world informed of the execution.
The Abbe is satisfied of the truth of this
wondrous narrative because he had heard
it told in Holland and in Germany, all of
which only proves that the French calumniator of Masonry abounded either in an
inventive faculty or in a trusting faith.
Price, Henry. He received a Deputation as Provincial Grand Master of New
England, which was issued on April 30,
;

1733,

by Viscount Montague, Grand Master

of England.

On

the 30th of the following

PRIEST

PRIMITIVE

July, Price organized a Provincial Grand

Lodge ; and he may thus be considered as
the founder of Masonry in New England.
He was born in England about the year
1697, and died in Massachusetts in 1780.
very able memoir of Price, by Bro. William Sewell Gardner, will be found in the
Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for the year 1871.
Priest. In the primitive ages of the
world every father was the priest of his
family, and offered prayer and sacrifice for
So, too, the patriarchs exhis household.
Melchizedek
ercised the same function.
is called "the priest of the most high
God;" and everywhere in Scripture we find
the patriarchs performing the duties of

Order which could tolerate such an incongruous exhibition to contempt and ridi-

602

cule.

Priest,

Grand High.

High Priest.
Priest, High.

See High

See Grand
Priest.

Priesthood, Order of High.

High

Priesthood, Order

See

of.

Priestly Order. A Rite which Bro.

John Yarker, of Manchester, says {My at. of
Antiq., p. 126,) was formerly practised in
Ireland, and formed the system of the York
Grand Lodge. It consisted of seven de-

political

Symbolic degrees
Royal Arch 6. Knight
Templar; 7. Knight Templar Priest, or
Holy Wisdom. The last degree was called
a Tabernacle, and was governed by seven

necessity was
found, in the religious wants of the people,
for a separate class, who should become, as
they have been described, the mediators
between men and God, and the interpreters

"Pillars." Bro. Hughan (Hist, of Freem.

in York, p. 32,) doubts the York origin of
the Priestly Order, as well as the claim it
made to have been revived in 1786. It is
now obsolete.

prayer and
society

was

sacrifice.

But when

organized,

of the will of the gods to men. Hence

arose the sacerdotal class the cohen among
the Hebrews, the hiereus among the Greeks,
and the sacerdos among the Romans. Thereafter prayer and sacrifice were intrusted to
these, and the people paid them reverence
for the sake of the deities whom they
served.
Ever since, in all countries, the
distinction has existed between the priest
and the layman, as representatives of two

grees, as follows

4.

Past Master;

1. 2. 3.

5.

Priest, Royal.

The

fifth

degree of

the Initiated Brothers of Asia.

Priest Theosophist.
that

it is

Thory says
the sixth degree of the Kabbalistic

Rite.

Primitive Freemasonry.

The

Primitive Freemasonry of the antediluvians is a term for which we are indebted

to Oliver, although the theory was broached
by earlier writers, and among them by the
Chevalier Ramsay.
distinct classes.
The theory is, that
But Masonry has preserved in its reli- the principles and doctrines of Freemagious ceremonies, as in many of its other sonry existed in the earliest ages of the
usages, the patriarchal spirit.
Hence the world, and were believed and practised by
Master of the Lodge, like the father of a a primitive people, or priesthood, under
primitive family, on all occasions offers the name of Pure or Primitive Freemaup prayer and serves at the altar. A chap- sonry and that this Freemasonry, that is to
lain is sometimes, through courtesy, invited say, the religious doctrine inculcated by it,
to perform the former duty, but the Master was, after the flood, corrupted by the Pagan
philosophers and priests, and, receiving the
is really the priest of the Lodge.
Having then such solemn duties to dis- title of Spurious Freemasonry, was exhibited
charge, and sometimes, as on funereal occa- in the Ancient Mysteries. The Noachidas,
sions, in public, it becomes every Master however, preserved the principles of the
so to conduct his life and conversation as Primitive Freemasonry, and transmitted
not, by contrast, to make his ministration them to succeeding ages, when at length
of a sacred office repulsive to those who see they assumed the name of Speculative MaThe Primitive Freemasonry was
and hear him, and especially to profanes. sonry.
It is not absolutely required that he should probably without ritual or symbolism, and
be a religious man, resembling the clergy- consisted only of a series of abstract proposiman in seriousness of deportment but in tions derived from antediluvian traditions.
his behavior he should be an example of Its dogmas were the unity of God and the
respect for religion.
He who at one time immortality of the soul. Dr. Oliver, who
drinks to intoxication, or indulges in pro- gave this system its name, describes it
fane swearing, or obscene and vulgar lan- (Hist. Landm., i., p. 61,) in the following
guage, is unfit at any other time to conduct language. " It included a code of simple
the religious services of a society. Such a morals.
It assured men that they who
Master could inspire the members of his did well would be approved of God and
Lodge with no respect for the ceremonies if they followed evil courses, sin would be
he was conducting; and if the occasion imputed to them, and they would thus bewas a public one, as at the burial of a come subject to punishment. It detailed
brother, the circumstance would subject the the reasons why the seventh day was con;

PRIMITIVE

PRIMITIVE

secrated and set apart as a Sabbath, or day

of rest ; and showed why the bitter consequences of sin were visited upon our first
parents, as a practical lesson that it ought
But the great object of this
to be avoided.
Primitive Freemasonry was to preserve
and cherish the promise of a Redeemer,
who should provide a remedy for the evil
that their transgression had introduced
into the world, when the appointed time

should come."
In his History of Initiation he makes the
supposition that the ceremonies of this
Primitive Freemasonry would be few and
unostentatious, and consist, perhaps, like
that of admission into Christianity, of a
simple lustration, conferred alike on all, in
the hope that they would practise the
social duties of benevolence and good-will
to man, and unsophisticated devotion to

God.

He does not, however, admit that the

system of Primitive Freemasonry consisted
only of those tenets which are to be found
in the first chapters of Genesis, or that he
intends, in his definition of this science, to

embrace so general and indefinite a scope

of all the principles of truth and light, as
Preston has done in his declaration, that
" from the commencement of the world, we
may trace the foundation of Masonry."

On

the contrary, Oliver supposes that this

Primitive Freemasonry included a particular and definite system, made up of legends and symbols, and confined to those

who were

initiated into its mysteries.

The

knowledge of these mysteries was of course

communicated by God himself to Adam,
and from him traditionally received by his
descendants, throughout the patriarchal line.
This view of Oliver is substantiated by
the remarks of Rosenberg, a learned French
Mason, in an article in the Freemasons'
Quarterly Review, on the Book of Raziel, an
ancient Kabbalistic work, whose subject is
these divine mysteries. " This book," says
Rosenberg, " informs us that Adam was the
first to receive these mysteries. Afterwards,
when driven out of Paradise, he communicated them to his son Seth Seth communicated them to Enoch Enoch to Methuselah
;

Methuselah to Lamech Lamech to Noah

Is oah to Shem
Shem to Abraham Abraham to Isaac Isaac to Jacob Jacob to
Levi Levi to Kelhoth Kelhoth to Amram
Amram to Moses Moses to Joshua Joshua
to the Elders the Elders to the Prophets
the Prophets to the Wise Men and then
from one to another down to Solomon."
Such, then, was the Pure or Primitive
Freemasonry, the first system of mysteries
which, according to modern Masonic writ;

ers of the school of Oliver,

has descended,

of course with various modifications, from

603

age to age, in a direct and uninterrupted

line, to the Freemasons of the present day.
The theory is an attractive one, and may
be qualifiedly adopted, if we may accept
what appears to have been the doctrine of
Anderson, of Hutchinson, of Preston, and
of Oliver, that the purer theosophic tenets
of "the chosen people of God" were similar to those subsequently inculcated in Masonry, and distinguished from the corrupted
teaching of the Pagan religions as developed in the mysteries. But if we attempt
to contend that there was among the Patriarchs any esoteric organization at all resembling the modern system of Freemasonry, we shall find no historical data on

which w e may rely

r

for support.

Primitive Rite.

This Rite was

founded at Narbonne, in France, on April
19, 1780, by the pretended " Superiors of
the Order of Free and Accepted Masons."
It was attached to the Lodge of the Philadelphes, under the title of the " First Lodge

of St. John united to the Primitive Rite

for the country of France."
Hence it is
sometimes called the Primitive Rite of Narbonne, and sometime^ the Rite of the Philadelphes. It was divided into three classes,
which comprised ten degrees of instruction.
These were not, in the usual sense, degrees,,
but rather collections of grades, out of
which it was sought to develop all the instructions of which they were capable.
These classes and degrees were as follows :
First Class.
2. Fellow
1. Apprentice.
Craft. 3. Master Mason. These were conformable to the same degrees in all the
other Rites.
Second Class. 4th degree, comprising
Perfect Master, Elu, and Architect. 5th
degree, comprising the Sublime Ecossais.
6th degree, comprising the Knight of the
Sword, Knight of the East, and Prince of
Tprus&l pin

Third Class. 7. The First Chapter of

Rose Croix, comprising ritual instructions.
It
8. The Second Chapter of Rose Croix.
is the depository of historical documents
of rare value. 9. The Third Chapter of
Rose Croix, comprising physical and philosophical instructions. 10. The Fourth and
last Chapter of Rose Croix, or Rose Croix
Brethren of the Grand Rosary, engaged in
researches into the occult sciences, the object being the rehabilitation and reintegration of man in his primitive rank and pre-

The Primitive Rite was united

Grand Orient in 1786, although some

rogatives.
to the

of its Lodges, objecting to the union, maintained their independence. It secured, at

one time, a high consideration among
French Masons, not only on account of the
objects in which it Was engaged, but on account also of the talents and position of

PRINCE

PRIMITIVE

604

many

of

its

But

members.

no longer

it is

practised.

Primitive Scottish Rite.

This

Rite claims to have been established in

1770, at Namur, in Belgium, by a body
called the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of
Edinburgh. But the truth, according to
Clavel, {Hist. Pitt, p. 220,) is that it was
the invention of one Marchot, an advocate
of Nivelles, who organized it in 1818, at
Namur, beyond which city, and the Lodge
of " Bonne Amitie," it scarcely ever extended. It consists of thirty-three degrees,
as follows: 1. Apprentice;. 2. Fellow Craft;
3. Master 4. Perfect Master 5. Irish Master; 6. Elect of Nine; 7. Elect of the Unknown; 8. Elect of Fifteen; 9. Illustrious
Master; 10. Perfect Elect; 11. Minor Architect; 12. Grand Architect; 13. Sublime
Architect 14. Master in Perfect Architecture 15. Royal Arch 16. Prussian Knight
17. Knight of the East; 18. Prince of Jerusalem 19. Master of All Lodges 20. Knight
of the West 21. Knight of Palestine 22.
Sovereign Prince of Rose Croix 23. Sublime Scottish Mason 24. Knight of the
Sun ; 25. Grand Scottish Mason of St. Andrew; 26. Master of trfe Secret; 27. Knight
of the Black Eagle 28. Knight of
29. Grand Elect of Truth 30. Novice of the
Interior; 31. Knight of the Interior; 32.
Prefect of the Interior ; 33. Commander of
the Interior. The Primitive Scottish Rite
appears to have been founded upon the
Rite of Perfection, with an intermixture
of the Strict Observance of Hund, the
Adonhiramite, and some other Rites.
Prince. The word Prince is not attached as a title to any Masonic office, but
is prefixed as a part of the name to several
degrees, as Prince of the Royal Secret,
Prince of Rose Croix, and Prince of Jerusalem. In all of these instances it seems
to convey some idea of sovereignty inherent in the character of the degree. Thus
the Prince of the Royal Secret was the ultimate, and, of course, controlling degree
of the Rite of Perfection, whence, shorn,
however, of its sovereignty, it has been
transferred to the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite. The Prince of Rose Croix, although holding in some Rites a subordinate
;

position, was originally an independent degree, and the representative of Rosicrucian

Masonry. It
French Rite.

is

at the

still

head of the

The Princes of Jerusalem,

according to the Old Constitutions of the
Rite of Perfection, were invested with
power of jurisdiction over all degrees below
the sixteenth, a prerogative which they exercised long after the promulgation of the
Constitutions of 1786 and even now they
are called, in the ritual of the Ancient and
Accepted Rite, " Chiefs in Masonry," a
;

term borrowed from the Constitutions of

1762.
But there are several other Prince
degrees which do not seem, at least now, to
claim any character of sovereignty
such
are the Prince of Lebanon, Prince of the
Tabernacle, and Prince of Mercy, all of
which are now subordinate degrees in tb>?
Scottish Rite.
Prince Adept. See Adept, Prince,

Prince Depositor, Grand.

(Grand Prince

Depositaire.)

degree in

the collection of Pyron.

Prince Mason. A term applied in

the Old Scottish Rite Constitutions to the
possessors of the high degrees above the
fourteenth.
It was first assumed by the
Council of the Emperors of the East and
West.
Prince of Jerusalem. [Prince de
Jerusalem.)
This was the sixteenth degree
of the Rite of Perfection, whence it was
transferred to the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, where it occupies the same
numerical position. Its legend is founded
on certain incidents which took place during the rebuilding of the second Temple,
when the Jews were so much incommoded
by the attacks of the Samaritans and other
neighboring nations, that an embassy was
sent to King Darius to implore his favor
and protection, which was accordingly obThis legend, as developed in the
tained.
degree, is contained neither in Ezra nor in
the apocryphal books of Esdras.
It is
found only in the Antiquities of Josephus,
(lib. xi., cap. iv., sec. 9,) and thence there
is the strongest internal evidence to show
that it was derived by the inventor of the
Who that inventor was we can
degree.
only conjecture. But as we have the statements of both Ragon and Kloss that the
Baron de Tschoudy composed the degree
of Knight of the East, and as that degree
is the first section of the system of which
the Prince of Jerusalem is the second, we
may reasonably suppose that the latter was
The degree being
also composed by him.
one of those adopted by the Emperors of
the East and West in their system, which
Stephen Morin was authorized to propagate in America, it was introduced into
America long before the establishment of
the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite.
Council was established by Henry A.
Francken, about 1767, at Albany, in the
State of New York, and a Grand Council
organized by Myers, in 1788, in Charleston,
South Carolina. This body exercised sovereign powers even after the establishment
of the Supreme Council, which was May
31, 1801, for, in 1802, it granted a Warrant
for the establishment of a Mark Lodge in
Charleston, and another in the same year,
for a Lodge of Perfection, in Savannah,

PRINCE

PRINCE

Georgia. But under the present regulations of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, this prerogative has been abolished,

these three acts of mercy, that the degree derives its two names of Scottish Trinitarian
and Prince of Mercy, and not, as Ragon
supposes, from any reference to the Fathers
of Mercy, a religious society formerly engaged in the ransoming of Christian capChemin Dupontes {Mem.
tives at Algiers.
Sur VEcoss, p. 373,) says that the Scottish
rituals of the degree are too full of the
Hermetic philosophy, an error from which
the French Cahiers are exempt and he condemns much of its doctrines as " hyper-

and Grand Councils of Princes of Jerusalem no longer exist. The old regulation,
that the Master of a Lodge of Perfection
must be at least a Prince of Jerusalem,
which was contained in the Constitution
of the Grand Council, has also been repealed, together with most of the privileges
which formerly appertained to the degree.
A decision of the Supreme Council, in 1870,
has even obliterated Councils of the Princes
of Jerusalem as a separate organization,
authorized to confer the preliminary degree
of Knights of the East, and placed such
Councils within the bosom of Rose Croix
Chapters, a provision of which, as a manifest innovation on the ancient system, the
expediency, or at least the propriety, may
be greatly doubted.
Bodies of this degree are called Councils.

According to the old rituals, the officers

were a Most Equitable, a Senior and Junior
Most Enlightened, a Grand Treasurer, and

The more recent ritual

Secretary.
of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United
States has substituted for these a Most
Illustrious Tarshatha, a Most Venerable
High Priest, a Most Excellent Scribe, two
Most Enlightened Wardens, and other
Yellow is the symbolic color of
officers.
the degree, and the apron is crimson, (formerly white,) lined and bordered with yellow. The jewel is a medal of gold, on one
side of which is inscribed a hand holding
an equally poised balance, and on the other
a double-edged, cross-hilted sword erect,
between three stars around the point, and
and Z on each side.
the letters
The Prince of Jerusalem is also the fiftythird degree of the Metropolitan Chapter
of France, and the forty-fifth of the Rite
of Mizraim.
Grand

Prince of Lebanon.

See Knight

of the Royal Axe.

Prince of Libanus.

Another

title

for Prince of Lebanon.

Prince of Mercy.

{Prince duMerci.)
of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite, called also
Scottish Trinitarian or Ecossais Trinitaire. It
is one of the eight degrees which were
added on the organization of the Scottish
Rite to the original twenty-five of the Rite
of Perfection.
It is a Christian degree in its construction, and treats of the triple covenant of

The twenty-sixth degree

605

bolique

But the modern

plaisanterie."

rituals as now practised are obnoxious to

no such objection. The symbolic development of the number three of course consti-

a large part of its lecture but the real

of the degree is the importance of
Truth, and to this all its ceremonies are

tutes,

dogma

directed.

Bodies of the degree are called Chapters.

presiding officer is called Most Excellent Chief Prince, the Wardens are styled
Excellent. In the old rituals these officers
represented Moses, Aaron, and Eleazar;
but the abandonment of these personations
in the modern rituals is, I think, an improvement. The apron is red bordered
with white, and the jewel, an equilateral
triangle, within which is a heart.
This
was formerly inscribed with the Hebrew
letter tau, now with the letters I. H. S.
and, to add to the Christianization which
these letters give to the degree, the American Councils have adopted a tessera in the
form of a small fish of ivory or mother of
pearl, in allusion to the well-known usage

The

of the primitive Christians.

Prince of Rose Croix.

Croix, Prince

See Pose

of.

Prince of

the Captivity. Ac-

cording to the Talmudists, the Jews, while

in captivity at Babylon, kept a genealogical table of the line of their kings, and he
who was the rightful heir of the throne of
Israel was called the Head or Prince of the
Captivity.
At the time of the restoration,
Zerubbabel, being the lineal descendant of
Solomon, was the Prince of the Captivity.

Prince of the
(Grand Prince
collection of

East, Grand.

oV Orient.)

A degree in the

Le Page.

Prince of the

(Prince
!Levites.
degree in the collection of
the Lodge of Saint Louis des Amis R6unis
des Levites.)

at Calais.

Prince of

the Royal Secret.

See Sublime Prince of the Royal

Secret,

mercy which God made with man; first

with Abraham by circumcision; next,
with the Israelites in the wilderness, by
the intermediation of Moses; and lastly,
with all mankind, by the death and suffer-

Prince of the Seven Planets,

Illustrious Grand. (Illustre Grand

ings of Jesus Christ.

(Prince du Tabernacle.)

It is in allusion to

degree in the
Prince des sept Planetes.)
manuscript collection of Peuvret.

Prince of the

Tabernacle.
The twenty-fourth

PRINCESS

PRINTED

degree of the Ancient and Accepted ScotIn the old rituals the degree
was intended to illustrate the directions
given for the building of the tabernacle,
the particulars of which are recorded in
the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus. The
Lodge is called a Hierarchy, and its officers
are a Most Powerful Chief Prince, representing Moses, and three Wardens, whose
style is Powerful, and who respectively represent Aaron, Bezaleel, and Aholiab. In
the modern rituals of the United States,
the three principal officers are called the
Leader, the High Priest, and the Priest,
and respectively represent Moses, Aaron,
and Ithamar, his son. The ritual is greatly
enlarged and while the main idea of the
degree is retained, the ceremonies represent
the initiation into the mysteries of the

resemblance between any of these degrees

and the order of High Priesthood which

606

tish Rite.

Mosaic tabernacle.

The jewel

is

the letter A, in gold, sus-

pended from a broad crimson ribbon. The

apron is white, lined with scarlet and bordered with green. The flap is sky-blue.
On the apron is depicted a representation
of the tabernacle.
This degree appears to be peculiar to the
Scottish Rite and its modifications.
I
have not met with it in any of the other
Rites.

Princess of the Crown.

[Printenth and last

degree of the Masonry of Adoption according to the French regime. The degree,
which is said to have been composed in
Saxony, in 1770, represents the reception
of the Queen of Sheba by King Solomon.
The Grand Master and Grand Mistress personate Solomon and his wife, (which one,
the Cahier does not say,) and the recipiendary plays the part of the Queen of Sheba.
The degree, says Ragon, (Tuil. Gen., p. 78,)
is not initiatory, but simply honorary.
cesse de la Couronne.)

The

Principal Officers. The number

a sacred number in the Masonic
among many other ways, developed in the fact that in all Masonic bodies
there are three principal officers.
Principals. The three presiding officers in a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons,
according to the system practised in England, are called the Three Principals, or
King, Prophet, and Priest, and, under the
titles of Z., H., and J., represent Zerubbabel, Haggai, and Joshua.
No person is
eligible to the First Principal's chair unless
he has served twelve months in each of
the others; and he must also be the Master
or Past Master of a Lodge, and have served
in the Chapter the office of Scribe, Sojourner, or Assistant Sojourner.
At his
installation, each of the Principals receives
an installing degree like that of the Master
of a Blue Lodge. There is, however, no
three, as

system,

is,

is

conferred in this country.

The presiding officers of the Grand Chapter are called Grand Principals, and represent the

same personages.

jewel of Z is a crown of H,
an All-seeing eye and of J, a book, each
surrounded by a nimbus, or rays of glory,
and placed within an equilateral triangle.

The

official

Principal Sojourner.
brew word

-ij, ger,

The He-

which we translate " a

sojourner," signifies a man living out of his

own country, and is used in this sense
throughout the Old Testament. The children of Israel were, therefore, during the
captivity, sojourners in Babylon, and the
person who is represented by this officer,
performed, as the incidents of the degree
relate, an important part in the restoration
of the Israelites to Jerusalem. He was
the spokesman and leader of a party of
three sojourners, and is, therefore, emphatically called the chief, or principal sojourner.
In the English Royal Arch system there
are three officers called Sojourners. But in
the American system the three historical
sojourners are represented by the candidates, while only the supposed chief of
them is represented by an officer called the
Principal Sojourner. His duties are those
of a conductor, and resemble, in some respects, those of a Senior Deacon in a Symbolic Lodge which office, indeed, he occupies when the Chapter is open on any of
the preliminary degrees.
Printed Proceedings. In 1741,
the Grand Lodge of England adopted a
regulation, which Entick (Const, p. 236,)
is careful to tell us, "was unanimously
agreed to," forbidding any brother "to
print, or cause to be printed, the proceedings of any Lodge or any part thereof, or
the names of the persons present at such
Lodge, but by the direction of the Grand
Master or his deputy, under pain of being
disowned for a brother, and not to be admitted into any Quarterly Communication
or Grand Lodge, or any Lodge whatsoever,
and of being rendered incapable of bearing
any office in the Craft." The law has
never been' repealed, but, on the contrary,
its unfortunate spirit of unnecessary reticence has been extended, so that the Grand
Lodge of England never publishes any record of its transactions and the Craft would
be left in ignorance of everything in which
it is so much interested, as the legislation
of the Order, and the discussions in its
parliament, were it not for the enterprise
of unofficial reporters. The Grand Lodges
of Scotland and Ireland have followed the
;

same

course.

different

one

is

pursued

PROCESSIONS

PRIOR
by most of the Grand Lodges of the world.
Bulletins are published at stated intervals
by the Grand Orients of France, Italy, and
Portugal, and by nearly all those of South

In the

United

every
the journal of its proceedings, and many subordinate Lodges print the account of any
special meeting held on an important or
interesting occasion.
Prior. 1. The superiors of the different nations or provinces into which the
Order of the Templar was divided, were
at first called Priors or Grand Priors, and
afterwards Preceptors or Grand Preceptors.
2. Each of the languages of the Order
of Malta was divided into Grand Priories,
of which there were twenty-six, over which
a Grand Prior presided. Under him were
several Commanderies.
3. The second officer in a Council of Kadosh, under the Supreme Council for the
Southern Jurisdiction of the United States.
4. The Grand Prior is the third officer
in the Supreme Council of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern
Jurisdiction of the United States.

America.

States,

Grand Lodge publishes annually

Prior, Grand. See Grand Prior.

Priory. The jurisdiction of a Grand
Prior in the Order of Malta or
Jerusalem.

St.

John of

Prison.

Lodge having been held

Bench prison, London, the Grand Lodge of England passed
in 1782, in the King's

a resolution declaring that " it is inconsistent with the principles of Masonry

for any Freemason's Lodge to be held for
the purposes of making, passing, or raising
Masons in any prison or place of confinement." The resolution is founded on the
principle that there must be perfect freedom
of action in all that relates to the admission of candidates, and that this freedom
is not consistent with the necessary restraints of a prison.

Private Committee.
tee,

See Commit-

Private.

Privileged Questions.

In parlia-

mentary law, privileged questions are defined to be those to which precedence is

given over all other questions. They are
of four kinds 1. Those which relate to the
rights and privileges of the assembly or any
of its members. 2. Motions for adjournment. 3. Motions for reconsideration. 4.
Special orders of the day. The first, third,
and fourth only are applicable to Masonic
parliamentary law.
Privilege, Questions of. In all
parliamentary or legislative bodies, there
occur certain questions which relate to
matters affecting the dignity of the assembly or the rights and privileges of some of
:

its

members, and these are hence called

607

" questions of privilege " such, for instance,

are motions arising out of or having relation to a quarrel between two of the members, an assault upon any member, charges
affecting the integrity of the assembly or
any of its members, or any other matters
of a similar character. Questions referring
to any of these matters take precedence of
all other business, and hence are always in
These questions of privilege are
order.
not to be confounded with privileged quesfor, although all questions of privitions
lege are privileged questions, all privileged
questions are not questions of privilege.
Strictly speaking, questions of privilege relate to the house or its members, and
privileged questions relate to matters of
business.
See the author's Parliamentary
Lavj, as applied to the Government of Masonic Bodies, ch. xxiv., xxv.
Probation. The interval between the
reception of one degree and the succeeding one is called the probation of the candidate, because it is during this period that
he is to prove his qualification for advancement. In England and in this country the
time of probation between the reception of
degrees is four weeks, to which is generally
added the further safeguard of an open
examination in the preceding degree. In
France and Germany the probation is extended to one year. The time is greatly
extended in the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite. The statutes of the Southern
Supreme Council require an interval of two
years to be passed between the reception of
the fourteenth and the thirty-second degrees.
An extraordinary rule prevailed
in the Constitutions of 1762, by which the
Rite of Perfection was governed. According to this rule, a candidate was required
to pass a probation, from the time of his
application as an Entered Apprentice until
his reception of the twenty-fifth or ultimate degree of the Rite, of no less than six
years and nine months. But as all the
separate times of probation depended on
;

it is not to be presumed
regulation was ever practically

symbolic numbers,
that this
enforced.

Problem, Forty - Seventh.

See

Forty-Seventh Problem.

Processions. Public processions of

the Order, although not as popular as they
were some years ago, still have the warrant
of early and long usage. The first procession, after the revival, of which we have a
record, took place June 24, 1721, when, as
Anderson tells us, (2d ed., p. 112,) "Payne,
the Grand Master, with his Wardens, the
former Grand officers, and the Masters and
Wardens of twelve Lodges, met the Grand
Master elect in a Grand Lodge at the
King's Arms Tavern, St. Paul's Church-

PROCESSIONS

PROCLAMATION

in the morning, .... and from

thence they marched on foot to the Hall in
proper clothing and due form." Anderson
and Entick continue to record the annual
processions of the Grand Lodge and the
Craft on the feast day, with a few excepbut
tions, for the next twenty-five years
after this first pedestrian procession all the
subsequent ones were made in carriages, the
unvaried record being, "a procession of
march was made in coaches and carriages."
But ridicule being thrown by the enemies
of the Order upon these processions, by a
mock one in 1747, (see Scald Miser ables,)
in that year the Grand Lodge unanimously
resolved to discontinue them, nor have they
since been renewed.
In this country, public processions of the
Craft were some years ago very common,
nor have they yet been altogether abandoned; although now practised with greater
discretion and less frequently, being in
general restricted to special occasions of
importance, such as funerals, the laying of
corner-stones, or the dedication of public

the same custom as prevailing in the celebration of the Mysteries of Isis. Among
the early Romans, it was the custom, in
times of public triumph or distress, to have
solemn processions to the temples, either to
thank the gods for their favor or to invoke
their protection.
The Jews also went in
procession to the Temple to offer up their
prayers.
So, too, the primitive Christians
walked in procession to the tombs of the
martyrs. Ecclesiastical processions were
first introduced
in the fourth century.
They are now used in the Catholic Church
on various occasions, and the Pontificate
Romanum supplies the necessary ritual for
their observance.
In the Middle Ages
these processions were often carried to an

edifices.

and social societies.

There are processions also in Masonry
which are confined to the internal concerns
of the Order, and are not therefore of a
public nature. The procession " round the
Hall," at the installation of the Grand
Master, is first mentioned in 1721. Previous to that year there is no allusion to
any such ceremony. From 1717 to 1720
we are simply told that the new Grand
Master " was saluted," and that he was
" homaged," or that "his health was drunk
in due form."
But in 1721 a processional
ceremony seems to have been composed, for

608
yard,

The question has been

often

mooted,

whether public processions, with the open

exhibition of its regalia and furniture, are
or are not of advantage to the Order. In
1747 it was thought not to be so, at least in
London, but the custom was continued, to
a great extent, in the provinces. Dr. Oliver was in favor of what he calls (Symb. of
Glory,) "the good old custom, so strongly
recommended and assiduously practised by
the Masonic worthies of the last century,
and imitated by many other public bodies
of men, of assembling the brethren of a
province annually under their own banner,
and marching in solemn procession to the
house of God, to offer up their thanksgiving
in the public congregation for the blessings
of the preceding year to pray for mercies
in prospect, and to hear from the pulpit a
disquisition on the moral and religious purposes of the Order."
I confess that I should share the regrets
of the venerated Oliver, were public processions of the Order in this country to be
discontinued. I have heard no arguments
against them which outweigh the advantages to be derived from the impression
made on the minds of the spectators, and the
wholesome influence exerted on the members of the brotherhood who thus assemble
to pay honor to their Order.
Processions are not peculiar to the Masonic fraternity. The custom comes to us
from remote antiquity. In the initiations
at Eleusis, the celebration of the Mysteries
was accompanied each day by a solemn
procession of the initiates from Athens to
the temple of initiation. Apuleius describes
;

ab|urd extent. Polydore describes them as

consisting of " ridiculous contrivances, of a
figure with a great gaping mouth, and other
But these displays
pieces of merriment."
were abandoned with the increasing refinement of the age. At this day, processions
are common in all countries, not only of
religious confraternities, but of political

in that year we are informed ( Const 1738,

p. 113,) that "Brother Payne, the old

Grand Master, made the

first

procession

round the Hall, and when returned, he proclaimed aloud the most noble prince and
our brother." This procession was not
abolished with the public processions in
1747, but continued for many years afterwards although I think not now used in
the Grand Lodge of England. In this
country it gave rise to the procession at the
installation of Masters, which, although
provided for by the ritual, and practised by
most Lodges until very recently, has been
too often neglected by many. The form
of the procession, as adopted in 1724, is
given by Anderson, (second edition, p.
117,) and is almost precisely the same as
that used in all Masonic processions at the
present day, except funeral ones. The rule
was then adopted, which has ever since prevailed, that in all processions the juniors
in degree and in office shall go first, so that
the place of honor shall be the rear.
Proclamation. At the installation
;

PROCLAMATION

PROFICIENCY

of the officers of a Lodge, or any other Masonic body, and especially a Grand Lodge
or Grand Chapter, proclamation is made in
a Lodge or Chapter by the installing officer,
and in a Grand Lodge or Grand Chapter
Proclamation is
bv the Grand Marshal.
also made on some other occasions, and on
such occasions the Grand Marshal performs the duty.

Proclamation of Cyrus. A cere-

We

mony in the American Royal Arch.

learn from Scripture that in the first year
of Cyrus, the king of Persia, the captivity
of the Jews was terminated. Cyrus, from
his conversations with Daniel and the
other Jewish captives of learning and piety,
as well as from his perusal of their sacred
books, more especially the prophecies of
Isaiah, had become imbued with a knowledge of true religion, and hence had even
publicly announced to his subjects his belief in the God " which the nation of the
Israelites worshipped."
He was consequently impressed with an earnest desire
to fulfil the prophetic declarations of
which he was the subject, and to rebuild
the Temple of Jerusalem. Accordingly, he
issued a proclamation, which we find in
Ezra, as follows
" Thus saith Cyrus, King of Persia, The
Lord God of heaven hath given me all the
kingdoms of the earth and he hath charged
me to build him a house at Jerusalem,
which is in Judea.
is there among
you of all his people ? his God be with him,
;

Who

609

hymn of Orpheus, which it

was sung at the Mysteries of Eleusis,
we meet with this phrase, ^Oey^ojiaL olg Qi/iLq

the celebrated
is

said

earl Qvpag d'enc Qeade Befiq/.ois, " I speak to

those to whom it is lawful, but let the doors
be closed against the profane." When the
mysteries were about to begin, the Greeks
used the solemn formula, snag, enac, eon Beand the Romans, " Procul, O procul
fir/Aoi
este profani," both meaning, " Depart, depart, ye profane "
Hence the original
and inoffensive signification of profane is
that of being uninitiated and it is in this
sense that it is used in Masonry, simply to
designate one who has not been initiated
;

The word profane is not reas a Mason.

cognized as a noun substantive in the general usage of the language, but it has been
adopted as a technical term in the dialect
of Freemasonry, in the same relative sense
in which the word layman is used in the
professions of law and divinity.
Proficiency. The necessity that any
one who devotes himself to the acquisition
of a science should become a proficient in
its elementary instructions before he can
expect to grasp and comprehend its higher
branches, is so almost self-evident as to
need no argument. But as Speculative
Masonry is a science, it is equally necessary
that a requisite qualification for admission
to a higher degree should be a suitable proIt is true,
ficiency in the preceding one.
that we do not find in express words in the

Old Constitutions any regulations requirwhich is ing proficiency as preliminary to advancein Judea, and build the house of the Lord ment, but their whole spirit is evidently to
God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in that effect and hence we find it prescribed
Jerusalem."
in the Old Constitutions, that no Master
With the publication of this proclama- shall take an apprentice for less than seven
tion of Cyrus commences what may be years, because it was expected that he
called the second part of the Royal Arch should acquire a competent knowledge of
degree.
the mystery before he could be admitted as
Profane. There is no word whose a Fellow. The modern Constitution of the
technical and proper meaning differs more Grand Lodge of England provides that no
than this. In its ordinary use profane sig- Lodge shall confer a higher degree on any
nifies one who is irreligious and irreverent, brother until he has passed an examination
but in its technical adaptation it is applied in open Lodge on the preceding degrees,
to one who is ignorant of sacred rites. The and many, perhaps most, of the Grand
word is compounded of the two Latin words Lodges of this country have adopted a simpro and fanum, and literally means before ilar regulation. The ritual of all the symor outside of the temple ; and hence a pro- bolic degrees, and, indeed, of the higher
fanus among the ancients was one who was degrees, and that too in all rites, makes
not allowed to enter the temple and be- the imperative demand of every candidate
hold the mysteries. "Those," says Vos- whether he has made suitable proficiency
sius, " were called profane who were not in the preceding degree, an affirmative aninitiated in the sacred rites, but to whom swer to which is required before the rites
it was allowed only to stand before the
of initiation can be proceeded with. This
temple
not to enter it and answer is, according to the ritual, that " he
profane
take part in the solemnities." The Greek has " but some Masons have sought to
equivalent, BepijXos had a similar reference
evade the consequence of an acknowledgfor its root is found in BtfUg, a threshold, ment of ignorance and want of proficiency
as if it denoted one who was not permitted by a change of the language of the ritual
to pass the threshold of the temple.
In into "such as time and circumstances

and

let

him go up

to Jerusalem,

4B

39

PRO

610

PROGRESSIVE

would permit." But this is an innovation, the election of the Duke of Cambridge to
unsanctioned by any authority, and should the office of Grand Master, a regulation
be repudiated. If the candidate has not was adopted by the Grand Lodge of Engmade proper proficiency, the ritual, outside land, that whenever a prince of the blood
of all statutory regulations, refuses him accepted the office of Grand Master, he
should be at liberty to nominate any peer
advancement.
Anderson, in the second edition of his of the realm to be the Acting Grand MasConstitutions, (p. 71,) cites what he calls ter, and to this officer is given the title of
"an old record," which says that in the Pro Grand Master. He must be a noblereign of Edward the Third of England it man and a Past Master. His collar, jewel,
was ordained " that such as were to be ad- and authority are the same as those of a
mitted Master Masons, or Masters of work, Grand Master, and in the case of a vacancy
should be examined whether they be able he actually assumes the office until the
of cunning to serve their respective Lords, next annual election. There has been no
as well the lowest as the highest, to the Pro Grand Master in England since the
honor and worship of the aforesaid art, and death of the Duke of Sussex, in 1843, when
the Earl of Zetland, who was then the
to the profit of their Lords."
Here, then, we may see the origin of that Pro Grand Master, assumed the chair, and
usage, which is still practised in every well at the next annual election was chosen
governed Lodge, not only of demanding a Grand Master.
proper degree of proficiency in the candiProgressive Masonry. Freemadate, but also of testing that proficiency by sonry is undoubtedly a progressive science,
and yet the fundamental principles of Freean examination.
This cautious and honest fear of the Fra- masonry are the same now as they were at
ternity lest any brother should assume the the very beginning of the Institution. Its
duties of a position which he could not landmarks are unchangeable.
In these
faithfully discharge, and which is, in our there can be no alteration, no diminution,
time, tantamount to a candidate's advanc- nor addition.
When, therefore, we say
ing to a degree for which he is not pre- that Freemasonry is progressive in its
pared, is again exhibited in all the Old character, we of course do not mean to
Thus in the Landsdowne allude to this unalterable part of its conConstitutions.
Manuscript, whose date is referred to the stitution. But there is a progress which
middle of the sixteenth century, it is every science must undergo, and which
charged " that no Mason take on him no many of them have already undergone, to
Lord's work, nor other man's, but if [un- which the science of Freemasonry is subless] he know himself well able to perform
Thus we say of chemistry that it is
ject.
the work, so that the Craft have no slander." a progressive science. Two hundred years
The same regulation, and almost in the ago, all its principles, so far as they were
same language, is to be found in all the known, were directed to such futile insubsequent manuscripts.
quiries as the philosopher's stone and the
In the Charges of 1722, it is directed elixir of immortality. Now these princithat " a younger brother shall be instructed ples have become more thoroughly underin working, to prevent spoiling the mate- stood, and more definitely established, and
rials for want of judgment, and for improv- the object of their application is more
ing and continuing of brotherly love." It noble and philosophic.
The writings
was, with the same view, that all of the of the chemists of the former and the
Old Constitutions made it imperative that present period sufficiently indicate this
no Master should take an apprentice for progress of the science. And yet the eleless than seven years, because it was ex- mentary principles of chemistry are unpected that he should acquire a competent changeable. Its truths were the same then
knowledge of the mystery of the Craft be- as they are now. Some of them were at
fore he could be admitted as a Fellow.
that time unknown, because no mind of
Notwithstanding these charges had a sufficient research had discovered them;
more particular reference to the operative but they existed as truths, from the very
part of the art, they clearly show the great creation of matter; and now they have
stress that was placed by our ancient breth- only been developed, not invented.
ren upon the necessity of skill and proSo it is with Freemasonry. It too has
ficiency and they have furnished the pre- had its progress. Masons are now expected
cedents upon which are based all the simi- to be more learned than formerly in all
lar regulations that have been subsequently that relates to the science of the Order.
;

applied to Speculative Masonry.

Pro Grand Master.

known only
adopted

Its origin, its history, its objects, are

An

officer

to the English system, and

for the first time in 1782, when, on

now

considered worthy of the attentive conThe rational

sideration of its disciples.
explanation of its ceremonies and symbols,

PROOFS

PROMISE
and their connection with ancient systems
of religion and philosophy, are now considered as necessary topics of inquiry for all
who desire to distinguish themselves as proficients in

Masonic

science.

these things we see a great difference between the Masons of the present
and of former days. In Europe, a century
ago, such inquiries were considered as
legitimate subjects of Masonic study.
Hutchinson published in 1760, in England,
his admirable work entitled The Spirit of
Freemasonry, in which the deep philosophy
of the Institution was fairly developed with
much learning and ingenuity. Preston's
Illustrations of Masonry, printed at a not
much later period, also exhibit the system
treated, in many places, in a philosophical
manner. Lawrie's History of Freemasonry,
published in Scotland about the end of
the last century, is a work containing much

In

all

profound historical and

antiquarian reAnd in the present century, the

search.
works of Oliver alone would be sufficient
to demonstrate to the most cursory observer that Freemasonry has a claim to be
ranked among the learned institutions of
the day. In Germany and France, the
press has been borne down with the weight
of abstruse works on our Order, written by
men of the highest literary pretensions.
In this country, notwithstanding the
really excellent work of Salem Town on
Speculative Masonry, published in 1818,
and the learned Discourses of Dr. T. M.
Harris, published in 1801, it is only within
a few years that Masonry has begun to assume the exalted position of a literary institution, in which the labors of our transatlantic brethren had long ago placed it.
Promise. In entering into the covenant of Masonry, the candidate makes a
promise to the Order for his covenant is
simply a promise where he voluntarily
places himself under a moral obligation to
act within certain conditions in a particuThe law of promise is, therefore,
lar way.
strictly applicable to this covenant, and by
that law the validity and obligation of the
promises of every candidate must be determined. In every promise there are two
things to be considered: the intention and
the obligation. As to the intention of all
casuists, the Jesuits alone have contended
that the intention may be concealed within
the bosom of the promiser. Every Christian and Pagan writer agree on the principle that the words expressed must convey
their ordinary meaning to the promisee.
If I promise to do a certain thing to-morrow, I cannot, when the morrow comes,
refuse to do it on the ground that I only
promised to do it if it suited me when the
The
time of performance had arrived.
;

611

obligation of every promiser is, then, to

fulfil the promise that he has made, not in
any way that he may have secretly intended, but in the way in which he supposes that the one to whom he made it
understood it at the time that it was made.
Hence all Masonic promises are accompanied by the declaration that they are given
without equivocation or mental reservation
of any kind whatsoever.
All voluntary promises are binding, unless there be some paramount consideration
which will release the obligation of performance. It is worth while, then, to inquire if there be any such considerations
which can impair the validity of Masonic
promises. Dr. Way land (Flem, of Mor. Science, p. 285,) lays down five conditions in
which promises are not binding: 1. Where
the performance is impossible; 2. Where
the promise is unlawful 3. Where no expectation is voluntarily excited by the
;

promiser; 4. Where they proceed upon a

condition which the promiser subsequently
finds does not exist and, 5. Where either
of the parties is not a moral agent.
It is evident that no one of these conditions will apply to Masonic promises, for,
1. Every promise made at the altar of
Masonry is possible to be performed; 2.
No promise is exacted that is unlawful in
its nature; for the candidate is expressly
told that no promise exacted from him will
interfere with the duty which he owes to
God and to his country 3. An expectation
is voluntarily excited by the promiser, and
that expectation is that he will faithfully
4. No false
fulfil his part of the covenant
condition of things is placed before the
candidate, either as to the character of the
Institution or the nature of the duties
which would be required of him; and, 5.
Both parties to the promise, the candidate
who makes it and the Craft to whom it is
made, are moral agents, fully capable of
entering into a contract or covenant.
This, then, is the proper answer to those
adversaries of Freemasonry who contend
for the invalidity of Masonic promises on
the very grounds of Wayland and other
moralists. Their conclusions would be correct, were it not that every one of their
premises is false.
;

Promotion.

Promotion in Masonry

should not be governed, as in other socieThe fact that

ties, by succession of office.
one has filled a lower office gives him no
claim to a higher, unless he is fitted, by
skill and capacity, to discharge its duties
faithfully.
This alone should be the true
See Preferment.
basis of promotion.

Proofs. What the German Masons call

"proben und priifungen," trials and proofs,
and the French, " epreuves Maijonniques,"

PROPERTY

612

PROSELYTISM

or Masonic proofs, are defined by Bazot

(Manuel, p. 141,) to be " mysterious methods
of discovering the character and disposiThey are, in fact,
tion of a recipiendary."
those ritualistic ceremonies of initiation
which are intended to test the fortitude and
fidelity of the candidate.
They seem to be
confined to continental Masonry, for they
are not known to any extent in the English
or American systems, where all the ceremonies are purely symbolic.
Krause (Kunsturlcund., i. 152, n. 37,) admits that no trace
of them, at least in the perilous and fearful
forms which they assume in the continental rituals, are to be found in the oldest
English catechisms and he admits that, as
appealing to the sentiments of fear and
hope, and adopting a dramatic form, they
are contrary to the spirit of Masonry, and
greatly interfere with its symbolism and
with the pure and peaceful sentiments
which it is intended to impress upon the
mind of the neophyte.
;

Property of a Lodge. As a Lodge

owes

its

existence,

prerogatives that

it

and

all the rights and

exercises, to the Grand

Lodge from which it derives its Charter or

Warrant of Constitution, it has been decided, as a principle of Masonic law, that
ceases to exist, either by

when such Lodge

a withdrawal or a surrender of its Warrant,

all the property which it possessed at the
time of its dissolution reverts to the Grand
Lodge. But should the Lodge be restored
by a revival of its Warrant, its property
should be restored, because the Grand
Lodge held it only as the general trustee
or guardian of the Craft.
Prophet. Haggai, who in the American system of the Royal Arch is called
the scribe, in the English system receives
the title of prophet, and hence in the order
of precedence he is placed above the high
priest.

Prophets, Schools of the.

See

Schools of the Prophets.

Proponenda. The matters contained

in the " notices of motions,"

which are

re-

quired by the Grand Lodge of England to

be submitted to the members previous to
the Quarterly Communication when they
are to be discussed, are sometimes called
the proponenda, or subjects to be proposed.
Proposing Candidates. The only
method recognized in this country of proposing candidates for initiation or memberghip is by the written petition of the applicant, who must at the same time be recommended by two members of the Lodge.
In England, the applicant for initiation
must previously sign the declaration, which
in America is only made after his election.
He is then proposed by one brother, and,
the proposition being seconded by another,

is ballotted for at the next regular

Applicants for membership are
Lodge.
also proposed without petition, but the certificate of the former Lodge must be produced, as in the United States the demit
is required.
Nor can any candidate for
affiliation be ballotted for unless previous
notice of the application be given to all
the members of the Lodge.

he

Proscription. The German Masons

employ this word in the same sense in
which we do expulsion, as the highest Masonic punishment that can be inflicted.
They also use the word verbannung, banishment, for the same purpose.

Proselyte of Jerusalem.

(Prose-

The

sixty-eighth degree of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.

Proselytism. Brahmanism is, perhaps, the only religion which is opposed to
proselytism. The Brahman seeks no convert to his faith, but is content with that
extension of his worship which is derived
from the natural increase only of its memlyte

de Jerusalem.)

The Jewish Church, perhaps one of

the most exclusive, and which has always
seemed indifferent to progress, yet provided
a special form of baptism for the initiation
of its proselytes into the Mosaic rites.
Buddhism, the great religion of the Eastern world, which, notwithstanding the opposition of the leading Brahmans, spread
with amazing rapidity over the Oriental
nations, so that now it seems the most
popular religion of the world, owes its extraordinary growth to the energetic propagandism of Sakya-muni, its founder, and
to the same proselyting spirit which he inculcated upon his disciples.
The Christian Church, mindful of the
precepts of its divine founder, " Go ye into
all the world, and preach the Gospel to
every creature," has always considered the
work of missions as one of the most important duties of the Church, and owes its
rapid increase, in its earlier years, to the
proselyting spirit of Paul, and Thomas,
and the other apostles.
Mohammedanism, springing up and lingering for a long time in a single family,
at length acquired rapid growth among the
Oriental nations, through the energetic
proselytism of the Prophet and his adherents.
But the proselytism of the religion
of the New Testament and that of the Koran differed much in character. The Christian made his converts by persuasive accents
and eloquent appeals the Mussulman converted his "penitents by the sharp power of
the sword. Christianity was a religion of
peace, Mohammedanism of war; yet each,
though pursuing a different method, was
equally energetic in securing converts.
In respect to this doctrine of proselytism,

bers.

PROSELYTISM

PROSELYTISM

Freemasonry resembles more the exclusive

faith of Brahma than the inviting one of
Moses, of Buddha, of Christ, or of Mo-

vantage of his own wrong.

The knot
which binds him to the Fraternity has
been tied by himself, and is indissoluble.
The renouncing Mason may, indeed, withdraw from his connection with a Lodge,
but he cannot release himself from his ob-

hammed.
In plain words, Freemasonry is rigorously opposed to all proselytism. While
its members do not hesitate, at all proper
times and on all fitting occasions, to defend
the Institution from all attacks of its enemies, it never seeks, by voluntary laudation of its virtues, to make new accessions
of friends, or to add to the number of its
disciples.

Nay, it boasts, as a peculiar beauty of its

system, that it is a voluntary Institution.
Not only does it forbid its members to use
any efforts to obtain initiates, but actually
requires every candidate for admission into
its sacred rites to seriously declare, as a preparatory step, that in this voluntary offer of
himself he has been unbiased by the improper
solicitations of friends. Without this declaration, the candidate would be unsuccessful
in his application.
Although it is required
that he should be prompted to solicit the
privilege by the favorable opinion which
he had conceived of the Institution, yet no
provision is made by which that opinion
can be inculcated in the minds of the profane for were a Mason, by any praises of
the Order, or any exhibitions of its advan;

tages, to induce any one under such representations to seek admission, he would not

only himself commit a grievous fault, but

would subject the candidate to serious embarrassment at the very entrance of the
Lodge.
This Brahmanical spirit of anti-proselytism, in which Masonry differs from every
other association, has imprinted upon the
Institution certain peculiar features.
In
the first place, Freemasonry thus becomes,
in the most positive form, a voluntary association.
Whoever comes within its mystic circle, comes there of his "own free will
and accord, and unbiased by the influence
of friends." These are the terms on which
he is received, and to all the legitimate
consequences of this voluntary connection

he must submit. Hence comes the axiom,

" once a Mason, always a Mason " that is
to say, no man, having once been initiated
;

into its sacred rites, can, at his own pleasure or caprice, divest himself of the obligations and duties which, as a Mason, he
has assumed. Coming to us freely and wil-

ligations to the regulation,

613

which requires

every Mason to be a member of one. He

may abstain from all communication with
his brethren, and cease to take any interest
in the concerns of the Fraternity but he
is not thus absolved from the performance
of any of the duties imposed upon him by
his original admission into the brotherhood.
proselyte, persuaded against his
will, might claim his right to withdraw;
but the voluntary seeker must take and
hold what he finds.
Another result of this anti-proselyting
spirit of the Institution is, to relieve its
members from all undue anxiety to increase its members. It is not to be supposed that Masons have not the very
natural desire to see the growth of their
Order. Towards this end, they are ever
ready to defend its character when at;

tacked, to extol its virtues, and to maintain its claims to the confidence and apBut the
proval of the wise and good.
growth they wish is not that abnormal one,
derived from sudden revivals or ephemeral
enthusiasm, where passion too often takes
the place of judgment but that slow and
steady, and therefore healthy, growth
which comes from the adhesion of wise
and virtuous and thoughtful men, who are
willing to join the brotherhood, that they
may the better labor for the good of their
;

fellow-men.

Thus it is that we find the addresses of

our Grand Masters, the reports of our committees on foreign correspondence, and the
speeches of our anniversary orators, annually denouncing the too rapid increase of
the Order, as something calculated to affect
its

stability

and

usefulness.

And

hence, too, the black ball, that antagonist of proselytism, has been long and
familiarly called the bulwark of Masonry.
Its faithful use is ever being inculcated by
the fathers of the Order upon its younger
members; and the unanimous ballot is
universally admitted to be the most effectual means of preserving the purity of the
Institution.

And

so, this spirit

of anti-proselytism,

he can urge no claim for retirement impressed upon every Mason from his
on the plea that he was unduly persuaded, earliest initiation, although not itself a
or that the character of the Institution had landmark, has come to be invested with all
been falsely represented. To do so, would the sacredness of such a law, and Freemabe to convict himself of fraud and false- sonry stands out alone, distinct from every
hood, in the declarations made by him other human association, and proudly propreliminary to his admission. And if these claims, " Our portals are open to all the
declarations were indeed false, he at least good and true, but we ask no man to
cannot, under the legal maxim, take ad- enter."
lingly,

PRUDENCE

PROTECTOR

614

Protector of Innocence.

{ProV Innocence.)
degree in the
nomenclature of Fustier, cited by him from
the collection of Viany.
Protocol. In French, the formulae
or technical words of legal instruments ; in
Germany, the rough draught of an instrument or transaction; in diplomacy, the
Gadicke says
original copy of a treaty.
that, in Masonic language, the protocol is
the rough minutes of a Lodge. The word
is used in this sense in Germany only.

tecteur de

Prototype. The same

which

as archetype,

see.

Provincial

Grand Lodge.

In

each of the counties of England is a Grand

Lodge composed of the various Lodges
within that

with the Provincial

district,

Grand Master

and this body

called a Provincial Grand Lodge.
It
derives its existence, not from a Warrant,
at their head,

is

but from the Patent granted to the ProvinGrand Master by the Grand Master,
and at his death, resignation, or removal, it
becomes extinct, unless the Provincial
Grand Registrar keeps up its existence by
presiding over the province until the appointment of another Provincial Grand
Master. Its authority is confined to the
framing of by-laws, making regulations,
hearing disputes, etc., but no absolute sentence can be promulgated by its authority
without a reference to the Grand Lodge.
Hence Oliver (Jurisprud., 272,) says that a
Provincial Grand Lodge " has a shadow of
power, but very little substance. It may
talk, but it cannot act."
The system does
not exist in the United States. In England and Ireland the Provincial Grand
Master is appointed by the Grand Master,
but in Scotland his commission emanates
from the Grand Lodge.
cial

Provincial Grand Master. The

presiding officer of a

Provincial

Grand

Lodge. He is appointed by the Grand

Master, during whose pleasure he holds his
office.
An appeal lies from his decisions to
the Grand Lodge.

Provincial

Grand Officers.

The

of a Provincial Grand Lodge correspond in title to those of the Grand

Lodge. The Provincial Grand Treasurer is
elected, but the other officers are nominated
by the Provincial Grand Master. They
are not by such appointment members of
the Grand Lodge, nor do they take any rank
out of their province. They must all be
residents of the province and subscribing
officers

Provost and Judge.

[Pr'evot

et

The seventh degree of the Ancient

and Accepted Scottish Rite. The history

Juge.)

of the degree relates that

it

by Solomon, King of Israel,

was founded

for the

purpose

of strengthening his means of preserving

order among the vast number of craftsmen
engaged in the construction of the Temple.
Tito, Prince Harodim, Adoniram, and Abda
his father, were first created Provosts and
Judges, who were afterwards directed by

Solomon to initiate his favorite and intimate secretary, Joabert, and to give him
the keys of all the building. In the old
rituals, the Master of a Lodge of Provosts
and Judges represents Tito, Prince Harodim, the first Grand Warden and Inspector
of the three hundred architects. The number of lights is six, and the symbolic color
is red.
In the more recent ritual of the
Southern Jurisdiction of the United States
there has been a slight change. The legend
is substantially preserved, but the presiding
officer represents Azarias, the son of Nathan.
The jewel is a golden key, having the
within a triangle engraved on the
letter
ward. The collar is red. The apron is
white, lined with red, and is furnished with
a pocket.
This was one of Ramsay's degrees, and
was originally called Maltre Irlandais, or
Irish Master.

Proxy Installation.

The Regulanew Grand

Master be absent from the Grand Feast, he

tions of 1721 provide that, if the

may

be proclaimed if proper assurance be

given that he will serve, in which case the
old Grand Master shall act as his proxy
and receive the usual homage. This has
led to a custom, once very common in this
country, but now getting into disuse, of
installing an absent officer by proxy. Such
installations are called proxy installations.
Their propriety is very questionable.

Proxy Master.
of Scotland, a Lodge

In the Grand Lodge

is

permitted to elect

any Master Mason who holds a diploma of

the Grand Lodge, although he may not be
a member of the Lodge, as its Proxy MasHe nominates two Proxy Wardens,
ter.
and the three then become members of the
Grand Lodge and representatives of the
Lodge. Great opposition has recently been
made to this system, because by it a Lodge
is often represented by brethren who are in
no way connected with it, who never were
present at any of its meetings, and who are
personally unknown to any of its members.

members to some Lodge therein. ProvinGrand Wardens must be Masters or A similar system prevailed in the Grand
Past Masters of a Lodge, and Provincial Lodge of South Carolina, but was, after a
Grand Deacons, Wardens, or Past Wardens. hard struggle, abolished in 1860, at the
Provincial Master of the Red adoption of a new Constitution.
Cross. The sixth degree of the Rite of
Prudence. This is one of the four
Clerks of Strict Observance.
cardinal virtues, the practice of which is
cial

PRUSSIA
inculcated

upon the Entered Apprentice.

introduced

into the degree

as referring to what was then, and long before had been called the four principal
signs, but which are now known as the perPreston's eulofect points of entrance.
gium on prudence differs from that used in
the lectures of this country, which was composed by Webb. It is in these words:
" Prudence is the true guide to human understanding, and consists in judging and
determining with propriety what is to be
said or done upon all our occasions, what
dangers we should endeavor to avoid, and
how to act in all our difficulties." Webb's

Preston

first

definition,

which

is

it

much

better,

may be

the Monitors. The Masonic

reference of prudence to the manual point
reminds us of the classic method of representing her statues with a rule or measure
in her hand.
Prussia. Frederick William I. of
Prussia was so great an enemy of the Masonic institution, that until his death it was
scarcely known in his dominions, and the
initiation, in 1738, of his son, the Crown
Prince, was necessarily kept a secret from his
father. But in 1740 Frederick II. ascended
the throne, and Masonry soon felt the advantages of a royal patron. The Baron de
Bielefeld says [Lettres, i. 157,) that in that
year the king himself opened a Lodge at
Charlottenburg, and initiated his brother,
Prince William, the Margrave of Brandenburg, and the Duke of Holstein-Beck.
Bielefeld and the Counsellor Jordan, in
1740, established the Lodge of the Three
Globes at Berlin, which, soon afterwards
assumed the rank of a Grand Lodge.
There are now in Prussia three Grand
Lodges, the seats of all of them being at
Berlin.
These are the Grand Lodge of the
Three Globes, established in 1740; the
Grand Lodge Royal York of Friendship,
established in 1760; and the National
Grand Lodge of Germany, established in
1770. There is no country in the world

found in

all

where Freemasonry

is

more profoundly

studied as a science than in Prussia, and

much of the abstruse learning of the Order,
for which Germany has been distinguished,
is to be found among the members of the
Prussian Lodges. Unfortunately, they have,
for a long time, been marked with an intolerant spirit towards the Jews, whose initiation was strictly forbidden until very recently, when that stain was removed, and
the tolerant principles of the Order were
recognized by the abrogation of the offensive laws.

Prussian Knight.

Pseudonym. A
name.

See Noachite.

false

or

fictitious

Continental writers on Freemasonry in the last century often assumed

4C

PUBLICATIONS

615

sometimes from

affectation,

fictitious names,

and sometimes because the subjects they

treated were unpopular with the government or the church. Thus, Carl Rossler
wrote under the pseudonym of Acerrellas,
Arthuseus under that of Irenaeus Agnostus, Guillemain de St. Victor under that
of De Gaminville or Querard, Louis Travenol under that of Leonard Gabanon, etc.
The Illuminati also introduced the custom of giving pseudonyms to the kingdoms
and cities of Europe thus, with them, Aus;

Munich, Athens Vienna,

Rome Ingolstadt, Eleusis, etc. But this
practice was not confined to the Illuminati,
tria

was Achaia

we find many books published at Paris,

Berlin, etc., with the fictitious imprint of

for

Jerusalem, Cosmopolis, Latomopolis, PhilaThis practice has

delphia, Edessa, etc.
long since been abandoned.

Publications, Masonic. The fact

within the past few years, Freemaand an imposing
sonry has taken its place
one, too
in the literature of the times;
that men of genius and learning have devoted themselves to its investigation that
its principles and its system have become
matters of study and research and that the
results of this labor of inquiry have been
given, and still continue to be given, to the
world at large, in the form of treatises on
Masonic science, have at length introduced
the new question among the Fraternity,
whether Masonic books are of good or of
Many
evil tendency to the Institution.
well-meaning but timid members of the
Fraternity object to the freedom with which
Masonic topics are discussed in printed
works. They think that the veil is too
that,

much withdrawn

by

modern

Masonic

doctrine and instruction should be confined to oral teaching,

within the limits of the Lodge room.
Hence, to them, the art of printing becomes useless for the diffusion of Masonic
knowledge and thus, whatever may be the
attainments of a Masonic scholar, the fruits
of his study and experience would be confined to the narrow limits of his personal
presence. Such objectors draw no distinction between the ritual and the philosophy
of Masonry.
Like the old priests of
Egypt, they would have everything concealed under hieroglyphics, and would as
soon think of opening a Lodge in public as
they would of discussing, in a printed book,
the principles and design of the Institution.
The Grand Lodge of England, some
years ago, adopted a regulation which declared it penal to print or publish any part
of the proceedings of a Lodge, or the names
of the persons present at such a Lodge,
without the permission ^of the Grand Master.
The rule, however, evidently referred
writers,

and that

all

PUBLICATIONS

PUBLICATIONS

to local proceedings only, and had no relation whatever to the publication of Masonic
authors and editors ; for the English Masonic press, since the days of Hutchinson,
in the middle of the last century, has been
distinguished for the freedom, as well as
learning, with which the most abstruse
principles of our Order have been discussed.

Masonry, live to instruct the brethren, and

to elevate the tone and standing of the Institution.
Dr. Oliver, who has written more on Ma-

616

Fourteen years ago the Committee of

Foreign Correspondence of a prominent
Grand Lodge affirmed that Masonic literature was doing more " barm than good to
the Institution." About the same time the
committee of another equally prominent
Grand Lodge were not ashamed to express
their regret that so much prominence of
" in several

Grand Lodge proceedMasonic publications. Masonry existed and flourished, was harmonious and happy, in their absence."
When one reads such diatribes against
Masonic literature and Masonic progresssuch blind efforts to hide under the bushel
the light that should be on the hill-top
he is incontinently reminded of a similar
iconoclast, who, more than four centuries
age, made a like onslaught on the perninotice

is,

ings, given to

cious effects of learning.

The immortal Jack Cade,

in

Lord Say

sonry than any other author, says on this

subject: " I conceive it

to bean error in
to discountenance the publication of philosophical disquisitions on the

judgment

subject of Freemasonry,

because such a
proceeding would not only induce the
world to think that our pretensions are incapable of enduring the test of inquiry, but
would also have a tendency to restore the
dark ages of superstition, when even the
sacred writings were prohibited, under an
apprehension that their contents might
be misunderstood or perverted to the propagation of unsound doctrines and pernicious practices and thus would ignorance be transmitted, as a legacy, from one
generation to another."
Still further pursuing this theme, and
passing from the unfavorable influence
which must be exerted upon the world by
our silence, to the injury that must accrue
to the Craft, the same learned writer goes
on to say, that " no hypothesis can be more
untenable than that which forebodes evil to
the Masonic institution from the publica;

condemning tion of Masonic treatises illustrative of its

philosophical and moral tendency." And
in view of the meagre and unsatisfactory
nature of the lectures, in the form in which

to death as a patron of learning,

gave vent to words of which the language
of these enemies of Masonic literature
seems to be but the echo

they are delivered in the Lodges, he wisely

suggests that " if strictures on the science
and philosophy of the Order were placed
within every brother's reach, a system of
examination and research would soon be
substituted for the dull and uninteresting
routine which, in so many instances, characterizes our private meetings.
The brethren would become excited by the inquiry,
and a rich series of new beauties and excellences would be their reward."
Of such a result I have no doubt. In
consequence of the increase of Masonic
publications in this country within a few
years, Masonry has already been elevated
to a high position.
If there be any who
still deem it a merely social institution,
without a philosophy or literature if there
be any who speak of it with less admirarightly understand their art. In Masonry, tion than it justly deserves, we may be asas in astronomy, in geology, or in any other sured that such men have read as little as
of the arts and sciences, a new book by an they have thought on the subject of its
expert must always be esteemed a valuable science and its history. A few moments of
contribution. The productions of silly and conversation with a Mason will show
untutored minds will fall of themselves whether he is one of those contracted crafts"
into oblivion without the aid of official men who suppose that Masonic " brightness
persecution but that which is really valu- consists merely in a knowledge of the corable
which presents new facts, or fur- rect mode of working one's way into a
nishes suggestive thoughts
will, in spite Lodge, or whether he is one who has read
of the denunciations of the Jack Cades of and properly appreciated the various trea:

"

Thou

hast most traitorously corrupted

the youth of the realm, in erecting a grammar-school and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score
and the tally, thou hast caused printing to
be used and contrary to the king, his
crown, and dignity, thou hast built a papermill.
It will be proved to thy face that
thou hast men about thee that usually talk
of a noun and a verb, and such abominable
words as no Christian ear can endure to
hear."
I belong to no such school.
On the
contrary, I believe that too much cannot
be written and printed and read about the
philosophy and history, the science and
symbolism, of Freemasonry provided always the writing is confided to those who
;

PUBLICATIONS

PUBLIC

tises on the "royal art," in which men of

genius and learning have developed the
true spirit and design of the Order.
Such is the effect of Masonic publications
upon the Fraternity and the result of all my
experience is, that enough has not been published.
Cheap books on all Masonic subjects, easily accessible to the masses of the
Order, are necessaries essential to the elevation and extension of the Institution.
Too many of them confine their acquirements to a knowledge of the signs and the
ceremonies of initiation. There they cease
They make no study of
their researches.
the philosophy and the antiquities of the
Order. They do not seem to know that
the modes of recognition are simply intended as means of security against imposition, and that the ceremonial rites are
worth nothing without the symbolism of
which they are only the external expo-

no Mason can now take a position of any

nents. Masonry for them is nerveless

lifeless; it is an empty voice
senseless
a tree of splendid foliwithout meaning
age, but without a single fruit.
The monitorial instructions of the Order,
as they are technically called, contain
many things which probably, at one time,
it would have been deemed improper to
print ; and there are some Masons, even at
this day, who think that Webb and Cross
were too free in their publications. And

we have

never heard of any evil effects

arising from the reading of our Monitors,
even upon those who have not been initiated.
On the contrary, meagre as are the
explanations given in those works, and unsatisfactory as they must be to one seeking
for the full light of Masonry, they have
been the means, in many instances, of inducing the profane, who have read them,
to admire our Institution, and to knock at
the "door of Masonry "for admission
while we. regret to say that they sometimes
comprise the whole instruction that a candidate gets from an ignorant Master.
Without these published Monitors, even
that little beam of light would be wanting

yet

617

distinction in the ranks of the Fraternity.

Without extending his studies beyond
what is taught in the brief lectures of the

Lodge, he can never properly appreciate

the end and nature of Freemasonry as a
speculative science. The lectures constitute but the skeleton of Masonic science.
The muscles and nerves and blood-vessels,
which are to give vitality, and beauty, and
health, and vigor to that lifeless skeleton,
must be found in the commentaries on

them which the learning and research of

Masonic writers have given to the Masonic
student.
The objections to treatises and disquisitions on Masonic subjects, that there is
danger, through them, of giving too much
light to the world without, has not the
slightest support from experience.
In
England, in France, and in Germany,
scarcely any restriction has been observed
by Masonic writers, except as to what is
emphatically esoteric; and yet we do not
believe that the profane world is wiser in
those countries than in our own in respect
In the face
to the secrets of Freemasonry.
of these publications, the world without
has remained as ignorant of the aporrheta
of our art, as if no work had ever been
written on the subject; while the world
within
the Craft themselves
have been
enlightened and instructed, and their views
of Masonry (not as a social or charitable
society, but as a philosophy, a science, a
religion) have been elevated and enlarged.
The truth is, that men who are not Masons

never read authentic Masonic works. They

have no interest in the topics discussed,
and could not understand them, from a
want of the preparatory education which
the Lodge alone can supply. Therefore,
were a writer even to trench a little on
what may be considered as being really the
arcana of Masonry, there is no danger of
his thus making an improper revelation to
improper persons.
Public Ceremonies. Most of the
to illuminate his path.
ceremonies of Masonry are strictly private,
But if the publication and general dif- and can be conducted only in the presence
fusion of our elementary text-books have of the initiated. But some of them, from
been of acknowledged advantage to the their nature, are necessarily performed in
character of the Institution, and have, by Eublic. Such are the burials of deceased
the information, little as it is, which they
rethren, the laying of corner-stones of
communicate, been of essential benefit to public edifices, and the dedications of Ma-

the Fraternity, we cannot see why a more

extensive system of instruction on the
legends, traditions, and symbols of the
Order should not be productive of still
greater good.
Years ago, we uttered on this subject
sentiments which we now take occasion to
repeat.

Without an adequate course of reading,

sonic halls. The installation of the officers

of a Lodge, or Grand Lodge, are also sometimes conducted in public in this country.
But the ceremonies in this case differ
slightly from those of a private installation
in the Lodge room, portions of the ceremony having to be omitted. The reputation of the Order requires that these ceremonies should be conducted with the ut-

PUERILITY

PUERILITY

most propriety, and the Manuals and Moni-

only by madmen and knaves, when the researches of those who have investigated the
subject without prejudice, but with patient
learning, have shown, without any possibility of doubt, that these old alchemists, so
long the objects of derision to the ignorant,
were religious philosophers, and that their
science had really nothing to do with the
discovery of an elixir of life or the transmutation of the baser metals into gold, but
that they, like the Freemasons, with whom
they have a strong affinity, concealed under
profound symbols, intelligible only to themselves, the search after Divine Truth and
the doctrine of immortal life. Truth was
the gold which they eliminated from all
mundane things, and the immortality of the
soul was the elixir of everlasting life which
perpetually renewed youth, and took away
the power of death.

618

tors furnish the fullest details of the order

of exercises. Preston, in his Illustrations,
was the first writer who gave a printed ac-

count of the mode of conducting these public

ceremonies, and to

him we

probably indebted for their

son, however, gave in the

ritual.

are most

Ander-

edition of
the Constitutions the prescribed form for
constituting new Lodges, and installing
their officers, which is the model upon
which Preston, and other writers, have
subsequently framed their more enlarged
formulae.
Puerility of Freemasonry. " The
first

absurdities and puerilities of Freemasonry

are fit only for children, and are unworthy
of the time or attention of wise men."
Such is the language of its adversaries, and
the apothegm is delivered with all that selfsufficiency which shows that the speaker is
well satisfied with his own wisdom, and is
very ready to place himself in the category
of those wise men whose opinion he invokes.
This charge of a puerility of design and
object of Freemasonry is worth examination.
Is

So

it is

abuse

with Freemasonry.

Those who

know nothing

of its inner spirit,

of its profound philosophy, of the pure religious life that it inculcates.
it

To one who

is

at all acquainted with its

organization, Freemasonry presents itself

under two

then possible, that those scholars of

unquestioned strength of intellect and depth
of science, who have devoted themselves to
the study of Masonry, and who have in
thousands of volumes given the result of
their researches, have been altogether mistaken in the direction of their labors, and
have been seeking to develop, not the principles of a philosophy, but the mechanism
of a toy ? Or is the assertion that such is
the fact a mere sophism, such as ignorance
is every day uttering, and a conclusion to
it

different aspects.
First, as a secret society distinguished
a peculiar ritual

by

And secondly, as a society having a philosophy on which it is founded, and which

it proposes to teach to its disciples.
These by way of distinction may be called
the ritualistic and the philosophical elements
of Freemasonry.
The ritualistic element of Freemasonry is
that which relates to the due performance
of the rites and ceremonies of the Order.
Like the rubrics of the church, which indicate when the priest and congregation shall
kneel and when they shall stand, it refers
to questions such as these: What words

which men are most likely to arrive when

they talk of that of which they know nothing, like the critic who reviews a book that
he has never read, or the sceptic who at- shall be used in such a place, and what
tacks a creed that he does not comprehend ? ceremony shall be observed on such an ocSuch claims to an inspired infallibility are casion? It belongs entirely to the inner
not uncommon among men of unsound organization of the Institution, or to the
judgment. Thus, when Gall and Spurz- manner in which its services shall be conheim first gave to the world their wonder- ducted, and is interesting or important only
The language of its
ful discoveries in reference to the organiza- to its own members.
dis- ritual or the form of its ceremonies has
tion and the functions of the brain
coveries which have since wrought a nothing more to do with the philosophic
marked revolution in the sciences of anat- designs of Freemasonry than the rubrics of
the Edin- a church have to do with the religious
omy, physiology, and ethics
burgh reviewers attempted to demolish these creed professed by that church. It might
philosophers and their new system, but suc- at any time be changed in its most material

ceeded only in exposing their own ignorance of the science they were discussing.
Time, which is continually evolving truth
out of every intellectual conflict, has long
since shown that the German philosophers

were right and that their Scottish critics

were wrong. How common is it, even at
this day, to hear men deriding Alchemy as
a system of folly and imposture, cultivated

points, without in the slightest degree affecting the essential character of the Institution.
Of course, this ritualistic element is in
one sense important to the members of the
society, because, by a due observance of the
ritual, a general uniformity is preserved.
But beyond this, the Masonic ritual makes
no claim to the consideration of scholars*

PUERILITY

PUERILITY

and never has been made, and, indeed,

Does not this

long continuance of a brotherhood employed in the same pursuit, or changing
it only from a material to a spiritual character, but retaining its identity of organization of a spiritual temple.

from the very nature of its secret character,

never can be made, a topic of discussion
with those who are outside of the Fraternity.

But the other, the philosophical element

of Freemasonry, is one of much importance.
For it, and through it, I do make the
plea that the Institution is entitled to the
respect, and even veneration, of all good
men, and is well worth the careful consideration of scholars.
great many theories have been advanced by Masonic writers as to the real
origin of the Institution, as to the time
when and the place where it first took its
birth.
It has been traced to the mysteries
of the ancient Pagan world, to the Temple
of King Solomon, to the Roman Colleges of
Artificers, to the Crusades for the recovery
of the Holy Land, to the Gilds of the Middle Ages, to the Stonemasons of Strasburg
and Cologne, and even to the revolutionary
struggle in England in the time of the
commonwealth, and to the secret efforts of
the adherents of the house of Stuart to recover the throne. But whatever theory

tion,
if for

selected,

whensoever

it

and wheresoever and

be supposed to have

may

some

for itself

respect, and,

else, at least for its antiquity,

mode, and their legend,

the Masonic in
identical

society or

its

from
was precisely
For Hiram

if it differed

accidents,
substance.

in its
there was Dionysus, for the acacia the
myrtle, but there were the same mourning,
the same discovery, the same rejoicing, because what had been lost was found, and
then the same ineffable light, and the same
sacred teaching of the name of God and
the soul's immortality. And so an ancient
orator, who had passed through one of
these old Greek Lodges,
for such, without
much violence of language, they may well
be called, declared that those who have endured the initiation into the mysteries entertain better hopes both of the end of life
and of the eternal future. Is not this the
very object and design of the legend of the
Master's degree ? And this same peculiar
form of symbolic initiation is to be found
among the old Egyptians and in the island
of Samothracia, thousands of years before
the light of Christianity dawned upon the
world to give the seal of its Master and
Founder to the divine truth of the resur-

mundane

things, presented to the

world an unchanged organization. Take,
for instance, the theory which traces it
back to one of the most recent periods,
that, namely, which places the organization of the Order of Freemasons at the
building of the Cathedral of Strasburg, in
the year 1275. During all the time that
has since elapsed, full six hundred years, how

has Freemasonry presented itself? Why,

as a brotherhood organized and controlled
by a secret discipline, engaged in important architectural labors, and combining
with its operative tasks speculations of
great religious i mport. If we see any change,
it is simply this, that when the necessity
no longer existed, the operative element
was laid aside, and the speculative only
was retained, but with a scrupulous preservation (as if it were for purposes of identification) of the technical language, the
rules and regulations, the working-tools,
and the discipline of the operative art. The
material only on which they wrought was
changed. The disciples and followers of
Erwin of Steinbach, the Master Builder of
Strasburg, were engaged, under the influence of a profoundly religious sentiment,
in the construction of a material edifice to
the glory of God. The more modern workers in Freemasonry are under the same religious influence, engaged in the construc-

nothing

brotherhood, or confraternity as it might

more appropriately be called, is distinguished from all other associations by the
possession of certain symbols, myths, and,
above all else, a Golden Legend, all of
which are directed to the purification of
the heart, to the elevation of the mind, to
the development of the great doctrine of
immortality.
Now the question where and when these
symbols, myths, and legends arose is one
that is well worth the investigation of
scholars, because it is intimately connected
with the history of the human intellect.
Did the Stonemasons and building corporations of the Middle Ages invent them?
Certainly not, for they are found in organizations that existed ages previously.
The
Greeks at Eleusis taught the same dogma
of immortal life in the same symbolic

received its birth, one thing is certain,

namely, that for generations past, and yet
within the records of history, it has, unlike

other

demand

some share of veneration ?

But this is not all.
This

may be

619

rection.

'

This will not, it is true, prove the descent of Freemasonry, as now organized,
from the religious mysteries of antiquity;
although this is one of the theories of its
origin entertained and defended by scholars
of no mean pretension. But it will prove
an identity of design in the moral and intellectual organization of all these institutions, and it will give the Masonic student

PUERILITY

PURCHASE

subjects for profound study when he asks

Whence came
the interesting questions
these symbols, myths, and legends ?

phers and poets of Greece and Rome that

they may know what were the speculations
of those old thinkers, and they strive to measure the intellect of man as it was then and
as it is now, because the study of the
growth of intellectual philosophy and the
investigation of the mental and moral
powers come home to us all as subjects of

620

Who

invented them? How and why have they

been preserved? Looking back into the
remotest days of recorded history, we find a
priesthood in an island of Greece and another on the banks of the Nile, teaching
the existence in a future life by symbols
and legends, which convey the lesson in a
peculiar mode. And now, after thousands
of years have elapsed, we find the same
symbolic and legendary method of instruction, for the same purpose, preserved in
the depository of what is comparatively a

modern institution. And between these

two extremes of the long past and the
present now, we find the intervening period
occupied by similar associations, succeeding
each other from time to time, and spreading
over different countries, but all engaged in
the same symbolic instruction, with substantially the same symbols and the same

mythical history.
Does not all this present a problem in
moral and intellectual philosophy, and in
the archaeology of ethics, which is well
worthy of an attempted solution? How
unutterably puerile seem the objections and
the objurgations of a few contracted minds,
guided only by prejudice, when we consider the vast questions of deep interest
that are connected with Freemasonry as a
part of those great brotherhoods that have
filled the world for so many ages, so far
back, indeed, that some philosophic historians have supposed that they must
have derived their knowledge of the doctrines which they taught in their mystic
assemblies from direct revelation through
an ancient priesthood that gives no other
evidence of its former existence but the results which it produced.
Man needs something more than the
The
gratification of his animal wants.
mind requires food as well as the body,
and nothing can better give that mental
nutriment than the investigation of subjects which relate to the progress of the
intellect and the growth of the religious
sentiment.

Again,

man was

not made for himself

old Stoic lived only for and

within himself. But modern philosophy
and modern religion teach no such selfish
Man is but part of the great
doctrine.
brotherhood of man, and each one must be
ready to exclaim with the old poet, " Homo
alone.

The

common

interest.

Looking, then, upon Freemasonry as one

of those associations which furnish the evidence and the example of the progress of

man

in intellectual, moral,

development,

and

religious

may be

well claimed for it

that its design, its history, and its philosophy, so far from being puerile, are well entitled to the respect of the world, and are
worth the careful research of scholars.
title given to the presidPuissant.
ing officer in several of the high degrees.
it

Puissant Irish

The

Master.

eighth degree of Ramsay's Irish Colleges.

Pulsanti Operietur. Latin. To
him who knocks it shall be opened. An
inscription sometimes placed over the
front door of Masonic temples or Lodge
rooms.

Punishments, Masonic.
ment

Masonry

Punish-

that the character of the Institution may remain unsullied, and that the unpunished crimes of its
members may not injuriously reflect upon
the reputation of the whole society. The
nature of the punishment to be inflicted is
restricted by the peculiar character of the
Institution, which is averse to some forms
of penalty, and by the laws of the land,
which do not give to private corporations
the right to impose certain species of punishment.
The infliction of fines or pecuniary penalties has, in modern times at least, been
considered as contrary to the genius of Masonry, because the sanctions of Masonic
law are of a higher nature than any that
could be furnished by a pecuniary penalty.
Imprisonment and corporal punishment
are equally adverse to the spirit of the Institution, and are also prohibited by the
laws of the land, which reserve the infliction of such penalties for their own tribuin

is inflicted

nals.

Masonic punishments are therefore rean expression of disapprobation

or the deprivation of Masonic rights, and are
1. Censure; 2. Reprimand; 3. Exclusion;
4. Suspension, Definite or Indefinite
and
all of which see under their
5. Expulsion
stricted to

sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto," respective titles.

I am a man, and I deem nothing relating to
Purchase. In the Cooke MS. (line
mankind to be foreign to my feelings. Men 630) it is said that the son of Athelstan
study ancient history simply that they may "purchased a free patent of the kyng that
learn what their brother men have done in they [the Masons] shulde make a sembly."
former times, and they read the philoso- This does not mean that he bought the pat'

PYRON

PURE

621

It may be
ent, but that he obtained or procured it. tions of the Masonic system.
Such was the use of purchase in old Eng- observed that this allusion to the union and
lish.
The booty of a thief was called his harmony between blue and red Masonry is
purchase, because he had acquired it. singularly carried out in the Hebrew word
This word, which
Colloquially, the word is still used to desig- which signifies purple.
is JDJ1X, argaman, is derived from CDJH,
nate the getting a hold on anything.
Pure Freemasonry. See Primitive ragam or regem, one of whose significations
But Portal (Coul. Symb.,
is "a friend."
Freemasonry.

Purification. As the aspirant in

the Ancient Mysteries was not permitted to
pass through any of the forms of initiation,
or to enter the sacred vestibule of the temple, until, by water or fire, he had been
symbolically purified from the corruptions
of the world which he was about to leave
behind, so in Masonry there is in the
first degree a symbolical purification by the
presentation to the candidate of the com-

mon
tic

gavel,

an implement whose emblema-

use teaches a purification of the heart.

Purity.

In the Ancient Mysteries

purity of heart and life was an essential
prerequisite to initiation, because by initiation the aspirant was brought to a knowledge of God, to know whom was not permitted to the impure. For, says Origen,
Cont. Gel., vi.,) " a defiled heart cannot see
(
God, but he must be pure who desires to
obtain a proper view of a pure Being."
And in the same spirit the Divine Master
says " Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God." But " to see God" is
a Hebraism, signifying to possess him, to be
spiritually in communion with him, to
:

his true character.

ual combats, because blue denotes fidelity,

and red, war.

In the religious services of the Jews we
find purple employed on various occasions.
It was one of the colors of the curtains of
the tabernacle, where, Josephus says, it was
symbolic of the element of water, of the
veils, and of the curtain over the great entrance it was also used in the construction
of the ephod and girdle of the high priest,
;

and the cloths

See Lustration.

know

230,) says that purple, in the profane lansignifies constancy in spirit-

guage of colors,

Now

to acquire

knowledge of God, symbolized by the

knowledge of his Name, is the great object
of Masonic, as it was of all ancient initiation and hence the candidate in Masonry
is required to be pure, for " he only can
stand in the holy place who hath clean
hands and a pure heart." See White.
this

Purity, Brothers of. An association of Arabic philosophers, founded at

Bosra, in Syria, in the tenth century. Many
of their writings, which were much studied
by the Jews of Spain in the twelfth cenSteinschneider (Jew.
tury, were mystical.
Lit, 174, 295,) calls them " the Freemasons
of Bosra," and says that they were " a celebrated society of a kind of Freemasons."
Purple. Purple is the appropriate
color of those degrees which, in the American Kite, have been interpolated between
the Royal Arch and Ancient Craft Masonry, namely, the Mark, Past, and Most
Excellent Masters. It is in Masonry a
symbol of fraternal union, because, being
compounded of blue, the eolor of the Ancient Craft, and red, which is that of the
Royal Arch, it is intended to signify the
connection and harmony which
close
should ever exist between those two por-

for divine service.

the Gentile nations of antiquity
purple was considered rather as a color of
dignity than of veneration, and was deemed
an emblem of exalted office. Hence Homer
mentions it as peculiarly appropriated to
royalty, and Virgil speaks of purpura regum, or "the purple of kings." Pliny says
it was the color of the vestments worn by
the early kings of Rome and it has ever
since, even to the present time, been considered as the becoming insignia of regal
or supreme authority.
In American Masonry, the purple color
seems to be confined to the intermediate
degrees between the Master and the Royal
Arch, except that it is sometimes employed
in the vestments of officers representing
either kings or men of eminent authority,
such, for instance, as the Scribe in a
Chapter of Royal Arch Masons.
In the Grand Lodge of England, Grand
Officers and Provincial Grand Officers wear
purple collars and aprons. As the symbolic
color of the Past Master's degree, to which
all Grand Officers should have attained, it
is also considered in this country as the
appropriate color for the collars of officers
of a Grand Lodge.
Purple Brethren. In English Masonry, the Grand Officers of the Grand
Lodge and the Past Grand and Deputy
Grand Masters and Past and Present Provincial Grand Masters are called "purple
brethren," because of the color of their
decorations, and at meetings of the Grand
Lodge are privileged to sit on the dais.
Purple Lodges. Grand and Provincial Grand Lodges are thus designated
by Dr. Oliver in his Institutes of Masonic
Jurisprudence. The term is not used in this

Among

country.

Pyron, Jean Baptiste Pierre

Julien.

distinguished French

Mason

PYTHAGORAS

622

of the latter part of the last and beginning

of the present century, who died at Paris
in September, 1821. He was the author
of many Masonic discourses, but his most
important work was a profound and exhaustive History of the Organization of the
Ancient and Accepted Rite in France, published in 1814. He was one of the founders
of the Grand Orient, and having received
the thirty-third degree from the Count de
Grasse Tilly, he afterwards assisted in the
organization of the Supreme Council of
Italy, at Milan, and the Supreme Council
of France. In 1805, his name was struck
from the register of the Grand Orient in
consequence of his opposition to that body,
but he remained the Secretary- General of
the Supreme Council until his death. Ragon calls him an intriguer and bold innovator, but Thory speaks more highly of his

Masonic character.

He

was undoubtedly
a man of talent, learning, and Masonic research. He made a manuscript collection
of many curious degrees, which Thory has
liberally used in his Nomenclature of Rites
and Degrees.

Pythagoras. One of the most celebrated of the Grecian philosophers, and the
founder of what has been called the Italic
school, was born at Samos about 586 years
Educated as an athlete, he subsequently abandoned that profession and deB. c.

voted himself to the study of philosophy.

He travelled through Egypt, Chaldea, and
Asia Minor, and is said to have submitted
to the initiations in those countries for the
purpose of acquiring knowledge. On his
return to Europe, he established his celebrated school at Crotona, much resembling
that subsequently adopted by the Freemasons. His school soon acquired such a reputation that disciples nocked to him from all
parts of Greece and Italy. Pythagoras taught
as the principal dogma of his philosophy the
system of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls. He taught the mystical
power of numbers, and much of the symbolism on that subject which we now possess
is derived from what has been left to us by
his disciples for of his own writings there
is nothing extant.
He was also a geometrician, and is regarded as having been the
inventor of several problems, the most important of which is that now known as the
forty-seventh problem of Euclid.
He was
also a proficient in music, and is said to
;

have demonstrated the mathematical relaand to have in-

tions of musical intervals,

vented a number of musical instruments.

Disdaining the vanity and dogmatism of
the ancient sages, he contented himself with
proclaiming that he was simply a seeker
after knowledge, not its possessor, and to

him

is

attributed the introduction of the

PYTHAGORAS
word

philosopher, or lover of wisdom, as the

only title which he would assume. After
the lawless destruction of his school at Cro-

tona, he fled to the Locrians, who refused to

receive him, when he repaired to Metapontum, and sought an asylum from his enemies
in the temple of the Muses, where tradition
says that he died of starvation 506 years
B.

c, when eighty years

old.

Pythagoras, School

of.

The

schools established by Pythagoras at Crotona, and other cities, have been considered
by many writers as the models after which
Masonic Lodges were subsequently constructed.
They undoubtedly served the
Christian ascetics of the first century as a
pattern for their monastic institutions, with
which institutions the Freemasonry of the
Middle Ages, in its operative character, was
brief description
intimately connected.
of the school of Crotona will not therefore
be inappropriate. The disciples of this
school wore the simplest kind of clothing,

and having on

their entrance surrendered

the common fund,
they submitted for three years to voluntary
poverty, during which time they were also
compelled to a rigorous silence. The doctrines
of Pythagoras were always delivered as inall their possessions to

fallible propositions which admitted of no

argument, and hence the expression ambg
$7], he said it, was considered as a sufficient
answer to any one who demanded a reason.
The scholars were divided into Exoterics
and Esoterics. This distinction was borrowed by Pythagoras from the Egyptian
priests, who practised a similar mode of
The exoteric scholars were
instruction.
those who attended the public assemblies,
where general ethical instructions were deBut only the esoterics
livered by the sage.
constituted the true school, and these alone
Pythagoras called, says Jamblichus, his
companions and friends. Before admission
to the privileges of this school, the previous
life and character of the candidate were
rigidly scrutinized, and in the preparatory
initiation secrecy was enjoined by an oath,
and he was made to submit to the severest
trials of his fortitude and self-command.
He who after his admission was alarmed

at the obstacles he had to encounter, was

permitted to return to the world, and the
disciples, considering him as dead, performed his funeral obsequies, and erected a
monument to his memory.

The mode of living in the school of Crotona was like that of the modern communists.
The brethren, about six hundred in
number, with their wives and children, resided in one large building.

Every morn-

ing the business and duties of the day were

arranged, and at night an account was renThey
dered of the day's transactions.

PYTHAGORAS

QUALIFICATIONS

623

arose before day to pay their devotions to school, the Mason will find no difficulty in
the sun, and recited verses from Homer, understanding that part of the so-called
Hesiod, or some other poet. Several hours Leland Manuscript which is said so much
were spent in study, after which there was to have puzzled the great metaphysician
an interval before dinner, which was occu- John Locke.
This manuscript
the question of its
?ied in walking and in gymnastic exercises,
authenticity is not here entered upon
'he meals consisted principally of bread,
honey, and water, for though the table was has the following paragraphs
often covered with delicacies, no one was
"How comede ytt [Freemasonry] yn
permitted to partake of them. It was in Engelonde ?
" Peter Gower, a Grecian, journey eded
this secret school that Pythagoras gave his
instructions on his interior doctrine, and for kunnynge yn Egypte and in Syria, and
explained the hidden meaning of his sym- yn everyche londe whereat the Venetians
bols.
There were three degrees the first, hadde plauntedde Maconrye, and wynor Mathematici, being engaged in the study nynge entraunce yn al Lodges of Maof the exact sciences and the second, or connes, he lerned muche, and retournedde
Theoretici, in the knowledge of God, and and worked yn Grecia Magna wachsynge
the future state of man but the third, or and becommynge a myghtye wysacre and
highest degree, was communicated only to gratelyche renowned, and here he framed
a few whose intellects were capable of a grate Lodge at Groton, and maked many
grasping the rail fruition of the Pythago- Maconnes, some whereoffe dyd journeye yn
rean philosophy. This school, after exist- Fraunce, and maked manye Maconnes
ing for thirty years, was finally dissolved wherefromme, yn process of tyme, the arte
through the machinations of Kylo, a passed yn Engelonde."
wealthy inhabitant of Crotona, who, having
Locke confesses that he was at first puzbeen refused admission, in revenge excited zled with those strange names, Peter Gower,
the citizens against it, when a lawless mob Grotaa, and the Venetians; but a little
attacked the scholars while assembled in thinking taught him that they were only
the house of Milo, set fire to the building corruptions of Pythagoras, Crotona, and the
and dispersed the disciples, forty of them Phoenicians.
being burned to death. The school was
It is not singular that the old Masons
never resumed, but after the death of the should have called Pythagoras their " anphilosopher summaries of his doctrines cient friend and brother," and should have
were made by some of his disciples. Still dedicated to him one of their geometrical
many of his symbols and his esoteric teach- symbols, the forty-seventh problem of Euings have to this day remained uninter- clid; an epithet and a custom that have,
preted and unexplained.
by the force of habit, been retained, in all
After this account of the Pythagorean the modern rituals.

Q.
2. That he must not be influenced by
Qualifications of Candidates.
Every candidate for initiation into the mercenary motives.
mysteries of Freemasonry must be qualified
3. That he must be prompted to make
These the application in consequence of a favoraby certain essential conditions.
qualifications are of two kinds, Internal and ble opinion that he entertains of the In-

External. The internal qualifications are

those which lie within his own bosom, the
external are those which refer to his outward and apparent fitness. The external
qualifications are again divided into Moral,
Religious, Physical, Mental, and Political.
I.

The Internal Qualifications

are:
of his

stitution.
4. That he must be resolved to conform
with cheerfulness to the established usages
and customs of the Fraternity.

II.

The External Qualifications are,

as has already

been

said, divided into four

kinds.

That candidate only is

1. The Moral.
That the applicant must come
and accord. His application qualified for initiation who faithfully obmust be purely voluntary, to which he has serves the precepts of the moral law, and
not been induced by persuasion of friends. leads a virtuous life, so conducting himself
1.

own

free will

QUADRIVIUM

QUARRIES

as to receive the reward of his own conscience as well as the respect and approbation of the world.
Freemasonry is ex2. The Religious.
ceedingly tolerant in respect to creeds, but
it does require that every candidate for initiation shall believe in the existence of God as
a superintending and protecting power, and
in a future life.
No inquiry will be made
into modifications of religious belief, provided it includes these two tenets.
These refer to sex,
3. The Physical.
The candiage, and bodily conformation.
date must be a man, not a woman of mature age, that is, having arrived at his
majority, and not so old as to have sunk
into dotage and he must be in possession
of all his limbs, not maimed or dismembered, but, to use the language of one of
the old Charges, " have his right limbs as a
man ought to have."
This division excludes
4. The Mental.
all men who are not intellectually qualified
to comprehend the character of the Institution, and to partake of its responsibilities.
Hence fools or idiots and madmen
are excluded. Although the landmarks do

Quarrels. Contention or quarrelling

in the Lodge, as well as without, is dis*
countenanced by the spirit of all the Old
Constitutions of Masonry. In the Charges
compiled from them, approved by the
Grand Lodge of England in 1722, and published by Dr. Anderson, it is said, "No
private piques or quarrels must be brought

624

not make illiteracy a disqualification, and

although it is undeniable that a large portion of the Craft in olden time was uneducated yet there seems to be a general opinion that an incapacity to read and write
will, in this day, disqualify a candidate.
5. The Political.
These relate to the
condition of the candidate in society. The
old rule required that none but those who
were free born could be initiated, which,
of course, excluded slaves and those born
in servitude; and although the Grand
Lodge of England substituted free man for
free born, it is undeniable that that action
was a violation of a landmark and the old
;

rule

still exists,

at least in this country.

In classical Latin the

Quadrivium.

word quadrivium meant a place where four

roads met, and trivium, a place where three
roads met. The scholastics of the Middle
Ages, looking to the metaphorical meaning
of the phrase, the paths of learning, divided what were called the seven liberal
arts and sciences, but which comprised the
whole cycle of instruction in those days,
into two classes, calling grammar, rhetoric,
and logic the trivium, and arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy the quadrivium. These two roads to the temple of
wisdom, including seven distinct sciences,
were, in the Middle Ages, supposed to include universal knowledge.
See Liberal
Arts and Sciences.
Quakers. The question of the admissibility of a Quaker's affirmation in Masonry
is discussed under the word Affirmation,

which

see.

within the door of the Lodge, far less any

quarrels about religion, or nations, or State
policy."
(vi. 2.)
Quarries. It is an error to speak, as
Oliver does, misguided by some Masonic
traditions, of the quarries of Tyre in connection with the Temple of Solomon.
Modern researches have shown without
question that the stones used in the construction of the Temple were taken out of
quarries in the immediate vicinity ; and the
best traditions, as well as Scripture, claim
only that the wood from the forests of

Lebanon was supplied by King Hiram.

The great quarries of Jerusalem are situated in the north-east portion of the city,
near the Damascus gate. The entrance to

them was

first

discovered by Barclay.

writer, quoted by Barclay, thus describes

them, {City of the Great King, p. 466:)

"

Here were blocks of stones but half quarand still attached by one side to the
rock.
The work of quarrying was apparently effected by an instrument resembling
ried,

a pickaxe, with a broad chisel-shaped end,

as the spaces between the blocks were not
more than four inches wide, in which it
would be impossible for a man to work
with a chisel and mallet. The spaces were,
many of them, four feet deep and ten feet in
height, and the distance between them was
about four feet. After being cut away at
each side and at the bottom, a lever was inserted, and the combined force of three or
four men could easily pry the block away
from the rock behind. The stone was extremely soft and friable, nearly white, and
very easily worked, but, like the stone of
Malta and Paris, hardening by exposure.
The marks of the cutting instrument were
as plain and well-defined as if the workman
had just ceased from his labor. The heaps
of chippings which were found in these
quarries showed that the stone had been
dressed there, and confirm the Bible statement that the stone of which the Temple was built was made ready before it
Barclay remarks,
was brought thither."
{lb., p. 118,) that "those extra cyclopean
stones in the south-east and south-west
corners of the Temple wall were doubtless
taken from this great quarry, and carried
to their present position down the gently
a conjecture
inclined plain on rollers
which at once solves the mystery that has
greatly puzzled travellers in relation to the

QUARTERLY

QUORUM

of transporting and handling such

rock, and enables us to
understand why they were called 'stones
Mr. Prime also
of rolling' by Ezra."

viously existed but as no mention is made

of them in the Regulations of 1663, which,
on the contrary, speak expressly only of an
" Annual General Assembly," I feel author-

visited these quarries, and in his Tent Life

in the Holy Land, (p. 114,) speaks of them
thus " One thing to me is very manifest
there has been solid stone taken from the
excavation sufficient to build the walls of

ized to infer that quarterly communications

must have been first introduced into the
Masonic system after the middle of the seventeenth century. They have not the authority of antiquity, and have been very
wisely discarded by nearly all the Grand
Lodges in this country. They are still re-

difficulty

immense masses of

Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon.

The size of many of the stones taken from
here appears to be very great. I know of
no place to which the stone can have been
carried but to these works, and I know no
other quarries in the neighborhood from

which the great stone of the walls would

seem to have come. These two connected
ideas compelled me strongly toward the belief that this was the ancient quarry whence
the city was built and when the magnitude
of the excavation between the two opposing hills and of this cavern is considered,
it is, to say the least of it, a difficult question to answer, what has become of the
stone once here, on any other theory than
that I have suggested." And he adds:
"
can say that the cavern which we
;

Who

explored was not the place where the hammers rang on the stone which were forbidden to sound in the silent growth of the

Temple of Solomon? "

The researches of subsequent

great

625

tained by the Grand Lodges of England and

Scotland, but in the United States only by
those of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
Quaternion. From the Latin quater,
the number Four, which see. Oliver calls
it the quaternary, but quaternion is the better usage.
Quebec. The Grand Lodge of Quebec
was established in 1869, by a withdrawal of
most of the Lodges of the Province from
the Grand Lodge of Canada, on the American principle of Masonic law, that the
jurisdiction of a Grand Lodge was coterminous with the geographical limits of the
political State.
The Grand Lodge of Canada has opposed the act as infringing on its
territorial rights ; but the validity and legality of the Constitution of the Grand Lodge
of Quebec have been recognized by nearly
all the Grand Lodges of America.

travellers,
Questions of Henry VI. Quesand especially the labors of the " Palestine tions said to have been proposed by King
Exploration Fund," have substantiated Henry VI. of England to the Masons of
these statements, and confirmed the fact that the kingdom, which, with their answers,
the quarries where the workmen labored at are contained in the manuscript known as
the building of the Solomonic Temple were the Leland Manuscript, which see.
not in the dominions of the King ofTyre, but
Quorum. The parliamentary law proin the immediate vicinity of the Temple. vides that a deliberative body shall not proIn 1868, Rob. Morris held what he calls a ceed to business until a quorum of its mem"Moot Lodge" in these quarries, which bers is present. And this law is applicable
event he describes in his Freemasonry in to Masonry, except that, in constituting a
the Holy Land, a work of great interest to quorum for opening and working a Lodge,
it is not necessary that the quorum shall be
Masonic scholars.
Quarterly Communication. The made up of actual members of the Lodge
Old Records of the Institution state that the for the proper officers of the Lodge being
Fraternity met annually in their General present, the quorum may be completed by
Assembly.
The Halliwell Manuscript, any brethren of the Craft. As to the num-

commonly known

as the

York

tions, says it is true that the

Constitu-

Assembly may

be held triennially, "Eche year or third

year it should be hold;" but wherever
spoken of in subsequent records, it is always as an Annual Meeting. It is not until
1717 that we find anything said of quarterly communications and the first allusion to these subordinate meetings in any
printed work to which we now have access
is in 1738, in the edition of the Constitutions published in that year. The expression there used is that the quarterly communications were "forthwith revived."
This of course implies that they had pre40
4D
;

ber of brethren necessary to make a quorum for the transaction of business, the Old
Constitutions and Regulations are silent,
and the authorities consequently differ. In
reply to an inquiry directed to him in 1857,
the editor of the London Freemasons' Magazine affirmed that five Masons are sufficient
to open a Lodge and carry on business other

than initiation; for which latter purpose

seven are necessary.
This opinion appears
be the general English one, and is acquiesced in by Dr. Oliver ; but there is no authority of law for it. And when, in the
year 1818, the suggestion was made that
some regulation was necessary relative tc

"

QUORUM

RAGON

number of brethren requisite to constitute a legal Lodge, with competent powers

to perform the rite of initiation, and transact all other business, the Board of General

proceed to business. The

thus established the number
which constitutes a " perfect Lodge," and
without which number a Lodge could not
be legally opened, and therefore, necessarily, could not proceed to work or business for there is no distinction, in respect
to a quorum, between a Lodge when at

626
the

Purposes of the Grand Lodge of England,

to whom the suggestion had been referred,
replied, with something like Dogberrian
astuteness, " that it is a matter of so much
delicacy and difficulty, that it is thought
advisable not to depart from the silence on
the subject which had been observed in all

the Books of Constitutions."

In the absence, then, of all written laws
upon the subject, and without any constitutional provision to guide us, we are compelled to recur to the ritual for authority.
There the answer to the question in each
degree, "How many compose a Lodge?"
will supply us with the rule by which we
are to establish the quorum in that degree.
For whatever number composes a Lodge,
that is the number which will authorize

the

Lodge

ritual

to

has

work or when engaged

According to the

in business.

ritualistic rule referred

seven constitute a quorum, for work or

business, in an Entered Apprentice's Lodge,
five in a Fellow Craft's, and three in a Master Mason's.
Without this requisite number no Lodge can be opened in either of
these degrees. In a Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons nine Companions constitute a
quorum, and in a Commandery of Knights
to,

Templars eleven Knights

although, under
known to the

certain circumstances well

Order, three Knights are
transact business.

competent to

R.
Rabbanaim.

jJ*KiD"3*l> RabbiniHebrew, and signifying " the chief of

the architects." A significant word in the
high degrees.
cal

Rabbinism. The system of philosophy taught by the Jewish Rabbis subsequent to the dispersion, and which is engaged in mystical explanations of the oral
law.
With the reveries of the Jewish
teachers was mingled the Egyptian, the
Arabic, and the Grecian doctrines. From
the Egyptians, especially, Rabbinism derived its allegorical and symbolic mode of
instruction.
Out of it sprung the Therapeutists and the Essenians and it gave rise
to the composition of the Talmud, many
of whose legends have been incorporated
;

into the mythical philosophy of Speculative

Masonry. And this it is that makes Rabbinism an interesting subject of research to
the Masonic student.

Rabboni.

*3"Q*T Literally, myMaster,

equivalent to the pure Hebrew, Adoni. As

a significant word in the higher degrees, it
has been translated " a most excellent Master"
and its usage by the later Jews will justify
that interpretation. Buxtorf [Lex. Talmud.
tells us that about the time of Christ this
title arose in the school of Hillel, and was
given to only seven of their wise men who

were pre-eminent for their learning.

{Arch. Bib.,

\ 106,)

Jahn

says that Gamaliel, the

preceptor of St. Paul, was one of these. They

styled themselves the children of wisdom,
which is an expression very nearly corresponding to the Greek fyCkoaotyoi. The (vord
occurs once, as applied to Christ, in the New
Testament, (Johnxx. 16.) " Jesus said unto

Mary. She turned herself, and saith

unto him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master.
The Masonic myth in the " Most Excellent
her,

Master's degree," that it was the title addressed by the Queen of Sheba to King
Solomon on beholding the magnificence
and splendor of the Temple, wants the
element of plausibility, inasmuch as the
word was not in use in the time of Solomon.
One of the most disRagon, J,
tinguished Masonic writers of France. His
contemporaries did not hesitate to call him
" the most learned Mason of the nineteenth
century." He was born in the last quarter
of the eighteenth century, most probably
at Bruges, in Belgium, where in 1803 he
was initiated in the Loge Reunion des
Amis du Nord, and subsequently assisted
in the foundation of the Lodge and Chapter
of Vrais Amis in the same city. On his
removal to Paris he continued his devotion
to Freemasonry, and was the founder in
1805 of the celebrated Lodge of Les Trinosophes. In that Lodge he delivered, in
1818, a course of lectures on ancient and
modern initiations, which twenty years

M.

RAMSAY

RAGOTZKY
afterwards were repeated at the request of
the Lodge, and published in 1841, under
the title of Cours Philosophique et Interpratif des Initiations Anciennes et Modernes.
This work was printed with the express permission of the Grand Orient of France, but
three years after that body denounced its
second edition for containing some additional matter. Rebold charges this act to
the petty passions of the day, and twentyfive years after the Grand Orient made
ample reparation in the honor that it paid
In 1818 and
to the memory of Ragon.
1819, he was editor in chief of the periodical published during those years under the
title of Hermes, ou Archives Maconniques.
In 1853, he published Orthodoxie Maconnique, a work abounding in historical information, although some of his statements
are inaccurate. In 1861, he published the
Tuileur General de la Franc- Maconnerie, ou
Manuel de Vlnitie; a book not merely confined to the details of degrees, but which
is enriched with many valuable and interesting notes.
Ragon died at Paris about
the year 1866. In the preface to his Orthodoxie, he had announced his intention to
crown his Masonic labors by writing a
work to be entitled Les Fastes Initiatiques,
in which he proposed to give an exhaustive
view of the Ancient Mysteries, of the Roman Colleges of Architects and their successors, the building corporations of the
Middle Ages, and of the institution of
Modern or Philosophic Masonry at the beginning of the eighteenth century. This
was to constitute the first volume. The
three following volumes were to embrace a
history of the Order and of all its Rites in
every country. The fifth volume was to be
appropriated to the investigation of other
secret associations, more or less connected
with Freemasonry; and the sixth and last
volume was to contain a General Tiler or
manual of all the known rites and degrees.
Such a work would have been an inestimable boon to the Masonic student, but
Ragon unfortunately began it too late in
life.
He did not live to complete it, and
in 1868 the unfinished manuscript was purchased, by the Grand Orient of France,

from his heirs

It
for a thousand francs.
to be quietly deposited in the
archives of that body, because, as it was
confessed, no Mason could be found in
France who had ability enough to supply
its lacuna? and prepare it for the press.
Ragon's theory of the origin of Masonry
was that its primitive idea is to be found
in the initiations of the Ancient Mysteries,
but that for its present form it is indebted
to Elias Ashmole, who fabricated it in the

was destined

seventeenth century.

Ragotzky, Carl August. A

Ger-

man who was

in Masonry,

627

distinguished for his labors

and for the production of seve-

works of high character, the principal

of which were Der Freidenker in der Maurerei oder Freimuthige Briefe uber wichtige
Gegenstdnde in der Frei- Maurerei, i. e.,
The Freethinker in Masonry, or Candid
Letters on important subjects in Freemasonry, published at Berlin, in 1793, in
an octavo volume of three hundred and
eleven pages, of which a second edition appeared in 1811
and a smaller work entitled Ueber Maurerische Freiheit,fur eingeiral

und uncingeweihte, i. e., An Essay on

Masonic Liberty, for initiated and uniniveihte

He

tiated readers, published in 1792.

died
Jan. 5, 1823.
Rains. It was a custom among the

English Masons of the middle of the last

century, when conversing together on Masonry, to announce the appearance of a
profane by the warning expression " it
rains."
The custom was adopted by the
German and French Masons, with the
equivalent expression, es regnet and ilpluie.
Baron Tschoudy, who condemns the usage,
says that the latter refined upon it by designating the approach of a female by il

Dr. Oliver says (.Rev. Sq.,

the phrase " it rains," to indicate
that a cowan is present and the proceedings must be suspended, is derived from the
ancient punishment of an eavesdropper,
which was to place him under the eaves of a
house in rainy weather, and to retain him
there till the droppings of water ran in at
the collar of his coat and out at his shoes.
Raised. When a candidate has received the third degree, he is said to have
been "raised" to the sublime degree of a
The expression refers,
Master Mason.
materially, to a portion of the ceremony of
initiation, but symbolically, to the resurrection, which it is the object of the degree to
exemplify.
neige, it snows.
97,) that

Ramsay,

Andrew

Michael.

Commonly

called the Chevalier Ramsay.

He was born at Ayr, in Scotland, June 9,
His father was a baker, but being a
1668.
possessor of considerable property was enabled to give his son a liberal education.
He was accordingly sent to school in his
native burgh, and afterwards to the University of Edinburgh, where he was distinguished for his abilities and diligence. In
1709 he was intrusted with the education

of the two sons of the Earl of Wemyss.

Subsequently, becoming unsettled in his
religious opinions, he resigned that employment and went to Holland, residing for

There he became
at Leyden.
acquainted with Pierre Poiret, one of the
most celebrated teachers of the mystic
theology which then prevailed on the con-

some time

RAMSAY

RAMSAY

628

From him Ramsay learned the

tinent.
principal tenets of that system and it is
not unreasonable to suppose that he was
thus indoctrinated with that love of mystical speculation which he subsequently developed as the inventor of Masonic degrees,
and as the founder of a Masonic Rite. In
1710 he visited the celebrated Fenelon,
Archbishop of Cambray, of whose mystical
tendencies he had heard, and met with a
cordial reception. The archbishop invited
Ramsay to become his guest, and in six
months he was converted to the Catholic
faith.
Fenelon procured for him the preceptorship of the Due de Chateau-Thierry
;

and the Prince de Turenne.

As a reward

for his services in that capacity,

he was

made a knight

of the Order of St. Lazarus,

whence he received the title of " Chevalier "
by which he was usually known. He was
subsequently selected by James III., the
Pretender, as the tutor of his two sons,
Charles Edward and Henry, the former of
whom became afterwards the Young Pretender, and the latter the Cardinal York.
For this purpose he repaired, in 1724, to
Rome. But the political and religious intrigues of that court became distasteful to
him, and in a short time he obtained permission to return to France. In 1728 he
visited England, and became an inmate of
the family of the Duke of Argyle. Chambers says {Biog. Diet.) that while there he
wrote his Principles of Natural and Revealed
Religion, and his Travels of Cyrus.
This
statement is evidently incorrect. The former did not appear until after his death,
and was probably one of the last productions of his pen.
The latter had already
been published at Paris in 1727. But he
had already acquired so great a literary
reputation, that the University of Oxford
conferred on him the degree of Doctor of
Laws. He then returned to France, and
resided for many years at Pointoise, a seat
of the Prince of Turenne, where he wrote
his Life of Fenelon, and a History of the
Viscount Turenne.
During the remainder
of his life he resided as Inteudant in the
Prince's family, and died May 6, 1743, in
the fifty-seventh year of his age.
No one played a more important part in
the history of Freemasonry in the eighteenth century than the Chevalier Ramsay,
and the influence of his opinions and teachings is still felt in the high degrees which
have been adopted by the various Rites

which Masonry is now divided.

Ramsay, although born of humble parentage, was by subsequent association an
into

aristocrat in disposition.
Hence, in proposing his theory of the origin of Freemasonry, he repudiated its connection with an

operative

art,

and sought

to find its birth-

place in Palestine, among those kings and

knights who had gone forth to battle as
Crusaders for the conquest of Jerusalem.
In 1740, Ramsay, as Grand Orator, pronounced a discourse before the Grand
Lodge of France, in which he set forth his
theory in explicit terms. That the reader
may be put in possession of that theory in
Ramsay's own words, I have translated
from the discourse the following passage
" During the time of the holy wars in
Palestine, several principal lords and citizens associated themselves together, and
entered into a vow to re-establish the temples of the Christians in the Holy Land ; and
engaged themselves by an oath to employ
their talents and their fortunes in restoring
architecture to its primitive institution.
They adopted several ancient signs and

symbolic words drawn from religion, by

which they might distinguish themselves
from the infidels and recognize each other
in the midst of the Saracens.
They communicated these signs and words only to
those who had solemnly sworn, often at
the foot of the altar, never to reveal them.
This was not an oath of execration, but a
bond uniting men of all nations into the
same confraternity. Some time after our
Order was united with the Knights of St.
John of Jerusalem. Hence our Lodges
are in all countries called Lodges of St.
This union was made in imitation
of the Israelites when they rebuilt the sec-

John.

ond Temple, during which time with one

hand they managed the trowel and mortar, and in the other held the sword and
buckler.
" Our Order must not, therefore, be regarded as a renewal of the Bacchanals and
a source of senseless dissipation, of unbridled libertinism and of scandalous intemperance, but as a moral Order, instituted by our ancestors in the Holy Land
to recall the recollection of the most sublime truths in the midst of the innocent
pleasures of society.
"The kings, princes, and nobles, when
they returned from Palestine into their
native dominions, established Lodges there.
At the time of the last Crusade several
Lodges had already been erected in Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and, from the
last, in Scotland, on account of the intimate
alliance which then existed between those
two nations.
" James, Lord Steward of Scotland, was
the Grand Master of a Lodge established
at Kilwinning, in the west of Scotland, in
the year 1236, a short time after the death
of Alexander III., king of Scotland, and
a year before John Baliol ascended the
throne. This Scottish lord received the

Earls of Gloucester and Ulster, English

RAMSAY
and

Irish

noblemen, as

Masons

RAMSAY
in

his

Lodge.
"

By

degrees our Lodges, our festivals,

and our solemnities were neglected in most

of the countries where they had been estab-

Hence the

silence of the historians

except Great Britain, on the
subject of the Order. It was preserved,
however, in all its splendor by the Scotch,
to whom for several centuries the kings of
France had intrusted the guardianship of
their sacred persons.
" After the lamentable reverses of the
Crusades, the destruction of the Christian
armies, and the triumph of Bendocdar,
Sultan of Egypt, in 1263, during the eighth
and ninth Crusades, the great Prince Edward, son of Henry III., King of England,
seeing that there would be no security for
the brethren in the Holy Land when the
Christian troops should retire, led them
away, and thus this colony of the Fraterlished.

of

all nations,

629

already admitted facts. The theory was,

however, readily accepted by the rich, the
fashionable, and the noble, because it elevated the origin and the social position of
the Order, and to it we are to attribute the
sudden rise of so many high degrees, which
speedily overshadowed the humbler pretensions of primitive Craft Masonry. The
Kadosh, one of the most important and
most extensively diffused of all the high
degrees, owes its invention or its composition to Ramsay.
But this was not the only influence that

he exerted on the Masonic system. Ardently attached to the exiled house of

Stuart, of two of whose princes he had been
the tutor, he eagerly met the advances of
those who had already begun to give a
political importance to the Order and to
enlist it in the Pretender's cause, making it
an instrument for effecting his restoration

to the throne of England. (See Stuart Mawas established in England. As this sonry.) Ramsay incorporated these views
prince was endowed with all the qualities into his system, and hence, in many of the
of mind and heart which constitute the high degrees which remain at this day, alhero, he loved the fine arts, and declared though all that political feeling has long
himself the protector of our Order. He been dead, we still find traces of a Stuart
granted it several privileges and franchises, Masonry.
and ever since the members of the conTo Ramsay is also attributed the invenfraternity have assumed the name of Free- tion of that system now known as the Royal

nity

From

this time Great Britain

seat of our sciences, the conservatrix of our laws, and the depository
of our secrets. The religious dissensions
which so fatally pervaded and rent all Eu-

Arch.

Thus it is that sevguised, or retrenched,

eral of our brethren have, like the ancient
Jews, forgotten the spirit of our laws, and
preserved only the letter and the outer covBut from the British isles the anering.
cient science is now beginning to pass again
into France."
Such was the peculiar theory of Ramsay,
which, long before the delivery of this discourse, he had developed in his Rite of six
degrees. Rejecting all reference to the
Travelling Architects from Como, to the

note,) in more doubtful language.

"It is
said that Ramsay invented the Royal Arch "
is the equivocal phrase that he uses.
He
adds that " it cannot have been any of the
three which are usually so styled, viz., the
R. A. of Enoch, of Josiah, or of Zerubbabel.
Whatever it might be, it is now obsolete."
But this is an error: the Royal Arch of
Enoch is precisely the degree which was in-

masons.

This, too, exerted

its

influence, for

from the degree of Ramsay both Dermott

and Dunckerley derived many of their ideas
used in constructing the two Royal Arch
systems which were respectively adopted
rope during the sixteenth century, caused by the Ancient and the Modern Masons.
our Order to degenerate from the grandeur Oliver, although in his essay on the Origin
and nobility of its origin. Several of our of the English Royal Arch (p. 24) he adrites and usages, which were opposed to the mits the influence of Ramsay's degree,
prejudices of the times, were changed, dis- speaks in his Historical Landmarks (p. 34,

became the

Stonemasons of Germany, and the Operative

Freemasons of England, he had
sought a noble and chivalric origin for
Freemasonry, which with him was not a
confraternity founded on a system of architecture, but solely on the military prowess
and religious enthusiasm of knighthood.
The theory was as clearly the result of his
own inventive genius as was his fable of
the travels of Cyrus. He offered no documentary or historical authority to support
his assertions, but gave them as if they were

vented by Ramsay and it is not obsolete,

for it is found in almost all the continental
Rites under various names. It was adopted
from Ramsay by the Council of Emperors
of the East and West, when that body was
organized in 1754, and subsequently passed
over to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, where it still remains as the thirteenth
degree. That it was a Stuart degree is evident, among other reasons, from the fact
that the fourteenth degree, which is its
complement, and without which it is incomplete, originally received the title of
"Grand Scottish Knight of the Sacred
Vault of James VI."
;

630

KAMSAY

When the Chevalier Eamsay went to England in 1728, he carried with him his Masonic system, and sought to secure its adopBut in this
tion by the English Lodges.
hewas altogether unsuccessful. Yet he left
a latent influence behind him when he returned to the continent, which was subsequently felt by those who organized the

RAWLINSON
he erected a superstructure of high
degrees, in which he sought to develop a

basis,

system of mystical philosophy which has

added much to the attractions of Masonic
study. That his high degrees were afterwards expanded to a disproportionate extent, and often by inferior minds, was not

And

his fault.

although, if

we

look at his

Grand Lodge of Ancients. To that influ- system in a historical point of view, we

ence, presented in the example of his high may feel bound to reject it as the mere redegrees, are we, I think, to attribute the

disseverance of the Master's Word from

the third degree, and the consequent invention of the Eoyal Arch. Both Dermott and
Dunckerley, as I have already said, derived
some fruit from Ramsay's superior intellect.
All writers concur in giving the most
favorable opinions of Ramsay's character.
Chambers asserts that he was generous and
kind to his relatives, and that on his temporary return to Great Britain, although he
did not visit them in Scotland, he sent them
liberal offers of money, which, however, incensed at his apostasy from the national
religion, they indignantly refused to accept.
Clavel (Hist, Pittor., p. 165,) describes him
as " a man endowed with an ardent imagination, and a large amount of learning, wit,
and urbanity." And Robison (Proofs of a
Consp., p. 39,) says he was " as eminent for
his piety as he was for his enthusiasm," and
speaks of his " eminent learning, his elegant
talents, and his amiable character."
His general literary reputation is secured
by his Life of Fenelon, his Travels of Cyrus,
and the elaborate work, published after his
death, entitled The Philosophical Principles
of Natural and Revealed Religion, Unfolded
in a Geometrical Order.
In Masonry he
wrote but little save the rituals of the
degrees which he had invented. He was,
however, the author of an Apologetic and
Historical Relation of the Society of Freemasonry, which was published in 1738, and
had the honor to be burnt the next year
at Rome by the public executioner, on the
sentence of the Sacred Congregation of the
Inquisition.
As to the effect of Ramsay's labors on
Freemasonry, I think there can hardly be
two opinions in candid minds. He came
to the study of the Masonic science with all

the advantages of a thoroughly classical

education. He was indeed by far the most
learned man who, up to that time, had
taken any interest in the Order. Thus his
influence was directed to elevate the tone of
the Institution, and to show to the world
that it was worthy of the investigation of
cultivated minds. With Ancient Craft Masonry he scarcely interfered, save to assign
to it an origin and a history different from
those which had been commonly received.
But on that fundamental system, as his

sult of a fertile invention, yet, viewed symbolically, it becomes of vast importance.

For in that system he had planted the

germs of a science of Masonic symbolism
which had been previously unknown, but
which has grown, and budded, and blossomed, and given the ripeness of its fruit
The mine of
to succeeding generations.
symbolism which he first opened has been
effectively worked by those who have succeeded him.

Ramsay,

Rite of. This Rite, long

since exploded, was attempted to be introduced in London, in 1728, by the Chevalier Ramsay, who sought to found it on his
peculiar system of the Templar origin of
Freemasonry. It consisted of six degrees,
as follows 1. Apprentice 2. Fellow Craft ;
4. Scottish Master ; 5. Novice ;
3. Master
:

Knight of the Temple, or Templar. It

was rejected by the Grand Lodge of England, but was received in France, where its
degrees were afterwards incorporated into
other Rites. See Ramsay.
6.

Ratisbon.

city

of Bavaria, in

which two Masonic Congresses have been

held. The first was convoked in 1459, by
Jost Dotzinger, the master of the works of
the Strasburg cathedral. It established
some new laws for the government of the
Fraternity in Germany, The second was
called in 1464, by the Grand Lodge of
Strasburg, principally to define the relative
rights

and

of,

to settle existing difficulties

between, the Grand Lodges of Strasburg,

Cologne, Vienna, and Bern.

Rawlinson Manuscript.

In 1855,

the Rev. J. S. Sidebotham, of New College, Oxford, published in the Freemasons

Monthly Magazine a series of interesting
extracts from a manuscript volume which
he stated was in the Bodleian Library, and
which he described as seeming "to be a
kind of Masonic album, or commonplace
book, belonging to Brother Richard Rawlinson, LL.I). and F. R. S., of the following Lodges Sash and Cocoa-tree, Moorfields, 37
St. Paul's Head, Ludgate Street,
40; Rose Tavern, Cheapside and Oxford
Arms, Ludgate Street, 94 in which he inserted anything that struck him either as
useful or particularly amusing. It is partly
in manuscript, partly in print, and comprises some ancient Masonic Charges, Con1

RECEIVED

RECOGNITION

forms of summons, a list of all

the Lodges of his time under the Grand
Lodge of England, whether in London, the
country, or abroad together with some extracts from the Grab Street Journal, the
General Evening Post, and other journals
of the day. The date ranges from 1724 to
1740."
Among the materials thus collected is
one which bears the following title: The
Freemasons' Constitutions, Copied from an
Old MS. in the possession of Dr. RawlinThis copy of the Old Constitutions
son.
does not differ materially in its contents
from the other old manuscripts, but its
more modern spelling and phraseology
would seem to give it a later date, which
Hughan thinks is about 1700. In a note
to the statement that King Athelstan
" caused a roll or book to be made, which
declared how this science was first invented,
afterwards preserved and augmented, with
the utility and true intent thereof, which
roll or book he commanded to be read and

candidate in any degree of Masonry the

Recipiendaire, or Recipient.
Recognition, Modes of. Smith
says ( Use and Abuse, p. 46,) that at the institution of the Order, in each of the degrees, " a particular distinguishing test was
adopted, which test, together with the explication, was accordingly settled and communicated to the Fraternity previous to
their dispersion, under a necessary and
solemn injunction to secrecy; and they
have been most cautiously preserved and
transmitted down to posterity by faithful
brethren ever since their emigration."
Hence, of all the landmarks, the modes
of recognition are the most legitimate and
unquestioned. They should admit of no

stitutions,

when a man was to be made

Freemason," Dr. Rawlinson says " One
of these rolls I have seen in the possession
of Mr. Baker, a carpenter in Moorfields."
The title of the manuscript in the scrapbook of Rawlinson is The Freemasons' Constitution, Copied from an Old MS. in the possession of Dr. Rawlinson. Recent researches
in the Bodleian Library have not, however,
discovered the original manuscript from
which the copy was made. It has most
probably been mislaid, for its existence
cannot be doubted.
Richard Rawlinson, LL.D., was a celebrated antiquary, who was born in London
about 1690, and died April 6, 1755. He
was the author of a Life of Anthony Wood,
published in 1711, and of The English Toplainly recited
a

pographer, published in 1720. Dr. Rawlinson was consecrated a bishop of the

non-juring communion of the Church of
England, March 25, 1728. He was an assiduous collector of old manuscripts, invariably purchasing, sometimes at high prices,
all that were offered him for sale.
In his
will, dated June 2, 1752, he bequeathed the
whole collection to the University of Oxford.
The manuscripts were placed in the
Bodleian Library, and still remain there;
but unfortunately no adequate catalogue
of them has ever been made.

Received and Acknowledged.

A term applied to the initiation of a candidate into the sixth or Most Excellent Masdegree of the American Rite. See
Acknowledged.
Reception. The ceremony of initiation into a degree of Masonry is called a
ter's

reception.

Recipient.

The French

call

the

631

variation, for in their universality consist

their excellence and advantage. And yet
such variations have unfortunately been
admitted, the principal of which origi-

nated about the middle of the last century,

and were intimately connected with the
schism which at that time took place in
the Grand Lodge of England, and which
divided the Fraternity in that country into
the two conflicting societies of the " Ancients" and the "Moderns;" and although
by the reconciliation in 1813 uniformity
was restored in the United Grand Lodge
which was then formed, that uniformity did
not extend to the subordinate bodies in
other countries which had derived their
existence and their different modes of
recognition from the two separated Grand
Lodges; and this was, of course, equally
applicable to the high degrees which
sprang out of them.
Thus, while the
modes of recognition in the York and
Scottish Rites are substantially the same,
those of the French or Modern Rite differ
in almost everything.
In this there is a
P. W. in the first degree unrecognized by
the two other Rites, and all afterwards are
different.

Again, there are important differences in

the York and American Rites, although
there is sufficient similarity to relieve

American and English Masons from any

embarrassment in mutual recognition. Although nearly all the Lodges in the United
before the Revolution of 1776,
derived their existence from the Grand
Lodges of England, the American Masons
do not use the multitude of signs that prevail in the English system, while they
have introduced, I think, through the
teachings of Webb, the D. G, which is
States,

totally

unknown

to

English

Masonry.

differences, the Masonic

of Paris, held in 1856, recom-

Looking to these
Congress

mended, in the seventh proposition, that

" Masters of Lodges, in conferring the degree of Master Mason, should invest the

RECOGNITION

632

RECOMMENDATION

candidate with the words, signs, and grips ates had then, it seems, like the Freemaof the Scottish and Modern Bites." This sons, mystical steps.
proposition, if it had been adopted, would
That the Gnostics had modes of recognihave mitigated, if it did not abolish, the tion we learn from St. Epiphanius, himself
but, unfortunately, it did not receive at one time in early life a Gnostic, who
evil
says in his Panarium, written against the
the general concurrence of the Craft.
As to the antiquity of modes of recogni- Gnostics and other heretics, that " on the
tion in general, it may be said that, from arrival of any stranger belonging to the
the very nature of things, there was always same belief, they have a sign given by one
a necessity for the members of every secret to another.
In holding out the hand,
society to have some means for recognizing under pretence of saluting each other, they
a brother that should escape the detec- feel and tickle it in a peculiar manner
tion of the uninitiated.
We find evidence underneath the palm, and so discover if
in several of the classic writings showing the new-comer belongs to the same sect.
that such a custom prevailed among the Thereupon, however poor they may be,
initiated in the Pagan mysteries.
Livy they serve up to him a sumptuous feast,
tells us
(xxxi. 14) of two Acarnanian with abundance of meats and wine."
youths who accidentally entered the temI do not refer to the fanciful theories of
ple of Ceres during the celebration of the Dr. Oliver,
the first one most probably a
mysteries, and, not having been initiated, joke, and therefore out of place in his Sym<
founded on passages
were speedily detected as intruders, and bolical Dictionary,
put to death by the managers of the tem- of Homer and Quintus Curtius, that AchilThey must, of course, have owed les and Alexander of Macedon recognized
ple.
their detection to the fact that they were the one Priam and the other the High
not in possession of those modes of recog- Priest by a sign. But there are abundant
nition which were known only to the initi- evidences of an authentic nature that a sysated.
tem of recognition by signs, and words,
That they existed in the Dionysiac rites and grips has existed in the earliest times,
of Bacchus we learn from Plautus, who, in and, therefore, that they were not invented
his Miles Gloriosus, (Act IV., Sc. ii.,) makes by the Masons, who borrowed them, as
Misphidippa say to Pyrgopolonices, " Cedo they did much more of their mystical syssignum si harunc Baccharum es," Give tem, from antiquity.
the sign, if you are one of these Bacchoz.
Recommendation. The petition
Jamblichus ( Vit. Pyth.) tells the story of a candidate for initiation must be recomof a disciple of Pythagoras, who, having mended by at least two members of the
been taken sick, on a long journey, at an Lodge. Preston requires the signature to
inn, and having exhausted his funds, gave, be witnessed by one person, (he does not
before he died, to the landlord, who had say whether he must be a member of the
been very kind to him, a paper, on which Lodge or not,) and that the candidate must
he had written the account of his distress, be proposed in open Lodge by a member.
and signed it with a symbol of Pythagoras. Webb says that " the candidate must be
This the landlord affixed to the gate of a proposed in form, by a member of the
neighboring temple.
Months afterwards Lodge, and the proposition seconded by
another Pythagorean, passing that way, another member."
Cross says that the
recognized the secret symbol, and, inquir- recommendation " is to be signed by two
ing into the tale, reimbursed the landlord members of the Lodge," and he dispenses
for all his trouble and expenses.
with the formal proposition. These gradApuleius, who was initiated into the ual changes, none of them, however, subOsirian and Islac mysteries, says, in his stantially affecting the principle, have at
Defensio, "if any one is present who has last resulted in the present simpler usage,
been initiated into the same secret rites as which is, for two members of the Lodge to
myself, if he will give me the sign, he affix their names to the petition, as recomshall then be at liberty to hear what it is menders of the applicant.
that I keep with such care." But in anThe petition for a Dispensation for a new
other place he is less cautious, and even Lodge, as preliminary to the application for
gives an inkling of what was one of the a Warrant of Constitution, must be recomsigns of the Osirian initiation. For in his mended by the nearest Lodge.
Preston
Golden Ass (lib. xi.) he says that in a dream says that it must be recommended "by the
he beheld one of the disciples of Osiris, Masters of three regular Lodges adjacent to
"who walked gently, with a hesitating the place where the new Lodge is to be
step, the ankle of his left foot being held."
This is also the language of the
slightly bent, in order, no doubt, that he Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Iremight afford me some sign by which I land. The Grand Lodge of Scotland recould recognize him." The Osirian initi- quires the recommendation to be signed
;

RECONCILIATION

RECORDS

"by the Masters and officers of two of the

nearest Lodges." The modern Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England requires a recommendation " by the officers
of some regular Lodge," without saying
anything of its vicinity to the new Lodge.
The rule now universally adopted is, that
it must be recommended by the nearest

cannot be taken up out of its order, and no

second motion for reconsideration can be
offered while it lies upon the table, hence
to lay a motion for reconsideration on the
table is considered as equivalent to rejecting it. When a motion for reconsideration
is adopted, the original motion comes up
immediately for consideration, as if it had
been for the first time brought before the
body, in the form which it presented when

Lodge.

Reconciliation, Lodge of. When

the two contending Grand Lodges of England, known as the "Ancients" and the
" Moderns," resolved, in 1813, under the
Grand Masterships of the Dukes
Kent and Sussex, to put an end to all
differences, and to form a United Grand
respective

of

it was provided, in the fifth article

of union, that each of the two Grand
Masters should appoint nine Master Masons to meet at some convenient place and
each party having opened a just and perect .Lodge in a separate apartment, they
should give and receive mutually and reciprocally the obligations of both Fraternities; and being thus duly and equally enlightened in both forms, they should be
empowered and directed to hold a Lodge,
under the Warrant or Dispensation to be

Lodge,

it

633

was adopted.

Reconsideration of the Ballot.

When the petition of a candidate for initiation has been rejected, it is not permissible for any member to move for a reconsideration of the ballot.
The following
four principles set forth in a summary way

the doctrine of Masonic parliamentary law

this subject
1. It is never in order for a member to
move for the reconsideration of a ballot on
the petition of a candidate, nor for a presiding officer to entertain such a motion. 2.
The Master or presiding officer alone can,
for reasons satisfactory to himself, order
such a reconsideration. 3. The presiding
officer cannot order a reconsideration on
any subsequent night, nor on the same
"
intrusted to them, and to be entitled
The night, after any member who was present
Lodge of Reconciliation." The duty of and voted has departed. 4. The Grand
this Lodge was to visit the several Lodges Master cannot grant a Dispensation for a
under both Grand Lodges, and to instruct reconsideration, nor in any other way inthe officers and members of the same in terfere with the ballot. The same restricthe forms of initiation, obligation, etc., in tion applies to the Grand Lodge.
both, so that uniformity of working might
Recorder. In some of the high debe established. The Lodge of Reconciliation grees, as in a Council of Select Masters and
was constituted on the 27th December, a Commandery of Knights Templars, the
1813, the day on which the union was per- title of Recorder is given to the Secretary.
fected.
This Lodge was only a temporary The recording officer of the Grand Encampone, and the duties for which it had been ment of Knights Templars of the United
organized having been performed, it ceased States, of State Grand Commanderies, and
of Grand Councils of Royal and Select Masto exist by its own limitation.
Reconsideration, Motion for. ters, is styled a Grand Recorder.
motion for reconsideration can only be
Records, Old. The early history of
made in a Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, or Masonry, as written by Anderson, Preston,
other Grand Body, on the same day or the Smith, Calcott, and writers of that generaday after the adoption of the motion which tion, was little more than a collection of
it is proposed to reconsider.
In a Lodge fables, so absurd as to excite the smile of
or other subordinate body, it can only be every reader, or bare statements of incimade at the same meeting. It cannot be dents, without any authority to substantiate
moved by one who has voted in the minor- their genuineness.
ity.
It cannot be made when the matter
The recent writers on the same subject
to be reconsidered has passed out of the have treated it in a very different manner,
control of the body, as when the original and one that gives to the investigation of
motion was for an appropriation which the early annals of Freemasonry a respectahas been expended since the motion for it ble position in the circle of historic studies.
was passed.
motion for reconsideration Much of the increased value that is given
is not debatable if the question proposed
in the present day to Masonic history is
to be reconsidered is not. It cannot always derivable from the fact that, ceasing to rebe adopted by a simple majority vote. It peat the gratuitous statements of the older
may be postponed or laid upon the table. writers, some of whom have not hesitated
If postponed to a time definite, and when to make Adam a 'Grand Master, and Eden
that time arrives is not acted upon, it can- the site of a Lodge, our students of this day
not be renewed. If laid upon the table, it are drawing their conclusions from, and es;

4E

on

RED

RECORDS

634

tablishing their theories on, the old records,

which Masonic archaeology is in this generation bringing to light. Hence, one of
these students (Bro. Woodford, of England,)
has said that, when we begin to investigate
the real facts of Masonic history, " not only

have we to discard at once much that we

have held tenaciously and taught habitually, simply resting on the reiterated assertions of others, but we shall also find
that we have to get rid of what, I fear, we
must call ' accumulated rubbish,' before we
can see clearly how the great edifice of Masonic history, raised at last on sure and
good foundations, stands out clearer to the
sight, and even more honorable to the
builders, from those needful, if preparatory,
labors."
Anderson tells us that in the year 1719,
at some of the private Lodges, "several

very valuable manuscripts concerning the

Lodges, Kegulations,
Fraternity, their
Charges, Secrets, and Usages, were too
hastily burnt by some scrupulous brothers,
that those papers might not fall into strange
hands."
In the last quarter of a century the archaeologists of Masonry have labored very
diligently

and

successfully to disinter

from

the old Lodges, libraries, and museums

many of these ancient manuscripts, and
much light has thus been thrown upon the
early history of Freemasonry.
The following is a list of the most important of these old records which the
industry of Masonic antiquaries has brought
to light. They are generally called " Manuscripts," because their originals, for the
most part, exist in manuscript rolls, or
there is competent evidence that the original manuscripts, although now lost, once
There are, however, a few inexisted.
stances in which this evidence is wanting,
and the authenticity of the manuscript rests
only on probability. Each of them is noted

work under

in this
1.
2.

its

respective

title.

Halliwell Manuscript. Add.

Book of the Fraternity of Stonema-

4.
5.
6.

7.
8.
9.

10.
11.
12.

13.
14.
15.

16.
17.

Papworth Manuscript.
Roberts' Manuscript.

Edward

III.

Manuscript

Albans' Regulations.
Anderson Manuscript.
Stone Manuscripts.
Constitutions of Strasburg.
Constitutions of Torgan.
Dowland Manuscript.
27. Wilson Manuscript.
28. Spencer Manuscript.
29. Cole Manuscript.
30. Plott Manuscript.
31. Inigo Jones Manuscript.
Add.
32. Rawlinson Manuscript.
33. Woodford Manuscript.
34. Krause Manuscript.
35. Antiquity Manuscript.
36. Leland Manuscript, sometimes called
the Locke Manuscript.
37. Charter of Cologne.
There may be some other manuscript
St.

records, especially in France and Germany,

not here noticed, but the list above contains
the most important of those now known to

the Fraternity. Many of them have never

yet been published, and the collection
forms a mass of material absolutely necessary for the proper investigation of Masonic
history.

Every Mason

who

desires

to

know

the true condition of the Fraternity

during the last three or four centuries, and
who would learn the connection between
the Stonemasons of the Middle Ages and
the Free and Accepted Masons of the present day, so as perfectly to understand the
process by which the Institution became
changed from an operative art to a speculative science, should attentively read and
thoroughly digest these ancient records of
the Brotherhood.

Rectification.

The German Masons

use this word to designate that process

of removing an irregularity of initiation
which, in English Masonry, is called healing,

which

see.

Rectified Rite.

(Bite Rectifie.)

See

Martinism.

Rectified Rose Croix, Rite of.

sons.
3.

18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.

Paris Regulations.
Strasburg Constitutions.
Cooke's Manuscript.
Landsdowne Manuscript.
Schaw Manuscript.
St. Clair Charters.^
Eglinton Manuscript.
York Manuscripts, (six in number.)
Grand Lodge Manuscript.
Sloane Manuscripts, (two in number.)
Aitcheson-Haven Manuscript.
Kilwinning Manuscript.
Harleian Manuscript.
Hope Manuscript.
Alnwick Manuscript.

See Rose Croix,

Rectified.

Recusant. A

term applied in Engone who refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the king as head of
the church. In Masonic law, the word is
sometimes used to designate a Lodge or
a Mason that refuses to obey an edict of the
Grand Lodge. The arrest of the Charter,
lish history to

or the suspension or expulsion of the offender, would be the necessary punishment

of such an offence.
Red. Red, scarlet, or crimson, for it is
indifferently called by each of these names,
is the appropriate color of the Royal Arch
degree, and is said symbolically to repre-

RED

RED

635

sent the ardor and zeal which should actu- enthusiasm of Peter the Hermit, addressed
ate all who are in possession of that sub- the people who had assembled at the city
lime portion of Masonry. Portal ( Couleurs of Clermont during the sitting of the
Symb., p. 116,) refers the color red to fire, Council, and exhorted them to join in the
which was the symbol of the regeneration expedition to conquer the Holy Land, he
and purification of souls. Hence there said, in reply to their cry that God wills it,
seems to be a congruity in adopting it as Dieux el volt, " it is indeed the will of God ;
the color of the Royal Arch, which refers let this memorable word, the inspiration,
historically to the regeneration or rebuild- surely, of our Holy Spirit, be forever adopting of the Temple, and symbolically to the ed as your cry of battle, to animate the devotion and courage of the champions of
regeneration of life.
In the religious services of the Hebrews, Christ. His cross is the symbol of your
red, or scarlet, was used as one of the colors salvation ; wear it, a red, a bloody cross, as
of the veils of the tabernacle, in which, ac- an external mark on your breasts or shoulcording to Josephus, it was an emblem of ders, as a pledge of your sacred and irrevothe element of fire; it was also used in the cable engagement."
The proposal was
ephod of the high priest, in the girdle, and eagerly accepted, and the Bishop of Puy
in the breastplate. Red was, among the was the first who solicited the Pope to affix
Jews, a color of dignity, appropriated to the the cross in red cloth on his shoulder. The
most opulent or honorable, and hence the example was at once followed, and thenceprophet Jeremiah, in describing the rich forth the red cross on the breast was recogmen of his country, speaks of them as those nized as the sign of him who was engaged
in the Holy Wars, and Crusader and Red
who " were brought up in scarlet."
In the Middle Ages, those knights who Cross Knight became convertible terms.
engaged in the wars of the Crusades, and Spenser, in the Fairie Queen, (Cant. I.,) thus
especially the Templars, wore a red cross, describes one of these knights
as a symbol of their willingness to undergo
" And on his breast a bloody cross he bore,
martyrdom for the sake of religion ; and the
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
priests of the Roman Church still wear red
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he
vestments when they officiate on the festiwore,
vals of those saints who were martyred.
And dead, as living, ever him ador'd
of
Masonry
is
in
the
higher
degrees
Red
Upon his shield the like was also scor'd."
as predominating a color as blue is in the
The application of this title, as is somelower.
Its symbolic significations differ,
but they may generally be considered as times done in the ritual of the degree, to a
alluding either to the virtue of fervency Masonic degree of Knight of the Red Cross,
Red Cross Knight
when the symbolism is moral, or to the is altogether wrong.
shedding of blood when it is historical. and a Knight of the Red Cross are two enThus in the degree of Provost and Judge, tirely different things.
it is historically emblematic of the violent
of the. See
Cross,
death of one of the founders of the Institu- Knight of the Red Cross.
tion; while in the degree of Perfection it is
Cross Legend. The embassy
said to be a moral symbol of zeal for the of Zerubbabel to the court of Darius conglory of God, and for our own advancement stitutes what has been called the Legend of
the Red Cross degree. See Embassy.
towards perfection in Masonry and virtue.
In the degree of Rose Croix, red is the
Cross of Babylon. See Babypredominating color, and symbolizes the lonish Pass.
ardent zeal which should inspire all who
ConCross of
degree founded on the cirare in search of that which is lost.
stantine.
Where red is not used historically, and cumstance of the vision of a cross, with the
adopted as a memento of certain tragical inscription EN Tfi NIKA, which appeared
circumstances in the history of Masonry, in the heavens to the Emperor Constantine.
it is always, under some modification, a
It formed originally a part of the Rosaic
symbol of zeal and fervency.
Rite, and is now practised in England,
These three colors, blue, purple, and red, Ireland, Scotland, and some of the English
were called in the former English lectures colonies, as a distinct Order the meetings
" the old colors of Masonry," and were said being called " Conclaves," and the presiding
to have been selected "because they are officer of the Grand Imperial Council of
Its
royal, and such as the ancient kings and the whole Order, " Grand Sovereign."
princes used to wear; and sacred history existence in England as a Masonic degree
informs us that the veil of the Temple was has been traced, according to Bro. R. W.
composed of these colors."
Little, (Freemas. Mag.,) to the year 1780,
Cross Knight. When, in the when it was given by Bro. Charles Shirreff.
tenth century, Pope Urban II., won by the It was reorganized in 1804 by Walter Rod:

Red
Red
Red
Red

Knight

Rome and

Red

REFRESHMENT

RED

636

who

Duke of Brunswick, presided

as Grand Maswas at this Convention that the

Reformed Rite was first established, its
the following legend
"After the memorable battle fought at members assuming the title of the " BenefiSaxa Rubra, on the 28th October, A. d. cent Knights of the Holy City," because
312, the emperor sent for the chiefs of the they derived their system from the French
Christian legion, and
we now quote the Rite of that name. It was called the Rein presence of his formed Rite, because it professed to be a
words of an old ritual
other officers constituted them into an reformation of a Rite which had been esOrder of Knighthood, and appointed them tablished in Germany about a quarter of
to wear the form of the Cross he had seen a century before under the name of the
in the heavens upon their shields, with " Rite of Strict Observance." This latter
the motto In hoc signo vinces round it, sur- Rite had advanced an hypothesis in relarounded with clouds and peace being soon tion to the connection between Freemasonry
after made, he became the Sovereign Patron and the Order of Knights Templars, tracing
of the Christian Order of the Red Cross.' the origin of our Institution to those
This hypothesis
It is also said that this Cross, together with Knights at the Crusades.
a device called the Labarum, was ordered the Convention at Wilhelmsbad rejected
to be embroidered upon all the imperial as unfounded in history or correct tradiBy the adoption of this Rite, the
standards. The Christian warriors were tion.
selected to compose the body-guard of Con- Congress gave a death-blow to the Rite of
stantine, and the command of these privi- Strict Observance.
The Reformed Rite is exceedingly simleged soldiers was confided to Eusebius,
Bishop of Nicomedia, who was thus con- ple in its organization, consisting only of
sidered the second officer of the Order."
five degrees, namely
Red Cross Sword of Babylon. 1. Entered Apprentice 2. Fellow Craft;
A degree worked in the Royal Arch Chap- 3. Master Mason; 4. Scottish Master; 5.
ters of Scotland, and also in some parts of Knight of the Holy City.
England. It is very similar to the Knight
The last degree is, however, divided into
of the Red Cross conferred in the United three sections, those of Novice, Professed
Brother, and Knight, which really gives
States.
Bed ^Letters. In the Ancient and seven degrees to the Rite
Accepted Scottish Rite, edicts, summonses
Refreshment. In Masonic language,
or other documents, written or printed in refreshment is opposed in a peculiar sense
red letters, are supposed to be of more to labor. While a Lodge is in activity it
binding obligation, and to require more must be either at labor or at refreshment.
implicit obedience, than any others. Hence, If a Lodge is permanently closed until its
in the same Rite, to publish the name of next communication, the intervening peone who has been expelled in red letters is riod is one of abeyance, its activity for Maconsidered an especial mark of disgrace. sonic duty having for the time been susIt is derived from the custom of the Mid- pended although its powers and privileges
dle Ages, when, as Muratori shows, (Antiq. as a Lodge still exist, and may be at any
Ital. Med.,) red letters were used to give
time resumed. But where it is only temgreater weight to documents and he quotes porarily closed, with the intention of soon
an old Charter of 1020, which is said to be again resuming labor, the intermediate
confirmed " per literas rubeas," or by red period is called a time of refreshment, and
letters.
the Lodge is said not to be closed, but to
Reflection, Chamber of. See be called from labor to refreshment. The
Chamber of Reflection.
phrase is an old one, and is found in the

well Wright,
ritual.

The

supplied

ritual of the

its

present

Order contains

ter.

It

'

Beformed Helvetic

Bite.

The

earliest rituals of the last century.

Calling

Reformed Rite of Wilhelmsbad was intro- from labor to refreshment differs from
duced into Poland, in 1784, by Brother closing in this, that the ceremony is a very
Glayre, of Lausanne, the minister of King brief one, and that the Junior Warden
Stanislaus, and who was also the Provin- then assumes the control of the Craft, in
cial Grand Master of this Rite in the token of which he erects his column on his
French part of Switzerland. But, in intro- stand or pedestal, while the Senior Warducing it into Poland, he subjected it to den lays his down. This is reversed in
several modifications, and called it the Re- calling on, in which the ceremony is equally
formed Helvetic Rite. The system was brief.
adopted by the Grand Orient of Poland.
The word refreshment no longer bears the
Beformed Bite. This Rite was meaning among Masons that it formerly
established, in 1872, by a Congress of Free- did.
It signifies not necessarily eating and
masons assembled at Wilhelmsbad, in Ger- drinking, but simply cessation from labor.
many, over whose deliberations Ferdinand, A Lodge at refreshment may thus be com-

KEGHELLINI

KEGALIA

637

to any other society when in a re- the collar and jewel, and sometimes even
During the whole of the last century, the apron, are called by many Masons the
and a part of the present, a different mean- regalia. The word has the early authority
ing was given to the word, arising from a of Preston. In the second edition of his
now obsolete usage, which Dr. Oliver Illustrations, (1775,) when on the subject
of funerals, he uses the expression, "the
{Mas. Juris., p. 210,) thus describes:
" The Lodges in ancient times were not body, with the regalia placed thereou, and
arranged according to the practice in use two swords crossed." And at the end of
amongst ourselves at the present day. The the service he directs that " the regalia
Worshipful Master, indeed, stood in the and ornaments of the deceased, if an officer
east, but both the Wardens were placed in of a Lodge, are returned to the Master in
the west. The south was occupied by the due form, and with the usual ceremonies."
senior Entered Apprentice, whose business Regalia cannot here mean the Bible and
Book of Constitutions, for there is a place
it was to obey the instructions of the Masin another part of the procession approter, and to welcome the visiting brethren,
I should have supposed
after having duly ascertained that they priated to them.
were Masons. The junior Entered Ap- that, by regalia, Preston referred to some
prentice was placed in the north, to pre- particular decorations of the Lodge, had
vent the intrusion of cowans and eaves- not his subsequent editors, Jones and Oliver,
droppers and a long table, and sometimes both interpolated the word '* other " before
two, where the Lodge was numerous, were ornaments, so as to make the sentence
extended in parallel lines from the pedes- read " regalia and other ornaments," thus
tal to the place where the Wardens sat, on clearly indicating that they deemed the
which appeared not only the emblems of regalia a part of the ornaments of the deMasonry, but also materials for refresh- ceased. The word is thus used in one of
ment
for in those days every section of the chapters of the modern Constitutions
the lecture had its peculiar toast or senti- of the Grand Lodge of England. But in
ment; and at its conclusion the Lodge was the text the more correct words " clothing
called from labor to refreshment by certain and jewels " are employed. There is, howceremonies, and a toast, technically called ever, so great an error in the use of the
the charge/ was drunk in a bumper, with word regalia to denote Masonic clothing,
the honors, and not unfrequently accom- that it would be better to avoid it.
panied by an appropriate song.
After
Regeneration. In the Ancient Myswhich the Lodge was called from refresh- teries the doctrine of regeneration was
ment to labor, and another section was de- taught by symbols not the theological

pared
cess.

'

livered with the like result."

At the present day, the banquets of
Lodges, when they take place, are always
held after the Lodge is closed; although
they are still supposed to be under the

of the Junior Warden.

When
modern Lodges are called to refreshment,
it is either as a part of the ceremony of
the third degree, or for a brief period sometimes extending to more than a day, when
labor, which had not been finished, is to be
resumed and concluded.
The mythical history of Masonry tells us
that high twelve or noon was the hour at
Solomon's Temple when the Craft were
permitted to suspend their labor, which
was resumed an hour after. In reference
to this myth, a Lodge is at all times supposed to be called from labor to refreshment at " high twelve," and to be called on
again " one hour after high twelve."
Regalia. Strictly speaking, the word
regalia, from the Latin, regalia, royal
things, signifies the ornaments of a king or
queen, and is applied to the apparatus used
at a coronation, such as the crown, scep-

charge

cross, mound, etc.

But it has in
modern times been loosely employed to signify almost any kind of ornaments. Hence

tre,

dogma

of regeneration peculiar to the

Christian church, but the philosophical

dogma as a change from death to

new birth to immortal existence.

life

Hence

the last day of the Eleusinian mysteries,

the initiation was completed, was
called, says Court de Gebelin, {M. P., iv.
This is the
322,) the day of regeneration.
doctrine in the Masonic mysteries, and
more especially in the symbolism of the
third degree.
must not say that the
Mason is regenerated when he is initiated,
but that he has been indoctrinated into the
philosophy of the regeneration, or the new
of light out of darkbirth of all things
ness, or life out of death, of eternal life out
of temporal death.
Regent. The fourth degree of the
Lesser Mysteries of the Illuminati.
learned Masonic
Reghellini, M.
writer, who was born of Venetian parents
on the island of Scio, whence he was usually
styled Reghellini de Scio. The date of
1750, at which his birth has been placed, is
certainly an error. Michaud supposes that it
is twenty or thirty years too soon. The date of
the publication of his earliest works would
indicate that he could not have been born
much before 1780. After receiving a good

when

We

REGIMENTAL

638

REGULAR

education, and becoming especially a proficient in mathematics and chemistry, he settled at Brussels, where he appears to have
spent the remaining years of his life, and
wrote various works, which indicate extensive research and a lively and, perhaps, a
rather ill-directed imagination. In 1834 he
published a work entitled Examen du Mosaisme et du Christianisme, whose bold opinions were not considered as very orthodox.

He had

previously become attached to the

study of Masonic antiquities, and in 1826
published a work in one volume, entitled
Esprit du dogme de la Franc- Maconnerie
recherches sur son origine
ent^ rites.

He

et celle

subsequently

de ses differfurther de-

still

veloped his ideas on this subject, and published at Paris, in 1833, a much larger
work, in three volumes, entitled, La Magon-

comme le resultat des Religions Egyptienne, Juive et Chrktienne.

In
this work he seeks to trace both Freemasonry and the Mosaic religion to the worship
that was practised on the banks of the Nile
in the time of the Pharaohs.
Whatever
may be thought of his theory, it must be
confessed that he has collected a mass of
learned and interesting facts that must be
attractive to the Masonic scholar.
From
1822 to 1829 Reghellini devoted his labors
to editing the Annales Chronologiques, Litteraires et Historiques de la Magonnerie des
Pays- as, a work that contains much valunerie, consideree

able information.
Outside of Masonry, the life of Reghellini is not well known.
It is said that in
1848 he became complicated with the political troubles which broke out that year in
Vienna, and, in consequence, experienced
some trouble. His great age at the time
precluded the likelihood that the statement
is true.
In his latter days he was reduced
to great penury, and in August, 1855, was
compelled to take refuge in the House of
Mendicity at Brussels, where he shortly
afterwards died.

Regimental Lodge. An expression used by Dr. Oliver, in his Jurisprudence, to designate a Lodge attached to
a regiment in the British army. The title
is not recognized in the English Constitutions, where such a Lodge is always styled
a Military Lodge, which see.
list of the officers and
Register.
members of a Grand or subordinate
Lodge.
The registers of Grand Lodges
are generally published in this country annually attached to their Proceedings. The
custom of publishing annual registers of
subordinate Lodges is almost exclusively
confined to the Masonry of the continent
of Europe. Sometimes it is called a Regis-

try.

Registrar, Grand.

1.

An officer

of

the Grand Lodge of England, whose principal duty it is to take charge of the seal,
and attach it, or cause it to be attached by
the Grand Secretary, to documents issued
by the Grand Lodge or Grand Master. 2.
An officer in a Grand Consistory of the
Scottish Rite, whose duties are those of

Grand

Secretary.

Registration.

The modern Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of England require that every Lodge must be particularly careful in registering the names of
the brethren initiated therein, and also in
making the returns of its members; as no
person is entitled to partake of the general
charity, unless his name be duly registered,
and he shall have been at least two years a
contributing member of a Lodge, except
in the following cases, to which the limitation of two years is not meant to extend,
viz., shipwreck, or capture at sea, loss by
fire, or breaking or dislocating a limb, fully
attested and proved.
To prevent injury to
individuals, by their being excluded the
privileges of Masonry through the neglect
of their Lodges in not registering their
names, any brother so circumstanced, on
producing sufficient proof that he has paid
the full fees to his Lodge, including the
register fee, shall be capable of enjoying
the privileges of the Craft. But the offending Lodge shall be reported to the Board
of General Purposes, and rigorously proceeded against for detaining moneys which
are the property of the Grand Lodge.
An unregistered member in England is
therefore equivalent, so far as the exercise
of his rights is concerned, to an unaffiliated
Mason. In this country the same rule exists of registration in the Lodge books and
an annual return of the same to the Grand
Lodge, but the penalties for neglect or disobedience are neither so severe nor so well
defined.
Registry. The roll or list of Lodges
and their members under the obedience of
a Grand Lodge.
Such registries are in
general published annually by the Grand
Lodges of the United States at the end of
their printed Proceedings.

Regular.

Lodge working under

the legal authority of a Warrant of Constitution is said to be regular. The word was
first used in 1723, in the first edition of
Anderson's Constitutions. In the eighth
General Regulation published in that work
" If any set or number of Mait is said
sons shall take upon themselves to form a
Lodge without the Grand Master's Warrant, the regular Lodges are not to countenance them." Ragon says [Orthod. Mag.,
72,) that the word was first heard of in
:

French Masonry in 1773, when an edict

"A
of the Grand Orient thus defined it
:

REGULATIONS

RELIGION

639

regular Lodge

is a Lodge attached to the

cient Mysteries, like that of the third deGrand Orient, and a regular Mason is a gree of Masonry, began in sorrow and terminated in rejoicing. The sorrow was for
member of a regular Lodge."

Regulations.

See Old Regulations.

Called by Ezra the chanHe was probably a lieutenant-govcellor.
ernor of the province of Judea, who, with
Shimshai the scribe, wrote to Artaxerxes
to prevail upon him to stop the building
of the second Temple. His name is introduced into some of the high degrees that
are connected in their ritual with the sec-

the death of the hero-god, which was represented in the sacred rites, and the rejoicing

ond Temple.

truth.

Rehum.

Reinhold, Karl Leonliard. A

philosopher, who was born at Vienna in 1758, and died in 1823. He was
associated with Wieland, whose daughter
he married, in the editorship of the DeutchHe afterwards became a
schen Mercur.
professor of philosophy at Kiel, and published Letters on the Philosophy of Kant.
He was much interested in the study of
Freemasonry, and published, under the
pseudonym of Decius, at Leipsic, in 1788,
two lectures entitled Die Hebra'isehen
Mysterien oder die alteste religiose Freimaurerei, i. e., The Hebrew Mysteries, or the
Oldest religious Freemasonry. The fundamental idea of this work is, that Moses derived his system from the Egyptian priesthood. Eichhorn attacked his theory in his
Universal Repository of Biblical Literature.
Reinhold delivered and published, in 1809,
An Address on the Design of Freemasonry,
and another in 1820, on the occasion of the
reopening of a Lodge at Kiel. This was
probably his last Masonic labor, as he died
in 1823, at the age of sixty-five years.
In
1828 a Life of him was published by his
son, a professor of philosophy at Jena.

German

Reinstatement.
Rejection.

See Restoration.

One black

ject a candidate for initiation.

ball will re-

If a candidate be rejected, he can apply in no other

Lodge for admission. If admitted at all, it
must be in the Lodge where he first applied.
But the time when a new application may be made never having been determined by the general or common law of
Masonry, the rule has been left to the special enactment of Grand Lodges, some of
which have placed it at six months, and
some at from one to two years. Where the
Constitution of a Grand Lodge is silent on
the subject, it is held that a new application has never been specified, so that it is
held that a rejected candidate may apply
for a reconsideration of his case at any
time. The unfavorable report of the committee to whom the letter was referred, or
the withdrawal of the letter by the candidate or his frjends, is considered equivalent
See Unanimity.
to a rejection.
Rejoicing. The initiation of the An-

was for his resuscitation to eternal life.

"Thrice happy," says Sophocles, "are
those who descend to the shades below
when they have beheld these rites of initia-

The lesson there taught was, says

Pindar, the divine origin of life, and hence
the rejoicing at the discovery of this eternal
tion."

Relief. One of the three principal

tenets of a Mason's profession, and thus
defined in the lecture of the first degree.
To relieve the distressed is a duty incumbent on all men, but particularly on Masons, who are linked together by an indissoluble chain of sincere affection.
To
soothe the unhappy, to sympathize with
their misfortunes, to compassionate their
miseries, and to restore peace to their
troubled minds, is the great aim we have
in view.
On this basis we form our friendships and establish our connections.
Of the three tenets of a Mason's profession, which are Brotherly Love, Relief, and
Truth, it may be said that Truth is the column
of wisdom, whose rays penetrate and enlighten the inmost recesses of our Lodge
Brotherly Love, the column of strength,
which binds us as one family in the indissoluble bond of fraternal affection; and
Relief, the column of beauty, whose orna;

ments, more precious than the lilies and

pomegranates that adorned the pillars of
the porch, are the widow's tear of joy and
the orphan's prayer of gratitude.
Relief, Board of. The liability to
imposition on the charity of the Order, by
the applications of impostors, has led to the
establishment in our larger cities of Boards
of Relief.
These consist of representatives
of all the Lodges, to whom all applications
are referred.
The
consultations, are better enabled to distinguish the
worthy from the unworthy, and to detect
similar organattempts at imposition.
for

temporary

relief

members of the Board, by frequent

but under a different name, was

long ago established by the Grand Lodge
of England, for the distribution of the fund
( See Fund of Benevolence.)
of benevolence.
In New Orleans, Louisiana, the Board of
Relief, after twenty-five years of successful
ization,

operation, was chartered in July, 1854, by

the Grand Lodge as " Relief Lodge No. 1,"
to be composed of the Masters and Wardens
of all the Lodges who were united in the
objects of the Board.

Religion of Masonry. There has

been a needless expenditure of ingenuity
and talent, by a large number of Masonic

RELIGION

RELIGION

640

and essayists, in the endeavor to

prove that Masonry is not religion. This
has undoubtedly arisen from a well intended but erroneous view that has been
taken of the connection between religion
and Masonry, and from a fear that if
the complete disseverance of the two was
not made manifest, the opponents of Masonry would be enabled successfully to establish a theory which they have been fond
of advancing, that the Masons were disposed to substitute the teachings of their
Order for the truths of Christianity. Now
1 have never for a moment believed that
any such unwarrantable assumption, as
that Masonry is intended to be a substitute
for Christianity, could ever obtain admission into any well regulated mind, and,
therefore, I am not disposed to yield, on
the subject of the religious character of
Masonry, quite so much as has been yielded
by more timid brethren. On the contrary,
I contend, without any sort of hesitation,
that Masonry is, in every sense of the word,
except one, and that its least philosophical,
that it
an eminently religious institution
is indebted solely to the religious element
orators

which

it

contains for

its

origin and for

its

continued existence, and that without this

religious element it would scarcely be
worthy of cultivation by the wise and good.
But, that I may be truly understood, it
will be well first to agree upon the true defThere is nothing more
inition of religion.
illogical than to reason upon undefined
Webster has given four distinct
terms.
definitions of religion
1. Religion, in a comprehensive sense,
includes, he says, a belief in the being and
in the revelation of
perfections of God
in man's obligation to
his will to man
in a state of reward
obey his commands
and punishment, and in man's accountable-

ness to God and also true godliness or piety

of life, with the practice of all moral duties.
2. His second definition is, that religion,
as distinct from theology, is godliness or
real piety in practice, consisting in the performance of all known duties to God and
our fellow-men, in obedience to divine command, or from love to God and his law.
3. Again, he says that religion, as distinct from virtue or morality, consists in
the performance of the duties we owe directly to God, from a principle of obedi;

ence to his

And

will.

he defines religion to be
any system of faith or worship and in this
sense, he says, religion comprehends the
belief and worship of Pagans and Mohammedans as well as of Christians
any re4.

lastly,

And

it is in this sense that we speak of the

Turkish religion, or the Jewish religion, as

well as of the Christian.

Now, it is plain that, in either of the first
three senses in which we may take the word
religion (and they do not very materially

from each other), Masonry may rightfully claim to be called a religious institution.
Closely and accurately examined, it
will be found to answer to any one of the
differ

requirements of either of these three definitions.

So much does it " include a belief
in the being and perfections of God," that
the public profession of such a faith is essentially necessary to gain admission into
the Order. No disbeliever in the existence
of a God can be made a Mason. The " revelation of his will to man" is technically
called the " spiritual, moral, and Masonic
trestle-board " of every Mason, according
to the rules and designs of which he is to
erect the spiritual edifice of his eternal life.
A "state of reward and punishment" is
necessarily included in the very idea of an
obligation, which, without the belief in
such a state, could be of no binding force
or efficacy. And " true godliness or piety of
life " is inculcated as the invariable duty
of every Mason, from the inception of the
first to the end of the very last degree that
he takes. So, again, in reference to the
second and third definitions, all this practical piety and performance of the duties
we owe to God and to our fellow-men arise
from and are founded on a principle of
obedience to the divine will. Whence else,
or from what other will, could they have
arisen ? It is the voice of the G. A. O. T.
U. symbolized to us in every ceremony of
our ritual and from every portion of the
furniture of our Lodge, that speaks to the
true Mason, commanding him to fear God
It is idle to say
to love the brethren.
that the Mason does good simply in obedience to the statutes of the Order. These
very statutes owe their sanction to the Masonic idea of the nature and perfections of
God, which idea has come down to us
from the earliest history of the Institution,
and the promulgation of which idea was
the very object and design of its origin.
But it must be confessed that the fourth
definition does not appear to be strictly applicable to Masonry. It has no pretension
to assume a place among the religions of
the world as a sectarian " system of faith
and worship," in the sense in which we distinguish Christianity from Judaism, or Ju-

and

daism from

Mohammedanism.

In

this

meaning of the word we do not and cannot speak of the Masonic religion, nor say
ligion consisting in the belief of a superior of a man that he is not a Christian, but
power, or powers, governing the world, and a Mason. Here it is that the opponents
in the worship of such power or powers. of Freemasonry have assumed mistaken

KELIGIOUS

RENOUNCING

ground, in confounding the idea of a religious institution with that of the Christian
religion as a peculiar form of worship, and
in supposing, because Masonry teaches re.ligious truth, that it is offered as a substi-

the path of righteousness, but it does not

claim to be " the way, the truth, and the

tute for Christian truth and Christian obliIts warmest and most enlightened
gation.
friends have never advanced nor supported
such a claim. Freemasonry is not ChristiIt is not inanity, nor a substitute for it.
tended to supersede it nor any other form
of worship or system of faith. It does not
meddle with sectarian creeds or doctrines,
but teaches fundamental religious truth
not enough to do away with the necessity
of the Christian scheme of salvation, but
more than enough to show, to demonstration, that it is, in every philosophical sense
of the word, a religious institution, and
one, too, in which the true Christian Mason
will find, if he earnestly seeks for them,
abundant types and shadows of his own
exalted and divinely inspired faith.
The tendency of all true Masonry is towards religion. If it make any progress, its
progress is to that holy end. Look at its

641

In so far, therefore, it cannot become

a substitute for Christianity, but its tendency is thitherward; and, as the handmaid of religion, it may, and often does,
act as the porch that introduces its votaries
into the temple of divine truth.
Masonry, then, is, indeed, a religious
institution
and on this ground mainly, if
not alone, should the religious Mason defend it.
Religious Qualifications. See
life."

Qualifications.

Removal of Lodges. On

Janu-

Grand Lodge of England

adopted a regulation that no Lodge should
ary, 25, 1738, the

be removed without the Master's knowledge that no motion for removing it should
be made in his absence and that if he was
opposed to the removal, it should not be
removed unless two-thirds of the members
present voted in the affirmative. But as
this rule was adopted subsequent to the
General Eegulations of 1722, it is not obligatory as a law of Masonry at present.
;

The Grand Lodges of England and of New

York have substantially the same rule.
inculcating religious doctrine, commanding But unless there be a local regulation in
religious observance, and teaching religious the Constitution of any particular Grand
truth, and who can deny that it is emi- Lodge to that effect, I know of no princiits sublime ceremonies,
profound symbols and allegories,
all

ancient landmarks,

its

nently a religious institution?

But, besides, Masonry is, in all its forms,
thoroughly tinctured with a true devotional

We open and close our Lodges with

spirit.

ple of Masonic law set forth in the Ancient

Landmarks or Regulations which forbids a
Lodge, upon the mere vote of the majority,

from removing from one house

to another

we invoke the blessing of the Most in the same town or city and unless the
High upon all our labors we demand of Grand Lodge of any particular jurisdiction

prayer

our neophytes a profession of trusting belief in the existence and the superintending
care of God; and we teach them to bow
with humility and reverence at his awful
name, while his holy law is widely opened
upon our altars. Freemasonry is thus identified with religion; and although a man
may be eminently religious without being
a Mason, it is impossible that a Mason can
be " true and trusty " to his Order unless
he is a respecter of religion and an observer of religious principle.
But the religion of Masonry is not sectarian. It admits men of every creed within
its hospitable bosom, rejecting none and
approving none for his peculiar faith. It
is not Judaism, though there is nothing in
it to offend a Jew
it is not Christianity,
but there is nothing in it repugnant to the
faith of a Christian.
Its religion is that
general one of nature and primitive reve;

handed down to us from some

ancient and patriarchal priesthood,
in
which all men may agree and in which no
men can differ. It inculcates the practice
of virtue, but it supplies no scheme of redemption for sin. It points its disciples to
lation,

4F

41

has adopted a regulation forbidding the

removal of a Lodge from one house to another without its consent, I know of no law
in Masonry of universal force which would
prohibit such a removal at the mere option
of the Lodge.
This refers, of course, only to the removal
from one house to another; but as the town
or village in which the Lodge is situated is
designated in its Warrant of Constitution,
no such removal can be made except with
the consent of the Grand Lodge, or, during
the recess of that body, by the Dispensation
of the Grand Master, to be subsequently
confirmed by the Grand Lodge.
Renouncing Masons. During the
anti-Masonic excitement in the United
States,

which began in 1828, and lasted

for

a few years, many Masons left the Order,

actuated by various motives, (seldom good
ones,) and attached themselves to the antiMasonic party. It is not singular that these
deserters, who called themselves "Renouncing Masons," were the bitterest in their
hatred and the loudest in their vituperations of the Order.
But, as may be seen
in the article Indelibility, a renunciation of

;;

REPEAL

642

REPRIMAND

the name cannot absolve any one from the

obligations of a Mason.
Repeal. As a Lodge cannot enact a
new by-law without the consent of the
Grand Lodge, neither can it repeal an old
one without the same consent nor can anything done at a stated meeting be repealed
at a subsequent extra or emergent one.
;

Report of a Committee. When

a committee, to which a subject had been
has completed its investigation

referred,

and come to an opinion, it directs its chairman, or some other member, to prepare an
expression of its views, to be submitted to
the Lodge. The paper containing this expression of views is called its report, which
may be framed in three different forms It
may contain only an expression of opinion
on "the subject which had been referred; or
it may contain, in addition to this, an express resolution or series of resolutions, the
adoption of which by the assembly is recommended or, lastly, it may contain one
or more resolutions, without any preliminary expression of opinion.
The report, when prepared, is read to
the members of the committee, and, if it
meets with their final sanction, the chairman, or one of the members, is directed to
present it to the Lodge.
The reading of the report is its reception, and the next question will be on its
adoption. If it contains a recommendation of resolutions, the adoption of the report will be equivalent to an adoption of
the resolutions, but the report may, on the
question of adoption, be otherwise disposed
of by being laid on the table, postponed, or
recommitted.
See the subject fully discussed in the author's treatise on Parliamentary Law as applied to the Government of
Masonic Bodies, ch. xxxi.
:

and

receives his appointment on its nomination, but he wears the clothing of the
Grand Lodge which he represents.
He
is required to attend the meetings of the
Grand Lodge to which he is accredited,
and to communicate to his constituents an
abstract of the proceedings, and other mat-

Masonic interest. But it is doubtwhether these duties are generally per-

ters of
ful

formed. The oflice of representative appears to be rather one of honor than of

service.
In the French system, a representative is called a "gage d'amitie."

Representatives of ^Lodges. The

twelfth

landmark prescribes

that every
a right to be present at the
General Assembly of the Craft, which was
annually held. And even as late as 1717,
on the reorganization of the Grand Lodge
of England, we are informed by Preston
that the Grand Master summoned all the

Mason has

brethren to

meet him and his Wardens in

the quarterly communications. But soon

after, it being found, I presume, that a
continuance of such attendance would render the Grand Lodge an unwieldy body
and the rights of the Fraternity having
been securely guarded by the adoption of
the thirty-nine Regulations, it was determined to limit the appearance of the brethren of each Lodge, at the quarterly communications, to its Master and Wardens
so that the Grand Lodge became thenceforth a strictly representative body, composed of the first three officers of the
subordinate Lodges. The inherent right
and the positive duty of every Mason to be
present at the General Assembly or Grand

Lodge was relinquished, and a representaby Masters and Wardens was substituted in its place. A few modern Grand
Lodges have disfranchised the Wardens
Reportorial Corps. A name re- also, and confined the representation to the
cently given in the United States to that Masters only. But this is evidently an inuseful and intelligent body of Masons who novation, having no color of authority in
write, in their respective Grand Lodges, the Old Regulations.
the reports on Foreign Correspondence.
Representative System. The
Through the exertions of Dr. Corson, the system of appointing representatives of
chairman of the Committee of Foreign Cor- Grand Lodges originated some years ago
respondence of New Jersey, a convention with the Grand Lodge of New York. It at
of this body was held at Baltimore in 1871, first met with much opposition, but has gradduring the session of the General Grand ually gained favor, and there are now but
Chapter, and measures were then taken to few Grand Lodges in Europe or America
establish a triennial convention.
Such a that have not adopted it. Although the origconvention would assume no legislative inal plan intended by the founders of the
powers, but would simply meet for the in- system does not appear to have been effecttercommunication of ideas and the interchange of fraternal greetings.

Representative of a Grand
A brother appointed by one

Lodge.

tion

ually carried out in all

its details, it

has at

least been successful as a means of more

closely cementing the bonds of union be-

tween the bodies mutually represented.

Grand Lodge to represent its interests in

Reprimand. A reproof formally
another. The representative is generally, communicated to the offender for some fault
although not necessarily, a member of the committed, and the lowest grade, above
Grand Lodge to whom he is accredited, censure, of Masonic punishment. It can be

REPUTATION

RESTORATION

643

This mode of resignation is called

inflicted only on charges made, and by a Lodge.
majority vote of the Lodge. It may be a demission. See Demit.
private or public. Private reprimand is
Resignation of Office. Every ofgenerally communicated to the offender ficer of a Lodge, or rather Masonic organiby a letter from the Master. Public repri- zation, being required at the time of his inmand is given orally in the Lodge and in stallation into office to enter into an obligareprimand tion that he will perform the duties of that
the presence of the brethren.
does not affect the Masonic standing of the office for a specified time and until his successor is installed, it has been repeatedly
person reprimanded.
Reputation. In the technical lan- held by the Masonic jurists of this country
guage of Masonry, a man of good reputation that an officer once elected and installed
cannot resign his office and this may be
is said to be one who is " under the tongue
of good report " and this constitutes one of considered as a well-established law of
the indispensable qualifications of a candi- American Masonry.
date for initiation.
Resolution. In parliamentary law,
Residence. It is the general usage a proposition, when first presented, is called
in this country, and may be considered as a motion if adopted, it becomes a resoluthe Masonic law of custom, that the appli- tion. Many Grand Lodges adopt, from
cation of a candidate for initiation must be time to time, in addition to the provisions
made to the Lodge nearest his place of of their Constitution, certain resolutions on
There is, however, no express important subjects, which, giving them an
residence.
law upon this subject either in the ancient apparently greater weight of authority
landmarks or the Old Constitutions, and than ordinary enactments, are frequently
its positive sanction as a law in any jurisappended to their Constitution, or their
diction must be found in the local enact- transaction, under the imposing title of
ments of the Grand Lodge of that jurisdic- " Standing Regulations." But this weight
tion.
Still there can be no doubt that ex- of authority is only apparent. These standpediency and justice to the Order make ing resolutions having been adopted, like
such a regulation necessary, and accordingly all other resolutions, by a mere majority
many Grand Lodges have incorporated vote, are subject, like them, to be repealed
such a regulation in their Constitutions; or rescinded by the same vote.
and of course, whenever this has been done,
Respectable. A title given by the
it becomes a positive law in that jurisdicFrench, as Worshipful is by the English, to
tion.
a Lodge. Thus, La Respectable Loge de la
It has also been contended by some
Candeur is equivalent to "The WorshipAmerican Masonic jurists that a non-resi- ful Lodge of Candor." It is generally abdent of a State is not entitled, on a tempo- breviated as R.\ L.\ or R.\
i.\
rary visit to that State, to apply for initiaResponse. In the liturgical services
tion.
There is, however, no landmark nor of the church an answer made by the peowritten law in the ancient Constitutions ple speaking alternately with the clergywhich forbids the initiation of non-resi- man. In the ceremonial observances of
dents.
Still, as there can be no question
Freemasonry there are many responses,
that the conferring of the degrees of Ma- the Master and the brethren taking altersonry on a stranger is always inexpedient, nate parts, especially in the funeral service
and frequently productive of injury and in- as laid down first by Preston, and now very
justice, by foisting on the Lodges near the
generally adopted. In all Masonic prayers
candidate's residence unworthy and unac- the proper response, never to be omitted, is,
ceptable persons, there has been a very " So mote it be."

general

disposition

among

the

Grand

Lodges of

The restoration, or, as

also called, the reinstatement of a Ma-

Restoration.

this country to discountenance

the initiation of non-residents. Many of

it is

for, as the landmarks are entirely

silent on the subject, the local regulation is
left to the discretion of each jurisdiction.

been reversed on account of illegality in the

son who had been excluded, suspended, or

them have adopted a specific regulation to expelled, may be the voluntary act of the
this effect, and in all jurisdictions where Lodge, or that of the Grand Lodge on apthis has been done, the law becomes im- peal, when the sentence of the Lodge has
perative

But no such rule has ever existed among

European Lodges.

or injustice, or undue severity in the

sentence. It may also, as in the instance
of definite suspension, be the result of the
termination of the period of suspension,
trial,

Resignation of Membership. when

The

law of Masonry does not

recognize the right of any member of a
Lodge to resign his membership, unless it
be for the purpose of uniting with another
spirit of the

the suspended

restored without

member

is,

ipso facto,

any further action of the

Lodge.

The
sion

restoration from
must be equivalent

indefinite suspento a reinstatement

RESURRECTION

REVEREND

in membership, because the suspension being removed, the offender is at once invested with the rights and privileges of
which he had never been divested, but only
temporarily deprived.
But restoration from expulsion may be
either to membership in the Lodge or simply to the privileges of the Order.
It may also be ex gratia, or an act of
mercy, the past offence being condoned or
ex debito justitice, by a reversal of the sentence for illegality of trial or injustice in
the verdict.
The restoration ex gratia may be either
by the Lodge or the Grand Lodge on apIf by the Lodge, it may be to mempeal.
bership, or only to good standing in the
Order. But if by the Grand Lodge, the
restoration can only be to the rights and
The Mason havprivileges of the Order.
ing been justly and legally expelled from
the Lodge, the Grand Lodge possesses no
prerogative by which it could enforce a
Lodge to admit one legally expelled any
more than it could a profane who had
never been initiated.
But if the restoration be ex debito justitice,
as an act of justice, because the trial or
verdict had been illegal, then the brother,
never having been lawfully expelled from
the Lodge or the Order, but being at the
very time of his appeal a member of the
Lodge, unjustly or illegally deprived of his
rights, the restoration in this case by the
Grand Lodge must be to membership in the
Lodge. Any other course, such as to restore
him to the Order but not to membership,
would be manifestly unjust. The Grand
Lodge having reversed the trial and sentence of the subordinate Lodge, that trial
and sentence become null and void, and the
Mason who had been unjustly expelled is
at once restored to his original status.
See
this subject fully discussed in the author's
Text Book of Masonic Jurisprudence, Book
VI., chap. iii.
Resurrection. The doctrine of a
resurrection to a future and eternal life
constitutes an indispensable portion of the
religious faith of Masonry.
It is not authoritatively inculcated as a point of dogmatic creed, but is impressively taught by
the symbolism of the third degree. This
dogma has existed among almost all nations from a very early period. The Egyptians, in their mysteries, taught a final
resurrection of the soul.
Although the
Jews, in escaping from their Egyptian
thraldom, did not carry this doctrine with
them into the desert, for it formed no part
of the Mosaic theology,
yet they subsequently, after the captivity, borrowed it
from the Zoroastrians. The Brahmans and
Buddhists of the East, the Etruscans of the

South, and the Druids and the Scandinavian

Skalds of the West, nursed the faith of a
resurrection to future life. The Greeks and

644

Romans subscribed to it; and it was

one of the great objects of their mysteries
to teach it.
It is, as we all know, an essential part of the Christian faith, and was
exemplified, in his own resurrection, by
Christ to his followers. In Freemasonry, a
particular degree, the Master's, has been
appropriated to teach it by an impressive
symbolism.
"Thus," says Hutchinson,
(p. 101,) "our Order is a positive contradiction to Judaic blindness and infidelity,
and testifies our faith concerning the resurrection of the body."
We may deny that there has been a regular descent of Freemasonry, as a secret organization, from the mystical association of
the Eleusinians, the Samothracians, or the
Dionysians. No one, however, who carefully examines the mode in which the
resurrection or restoration to life was
taught by a symbol and a ceremony in the
Ancient Mysteries, and how the same
dogma is now taught in the Masonic initiation, can, without absolutely rejecting the
the

concatenation of circumstances
patent before him, refuse his assent to the proposition that the latter was
derived from the former. The resemblance
between the Dionysiac legend, for instance,
and the Hiramic, cannot have been purely
The chain that connects them
accidental.
is easily found in the fact that the Pagan
mysteries lasted until the fourth century of
the Christian era, and, as the fathers of the
church lamented, exercised an influence
over the secret societies of the Middle Ages.
Returns of Lodges. Every subordinate Lodge is required to make annually to the Grand Lodge a statement of
the names of its members, and the number
of admissions, demissions, and expulsions
or rejections that have taken place within
the year. This statement is called a return.
neglect to make the annual return
causes a forfeiture of the right of representation in the Grand Lodge. The sum
due by the Lodge is based on the return,
as a tax is levied for each member and each
evident

which

lies

initiation.
this means,

of

its

The Grand Lodge is

made acquainted with

also,

by

the state
subordinates and the condition of the

Order in

its jurisdiction.

Reuben.

The eldest son of Jacob.

the Royal Arch banners, that of
Reuben -is purple, and bears a man as the
It is appropriated to the Grand
device.
Master of the Second Veil.
Revelations of Masonry. See

Among

Expositions.

Reverend. A
to the chaplain of a

title

sometimes given

Masonic body.

REVIVAL

KEVERENTIAL
Reverential Sign. The

second sign
the English Eoyal Arch system, and
are taught by the
thus explained.
reverential sign to bend with submission
and resignation beneath the chastening
hand of the Almighty, and at the same
time to engraft his law in our hearts. This
expressive form, in which the Father pf
the human race first presented himself before the face of the Most High, to receive
the denunciation and terrible judgment,
in

We

was adopted by our Grand Master Moses,

who, when the Lord appeared to him in
the burning bush on Mount Horeb, covered
his face from the brightness of the divine
presence.

Revival. The occurrences which took

place in the city of London, in the year
1717, when that important body, which
has since been known as the Grand Lodge
of England, was organized, have been always known in Masonic history as the
"Revival of Masonry." Anderson, in the
first edition of the " Constitutions," published in 1723, speaks of the brethren having revived the drooping Lodges of London but he makes no other reference to
the transaction.
In his second edition,
published in 1738, he is more diffuse, and
the account there given is the only authority we possess of the organization made
in 1717 Preston and all subsequent writers
have of course derived their authority
from Anderson. The transactions are thus
detailed by Preston, (Must, p. 191,) whose
account is preferred, as containing in a
more succinct form all that Anderson has
more profusely detailed.
" On the accession of George I., the Masons in London and its environs, finding
themselves deprived of Sir Christopher
Wren and their annual meetings discontinued, resolved to cement themselves
under a new Grand Master, and to revive
the communications and annual festivals
of the Society. With this view, the Lodges
at the Goose and Gridiron, in St. Paul's
Church -Yard; the Crown, in Parker's Lane,
near Drury Lane the Apple-Tree Tavern,
in Charles Street, Covent Garden and the
Rummer and Grapes Tavern, in Channel
Row, Westminster, the only four Lodges
in being in the South of England at that
time, with some other old brethren, met
at the Apple-Tree Tavern, above mentioned,
in February, 1717
and, having voted the
oldest Master Mason then present into
the chair, constituted themselves a Grand
Lodge, pro tempore, in due form. At this
meeting it was resolved to hold Quarterly
Communications of the Fraternity, and to
hold the next annual assembly and feast on
the 24th of June at trie Goose and Gridiron,
in St. Paul's Church-Yard, (in compliment
to the oldest Lodge, which then met there,)
;

645

the purpose of electing a Grand Master

till they should have the
honor of a noble brother at their head. Accordingly,, on St. John the Baptist's day,
1717, in the third year of the reign of King
George I., the assembly and feast were held
at the said house when the oldest Master
Mason and the Master of a Lodge having
taken the chair, a list of proper candidates
for the office of Grand Master was produced; and the names being separately
proposed, the brethren, by a great majority
of hands, elected Mr. Anthony Sayer
Grand Master of Masons for the ensuing
year who was forthwith invested by the
said oiliest Master, installed by the Master
of the oldest Lodge, and duly congratulated
by the assembly, who paid him homage,
The Grand Master then entered on the duties of his office, appointed his Wardens, and
commanded the brethren of the four Lodges
to meet him and his Wardens quarterly in
communication; enjoiningthem at the same
time to recommend to all the Fraternity a
punctual attendance on the next annual
for

among themselves,

assembly and feast."

Recently, this claim, that Masonry was
not for the first time organized, but only
revived in 1717, has been attacked by some
of those modern iconoclasts who refuse
credence to anything traditional, or even
to any record which is not supported by
other contemporary authority. Chief among
these is Bro. W. P. Buchan, of England,
who, in his numerous articles in the London Freemason, (1871 and 1872,) has attacked the antiquity of Freemasonry, and
refuses to give it an existence anterior to
the year 1717. His exact theory is that
" our system of degrees, words, grips, signs,
etc., was not in existence until about A. d.
1717." He admits, however, that certain
of the " elements or groundwork " of the
degrees existed before that year, but not
confined to the Masons, being common to
all the gilds.
He thinks that the present system was indebted to the inventive
genius of Anderson and Desaguliers. And
he supposes that it was simply " a reconstruction of an ancient society, viz., of some

form of old Pagan philosophy." Hence, he

contends that it was not a " revival," but
only a "renaissance," and he explains his
meaning in the following language
" Before the eighteenth century we had
a renaissance of Pagan architecture ; then,
to follow suit, in the eighteenth century we
had a renaissance in a new dress of Pagan

mysticism but for neither are we indebted

Operative Masons, although the
Operative Masons were made use of in
both cases." [London Freemason, September 23, 1871.)
Buchan's theory has been attacked by
Bros. William J. Hughan and Chalmers I.
;

to the

REVOKE

RIGHT

Pattern.
That lie is right in his theory,
that the three degrees of Master, Fellow

Jan. 18, 1757. On April 6, 1791, these two

Lodges organized a Grand Lodge at Providence, Christopher Champlin being elected

646

Craft,

and Apprentice were unknown

to

the Masons of the seventeenth centnry, and

that these classes existed only as gradations of rank, will be very generally admitted. But there is unquestionable evidence that the modes of recognition, the
method of government, the legends, and
much of the ceremonial of initiation, were
in existence among the Operative Masons
of the Middle Ages, and were transmitted
to the Speculative Masons of the eighteenth century. The work of Anderson,
of Desaguliers, and their contemporaries,
was to improve and to enlarge, bufr not to
invent. The Masonic system of the present day has been the result of a slow but
steady growth. Just as the lectures of
Anderson, known to us from their publication in 1725, were subsequently modified
and enlarged by the successive labors of
Clare, of Dunckerley, of Preston, and of
Hemming, did he and Desaguliers submit
the simple ceremonial, which they found
at the reorganization of the Grand Lodge
in 1717, to a similar modification and enlargement.
Revoke. When a Dispensation is issued by a Grand Master for the organization of a Lodge, it is granted " to continue
of force until the Grand Lodge shall grant
a Warrant, or until the Dispensation is revoked by the Grand Master or the Grand
A Dispensation may therefore
Lodge."
be revoked at any time by the authority
which issued it, or by a higher authority.
Charters are arrested, forfeited, or declared
null and void; Dispensations are revoked.
Rhetoric. The art of embellishing
language with the ornaments of construction, so as to enable the speaker to persuade
or affect his hearers. It supposes and requires a proper acquaintance with the rest
of the liberal arts for the first step towards
adorning a discourse is for the speaker to
become thoroughly acquainted with its subject, and hence the ancient rule that the
orator should be acquainted with all the
arts and sciences.
Its importance as a
branch of liberal education is recommended
to the Mason in the Fellow Craft's" degree.
It is one of the seven liberal arts and sciences, the second in order, and is described
in the ancient Constitutions as " retoricke
that teacheth a man to speake fine and in
subtill terme."
Harleian MS.
;

Rhode Island.

Masonry was introduced into Rhode Island in 1750 by the

establishment of a Lodge at Newport, the
Charter for which had been granted by the
St. John's Grand Lodge of Boston on Dec.
The same Grand Lodge estab27, 1749.
lished a second Lodge at Providence on

the first Grand Master. This is the first

instance known in Masonic history of the
organization of a Grand Lodge by only two
subordinates. The act was irregular, and
the precedent has never subsequently been
followed. It was not until 1799 that the
new Grand Lodge granted its first Charter
for the establishment of a third Lodge at
Warren. The Grand Chapter was organized in March, 1798, and the Grand Council

The Grand Commandery

in Oct., 1860.

forms a part of a common body known as

the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts
and Rhode Island. It was formed in 1805,
and the celebrated Thomas Smith Webb
was its first presiding officer.
Rhodes. An island in the Mediterranean Sea, which, although, nominally
under the government of the Emperor of
Constantinople, was in 1308 in the possession of Saracen pirates.
In that year,
Fulke de Villaret, Grand Master of the
Knights Hospitallers, having landed with
a large force, drove out the Saracens and
took possession of the island, which became
the seat of the Order, who removed to it
from Cyprus and continued to occupy it
until it was retaken by the Saracens in 1522,
when the knights were transferred to the
island of Malta. Their residence for over
two hundred years at Rhodes caused them
sometimes to receive the title of the Knights
of Rhodes.
Rhodes, Knight of. See Knight
of Rhodes.
Rihbon. The use of a ribbon, with
the official jewel suspended and attached to
a button-hole instead of the collar, recently
adopted by a few American Lodges, is a
violation of the ancient customs of the
Order. The collar cut in a triangular shape,
with the jewel suspended from the apex,
dates from the earliest time of the revival,
and is perhaps as old as the apron itself.
See Collar.

Ridel, Cornelius Johann Rudolph. Born at Hamburg, May 25, 1759,

and died at Weimar, January 16, 1821. He
was an active and learned Mason, and for
many years the Master of the Lodge Amalia at Weimar.
In 1817, he published in
four volumes an elaborate and valuable
work entitled Versuch eines Alphabetischen
Verzeichnisses, u.

s.

w.,

i. e.,

"An

essay to-

wards an Alphabetical Catalogue of important events, for the knowledge and history of Freemasonry, and especially for a
critical examination of the origin and
growth of the various rituals and systems
from 1717 to 1817."

Right Angle. A

right angle

is

the

RIGHT
meeting of two lines in an angle of
degrees, or the fourth part of a
Each of its lines is perpendicular
and as the perpendicular
other
;

RIGHT
ninety
circle.

to the
line is

a symbol of uprightness of conduct, the

by Masons as
Such was also its

right angle has been adopted

an emblem of

virtue.

among the Pythagoreans. The

right angle is represented in the Lodges by
the square, as the horizontal is by the level,
and the perpendicular by the plumb.
Right Eminent. An epithet prefixed to the title of the Deputy Grand
Master of the Grand Encampment of
Knights Templars of the United States,
and to that of the Grand Commander of a
State Grand Commandery.
Right Excellent. The epithet prefixed to the title of all superior officers
of a Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masonry below the dignity of a Grand High
signification

Priest.

Hand.

The right hand has

Right
in all ages been deemed an important symbol to represent the virtue of fidelity.
Among the ancients, the right hand and
fidelity to an obligation were almost deemed
synonymous terms. Thus, among the Romans, the expression " fallere dextram,"
hand, also signified to viofaith ; and "jungere dextras," to join
right hands, meant to give a mutual pledge.
Among the Hebrews, yw, iamin, the right
hand, was derived from TDK, aman, to be
to betray the right
late

'

faithful.

The

practice of the ancients was conformable to these peculiarities of idiom.

Among the Jews, to give the right hand
was considered as a mark of friendship and
Thus St. Paul says, " when James,
fidelity.

Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars,

perceived the grace that was given unto
me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right
hand of fellowship, that we should go unto
the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." (Gal. ii. 6.) The same expression,
also, occurs in Maccabees.
We meet, indeed, continually in the Scriptures with
allusions to the right hand as an emblem of
Thus in Psalm cxliv.
truth and fidelity.
it is said, " their right hand is a right hand
of falsehood," that is to say, they lift up
their right hand to swear to what is not
This lifting up of the right hand
true.
was, in fact, the universal mode adopted
among both Jews and Pagans in taking an
The custom is certainly as old as the
oath.
days of Abraham, who said to the King of
Salem, "I have lifted up my hand unto
the Lord, the most high God, the possessor
of heaven and earth, that I will not take
any thing that is thine."
Sometimes
among the Gentile nations, the right hand,
in taking an oath, was laid upon the horns

647

of the altar, and sometimes upon the hand

of the person administering the obligation.
But in all cases it was deemed necessary, to
the validity and solemnity of the attestation, that the right hand should be employed.
Since the introduction of Christianity,
the use of the right hand in contracting
an oath has been continued, but instead of
extending it to heaven, or seizing with it a
horn of the altar, it is now directed to be
placed upon the Holy Scriptures, which is
the universal mode at this day in all ChrisThe antiquity of this usage
tian countries.
may be learned from the fact, that in the
code of the Emperor Theodosius, adopted
about the year 438, the placing of the right
hand on the Gospels is alluded to; and in
the code of Justinian, (lib. ii., tit. 53, lex.
i.,) whose date is the year 529, the ceremony is distinctly laid down as a necessary
part of the formality of the oath, in the
words " tactis sacrosanctis Evangeliis,"
the Holy Gospels being touched.
This constant use of the right hand in
the most sacred attestations and solemn
compacts, was either the cause or the consequence of its being deemed an emblem
of fidelity. Dr. Potter (Arch. Orcec, p.
229,) thinks it was the cause, and he supposes that the right hand was naturally
used instead of the left, because it was
more honorable, as being the instrument
by which superiors give commands to those
below them. Be this as it may, it is well
known that the custom existed universally,
and that there are abundant allusions in
the most ancient writers to the junction of
right hands in making compacts.
The Romans had a goddess whose name
was Fides, or Fidelity, whose temple was
Her symbol
first consecrated by Numa.
was two right hands joined, or sometimes
two human figures holding each other
by the right hands, whence, in all agreements among the Greeks and Romans, it
was usual for the parties to take each other
by the right hand, in token of their intention to adhere to the compact.
By a strange error for so learned a man,
Oliver mistakes the name of this goddess,
and calls her Faith. " The spurious Freemasonry," he remarks, " had a goddess
No such thing. Fides, or,
called Faith."
as Horace calls her, "incorrupta Fides,"
incorruptible Fidelity, is very different
from the theological virtue of faith.
The joining of the right hands was esteemed among the Persians and Parthians
as conveying a most inviolable obligation
of fidelity. Hence, when King Artabanus
desired to hold a conference with his revolted subject, Asineus, who was in arms
against him, he despatched a messenger to

RIGHT

RING

the request, who said to Asineus,

" the king hath sent me to give you his
right hand and security," that is, a promise of safety in going and coming.
And
when Asineus sent his brother Asileus to
the proposed conference, the king met him
and gave him his right hand, upon which
Josephus (Ant. Jud., lib. xviii., cap. ix.,)
remarks " This is of the greatest force there
with all these barbarians, and affords a firm
security to those who hold intercourse with
them for none of them will deceive, when
once they have given you their right hands,
nor will any one doubt of their fidelity,
when that is once given, even though they
were before suspected of injustice."
Stephens ( Travels in Yucatan, vol. ii., p.
474,) gives the following account of the use
of the right hand as a symbol among the

of his right hand, and Bathsheba, as the

king's mother, was placed at the right hand
of Solomon. See Left Side.
Right Worshipful. An epithet applied in most jurisdictions of the United
States to all Grand officers below the dignity of a Grand Master.

648

him with

Indian tribes.
" In the course of

on the

many

years' residence

frontiers, including various

journey

Ring, Luminous. See Academy of

Sublime Masters of the Luminous Ring.
Ring, Masonic. The ring, as a symbol of the covenant entered into with the
Order, as the wedding ring is the symbol
of the covenant of marriage, is worn in
some of the high degrees of Masonry. It is
not used in Ancient Craft Masonry. In
the Order of the Temple the " ring of profession," as it is called, is of gold, having on
it the cross of the Order and the letters P.
D. E. P., being the initials of " Pro Deo et
Patria." It is worn on the index finger
of the right hand. The Inspectors-General
of the thirty-third degree of the Ancient
and Accepted Rite wear a ring on the little
finger of the right hand.
Inside is the
motto of the Order, "Deus metjm que
jus." In the fourteenth degree of the
same Rite a ring is worn, which is described as "a plain gold ring," having inside the motto, " Virtus junxit, mors non separabit" It is worn in the Northern Jurisdiction on the fourth or ring finger of the
left hand.
In the Southern Jurisdiction
it is worn on the same finger of the right
hand.
The use of the ring as a symbol of a covenant may be traced very far back into antiquity.
The Romans had a marriage ring,
but according to Swinburne, the great canonist, it was of iron, with a jewel of adamant, " to signify the durance and perpetuity of the contract."
In reference to the rings worn in the high
degrees of Masonry, it may be said that
they partake of the double symbolism of
power and affection. The ring, as a symbol of power and dignity, was worn in ancient times by kings and men of elevated
rank and office. Thus Pharaoh bestowed
a ring upon Joseph as a mark or token of
the power he had conferred upon him, for
which reason the people bowed the knee to
him. It is in this light that the ring is
worn by the Inspectors of Scottish Masonry as representing the sovereigns of the
Rite. But those who receive only the fourteenth degree, in the same Rite, wear the
ring as a symbol of the covenant of affection and fidelity into which they have en-

ings among the tribes, I have had frequent

occasion to remark the use of the right
hand as a symbol and it is frequently applied to the naked body after its preparation and decoration for sacred or festive
dances.
And the fact deserves further consideration from these preparations being
generally made in the arcanum of the secret Lodge, or some other private place, and
with all the skill of the adept's art. The
mode of applying it in these cases is by
smearing the hand of the operator with
white or colored clay, and impressing it on
the breast, the shoulder, or other part of the
body. The idea is thus conveyed that a
secret influence, a charm, a mystical power
is given, arising from his sanctity, or his
proficiency in the occult arts. This use of
the hand is not confined to a single tribe or
people.
I have noticed it alike among the
Dacotahs, the Winnebagoes, and other
Western tribes, as among the numerous
branches of the red race still located east
of the Mississippi River, above the latitude
of 42 degrees, who speak dialects of the Algonquin language."
It is thus apparent that the use of the
right hand as a token of sincerity and a
pledge of fidelity, is as ancient as it is universal a fact which will account for the important station which it occupies among
the symbols of Freemasonry.
Right Side. Among the Hebrews,
as well as the Greeks and Romans, the
right side was considered superior to the
left
and as the right was the side of good,
Dexter, or tered.
so was the left of bad omen.
;

right, signified also propitious, and sinister,

or left, unlucky. In the Scriptures we find
frequent allusions to this superiority of the
right. Jacob, for instance, called his youngest and favorite child, Ben-jamin, the son

While on the subject of the ring as a symbol of Masonic meaning, it will not be irrelevant to refer to the magic ring of King
Solomon, of which both the Jews and the

Mohammedans have abundant

traditions.

RISING

RITE

have a book on magic

in which they
trace the ring of Solomon from Jared, the
It was by means of this
father of Enoch.
ring, as a talisman of wisdom and power,

Rite as to the higher degrees peculiar to it.

the three symbolic degrees being common
to all the Rites, a Master Mason, in any
one of the Rites, may visit and labor in a
Master's Lodge of every other Rite. It is
only after that degree is passed that the
exclusiveness of each Rite begins to ope-

The

latter, indeed,

rings, entitled

Scalcuthal,

Solomon was, they say, enabled to perform those wonderful acts and accomplish
those vast enterprises that have made his
that

name

so celebrated as the wisest monarch

of the earth.
Rising Sun. The rising sun is represented by the Master, because as the sun
by his rising opens and governs the day, so
the Master is taught to open and govern
his Lodge with equal regularity and precision.

Rite.

The Latin word ritus, whence we

get the English rite, signifies an approved

usage or custom, or an external observance.
Vossius derives it by metathesis from the
rpi^etv, whence literally it signifies a
trodden path, and, metaphorically, a longfollowed custom. As a Masonic term its
application is therefore apparent. It signifies a method of conferring Masonic light
by a collection and distribution of degrees.
It is, in other words, the method and order
observed in the government of a Masonic
system.
The original system of Speculative Masonry consisted of only the three symbolic
degrees, called, therefore, Ancient Craft
Masonry. Such was the condition of Freemasonry at the time of what is called the
revival in 1717. Hence, this was the original Rite or approved usage, and so it continued in England until the year 1813, when
at the union of the two Grand Lodges the
" Holy Royal Arch " was declared to be a
part of the system and thus the English,
or, as it is more commonly called, the York
Rite was made legitimately to consist of

Greek

four degrees.

But on the continent of Europe, the

organization of new systems began at a
much earlier period, and by the invention
of what are known as the high degrees a
multitude of Rites was established. All of
these agreed in one important essential.
They were built upon the three symbolic
degrees, which, in every instance, constituted the fundamental basis upon which
they were erected. They were intended as
an expansion and development of the Masonic ideas contained in these degrees.
The Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master's
degrees were the porch through which
every initiate was required to pass before
he could gain entrance into the inner temple which had been erected by the founders
of the Rite. They were the text, and the
high degrees the commentary.
Hence arises the law, that whatever may
be the constitution and teachings of any

4G

649

rate.

I have said that there has been a multitude of these Rites. Some of them have
lived only with their authors, and died
when their parental energy in fostering
them ceased to exert itself. Others have
had a more permanent existence, and still
continue to divide the Masonic family,
furnishing, however, only diverse methods
of attaining to the same great end, the acquisition of Divine Truth by Masonic light.
Ragon, in his Tuilier General, supplies us
with the names of a hundred and eight,
under the different titles of Rites, Orders,
and Academies. But many of these are
unmasonic, being merely of a political, social, or literary character.
The following
catalogue embraces the most important of
those which have hitherto or still continue
to arrest the attention of the Masonic stu-

dent.
1.

York

2.

Rite.

3.

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

French or Modern Rite.

4.

American

5.

Philosophic Scottish Rite.

Primitive Scottish Rite.

6.
7.
8.

Rite.

Reformed Rite.
Reformed Helvetic

Rite.

Fessler's Rite.
10. Schroder's Rite.
9.

11. Rite of the Grand Lodge of the Three

Globes.
12. Rite of the Elect of Truth.
13. Rite of the Vielle Bru.
14. Rite of the Chapter of Clermont.
15. Pernetty's Rite.
1 6. Rite of the Blazing Star.
17. Chastanier's Rite.
18. Rite of the Philalethes.
19. Primitive Rite of the Philadelphians.
20. Rite of Martinism.
21. Rite of Brother Henoch.
22. Rite of Mizraim.
23. Rite of Memphis.
24. Rite of Strict Observance.
25. Rite of Lax Observance.
26. Rite of African Architects.
27. Rite of Brothers of Asia.
28. Rite of Perfection.
29. Rite of Elected Cohens.
30. Rite of the Emperors of the East and

West.
31. Primitive Rite of Narbonne.
32. Rite of the Order of the Temple.
33. Swedish Rite.
34. Rite of Swedenborg.

650

KITTEK

;:

EOBERTS

Robert I. Commonly called Eobert

Bruce. He was crowned King of Scotland
in 1306, and died in 1329. After the tur37.
bulence of the early years of his reign had
Holy City.
These Bites are not here given in either ceased, and peace had been restored, he dethe order of date or of importance. The voted himself to the encouragement of
His condistinct history of each will be found under architecture in his kingdom.
nection with Masonry, and especially
its appropriate title.
"
Hitter. German for knight, as Der with the high degrees, is thus given by
"The only
Preussische Bitter," the Prussian Knight. Dr. Oliver, (Landm., ii. 12.)
The word is not, however, applied to a high degree to which an early date can be
Knight Templar, who is more usually safely assigned is the Boyal Order of H. E.
called " Tempelherr ;"
although, when D. M., founded by Eobert Bruce in 1314.
spoken of as a Knight of the Temple, he Its history in brief refers to the dissolution
would be styled Hitter vom Tempel.
of the Order of the Temple. Some of those
Ritual. The mode of opening and persecuted individuals took refuge in Scotclosing a Lodge, of conferring the degrees, land, and placed themselves under the proof installation, and other duties, constitute tection of Eobert Bruce, and assisted him
a system of ceremonies which are called at the battle of Bannockburn, which was
After
the Eitual. Much of this ritual is eso- fought on St. John's day, 1314.
teric, and, not being permitted to be com- this battle the Eoyal Order was founded
mitted to writing, is communicated only and froin the fact of the Templars having
by oral instruction. In each Masonic juris- contributed to the victory, and the subsediction it is required, by the superintending quent grants to their Order by King Eobert,
authority, that the ritual shall be the same
for which they were formally excommunibut it more or less differs in the different cated by the church, it has, by some persons,
Rites and jurisdictions. But this does not been identified with that ancient military
affect the universality of Masonry.
The Order. But there are sound reasons for
ritual is only the external and extrinsic believing that the two systems were unconform.
The doctrine of Freemasonry is nected with each other." Thory, (Act. Lat.,
everywhere the same.
It is the body i. 6,) quoting from a manuscript ritual in
which is unchangeable remaining always the library of the Mother Lodge of the Philoand everywhere the same. The ritual is sophic Eite, gives the following statement
but the outer garment which covers this " Eobert Bruce, King of Scotland, under
body, which is subject to continual varia- the name of Eobert I., created on the 24th
It is right and desirable that the June, after the battle of Bannockburn, the
tion.
ritual should be made perfect, and everyOrder of St. Andrew of the Thistle, to
where alike. But if this be impossible, as which he afterwards united that of H. E.
it is, this at least will console us, that
D., for the sake of the Scottish Masons who
while the ceremonies, or ritual, have varied made a part of the thirty thousand men
at different periods, and still vary in differ- with whom he had fought an army of one
ent countries, the science and philosophy, hundred thousand English. He reserved
the symbolism and the religion, of Freema- forever to himself and his successors the
sonry continue, and will continue, to be the title of Grand Master. He founded the
same wherever true Masonry is practised.
Grand Lodge of the Eoyal Order of H. E.
Robelot. Formerly an advocate of D. at Kilwinning, and died, covered with
the parliament of Dijon, a distinguished glory and honor, on the 9th July, 1329."
French Mason, and the author of several Both of these statements or legends require
Masonic discourses, especially of one de- for all their details authentication. See
livered before the Mother Lodge of the Boyal Order of /Scotland.
Philosophic Scottish Bite, of which he was
Roberts Manuscript. This is the
Grand Orator, December 8, 1808, at the re- first of those manuscripts the originals of
ception of Askeri Khan, the Persian Am- which have not yet been recovered, and
bassador, as a Master Mason.
This address which are known to us only in a printed
gave so much satisfaction to the Lodge, copy. The Eoberts Manuscript,so called from
that it decreed a medal to M. Eobelot, on the name of the printer, J. Eoberts, was pubone side of which was a bust of the Grand lished by him at London, in 1722, under
Master, and on the other an inscription the title of " The Old Constitutions belongwhich recounted the valuable services ren- ing to the Ancient and Honorable Society
dered to the society by M. Eobelot as its of Free and Accepted Masons. Taken from
Orator, and as a Masonic author. Eobelot a Manuscript wrote above five hundred
held the theory that Freemasonry owed its years since." Of this work, which had
origin to the East, and was the invention of passed out of the notice and knowledge of
Zoroaster.
the Masonic world, Eichard Spencer, of
35. Eite of Zinnendorf.
86.

Egyptian Bite of Cagliostro.

Eite of the Beneficent Knights of the

ROBES

ROBISON

London, being in possession of a copy, published a second edition in 1870. On a collation of this work with the Harleian MS.,
it is evident that either both were derived
from one and the same older manuscript,
or that one of them has been copied from
the other; although, if this be the case, there
has been much carelessness on the part of
the transcriber. If the one was transcribed
from the other, there is internal evidence
that the Harleian is the older examplar.
The statement on the title-page of Roberts'
book, that it was "taken from a manuscript
wrote over five hundred years since," is
contradicted by the simple fact that, like
the Harleian MS., it contains the regulations adopted at the General Assembly held
in 1663.
proposition was made in
Robes.

Europe, carried on in the Secret Meetings of

the Freemasons, llluminati, and Reading

the Grand Lodge of England, on April 8,

1778, that the Grand Master and his officers should be distinguished in future at
This measall public meetings by robes.
ure, Preston says, was at first favorably
received but it was, on investigation, found
to be so diametrically opposed to the original plan of the Institution, that it was very
In no jurisdiction are
properly laid aside.
In many
robes used in Symbolic Masonry.
of the high degrees, however, they are employed. In the United States they constitute an important part of the paraphernalia
of a Royal Arch Chapter. See Royal Arch
;

Robes.

Robin, Abbe Claude. A

French
and curate of St. Pierre d' Angers.
In 1776 he advanced his views on the origin of Freemasonry in a lecture before the
Lodge of Nine Sisters at Paris. This he
subsequently enlarged, and his interesting
work was published at Paris and Amsterdam, in 1779, under the title of Recherches

litterateur,

Initiations Anciennes et Modernes.

siir les

German

translation of it appeared in 1782,

and an exhaustive review, or, rather, an
extensive synopsis of it, was made by Chemin des Pontes in the first volume of his
Encyclopedic Magonnique. In this work the
Abbe' deduces from the ancient initiations
in the Pagan Mysteries the orders of
chivalry, whose branches, he says, produced the initiation of Freemasonry.
Robison, John. He was Professor
of Natural Philosophy in the University
of Edinburgh, and Secretary of the Royal
Society in that city. He was born at Boghall, in Scotland, in 1739, and died in 1805.
He was the author of a Treatise on Mechanical Philosophy, which possessed some
merit but he is better known in Masonic
literature by his anti-Masonic labors.
He
published in 1797, at Edinburgh and London, a work entitled Proofs of a Conspiracy
against all the Religions and Governments of
;

Societies,

collected

651

from Good

Authorities.

In consequence of the anti-Jacobin sentiment of the people of Great Britain at that

time, the work on its first appearance produced a great sensation. It was not, however, popular with all readers.
A contemporary critic {Month. Rev., xxv. 315,) said
of it, in a very unfavorable review " On
the present occasion, we acknowledge that
we have felt something like regret that a
:

lecturer on natural philosophy, of whom

his country is so justly proud, should produce any work of literature by which his
high character for knowledge and for judgment is liable to be at all depreciated." It
was intended for a heavy blow against Ma-

sonry the more heavy because the author

himself was a Mason, having been initiated
at Liege in early life, and for some time a
;

working Mason.

The work

is

chiefly de-

voted to a history of the introduction of

Masonry on the continent, and of its corruptions, and chiefly to a violent attack on
the llluminati. But while recommending
that the Lodges in England should be suspended, he makes no charge of corruption
against them, but admits the charities of the
Order, and its respectability of character.
There is much in the work on the history of
Masonry on the continent that is interesting, but many of his statements are untrue
and his arguments illogical, nor was his
crusade against the Institution followed by

any practical results. The Encyclopaedia

Britannica, to which Robison had contrib-

many valuable articles on science,

says of his Proofs of a Conspiracy that " it
betrays a degree of credulity extremely remarkable in a person used to calm reasoning and philosophical demonstration," giving as an example his belief in the story
of an anonymous German writer, that the
minister Turgot was the protector of a society that met at Baron d'Holbach's for the
purpose of examining living children in
order to discover the principle of vitality.
What Robison has said of Masonry in the
531 pages of his book may be summed up in
the following lines (p. 522) near its close.
"While the Freemasonry of the continent
was tricked up with all the frippery of stars
and ribands, or was perverted to the most
profligate and impious purposes, and the
Lodges became seminaries of foppery, of sedition, and impiety, it has retained in Britain
its original form, simple and unadorned, and
the Lodges have remained the scenes of innocent merriment or meetings of charity
and beneficence." So that, after all, his
charges are not against Freemasonry in its
original constitution, but against its corruption in a time of great political excitement.
uted

652

ROCKWELL

ROD

Rockwell, William Spencer. A

ii. 113,) that the rod "did in

and yet doth amongst all nations
who was born at Albany, in New York, in and amongst all officers, signify correction
1804, and died in Maryland in 1865. He and peace for by correction follows peace,
had been Grand Master of the Grand wherefore the verge or rod was the ensign
Lodge of Georgia, and at the time of his of him which had authority to reform evil
death was Lieutenant Grand Commander in war and in peace, and to see quiet and
of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and order observed amongst the people; for
Accepted Eite for the Southern Jurisdic- therefore beareth the king his sceptre.
tion of the United States.
He was a man The church hath her pastoral staff; and
of great learning, having a familiar ac- other magistrates which have the adminisquaintance with many languages, both an- tration of justice or correction, as have the
cient and modern, and was well versed in judges of the law and the great officers of
the sciences. He was an able lawyer, and the prince's house, have also a verge or

distinguished

Mason

of the United States,

(Antiq. Disc,

all ages,

occupied a high position at the bar of

Georgia, his adopted State. Archaeology
was his favorite study. In 1848 he was induced by the great Egyptologist, George E.
Gliddon, to direct his attention particularly
to the study of Egyptian antiquities.
Already well acquainted with the philosophy
and science of Masonry, he applied his
Egyptian studies to the interpretation of
the Masonic symbols to an extent that led
him to the formation of erroneous views.
His investigations, however, and their results, were often interesting, if not always
Mr. Eockwell was the author of
correct.
an Ahiman Bezon for the Grand Lodge of
Georgia, published in 1859, which displays
abundant evidences of his learning and
research.
He also contributed many valuable articles to various Masonic periodicals,
and was one of the colaborators of Mackey's
Quarterly Review of Freemasonry Before his
death he had translated Portai's Treatise on
Hebrew and Egyptian Symbols, and had writ.

ten an Exposition of the Pillars of the Porch,

and an Essay on the Fellow Craft's Degree.
The manuscripts of these works, in a completed form, are in the hands of his friends,
but have never been published.
Rod. The rod or staff is an emblem of
power either inherent, as with a king, where
it is called a sceptre, or with an inferior
officer, where it becomes a rod, verge, or
staff.
The Deacons, Stewards, and Marshal of a Lodge carry rods. The rods of
the Deacons, who are the messengers of the
Master and Wardens, as Mercury was of
the gods, may be supposed to be derived
from the caduceus, which was the insignia
of that deity, and hence the Deacon's rod
is often surmounted by a pine cone.
The
Steward's rod is in imitation of the white
staff borne by the Lord High Steward of
the king's household. The Grand Treasurer also formerly bore a white staff like
that of the Lord High Treasurer. The
Marshal's baton is only an abbreviated or
short rod. It is in matters of state the ensign of a Marshal of the army. The Duke
ojf Norfolk, as hereditary Earl Marshal of
England, bears two batons crossed in his
arms.
Mr. Thynne, the antiquary, says

We

assigned to them."
thus readily
see the origin of ,the official rods or staves
used in Masonry.
staff

Rod, Deacon's. The

proper badge

or ensign of office of a Deacon, which he

should always carry when in the discharge
of the duties of -his office, is a blue rod
surmounted by a pine cone, in imitation
of the caduceus, or rod of Mercury, who
was the messenger of the gods as is the
Deacon of the superior officers of the Lodge.
In the beginning of this century columns
were prescribed as the proper badges of
these officers, and we find the fact so stated
in Webb's Monitor, which was published
in 1797, and in an edition of Preston's Illustrations, published at Portsmouth, N. H.,
in the year 1804. In the installation of
the Deacons, it is said " these columns, as
badges of your office, I intrust to your care."
short time afterwards, however, the columns were transferred to the Wardens as
their appropriate badges, and then we find
that in the hands of the Deacon they were
replaced by the rods. Thus in Dalcho's
Ahiman Bezon, the first edition of which
was printed in 1807, the words of the
charge are altered to "those staves the
badges of your office." In the Mason's
Manual, published in 1822, by the Lodge
at Easton, Pennsylvania, the badges are
said to be " wands," and in Cole's Library
they are said to carry "rods." All the
subsequent Monitors agree in assigning the
rods to the Deacons as insignia of their
office, while the columns are appropriated

Wardens.
In Pennsylvania, however, as far back
as 1778, " the proper pillars " were carried

to the

by the Wardens, and " wands

tipped with gold " were borne by the DeaThis appears from the account of a
cons.
procession in that year, which is appended
to Smith's edition of the Ahiman Bezon of
Pennsylvania. The rod is now universally
recognized in this country as the Deacon's
badge of office. It does not appear to have
been adopted in the English system.
Rod, Marshal's. See Baton.
in procession

Rod of Iron.

The Master is charged

Lodge with " a

in the ritual not to rule his

ROMAN

ROD
is to say, not with cruelty
or oppression. The expression is scriptural.
Thus in Psalm ii. 9, "Thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron," and in Revelation ii. 27, "He shall rule them with a
rod of iron."
Steward's. The badge or ensign of office of the Stewards of a Lodge, or

rod of iron," that

Rod,

of the Grand Stewards of a Grand Lodge,

It is an old custom.
is a white rod or staff.
In the first formal account of a procession
in the Book of Constitutions, on June 24,
1724, the Stewards are described as walking
" two and two abreast with white rods."
This use of a white rod comes from the political usages of England; where the Steward of the king's household was appointed
by the delivery of a staff, the breaking of
which dissolved the office. Thus an old
book quoted by Thynne says that in the
reign of Edward IV., the creation of the
Steward of the household " only consisteth
by the king's delivering to him the household staffe, with these words, Seneschall, tenez
When the
le bastone de notre Maison."
Lord High Steward presides over the
House of Lords at the trial of a Peer, at
the conclusion of the trial he breaks the
white staff, which thus terminates his

653

mann, and some others of

less repute, who

discovered, or at least first announced
to the world, the connection that existed
between the Roman Colleges of Architects
and the Society of Freemasons.
The theory of Krause on. this subject is
to be found principally in his well-known
work entitled Die drei altesten Kunsterlcunden.
He there advances the doctrine that
first

as it now exists is indebted

characteristics, religious and
social, political and professional, its interior

Freemasonry
for

all

its

organization,

its

modes of thought and

action, and its very design and object, to

the Collegia Artificum of the Eomans, passing with but little characteristic changes

through the Corporationen von Baukunstlem,

or "Architectural Gilds," of the Middle
Ages up to the English organization of the
year 1717 so that he claims an almost absolute identity between the Eoman Colleges
of Numa, seven hundred years before Christ,
and the Lodges of the nineteenth century.
We need not, according to his view, go
any farther back in history, nor look to
any other series of events, nor trouble ourselves with any other influences for the
origin and the character of Freemasonry.
This theory, which is perhaps the most
popular one on the subject, requires careful
office.
Rod, Treasurer's. See Staff, Treas- examination and in the prosecution of
urer's.
such an inquiry the first thing to be done
Roessler, Carl. A German Masonic will be to investigate, so far as authentic
writer, who translated from French into history affords us the means, the true char;

German

the

work of Reghellini on Ma-

relations to the Egyptian, Jewish, and Christian religions, and published

it at Leipsic in 1834 and 1835, under the
assumed name of R. S. Acerrolles. He

sonry in

was the author of some other less important Masonic works.

Roll. In the Prestonian ritual of
the funeral service, it is directed that the
Master, while the brethren are standing
around the coffin, shall take "the sacred
roll " in his hand, and, after an invocation,
shall " put the roll into the 'coffin."
In
the subsequent part of the ceremony, a
procession being formed, consisting of the
members of visiting Lodges and of the
Lodge to which the deceased belonged, it
is stated that all the Secretaries of the
former Lodges carry rolls, while the Secretary of the latter has none, because, of
course, it had been deposited by the Master
in the coffin. From the use of the words
"sacred roll," we presume that the rolls
borne by the Secretaries in funeral processions are intended to represent the roll of
the law, that being the form still used by the
Jews for inscribing the Sacred Books.

Roman

Colleges of Artificers.
was the German writers on the history
of the Institution, such as Krause, HeldIt

acter

and condition of these Roman Col-

its

It is to Numa, the second king of Rome,

that historians, following after Plutarch,
ascribe the first organization of the Roman
Colleges; although, as Newman reasonably
conjectures, it is probable that similar organizations previously existed among the
Alban population, and embraced the resi-

dent Tuscan artificers. But it is admitted

Numa gave to them that form which
they always subsequently maintained.
Numa, on ascending the throne, found
the citizens divided into various nationalities, derived from the Romans, the Sabines
and the inhabitants of neighboring smaller
and weaker towns, who, by choice or by
compulsion, had removed their residence to
the banks of the Tiber. Hence resulted a
disseverance of sentiment and feeling, and
a constant tendency to disunion. Now the
object of Numa was to obliterate these
contending elements and to establish a perfect identity of national feeling, so that, to
use the language of Plutarch, " the distribution of the people might become a harmonious mingling of all with all."
For this purpose he established one

that

common

religion,

into curias

and

and divided the citizens

each curia and tribe

tribes,

ROMAN

ROMAN

654

being composed of an admixture

indiffer-

Romans, Sabines, and the other

denizens of Rome.
Directed by the same political sagacity,
he distributed the artisans into various
gilds or corporations, under the name of
ently of

by the English word " Master."

The next
officers were the Decuriones.
They were
analogous to the Masonic " Wardens," for
each Decurio presided over a section or division of the College, just as in the most
ancient English and in the present conti-

Collegia, or " Colleges." To each collegium nental ritual we find the Lodge divided
was assigned the artisans of a particular into two sections or " columns," over each
profession, and each had its own regula- of which one of the Wardens presided,
These through whom the commands of the Master
tions, both secular and religious.
colleges grew with the growth of the re- were extended to " the brethren of his colpublic and although Numa had originally umn." There was also in the Colleges
;

established but nine, namely, the College

of Musicians, of Goldsmiths, of Carpenters,
of Dyers, of Shoemakers, of Tanners, of
Smiths, of Potters, and a ninth composed
of all artisans not embraced under either
of the preceding heads, they- were subsequently greatly increased in number.
Eighty years before the Christian era they
were, it is true, abolished, or sought to be
abolished, by a decree of the Senate, who
looked with jealousy on their political influence, but twenty years afterwards they
were revived, and new ones established by a
law of the tribune Clodius, which repealed

a Scriba, or " secretary," who recorded its

proceedings a Thesaurensis, or " treasurer,"
who had charge of the common chest; a
Tabularius, or keeper of the archives, equivalent to the modern "Archivist;" and
lastly, as these Colleges combined a peculiar
religious worship with their operative labors, there was in each of them a sacerdos,
or priest, who conducted the religious ceremonies, and was thus exactly equivalent to
In
the " chaplain " of a Masonic Lodge.

the Senatus Consultum. They continued

to exist under the empire, were extended
into the provinces, and even outlasted the
decline and fall of the Roman power.
And now let us inquire into the form
and organization of these Colleges, and, in
so doing, trace the analogy between them
and the Masonic Lodges, if any such anal-

Another analogy will be found in the

distribution or division of classes in the
Roman Colleges. As the Masonic Lodges
have their Master Masons, their Fellow
Crafts, and their Apprentices, so the Colleges had their Seniores, " Elders," or chief
men of the trade, and their journeymen
and apprentices. The members did not, it
is true, like the Freemasons, call themselves
"Brothers," because this term, first adopted
in the gilds or corporations of the Middle
Ages, is the offspring of a Christian sentiment; but, as Krause remarks, these Colleges were, in general, conducted after the
pattern or model of a family ; and hence
the appellation of brother would now and
then be found among the family appella-

ogy

exists.

The

first

regulation,

which was an

indis-

pensable one, was that no College could

consist of less than three members.
So indispensable was this rule that the expres"
sion tres faciunt collegium,
three make a
college," became a maxim of the civil law.
So rigid too was the application of this
rule, that the body of Consuls, although
calling each other " colleagues," and possessing and exercising all collegiate rights,
were, because they consisted only of two
members, never legally recognized as a ColThe reader will very readily be
lege.
struck with the identity of this regulation
of the Colleges and that of Freemasonry,
which with equal rigor requires three
Masons to constitute a Lodge. The College
and the Lodge each demanded three members to make it legal.
greater number

might give

it

more efficiency, but it could

more legitimate. This, then,

not render it
is the first analogy between the Lodges of
Freemasons and the Roman Colleges.
These Colleges had their appropriate
officers, who very singularly were assimilated in stations and duties to the officers
of a Masonic Lodge. Each College was
presided over by a chief or president,
whose title of Magister is exactly translated

all this

we

find another analogy

between

these ancient institutions and our Masonic

bodies.

tions.

The

partly religious character of the

Colleges of Artificers constitutes a
very peculiar analogy between them and
the*Masonic Lodges. The history of these
Colleges shows that an ecclesiastical character was bestowed upon them at the very
time of their organization by Numa. Many
of the workshops of these artificers were
erected in the vicinity of temples, and their
curia, or place of meeting, was generally
in some way connected with a temple. The
deity to whom such temple was consecrated
was peculiarly worshipped by the members
of the adjacent College, and became the
patron god of their tra^e or art. In time,
when the Pagan religion was abolished and
the religious character of these Colleges
was changed, the Pagan gods gave way,
through the influences of the new religion,
to Christian saints, one of whom was always

Roman

ROMAN

ROMAN

adopted as the patron of the modern gilds,

which, in the Middle Ages, took the place
of the Roman Colleges; and hence the
Freemasons derive the dedication of their
Lodges to Saint John from a similar custom
among the Corporations of Builders.
These Colleges held secret meetings, in

initiated into a College."

This is, at least,
singular.
But the more general interpretation of cooptatus is " admitted or accepted
in a fraternity," and so " made free of all
the privileges of the gild or corporation."

which the business transacted consisted of

the initiations of neophytes into their fraternity, and of mystical and esoteric instructions to their apprentices and journeymen. They were, in this respect, secret
societies like the Masonic Lodges.
There were monthly or other periodical
contributions by the members for the support of the College, by which means a
common fund was accumulated for the
maintenance of indigent members or the
relief of destitute strangers belonging to
the same society.
They were permitted by the government
to frame a constitution and to enact laws
and regulations for their own government.
These privileges were gradually enlarged
and their provisions extended, so that in
the latter days of the empire the Colleges
of Architects especially were invested with
extraordinary powers in reference to the
control of builders.
Even the distinction
so well known in Masonic jurisprudence
between " legally constituted " and " clandestine Lodges," seems to find a similitude
or analogy here; for the Colleges which
had been established by lawful authority,
and were, therefore, entitled to the enjoyment of the privileges accorded to those
were said to be collegia licita,
or "lawful colleges," while those which

institutions,

were voluntary associations, not authorized

by the express decree of the senate or the
emperor, were called collegia illicita, or "unlawful colleges."
The terms licita and
illicita were exactly equivalent
in their
import to the legally constituted and the
clandestine Lodges of Freemasonry.
In the Colleges the candidates for admission were elected, as in the Masonic Lodges,
by the voice of the members. In connection
with this subject, the Latin word which
was used to express the art of admission
or reception is worthy of consideration.
When a person was admitted into the fraternity of a College, he was said to be

Now, the verb coopalmost exclusively employed by the

cooptatus in collegium.
tare,

Romans

655

And hence the idea is the same as that

conveyed among the Masons by the title
" Free and Accepted."
Finally, it is said by Krause that these
Colleges of workmen made a symbolic use
of the implements of their art or profession, in other words, that they cultivated
the science of symbolism and in this respect, therefore, more than in any other,
is there a striking analogy between the
Collegiate and the Masonic institutions.
The statement cannot be doubted for as
;

the organization of the Colleges partook,

as has already been shown, of a religious
character, and, as it is admitted, that all
the religion of Paganism was eminently
and almost entirely symbolic, it must follow that any association which was based
upon or cultivated the religious or mythological sentiment, must cultivate also the
principle of symbolism.
I have thus briefly but succinctly shown
that in the form, the organization, the mode
of government, and the usages of the Roman Colleges, there is an analogy between
them and the modern Masonic Lodges
which is evidently more than accidental.
It may be that long after the dissolution
of the Colleges, Freemasonry, in the establishment of its Lodges, designedly adopted
the collegiate organization as a model after
which to frame its own system, or it may be
that the resemblance has been the result of a
slow but inevitable growth of a succession of
associations arising out of each other, at
the head of which stands the Roman Col-

This problem can only be determined by

an investigation of the history of these
Colleges, and of the other similar institutions which finally succeeded them in the

We

progress of architecture in Europe.

shall then be prepared to investigate with

understanding the theory of Krause, and

to determine whether the Lodges are indebted to the Colleges for their form alone,
or for both form and substance.
have already seen that in the time
of Numa the Roman Colleges amounted to
only nine. In the subsequent years of the

We

to signify an election into a Colcomes from the Greek optomai, "to

to behold."
This same word gives

Republic the number was gradually augmented, so that almost every trade or pro-

origin, in Greek, to epoptes, a spectator or

beholder, one who has attained to the last
degree in the Eleusinian mysteries; in other
words, an initiate. So that, without much
stretch of etymological ingenuity, we might
say that cooptatus in collegium meant " to be

advance of the empire, their numbers were

lege,
see,

fession

had

its

peculiar College.

With

the

further increased and their privileges

greatly extended, so that they became an
important element in the body politic.
Leaving untouched the other Colleges, I
shall confine myself to the Collegii Artifistill

656

ROMAN

ROMAN

cum, " the Colleges of Architects," as the

only one whose condition and history are
relevant to the subject under consideration.

The Romans were

early distinguished

for a spirit of colonization.

Their victo-

rious arms had scarcely subdued a people, before a portion of the army was deputed to form a colony. Here the bar-

barism and ignorance of the native population were replaced by the civilization
and the refinement of their Roman conquerors.
The Colleges of Architects, occupied in
the construction of secular and religious
edifices, spread from the great city to municipalities and the provinces.
Whenever
a new city, a temple, or a palace was to be
built, the members of these corporations

were convoked by the Emperor from the

most distant points, that with a community
of labor they might engage in the construction.
Laborers might be employed, like
the "bearers of burdens" of the Jewish
Temple, in the humbler and coarser tasks,
but the conduct and the direction of the
works were intrusted only to the " accepted members"
the cooptati
of the Col-

The

colonizations of the

Roman Empire

were conducted through the legionary

soldiers of the army.
Now, to each legion there was attached a College or corporation of artificers, which was organized
with the legion at Rome, and passed with
it through all its campaigns, encamped
with it where it encamped, marched with
it where it marched, and when it colonized, remained in the colony to plant the
seeds of Roman civilization, and to teach
the principles of Roman art. The members of the College erected fortifications
for the legion in times of war, and in times
of peace, or when the legion became stationary, constructed temples and dwellinghouses.
When England was subdued by the Roman arms, the legions which went there to
secure and to extend the conquest, carried
with them, of course, their Colleges of
Architects.
One of these legions, for instance, under Julius Caesar, advancing into
the northern limits of the country, established a colony, which, under the name of
Eboracum, gave birth to the city of York,
afterwards so celebrated in the history of
Masonry. Existing inscriptions and architectural remains attest how much was done
in the island of Britain by these associations of builders.
Druidism was at that time the prevailing
religion of the ancient Britons.
But the
toleration of Paganism soon led to an har-

monious admixture of the religious ideas

of the

Roman

builders with those of the

Long anterior to this
Christianity had dawned upon the British
islands for, to use the emphatic language
of Tertullian, " Britain, inaccessible to the
Romans, was subdued by Christ." The
influences of the new faith were not long
in being felt by the Colleges, and the next
phase in their history is the record of their
assumption of the Christian life and doc-

Druid

priests.

trine.

But the incursions of the northern barbarians into Italy demanded the entire force
of the Roman armies to defend the integrity of the Empire at home.
Britain was
abandoned, and the natives, with the Ro-

man

colonists who had settled among them,

were left to defend themselves. These
were soon driven, first by the Picts, their
savage neighbors, and then by the Saxon
sea robbers, whom the English had incau-

tiously

summoned

to their aid, into the

mountains of Wales and the islands of the

Irish Sea.
The architects who were converted to Christianity, and who had remained when the legions left the country,
went with them, and having lost their connection with the mother institution, they
became thenceforth simply corporations or
societies of builders, the organization which
had always worked so well being still retained.

Subsequently, when the whole of England was taken possession of by the Saxon
invaders, the Britons, headed by the monks

and priests, and accompanied by their architects, fled into Ireland and Scotland, which
countries they civilized and converted, and
whose inhabitants were instructed in the
art of building by the corporations of architects.

Whenever we read of the extension in

barbarous or Pagan countries of Christianity, and the conversion of their inhabitants to the true faith, we also hear of the
propagation of the ant of building in the
same places by the corporations of architects,
the immediate successors of the
legionary Colleges, for the new religion required churches, and in time cathedrals and
monasteries, and the ecclesiastical architecture speedily suggested improvements in
the civil.
In time all the religious knowledge and
all the architectural skill of the northern
part of Europe were concentrated in the
remote regions of Ireland and Scotland,
whence missionaries were sent back to
England to convert the Pagan Saxons.
Thus the venerable Bede tells us [Eccl.
Hist., lib. iii., cap. 4, 7,) that West Saxony
was converted by Agilbert, an Irish

ROMAN

ROMAN

bishop, and East Anglia, by Fursey, a

Scotch missionary. From England these
energetic missionaries, accompanied by their

pious architects, passed over into Europe,

and effectually labored for the conversion
of the Scandinavian nations, introducing
into Germany, Sweden, Norway, and even
Ireland, the blessings of Christianity and
the refinements of civilized life.
It is worthy of note that in all the early
records the word Scotland is very generally used as a generic term to indicate both
This error arose
Scotland and Ireland.
most probably from the very intimate geographical and social connections of the
Scotch and the northern Irish, and perhaps, also, from the general inaccuracy of
the historians of that period. Thus has
arisen the very common opinion, that Scotland was the germ whence sprang all the
Christianity of the northern nations, and
that the same country was the cradle of
ecclesiastical architecture and Operative

Masonry.
This historical error, by which the glory
of Ireland has been merged in that of her
sister country, Scotland, has been preserved
in much of the language and many of the
traditions of modern Freemasonry. Hence
the story of the Abbey of Kilwinning as
the birthplace of Masonry, a story which is
still the favorite of the Freemasons of Scot-

Hence the tradition of the apocryphal mountain of Heroden, situated in the

north-west of Scotland, where the first or
metropolitan Lodge of Europe was held;
hence the high degrees of Ecossais, or Scottish Master, which play so important a part
land.

in

modern philosophical Masonry

and

hence the title of " Scottish Masonry," applied to one of the leading Rites of Freemasonry, which has, however, no other connection with Scotland than that historical
one, through the corporations of builders,
which is common to the whole Institution.
It is not worth while to trace the religious contests between the original Christians of Britain and the Papal power,
which after years of controversy terminated
in the submission of the British Bishops to
the Pope. As soon as the Papal authority
was firmly established over Europe, the Ro-

man

Catholic hierarchy secured the ser-

and
and
the Bishops, were everywhere engaged as
vices of the builders' corporations,
these, under the patronage of the Pope

" travelling freemasons," in the construction of ecclesiastical and regal edifices.

Henceforth we find these corporations of
builders exercising their art in all countries, everywhere proving, as Mr. Hope
says, by the identity of their designs, that
they were controlled by universally accepted principles, and showing in every

4H

42

657

way the characteristics of a corporaor gild.

So far the chain of connection between them and the Collegia Ar-

other
tion

Rome has not been broken.

In the year 926 a general assembly of
these builders was held at the city of York,
in England.
Four years after, in 930, according to Rebold, Henry the Fowler brought these builders, now called Masons, from England into
Germany, and employed them in the construction of various edifices, such as the
cathedrals of Magdeburg, Meissen, and
Merseburg.
But Krause, who is better
and more accurate as a historian than Retificum. at

bold, says that, as respects Germany, the

account that we find of these corporations of builders is at the epoch when,
under the direction of Edwin of Steinbach,
the most distinguished architects had congregated from all parts at Strasburg for. the
first

construction of the cathedral of that city.

There they held their general assembly,

like that of their English brethren at York,
enacted Constitutions, and established, at
length, a Grand Lodge, to whose decisions
numerous Lodges or hutten, subsequently
organized in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary,
France, and other countries, yielded obedience.
George Kloss, in his exhaustive
work entitled Die Freimaurerei in ihrer
wahren Bedeutung, has supplied us with a
full collation of the statutes and regulations adopted by these Strasburg Masons.
We have now reached recent historical
ground, and can readily trace these associations of builders to the establishment of
the Grand Lodge of England at London,
in 1717, when the Lodges abandoned their
operative charters and became exclusively
speculative.
The record of the continued

existence of Lodges of Free and Accepted

Masons from that day to this, in every
civilized

country of the world,

is

in the

hands of every Masonic student. To repeat

it would be a tedious work of supererogation.

Such is the history, and now what is

the necessary deduction.
It cannot be
doubted that Krause is correct in his
the cradle
theory that the incunabula
of the modern Masonic
or birthplace
Lodges is to be found in the Roman ColThat theory is corleges of Architects.
rect, if we look only to the outward form
and mode of working of the Lodges. To
the Colleges are they indebted for everything that distinguished them as a gild or
corporation, and especially are they indebted to the architectural character of
these Colleges for the fact, so singular in
Freemasonry, that its religious symbolism
that by which it is distinguished from
is founded on the
all other institutions

ROMVEL

658

ROSE

elements, the working-tools, and the technical language of the stonemasons' art.
But when we view Freemasonry in a
higher aspect, when we look at it as a
science of symbolism, the whole of which
symbolism is directed to but one point,
namely, the elucidation of the great doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and
the teaching of the two lives, the present
and the future, we must go beyond the
Colleges of Rome, which were only operative associations, to that older type to be
found in the Ancient Mysteries, where precisely the same doctrine was taught preKrause does
cisely in the same manner.
not, it is true, altogether omit a reference to
the priests of Greece, who, he thinks, were
in some way the original whence the Roman Colleges derived their existence but
he has not pressed the point with the pertinacity which its importance requires.
He gives in his theory a pre-eminence to
the Colleges to which they are not in truth
;

entitled.

Romvel.

In the Hiramic legend of

degrees, this is the name

given to one of the assassins of the third
degree. This is, I think, clearly an in-

some of the high

stance of the working of Stuart Masonry,

in giving names of infamy in the legends
of the Order to the enemies of the house
of Stuart. For I cannot doubt the correctness of Bro. Albert Pike's suggestion, that
this is a manifest corruption of Cromwell.
If with them Hiram was but a symbol of
Charles I., then the assassin of Hiram was
properly symbolized by Cromwell.
Rosaie System. The system of Masonry taught by Rosa in the Lodges which
he established in Germany and Holland,

and which were hence sometimes called

" Rosaic Lodges." Although he professed
that it was the system of the Clermont
Chapter, for the propagation of which he had
been appointed by the Baron Von Printzen,
he had mixed with that system many alchemical and theosophic notions of his
own. The system was at first popular, but
it finally succumbed to the greater attractions of the Rite of

Strict

Observance,

which had been introduced into Germany

by the Baron Von Hund.
Rosa, Philipp Samuel. Born at
Ysenberg; at one time a Lutheran clergyman, and in 1757 rector of the Cathedral
of St. James at Berlin. He was initiated
into Masonry in the Lodge of the Three
Globes, and Von Printzen having established a Chapter of the high degrees at
Berlin on the system of the French Chapter of Clermont, Rosa was appointed his
deputy, and sent by him to propagate the
system.

He visited various

places in Ger-

many, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden.

In Denmark and Sweden, although well

received personally on account of his pleasing manners, he made no progress in the
establishment of the Rite but his success
was far better in Germany and Holland,
where he organized many Lodges of the
high degrees, engrafting them on the English system, which alone had been theretofore known in those countries. Rosa was
a mystic and a pretended alchemist, and as
a Masonic charlatan accumulated large
sums of money by the sale of degrees and
decorations. Lenning does not speak well
of his moral conduct, but some contemporary writers describe him as a man of very
;

attractive manners, to which indeed may

be ascribed his popularity as a Masonic
leader.
While residing at Halle, he, in
1765, issued a protestation against the pro-

ceedings of the Congress of Jena, which

had been convoked in that year by the impostor Johnson. But it met with no success, and thenceforth Rosa faded away from
the knowledge of the Masonic world. We

can learn nothing of his subsequent life,

nor of the time or place of his death.
Rose. The symbolism of the rose

among

the ancients was twofold. First, as

was dedicated to Venus as the goddess
of love, it became the symbol of secrecy,
and hence came the expression " under the
rose," to indicate that which was spoken in
confidence. Again, as it was dedicated to
it

Venus as the personification of the generative energy of nature, it became the symbol
of immortality. In this latter and more
recondite sense it was, in Christian symbology, transferred to Christ, through whom
"life and immortality were brought to
light."
The "rose of Sharon" of the
Book of Canticles is always applied to
Christ, and hence Fuller (Pisgah Sight of
Palestine) calls him "that prime rose and
lily."
Thus we see the significance of the
rose on the cross as a part of the jewel of
the Rose Croix degree. Reghellini, (vol. i.,
p. 358,) after showing that anciently the
rose was the symbol of secrecy, and the
cross of immortality, says that the two
united symbols of a rose resting on a cross
always indicate the secret of immortality.
Ragon agrees with him in opinion, and says
that it is the simplest mode of writing that
dogma. But he subsequently gives a different explanation, namely, that as the
rose was the emblem of the female principle, and the cross or triple phallus of the
male, the two together, like the Indian
lingam, symbolized universal generation.
But Ragon, who has adopted the theory
of the astronomical origin of Freemasonry,
like all theorists, often carries his speculations on this subject to an extreme point.
simpler allusion will better suit the

ROSE

ROSE

character and teachings of the degree in

modern organization. The rose is the
symbol of Christ, and the cross, the symbol
the two united, the rose susof his death,
signify his death on
pended on the cross,
the cross, whereby the secret of immortality
was taught to the world. In a word, the
rose on the cross is Christ crucified.

that they are the legitimate authors and

superiors of Freemasonry, to all of whose
symbols they give a hermetical interpretation.
The Masons, they say, came into

its

Rose and Triple

Cross.

de-

gree contained in the Archives of the Lodge

of Saint Louis des Amis Reunis at Calais.
Rose Croix. French. Literally,
Rose Cross. 1. The seventh degree of the
French Rite; 2. The seventh degree of
the Philalethes 3. The eighth degree of
the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite; 4. The twelfth degree of the
Elect of Truth 5. The eighteenth degree
of the Mother Scottish Lodge of Marseilles
6. The eighteenth degree of the Rite of
Heredom, or of Perfection.
;

Rose Croix, Brethren of the.

Thory says {Fondat. du G. Or., p. 163,)
that the Archives of the Mother Lodge of
the Philosophic Scottish Rite at Paris contain the manuscripts and books of a secret
society which existed at the Hague in 1622,
where it was known under the title of the
Freres de la Rose Croix, which pretended
to have emanated from the original Rosicrucian organization of Christian RosenHence Thory thinks that the Philokruz.
sophic Rite was only a continuation of
this society of the Brethren of the Rose
Croix.

Rose Croix, Tacobite.

The

origi-

nal Rose Croix conferred in the Chapter

of Arras, whose Charter was granted by
the Pretender, was so called with a political allusion to King James III., whose adherents were known as Jacobites.

Rose Croix, Knight.

Rose Croix.)

{Chevalier

The eighteenth degree of the

Rite of Perfection. It is the same as the

Prince of Rose Croix of the Ancient and

Accepted Rite.

Rose

Croix,

Magnetic.

The

thirty-eighth degree of the Rite of Mizraim.

Rose Croix of Germany.

hermetic degree, which Ragon says belongs

rather to the class of Elus than to that of

Rose Croix,

Rose Croix of Gold, Brethren

{Freres de la Rose Croix oV Or.) An
alchemical and hermetic society, which was
founded in Germany in 1777. It promised
to its disciples the secret of the transmutation of metals, and the panacea or art of
prolonging life. The Baron Gleichen, who
was Secretary for the German language of
the Philalethan Congress at Paris in 1785,
gives the following history of the organization of this society
" The members of the Rose Croix affirm

of the.

659

England under King Arthur. Raymond

Lully initiated Henry IV.
The Grand
Masters were formerly designated, as now,
by the titles of John I., II., III., IV., etc.
"Their jewel is a golden compass attached to a blue ribbon, the symbol of
purity and wisdom. The principal emblems on the ancient tracing-board were
the sun, the moon, and the double triangle,
having in its centre' the first letter of the
Hebrew alphabet. The brethren wore a
silver ring, on which were the letters I. A.
A. T., the initials of Ignis, Aer, Aqua, Terra.
"The Ancient Rose Croix recognized
only three degrees the third degree, as we
it,
has been substituted for
another more significant one."
The Baron de Westerode, in a letter
dated 1784, and quoted by Thory, [Act.
Lat., i. 336,) gives another mythical ac;

now know

count. He says
" The disciples of the Rose Croix came,
in 1188, from the East into Europe, for
the propagation of Christianity after the
Three of them
troubles in Palestine.
founded in Scotland the Order of the
Masons of the East, (Knights of the East,)
to serve as a seminary for instruction in
the most sublime sciences. This Order was
Edward, the son of
in existence in 1196.
Henry III., was received into the society
of the Rose Croix by Raymond Lully. At
that time only learned men and persons of
high rank were admitted.
"Their founder was a seraphic priest of
Alexandria, a magus of Egypt named Ormesius, or Ormus, who with six of his companions was converted in the year 96 by St.
Mark. He purified the doctrine of the
Egyptians according to the precepts of
Christianity, and founded the society of
Ormus, that is to say, the Sages of Light,
to the members of which he gave a red
About the same
cross as a decoration.
time the Essenes and other Jews founded a
school of Solomonic wisdom, to which the
of Ormus united themselves.
disciples
Then the society was divided into various
Orders known as the Conservators of Mosaic Secrets, of Hermetic Secrets, etc.
"Several members of the association
having yielded to the temptations of pride,
seven Masters united, effected a reform,

adopted a modern constitution, and collected together on their tracing-board all

the allegories of the hermetic work."
In this almost altogether fabulous narrative we find an inextricable confusion of
the Rose Croix Masons and the Rosicrucian philosophers.

ROSE

ROSE

660

Rose Croix of Heredom.

The " Brothers of the Rosy Cross," among whose

adepts the names of such men as Roger
Bacon, Paracelsus, and Elias Ashmole the

degree of the Royal Order of Scotland,

the eighteenth of the Ancient and Accepted
Rite, the eighteenth of the Rite of Perfection, the ninetieth of the Rite of Mizraim,
and some others affix to the title of Rose
Croix that of Heredom, for the signification
of which see the word.
Rose Croix of the Dames. {Rose
Oroix des Dames.) This degree, called also
the Ladies of Beneficence, ( Chevalieres de la
Bienfaisance,) is the sixth capitular or ninth
degree of the French Rite of Adoption. It
is not only Christian, but Roman Catholic
in its character, and is derived from the
ancient Jesuitical system as first promulgated in the Rose Croix Chapter of Arras.
first

Rose Croix of the Grand Ro[Rose Croix du Grand Rosaire.) The

fourth and highest Rose Croix Chapter of
the Primitive Rite.

sary.

Rose Croix, Philosophic. A German

hermetic degree found in the collecM. Pyron, and in the Archives of

the Philosophic Scottish Rite. It is probably the same as the Brethren of the Rose
Croix, of whom Thory thinks that that Rite
is only a continuation.
Rose Croix, Prince of. French,
German,
Souverain Prince Rose Oroix.
Prinz vom Rosenkruz. This important degree is, of all the high grades, the most
widely diffused, being found in numerous
Rites.
It is the eighteenth of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite, the seventh
of the French or Modern, the eighteenth
of the Council of Emperors of the East
and West, the third of the Royal Order of
Scotland, the twelfth of the Elect of Truth,
and the seventh of the Philalethes. It was
tion of

also given, formerly, in

some Encampments

of Knights Templars, and was the sixth of

the degrees conferred by the Encampment
of Baldwyn at Bristol, in England. It
must not, however, be confounded with the
Rosicrucians, who, however, similar in
name, were only a hermetic and mystical
Order.

The degree
sometimes

its

known by various names

possessors are called " Sov-

is

ereign Princes of Rose Croix," sometimes

*'
Princes of Rose Croix de Heroden," and
sometimes " Knights of the Eagle and Pelican."
In relation to its origin, Masonic
writers have

made many

ments, some giving

tiquity than

conflicting state-

much

but

all

higher anagreeing in
to be one of the earliest of the
others

it

supposing it
higher degrees. The name has, undoubtedly, been the cause of much of this confu-

sion in relation to its history; and the

Masonic degree of Rose Croix has, perhaps,
often been confounded with the kabbalistical
and alchemical sect of " Rosicrucians " or

celebrated antiquary, are to be found. Notwithstanding the invidious attempts of

Barruel and other foes of Masonry to confound the two Orders, there is a great distinction between them. Even their names,
although somewhat similar in sound, are
totally different in signification. The Rosicrucians, who were alchemists, did not
derive their name, like the Rose Croix
Masons, from the emblems of the rose and
cross,
for they had nothing to do with the
but from the Latin ros, signifying
rose,
dew, which was supposed to be of all natural bodies the most powerful solvent of
gold, and crux, the cross, a chemical hieroglyphic of light.
Baron Westerode, who wrote in 1784, in
the Acta Latomorum gives the earliest origin of any Masonic writer to the degree of
Rose Croix. He supposes that it was instituted among the Knights Templars in Palestine, in the year 1188, and he adds that
Prince Edward, the son of Henry III. of
England, was admitted into the Order by
Raymond Lully in 1196. Westerode names
Ormesius, an Egyptian priest, who had been
converted to Christianity, as its founder.
Some have sought to find its origin in
the labors of Valentine Andrea, the reputed
founder of the Rosicrucian fraternity. But
the Rose Croix of Masonry and the hermetic Rosicrucianism of Andrea were two
entirely different things and it would be
difficult to trace any connection between
them, at least any such connection as would
make one the legitimate successor of the
other.
J. G. Buhle, in a work, published
in Gottingen in 1804, under the title of
Ueber den Ursprung und die vornehmsten
Schlcksale der Orden der Rosenkreutzer und
Freimaurer, reverses this theory, and supposes the Rosicrucians to be a branch of
the Freemasons and Higgins, in his Anacalypsis, (ii. 388,) thinks that the "modern
Templars, the Rosicrucians, and the Masons
are little more than different Lodges of one
Order," all of which is only a confusion of
history in consequence of a confounding
of names. It is thus that Inge has written
an elaborate essay on the Origine de la Rose
Croix; ( Globe, vol. iii., ) but as he has, with
true Gallic insousiance of names, spoken
indifferently of the Rose Croix Masons and
the Rosicrucians Adepts, his statements
supply no facts available for history.
The Baron de Gleichen, who was, in

1785, the

German

secretary of the Philale-

than Congress at Paris, says that the Rose

Croix and the Masons were united in England under King Arthur. But he has, undoubtedly, mixed up Rosicrucianism with

"

ROSE

ROSE

the Masonic legends of the Knights of the

Round Table, and his assertions must go
for nothing.
Others, again, have looked for the origin
of the Rose Croix degree, or, at least, of
its emblems, in the Symbola divina et humana pontificurn, imperatorura, regum of
James Typot, or Typotius, the historiographer of the Emperor Rudolph II., a work
which was published in 1601 and it is
particularly in that part of it which is devoted to the " symbol of the holy cross
that the allusions are supposed to be found
which would seem to indicate the author's
knowledge of this degree. But Ragon refutes the idea of any connection between
the symbols of Typotius and those of the
Rose Croix. Robison [Proofs, p. 72,) also
charges Von Hund with borrowing his
symbols from the same work, in which,
however, he declares " there is not the least
trace of Masonry or Templars."
Clavel, with his usual boldness of assertion, which is too often independent of
facts, declares that the degree was invented
by the Jesuits for the purpose of countermining the insidious attacks of the freethinkers upon the Roman Catholic religion,
but that the philosophers parried the attempt by seizing upon the degree and giving
to all its symbols an astronomical signification.
ClavePs opinion is probably derived
from one of those sweeping charges of Professor Robison, in which that systematic
enemy of our Institution declares that,
about the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits interfered considerably
with Masonry, "insinuating themselves
into the Lodges, and contributing to increase that religious mysticism that is to be
observed in all the ceremonies of the Order."
But there is no better evidence than these
mere vague assertions of the connection
of the Jesuits with the Rose Croix degree.
Oliver (Landm.., ii. 81,) says that the earliest notice that he finds of this degree is
in a publication of 1613, entitled La Reformation universelle du monde entur avec la
fama fraternitatis de V Ordre respectable de
la Hose Croix.
But he adds, that " it was
known much sooner, although not probably
as a degree in Masonry for it existed as a
kabbalistic science from the earliest times
in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as
amongst the Jews and Moors in times more

ticity I shall not stop to inquire, that after

the dissolution of the Order, many of the
knights repaired to Scotland and placed
themselves under the protection of Robert
Bruce; and that after the battle of Bannockburn, which took place on St. John the
Baptist's day, in the year 1314, this monarch instituted the Royal Order of Heredom and Knight of the Rosy Cross, and
established the chief seat of the Order at
Kilwinning. From that Order, it seems to
us by no means improbable that the present degree of Rose Croix de Heroden may

recent."
Oliver, however, undoubtedly, in the latter part of this paragraph, confounds the

Masonic Rose Croix with the alchemical

Rosicrucians and the former is singularly
inconsistent with the details that he gives
in reference to the Rosy Cross of the Royal
Order of Scotland.
There is a tradition, into whose authen;

have taken

its origin.

661

In two respects,

at

there seems to be a very close connection between the two systems: they
both claim the kingdom of Scotland and
the Abbey of Kilwinning as having been
at one time their chief seat of government,
least,

and they both seem to have been instituted

to give a Christian explanation to Ancient
Craft Masonry.
There is, besides, a similarity in the names of the degrees of "Rose
Croix de Heroden," and "Heredom and
Rosy Cross," amounting almost to an identity, which appears to indicate a very intimate relation of one to the other.

The subject, however, is in a state of inextricable confusion, and I confess that,

after all my researches, I am still unable
distinctly to point to the period when, and
to the place where, the present degree of
Rose Croix received its organization as a
Masonic grade.
have this much of history to guide
us.
In the year 1747, the Pretender,
Prince Charles Edward, established a Chapter in the town of Arras, in France, with

We

of the " Chapitre Primordial de

The Charter of this body is
now extant in an authenticated copy deposited in the departmental archives of
Arras. In it the Pretender styles himself
" King of England, France, Scotland, and
Ireland, and, by virtue of this, Sovereign
Orand Master of the Chapter of H. known
under the title of the Eagle and Pelican,
and, since our sorrows and misfortunes,
under that of Rose Croix." From this we
may infer that the title of " Rose Croix " was
the

title

Rose Croix."

first

known

in 1747

that the degree

had

been formerly known as " Knight of the

Eagle and Pelican," a title which it still
retains that it was at that date introduced
into France by the Pretender, who borrowed it from the Rosy Cross of the Royal
Order of Scotland, of which, because as
the King of Scotland is the Hereditary
Grand Master, he, by virtue of his claim to
the throne, assumed the Grand Mastership.
Hence it is probable that the Rose Croix
degree has been borrowed from the Rosy
Cross of the Scottish Royal Order of Heredom, but in passing from Scotland to
;

ROSE

ROSE

it greatly changed its form and

organization, as it resembles in no respect
its archetype, except that both are eminentBut in its
ly Christian in their design.

usual application duly recommended; and

662
France

adoption by the Ancient and Accepted

its organization has been so changed

Rite,
that,

by a more

symbolism,

it

liberal interpretation of its

less sec-

has been rendered

more tolerant in its design.

For while the Christian reference is pre-

tarian and

served, no peculiar theological dogma is

retained, and the degree is made cosmopolite
in its character.
It was, indeed, on its first inception, an
attempt to Christianize Freemasonry; to
apply the rites, and symbols, and traditions
of Ancient Craft Masonry to the last and
greatest dispensation; to add to the first

Temple of Solomon and the second of Zerubbabel a third, that to which Christ alluded when he said, " Destroy this temple,
and in three days will I raise it up." The
great discovery which was made in the
Royal Arch ceases to be of value in this
degree; for it another is substituted of
more Christian application the Wisdom,
Strength, and Beauty which supported the
ancient Temple are replaced by the Christian pillars of Faith, Hope and Charity
the great lights, of course, remain, because
they are of the very essence of Masonry
but the three lesser give way to the thirtythree, which allude to the years of the
Messiah's sojourning on earth. Everything,
in short, about the degree, is Christian but,
as I have already said, the Christian teachings of the degree have been applied to the
sublime principles of a universal system,
and an interpretation and illustration of
the doctrines of the "Master of Nazareth,"
so adapted to the Masonic dogma of tolerance, that men of every faith may embrace
It thus performs a
and respect them.
noble mission. It obliterates, alike, the
intolerance of those Christians who sought
to erect an impassable barrier around the
sheepfold, and the equal intolerance of
those of other religions who would be
ready to exclaim " Can any good thing
come out of Nazareth ? "
In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, whence the Rose Croix Masons of the
United States have received the degree, it is
placed as the eighteenth on the list. It is
conferred in a body called a "Chapter,"
which derives its authority immediately
from the Supreme Council of the Thirtythird, and which confers with it only one
other and inferior degree, that of " Knights
of the East and West." Its principal officers are a Most Wise Master and two
Wardens. Maundy Thursday and Easter
Sunday are two obligatory days of meeting.
The aspirant for the degree makes the
;

accepted, is required, before initiation, to

certain declarations which shall show
his competency for the honor which he
seeks, and at the same time prove the high
estimation entertained of the degree by
those who already possess it.
The jewel of the Rose Croix is a golden
compass, extended on an arc to the sixteenth part'of a circle, or twenty-two and a
half degrees. The head of the compass is
surmounted by a triple crown, consisting
of three series of points arranged by three,
five, and seven.
Between the legs of the
compass is a cross resting on the arc its
centre is occupied by a full-blown rose,
whose stem twines around the lower limb
of the cross at the foot of the cross, on
the same side on which the rose is exhibited, is the figure of a pelican wounding its
breast to feed its young which are in a nest
surrounding it, while on the other side of
the jewel is the figure of an eagle with
wings displayed. On the arc of the circle,
the P.*. W.\ of the degree is engraved in
the cipher of the Order.
In this jewel are included the most important symbols of the degree. The Cross,
the Rose, the Pelican, and the Eagle are all
important symbols, the explanations of
which will go far to a comprehension of
what is the true design of the Rose Croix
Order. They may be seen in this work
under their respective titles.
if

make

Rose Croix, Rectified.

The name

given by F. J. W. Schroder to his Rite of

seven magical, theosophical, and alchemical degrees. See Schroeder, Friederioh Joseph
Wilhelm.

Rose Croix, Sovereign Prince

of.

Because of its great importance in the

Masonic system, and of the many privileges

possessed by its possessors, the epithet of
" Sovereign " has been almost universally
bestowed upon the degree of Prince of Rose
Recently, however, the Mother
Croix.
Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Charleston has discarded this
title,

and directed that the word "Sovereign"

only be applied to the thirty-third

degree of the Rite; and this is now the
usage in the Southern Jurisdiction of the
shall

United

States.

Rose, Knights and Ladies of

the.

See Knight of the Rose.

Rose, Order of the. A Masonic

adventurer, Franz Rudolph Van Grossing,
but whose proper name, Wadzeck says,
was Franz Matth'aus Grossinger, established, as a financial speculation, at Berlin,
in 1778, an androgynous society, which he
called Rosen- Order, or the Order of the
Rose. It consisted of two degrees 1 Female Friends, and 2. Confidants and the
:

ROSENKREUZ

ROSICRUCIANISM

meetings of the society were designated as

" holding the rose." The society had but
a brief duration, and the life and adventures of the founder and the secrets of the
Order were published in 1789, by Friederich
Wadzeck, in a work entitled Leben und
Schicksale des beruchtigten F. R. Von Gross-

tinued his studies; and, having traversed

the Mediterranean, he at length arrived at
Fez, in Morocco, as he had been directed
by his masters of Damascus. He passed
two years in acquiring further information
from the philosophers of Africa, and then
crossed over into Spain. There, however,
he met with an unfavorable reception, and
then determined to return to Germany, and
give to his own countrymen the benefit of

ing.

Rosenkreuz, Christian. An

as-

sumed name, invented, it is supposed, by

John Valentine Andrea, and by which he
designated a fictitious person, to whom he
has attributed the invention of Rosicrucianism.
See this word.

Rosicrucianism.

Many

writers

have sought to discover a close connection

between the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons, and some, indeed, have advanced the
theory that the latter are only the successors of the former.
Whether this opinion
be correct or not, there are sufficient coincidences of character between the two to
render the history of Rosicrucianism highly
interesting to the Masonic student.
There appeared at Cassel, in the year
1614, a work bearing the title of Allgemeine und General- Reformation der ganzen
weiten Welt. Beneben der Fama Fraternitatis des Loblichen Ordens des Rosencreuzes an
alle Gelehrteund Hdupter Europd geschrieben.
second edition appeared in 1615, and
several subsequent ones and in 1652 it was
introduced to the English public in a translation by the celebrated adept, Thomas
Vaughan, under the title of Fame and Con-

fession of Rosie- Cross.

This work has been attributed, although

not without question, to the philosopher
and theologian, John Valentine Andrea,
who is reported, on the authority of the
preacher, M. C. Hirschen, to have confessed
that he, with thirty others in Wurtemberg,
had sent forth the Fama Fraternitatis ; that
under this veil they might discover who
were the true lovers of wisdom, and induce
them to come forward.
In this work Andrea gives an account of
the life and adventures of Christian Rosenkreuz, a fictitious personage, whom he
makes the founder of the pretended Society
of Rosicrucians.
According to Andrea's tale, Rosenkreuz
was of good birth, but, being poor, was
compelled to enter a monastery at a very
early period of his life. At the age of 100
years, he started with one of the monks on a
pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre. On
their arrival at the island of Cyprus, the
monk was taken sick and died, but Rosenkreuz proceeded on his journey. At Da-

663

his studies and researches, and to establish

there a society for the cultivation of the
sciences which he had acquired during his
Accordingly, he selected three of
travels.
the monks of the old convent in which he
was educated. To them he imparted his
knowledge, under a solemn vow of secrecy.
He imposed on them the duty of committing his instructions to writing, and forming a magic vocabulary for the benefit of
future students. They were also taught
the science of medicine, and prescribed
gratuitously for all the sick who applied to
them. But the number of their patients
soon materially interfering with their
other labors, and the new edifice, the
House of the Holy Spirit, being now
finished, Father Christian, as he was called,
resolved to enlarge his society by the initiation of four new members.
The eight brethren being now thoroughly
instructed in the mysteries, they agreed to
separate
two to remain with Father
Christian, and the others to travel, but to
return at the end of each year, and mutually to communicate the results of their
experience. The two who had remained
at home were then relieved by two of the
others, and they again separated for another

year.

The society thus formed was governed

by a code of laws, by which they agreed
that they would devote themselves to no
occupation except that of physic, which
they were to practise without pecuniary
reward; that they would not distinguish
themselves from the rest of the world by
any peculiar costume that each one should
annually present himself at the House of
the Holy Spirit, or send an excuse for his
;

absence that each one should, during his

life, appoint somebody to succeed him at
his death that the letters R. C. were to be
their title and watchword; and that the
brotherhood should be kept a secret for one
;

hundred

years.

At the age

of 106 years Father ChrisRosenkreuz died, and was buried

by the two brethren who had remained
with him; but the place of his burial remascus he remained for three years, de- mained a secret to all of the rest the two
voting himself to the study of the occult carrying the mystery with them to the
sciences, taught by the sages of that city. grave.
The society, however, continued,
He then sailed for Egypt, where he con- notwithstanding the death of the founder,
tian

ROSICRUCIANISM

ROSICRUCIANISM

to exist, but unknown to the world, always

consisting of eight members. There was <a
tradition among them, that at the end of

But the fiction was readily accepted as a

truth by most people, and the invisible
society of Rosenkreuz was sought for with
avidity by many who wished to unite with
it.
The sensation produced in Germany
by the appearance of Andrea's book was
great letters poured in on all sides from those
who desired to become members of the
Order, and who, as proofs of their qualifications, presented their claims to skill in
Alchemy and Kabbalism. No answers, of
course, having been received to these petitions for initiation, most of the applicants

664

one hundred and twenty years the grave of

Father Rosenkreuz was to be discovered,
and the brotherhood no longer remain a
secret. About that time the brethren began

make some

alterations in their building,

and attempted to remove to a more fitting
situation the memorial table on which

to

was inscribed the names of those who had

been members of the fraternity. The plate
was of brass, and was affixed to the wall
by a nail driven through its centre but so were discouraged and retired; but some
firmly was it attached, that in tearing it were bold, became impostors, and proaway, a portion of the plaster came off and claimed that they had been admitted into
exposed a secret door. Upon removing the the society, and exercised their fraud upon
incrustation on the door, there appeared those who were credulous enough to bewritten in large letters, " Post cxx An- lieve them. There are records that some
NOS Patebo " after one hundred and twenty of these charlatans, who extorted money
;

years

will appear.

Returning the next

morning to renew their researches, they

opened the door and discovered a heptagonal vault, each of its seven sides being
five feet wide, and in height eight feet.
The light Vas received from an artificial
sun in the roof, and in the middle of the
floor there stood, instead of a tomb, a circular altar, on which was an inscription, importing that this apartment, as a compendium of the universe, had been erected by
Other later inChristian Rosenkreuz.
such as
scriptions about the apartment
Jesus mihi omnia ; Legis jugum ; Libertas
Evangelii : Jesus is my all the yoke of the
law the liberty of the Gospel
indicated
the Christian character of the builder. In
each of the sides was a door opening into
a closet, and in these closets they found
many rare and valuable articles, such as
the life of the founder, the vocabulary of
Paracelsus, and the secrets of the Order,
together with bells, mirrors, burning lamps,
and other curious articles. On removing
the altar and a brass plate beneath it, they
came upon the body of Rosenkreuz in a
perfect state of preservation.
Such is the sketch of the history of the
Rosicrucians given by Andrea in his Fama
Fraternitatis.
It is evidently a romance;
and scholars now generally assent to the
theory advanced by Nicolai, that Andrea,
who, at the time of the appearance of his
book, was a young man full of excitement,
seeing the defects of the sciences, the theology, and the manners of his time, sought
to purify them
and, to accomplish this
design, imagined the union into one body
of all those who, like himself, were the
admirers of true virtue; in other words,
that he wrote this account of the rise and
progress of Rosicrucianism for the purpose
of advancing, by a poetical fiction, his peculiar views of morals and religion.

from their dupes, were' punished for their

offence by the magistrates of Nuremberg,
Augsburg, and some other German cities.
There was, too, in Holland, in the year
1722, a Society of Alchemists, who called
themselves Rosicrucians, and who claimed
that
Christian Rosenkreuz was their
founder, and that they had affiliated sociBut
eties in many of the German cities.
it is not to be doubted that this was a selfcreated society, and that it had nothing in
common, except the name, with the imaginary brotherhood invented by Andrea.
Des Cartes, indeed, says that he sought in
vain for a Rosicrucian Lodge in Germany.
But although the brotherhood of Rosenkreuz, as described by Andrea in his Fama
Fraternitatis, his Chemical Nuptuals, and
other works, never had a real tangible existence as an organized society, the opinions
advanced by Andrea took root, and gave
rise to the philosophic sect of the Rosicrucians, many of whom were to be found,
during the seventeenth century, in Germany, in France, and in England. Among
these were such men as Michael Maier,
Richard Fludd, and Elias Ash mole. Nicolai even thinks that he has found some
evidence that the Fama Fraternitatis suggested to Lord Bacon the notion of his
.

Instauratio

Magna.

But, as

Vaughan

says,

{Hours with the Mystics, ii. 104,) the name

Rosicrucian became by degrees a generic
term, embracing every species of doubt,
pretension, arcana, elixers, the philosopher's stone, theurgic ritual, symbols, or
initiations.

Higgins, Sloane, Vaughan, and several

other writers have asserted that Freemasonry sprang out of Rosicrucianism. But
this is a great error.
Between the two
there is no similarity of origin, of design,
or of organization.
The symbolism of
Rosicrucianism is derived from a hermetic

ROSICRUCIANISM

ROSICRUCIANISM

that of Freemasonry from an

;
operative art. The latter had its cradle in
the Stonemasons of Strasburg and the
Masters of Como long before the former
had its birth in the inventive brain of John
Valentine Andreii.
It is true, that about the middle of the
eighteenth century, a period fertile in the
invention of high degrees, a Masonic Rite
was established which assumed the name
of Rose Croix Masonry, and adopted the
symbol of the Rose and Cross. But this
was a coincidence, and not a consequence.
There was nothing in common between
them and the Rosicrucians, except the
name, the symbol, and the Christian character. Doubtless the symbol was suggested
to the Masonic Order from the use of it by
the philosophic sect; but the Masons modified the interpretation, and the symbol, of
But here
course, gave rise to the name.
Rose Croix Mathe connection ends.
son and a Rosicrucian are two entirely different persons.
The Rosicrucians had a large number of
symbols, some of which were in common
with those of the Freemasons, and some
peculiar to themselves. The principal of
these were the globe, the circle, the compasses, the square, (both the working-tool
and the geometrical figure,) the triangle,
the level, and the plummet. These are,
however, interpreted, not like the Masonic,
as symbols of the moral virtues, but of
the properties of the philosopher's stone.
Thus, the twenty-first emblem of Michael
Maier's Atlanta Fugiens gives the following collection of the most important
symbols
philosopher is measuring with
a pair of compasses a circle which surmounts a triangle. The triangle encloses
a square, within which is another circle, and
inside of the circle a nude man and woman,
representing, it may be supposed, the first
step of the experiment. Over all is this epigraph " Fac ex mare et femina circulum,

Peter Gassendi (Exam. Phil. Fludd, sect.

15,) first, and then Mosheim, (Hist. Eccles.,
iv., i.,) deduce it from the two words ros,
dew, and crux, a cross, and thus define it
Dew, according to the Alchemists, was the
most powerful of all substances to dissolve
gold and the cross, in the language of the
same philosophers, was identical with light,
or LVX, because the figure of a cross exhibits the three letters of that word.
But
the word lux was referred to the seed or
menstruum of the Red Dragon, which was
that crude and material light which, being
properly concocted and digested, produces
Hence, says Mosheim, a Rosicrugold.
cian is a philosopher, who by means of dew
seeks for light, that is, for the substance
of the philosopher's stone. But notwithstanding the high authority for this etymology, I think it untenable, and altogether at. variance with the history of the
origin of the Order, as will be presently

indequadrangulum,hinctriangulum,faccirculum et habebis lapidem Philosophorum."

follow that the same interpretation was

adopted by the Rosicrucians. Others say
that the rose meant the generative principle of nature, a symbolism borrowed from
the Pagan mythologers, and not likely to
have been appropriated by Andrea. Others,
again, contend that he derived the symbol
from his own arms, which were a St. Andrew's cross between four roses, and that he
alluded to Luther's well-known lines:

philosophy

is, " Make of man and woman a cirthence a square; thence a triangle;
form a circle, and you will have the Philosopher's stone." But it must be remembered that Hitchcock, and some other
recent writers, have very satisfactorily
proved that the labors of the real hermetic
philosophers (outside of the charlatans)
were rather of a spiritual than a material
character; and that their "great work"
symbolized not the acquisition of inexhaustible wealth and the infinite prolongation of life, but the regeneration of man
and the immortality of the soul.
As to the etymology of the word Rosicrucian, several derivations have been given.

That
cle;

41

665

seen.
is

Another and more reasonable derivation

from rose and cross. This was undoubt-

edly in accordance with the notions of Anwho was the founder of the Order,
and gave it its name, for in his writings
he constantly calls it the " Fraternitas
Roseae Crucis," or "the Fraternity of the
Rosy Cross." If the idea of dew had been
in the mind of Andrea in giving a name to
the society, he would have called it the
" Fraternity of the Dewy Cross," not that
of the " Rosy Cross." "Fraternitas Roscidae
Crucis," not " Roseae Crucis." This ought
to settle the question.
The man who invents a thing has the best right to give it a
drea,

name.

The

origin and interpretation of the symhave been variously given. Some have
supposed that it was derived from the
Christian symbolism of the rose and the
bol

This is the interpretation that has

cross.
been assumed by the Rose Croix Order of
the Masonic system but it does not thence
;

"

i.

e.,

Des Christen Herz auf Rosen geht,

Wenn's mitten unter'n Kreutze stent,"
"

The heart of the Christian goes upon

roses when it stands close beneath the

cross."
But whatever may have been the
effect of Luther's lines in begetting an idea,

ROYAL

ROSICRUCIAN

666

the suggestion of Andrea's arms must be

rejected.
The symbol of the Rosicrucians
was a single rose upon a passion cross, verydifferent from four roses surrounding a St.

and to separate the true from the fabulous in his history.

The legend has been used by some
of the fabricators of irregular degrees in

lish the fact of his existence,

Masonry.
Andrew's cross.
Another derivation may be suggested,
Round Towers of Ireland. Edinamely That, the rose being a symbol of fices, sixty-two in number, varying in
secrecy, and the cross of light, the rose and height from 80 to 120 feet, which are found
They are
cross were intended to symbolize the secret in various parts of Ireland.
of the true light, or the true knowledge, cylindrical in shape, with a single door
which the Rosicrucian brotherhood were to eight or ten feet from the ground, and a
give to the world at the end of the hundred small aperture near the top. The question
years of their silence, and for which pur- of their origin and design has been a source
pose of moral and religious reform Andrea of much perplexity to antiquaries. They
wrote his books and sought to establish his have been supposed by Montmorency to
But the whole subject of Rosicrucian have been intended as beacons; by Valsect.
etymology is involved in confusion.
lancey, as receptacles of the sacred fire;
Rosicrucian Society of Eng- by O'Brien, as temples for the worship of
land. A society whose objects are of a the sun and moon and more recently, by
purely literary character, and connected Petrie, simply as bell-towers, and of very
with the sect of the Rosicrucians of the modern date. This last theory has been
Middle Ages. It is secret, but not Masonic, adopted by many; while the more probable
in its organization although many of the supposition is still maintained by others,
most distinguished Masons of England take that, whatever was their later appropriagreat interest in it, and are active members tion, they were, in their origin, of a phallic
of the society.
character, in common with the towers of
:

Rosy

Cross.

One of the

degrees con-

similar construction in the East.

O'Brien's

which work On the Hound Towers of Ireland, which

see.
was somewhat extravagant in its arguments
and hypotheses, led some Masons to adopt,
Bough Ashlar. See Ashlar.
Round Table, King Arthur's. forty years ago, the opinion that they were
The old English legends, derived from the originally the places of a primitive Macelebrated chronicle of the twelfth century sonic initiation.
But this theory is no
known as the Brut of England, say that the longer maintained as tenable.
ferred in the Royal Order of Scotland,

mythical King Arthur, who died in 542, of

a wound received in battle, instituted a
company of twenty-four (or, according to
some, twelve,) of his principal knights,
bound to appear at his court on certain sol-

emn

days, and meet around a circular tawhence they were called " Knights of
the Round Table." Arthur is said to have
been the institutor of those military and religious orders of chivalry which afterwards
became so common in the Middle Ages.
Into the Order which he established none
were admitted but those who had given
proofs of their valor; and the knights were
bound to defend widows, maidens, and
ble,

children to relieve the distressed, maintain

the Christian religion, contribute to the
support of the church, protect pilgrims,
advance honor, and suppress vice. They
were to administer to the care of soldiers
wounded in the service of their country,
and bury those who died, to ransom captives, deliver prisoners, and record all noble enterprises for the honor and renown
of the noble Order. King Arthur and his
knights have been very generally considered by scholars as mythical notwithstanding that, many years ago Whittaker, in his
History of Manchester, attempted to estab-

Rowers. See Knight Bower.

Royal and Select Masters.
Council of Royal

and

See

Select Masters.

Royal Arch, Ancient.

See Knight

of the Ninth Arch.

Royal Arch Apron.

At the triennial meeting of the General Grand Chapter of the United States at Chicago, in
1859, a Royal Arch apron was prescribed,
consisting of a lamb-skin, (silk or satin
being strictly prohibited,) to be lined and
bound with scarlet, on the flap of which
should be placed a triple tau cross within a
triangle, and all within a circle.

Royal Arch Badge.

The triple
tau, consisting of three tau crosses conjoined at their feet, constitutes the Royal
Arch badge.

The English Masons

call it

ROYAL
the

ROYAL

"emblem of all emblems," and the

emblem of Eoyal Arch Masonry."

" grand

The English Royal Arch lecture

thus defines it " The triple tau
forms two right angles on each
of the exterior lines, and another
at the centre, by their union for
the three angles of each triangle are equal
:

to two right angles.

illustrates the jewel

This, being triplified,

worn by the companions of the Royal Arch, which, by its inter-

section, forms a given

that

number

of angles

may

tions."

be taken in five several combinaIt is used in the Royal Arch Ma-

sonry of Scotland, and has, for the last ten

or fifteen years, been adopted officially in
the United States.

Royal Arch Banners.

ners,

See Ban-

Royal Arch.

Royal Arch Captain. The

sixth

Royal Arch Chapter according

to the American system.
He represents
the sar hatabahim., or Captain of the King's
officer in a

Guards.

He

sits in front of the Council

at the entrance to the fourth veil, to
guard the approaches to which is his duty.

and

He wears a white robe and cap, is armed

with a sword, and bears a white banner on
is inscribed a lion, the emblem of
the tribe of Judah. His jewel is a triangular plate of gold inscribed with a sword.
In the preliminary Lodges of the Chapter

which

he acts as Junior Deacon.

Royal Arch Clothing.

The

cloth-

ing or regalia of a Royal Arch Mason in

the American system consists of an apron,
(already described,) a scarf of scarlet velvet or silk, on which is embroidered or
painted, on a blue ground, the words,
" Holiness to the Lord " and if an officer,
a scarlet collar, to which is attached the
jewel of his office. The scarf, once universally used, has, within a few years past,
been very much abandoned. Every Royal
Arch Mason should also wear at his buttonhole, attached by a scarlet ribbon, the jewel
of the Order.
;

Royal Arch Colors.

The

peculiar
color of the Royal Arch degree is red or
scarlet, which is symbolic of fervency and
zeal, the characteristics of the degree. The
colors also used symbolically in the decorations of a Chapter are blue, purple, scarlet, and white, each of which has a symbolic
meaning. See Veils of the Tabernacle.
Arch Degree. If we except
the Master's, there is no other degree in
Masonry that has been so extensively diffused, or is as important in its historical
and symbolical import, as the Royal Arch,
or, as it has been called, on account of its

667

that it is "indescribably more august,

sublime, and important than any which
precede it, and is, in fact, the summit and
perfection of ancient Masonry." It is
found, in fact, in every Rite, in some modified form, and sometimes under a different
name, but always preserving those same
symbolic relations to the Lost Word which
constitute its essential character.
Whoever carefully studies the Master's
degree in its symbolic signification will be
convinced that it is in a mutilated condition, that is, that it is imperfect and unfinished in its history, and that, terminating
abruptly in its symbolism, it leaves the
mind still waiting for something that is
necessary to its completeness. This deficiency is supplied by the Royal Arch degree.
Hence, when the union took place
in England, in 1813, between the two rival
Grand Lodges, while there was a strong
and hereditary disposition on the part of
the English Masons to preserve the simplicity of the Old York Rite by confining
Freemasonry to the three symbolical degrees, it was found necessary to define Ancient Craft Masonry as consisting of three
degrees, " including the Holy Royal Arch."
There was a time, undoubtedly, when the
Royal Arch did not exist as an independent
degree, but was a complementary part of
the 'Master's degree, to which it gave a
necessary completion. Ramsay introduced
it into the high degrees on the continent
Dermott fabricated it for the use of his
;

Grand Lodge; and Dunckerley is said to

have dissevered it from the third degree in
the legal Grand Lodge of England. The
precise method and time of its disseverance
from the third establishment, as an independent degree in England and America,
constitutes an important and interesting
part of the history of Masonry.
It is evident that

the existence of the

Royal Arch

as an independent and distinct

degree dates at a comparatively modern

period. In none of the old manuscript

records of Masonry is there the slightest
allusion to it, and Anderson does not make
any reference to it in his history of the
Order. The true word, which constitutes
the essential character of the Royal Arch
degree, was found by Dr. Oliver in an old

Master Mason's tracing-board of the date

of about 1725: and hence he concludes
Royal
{Or. of the Eng. R. A., p. 20,) "that the
word, at that time, had not been severed
from the third degree and transferred to
another,"
in other words, that the Royal
Arch degree had not then been fabricated.
The earliest mention of it in England that
sublime significance, the "Holy Royal he could find was in the year 1740, just two
Arch." Dermott calls it " the root, heart, years after the schism which separated the
and marrow of Masonry," and Oliver says Ancient from the Modern Grand Lodge,

ROYAL

668

ROYAL

I use the usually accepted titles, without

and he
to their propriety,
attributes its fabrication to the former
body. Stone, [Letters on Masonry, p. 50,)
with a very imperfect knowledge of Masonic history, attributes its origin to the
Primordial Chapter of Arras. But that body
was established by the young Pretender
in 1747, and Oliver, as is seen, recognized
the existence of the degree in England
seven years before. The truth, however,
is, that Ramsay had long before incorporated a Royal Arch degree under a different
title in his high degrees, and there is no
doubt that Dermott, who was really the
inventor of the English system, was indebted to him for many of his ideas, as

any reference

Dunckerley subsequently was when he

composed the Royal Arch for the legal
Grand Lodge but the system of Ramsay
was very different in its main details from
that of either. Ramsay, about the time of
Dermott's innovation, had visited England,
and attempted to introduce his high degrees, which were rejected by the legal
Grand Lodge and there is every reason to
believe that he communicated to seceding
Masons a portion of the inventions which
he had engrafted upon the Masonry of the
;

continent.
Oliver says of the Royal Arch that was
invented by the seceders that, " although it
contained elements of the greatest sublimity, it was imperfect in its construction
and unsatisfactory in its result which will
tend to show, from the crude and imperfect
state in which it then appeared, that the
degree was in its infancy. The anachro;

nisms with which

it

abounded, "and the

loose manner in which its parts were fitted

into each other, betrayed its recent origin.
In fact, it was evidently an attempt to combine several of the continental degrees of
sublime Masonry into one, without regard
to the order of time, propriety of arrangement, or any other consistent principle
and therefore we find in the degree, as it
was originally constructed, jumbled together
in a state of inextricable confusion, the
events commemorated in Ramsay's Royal

Arch, the Knights of the Ninth Arch, of

the Burning Bush, of the East or Sword,
of the Red Cross, the Scotch Fellow Craft,
the Select Master, the Red Cross Sword of
Babylon, the Rose Croix, etc."
As late as the year 1758, the Constitutional Grand Lodge had
degree, for in that year the
declared that " our society

no Royal Arch
Grand Secretary
is

neither Arch,

Royal Arch, nor Ancient " and in the lecture

of the third degree prepared byAnderson and
Desaguliers it is said " that which was lost
is now found," meaning, says Oliver, that
the Master Mason's word was delivered to
;

the newly raised Master in the latter ceremonies of the third degree, which would
preclude the necessity for a Royal Arch
degree.

But about the year 1766, Thomas Dunckwho had been authorized by the Constitutional Grand Lodge, or the "Moderns,"
erley,

new system of lectures,

modifications of the old
system, which had been hitherto practised
by dissevering the Master's word from the
third degree. This involved the necessity
of anew degree; and Dunckerley, borrowing
to

inaugurate a

commenced

his

from Ramsay, from Dermott, and from his

own

invention, fabricated tne degree of

for the Modern Masons a violent innovation, for the success of which he
was indebted only to his own great popularity among the Craft and the influence of
the Grand Master. Oliver thinks, for good
reasons, that the introduction of the Royal
Arch degree into the Modern system could
not have been earlier than the dedication
of Freemasons' Hall in 1776. Ten years
after the regulations of the degree were first
established, and at the union of the two
Grand Lodges in 1813, the Holy Royal
Arch was formally and officially recognized
as a part of Ancient Craft Masonry, and
so it has ever since remained.
The result of our investigations, in which
we have mainly relied on the authority of
the learned Oliver, is that, until the year
1740, the essential element of the Royal
Arch constituted a component part of the
Master's degree, and was of course its concluding portion; that as a degree it was
not at all recognized, being but the complement of one that about that time it
was dissevered from its original connection
and elevated to the position and invested
with the form of a distinct degree by the
body which called itself " the Grand Lodge
of England according to the Old Constitutions," but which is more familiarly known
as the Dermott or the Athol Grand Lodge,
and frequently as " the Ancients ;" that in
1776 a similar degree, fabricated by Dunckerley, was adopted by the Constitutional
Grand Lodge, or the "Moderns," and
that in 1813 it was formally recognized as
a part of the York Rite by the United
Grand Lodge of England.
In America, the history of the degree
followed that of the English system. As
most of the American Lodges derived their
Warrants from the Athol Grand Lodge,
the Royal Arch must have been introduced
The
at the time of their constitution.
government of the degree was for a long
time under the Master's Lodges, and many
years elapsed before it was taken thence
and placed under the control of distinct
bodies called Grand Chapters. In America,

Royal Arch

KOYAL

ROYAL

was not until 1798 that a Grand Chapter

was formed, and many Lodges persisted for
some years after in conferring the Royal
Arch degree under the authority of their
Warrants from Grand Lodges.
Maintaining everywhere an identity in
its symbolic signification, the Royal Arch

prominent a symbol in the English and

American systems, and so entirely unknown
in the continental, cannot be considered as
an essential point in the symbolism of the
degree. It is important in the systems in
which it occurs, but it is not essential.
The true symbolism of the Royal Arch
system is founded on the discovery of the

it

varies in different countries in its historical

details.

Ramsay's degree, from which

all

the con-

tinental systems originated, is entirely different from that practised in Great Britain,
in Ireland, and in the United States.
Its
type may be found in the thirteenth degree,
or Knight of the Ninth Arch of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
In England, Scotland, and the United
States, the circumstance on which the degree is founded, or, in technical language,
the legend, is the same; but the preliminary
organization is different in each country.
In England, in 1834, considerable changes
were made in the ceremonies of exaltation,
but the general outline of the system was
preserved. The degree is the fourth in the

Masonic series, and a Master Mason who

has been so for twelve months is eligible
for exaltation.
The principal officers of
an English Chapter are three Principals,
Zerubbabel, Haggai, and Joshua; three
Sojourners and two Scribes, Ezra and Nehemiah a Treasurer and a Janitor.
In Scotland, the preliminary degrees are
Mark, Past, Excellent, and Super-Excellent Master, and the principal officers are
the same as in England.
In Ireland, the legend was formerly different from that of England, and founded
on events recorded in the Second Book of
Chronicles, (xxxiv. 14,) where Hilkiah is
said to have " found a book of the law of
the Lord given by Moses." The date of
this degree was, therefore, 624 B. c, or ninety
years after ours. The preliminary or qualifying degrees were Past, Excellent, and
Super- Excellent. But the Irish system was
:

changed some years ago, and a new ritual,

somewhat resembling the American, was
adopted. The officers do not materially
differ from those of English and Scottish
Chapters.

In America, the legend is the same as the

English, but varying in some of its details.
The preliminary degrees are Mark, Past,
and Most Excellent Master; and the prin:

669

Lost Word.
It can never be too often repeated that
is, in Masonry, the symbol of
the
TRUTH. This truth is the great object
the scope and tenof pursuit in Masonry
dency of all its investigations
the promised reward of all Masonic labor. Sought
for diligently in every degree, and constantly approached, but never thoroughly
and intimately embraced, at length, in the
Royal Arch, the veils which concealed the
object of search from our view are withdrawn, and the inestimable prize is revealed.
This truth, which Masonry makes the
great object of its investigations, is not the
mere truth of science, or the truth of history, but is the more important truth which
is synonymous with the knowledge of the
nature of God,
that truth which is embraced in the sacred Tetragrammaton, or
omnific name, including in its signification
his eternal, present, past, and future existence, and to which he himself alluded when
he declared to Moses, "I appeared unto

WORD

Abraham, unto

Isaac,

and unto Jacob by

name of God Almighty; but by my

name Jehovah was I not known unto
the

them."

The discovery of

this truth

is,

then, the

symbolism of the Royal Arch

degree.
Wherever it is practised,
and
under some peculiar name the degree is
found in every Rite of Masonry,
this
symbolism is preserved. However the legend may vary, however the ceremonies
of reception and the preliminary steps of
initiation may differ, the consummation
the great discovery
is always the same
which represents the attainment of Truth.
essential

Royal Arch, Grand.

The

thirty-

degree of the Rite of Mizraim. It

is nearly the same as the thirteenth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
first

Rite.

Royal Arch

Jewel. The

jewel

which every Royal Arch Mason is percipal officers are High Priest, King, Scribe, mitted to wear as a token of his connection
Captain of the Host, Principal Sojourner, with the Order. It is usually suspended
Royal Arch Captain, and three Grand by a scarlet ribbon to the button. It is of
Masters of the Veils.
gold, and consists of a triple tau cross
I have said that, however the legend or within a triangle, the whole circumscribed
historical basis might vary in the different by a circle.
This jewel is eminently symRites, in all of them the symbolical signifi- bolic.
The tau being the mark mentioned
cation of the Royal Arch was identical. by Ezekiel (ix. 4,) by which those were disHence, the building of a second Temple, so tinguished who were to be saved from the
:

670

ROYAL

ROYAL

wicked who were to be slain the triple tau

is symbolic of the peculiar and more eminent separation of Royal Arch Masons
from the profane the triangle, or delta, is a
symbol of the sacred name of God, known
;

only to those who are thus separated and

the circle is a symbol of the eternal life,
which is the great dogma taught by Royal
Arch Masonry. Hence, by this jewel, the
Royal Arch Mason makes the profession
of his separation from the unholy and profane, his reverence for God, and his belief
in the future and eternal life.
;

Royal Arch Masonry.

That

di-

vision of Speculative Masonry which is engaged in the investigation of the mysteries

connected with the Royal Arch, no matter

under what name or in what Rite. Thus
the mysteries of the Knight of the Ninth
Arch constitute the Royal Arch Masonry
of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
just as much as those of the Royal Arch of
Zerubbabel do the Royal Arch of the York

can Rites is so called to distinguish it from

the Royal Arch of Solomon in the Ancient

and Accepted Scottish

Rite.

Royal Arch Robes.

In the working of a Royal Arch Chapter in the United

States great attention is paid to the robes
of the several officers. The High Priest
wears, in imitation of the high priest of
the Jews, a robe of blue, purple, scarlet,
and white linen, and is decorated with the
breastplate and mitre. The King wears a
scarlet robe, and has a crown and sceptre.
The Scribe wears a purple robe and turban.
The Captain of the Host wears a white
robe and cap, and is armed with a sword.
The Principal Sojourner wears a dark robe,
with tessellated border, a slouched hat, and
pilgrim's staff. The Royal Arch Captain
wears a white robe and cap, and is armed
with a sword. The three Grand Masters
of the Veils wear, respectively, the Grand
Master of the third veil a scarlet robe and
cap, of the second veil a purple robe and
cap, of the first veil a blue robe and cap.
Each is armed with a sword. The Treasurer, Secretary, and Sentinel wear no robes
nor peculiar dress.
All of these robes
have either a historical or symbolical allusion.

Royal
The

Arch Tracing-Board.

Royal Arch tracing-board extant is one which was formerly the property of a Chapter in the city of Chester, and
which Dr. Oliver thinks was " used only a
very few years after the degree was admitoldest

ted into the system of constitutional Masonry." He has given a copy of it in his
work On the Origin of the English Royal
Arch. The symbols which it displays are,
and American Rites.
of Enoch. The Royal in the centre of the top an arch scroll, with
Royal
Arch system which is founded upon the le- the words in Greek, EN APXH HN A0r02,
gend of Enoch. It is said to have been i. e., In the beginning was the Word; beneath,
written in kabbalisthe basis of Ramsay's Royal Arch. See the word
tic letters
on the right side an arch and
Enoch.
The keystone, a rope falling in it, and a sun
of
Royal
system of Royal Arch Masonry invented darting its rays obliquely on the left a
early in the last century by the Chevalier pot of incense beneath a rainbow ; in the
Ramsay. It was the first fabrication of the centre of the tracing-board, two interlaced
Royal Arch degree in an independent form, triangles and a sun in the centre, all surand, although rejected by the English Ma- rounded by a circle on the right and left
sons, has been adopted as the basis of the of this the seven-branched candlestick and
system in many of the continental Rites. the table of show- bread. Beneath all, on
The thirteenth degree of the Ancient and three scrolls, are the words, "Solomon,
Accepted Scottish Rite is probably a very King of Israel; Hiram, King of Tyre;
fair representation of it, at least substanti- Hiram, the Widow's Son," in Hebrew and
Dr. Oliver finds in these emblems
It exercised some influence also Latin.
ally.
upon Dermott and Dunckerley in their a proof that the Royal Arch was originally
taken from the Master's degree, because
composition of their Royal Arch systems.
Royal Arch of Solomon. One of they properly belong to that degree, accordthe names of the degree of Knight of the ing to the English lecture, and were afterNinth Arch, or thirteenth degree of the wards restored to it. But the American
Mason will find in this board how little his
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Royal Arch of Zerubbabel. The system has varied from the primitive one
Royal Arch degree of the York and Ameri- practised at Chester, since all the emblems,

Arch

JEHOVAH
;

Arch

Ramsay.

ROYAL

ROYAL
with the exception of the last three, are
recognized as Royal Arch symbols according to the American system.
Royal Arch Word, See Tetragraramaton.

Btill

Royal Arch

Working-Tools.

See Working- Tools.

Royal Ark Mariners. A

side de-

gree in England and Scotland which is

conferred on Royal Arch Masons, and
worked under the authority of the Supreme
Grand Chapter of Scotland, which body
recognizes its Lodges in its General RegulaThe language of the Order
tions, (p. 20.)
The Supreme body is called a
is peculiar.
"Grand Ark;" subordinate Lodges are
" vessels " organizing a Lodge is " launching a vessel ;" to open a Lodge is " to float
an ark " to close the Lodge is " to moor."

But Heaven shut the door and the ark was

To

All its references are nautical, and allude

The
to the deluge and the ark of Noah.
degree is useless for any light that it sheds on
Masonry. The degree seems to have been
invented in England about the end of the
last century.
A correspondent of the Lon-

don Monthly Magazine

for

(vol. vi., p. 424,) calls it

degrees

December, 1798,

"one of the new

Freemasonry," and thus de-

in

scribes the organization

" They profess to be followers of Noah,
and therefore calls themselves Noachidae, or
Sons of Noah.
Hence their President,
who at present is Thomas Boothby Parkins, Lord RanclifFe, is dignified with the

venerable

title

of

Grand Noah, and

Lodge where they assemble

is

the

called the

Royal Ark Vessel.

" These brother mariners wear in Lodge
time a broad sash ribbon, representing a
rainbow, with van apron fancifully embellished with an ark, dove, etc.

"Among

other rules of this society

is

perish they must, for they were found out."

Royal Art.

The

earliest writers

speak

of Freemasonry as a " Royal Art." Anderson used the expression in 1723, and in
such a way as to show that it was even
then no new epithet. The term has become common in all languages as an appellative of the Institution, and yet but
few perhaps have taken occasion to examine into its real signification or have
asked what would seem to be questions
readily suggested, " Why is Freemasonrycalled an art f " and next, " Why is it said

be a Royal Artf"

to

The answer which

671

to

be a

sufficient

one

is

generally supposed

for the latter inquiry,

that it is so called because many monarchs have been its disciples and its patrons, and some writers have gone so far
as to particularize, and to say that Freemasonry was first called a " Royal Art " in
1693, when William III., of England, was
is

initiated into its rites and G'adicke, in his

Freimaurer Lexicon, states that some have
derived the title from the fact that in the
;

times of the English Commonwealth, the

members of the English Lodges had joined
the party of the exiled Stuarts, and labored
for the restoration of Charles II. to the
throne.
He himself, however, seems to
think that Freemasonry is called a Royal
Art because its object is to erect stately
edifices, and especially palaces, the residences of kings.
Such an answer may serve for the profane, who can have no appreciation of a
better reason, but it will hardly meet the
demands of the intelligent initiate, who
wants some more philosophic explanation
something more consistent with the
moral and intellectual character of the In-

one that no brother shall be permitted to

enter as a mariner on board a Royal Ark stitution.
vessel for any less sum than ten shillings
Let us endeavor to solve the problem,
and sixpence, of which sum sixpence shall and to determine why Freemasonry is
be paid to the Grand and Royal Ark vessel called an art at all and why, above all
for his registry, and the residue be disposed of others, it is dignified with the appellation
at the discretion of the officers of the vessel." of a Royal Art.
Our first business will be
Their principal place of meeting in Lon- to find a reply to the former question.
don was at the Surry Tavern, Surry Street,
An art is distinguished from a handiin the Strand.
craft in this, that the former consists of
The writer gives the following verse from and supplies the principles which govern
one of their songs written by Dr. Ebenezer and direct the latter.
The stonemason,
Sibley, which does not speak much for for instance, is guided in his construction
the poetical taste of the Mariners or their of the building on which he is engaged by
laureate
the principles which are furnished to him
" They entered safe
by the architect. Hence stonemasonry is
lo the deluge came
;

And none

were protected but Masons and

wives

The crafty and knavish came floating along,

The rich and the beggar of profligate lives
It was now in woe,
For mercy they call
To old Father Noah,

And

loudly did bawl,

a trade, a handicraft, or, as the German

significantly expresses it, a handwerk, something which only requires the skill and
labor of the hands to accomplish.
But
architecture is an art, because it is engaged
in the establishment of principles and
scientific tenets which the "handwork"

of the

ROYAL

ROYAL

672

Mason

is

to

carry into practical

effect.

The handicraftsman, the handworker, of

course is employed in manual labor. It
is the work of his hands that accomplishes
the purpose of his trade. But the artist
uses no such means. He deals only in
principles, and his work is of the head. He
prepares his designs according to the principles of his art, and the workman obeys
and executes them, often without understanding their ulterior object.
Now, let us apply this distinction to FreeEighteen hundred years ago
masonry.
many thousand men were engaged in the
construction of a Temple in the city of
Jerusalem. They felled and prepared the
timbers in the forests of Lebanon, and they
hewed and cut and squared the stones in
the quarries of Judea; and then they pat
them together under the direction of a
skilful architect, and formed a goodly edifice, worthy to be called, as the Rabbins
named it, " the chosen house of the Lord."
For there, according to the Jewish ritual,
in preference to all other places, was the
God of Hosts to be worshipped in oriental
splendor. Something like this has been
done thousands of times since. But the
men who wrought with the stone-hammer
and trowel at the Temple of Solomon, and
the men who afterwards wrought at the
temples and cathedrals of Europe and
Asia, were no artists. They were simply
handicraftsmen,
men raising an edifice
men who, in
by the labor of their hands,
doing their work, were instructed by others
skilful in art, but which art looked only
to the totality, and had nothing to do with
the operative details. The Giblemites, or
stone-squarers, gave form to the stones and
But in
laid them in their proper places.
what form they should be cut, and in what
spots they should be laid so that the building might assume a proposed appearance,
were matters left entirely to the superintending architect, the artist, who, in giving
his instructions, was guided by the principles of his art.
Hence Operative Masonry is not an art.
But after these handicraftsmen came other
men, who, simulating, or, rather, symbolizing, their labors, converted the operative
pursuit into a speculative system, and thus
made of a handicraft an art. And it was
in this wise that the change was accom-

plished.

The building of a temple is the result of

a religious sentiment. Now, the Freemasons intended to organize a religious institution.
I am not going into any discussion, at this time, of its history.
When

Freemasonry was founded

is immaterial to
the theory, provided that the foundation is

made posterior to the time of the building

of King Solomon's Temple. It is sufficient
that it be admitted that in its foundation
as an esoteric institution the religious idea
prevailed, and that the development of this
idea was the predominating object of its
first organizers.
Borrowing, then, the name of their Institution from the operative masons who constructed the Temple at Jerusalem, by a very
natural process they borrowed also the
technical language and implements of the
same handicraftsmen. But these they did
not use for any manual purpose. They
did not erect with them temples of stone,
but were occupied solely in developing the
religious idea which the construction of
the material temple had first suggested;
they symbolized this language and these
implements, and thus established an art
whose province and object it was to elicit
religious thought, and to teach religious
truth by a system of symbolism. And this
symbolism
just as peculiar to Freemasonry as the doctrine of lines and surfaces
is to geometry, or of numbers is to arithmetic
constitutes the art of Freemasonry.
If I were to define Freemasonry as an
art, I should say that it was an art which
taught the construction of a spiritual temple, just as the art of architecture teaches
the construction of a material temple. And
I should illustrate the train of ideas by
which the Freemasons were led to symbolize the Temple of Solomon as a spiritual
temple of man's nature, by borrowing the
language of St. Peter, who says to his
Christian initiates: "Ye also, as lively
stones, are built up a spiritual house."
And with greater emphasis, and as still
more illustrative, would I cite the language
of the Apostle of the Gentiles,
that Apostle who, of all others, most delighted in
symbolism, and who says " Know ye not
that ye are the temple of God, and that
the spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
And this is the reason why Freemasonry
is called an art.
Having thus determined the conditions

under which Freemasonry becomes an art,

the next inquiry will be why it has been
distinguished from all other arts in being
designated, par excellence, the Royal Art.
And here we must abandon all thought
that this title comes in any way from the
connection of Freemasonry with earthly
from the patronage or the
monarchs
membership of kings. Freemasonry obtains no addition to its intrinsic value from
a connection with the political heads of

states.
Kings, when they enter within its
sacred portals, are no longer kings, but
brethren. In the Lodge all men are on an
equality, and there can be no distinction

ROYAL

ROYAL

or preference, except that which is derived

from virtue and intelligence. Although a
great king once said that Freemasons made
the best and truest subjects, yet in the
Lodge is there no subjection save to the
that law which, for its excellaw of love,
lence above all other laws, has been called
by an Apostle the "royal law," just as
Freemasonry, for its excellence above all
other arts, has been called the "Royal
Art."
St. James says, in his general Epistle:
" If ye fulfil the royal law according to the
Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
Dr. Adam Clarke,
thyself, ye do well."
in his commentary on this passage,
which
is so appropriate to the subject we are investigating, and so thoroughly explanatory
of this expression in its application to
Freemasonry, that it is well worth a citation,
uses the following language:
Speaking of the expression of St. James,
nomon basilicon, " the royal law," he says
" This epithet, of all the New Testament
writers, is peculiar to James ; but it is frequent among the Greek writers in the sense
in which it appears St. James uses it. Basilikos, royal, is used to signify anything that
is of general concern, is suitable to all, and
necessary for all, as brotherly love is. This
commandment, Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself, is a royal law ; not only because
it is ordained of God, proceeds from his
kingly authority over men, but because it is
so useful, suitable, and necessary to the
present state of man and as it was given
us particularly by Christ himself, who is
our king, as well as prophet and priest, it
should ever put us in mind of his authority
over us, and our subjection to him. Astheregal state is the most excellent for secular
dignity and civil utility that exists among
men, hence we give the epithet royal to
whatever is excellent, noble, grand, or

ed them are occupied in the construction

of a moral and spiritual temple, man being
considered, through the process of the act
of symbolism, that holy house. And in
this symbolism the Freemasons have only
developed the same idea that was present
to St. Paul when he said to the Corinthians
that they were " God's building," of which
building he, " as a wise master-builder, had
laid the foundation " and when, still further extending the metaphor, he told the
Ephesians that they were " built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed
together, groweth unto a holy temple in
the Lord in whom also ye are builded
together for a habitation of God through
the spirit."
This, then, is the true art of Freemasonry.
It is an art which teaches the right
method of symbolizing the technical language and the material labors of a handicraft, so as to build up in man a holy house
to give
for the habitation of God's spirit
perfection to man's nature to give purity
to humanity, and to unite mankind in one
common bond.
It is singular, and well worthy of notice,
how this symbolism of building up man's
body into a holy temple, so common with
the New Testament writers, and even with
for he speaks of man as a
Christ himself,
temple which, being destroyed, he could
raise up in three days; in which, as St.
John says, " he spake of the temple of his
body," gave rise to a new word or to a word
with a new meaning in all the languages
over which Christianity exercises any influence. The old Greeks had from the two
words oikos, " a house," and domein, " to
build," constructed the word oikodomein,
which of course signified "to build a
house." In this plain and exclusive sense
it is used by the Attic writers. In like manner, the Romans, out of the two words
cedes, " a house," and facere, " to make,"
constructed their word cedificare, which always meant simply " to build a house,"
and in this plain sense it is used by Horace,
But when
Cicero, and all the old writers.

useful."

How

beautifully and appropriately does

apply to Freemasonry as
a Royal Art. It has already been shown
how the art of Freemasonry consisted in
a symbolization of the technical language
and implements and labors of an operative
society to a moral and spiritual purpose.
The Temple which was constructed by the
builders at Jerusalem was taken as the
groundwork. Out of this the Freemasons
have developed an admirable science of
symbolism, which on account of its design,
and on account of the means by which that
design is accomplished, is well entitled, for
its " excellence, nobility, grandeur, and utility," to be called the " Royal Art."
The stonemasons at Jerusalem were engaged in the construction of a material
temple. But the Freemasons who succeedall this definition

4K

43

673

New

Testament writers began to symas a temple or holy house for

the habitation of the Lord, and when they
spoke of building up this symbolic house,
although it was a moral and spiritual
growth to which they alluded, they used
the Greek word oikodomein, and their first
translators, the Latin word cedificare in a
the

bolize

man

sense, meaning "to build up morally,"

And as
is, to educate, to instruct.
modern nations learned the faith of Christianity, they imbibed this symbolic idea of
a moral building, and adapted for its ex'

new

that

ROYAL

ROYAL

pression a new word or gave to an old word

a new meaning, so that it has come to pass

man, a love which is long-suffering and

kind, which beareth all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things."

674

that in French edifier, in Italian edificare,

in Spanish edifiear, in German erbauen, and
in English edify, each of which literally
and etymologically means "to build a
house," has also the other signification, " to
And
instruct, to improve, to educate."
thus we speak of a marble building as a
magnificent edifice, and of a wholesome
doctrine as something that will edify its
But there are but few who, when
hearers.
using the word in this latter sense, think
of that grand science of symbolism which
gave birth to this new meaning, and which
constitutes the very essence of the Royal
Art of Freemasonry.
For when this temple is built up, it is to
be held together only by the cement of love.
Brotherly love, the love of our neighbor as
ourself
that love which suffereth long and
is kind, which is not easily provoked, and
that love pervades the
thinketh no evil
whole system of Freemasonry, not only
binding all the moral parts of man's nature into one harmonious whole, the building being thus, in the language of St. Paul,
"fitly framed together," but binding man

man, and man to God.

hence Freemasonry is called a
" Royal Art," because it is of all arts the
most noble the art which teaches man how
to perfect his temple of virtue by pursuing
the " royal law" of universal love, and not
because kings have been its patrons and
to

And

And

this is

and of all

why Freemasonry

is

an

art,

being the most noble, is well

called the "Royal Art."
Royal Axe. See Knight of the Royal
Axe.
arts,

Royal Lodge. The Royal Arch

lec-

tures in the English system say that the

Royal Lodge was held in the city of Jerusalem, on the return of the Babylonish
captives, in the first year in the reign of

Cyrus; over it presided Zerubbabel the

prince of the Jews, Hiram the prophet,
and Joshua the high priest.
Royal Master. The eighth degree
of the American Rite, and the first of the
degrees conferred in a Council of Royal
and Select Masters. Its officers are a
Thrice Illustrious Grand Master, representing King Solomon Illustrious Hiram of
Tyre, Principal Conductor of the Works,
representing Hiram Abif; Master of the
Exchequer, Master of Finances, Captain
of the Guards, Conductor of the Council
and Steward. The place of meeting is called
the " Council Chamber," and represents
the private apartment of King Solomon,
in which he is said to have met for consultation with his two colleagues during the
construction of the Temple. Candidates
who receive this degree are said to be
" honored with the degree of Royal Master."
Its symbolic colors are black and red
the
former significant of grief, and the latter
of martyrdom, and both referring to the
chief builder of the Temple.
The events recorded in this degree, looking at them in a legendary point of view,
must have occurred at the building of the
first Temple, and during that brief period
of time after the death of the builder which
is embraced between the discovery of his
body and its " Masonic interment." In all
the initiations into the mysteries of the
ancient world, there was, as it is well known
to scholars, a legend of the violent death
of some distinguished personage, to whose
memory the particular mystery was consecrated, of the concealment of the body, and
of its subsequent discovery. That part of
the initiation which referred to the concealment of the body was called the Aphanism, from a Greek verb which signifies " to
;

encouragers.
similar idea is advanced in a Catechism
published by the celebrated Lodge " Wahreit und Einigkeit," at Prague, in the year
1800, where the following questions and
answers occur
Q. " What do Freemasons build ?
A. " An invisible temple, of which King
Solomon's Temple is the symbol.
Q. "By what name is the instruction
how to erect this mystic building called ?
A. " The Royal Art; because it teaches
man how to govern himself."
Appositely may these thoughts be closed
with a fine expression of Ludwig Bechstein, a German writer, in the Astrcea.
" Every king will be a Freemason, even
though he wears no Mason's apron, if he
shall be God-fearing, sincere, good, and
kind if he shall be true and fearless, obedient to the law, his heart abounding in
reverence for religion and full of love for conceal," and that part which referred to
mankind ; if he shall be a ruler of himself, the subsequent finding was called the eure-

and

And

if his

kingdom be founded on

justice.

every Freemason is a king, in whatsoever condition God may have placed him
here, with rank equal to that of a king and
with sentiments that become a king, for his
kingdom is love, the love of his fellow-

sis,

from another Greek verb which

signi-

" to discover." It is impossible to avoid

seeing the coincidences between the system
of initiation and that practised in the Masonry of the third degree. But the ancient
initiation was not terminated by the eure^is
fies

ROYAL

ROYAL
or discovery.

Up

to that point, the cere-

monies had been funereal and lugubrious

in their character. But now they were
changed from wailing to rejoicing. Other
ceremonies were performed by which the
restoration of the personage to life, or his
apotheosis or change to immortality, was
represented, and then came the autopsy or
illumination of the neophyte, when he was
invested with a full knowledge of all the
religious doctrines which it was the object
when,
of the ancient mysteries to teach
in a word, he was instructed in divine

truth.

Now, a similar course is pursued in MaHere also there is an illumination,

a symbolic teaching, or, as we call it, an in-

sonry.

vestiture

with that which

is

the representa-

The communication
tive of divine truth.
to the candidate, in the Master's degree, of
that which is admitted to be merely a representation of or a substitution for that symbol of divine truth, (the search for which,
under the name of the true word, makes
so important a part of the degree,) how imperfect it may be in comparison with that
more thorough knowledge which only future
researches can enable the Master Mason to
attain, constitutes the autopsy of the third
degree.
Now, the principal event recorded
in the legend of the Royal Master, the interview between Adoniram and his two
Royal Masters, is to be placed precisely at
that juncture of time which is between the
euresis or discovery in the Master Mason's
degree and the autopsy, or investiture with
the great secret. It occurred between the
discovery by means of the sprig of acacia
and the final interment. It was at the
time when Solomon and his colleague, Hiram of Tyre, were in profound consultation
as to the mode of repairing the loss which
they then supposed had befallen them.
must come to this conclusion, because there is abundant reference, both in
the organized form of the Council and in
the ritual of the degree, to the death as
an event that had already occurred and,
on the other hand, while it is evident that

We

have been merely Fellow Craft Masons.

In compliance with this tradition, therefore,
a Royal Master is, at this day, supposed to
represent a Fellow Craft in the search, and
making his demand for that reward which
was to elevate him to the rank of a Master
Mason.
If from the legendary history we proceed to the symbolism of the degree, we
shall find that, brief and simple as are the
ceremonies, they present the great Masonic
idea of the laborer seeking for his reward.
Throughout all the symbolism of Masonry,
from the first to the last degree, the search
has been considered but as
for the
a symbolic expression for the search after
TRUTH. The attainment of this truth
has always been acknowledged to be the

WORD

great object and design of all Masonic labor.

Divine truth
the knowledge of God
concealed in the old Kabbalistic doctrine,
under the symbol of his ineffable name
and typified in the Masonic system under
the mystical expression of the True Word,
is the reward proposed to every Mason who
has faithfully wrought his task. It is, in
short, the " Master's wages."
Now, all this is beautifully symbolized
in the degree of Royal Master.
The reward had been promised, and the time had
now come, as Adoniram thought, when the
promise was to be redeemed, and the true
word
divine truth
was to be imparted.
Hence, in the person of Adoniram, or the
Royal Master, we see symbolized the Speculative Mason, who, having labored to complete his spiritual temple, comes to the
Divine Master that he may receive his reward, and that his labor may be consummated by the acquisition of truth. But the
temple that he had been building is the temple of this life that first temple which must
be destroyed by death that the second temple of the future life may be built on its
foundations. And in this first temple the
truth cannot be found.
must be contented with its substitute.

We

Royal Order of Scotland.

Solomon had been made acquainted with

the failure to recover, on the person of the
builder, that which had been lost, there is
no reference whatever to the well-known
substitution which was made at the time of
the interment.
If, therefore, as is admitted by all Masonic ritualists, the substitution was precedent and preliminary to the establishment
of the Master Mason's degree, it is evident
that at the time that the degree of Royal
Master is said to have been founded in the
ancient Temple, by our " first Most Excellent Grand Master," all persons present,
except the first and second officers, must

675

This

an Order of Freemasonry confined exclusively to the kingdom of Scotland, and

which, formerly conferred on Master Masons, is now restricted to those who have
been exalted to the Royal Arch degree.
It consists of two degrees, namely,
that of H. R. D. M. and R. S. Y. C. S., or,
The first
in full, Heredom and Rosy Cross.
may be briefly described as a Christianized
form of the third degree, purified from
the dross of Paganism, and even of Judaism, by the Culdees, who introduced
is

Christianity into Scotland in the early centuries of the church.

The second degree
is

to

an Order of civil knighthood, supposed

have been founded by Robert Bruce

KOYAL

ROYAL

after the battle of Bannockburn, and conferred by him upon certain Masons who had
assisted him on that memorable occasion.
He, so the tradition goes, gave power to
the Grand Master of the Order for the
time being to confer this honor, which is

kings of England are de jure, if not de facto,

Grand Masters; each member has a name
given him, denoting some moral attribute.
In the initiation the sacrifice of the Messiah
is had in remembrance, who shed his blood
for the sins of the world, and the neophyte is in a figure sent forth to seek the
lost word.
The ritual states that the
Order was first established at Icomkill, and
afterwards at Kilwinning, where the King
of Scotland, Robert Bruce, took the chair
in person
and oral tradition affirms that,
in 1314, this monarch again reinstated the
Order, admitting into it the Knights Templars
who were still left. The Royal
Order, according to this ritual, which is
written in Anglo-Saxon verse, boasts of

676

not inherent in the general body itself, but

specially given by the Grand Master and
his Deputy, and can be conferred only by
them, or Provincial Grand Masters appointed by them. The number of knights
is limited, and formerly only sixty-three
could be appointed, and they Scotchmen
now, however, that number has been much
increased, and distinguished Masons of
all countries are admitted to its ranks.
In
1747 Prince Charles Edward Stuart, in his
celebrated Charter to Arras, claimed to be
the Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal
Order, "Nous Charles Edouard Stewart,
Roi d'Angleterre, de France, de l'Ecosse,
et d'Irlande, et en cette qualite, S. G. M.
du Chapitre de H." Prince Charles goes
on to say that H. O. or H. R. M. is known
"Connu
as the "Pelican and Eagle."
sous le titre de Chevalier de l'Aigle et de
Pelican, et depuis nos malheurs et nos infortunes, sous celui de Rose Croix." Now,
there is not the shadow of a proof that the
Rose Croix, says Bro. Reitam, was ever
known in England till twenty years after
1747 and in Ireland it was introduced by
a French chevalier, M. L'Aurent, about
1782 or 1783. The Chapter at Arras was
" Chapitre
the first constituted in France
primordial de Rose Croix " and from
other circumstances (the very name Rose
Croix being a translation of R. S. Y. C. S.)
some writers have been led to the conclusion that the degree chartered by Prince
Charles Edward Stuart was, if not the actual Royal Order in both points, a Masonic
ceremony founded on and pirated from that
most ancient and venerable Order.
This, however, is an error because, except in name, there does not appear to be
the slightest connection between the Rose
Croix and the Royal Order of Scotland. In
the first place, the whole ceremonial is difis

and different in essentials. Most

of the language used in the Royal Order
is couched in quaint old rhyme, modernized,
no doubt, to make it " understanded of the
vulgar," but still retaining sufficient about
it to stamp its genuine antiquity.
The
Rose Croix degree is most probably the
genuine descendant of the old Rosicrucians, and no doubt it has always had a
more or less close connection with the
ferent,

Templars.
Clavel says that the Royal Order of
of Kilwinning is a Rosicrucian
degree, having many different gradations
in the ceremony of consecration. The

Heredom

great antiquity.
Findel disbelieves in the Royal Order,
as he does in all the Christian degrees. He
remarks that the Grand Lodge of Scot-

land formerly knew nothing at all about

the existence of this Order of Heredom, as
a proof of which he adduces the fact that
Laurie, in the first edition of his History
of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, has not
mentioned it. Oliver, however, as it will
be seen, had a high opinion of the Order,
and expressed no doubt of its antiquity.
As to the origin of the Order, we have
abundant authority both mythical and historical.

Thory (Act. Lat.) thus traces its establishment.

"On the 24th of June, 1314, Robert
Bruce, king of Scotland, instituted, after
the battle of Bannockburn, the Order of
St. Andrew of the Thistle, to which was
afterward united that of H. D. M., for the
sake of the Scottish Masons who had composed a part of the thirty thousand men
with whom he had fought the English
army, consisting of one hundred thousand.
He formed the Royal Grand Lodge of the
Order of H. D. M. at Kilwinning, reserving to himself and his successors forever
the title of Grand Masters."
Oliver, in his Historical Landmarks, deOrder more precisely, thus

fines the

"The Royal Order of H. R. D. M. had

formerly its chief seat at Kilwinning, and
there is every reason to think that it and
St. John's Masonry were then governed by
the same Grand Lodge. But during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Masonry was at a very low ebb in Scotland,
and it was with the greatest difficulty that
St. John's Masonry was preserved.
The
Grand Chapter of H. R. D. M. resumed its
functions about the middle of the last century at Edinburgh and, in order to preserve a marked distinction between the
;

which
Royal Order and Craft Masonry,
had formed a Grand Lodge there in 1736,

ROYAL

ROYAL

the

former confined

itself solely to

the

two degrees of H. R. D. M. and R. S. Y. C. S."

Again, in the history of the Royal Order,
printed in Scotland, the following
details are found
" It is composed of two parts, H. R. M.
and R. S. Y. C. S. The former took its
rise in the reign of David I., king of Scotland, and the latter in that of King Robert
the Bruce. The last is believed to have
been originally the same as the most ancient Order of the Thistle, and to contain
the ceremonial of admission formerly pracofficially

tised in

"

it.

The Order of H. R. M. had formerly

seat at Kilwinning, and there is reason

to suppose that it and the Grand Lodge of
its

John's Masonry were governed by the

same Grand Master. The introduction of
this Order into Kilwinning appears to have
taken place about the same time, or nearly
the same period, as the introduction of
Freemasonry into Scotland. The Chaldees, as is well known, introduced ChrisSt.

tianity

known

into Scotland; aud,

habits, there are good

from their
grounds for

believing that they preserved among them

a knowledge of the ceremonies and precautions adopted for their protection in Judea.
In establishing the degree in Scotland, it
is more than probable that it was done with
the view to explain, in a correct Christian
manner, the symbols and rites employed by
the Christian architects and builders and
this will also explain how the Royal Order
not Roman Catholic,
is purely catholic,
;

but adapted to

all

so-called higher degrees, cannot

to perceive that the greater part of

and the
fail

them have been concocted from the Royal

Order, to satisfy the morbid craving for
distinction which was so characteristic of
the continent during the latter half of the
last century.
" There is a tradition among the Masons
of Scotland that, after the dissolution of

the Templars, many of the Knights repaired to Scotland and placed themselves
under the protection of Robert Bruce, and
that, after the battle of Bannockburn,
which took place on St. John the Baptist's
day, 1314, this monarch instituted the
Royal Order of H. R. M. and Knights of
the R. S. Y. C. S., and established the
chief seat at Kilwinning. From that Order it seems by no means improbable that
the present degree of Rose Croix de Heredom may have taken its origin. In two
respects, at least, there seems to be a very
close connection between the two systems.
They both claim the kingdom of Scotland
and the Abbey of Kilwinning as having
been at one time the chief seat of government, and they both seem to have been instituted to give a Christian explanation to

Ancient Craft Masonry.

There

is,

besides,

a similarity in the name of the degrees of

Rose Croix de Heredom and H. R. M. and
R. S. Y. C. S. amounting almost to an
identity, which appears to indicate a very
intimate relation of one to the other."

And now recently there comes Bro. Randolph Hay, of Glasgow, who, in a late

who acknowledge the number

great truths of Christianity, in the same

way that Craft or Symbolic Masonry is
intended for all, whether Jew or Gentile,

677

of the

London Freemason,

gives us

this legend, which he is pleased to call " the

real history of the Royal Order," and which
he, at least, religiously believes to be true

" Among the many precious things which

were carefully preserved in a sacred vault
of King Solomon's Temple was a portrait
of the monarch, painted by Adoniram, the
son of Elkanah, priest of the second court.
This vault remained undiscovered till the
time of Herod, although the secret of its
existence and a description of its locality
were retained by the descendants of Elkanah. During the war of the Maccabees,
certain Jews, fleeing from their native
Christianity.
Those two degrees consti- country, took refuge, first in Spain and
tute, as has already been said, the Royal afterwards in Britain, and amongst them
Order of Scotland, the Grand Lodge of was one Aholiab, the then possessor of the
Scotland. Lodges or Chapters cannot le- document necessary to ' find the hidden
gally meet elsewhere, unless possessed of a treasure.
As is well known, buildings
Charter from it or the Grand Master, or his were then in progress in Edinburgh, or
deputy.
The office of Grand Master is Dun Edwin, as the city was then called,
vested in the person of the king of Scot- and thither Aholiab wended his way to
land, (now of Great Britain,) and one seat find employment.
His skill in architecis invariably kept vacant for him in whatture speedily raised him to a prominent
ever country a Chapter is opened, and can- position in the Craft, but his premature
not be occupied by any other member. death prevented his realizing the dream of
Those who are in possession of this degree, his life, which was to fetch the portrait

who acknowledge

a supreme God. The

second part, or R. S. Y. C. S., is an Order
of Knighthood, and, perhaps, the only genuine one in connection with Masonry, there
being in it an intimate connection between
the trowel and the sword, which others try
The lecture consists of a figurato show.
tive description of the ceremonial, both of
H. R. M. and R. S. Y. C. S., in simple
rhyme, modernized, of course, by oral tradition, and breathing the purest spirit of

ROYAL

RUFFIANS

from Jerusalem and bestow it in the custody of the Craft. However, prior to his
dissolution, he confided the secret to certain of the Fraternity under the bond of
secrecy, and these formed a class known as
The Order of the King/ or The Royal
Time sped on; the Romans inOrder.'
vaded Britain and, previous to the crucifixion, certain members of the old town
guard of Edinburgh, among whom were
several of the Royal Order, proceeded to
Rome to enter into negotiations with the
From thence they proceeded to
sovereign.
Jerusalem, and were present at the dreadThey sucful scene of the crucifixion.
ceeded in obtaining the portrait, and also
the blue veil of the Temple rent upon the

Spain, the Netherlands, Calcutta, Bombay,

China, and New Brunswick. The provincial Grand Lodge of London was established in July, 1872, and there the membership is confined to those who have previously taken the Rose Croix, or eighteenth
degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scot-

678

'

'

I may dismiss these two

terrible occasion.
venerable relics in a few words. Wilson,

in his Memorials of Edinburgh, (2 vols.,

published by Hugh Patton,) in a note to
Masonic Lodges, writes that this portrait
was then in the possession of the brethren
of the Lodge St. David. This is an error,
and arose from the fact of the Royal Order
then meeting in the Lodge St. David's
room in Hindford's Close. The blue veil
was converted into a standard for the
trades of Edinburgh, and became celebrated on many a battle-field, notably in
the First Crusade as The Blue Blanket.'
From the presence of certain of their number in Jerusalem on the occasion in question, the Edinburgh City Guard were often
called Pontius Pilate's Praetorians. Now,
these are facts well known to many Edinburghers still alive. Let X. Y. Z.' go to
'

'

Edinburgh and inquire

for himself.

" The brethren, in addition, brought with

them the teachings of the Christians, and

in their meetings they celebrated the death

of the Captain and Builder of our Salvation.
The oath of the Order seals my lips
further as to the peculiar mysteries of the
brethren. I may, however, state that the
Ritual, in verse, as in present use, was
composed by the venerable Abbot of Inchaffray, the same who, with a crucifix in
his hand, passed along the Scots' line, blessing the soldiers and the cause in which
they were engaged, previous to the battle
of Bannockburn. Thus the Order states
justly that it was revived, that is, a profounder spirit of devotion infused into it,
by King Robert, by whose directions the
Abbot reorganized it."
In this account, it is scarcely necessary
to say that there is far more of myth than
of legitimate history.
The King of Scotland is hereditary Grand
Master of the Order, and at all assemblies
a chair is kept vacant for him.
Provincial Grand Lodges are held at
Glasgow, Rouen in France, in Sardinia,

tish Rite.

Royal Priest. The fifth degree of

the Initiated Brothers of Asia, also called
the True Rose Croix.

Royal
of the.

Secret,

Secret.

R.

S.

Sublime Prince

See Sublime Prince of

Y.

C S.

An

the

Royal

abbreviation of

Rosy Cross in the Royal Order of Scotland.

Ruffians. The traitors of the third

degree are called Assassins in continental
Masonry and in the high degrees. The
English and American Masons have adopted in their ritual the more homely appellation of Ruffians. The fabricators of the
high degrees adopted a variety of names for
these Assassins, (see Assassins of the Third
Degree,) but the original names are preserved in the rituals of the York and American Rites. There is no question that has
so much perplexed Masonic antiquaries as
the true derivation and meaning of these
three names. In their present form, they
are confessedly uncouth and without apparent signification. Yet it is certain that
we can trace them in that form to the earliest appearance of the legend of the third
degree, and it is equally certain that at the
time of their adoption some meaning must
have been attached to them. I am convinced that this must have been a very
simple one, and one that would have been
easily comprehended by the whole of the
Craft, who were in the constant use of them.
Attempts, it is true, have been made to find
the root of these three names in some recondite reference to the Hebrew names of God.
But there is, I think, no valid authority for
any such derivation. In the first place, the
character and conduct of the supposed possessors of these names preclude the idea of
any congruity and appropriateness between
them and any of the divine names. And
again, the literary condition of the Craft at
the time of the invention of the names
equally preclude the probability that any
names would have been fabricated of a recondite signification, and which could not
have been readily understood and appreciated by the ordinary class of Masons who
were to use them. The names must naturally have been of a construction that would
convey a familiar idea, would be suitable
to the incidents in which they were to be
employed, and would be congruous with
the character of the individuals upon whom
they were to be bestowed. Now all these

RUFFIANS

RULE

meet in a word which was entirely

familiar to the Craft at the time when
these names were probably invented. The
Ghiblim are spoken of by Anderson, meaning Giblim, as stone-cutters or Masons and
the early rituals show us very clearly that
the Fraternity in that day considered Giblim as the name of a Mason not only of a
Mason generally, but especially of that
class of Masons who, as Drummond says,
" put the finishing hand to King Solomon's Temple,"
that is to say, the Fellow
Crafts.
Anderson also places the Ghiblim
among the Fellow Crafts and so, very naturally, the early Freemasons, not imbued
with any amount of Hebrew learning, and
not making a distinction between the singular and plural forms of that language,
soon got to calling a Fellow Craft a Giblim.
The steps of corruption between Giblim and

the old rituals said that they were brothers

who had come together out of Tyre. This
derivation seems to me to be easy, natural,
and comprehensible.
The change from
Giblim, or rather from Gibalim to Jubelum,
is one that is far less extraordinary than
that which one-half of the Masonic words
have undergone in their transformation
from their original to their present form.
Rule. An instrument with which
straight lines are drawn, and therefore used
in the Past Master's degree as an emblem admonishing the Master punctually
to observe his duty, to press forward in the
path of virtue, and, neither inclining to the
right nor the left, in all his actions to have
eternity in view.
The twenty-four inch
gauge is often used in giving the instruction as a substitute for this working-tool.
But they are entirely different ; the twentyfour inch gauge is one of the working-tools
of an Entered Apprentice, and requires to
have the twenty-four inches marked upon
its surface
the rule is one of the workingtools of a Past Master, and is without the
twenty-four divisions.
The rule is appropriated to the Past or Present Master, because, by its assistance, he is enabled to lay
down on the trestle-board the designs for
the Craft to work by.
Rule of the Templars. The code
of regulations for the government of the
Knights Templars, called their "Rule,"
was drawn up by St. Bernard, and by him
submitted to Pope Honorius II. and the
Council of Troyes, by both of whom it was
approved. It is still in existence, and consists of seventy-two articles, partly monastic and partly military in character, the
former being formed upon the Rule of the
Benedictines. The first articles of the Rule
are ecclesiastical in design, and require
from the Knights a strict adherence to their
religious duties.
Article twenty defines the
costume to be worn by the brotherhood.
The professed soldiers were to wear a white
costume, and the serving brethren were
prohibited from wearing anything but a
black or brown cassock. The Rule is very
particular in reference to the fit and shape
of the dress of the Knights, so as to secure
uniformity. The brethren are forbidden to

requisites

Jubelum were not very gradual nor can any

one doubt that such corruptions of spelling
and pronunciations were common among
these illiterate Masons, when he reads the
Old Manuscripts, and finds such verbal distortions as Nembroch for Nimrod, Euglet for
Euclid, and Aymon for Hiram.
Thus, the
first corruption was from Giblim to Gibalim,
which brought the word to three syllables,
;

making

thus

nearer

to its eventual
find in the early rituals
transformation into Chibbelum.
The French Masons also took the work of
corruption in hand, and from Giblim they
manufactured Jiblime and Jibulum and

change.
another

Jabulum.

it

Then we

Some

of these French corrup-

came back

to English Masonry about

the time of the fabrication of the high degrees, and even the French words were distorted.
Thus in the Leland Manuscript,

tions

the English Masons made out of Pytagore,

the French for Pythagoras, the unknown
name Peter Gower, which is said so much
to have puzzled Mr. Locke. And so we

may through

these mingled English and

French corruptions trace the genealogy of
the word Jubelum; thus, Ghiblim, Gib-

Gibalim, Chibbelum, Jiblime, Jibelum, Jabelum, and, finally, Jubelum. It

meant simply a Fellow Craft, and was appropriately given as a common name to
a particular Fellow Craft who was distinguished for his treachery. In other words,
he was designated, not by a special and distinctive name, but by the title of his condition and rank at the Temple.
He was the
Fellow Craft, who was at the head of a conspiracy.
As for the names of the other two
Ruffians, they were readily constructed out
of that of the greatest one by a simple
change of the termination of the word from
urn to a in one, and from um to o in the
other, thus preserving, by a similarity of
names, the idea of their relationship, for
lim,

679

receive

and open

letters

from their friends

submitting them to the inspection of their superiors. The pastime

of hawking is prohibited, but the nobler
sport of lion-hunting is permitted, because
the lion, like the devil, goes about continually roaring, seeking whom he may devour.
Article fifty-five relates to the reception of
married members, who are required to bequeath the greater portion of their property

without

first

The fifty-eighth article reguto the Order.

lates the reception of aspirants, or secular

RULERS

SABBATH

persons, who are not to be received immediately on their application into the society,
but are required first to submit to an examination as to sincerity and fitness. The

other Lodges.
In 1783 twelve of these
Lodges united and formed the National
Grand Lodge, which, rejecting the other
Rites, adopted the Swedish system.
For a
time Masonry flourished with unalloyed
prosperity and popularity. But about the
year 1794, the Empress, becoming alarmed
at the political condition of France, and
being persuaded that the members of some
of the Lodges were in opposition to the
government, withdrew her protection from
the Order. She did not, however, direct
the Lodges to be closed, but most of them,
in deference to the wishes of the sovereign,
ceased to meet. The few that continued to
work were placed under the surveillance
of the police, and soon languished, holding
their communications only at distant intervals.
In 1797, Paul I., instigated by the
Jesuits, whom he had recalled, interdicted
the meetings of all secret societies, and especially the Masonic Lodges.
Alexander
succeeded Paul in 1801, and renewed the
interdict of his predecessor.
In 1803, M.
Boeber, counsellor of state and director
of the school of cadets at St. Petersburg,
obtained an audience of the Emperor,
and succeeded in removing his prejudices
against Freemasonry. In that year the
edict was revoked, the Emperor himself was
initiated in one of the revived Lodges, and
the Grand Orient of all the Russias was
established, of which M. Boeber was deservedly elected Grand Master. Freemasonry now again flourished, although in
1817 there were two Grand Lodges, that of
Astrea, which worked on the system of
tolerating all Rites, and a Provincial Lodge,
which practised the Swedish system.
But suddenly, on the 12th August, 1822,
the Emperor Alexander, instigated, it is
said, by the political condition of Poland,
issued a decree ordering all the Lodges to
be closed, and forbidding the erection of
any new ones. The order was quietly
obeyed by the Freemasons of Russia.

680

seventy-second and concluding article refers to the intercourse of the Knights with
females. No brother was allowed to kiss
a woman, though she were his mother or
" Let the soldier of the cross," says
sister.
At
St. Bernard; "shun all ladies' lips."
first this rule was rigidly enforced, but in
time it was greatly relaxed, and the picture
of the interior of a house of the Temple, as
portrayed by the Abbot ofClairvaulx, would
scarcely have been appropriate a century
or two later.
Rulers. Obedience to constituted authority has always been inculcated by the
laws of Masonry. Thus, in the installation charges as printed by Preston, the
incoming Master is required to promise " to
hold in veneration the original rulers and
patrons of the Order of Masonry, and their
regular successors, supreme and subordinate."

Russia.

Freemasonry was introduced

Grand Lodge
of England, Lord Lovel having appointed
into Russia, in 1731, by the

Captain John Philips Provincial Grand

Master of Russia. It is said that there
was a Lodge in St. Petersburg as early as
1732; but its meetings must have been
private, as the first notice that we have of
a Lodge openly assembling in the empire
is that of " Silence," established at St. Petersburg, and the "North Star" at Riga,
both in the year 1750. Thory says that
Masonry made but little progress in Rus-

when the Empress Catherine II. declared herself the Protectress of

the Order.
In 1765 the Rite of Melesino, a Rite unknown in any other country, was introduced by a Greek of that name; and there
were at the same time the York, Swedish,
and Strict Observance Rites practised by
sia until 1763,

s.
Sabaism. The

worship of the sun,

and stars, the O^DWH N3^

Tsaba Hashmaim, " the host of heaven."
It was practised in Persia, Chaldea, India,
and other Oriental countries, at an early
moon,

period of the world's history,

Star and Sun Worship.

Sabaoth.

See Blazing

HttOtf HIPP,

Jehovah

Tsabaoth, Jehovah of Hosts, a very usual

appellation for the Most High in the prophetical books, especially in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Malachi, but not
found in the Pentateuch.
Sabbath. In the lecture of the second
or Fellow Craft's degree, it is said, In six
days God created the heavens and the

SAINT

SABIANISM
earth, and rested upon the seventh day;
the seventh, therefore, our ancient brethren
consecrated as a day of rest from their
labors, thereby enjoying frequent opportunities to contemplate the glorious works of
creation, and to adore their great Creator.
Sabianism. See Sabaism.
Sackcloth. In the Rose Croix ritual,
sackcloth is a symbol of grief and humiliation for the loss of that which it is the object of the degree to recover.

681

Saint Adhabell. Introduced into

the Cooke MS., where the allusion evidently is to St. Amphibalus, which see.
Saint Alban. St. Alban, or Albanus,
the proto-martyr of England, was born in
the third century, at Verulam, now St.
Albans, in Hertfordshire. In his youth he
visited Rome, and served seven years as a
soldier under the Emperor Diocletian.
On his return to Britain he embraced
Christianity,

and was the

first

who

suffered

Sacred Asylum of Sigh Ma- martyrdom

sonry.

In the

Institutes,

Statutes,

and

Regulations, signed by Adington, Chancellor, and which are given in the Recueil des
Actes du Supreme Conseil du France, as a
sequence to the Constitutions of 1762, this

given to anv subordinate body of

the Scottish Rite. Thus in Article XVI.
" At the time of the installation of a Satitle is

cred Asylum of High Masonry, the members composing it shall all make and sign
their pledge of obedience to the Institutes,
Statutes, and General Regulations of High

Masonry." In this document the Rite is

always called " High Masonry," and any
body, whether a Lodge of Perfection, a
Chapter of Rose Croix, or a Council of
Kadosh, is styled a " Sacred Asylum."
Sacred Lodge. In the lectures according to the English system, we find this
definition of the "Sacred Lodge."
The
symbol has not been preserved in the
American ritual. Over the Sacred Lodge
presided Solomon, the greatest of kings,
and the wisest of men; Hiram, the great
and learned king of Tyre; and Hiram
Abif, the widow's son, of the tribe of Naphtali.
It was held in the bowels of the
sacred Mount Moriah, under the part
whereon was erected the Holy of Holies.
On this mount it was where Abraham confirmed his faith by his readiness to offer up
his only son, Isaac. Here it was where
David offered that acceptable sacrifice on
the threshing-floor of Araunah by which
the anger of the Lord was appeased, and
the plague stayed from his people. Here
it was where the Lord delivered to David,
in a dream, the plan of the glorious Temple, afterwards erected by our noble Grand
Master, King Solomon. And lastly, here
it was where he declared he would establish
his sacred name and word, which should
never pass away; and for these reasons
this was justly styled the Sacred Lodge.
Sacrificant. {Sacrifiant.)
degree
in the Archives of the Lodge of Saint Louis
des Amis Reunis at Calais.

Sacrifice, Altar of. See Altar.

Sacrificer. (Sacrificateur.) 1. A degree in the Archives of the Lodge of Saint
Louis des Amis Reunis at Calais. 2. A degree in the collection of Pyron.

4L

in the great persecution which

raged during the reign of that emperor.
The Freemasons of England have claimed
St. Alban as being intimately connected
with the early history of the Fraternity in
that island. Preston, in his Illustrations,
quotes the following statement from an old
manuscript which, he says, had been in
the possession of Nicholas Stone, a curious
sculptor under the celebrated architect,
Inigo Jones
" St. Alban loved Masons well and cherished them much, and made their pay
right good ; for he gave them two shillings
per week and four pence to their cheer
whereas before that time, in all the land, a

Mason had but a penny a day and his

meat, until St. Alban mended it. And he
got them a charter from the king and his
council for to hold a general council, and
gave it to name Assembly. Thereat he
was himself, and did help to make Masons
and gave them good charges."
have another tradition on the same
subject; for in a little work published in
1760-5, at London, under the title of Multa
Faucis for the Lovers of Secrets, we find the
following statement in reference to the
Masonic character and position of St. Al-

We

ban:

"In the

following (the third) century,

Gordian sent many architects over [into

England], who constituted themselves into
Lodges, and instructed the Craftsmen in
the true principles of Freemasonry and a
few years later, Carausius was made empe;

ror of the British Isles, and, being a great

lover of art and science, appointed Albanus

Grand Master of Masons, who employed

the Fraternity in building the palace of
Verulam, or St. Albans."
Both of these statements are simply
legends, or traditions of the not unusual
character,

in

which

historical

facts

are

destroyed by legendary additions.

The
fact that St. Alban lived at Verulam may
most probably is so. It is another
be true
fact that a splendid Episcopal palace was
built there, whether in the time of St. Alban or not is not so certain but the affirmative has been assumed and hence it easily
followed that, if built in his time, he must
have superintended the building of the

"

;;

SAINT

682

SAINT

He would, of course, employ the

workmen, give them his patronage, and, to
some extent, by his superior abilities, direct
Nothing was easier, then,
their labors.
than to make him, after all this, a Grand
Master. The assumption that St. Alban
built the palace at Verulam was very nat-

Seynt Adhabell into Englond, and he convertyd Seynt Albon to Cristendome

where, evidently, St. Adhabell is meant
But amphibolus is the
for St. Amphibalus.
Latin name of a cloak worn by priests over
and Higgins ( Celtic
their other garments
Druids, p. 201,) has shown that there was
ural, because when the true builder's name no such saint, but that the " Sanctus Amsupposing it to have been so,
was lost,
phibolus" was merely the holy cloak
St. Alban was there ready to take his place, Drought by St. Augustine to England.
His connection with the history of the
V erulam having been his birthplace.
edifice.

The

increase of pay for labor,

and the origin of Masonry in England

annual congregation of the Masons in a

General Assembly, having been subsequent
events, the exact date of

whose

first

occur-

fore, altogether

Saint Andrew, Knight

Knight of

St.

is,

there-

apocryphal.

of.

See

Andrew.

Andrew's Day.

rence had been lost, by a process common

The 30th
Saint
in the development of traditions, they were of November, adopted by the Grand Lodge
readily transferred to the same era as the of Scotland as the day of its Annual Combuilding of the palace at Verulam. It is munication.
not even necessary to suppose, by way of
Saint Augustine. St. Augustine, or
explanation, as Preston does, that St. Alban St. Austin, was sent with forty monks into
was a celebrated architect, and a real eneour- England, about the end of the sixth cenager of able workmen. The whole of the tury, to evangelize the country. Lenning
tradition is worked out of these simple says that, according to a tradition, he placed
facts that architecture began to be encour- himself at the head of the corporations of
builders, and was recognized as their Grand
aged in England about the third century
that St. Alban lived at that time at Veru- Master. I can find no such tradition, nor,
lam ; that a palace was erected then, or at indeed, even the name of St. Augustine, in
some subsequent period, in the same place any of the Old Constitutions which conand in the lapse of time, Verulam, St. tain the "Legend of the Craft."
:

Alban, and the Freemasons became mingled together in one tradition. The inquiring student of history will neither assert
nor deny that St. Alban built the palace of
Verulam. He will be content with taking
him as the representative of that builder,
if he was not the builder himself; and he
will thus recognize the proto-martyr as the
type of what is supposed to have been the
Masonry of his age, or, perhaps, only of
the age in which the tradition received its
form.
Saint Albans, Earl of. Anderson
(2d edition, 101,) says, and, after him,
Preston, that a General Assembly of the
Craft was held on Dec. 27, 1663, at which
Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, was
elected Grand Master, who appointed Sir
John Denham his Deputy, and Christopher
Wren and John Webb his Wardens. Sev-

Saint Bernard. Saint Bernard of

Clairvaulx was one of the most eminent
names of the church in the Middle Ages.
In 1128, he was present at the Council of
Troyes, where, through his influence, the
Order of Knights Templars was confirmed
and he himself is said to have composed
the Rule or constitution by which they
Throughout
were afterwards governed.
his life he was distinguished for his warm
attachment to the Templars, and " rarely,"
saysBurnes, {Sketch of X. Z,p. 12), "wrote
a letter to the Holy Land, in which he did
not praise them, and recommend them to
the favor and protection of the great." To
his influence, untiringly exerted in their
behalf, has always been attributed the rapid
increase of the Order in wealth and popu-

eral useful regulations were made at this

assembly, known as the "Kegulations of

cipal

These regulations are given by

Anderson and by Preston, and also in the
Eoberts MS., with the addition of the oath
of secrecy. The Eoberts MS. says that the
assembly was held on the 8th of December.
1663."

Saint Amphibalus.

The

ecclesias-

legend is that St. Amphibalus came

England, and converted St. Alban, who
was the great patron of Masonry. The
Old Constitutions do not speak of him, except the Cooke MS., which has the following passage: "And sone after that came

tical

to

larity.

Saint Domingo.
islands of the

One of the prinWest Indies. Free-

masonry was introduced there at an early

period in the last century. Heboid says in
1746. It must certainly have been in an
active condition there at a time not long
after, for in 1761 Stephen Morin, who had

been deputed by the Council of Emperors

of the East and West to propagate the
high degrees, selected St. Domingo for the
seat of his Grand East, and thence disseminated the system, which resulted in the establishment of the Supreme Council of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at
Charleston, South Carolina. The French

SAINTE

SAItfT

revolution, and the insurrection of the slaves

at about the same period, was for a time
fatal to the progress of Masonry in St. Domingo. Subsequently; the island was divided into two independent governments
that of Dominica, inhabited by whites,
and that of Hayti, inhabited by blacks. In
each of these a Masonic obedience has been
organized. The Grand Lodge of Hayti has
been charged with irregularity in its for-

masonry into France, and laid the foundation of that system of innovation which
subsequently threw the Order into confusion by the establishment of a new degree,
which they called the Chevalier Ma<jon
Ecossais, and which they worked in the

mation, and has not been recognized by the

Grand Lodges of the United States. It has
been, however, by those of Europe generally,
and a representative from it was accredited
at the Congress of Paris, held in 1855.
Masonry was revived in Dominica, Heboid
says, in 1822 other authorities say in 1855.
A Grand Lodge was organized at the city
of St. Domingo, December 11, 1858. At
the present time Dominican Masonry is
established under the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Bite, and the National Grand
Orient of the Dominican Republic is divided into four sections, namely, a Grand
Lodge, Grand Chapter General, Grand
Consistory General and Supreme Council.
The last body has not been recognized by
the Mother Council at Charleston, since its
establishment is in violation of the Scottish Constitutions, which prescribe one Supreme Council only for all the West India
;

Islands.

Sainte Croix,

Emanuel Joseph

Guilhem de Clermont - Lodeve

de. A French antiquary, and member of
the Institute, who was born at Mormoiron,
in 1746, and died in 1809.
His work published in two volumes in 1784, and entitled,
Recherches Historiques et Critiques sur les
Mysthres du Paganisme, is one of the most
valuable and instructive essays that we
have in any language on the ancient mysteries,
those religious associations whose
history and design so closely connect them
with Freemasonry. The later editions were
enriched by the valuable notes of Silvestre

de Tracy.

Saint George's Day. The

twenty-

third of April. Being the patron saint of

England, his festival is celebrated by the
Grand Lodge. The Constitution requires
that " there shall be a Masonic festival next
following St. George's Day, which shall be
dedicated to brotherly love and refreshment."
It is the occasion of the " Grand
Feast."

Saint Germain. A town in France,

about ten miles from Paris, where James
II. established his court after his expulsion
from England, and where he died. Oliver
says, (Landm., ii. 28,) and the statement has
been repeatedly made by others, that the
followers of the dethroned monarch who
accompanied him in

his exile, carried Free-

Lodge of

St.

Germain.

here antedated history.

683

But Oliver has

James II. died in

1701, and Freemasonry was not introduced

into France from England until 1725. The
exiled house of Stuart undoubtedly made
use of Masonry as an instrument to aid in
their attempted restoration but their connection with the Institution must have been
;

after the time of James II., and most probably under the auspices of his grandson, the
Young Pretender, Charles Edward.

Saint John, Favorite Brother

of.

The eighth degree of the Swedish

Kite.

Saint John, Lodge

of.

See Lodge

of St. John.

St. John of Jerusalem, Knight

of. See Knight of St. John of Jerusalem.

Saint John's Masonry. The Constitution of the

(chap,
tises

Grand Lodge of Scotland

declares that that body "pracrecognizes no degrees of Masonry

ii.)

and

but those of Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and

Master Mason, denominated

St.

John's

Ma-

sonry."

Saint John's Order. In a system

of Masonry which Oliver says {Mirror for
the Johannites, p. 58,) was "used, as it is
confidently affirmed, in the fourteenth century," (but I doubt if it could be traced
farther back than the early part of the
seventeenth,) this appellation occurs in the
obligation
" That you will always keep, guard, and conceal,

And from

this time you never will reveal,

Either to M. M., F. C, or Apprentice,
Of St. John's OKDEK,what our grand intent is."

The same title of "Joannis Ordo" is

given in the document of uncertain date
known as the " Charter of Cologne."
the Almoner. The son of
St.
the King of Cyprus, and born in that island
He was elected Pain the sixth century.
triarch of Alexandria, and has been canonized by both the Greek and Roman
Churches, his festival among the former
occurring on the 11th of November, and
among the latter on the 23d of January.
Bazot (Man. du Franc- Magon., p. 144,) thinks
that it is this saint, and not St. John the
Evangelist or St. John the Baptist, who is
meant as the true patron of our Order.
" He quitted his country and the hope of a
throne," says this author, " to go to Jerusalem, that he might generously aid and
pilgrims. He
the knights and
assist
founded a hospital, and organized a frater-

John

sAlNT

684

SAINT

nity to attend upon sick and wounded

Christians, and to bestow pecuniary aid
upon the pilgrims who visited the Holy
Sepulchre. St. John, who was worthy to
become the patron of a society whose only
object is charity, exposed his life a thousand times in the cause of virtue. Neither
war, nor pestilence, nor the fury of the infidels, could deter him from pursuits of
benevolence. But death, at length, arrested
him in the midst of his labors. Yet he left
the example of his virtues to the brethren,

who have made

it

their duty to endeavor

Eome

canonized him under the name of St. John the Almoner,

or St. John of Jerusalem and the Masons
whose temples, overthrown by the barbarians, he had caused to be rebuilt
selected
him with one accord as their patron." Oliver, however, {Mirror for the Johannite Masons, p. 39,) very properly shows the error
of appropriating the patronage of Masonry
to this saint, since the festivals of the Order
are June 24 and December 27, while those
of St. John the Almoner are January 23
and November 11. He has, however, been
selected as the patron of the Masonic Order
of the Templars, and their Commanderies
are dedicated to his honor on account of
his charity to the poor, whom he called his
" Masters," because he owed them all service, and on account of his establishment
of hospitals for the succor of pilgrims in
the East.
Saint John the Baptist. One of
the patron saints of Freemasonry, and at
one time, indeed, the only one, the name
of St. John the Evangelist having been introduced subsequent to the sixteenth cenHis festival occurs on the 24th of
tury.
June, and is very generally celebrated by the
to imitate them.

Masonic

fraternity.

Dalcho (Ahim

Rez.,

p. 150,) says that "the stern integrity of

St. John the Baptist, which induced him

to forego every minor consideration in discharging the obligations he owed to God

the unshaken firmness with which he met

martyrdom rather than betray his duty to
his Master his steady reproval of vice, and
continued preaching of repentance and
virtue, make him a fit patron of the Masonic institution."
The Charter of Cologne says " We celebrate, annually, the memory of St. John,
the Forerunner of Christ and the Patron
of our Community." The Knights Hospitallers also dedicated their Order to him
and the ancient expression 'of our ritual,
which speaks of a " Lodge of the Holy St.
John of Jerusalem," probably refers to the
;

same

saint.

Krause, in his Kunsturkunden,

(p.

295-

305,) gives abundant historical proofs that

the earliest Masons adopted St. John the

Baptist, and not St.

as their patron.
It

John the

Evangelist,

worthy of note that

the Grand Lodge of England was revived
on St. John the Baptist's day, 1717, and
that the annual feast was kept on that day
until 1727, when it was held for the first
time on the festival of the Evangelist.
Lawrie says that the Scottish Masons always kept the festival of the Baptist until
1737, when the Grand Lodge changed the
time of the annual election to St. Andrew's
is

day.

Saint

John the

Evangelist. One

of the patron saints of Freemasonry, whose

festival is celebrated on the 27th of December. His constant admonition, in his Epistles, to the cultivation of brotherly love,
and the mystical nature of his Apocalyptic
visions, have been, perhaps, the principal
reasons for the veneration paid to him by
the Craft. Notwithstanding a well-known
tradition, all documentary evidence shows
that the connection of the name of the
Evangelist with the Masonic Order is to be
dated long after the sixteenth century, before which time St John the Baptist was
exclusively the patron saint of Masonry.
are, however, now always united,
for reasons set forth in the article on the

The two

Dedication of Lodges, which see.

Saint I^eger. See Aldworth, Mrs.

Saint Martin, Louis Claude.

mystical writer and Masonic leader of considerable reputation in the last century,
and the founder of the Rite of Martinism.
He was born at Amboise, in France, on
January 18, 1743, being descended from a
family distinguished in the military service of the kingdom. Saint Martin when
a youth made great progress in his studies,
and became the master of several ancient
and modern languages.
After leaving
school, he entered the army, in accordance
with the custom of his family, becoming a
member of the regiment of Foix. But after
six years of service, he retired from a profession which he found uncongenial with
his fondness for metaphysical pursuits.
He then travelled in Switzerland, Germany,

England, and Italy, and finally retired to

Lyons, where he remained for three years
in a state of almost absolute seclusion,
known to but few persons, and pursuing
his philosophic studies.
He then repaired
to Paris, where, notwithstanding the tumultuous scenes of the revolution which
was working around, he remained unmoved
by the terrible events of the day, and intent
only on the prosecution of his theosophic
studies. Attracted by the mystical systems
of Boehme and Swedenborg, he became
himself a mystic of no mean pretensions,
and attracted around him a crowd of disciples, who were content, as they said, to

SAINT

SAINTS

hear, without understanding, the teachings

In 1775 appeared his first
of their leader.
and most important work, entitled Des
Erreurs et de la Ve'rite, ou les Hommes rappeles au principe universal de la Science.

and was to be traced to the very beginning

of the world.
Saint Nicaise. A considerable sensation

was produced

in

685

Masonic

circles

by

the appearance at Frankfort, in 1755, of a

This work, which contained an exposition of work entitled Saint Nicaise, oder eine Sammthe ideology of Saint Martin, acquired for its lung merhwurdiger Maiirerischer Briefe, fur
A second
author, by its unintelligible transcendental- Freimaiirer und die es nicht.
Its title-page
ism, the title of the " Kant of Germany." edition was issued in 1786.
Saint Martin had published this work under asserts it to be a translation from the
the pseudonym of the " Unknown Philoso- French, but it was really written by Dr.
pher," (le Philosophe inconnu;) whence he Starck. It professes to contain the letters
was subsequently known by this name, which of a French Freemason who was travelling
was also assumed by some of his Masonic on account of Freemasonry, and having
adherents; and even a degree bearing that learned the mode of work in England and
Germany, had become dissatisfied with
title was invented and inserted in the Rite
of Philalethes. The treatise Des Erreurs both, and had retired into a cloister in
France. It was really intended, although
et de la Verite was in fact made a sort of
text-book by the Philalethans, and highly Starck had abandoned Masonry, to defend
recommended by the Order of the Initiated his system of Spiritual Templarism, in
Knights and Brothers of Asia, whose sys- opposition to that of the Baron Von
tem was in fact a compound of theosophy Hund. Accordingly, it was answered in
and mysticism. It was so popular, that 1786 by Von Sprengseisen, who was an
between 1775 and 1784 it had been through ardent friend and admirer of Von Hund, in
a work entitled Anti Saint Nicaise, which was
five editions.
Saint Martin, in the commencement of immediately followed by two other essays
his Masonic career, attached himself to by the same author, entitled Archimedes,
Martinez Paschalis, of whom he was one and Scala Algtbraica CEconomica. These
of the most prominent disciples. But he three works have become exceedingly rare.
subsequently attempted a reform of the sysAs St.
Saint
tem of Paschalis, and established what he Paul's, the Cathedral Church of London,
called a Rectified Rite, but which is better was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren,
who
known as the Rite or system of Martinism, is called, in the Book of Constitutions, the
which consisted of ten degrees. It was itself Grand Master of Masons,
some writers
subsequently reformed, and, being reduced have advanced the theory that Freemato seven degrees, was introduced into some sonry took its origin at the construction of
of the Lodges of Germany under the name that edifice. In the fourth degree of Fesswhich is occupied in the critof the Reformed Eccossism of Saint Martin. ler's Rite,
The theosophic doctrines of Saint Martin ical examination of the various theories on
among the
were introduced into the Masonic Lodges the origin of Freemasonry,
of Russia by Count Gabrianko and Admi- seven sources that are considered, the buildNicolai
ral PleshcheyefF, and soon became popular. ing of St. Paul's Church is one.
Under them the Martinist Lodges of Rus- does not positively assert the theory but
sia became distinguished not only for their he thinks it not an improbable one, and
Masonic and religious spirit, although too believes that a new system of symbols was
much tinged with the mysticism of Jacob at that time invented. It is said that there
Boehme and their founder,
but for an was, before the revival in 1717, an old
active zeal in practical works of charity of Lodge of St. Paul's; and it is reasonable
to suppose that the Operative Masons enboth a private and public character.
The character of Saint Martin has, I gaged upon the building were united with
think, been much mistaken, especially by the architects and men of other professions
Masonic writers. Those who, like Voltaire, in the formation of a Lodge, under the
have derided his metaphysical theories, regulation which no longer restricted the
seem to have forgotten the excellence of Institution to Operative Masonry.
But
his private character, his kindness of heart, there is no authentic historical evidence
his amiable manners, and his varied and that Freemasonry first took its rise at the
extensive erudition. Nor should it be for- building of St. Paul's Church.
gotten that the true object of all his MaSaints John. The "Holy Saints
sonic labors was to introduce into the John," so frequently mentioned in the
Lodges of France a spirit of pure religion. ritual of Symbolic MasQnry, are St. John
His theory of the origin of Freemasonry the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist,
was not, however, based on any historical (which see.) The original dedication of
research, and is of no value, for he believed Lodges was to the " Holy St. John," mean-

Paul's Church.

that

it

was an emanation of the Divinity, ing the

Baptist.

SALUTE

SAINTS

686

Saints John, Festivals

of.

See

Festivals.

Saint Victor, Louis Guillemain

A French Masonic writer, who pub-

de.

lished, in 1781, a work in Adonhiramite

Masonry, entitled Receuil Precieux de la

Maconnerie Adonhiramite.
This volume
contained the ritual of the first four degrees, and was followed, in 1787, by another, which contained the higher degrees
of the Eite. If St. Victor was not the
inventor of this Rite, he at least modified
and established it as a working system,
and, by his writings and his labors, gave to
it whatever popularity it at one time possessed.
Subsequent to the publication of
his Receuil Precieux, he wrote his Origine
de la Maconnerie Adonhiramite, a learned
and interesting work, in which he seeks to
trace the source of the Masonic initiation
to the mysteries of the Egyptian priesthood.
Salfi, Francesco. An Italian philosopher and litterateur, who was born at
Cozenza, in Calabria, Jan. 1, 1759, and
died at Passy, near Paris, Sept. 1832. He
was at one time professor of history and
philosophy at Milan. He was a prolific
writer, and the author of many works on
history and political economy. He published, also, several poems and dramas, and
received, in 1811, the prize given by the
Lodge at Leghorn for a Masonic essay, entitled, Delia utiltd della Franca- Massoneria
rapporto filantropico e morale.
significant word in the high
Salix.
degrees, invented, most probably, at first
for the system of the Council of Emperors
of the *East and West, and transferred to
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
It is derived, say the old French rituals,
from the initials of a part of a sentence,
and has, therefore, no other meaning.
sotto il

Pas

Salle des
Perdus. ( The Hall
of the Lost Steps.) The French thus call
the anteroom in which visitors are placed
before their admission into the Lodge.
The Germans call it the fore-court ( Vorhof), and sometimes, like the French, der
Saal der verlornen Schritte. Lenning says
that it derives its name from the fact that
every step taken before entrance into the
Fraternity, or not made in accordance with
the precepts of the Order, is considered as

been equal to that of erecting the Pyramids,

and which were appropriated to the initiations in the Ancient Mysteries of India.
In the Helvetian ritual salt is
Salt.
added to corn, wine, and oil as one of the
elements of consecration, because it is a
symbol of the wisdom and learning which
should characterize a Mason's Lodge. When
the foundation-stone of a Lodge is laid, the
Helvetian ritual directs that it shall be
sprinkled with salt, and this formula be
used: "May this undertaking, contrived
by wisdom, be executed in strength and
adorned with beauty, so that it may be a
house where peace, harmony, and brotherly love shall perpetually reign."

Salutation.

Lenning

says, that

in

accordance with the usage of the Operative

Masons, it was formerly the custom for a
strange brother, when he visited a Lodge,
to bring to it such a salutation as this:
"From the Right Worshipful Brethren
and Fellows of a Right Worshipful and
Holy Lodge of St. John." The English
salutation, at the middle of the last century, was: "From the Right Worshipful
Brothers and Fellows of the Right Worshipful and Holy Lodge of St. John, from

whence
well."

come and greet you thrice heartily

The custom has become obsolete,

although there is an allusion to it in the answer to the question, "Whence come you?"
in the modern catechism of the Entered
Apprentice's degree. But Lenning is incorrect in saying that the salutation went out
of use after the introduction of certificates.
The salutation was, as has been seen, in use
in the eighteenth century, and certificates
were required as far back at least as the
year 1683.
the
Salutem. {Lot. Health.)

When

Romans wrote

friendly letters, they prefixed the letter S as the initial of Salutem,

or health, and thus the writer expressed a
wish for the health of his correspondent.

At the head of Masonic documents we

often find this initial letter thrice repeated,

thus: S.\ S.\ S.\, with the same significaIt is
tion of Health, Health, Health.
equivalent to the English expression,
" Thrice Greeting."
Salute Mason. Among the Stonemasons of Germany, in the Middle Ages,
and most probably introduced by them into
England, a distinction was made between
lost,
Salomonis Sanctificatus Illumi- the Grussmaurer or Wortmaurer, the Salute
natus,
Jehova. The title Mason or Word Mason, and the Schriftof the reigning Master or third class of the maurer or Letter Mason. The Salute MaIlluminated Chapter according to the Swed- sons had signs, words, and other modes of
recognition by which they could make
ish system.
,
Salsette. An island in the Bay of Bom- themselves known to each other while the
bay, celebrated for stupendous caverns exca- Letter Masons, who were also called Briefvated artificially out of the solid rock, with trdger or Letter Bearers, had no mode,
a labor which must, says Mr. Grose, have when they visited strange Lodges, of prov-

Magnus

SAMARIA

SAN

ing themselves, except by the certificates

or written testimonials which they brought
with them. Thus, in the " examination of
a German Stonemason," which has been
published in Fallow's Mysterien der Freimaurerei, (p. 25,) and copied thence by
Findel, we find these questions proposed to
a visiting brother, and the answers thereto
" Warden. Stranger, are you a Letter
Mason or a Salute Mason ?
" Stranger. I am a Salute Mason.
" Warden. How shall I know you to be

tans.
One was, that they denied the authority of any of the Scriptures except the
Pentateuch another was that they asserted
that it was on Mount Gerizim, and not
on Mount Moriah, that Melchizedek met
Abraham when returning from the slaughter of the kings, and that here also he came
to sacrifice Isaac, whence they paid no
reverence to Moriah as the site of the
" Holy House of the Lord."
few of the

such?
" Stranger. By my salute and
my mouth."
Samaria. A city situated

words of

near the
centre of Palestine, and built by Omri,
king of Israel, about 925 B. c. It was the
metropolis of the kingdom of Israel, or of
the ten tribes, and was, during the exile,
peopled by many Pagan foreigners sent to
supply the place of the deportated inhabitants.
Hence it became a seat of idolatry,
and was frequently denounced by the
prophets. See Samaritans.

Samaritan, Oood

See Good Sama-

ritan.

remain at Nabulus. They do not

exceed one hundred and fifty. They have
a high priest, and observe all the feasts of
sect still

the ancient Jews, and especially that of the

Passover, which they keep on Mount Gerizim with all the formalities of the ancient
rites.

Samothracian Mysteries.

the inhabitants into captivity, and introduced colonies in their place from Babylon,
Cultah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim.
These colonists, who assumed the name of
Samaritans, brought with them of course
the idolatrous creed and practices of the region from which they emigrated. The Samaritans, therefore, at the time of the rebuilding of the second Temple, were an
idolatrous race, and as such abhorrent to
the Jews. Hence, when they asked permission to assist in the pious work of rebuilding the Temple, Zerubbabel, with the
rest of the leaders, replied, " Ye have nothing
to do with us to build a house unto our
God but we ourselves together will build
unto the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us."
Hence it was that, to avoid the possibility of these idolatrous Samaritans polluting the holy work by their co-operation,
Zerubbabel found it necessary to demand of
every one who offered himself as an assistant
in the undertaking that he should give an
accurate account of his lineage, and prove
himself to have been a descendant (which
no Samaritan could be) of those faithful
Giblemites who worked at the building of
the first Temple.
There were many points of religious difference between the Jews and the Samari;

The

Mysteries of the Cabiri are sometimes so

called because the principal seat of their
celebration was in the island of Samothrace.
"I ask," says Voltaire, {Diet. Phil.,) "who
were these Hierophants, these sacred Freemasons, who celebrated their Ancient Mysteries of Samothracia, and whence came
See Cabiri,
they and their gods Cabiri ?"
Mysteries

Samaritans. The

Samaritans were
originally the descendants of the ten revolted tribes who had chosen Samaria for their
metropolis. Subsequently, the Samaritans
were conquered by the Assyrians under Shalmaneser, who carried the greater part of

687

of.

Sanctuary. The Holy

the

of Holies in

Temple of Solomon. See Holy of Holies.

Sanctum Sanctorum.
Holy of Holies, which

Sandwich Islands.
was

Latin

for

see.

Freemasonry

introduced into those far islands

of the Pacific by the Grand Orient of
France, which issued a Dispensation for the
establishment of a Lodge about 1848, or
perhaps earlier but it was not prosperous,
and soon became dormant. In 1852, the
Grand Lodge of California granted a Warrant to Hawaiian Lodge, No. 21, on its
first

at Honolulu.
Koyal Arch and
Templar Masonry have both been since introduced.
Honolulu Chapter was established in 1859, and Honolulu Commandery
register

in 1871.

San Graal. Derived, probably, from

the old French, sang real, the true blood;
although other etymologies have been proposed. The San Graal is represented, in legendary history, as being an emerald dish
in which our Lord had partaken of the last
supper. Joseph of Arimathea, having further sanctified it by receiving into it the
blood issuing from the five wounds, afterwards carried

it to England.
Subsequently
disappeared in consequence of the sins of
the land, and was long lost sight of. When
Merlin established the Knights of the Kound
Table, he told them that the San Graal
should be discovered by one of them, but
that he only could see it who was without
sin.
One day, when Arthur was holding a
high feast with his Knights of the Eound
Table, the San Graal suddenly appeared to

it

SANHEDRIM

SASH

and then as
disappeared. The consequence
was that all the knights took upon them
a solemn vow to seek the Holy Dish. " The
quest of the San Graal " became one of the
most prominent myths of what has been
called the Arthuric cycle. The old French
romance of the Morte d''Arthur, which was
published by Caxton in 1485, contains the
adventures of Sir Galahad in search of the
San Graal. There are several other romances of which this wonderful vessel, invested with the most marvellous properties,
The quest of the San Graal
is the subject.
very forcibly reminds us of the search for
the Lost Word.
The symbolism is precisely
the loss and the recovery being
the same,
but the lesson of death and eternal life,
so that the San Graal in the Arthurian
myth, and the Lost Word in the Masonic
legend, seem to be identical in object and
design. Hence it is not surprising that a

arisen that the floor of the Lodge is a tessellated or Mosaic pavement.

Sapicole, The. Thory says that a
degree by this name is cited in the nomenclature of Fustier, and is also found in the
collection of Viany.

him and

to all his chivalry,

suddenly

French

writer,

M. de Caumont, should have

said (Bulletin Monument., p. 129,) that " the

poets of the twelfth and fourteenth centu-

who composed the romances of the

Eound Table, made Joseph of Arimathea

ries,

the chief of a military and religious Free-

masonry."

Sanhedrim. The

highest judicial
the Jews. It consisted of
seventy-two persons beside the high priest.
It is supposed to have originated with Moses, who instituted a council of seventy on
the occasion of a rebellion of the Israelites
The room in which the
in the wilderness.
Sanhedrim met was a rotunda, half of which
was built without the Temple and half
within, the latter part being that in which
the judges sat. The Nasi, or prince, who
was generally the high priest, sat on a
throne at the end of the hall his deputy,
called Ab-beth-din, at his right hand and
the sub-deputy, or Chacan, at his left;
the other senators being ranged in order on
each side. Most of the members of this
council were priests or Levites, though men
in private stations of life were not excluded.
According to the English system of the
Royal Arch, a Chapter of Eoyal Arch Masons represents the Sanhedrim, and therefore it is a rule that it shall never consist
of more than seventy-two members, although a smaller number is competent to
transact any business. This theory is an
erroneous one, for in the time of Zerubbabel there was no Sanhedrim, that tribunal having been first established after the
Macedonian conquest. The place in the
Temple where the Sanhedrim met was
called " Gabbatha," or the " Pavement " it
was a room whose floor was formed of
ornamental square stones, and it is from
this that the Masonic idea has probably
tribunal

among

Sapphire. Hebrew, 1*D- Tne

sec-

ond stone

in the second row of the high

priest's breastplate, and was appropriated
to the tribe of Naphtali.
The chief priest
of the Egyptians wore round his neck an
image of truth and justice made of sapphire.
Saracens. Although originally only

an Arab tribe, the word Saracens was afterwards applied to all the Arabs who embraced the tenets of Mohammed. The
Crusaders especially designated as Saracens those Mohammedans who had invaded Europe, and whose possession of the
Holy Land gave rise not only to the Crusades, but to the organization of the military and religious orders of Templars and
Hospitallers, whose continual wars with the
Saracens constitute the most important
chapters of the history of those times.
Sardius. Hebrew, OHtf, Odem. The
first stone in the first row of the high
priest's breastplate.
It is a species of cornelian of a blood-red color, and was appropriated to the tribe of Reuben.
Sarsena. A pretended exposition of
Freemasonry, published at Baumberg, Germany, in 1816, under the title of " Sarsena,
or the Perfect Architect," created a great
sensation at the time among the initiated
and the profane. It professed to contain
the history of the origin of the Order, and
the various opinions upon what it should
be, " faithfully described by a true and perfect brother, and extracted from the papers

which he

behind him."

Like all other

contained, as G'adicke remarks, very little that was true, and of that
which was true nothing that had not been
said before.
Sash. The old regulation on the subject of wearing sashes in a procession is in
the following words " None but officers,
left

expositions,

it

who must always be Master Masons,

are

permitted to wear sashes and this decoraIn

tion is only for particular officers."
this country the wearing of the sash appears, very properly, to be confined to the
W.\ Master, as a distinctive badge of his
;

office.

The sash is worn by all the companions

of the Royal Arch degree, and is of a scarlet
"
color, with the words " Holiness to the Lord
inscribed upon it. These were the words
placed upon the mitre of the high priest
of the Jews.
In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, the white sash is a decoration of the
thirty-third degree.
recent decree of the

SATRAP

SCALD

Supreme Council of the Southern

Jurisdiction confines its use to honorary members, while active members only wear the
collar.

sash, or scarf, is analogous to the

Zennar, or sacred cord, placed upon the
candidate in the initiation into the mysteries of India, and which every Brahman
was compelled to wear. This cord was

woven with great solemnity, and being put

upon the left shoulder, passed over to the
right side and hung down as low as the
fingers could reach.

Satrap.

The

title

given by the Greek

writers to the Persian governors of provIt is

inces before Alexander's conquest.
from the Persian word satrab. The authorized version calls them the " king's lieu-

the Hebrew, achashdarpenim,

doubtless a Persian word Hebraized.
It was these satraps who gave the
Jews so much trouble in the rebuilding of
the Temple. They are alluded to in the
congeneric degrees of Knight of the Eed
Cross and Prince of Jerusalem.
Savalette de Langes. Founder of
the Rite of Philalethes at Paris, in 1773.
He was also the President and moving
spirit of the Masonic Congress at Paris,
which met in 1785 and 1787 for the purpose of discussing many important points
in reference to Freemasonry.
The zeal and
energy of Savalette de Langes had succeeded in collecting for the Lodge of the
Philalethes a valuable cabinet of natural
history and a library containing many
manuscripts and documents of great importance. His death, which occurred soon
after the beginning of the French revolution, and the political troubles that ensued,
caused the dispersion of the members and
the loss of a great part of the collection. The
remnant subsequently came into the possession of the Lodges of St. Alexander of
Scotland, and of the Social Contrat, which
constituted the Philosophic Scottish Rite.
Sayers, Anthony. At the revival
in 1717, "Mr. Anthony Sayers, gentleman," was elected Grand Master. He was
succeeded in the next year by George Payne,
Esq. In 1719, he was appointed Senior
tenants

"

is

Grand Warden by Grand Master Desaguliers.

procession in derision of the FreemaSir John Hawkins, speaking, in his

Life of Johnson, (p. 336,) of Paul Whitehead, says " In concert with one Carey, a
surgeon, he planned and exhibited a procession along the Strand of persons on foot
and on horseback, dressed for the occasion,
carrying mock ensigns and the symbols of
Freemasonry the design of which was to
expose to laughter the insignia and ceremonies of that mysterious institution and
it was not until thirty years afterwards that
the Fraternity recovered from the disgrace
which so ludicrous a representation had
The incorrectness of this
brought on it."
last statement will be evident to all who
are acquainted with the successful progress
made by Freemasonry between the years
1741 and 1771, during which time Sir John
Hawkins thinks that it was languishing
under the blow dealt by the mock procession of the Scald Miserables.
:

The

which

mock

sons.

He

ent in the

is last

mentioned as being presin 1730, when he

Grand Lodge

appeared in the procession as the oldest

Past Grand Master. It is to be regretted
that no records of this proto-Grand Master
of the revived Grand Lodge of England
have been preserved.
portrait of him by
Highmore, the celebrated painter, is in
existence, mezzotinto copies of which are

not uncommon.

Scald Miserable^.

name

given
to a set of persons who, in 1741, formed a

4M

44

better and fuller account is contained

in the London Daily Post of March 20,
1741. " Yesterday, some mock Freemasons
marched through Pall Mall and the Strand
as far as Temple Bar in procession
first
went fellows on jackasses, with cows' horns
in their hands then a kettle-drummer on
a jackass, having two buffter firkins for
kettle-drums; then followed two carts
drawn by jackasses, having in them the
stewards with several badges of their
order then came a mourning-coach drawn
by six horses, each of a different color and
size, in which were the Grand Master and
Wardens; the whole attended by a vast
mob. They stayed without Temple Bar
till the Masons came by, and paid their
;

compliments to them, who returned the

same with an agreeable humor that

possi-

bly disappointed the witty contriver of

this mock scene, whose misfortune is that,
though he has some wit, his subjects are generally so ill chosen that he loses by it as
many friends as other people of more
judgment gain."
April 27th, being the day of the annual
feast, " a number of shoe-cleaners, chimney-sweepers, etc., on foot and in carts,
with ridiculous pageants carried before
them, went in procession to Temple Bar, by
few
way of jest on the Freemasons."
days afterwards, says the same journal,
"several of the Mock Masons were taken
up by the constable empowered to impress
men for his Majesty's service, and confined until they can be examined by the

justices."
It was, as

242,) very

Hone remarks, (Anc. Myst., p.

common to indulge in satirical

pageants, which were accommodated to the

amusement of the vulgar, and he mentions
plate
this procession as one of the kind.

'

SCALD

SCALLOP-SHELL

of the mock procession was engraved by

A. Benoist, a drawing-master, under the
title of "
Geometrical View of the Grand

was issued to discontinue all public processions on feast days, on account of a mock
procession which had been planned, at a
considerable expense, by some prejudiced

690

Procession of the Scald Miserable Masons,

designed as they were drawn up over
against Somerset House in the Strand, on
the 27th day of April, Anno 1742." Of
this plate there is a copy in ClavePs HisWith the original plate
toire Pittoresque.
Benoist published a key, as follows, which
perfectly agrees with the copy of the plate
in Clavel
" No. 1. The grand Sword-Bearer, or Tyler, carrying the Swoard of State, (a present of Ishmael Abiff to old Hyram, King
of the Saracens,) to his Grace of Wattin,
Grand Master of the Holy Lodge of St.
John of Jerusalem in Clerkenwell. 2.
Tylers or Guarders. 3. Grand Chorus of
Instruments. 4. The Stewards, in three

drawn by Asses. 5. Two famous

Three great Lights: the Sun,
Hieroglyphical, to rule the Day the Moon,
Emblematical, to rule the Night a Master
Mason, Political, to rule his Lodge. 7.
Gutt-carts
Pillars.

6.

The Entered

Prentice's Token.

8.

The

let-

G, famous in Masonry for differencing

the Fellow Craft's Lodge from that of
Prentices. 9. The Funeral of a Grand Master according to the Rites of the Order, with
the Fifteen loving Brethren. 10. A Master
Mason's Lodge. 11. Grand Band of Musick. 12. Two Trophies; one being that of
a Black-shoe Boy and a Sink Boy, the
other that of a Chimney-S weeper. 13. The
Equipage of the Grand Master, all the Attendants wearing Mystical Jewells."
The historical mock procession of the
Scald Miserables was, it thus appears, that
which occurred on April 27, and not the
preceding one of March 20, which may have
been only a feeler, and having been well received by the populace there might have
ter

been an encouragement for its repetition.

But it was not so popular with the higher
classes, who felt a respect for Freemasonry,
and were unwilling to see an indignity put
upon it. A writer in the London Freemasons' Magazine (1858, I., 875,) says: "The
contrivers of the mock procession were at
that time said to be Paul Whitehead, Esq.,
and his intimate friend (whose real Christian
Mall,

name was

Wales.

Esquire)

Carey, of Pall

surgeon

The

to Frederick, Prince of
city officers did not suffer this

procession to go through Temple Bar, the

common report then being that its real
interest was to affront the annual procesThe Prince was
sion of the Freemasons.
so much offended at this piece of ridicule,
that he immediately removed Carey from
the office he held under him."
Smith ( Use and Abuse of Freemas., p. 78,)
says that ".about this time (1742) an order

persons, with a view to ridicule these public cavalcades."

Smith is not altogether
accurate. There is no doubt that the ultimate effect of the mock procession was to
put an end to what was called " the march
of procession " on the feast day, but that
effect did not show itself until 1757, in
which year it was resolved that it should in
future be discontinued.
Scales, Pair of. " Let me be weighed

an

Job, "that
integrity ;" and Solo"
mon says that a false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his
delight."
So we find that among the ancients a balance, or pair of scales, was a
in

even

balance," said

God may know mine

well-known recognized symbol of a strict

observation of justice and fair dealing.
This symbolism is also recognized in Masonry, and hence in the degree of Princes
of Jerusalem, the duty of which is to administer justice in the inferior degrees, a
pair of scales is the most important symbol.
Scallop - Shell. The scallop-shell,
the staff, and sandals form a part of the costume of a Masonic Knight Templar in his
character as a Pilgrim Penitent. Shakespeare makes Ophelia sing,

"And how

my

shall I

From any

true love

know

other one?

O, by his scallop-shell and staff,

And by his sandal shoon "
!

the Middle
Ages the recognized badge of a pilgrim so

The

scallop-shell was

in

much

that Dr. Clarke (Travels, ii. 538,)

has been led to say "It is not easy to account for the origin of the shell as a badge
worn by the pilgrims, but it decidedly refers to much earlier Oriental customs than
the journeys of Christians to the Holy
Land, and its history will probably be
found in the mythology of eastern nations."
He is right as to the question of
antiquity, for the shell was an ancient symbol of the Syrian goddess Astarte, Venus
Pelagia, or Venus rising from the sea. But
it is doubtful whether its use by pilgrims is
to be traced to so old or so Pagan an auStrictly, the scallop-shell was the
thority.
badge of pilgrims visiting the shrine of St.
so,

James of Compostella, and hence it is called

the
by naturalists the pecten Jacobceus
comb shell of St. James. Fuller (Ch. Hist,

228,) says: " All pilgrims that visit St.

in Spain returned
thence obsiti conchis, ' all beshelled about
on their clothes, as a religious donative
ii.,

James of Compostella

there bestowed upon them." Pilgrims were,

in fact, in mediaeval times distinguished by

SCHAW

SCANDINAVIAN
the peculiar badge which they wore, as
designating the shrine which they had
Thus pilgrims from Rome wore
visited.
the keys, those from St. James the scallopshell, and those from the Holy Land palm
branches, whence such a pilgrim was sometimes called a palmer. But this distinction
was not always rigidly adhered to, and pilgrims from Palestine frequently wore the
At first the shell was sewn on the
shell.
cloak, but afterwards transferred to the
hat and while, in the beginning, the badge
was not assumed until the pilgrimage was
accomplished, eventually pilgrims began to
wear it as soon as they had taken their vow
of pilgrimage, and before they had commenced their journey.
Both of these changes have been adopted in the Templar ritual. The pilgrim,
although symbolically making his pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre in Palestine, adopts the shell more properly belonging to the pilgrimage to Compostella and
adopts it, too, not after his visit to the
shrine, but as soon as he has assumed the
character of a pilgrim, which, it will be seen
from what has been said, is historically correct, and in accordance with the later practice of mediaeval pilgrims.
;

'

Scandinavian Mysteries.

See

Gothic Mysteries.

Scarlet.

See Bed.

Scenic Representations.

In the
Ancient Mysteries scenic representations
were employed to illustrate the doctrines of
the resurrection, which it was their object

Thus the allegory of the inito inculcate.

tiation was more deeply impressed, by being brought vividly to the sight as well as
Thus, too, in
to the mind of the aspirant.
the religious mysteries of the Middle Ages,
the moral lessons of Scripture were dramatized for the benefit of the people who beheld them.
The Christian virtues and
graces often assumed the form of personages
in these religious plays, and fortitude, prudence, temperance, and justice appeared
before the spectators as living and acting
beings, inculcating by their actions and by
the plot of the drama those lessons which
would not have been so well received or
so thoroughly understood, if given merely
in a didactic form. The advantage of these
scenic representations, consecrated by antiquity and tested by long experience, is
well exemplified in the ritual of the third
degree of Masonry, where the dramatization of the great legend gives to the initiation a singular force and beauty.
It is surprising, therefore, that the English system
never adopted, or, if adopted, speedily discarded, the drama of the third degree, but
gives only in the form of a narrative what
the American system more wisely and more

691

usefully presents by living action.

Through-

out America, in every State excepting

Pennsylvania, the initiation into the third
degree constitutes a scenic representation.
The latter State alone preserves the less
impressive didactic method of the English
system.
The rituals of the continent of
Europe pursue the same scenic form of initiation, and it is therefore most probable
that this was the ancient usage, and that
the present English ritual is of comparatively recent date.

Sceptre.

An

ensign of sovereign auin several of the

who represent

and hence carried

high degrees by officers
thority,

kings.

Scliaw Manuscript. This is a code

of laws for the government of the Operative Masons of Scotland, drawn up by
William Schaw, the Master of the Work
to James VI.
It bears the following title
"The Statutis and Ordinanceis to be obseruit be all the Maister-Maissounis within
realme sett down be Williame Schaw,
Maister of Wark to his Maieste and generall Wardene of the said Craft, with the
consent of the Maisteris efter specifeit."
As will be perceived by this title, it is in
the Scottish dialect. It is written on paper, and dated XXVIII December, 1598.
Although containing substantially the general regulations which are to be found in
the English manuscripts, it differs matethis

from them in many particulars.

Masters, Fellow Crafts, and Apprentices
are spoken of, but simply as gradations of
"
rank, not as degrees, and the word " Ludge
or Lodge is constantly used to define the
place of meeting. The government of the
Lodge was vested in the Warden, Deacons,
and Masters, and these the Fellow Crafts
and Apprentices were to obey. The highest officer of the Craft is called the General
Warden. The Manuscript is in possession
of the Lodge of Edinburgh, but has sevfirst in the
eral times been published
Laws and Constitutions of the Grand Lodge
of Scotland, in 1848 ; then in the American
edition of that work, published by Dr.
Eobert Morris, in the ninth volume of the
Universal Masonic Library ; afterwards by
W. A. Laurie, in 1859, in his History of
Freemasonry and the Grand Lodge of Scotland ; and lastly, by W. J. Hughan, in his
Unpublished Records of the Craft.
rially

Schaw, William. A name which

is

intimately connected with the history of

Freemasonry in Scotland. For the particulars of his life, I am principally indebted
to the writer of " Appendix Q. 2," in the
Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.
William Schaw was born in the year
1550, and was probably a son of Schaw of
Sauchie, in the shire of Clackmannon. He

"

SCHAW

SCHISMS

appears from an early period of life to

have been connected with the royal houseIn proof of this we may refer to his
hold.
signature attached to the original parchment deed of the National Covenant, which
was signed by King James VI. and his
household at the Palace of Holyrood, 28th
January, 1580-1. In 1584, Schaw became
successor to Sir Robert Drummond, of Carnock, as Master of Works. This high official appointment placed under his superintendence all the royal buildings and palaces
in Scotland; and in the Treasurer's accounts of a subsequent period various sums
are entered as having been paid to him in
connection with these buildings for improvements, repairs, and additions. Thus,
in September, 1585, the sum of 315 was
paid " to William Schaw, his Majesties
Maister of Wark, for the reparation and
mending of the Castell of Striueling," and
in May, 1590, 400, by his Majesty's

tion of 20,000" granted by the Royal

Buroughs in Scotland, the sum to be expended " in biggin and repairing of his
Hienes Palice of Halyrud-house," 14th
March, 1589-90. Subsequent payments to
Schaw occur in the Treasurer's accounts for
broad scarlet cloth and other stuff for
" burde claythes and coverings to forms and
windows bayth in the Kirk and Palace of
Halyrud-house." On this occasion various
sums were also paid by a precept from the
king for dresses, etc., to the ministers and
others connected with the royal household.
On this occasion William Schaw, Maister
of Wark, received 133 6s. &d. The queen

692

was " dely verit to William Schaw,

the Maister of Wark, for reparation of the
hous of Dumfermling, befoir the Queen's
Majestie passing thairto."
Sir James Melville, in .his Memoirs, mentions that, being appointed to receive the
three Danish Ambassadors who came to
Scotland in 1585, (with overtures for an
alliance with one of the daughters of Frederick II.,) he requested the king that two
other persons might be joined with him,
precept,

was crowned on the 17th May, and two

days following she made her first public
entrance into Edinburgh. The inscription
on Schaw's monument states that he was,
in addition to his office of Master of the
Works, "Sacris ceremoniis propositus
and " Reginse Quaestor," which Monteith
has translated " Sacrist and Queen's Chamberlain." This appointment of Chamberlain evinces the high regard in which the
queen held him but there can be no doubt
that the former words relate to his holding the office of General Warden of the ceremonies of the Masonic Craft, an office
analogous to that of Substitute Grand Master as now existing in the Grand Lodge of
;

Scotland.

William Schaw died April 18, 1602, and

and for this purpose he named Schaw and was buried in the Abbey Church of DunJames Meldrum, of Seggie, one of the Lords fermline, where a monument was erected
of Session. It further appears that Schaw to his memory by his grateful mistress, the
had been employed in various missions to Queen. On this monument is his name
France. He accompanied James VI. to and monogram cut in a marble slab, which,
Denmark in the winter of 1589, previous tradition says, was executed by his own
to the king's marriage with the Princess hand, and containing his Mason's mark,
Anna of Denmark, which was celebrated at and an inscription in Latin, in which he is
Upslo, in Norway, on the 23d of November. described as one imbued with every liberal
The king and his attendants remained dur- art and science, most skilful in architecing the winter season in Denmark, but Schaw ture, and in labors and business not only
returned to Scotland on the 16th of March, unwearied and indefatigable, but ever as1589-90, for the purpose of making the siduous and energetic. No man appears,
necessary arrangements for the reception from the records, to have lived with more
of the wedding party.
Schaw brought of the commendation, or died with more of
with him a paper subscribed by the king, the regret of others, than this old Scottish
"
containing the
Ordour set down be his Mason.
Majestie to be effectuate be his Heines
Schismatic. Thory (Hist de la Fond,
Secreit Counsall, and preparit agane his du G. O.) thus calls the brethren who, exMajestie's returne in Scotland," dated in pelled by the Grand Lodge of France, had
February, 1589-90.
The "king and his formed, in the year 1772, a rival body unroyal bride arrived in Leith on the 1st of der the name of the National Assembly.
May, and remained there six days, in a Any body of Masons separating from the
building called " The King's Work," until legal obedience, and establishing a new
the Palace of Holyrood was prepared for one not authorized by the laws of Matheir reception.
Extensive alterations had sonry,
such, for instance, as the Grand
evidently been made at this time at Holy- Lodge of Ancients in England, or the
rood, as a warrant was issued by the Pro- Saint John's Grand Lodge in New York,
vost and Council of Edinburgh to deliver is properly schismatic.
to William Schaw, Maister of Wark, the
Schisms. This, which was originally
sum of 1000, " restand of the last taxa- an ecclesiastical term, and signifies, as Mil-

;;

SCHNEIDER

SCHISMS
ton defines

it,

church when

" a rent or division in the

comes to the separating of

it

congregations," is unfortunately not unknown in Masonic history. It is in Masonic, as in canon law, a withdrawing from
recognized authority, and setting up some
The first
other authority in its place.
schism recorded after the revival of 1717,
was that of the Duke of Wharton, who, in
1722, caused himself to be irregularly nominated and elected Grand Master. His am-

bition is assigned in the Book of Constitutions as the cause, and his authority was
disowned "by all those," says Anderson,

"who would

not countenance irregulari-

But the breach was healed by

Grand Master Montague, who, resigning

ties."

his claim to the chair, caused Wharton to

The
be regularly elected and installed.
second schism in England was of longer
It commenced with the withduration.
drawal of several dissatisfied brethren from
the legitimate Grand Lodge in 1738, and
the subsequent organization of a schismatic body known as the Grand Lodge of
This schism lasted until
the Ancients.
1813, when it was healed by the reconciliation and union of the two Grand Lodges ;
but the effects of so great a separation, both
as to the time of its continuance and the extent of country over which it spread, are
In France,
still felt by the Institution.
although irregular Lodges began to be instituted as early as 1756, the first active
schism is to be dated from 1761, when the

dancing- master Lacorne, whom the respectable Masons refused to recognize as

the substitute of De Clermont the Grand
Master, formed, with his adherents, an independent and rival Grand Lodge the
members of which, however, became reconciled to the legal Grand Lodge the next
year, and again became schismatic in 1765.
In fact, from 1761 until the organization
of the Grand Orient in 1772, the history
of Masonry in France is but a history of
schisms.
In Germany, in consequence of the Germanic principle of Masonic law that two
or more controlling bodies may exist at the
same time and in the same place with concurrent and coextensive jurisdiction, it is
legally impossible that there ever should
be a schism.
Lodge or any number of
Lodges may withdraw from the parent
stock and assume the standing and prerogatives of a mother Lodge with powers
of constitution or an independent Grand
Lodge, and its regularity would be indisputable, according to the German interpretation of the law of territorial jurisdiction.
Such an act of withdrawal would be a secession, but not a schism.
In this country there have been several
;

693

instances of Masonic schism.

Thus, in
Massachusetts, by the establishment in
1752 of the St. Andrew's Grand Lodge in
South Carolina, by the formation of the
Grand Lodge of York Masons in 1787 in
Louisiana, in 1848, by the institution of
the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons
and in New York, by the establishment in
1823 of the city and country Grand Lodges
and in 1849 by the formation of the body
known as the Philip's Grand Lodge. In
instances a reconciliation
all of these
eventually took place; nor is it probable
that schisms will often occur, because the
principle of exclusive territorial jurisdiction has been now so well settled and so
universally recognized, that no seceding or
schismatic body can expect to receive the
countenance or support of any of the
Grand Lodges of the Union.
There are these essential points of differ;

ence between ecclesiastical and Masonic

schism the former, once occurring, most
generally remains perpetual. Reconciliation with a parent church is seldom effected.
The schisms of Calvin and Luther
at the time of the Reformation led to the
formation of the Protestant Churches, who
can never be expected to unite with the
Roman Church, from which they separated.
The Quakers, the Baptists, the Methodists,
and other sects which seceded from the
Church of England, have formed permanent religious organizations, between whom
and the parent body from which they
separated there is a breach which will
probably never be healed. But all Masonic schisms, as experience has shown,
have been temporary in their duration,
The
and sometimes very short lived.
spirit of Masonic brotherhood which continues to pervade both parties, always
leads, sooner or later, to a reconciliation
and a reunion concessions are mutually
made, and compromises effected, by which
the schismatic body is again merged in the
parent association from which it had se;

Another difference is this, a reliceded.

gious schismatic body is not necessarily an
illegal one, nor does it always profess a
schism," says
system of false doctrine. "
Milton, " may happen to a true church, as
well as to a false." But a Masonic schism
it violates the law of exis always illegal
clusive jurisdiction and a schismatic body
cannot be recognized as possessing any of
the rights or prerogatives which belong
alone to the supreme dogmatic Masonic
power of the State.

Schneider, Johaiiu August.

zealous and learned Mason of Altenburg,

in Germany, where he was born May 22,
Besides
1755, and died August 13, 1816.
contributing many valuable articles to va-

694

SCHOOLS

SCHEOEDER

rious Masonic journals, he was the compiler of the " Constitutions-Buch " of the
Lodge " Archimedes zu den drei Reissbretten " at Altenburg, in which he had been
initiated, and of which he was a member
an important but scarce work, containing
a history of Masonry, and other valuable

keeper of a coffee-house in Leipsic, where,

having obtained a quantity of Masonic,
Rosicrucian, and magical books, he opened,
in 1768, what he called a Scottish Lodge,
and pretended that he had been commissioned by Masonic superiors to destroy the
system of Strict Observance, whose adherents he abused and openly insulted. He
Schools. None of the charities of boasted that he alone possessed the great
Freemasonry have been more important secret of Freemasonry, and that nearly all
or more worthy of approbation than those the German Masons were utterly ignorant
which have been directed to the establish- of anything about it except its external
ment of schools for the education of the forms. He declared that he was an
orphan children of Masons; and it is a anointed priest, having power over spirits,
very proud feature of the Order, that insti- who were compelled to appear at his will
tutions of this kind are to be found in and obey his commands, by which means
every country where Freemasonry has he became acquainted not only with the
made a lodgment as an organized society. past and the present, but even with the fuIn England, the Royal Freemasons' Girls' ture. It was in thus pretending to evoke
School was established in 1789. In 1798, a spirits that his Masonry principally con r
similar one for boys was founded. At a very sisted. Many persons became his dupes
early period charity schools were erected and although they soon discovered the imby the Lodges in Germany, Denmark, and posture, shame at being themselves deSweden. The Masons of Holland insti- ceived prevented them from revealing the
tuted a school for the blind in 1808. In truth to others, and thus his initiations
the United States much attention has been continued for a considerable period, and he
paid to this subject. In 1842, the Grand was enabled to make some money, the only
Lodge of Missouri instituted a Masonic real object of his system. He has himself
college, and the example was followed by asserted, in a letter to a Prussian clergyseveral other Grand Lodges. But colleges man, that he was an emissary of the Jesuhave been found too unwieldy and compli- its but of the truth of this we have only
;

management for a successful

experiment, and the scheme has generally
been abandoned- But there are numerous
schools in the United States which are
supported in whole or in part by Masonic
Lodges.
Schools of the Prophets. Oliver
(Landm., ii. 874,) speaks of " the secret institution of the Nabiim " as existing in the
time of Solomon, and which, he says, were
established by Samuel " to counteract the
progress of the Spurious Freemasonry
which was introduced into Palestine before
his time." This claim of a Masonic character for these institutions has been gratuitously assumed by the venerable author.
He referred to the well-known schools of
the Prophets, which were first organized
by Samuel, which lasted from his time to
the closing of the canon of the Old Testament. They were scattered all over Palestine, and consisted of scholars who devoted
themselves to the study of both the written
and the oral law, to the religious rites, and
Their
to the interpretation of Scripture.
teaching of what they had learned was
public, not secret, nor did they in. any way
resemble, as Oliver suggests, the Masonic
Lodges of the present day. They were, in
their organization, rather like our modern
theological colleges, though their range
of studies was very different.
cated in their

Schrepfer,

Johann Georg.

The

own unreliable testimony. He left

Leipsic at one time and travelled abroad,
leaving his Deputy to act for him during
his absence.
On his return he asserted
that he was the natural son of one of the
French princes, and assumed the title of
Baron Von Steinbach. But at length there
was an end to his practices of jugglery.
Seeing that he was beginning to be detected,
fearing exposure, and embarrassed by debt,
he invited some of his disciples to accompany him to a wood near Leipsic called
the Rosenthal, where, on the morning of
October 8, 1774, having retired to a little distance from the crowd, he blew out his
brains with a pistol. Clavel has thought it
worth while to preserve the memory of this
incident by inserting an engraving representing the scene in his Histoire Pittoresque de la Franc- Magonnerie. Schepfer had
much low cunning, but was devoid of education.
Lenning sums up his character in
saying that he was one of the coarsest and
most impudent swindlers who ever chose
the Masonic brotherhood for his stage of
his

action.

Schroeder, Friederich Joseph

A doctor and professor of

pharmacology in Marburg; was born at
Bielefeld, in Prussia, March 19, 1733, and
died October 27, 1778. Of an infirm constitution from his youth, he still further
impaired his bodily health and his mental
Wilhelm.

SCHROEDER

SCIENTIFIC

by his devotion to chemical, alHe

chemical, and theosophic pursuits.
established at Marburg, in 1766, a Chapter
of True and Ancient Rose Croix Masons,
and in 1779 he organized in a Lodge of
Sarreburg a school or Rite, founded on
magic, theosophy, and alchemy, which consisted of seven degrees, four high degrees
founded on these occult sciences being superadded to the original three symbolic deThis Rite, called the "Rectified
grees.
Rose Croix," was only practised by two
Lodges under the Constitution of the Grand
Clavel calls him
Lodge of Hamburg.
the Cagliostro of Germany, because it was
in his school that the Italian charlatan
learned his first lessons of magic and theosophy. Oliver, misunderstanding Clavel,
styles him an adventurer. But it is perhaps
more just that we should attribute to him
a diseased imagination and misdirected
studies than a bad heart or impure prac-

which, whatever may be its defects in the

estimation of others, has become very pop-

faculties

tices.

He must

Fried.

Ludwig Schroeder, who was a man

not be confounded with

of a very different character.

Schroeder, Friedrich Ludwig.

An actor and a dramatic and Masonic writborn at Schwerin, Nov. 3, 1744, and died
near Hamburg, Sept. 3, 1816. He comer,

menced life as an actor at Vienna, and was

so distinguished in his profession that Hoffmann says " he was incontestably the greatest actor that Germany ever had, and equally eminent in tragedy and comedy." As an
active, zealous Mason, he acquired a high
character.
Bode himself, a well-known
Mason, was his intimate friend. Through
his influence, he was initiated into Freemasonry, in 1774, in the Lodge Emanuel
zur Maienblume. He soon after himself
established a new Lodge working in the
system of Zinnendorf, but which did not
long remain in existence. Schroeder then
to Vienna, where he remained until
On
1785, when he returned to Hamburg.
his return, he was elected by his old friends
the Master of the Lodge Emanuel, which
office he retained until 1799.
In 1794
lie
was elected Deputy Grand Master

went

of the English Provincial Grand Lodge of

Lower Saxony, and in 1814, in the seventieth year of his life, he was induced to accept the Grand Mastership. It was after
his election, in 1787, as Master of the Lodge
Emanuel at Hamburg, that he first resolved
to devote himself to a thorough reformation
of the Masonic system, which had been
much corrupted on the continent by the invention of almost innumerable high degrees,
many of which found their origin in the
fantasies of Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and

Hermetic Philosophy.
tion,

It is to this resolu-

thoroughly executed, that

we owe

the

Masonic scheme known as Schroeder's Rite,

695

ular among many German Masons. He

started out with the theory that, as Free-

masonry had proceeded from England to

the continent, in the English Book of Constitutions and the Primitive English Ritual
we must look for the pure unadulterated
fountain of Freemasonry.
He accordingly selected the well-known
English Exposition entitled "Jachin and
Boaz " as presenting, in his opinion, the
best formula of the old initiation.
He
therefore translated it into the German language, and, remodelling it, presented it
to the Provincial Grand Lodge in 1801, by
whom it was accepted and established. It
was soon after accepted by many other German Lodges on account of its simplicity.
The system of Schroeder thus adopted consisted of the three degrees of Ancient Craft
Masonry, all the higher degrees being reBut Schroeder found it necessary
jected.
to enlarge his system, so as to give to brethren who desired it an opportunity of farther investigation into the philosophy of
Masonry. He, therefore, established an
Engbund, or Select Historical Union, which
should be composed entirely of Master Masons, who were to be engaged in the study
of the different systems and degrees of Freemasonry. The Hamburg Lodges constituted the Mutterbund, or central body, to
which all the other Lodges were to be
united by correspondence.

Of this

system, the error, I think, is that,

to a primitive ritual which
recognizes nothing higher than the Master's
degree, it rejects all the developments that
have resulted from the labors of the philosophic minds of a century. Doubtless in
the high degrees of the eighteenth century
there was an abundance of chaff, but there
was also much nourishing wheat. Schroeder, with the former, has thrown away the
latter.
He has committed the logical blunder of arguing from the abuse against the
use.
His system, however, has some merit,
and is still practised by the Grand Lodge
of Hamburg.
Schroeder's Rite. See Schroeder,
Friederich Joseph Wilhelm.
Schroeder's System. See Schroeder, Friedrich Ludwig.
Sciences, ^Liberal. See Liberal Arts

by going back

and Sciences.
Scientific

Masonic Association.

Freimaurer Bund.) A society

founded in 1803 by Fessler, Mossdorf,
Fischer, and other distinguished Masons,
(Scientifischer

the object being, by the united efforts of its

members, to draw up, with the greatest accuracy and care, and from the most authentic sources, a full and complete history of

SCOTLAND

696

Freemasonry, of its origin and

SCOTTISH
objects,

from

formation to the present day, and

also of the various systems or methods of
working that have been introduced into
the Craft such history, together with the
evidence upon which it was founded, was
to be communicated to worthy and zealous
its first

brethren. The members had no peculiar

ritual, clothing, or ceremonies; neither
were they subjected to any fresh obligation
every just and upright Freemason who had
received a liberal education, who was capable of feeling the truth, and desirous of
investigating the mysteries of the Order,
could become a member of this society,
provided the ballot was unanimous, let

him belong to what Grand Lodge he might.

In the reign of James II., the office of

Grand Patron of Scotland was granted to
William St. Clair, Earl of Orkney and
Caithness and Baron of Roslin, " his heirs
and successors," by the king's charter. But,
in 1736, the St. Clair who then exercised
the Grand Mastership, "taking into consideration that his holding or claiming any
such jurisdiction, right, or privilege might
be prejudicial to the Craft and vocation of

Masonry," renounced his claims, and empowered the Freemasons to choose their

Grand Master.

The consequence of

act of resignation

was the immediate

this
or-

ganization of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, over whom, for obvious reasons, the
late hereditary Grand Master or Patron

But those whose education had not been was unanimously called to preside.
them to assist
Scotland, Royal Order of. See
in those researches were only permitted to Royal Order of Scotland.
attend the meetings as trusty brethren to
A distinguished
Scott, Charles.
Masonic writer of the United States, who
receive instruction.
The tradition of the was born at Knoxville, Tennessee, Nov. 12,
Scotland.
Scotch Masons is that Freemasonry was 1811, and died at Jackson, Mississippi,
introduced into Scotland by the architects June 5, 1861. Bro. Scott was a man of
who built the Abbey of Kilwinning and more than ordinary abilities. In the prothe village of that name bears, therefore, fession of the law he had a high reputation,
the same relation to Scotch Masonry that and was for a long period Chancellor of the
the city of York does to English. " That State of Mississippi. He was initiated into
Freemasonry was introduced into Scot- Freemasonry in Silas Brown Lodge of
land," says Laurie, (Hist., r). 89,) "by those Jackson, in 1842, and afterwards presided
architects who built the Abbey of Kilwin- over the Lodge for many years.
He was
ning, is manifest not only from those au- Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Misthentic documents by which the Kilwin- sissippi in 1849 and in 1850, and in 1851
ning Lodge has been traced back as far as he was elected Grand High Priest of the
the end of the fifteenth century, but by Grand Chapter. He entered the Ancient
other collateral arguments which amount and Accepted Scottish Rite at New Oralmost to a demonstration." In Sir John leans in 1857, and two years afterwards was
Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, elevated to the thirty-third degree and to
the same statement is made in the follow- active membership in the Supreme Council
ing words: "A number of Freemasons for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United
came from the continent to build a monas- States. As a Masonic writer, Bro. Scott did
tery there, and with them an architect or good service to the Craft. Besides numerMaster Mason to superintend and carry on ous valuable essays published in various
the work. This architect resided at Kil- Masonic journals, he was the author of two
winning, and being a good and true Mason, works of great interest. In 1850 appeared
intimately acquainted with all the arts and The Analogy of Ancient Craft Masonry to
parts of Masonry known on the continent, Natural and Revealed Religion, and in 1856,
was chosen Master of the meetings of the The Keystone of the Masonic Arch, a Combrethren all over Scotland.
He gave rules mentary on the Universal Laws and Princisufficiently liberal to enable

for the conduct of the brethren at these

meetings, and decided finally in appeals
from all the other meetings or Lodges in
Scotland." Which statement amounts to
about this that the brethren assembled at
Kilwinning elected a Grand Master (as we
should now call him) for Scotland, and
that the Lodge of Kilwinning became the
Mother Lodge, a title which it has always
assumed.
Manuscripts preserved in the
Advocates' Library of Edinburgh, which
were first published by Laurie, furnish
further records of the early progress of
Masonry in Scotland.
:

ples of Ancient Freemasonry.

The eminently religious spirit which imbued the
whole life and character of Bro. Scott has
led him to indulge, like the venerable Oliver, in the Christianization of Masonry to
an extent that has been deemed objectionable by some. But there are in both of these
works many passages suggestive of valuable Masonic thought.
Scottish. We use indiscriminately
the word Scotch or Scottish to signify something relating to Scotland. Thus we say
the Scotch Rite or the Scottish Rite the
latter is, however, more frequently used by
;

SCOTTISH

SCOTTISH

Masonic writers. This has been objected

to by some purists because the final syllable ish has in general the signification of
diminution or approximation, as in brackish, saltish, and similar words.
But ish in

alone recognized. But suddenly, with the

organization of the Supreme Council,
there arose a new Rite, fabricated by
the adoption of eight more of the continental high degrees, so as to make the
thirty-third and not the twenty-fifth degree
the summit of the Rite.
The Rite consists of thirty -three degrees,
which are divided into seven sections, each
section being under an appropriate jurisdiction, and are as follows

Scottish is not a sign of diminution, but is

derived, as in English, Danish, Swedish, etc.,

from the German termination ische. The

word is used by the best writers.
Scottish Degrees. The high degrees
invented or adopted by Ramsay, under
the name of Irish degrees, were subsequently called by him Scottish degrees in
reference to his theory of the promulgation of Masonry from Scotland. See Irish
Chapters.

Scottish Master. See Ecossais.

Scottish Rite. French writers call this
the " Ancient and Accepted Rite," but as
the Latin Constitutions of the Order designate it as the " Antiquus Scoticus Ritus
Acceptus," or the " Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite," that title has now been very
generally adopted as the correct name of
the Rite. Although one of the youngest
of the Masonic Rites, having been established not earlier than the year 1801, it is
at this day the most popular and the most
extensively diffused. Supreme Councils or
governing bodies of the Rite are to be
found in almost every civilized country of
the world, and in many of them it is the
only Masonic obedience. The history of
In 1758, a
its organization is briefly this.
body was organized at Paris called the
"Council of Emperors of the East and
This Council organized a Rite
West."
called the " Rite of Perfection," which
consisted of twenty-five degrees, the highest
of which was "Sublime Prince of the

Royal Secret." In 1761, this Council

granted a Patent or Deputation to Stephen
Morin, authorizing him to propagate the
Rite in the Western continent, whither he
was about to repair. In the same year,
Morin arrived at the city of St. Domingo,
where he commenced the dissemination of
the Rite, and appointed many Inspectors,
both for the West Indies and for the United
States.
Among others, he conferred the
degrees on M. Hayes, with a power of appointing others when necessary. Hayes
accordingly appointed Isaac Da Costa Deputy Inspector-General for South Carolina,
who in 1783 introduced the Rite into that
State by the establishment of a Grand
Lodge of Perfection in Charleston. Other
Inspectors were subsequently appointed,
and in 1801 a Supreme Council was opened
in Charleston by John Mitchell and FredThere is abundant evidence
erick Dalcho.
in the Archives of the Supreme Council
that up to that time the twenty-five
degrees of the Rite of Perfection were

4N

697

Symbolic Lodge.
1.
2.

3.

Entered Apprentice.
Fellow Craft.
Master Mason.

These are called blue or symbolic deThey are not conferred in England,
Scotland, Ireland, or in the United States,
because the Supreme Councils of the Rite
have refrained from exercising jurisdiction
through respect to the older authority in
grees.

those countries of the

York and American

Rite.
II.

Lodge of Perfection.
4.
5.
6.

Secret Master.
Perfect Master.
Intimate Secretary.

Provost and Judge.

Intendant of the Building.
9. Elected Knight of the Nine.
10. Illustrious Elect of the Fifteen.
1 1 Sublime Knights Elect of the Twelve.
7.

8.

12.

Grand Master Architect.

Knight of the Ninth Arch,

or Royal
Arch of Solomon.
14. Grand Elect, Perfect and Sublime
13.

Mason.
III.

Council of Princes of Jerusalem.

15.

Knight of the

16

Prince of Jerusalem.

East.

IV.

Chapter of Rose Croix.

17.

18.

Knight of the East and West.

Prince Rose Croix.
V.

Council of Kadosh.
19.
20.

Grand Pontiff.
Grand Master of Symbolic Lodges.

21. Noachite, or Prussian Knight.

22. Knight of the Royal Axe, or Prince

of Libanus.

SCOTTISH

SCRIPTURES

Chief of the Tabernacle.

Prince of the Tabernacle.
25. Knight of the Brazen Serpent.
26. Prince of Mercy.
27. Knight Commander of the Temple.
of the Sun, or Prince
28. Knight
Adept.

fathers, teaches the divine authenticity of

698
23.

24.

29.

Grand

Scottish

Knight of

St.

An-

drew.
30.

Knight Kadosh.
VI.

Consistory of

Sublime Princes of

the Royal Secret.

31. Inspector Inquisitor
32.

Commander.
Secret.

VII.

33.

Sovereign Grand Inspector-General.

Scottish Templars.

See Templars

of Scotland.

Scottish Trinitarians. See Prince

of Mercy.

The Scribe is the third officer

Arch Chapter, according to the
American ritual, and is the representative
The Safer, or Scribe in the
of Haggai.

Scribe.

in a Royal

was a kind of military

but in the latter he was a learned

earlier Scriptures,

secretary

Although in
initiation.
Christendom very few Masons deny the

qualification for

divine authority of the Scriptures of the

Old and New Testaments yet to require,
as a preliminary to initiation, the declaration of such a belief, is directly in opposition to the express regulations of the Order,
which demand a belief in God and, by implication, in the immortality of the soul as
the only religious tests.
;

Scriptures,

Sublime Prince of the Royal

Supreme Council.

the Holy Scriptures." In 1845, the Grand

Lodge of Illinois declared a belief in the
authenticity of the Scriptures a necessary

man, and doctor of the laws, who expounded them to the people. Thus Artaxerxes calls Ezra the priest, " a Scribe
Home
of the law of the God of heaven."
says that the Scribe was the King's Secretary of State, who registered all acts and
decrees.
It is in this sense that Haggai is
called the Scribe in Royal Arch Masonry.
In the English system of Royal Arch Masonry there are two Scribes, who represent
Ezra and Nehemiah, and whose position
and duties are those of Secretaries. The
American Scribe is the Third Principal.

The

Scribes, according to the English system, appear to be analogous to the Soferim

or Scribes of the later Hebrews from the
time of Ezra. These were members of the
Great Synod, and were literary men, who
occupied themselves in the preservation of
the letter of the Scriptures and the development of its spirit.

Scriptnres, Belief in the.

In

1820, the Grand Lodge of Ohio resolved

that " in the first degrees of Masonry religious tests shall not be a barrier to the admission or advancement of applicants, provided they profess a belief in God and his
holy word ;" and in 1854 the same body
adopted a resolution declaring that " Masonry, as we have received it from our

Reading of the. By

an ancient usage of the Craft, the Book of

the Law is always spread open in the
Lodge. There is in this, as in everything
else that is Masonic, an appropriate symbolism. The Book of the Law is the Great
Light of Masonry. To close it would be
to intercept the rays of divine light which
emanate from it, and hence it is spread
open, to indicate that the Lodge is not in
darkness, but under the influence of its
illuminating power. Masons in this respect obey the suggestion of the Divine
Founder of the Christian religion, " Neither do men light a candle and put it
under a bushel, but on a candlestick and
it giveth light unto all that are in the
closed book, a sealed book, inhouse."
dicates that its contents are secret and a
book or roll folded up was the symbol, says
Wemyss, of a law abrogated, or of a thing
of no further use. Hence, as the reverse
of all this, the Book of the Law is opened
in our Lodges, to teach us that its contents
are to be studied, that the law which it inculcates is still in force, and is to be " the
rule and guide of our conduct."
But the Book of the Law is not opened
In each degree there are apat random.
propriate passages, whose allusion to the
design of the degree, or to some part of its
ritual, makes it expedient that the book
should be opened upon those passages.
Masonic usage has not always been constant, nor is it now universal in relation to
what particular passages shall be unfolded
in each degree. The custom in this country,
at least since the publication of Webb's
Monitor, has been very uniform, and is as
;

follows
In the first degree the Bible is opened at
Psalm cxxxiii., an eloquent description of
the beauty of brotherly love, and hence
most appropriate as the illustration of a
society whose existence is dependent on
that noble principle. In the second degree
the passage adopted is Amos vii. 7, 8, in
which the allusion is evidently to the
plumb-line, an important emblem of that
In the third degree the Bible is
degree.

SCRIPTURES

SCRIPTURES
opened at Ecclesiastes

xii. 1-7, in

which

the description of old age and death is appropriately applied to the sacred object of
this degree.

But, as has been said, the choice of these

passages has not always been the same.
At different periods various passages have
been selected, but always with great appropriateness, as may be seen from the following brief sketch.
Formerly, the Book of the Law was
opened in the first degree at the 22d chapter of Genesfc, which gives an account of
Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac. As
this event constituted the first grand offering, commemorated by our ancient brethren, by which the ground-floor of the Apprentice's Lodge was consecrated, it seems
to have been very appropriately selected as
the passage for this degree. That part of
the 28th chapter of Genesis which records
the vision of Jacob's ladder was also, with
equal appositeness, selected as the passage
for the first degree.
The following passage from 1 Kings vi.
8, was, during one part of the last century,
used in the second degree
" The door of the middle chamber was in
the right side of the house, and they went
up with winding stairs into the middle
chamber, and out of the middle into the
third."

The

appositeness of this passage to the

Fellow Craft's degree will hardly be

dis-

puted.

At another time the following passage

from 2 Chronicles iii. 17, was selected for
the second degree its appropriateness will
;

be equally evident
"And he reared up the pillars before the
temple, one on the right hand, and the
other on the left and he called the name
of that on the right hand Jachin, and the
name of that on the left Boaz."
The words of Amos v. 25, 26, were sometimes adopted as the passage for the third
degree
" Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and
;

offerings in the wilderness forty years,

house of Israel? But ye have borne the

tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your
images, the star of your god, which ye

made to yourselves."
The allusions in this paragraph are not
so evident as the others.
They refer to
historical matters, which were once embodied in the ancient lectures of Freemasonry.
In them the sacrifices of the Israelites to Moloch were fully described, and a
tradition, belonging to the third degree, informs us that Hiram Abif did much to
extirpate this idolatrous worship from the
religious system of Tyre.
The 6th chapter of 2 Chronicles, which

699

contains the prayer of King Solomon at

the dedication of the Temple, was also used
Perhaps,
at one time for the third degree.

however, this was with less fitness than

any other of the passages quoted, since the
events commemorated in the third degree
took place at a somewhat earlier period
than the dedication. Such a passage might
more appropriately be annexed to the ceremonies of the Most Excellent Master as
practised in this country.
At present the usage in England differs
in respect to the choice of passages from
that adopted in this country.
There the Bible is opened, in the first
degree, at Ruth iv. 7
" Now this was the manner in former time
in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things;
a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to
his neighbor and this was a testimony in
:

Israel."

In the second degree the

opened at Judges xii. 6

passage

is

"Then said they unto him, Say now

Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth for he
could not frame to pronounce it right.
Then they took him, and slew him at the
passages of Jordan. And there fell at that
time of the Ephraimites forty and two
thousand."
In the third degree the passage is opened
at 1 Kings vii. 13, 14
"And king Solomon sent and fetched
Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son
of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was
a man of Tyre, a worker in brass and he
was filled with wisdom, and understanding,
;

and cunning to work all works in brass.

And he came to king Solomon, and
wrought all his work."
While from the force of habit, as well
as from the extrinsic excellence of the pas-

sages

themselves, the

American Mason

will, perhaps, prefer the selections made in

our own Lodges, especially for the first and
third degrees, he at the same time will not

admire the taste and ingenuity of

our English brethren in the selections that
they have made. In the second degree the
passage from Judges is undoubtedly preferable to our own.
In conclusion it may be observed, that to
give these passages their due Masonic importance it is essential that they should be
covered by the square and compasses. The
fail to

Bible, square,

and compasses are significant

They are said to

symbols of Freemasonry.

allude to the peculiar characteristics of our

ancient Grand Masters. The Bible is emblematic of the wisdom of King Solomon ;
the square, of the power of Hiram and the
compasses, of the skill of the Chief Builder.
Some Masonic writers have still further
;

SEAL

SCYTHE

700

spiritualized these symbols by supposing

them to symbolize the wisdom, truth, and
justice of the Grand Architect of the UniIn any view they become instrucverse.
tive and inseparably connected portions of
the true Masonic ritual, which, to be understood, must be studied together.

Scythe. In the classic mythology, the

scythe was one of the attributes of Saturn,
the god of time, because that deity is said
to have taught men the use of the implement

But Saturn was also

the god of time; and in modern iconography Time is allegorized under the figure of an old man, with white hair and
beard, two large wings at his back, an hourglass in one hand and a scythe in the other.
It is in its cutting and destructive quality
in agriculture.

that the scythe is here referred to. Time

is thus the great mower who reaps his harvest of men.
Masonry has adopted this
symbolism, and in the third degree the
scythe is described as an emblem of time,
which cuts the brittle thread of life and
makes havoc among the human race.
Seal. A stamp on which letters and a
device are carved for the purpose of making
an impression, and also the wax or paper
on which the impression is made. Lord
Coke defines a seal to be an impression on
wax, " sigillum est cera impressa," and wax
was originally the legal material of a seal.
Many old Masonic diplomas and charters
are still in existence, where the seal consists of a circular tin box filled with wax,
on which the seal is impressed, the box being attached by a ribbon to the parchment.
But now the seal is placed generally on a
piece of circular paper. The form of a seal
oval seals were formerly approis circular
priated to ecclesiastical dignitaries and religious houses, and the shape alluded to
the old Christian symbol of the Vesica
;

Piscis.

No Masonic document

is

valid unless

it

has appended to it the seal of the Lodge

Foreign Grand Lodges
or Grand Lodge.
never recognize the transactions of subordinate Lodges out of their jurisdictions, if
the standing of the Lodges is not guaranteed by the seal of the Grand Lodge and
the signatures of the proper officers.

Seal of Solomon. The Seal of Solomon or the Shield of David, for under both
names the same thing was denoted,

is a
hexagonal figure consisting of two interlaced triangles, thus forming the

outlines of a six-pointed
star.

Upon

it

was

in-

scribed one of the sacred

names of God, from which

it
was sup-

inscription
posed principally to derive

powers.

its

talismanic

These powers were very extensive,

was believed that it would extinguish

prevent wounds in a conflict, and perform many other wonders. The Jews called
it the Shield of David in reference to the
protection which it gave to its possessors.
But to the other Orientalists it was more
familiarly known as the Seal of Solomon.
Among these imaginative people, there was
a very prevalent belief in the magical character of the King of Israel.
He was esteemed rather as a great magician than as
a great monarch, and by the signet which
he wore, on which this talismanic seal was
engraved, he is supposed to have accomplished the most extraordinary actions, and
by it to have enlisted in his service the labors of the genii for the construction of his
celebrated Temple.
Robinson Crusoe and the Thousand and
One Nights are two books which every
child has read, and which no man or woman ever forgets. In the latter are many
allusions to Solomon's seal.
Especially is
there a story of an unlucky fisherman who
fished up in his net a bottle secured by a
leaden stopper, on which this seal was imOn opening it, a fierce Afrite, or
pressed.
evil genius, came forth, who gave this account of the cause of his imprisonment.
"Solomon," said he, "the son of David,
exhorted me to embrace the faith and submit to his authority but I refused upon
for it

fire,

which he called for this bottle, and confined

me in it, and closed it upon me with the
leaden stopper and stamped upon it his
seal, with the great name of God engraved
upon it. Then he gave the vessel to one
of the genii, who submitted to him, with
orders to cast me into the sea."
Of all talismans, I know of none, except, perhaps, the cross, which was so generally prevalent among the ancients as this
Seal of Solomon or Shield of David. It
has been found in the cave of Elephanta,
in India, accompanying the image of the
Deity, and many other places celebrated in
the Brahmanical and the Buddhist religions.
Mr. Hay, in an exploration into western
Barbary, found it in the harem of a Moor,
and in a Jewish synagogue, where it was
suspended in front of the recess in which
the sacred rolls were deposited. In fact,
the interlaced triangles or Seal of Solomon
may be considered as par excellence the
great Oriental talisman.
In time, with the progress of the new religion, it ceased to be invested with a magical reputation, although the hermetic philosophers of the Middle Ages did employ
it as one of their mystical symbols ; but
true to the theory that superstitions may
be repudiated, but never will be forgotten,
it was adopted by the Christians as one of
the emblems of their faith, but with varyThe two triangles
ing interpretations.

SEALS

SECRECY

were said sometimes to be symbols of fire

and water, sometimes of prayer and remission, sometimes of creation and redemption,
or of life and death, or of resurrection and
judgment. But at length the ecclesiologists
seem to have settled on the idea that the
figure should be considered as representing
his divine
the two natures of our Lord

the last step of initiation.

it seeking for the
light which is symbolized by the Word,
itself only a symbol of Truth.
As a Fellow Craft he continues the search, still asking for more light. And the Master Mason,
thinking that he has reached it, obtains
only its substitute; for the True Word,
Divine Truth, dwells not in the first temple of our earthly life, but can be found
oly in the second temple of the eternal

And

thus we find it dispersed all over Europe, in medallions, made

at a very early period, on the breasts of the
recumbent effigies of the dead as they lie
in their tombs, and more especially in
churches, where it is presented to us either
carved on the walls or painted in the
windows.
Everywhere in Europe, and
now in this country, where ecclesiastical
architecture is beginning at length to find
a development of taste, is this old Eastern
talisman to be found doing its work as a
Christian emblem. The spirit of the old
talismanic faith is gone, but the form remains, to be nourished by us as the natural
homage of the present to the past.
Among the old Kabbalistic Hebrews, the
Seal of Solomon was, as a talisman, of course
deemed to be a sure preventive against the
danger of fire. The more modern Jews,
still believing
in its talismanic virtues,
placed it as a safeguard on their houses and
on their breweries, because they were especially liable to the danger of fire.
The
common people, seeing this figure affixed
always to Jewish brew-houses, mistook it
for a sign, and in time, in Upper Germany,
the hexagon, or Seal of Solomon, was
adopted by German innkeepers as the sign
of a beer-house, just as the chequers has
been adopted in England, though with a
different history, as the sign of a tavern.

and

his

human.

Seals, Book of the Seven.

"

And

I saw," says St. John in the Apocalypse,

(v. 1,) "in the right hand of him that sat
on the throne a book written within and
on the back side, sealed with seven seals."
The seal denotes that which is secret, and
seven is the number of perfection ; hence
the Book of the Seven Seals is a symbol of

that knowledge which

is profoundly secured from all unhallowed search. In reference to the passage quoted, the Book
of the Seven Seals is adopted as a symbol
in the Apocalyptic degree of the Knights
of the East and West, the seventeenth of
the Ancient and Accepted Rite.

Seals,

Keeper of the. An

officer

who has charge

of the seal or seals of the

Lodge. It is found in some of the high
degrees and in continental Lodges, but not
recognized in the York or American Rites.

In German Lodges he is called Siegelbewahrer, and in French, Garde des Sceaux.

Search for Truth. This is the object of all Freemasonry, and it is pursued

from the

701

first to

The Apprentice begins

life.

There is a beautiful allegory of the great

Milton, who thus describes the search after
truth: "Truth came into the world with
her Divine Master, and was a perfect shape
and glorious to look upon. But when he
ascended, and his apostles after him were
laid asleep, there straight arose a wicked
race of deceivers, who, as the story goes of
the Egyptian Typhon, with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris,
took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely
frame into a thousand pieces, and scattered
them to the four winds of heaven. Ever
since that time the friends of Truth, such
as durst appear, imitating the careful search
that Isis made for the mangled body of
Osiris, went up and down, gathering up
limb by limb still as they could find them."
Seceders. During the anti-Masonic
excitement in this country, which gave rise
to the anti-Masonic party, many Masons,
fearing the loss of popularity, or governed
by an erroneous view of the character of
Freemasonry, withdrew from the- Order,
and took a part in the political and religious opposition to it. These men called
themselves, and were recognized by the
title of, " seceders " or " seceding Masons."
Second Temple. See Temple of
Zerubbabel.

Secrecy

and

Silence.

These

vir-

tues constitute the very essence of all Masonic character ; they are the safeguard of
the Institution, giving to it all its security
and perpetuity, and are enforced by frequent admonitions in all the degrees, from
the lowest to the highest. The Entered Apprentice begins his Masonic career by learning the duty of secrecy and silence. Hence
it is appropriate that in that degree which
is the consummation of initiation, in which
the whole cycle of Masonic science is completed, the abstruse machinery of symbolism should be employed to impress the same
important virtues on the mind of the neophyte.
The same principles of secrecy and silence existed in all the ancient mysteries
and systems of worship. When Aristotle

was asked what thing appeared to him to

be most difficult of performance, he replied,
" To be secret and silent."

SECRETARY

SECRET

" If we turn our eyes back to antiquity,"

says Calcott, "we shall find that the old
Egyptians had so great a regard for silence
and secrecy in the mysteries of their religion, that they set up the god Harpocrates,
to whom they paid peculiar honor and veneration, who was represented with the right
hand placed near the heart, and the left
down by his side, covered with a skin before,
full of eyes."
Apuleius, who was an initiate in flie
mysteries of Isis, says " By no peril will I
ever be compelled to disclose to the uninitiated the things that I have had intrusted
to me on condition of silence."
Lobeck, in his Aglaophamus, has collected several examples of the reluctance
with which the ancients approached a mystical subject, and the manner in which they
shrank from divulging any explanation or
fable which had been related to them at
the mysteries, under the seal of secrecy and

physics founded on the commentaries on

the law and the legends of the Talmudists.

702

3ilence.

And, lastly, in the school of Pythagoras,

these lessons were taught by the sage to his
novitiate of five years was
disciples.
imposed upon each pupil, which period was
to be passed in total silence, and in religious and philosophical contemplation.
And at length, when he was admitted to
full fellowship in the society, an oath of
secrecy was administered to him on the sacred tetractys, which was equivalent to the

Jewish Tetragrammaton.
Silence and secrecy are called " the cardinal virtues of a Select Master," in the
ninth or Select Master's degree of the

American

Rite.

Among

the Egyptians the sign of silence

was made by pressing the index finger of
the right hand on the lips. It was thus
that they represented Harpocrates, the god
of silence, whose statue was placed at the
entrance of all temples of Isis and Serapis,
to indicate that silence and secrecy were to
be preserved as to all that occurred within.
Secretary. The recording and corresponding officer of a Lodge. It is his duty
to keep a just and true record of all things
proper to be written, to receive all moneys
that are due the Lodge, and to pay them
over to the Treasurer. The jewel of his
office is a pen, and his position in the
Lodge is on the left of the Worshipful
Master in front.
Secretary-General of tlie
Empire. The title given to the Secretary of the Supreme Council of the An-

Holy

cient

and Accepted

Rite.

Secretary, Grand.

See Grand /Sec-

retary.

Secret Doctrine. The secret doctrine

of the Jews was, according to Steinschneider, nothing else than a system of meta-

Of

this secret doctrine,

Maimonides

says:

" Beware that you take not these words of

the wise men in their literal signification,
for this would be to degrade and sometimes
to contradict the sacred doctrine.
Search
rather for the hidden sense ; and if you cannot find the kernel, let the shell alone, and

confess that you cannot understand it."

All mystical societies, and even liberal
philosophers, were, to a comparatively recent period, accustomed to veil the true
meaning of their instructions in intentional obscurity, lest the unlearned and
uninitiated should be offended. The Ancient Mysteries had their secret doctrine
so had the school of Pythagoras, and the
sect of the Gnostics.
The Alchemists, as
Hitchcock has clearly shown, gave a secret
and spiritual meaning to their jargon
about the transmutation of metals, the
elixir of life, and the philosopher's stone.
Freemasonry alone has no secret doctrine.
Its philosophy is open to the world.
Its
modes of recognition by which it secures

and its rites and ceremonies

method of instruction, alone

identification,

which are

its

are secret. All men may

of the Masonic creed.

Secret Master.

know

The

the tenets

fourth degree

and Accepted Scottish Rite,

of what are called the " In-

in the Ancient

and the

first

Degrees." It refers to those circumstances which occurred at the Temple

when Solomon repaired to the building
for the purpose of supplying the loss of its
illustrious builder by the appointment of
seven experts, among whom were to be
divided the labors which heretofore had
been intrusted to one gigantic mind. The
lecture elaborately explains the mystic
meaning of the sacred things which were
contained in the Sanctum Sanctorum, or
Holy of Holies.
The Lodge is hung with black curtains
strewed with tears, symbolic of grief.
There should be eighty-one lights, distributed by nine times nine but this number is often dispensed with, and three times
three substituted. Later rituals reduce
effable

them

to eight.

There are but two presiding

officers

a Master, styled " Puissant," and representing King Solomon, and an Inspector,
representing Adoniram, the son of Abda,
who had the inspection of the workmen on
Mount Lebanon, and who is said to have
been the first Secret Master.
Solomon is seated in the east, clothed in
mourning robes lined with ermine, holding a sceptre in his hand, and decorated
with a blue sash from the right shoulder to
the left hip, from which is suspended a

SECRET

SECRET

triangle of gold.
Before him is placed a
triangular altar, on which is deposited a
wreath of laurel and olive leaves.
Adoniram, called " Venerable Inspector,"
is seated in the west, but without any implement of office, in commemoration of
the fact that the works were suspended
at the time of the institution of this deHe is decorated with a triangular
gree.
white collar, bordered with black, from
which is suspended an ivory key, with the
letter Z engraved thereon, which constitute
the collar, and jewel of the degree. These
decorations are worn by all the brethren.

ciation, the times and places of their meeting, and even the very names of their
members. To the first of these classes belong all those moral or religious secret associations which have existed from the earliest
Such were the Ancient Mysteries,
times.
whose object was, by their initiations, to

The apron is white edged with black and

with black strings the flap blue, with an
open eye thereon embroidered in gold. The
modern ritual prescribes that two branches
of olive and laurel crossing each other
shall be on the middle of the apron.
Secret Monitor. An honorary or
side degree very commonly conferred in
the United States. The communication of
it is not accompanied, it is true, with any
impressive ceremonies, but it inculcates a
;

lesson of unfaltering friendship which the

prospect of danger could not appall, and
the hour of adversity could not betray.
It is, in fact, devoted to the practical elucidation of the Masonic virtue of Brotherly
Love. In conferring it, those passages of
Scripture which are contained in the twentieth chapter of the First Book of Samuel,
from the sixteenth to the twenty-third, and
from the -thirty-fifth to the forty-second
verses inclusive, are usually considered as ap propriate.
It may be conferred on a worthy

Master Mason by any brother who is in

possession of its ritual. There was in Holland, in 1778, a secret Masonic society
called the Order of Jonathan and David,
which was probably much the same as this
American degreee. Kloss in his Catalogue
jl910 b ) gives the title of a book published
in that year at Amsterdam which gives its
statutes and formulary of reception.

Secret of tlie Secrets, The.

degree cited in the nomenclature of Fustier.

Secret Societies. Secret societies

may be divided into two classes: First,
whose secrecy consists in nothing
more than methods by which the members
are enabled to recognize each other and

those

in certain doctrines, symbols, or instructions

which can be obtained only after a process
of initiation, and under the promise that
they shall be made known to none who

703

cultivate a purer worship than the popular

one ; such, too, the schools of the old philosophers, like Pythagoras and Plato, who
in their esoteric instructions taught a
higher doctrine than that which they communicated to their exoteric scholars. Such,
too, are the modern secret societies which
have adopted an exclusive form only that
they may restrict the social enjoyment
which it is their object to cultivate, or the
system of benevolence for which they are
organized, to the persons who are united

with them by the

tie

of a

common covenant,

and the possession of a common knowledge;

such, lastly, is Freemasonry, which is a
secret society only as respects its signs, a
few of its legends and traditions, and its
method of inculcating its mystical philosophy, but which, as to everything else
its
design, its object, its moral and religious
tenets, and the great doctrine which it
teaches
is as open a society as if it met on

the highways beneath the sun of day, and

not within the well-guarded portals of a
Lodge. To the second class of secret societies belong those which sprung up first
in the Middle Ages, like the Vehm Gericht
of Westphalia, formed for the secret but
certain punishment of criminals and in the
eighteenth century those political societies
like the Carbonari, which have been organized at revolutionary periods to resist
the oppression or overthrow the despotism of tyrannical governments. It is evident that these two classes of secret sociebut
ties are entirely different in character
it has been the great error of writers like
Barruel and Robisdn, who have attacked
Freemasonry on the ground of its being a
secret association, that they utterly confounded the two classes.
An interesting discussion on this subject
took place in 1848, in the National Assembly of France, during the consideration of
those articles. of the law by which secret
part of this
societies were prohibited.
discussion is worth preserving, and is in
the following words
;

M. Volette: I should like to have one define what is meant by a secret society ?
have not submitted to the same initiation
M. Coquerel: Those are secret societies
but which, with the exception of these which have made none of the declarations
particulars, have no reservations from the prescribed by law.
public.
And secondly, of those societies
M. Paulin Gillon : I would ask if Freewrrch, in addition to their secret modes of masonry is also to be suppressed?
recognition and secret doctrine, add an
M. Flocon : I begin by declaring that,
entire secrecy as to the object of their asso- under a republican government, every se-

SECRET

704

SELECT

having for its object a change

of the form of such government ought to
be severely dealt with. Secret societies
may be directed against the sovereignty of
the people; and this is the reason why I
ask for their suppression; but, from the
want of a precise definition, I would not decret society

sire to strike, as secret societies, assemblies that

are perfectly innocent. All my life, until

the 24th of February, have I lived in seNow I desire them no
cret societies.
more. Yes, we have spent our life in conspiracies, and we had the right to do so
for we lived under a government which did
not derive its sanctions from the people.
To-day I declare that under a republican
government, and with universal suffrage,
it is a crime to belong to such an association.

M. Coquerel: As to Freemasonry, your

committee has decided that it is not a secret
society.
A society may have a secret, and
yet not be a secret society. I have not the
honor of being a Freemason.
The President : The thirteenth article has
been amended, and decided that a secret society is one which seeks to conceal its existence
and

its objects.

Secret Vault. See Vault,

Sectarianism. Masonry
all sectarianism,

Secret.

repudiates

and recognizes the

tenets

of no sect as preferable to those of any

other, requiring in its followers assent only
to those dogmas of a universal religion
which teach the existence of God and the
resurrection to eternal

life.

See

Toleration.

Secular Lodges. The

epithet secular has sometimes, but very incorrectly,

been applied to subordinate Lodges to distinguish them from Grand Lodges. In

such a connection the word is unmeaning,

or, what is worse, is a term bearing a meaning entirely different from that which was
intended by the writer. "Secular," says
Richardson, " is used as distinguished from
eternal, and equivalent to temporal; pertaining to temporal things, things of this
world worldly also opposed to spiritual,
;

And every other orthoepist

to holy."
gives substantially the same definition. It
is then evident, from this definition, that
the word secular may be applied to all Masonic bodies, but not to one class of them
in contradistinction to another. All Masonic Lodges are secular, because they are
worldly, and not spiritual or holy instituBut a subordinate Lodge
tions.
secular than a Grand Lodge.

Sedition Act.

is

no more

On

July 12, 1798, the

British Parliament, alarmed at the progress
of revolutionary principles, enacted a law,
commonly known as the Sedition Act, for
the suppression of secret societies but the
true principles of Freemasonry were so
;

well understood by the legislators of Great

Britain, many of whom were members of
the Order, that the following clause was inserted in the Act
"And whereas, certain societies have
been long accustomed to be holden in this
kingdom, under the denomination of Lodges
of Freemasons, the meetings whereof have
been in a great measure directed to charitable purposes, be it therefore enacted, that
nothing in this Act shall extend to the
meetings of any such society or Lodge
which shall, before the passing of this Act,
have been usually holden under the said
denomination, and in conformity to the
rules prevailing among the said societies
of Freemasons."
Seeing. One of the five human senses,
whose importance is treated of in the Fellow Craft's degree. By sight, things at a
distance are, as it were, brought near, and
So in Freeobstacles of space overcome.
masonry, by a judicious use of this sense,
in modes which none but Masons comprehend, men distant from each other in language, in religion, and in politics, are
brought near, and the impediments of
birth and prejudice are overthrown. But,
in the natural world, sight cannot be exercised without the necessary assistance of
light, for in darkness we are unable to see.
So in Masonry, the peculiar advantages
of Masonic sight require, for their enjoyment, the blessing of Masonic light. Illuminated by its divine rays, the Mason sees
where others are blind ; and that which to
the profane is but the darkness of ignorance, is to the initiated filled with the
light of knowledge and understanding.
Seekers. {Chercheurs.) The first degree of the Order of Initiated Knights and
Brothers of Asia.
Select Master. The ninth degree in
the American Rite, and the last of the two
conferred in a Council of Eoyal and Select
Masters. Its officers are a Thrice Illustrious Grand Master, Illustrious Hiram of
Tyre, Principal Conductor of the Works,
Treasurer, Recorder, Captain of the Guards,
Conductor of the Council, and Steward.
The first three represent the three Grand
Masters at the building of Solomon's Temple.
The symbolic colors are black and
red, the former significant of secrecy, silence, and darkness
the latter of fervency
;

and

zeal.

A Council is supposed to consist

of neither more nor less than twenty-seven

but a smaller number, if not less than nine,
is competent to proceed to work or busi;

The candidate, when initiated, is

said to be " chosen as a Select Master." The
historical object of the degree is to commemorate the deposit of an important secret or treasure which, after the preliminess.

SELECT

SENESCHAL

nary preparations, is said to have been

made by Hiram Abif. The place of meeting represents a secret vault beneath the
Temple.
A controversy has sometimes arisen
among ritualists as to whether the degree
of Select Master should precede or follow
that of Royal Master in the order of conferring.
But the arrangement now existing, by which the Eoyal Master is made
the first and the Select Master the second
degree of Cryptic Masonry, has been very

nally to the Ancient and Accepted Rite,

as honorary degrees by
the Inspectors of that Rite. This authority
and jurisdiction the Supreme Council for
the Southern Jurisdiction of the Rite con-

generally accepted, and this for the best of

reasons.
It is true that the circumstances
referred to in the degree of Royal Master
occurred during a period of time which lies
between the death of the Chief Builder of
the Temple and the completion of the edifice, while those referred to in the degree
of Select Master occurred anterior to the
builder's death.
Hence, in the order of
time, the events commemorated in the Select Master's degree took place anterior to
those which are related in the degree of

Royal Master; although in Masonic sequence the latter degree is conferred before
the former. This apparent anachronism
is, however, reconciled by the explanation
that the secrets of the Select Master's degree were not brought to light until long
after the existence of the Royal Master's
degree had been known and recognized.
In other words, to speak only from the
traditional point of view, Select Masters
had been designated, had performed the
task for which they had been selected, and
had closed their labors, without ever being
openly recognized as a class in the Temple
of Solomon. The business in which they
were engaged was a secret one. Their occupation and their very existence, according to the legend, were unknown to the
great body of the Craft in the first Temple.
The Royal Master's degree, on the contrary,
as there was no reason for concealment, was
publicly conferred and acknowledged during the latter part of the construction of
the Temple of Solomon; whereas the degree
of Select Master, and the important incidents on which it was founded, are not supposed to have been revealed to the Craft
until the building of the temple of Zerubbabel.
Hence the Royal Master's degree
should always be conferred anterior to that
of the Select Master.
The proper jurisdiction upder which
these degrees should be placed, whether
under Chapters and to be conferred preparatory to the Royal Arch degree, or
under Councils and to be conferred after it,
has excited discussion. The former usage
prevails in Maryland and Virginia, but the
latter in all the other States.
There is no
doubt that these degrees belonged origi4

45

705

and were conferred

tinued to claim until the year 1870; although, through negligence, the Councils
of Royal and Select Masters in some of
the States had been placed under the control of independent jurisdictions called
Grand Councils. Like all usurped authority, however, this claim of the State Grand
Councils does not seem to have ever been
universally admitted or to have been very
firmly established. Repeated attempts have
been made to take the degrees out of the
hands of the Councils and to place them
in the Chapters, there to be conferred as
preparatory to the Royal Arch. The General Grand Chapter, in the triennial session of 1847, adopted a resolution granting
this permission to all Chapters in States
where no Grand Councils exist. But, seeing the manifest injustice and inexpediency
of such a measure, at the following session
of 1850 it refused to take any action on
the subject of these degrees. In 1853 it
disclaimed all control over them, and forbade the Chapters under its jurisdiction to
confer them. As far as regards the interference of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, that question was set at rest in
1870 by the Mother Council, which, at its
session at Baltimore, formally relinquished
all further control over them.
The mot de semestre, or
semi-annual word, is used only ii France.
Every six months a secret word is communicated by the Grand Orient to all the
Lodges under its jurisdiction. This custom was introduced October 28, 1773, during the Grand Mastership of the Duke of
Chartres, to enable him the better to control the Lodges, and to afford the members
a means whereby they could recognize the
members who were not constant in the^r
attendance, and also those Masons who
either belonged to an unrecognized Rite,
or who were not affiliated with any Lodge.
The Chapters of the higher degrees receive
a word annually from the Grand Orient
for the same purpose. This, with the password, is given to the Tiler on entering the

Semestre.

Temple.

Senatorial Chamber.

When

the

Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite meets in the thirty -third degree,
senatorial chamber.
found in some
of the high degrees, as in the thirty-second
of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, where
his duties are similar to those of a Warden
of a Lodge, he acting as the deputy of the
it is

said to meet in

Seneschal.

presiding

officer.

its

An

officer

The

title is

derived from

SERMONS

SENIOR

706
the old
servant.

German serine, house, and schalh, might kneel at what was

The seneschals in the Middle sepulchre of their Lord.

Ages were the lieutenants of the dukes

and other great feudatories, and took charge
of the castles of their masters during their
absence.
Senior Deacon. See Deacons.

Senior Entered Apprentice.

In

the ritual of the. early part of the last century the Senior and Junior Entered Apprentices acted in the place of the Deacons,
which offices were then unknown. The
Senior Entered Apprentice was placed in
the south, and his duty was " to hear and
receive instructions, and to Avelcome strange
Brethren." See Junior Entered Apprentice.
Senior Warden. The second officer
in a Symbolic Lodge.
He presides over
the Craft during the hours of labor, as the
Junior does during the hours of refreshment, and in the absence of the Master he
performs his duty. See Wardens.
Senses, Five. See Five Senses.
Sentinel. An officer in a Royal Arch
Chapter, in a Council of Knights of the
Red Cross, and in a Commandery of
Knights Templars, whose duties are similar to those of a Tiler in a Symbolic Lodge.
In some bodies the word Janitor has been
substituted for Sentinel, but the change is
hardly a good one. Janitor has been more
generally appropriated to the porter of a
collegiate institution, and has no old Masonic authority for its use.

Sephiroth.

(Hebrew, fttTSD-) I*
is a plural noun, the singular being Sephira. Buxtorf {Lex. Talm.) says the word
means numerations, from SAPHAR, to
number ; but the Kabbalistic writers genthe signification of splendors,
splendid.
The account of
the creation and arrangement of the Sephiroth forms the- most important portion of
the secret doctrine of the Kabbalists, and
has been adopted and referred to in many
of the high philosophic degrees of Masonry.
Some acquaintance with it, therefore,
seems to be necessary to the Mason who
desires to penetrate into the more abstruse
arcana of his Order. See Kabbala.
erally give

from

it

SAPHIRI,

Septenary.

believed to be the
In many of the
churches of the Middle Ages there was a
particular place near the altar called the
sepulchre, which was used at Easter for the
performance of solemn rites commemorative of the Saviour's resurrection.
This
custom still prevails in some of the
churches on the continent. In Templar
Masonry, which is professedly a Christian
system, the sepulchre forms a part of the
arrangements of a Commandery. In England, the sepulchre is within the Asylum,
and in front of the Eminent Commander.
In this country it is placed without; and
the scenic representation observed in every
well-regulated and properly arranged Commandery furnishes a most impressive and
pathetic ceremony.

Sepulchre, Knight of the Holy.

See Knight of the Holy Sepulchre.
Serapis, Mysteries of. See Egyptian Mysteries.

Sermons, Masonic. Sermons on

Masonic subjects, and delivered in churches
before Masonic bodies or on Masonic festivals, are peculiar to the British and American Freemasons. Neither the French nor
German, nor, indeed, any continental literature of Masonry, supplies us with any
examples. The first Masonic sermon of
which we have any knowledge, from its
publication, was "A General Charge to
Masons, delivered at Christ Church, in
Boston, [Massachusetts,] on the 27th of
December, 1749, by the Rev. Charles Brockwell, A. M., published at the request of the
Grand Officers and Brethren there." It
was, however, not printed at Boston, but
was first published in the Freemasons'
Pocket Companion for 1754. Brockwell was
chaplain of the English troops stationed
But in America, at least, the
at Boston.
custom of delivering sermons on St. John's
day prevailed many years before. In the
author's History of Freemasonry in South
Carolina, (pp. 15-20,) will be found the
authentic evidence that the Lodges in
Charleston attended divine service on De-

cember

and

for several years after,

occasions it is to be presumed that a sermon was preached. In
1742 it is distinctly stated, from a contemporary gazette, that "both Lodges proceeded regularly, with the ensigns of their
Order and music before them, to church,
where they 'heard a very learned sermon
from their brother, the Rev. Mr. Durand."
Brockwell's, however, is the first of these
early sermons which has had the good fortune to be embalmed in type. But though
first delivered, it was not the first printed.
In 1750, John Entick, afterwards the editor
of an edition of Anderson's " Constitutions,"
27, 1738,

The number seven, which on each of which

see.

Sepulchre. The spirit of gratitude

has from the earliest period led men to
venerate the tombs in which have been deposited the remains of their benefactors.
In all of the ancient religions there were
sacred tombs to which worship was paid.
The tombs of the prophets, preserved by
the Israelites, gave testimony to their reverence for the memory of these holy personages.
After the advent of Christianity, the
same sentiment of devotion led the pilgrims to visit the Holy Land, that they

SERPENT

SERPENT

delivered a sermon at Welbrook, England,

symbol of the universe. In China, the.

ring between two serpents was the symbol
of the world governed by the power and
wisdom of the Creator. The same device
is several times repeated on the Isiac table.
Higgins (AnacoL, i. 521,) says that, from
the faculty which the serpent possessed of
renewing itself, without the process of generation as to outward appearance, by annually casting its skin, it became, like the
Phoenix, the emblem of eternity; but he
denies that it ever represented, even in

"The Free and Accepted Mason

Described." The text on this occasion was

entitled,

from Acts

xxviii. 22,

and had some

signifi-

cance in reference to the popular ch aracter of

the Order. " But we desire to hear of thee
what thou thinkest for as concerning this
sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken
Entick preached several other
against."
sermons, which were printed. From that
time, both in England and America, the
sermon became a very usual part of the
public celebration of a Masonic festival.
One preached at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in
1775, is in its very title a sermon of itself:
" The Basis of Freemasonry displayed or,
an Attempt to show that the general Principles of true Religion, genuine Virtue,
and sound Morality are the noble Founda;

tions on which this renowned Society is

established: Being a Sermon preached in
Newcastle, on the Festival of St. John the
Evangelist, 1775, by Bro. Robert Green."
In 1799, the Rev. Jethro Inwood published a volume of "Sermons, in which are
expressed and enforced the religious, moral,
and political virtuesV of Freemasonry,
preached upon several occasions before

the Provincial Grand Officers and other

Brethren in the Counties of Kent, Essex,
etc."
In 1849 Spencer published an edition of this work, enriched by the valuable
In 1801 the Rev.
notes of Dr. Oliver.
Thaddeus Mason Harris, Grand Chaplain
of the Grand Lodge and Grand Chapter of
Massachusetts, published at Charlestown,
Massachusetts, a volume of " Discourses
delivered on Public Occasions, illustrating
the Principles, displaying the Tendency,
and vindicating the Design of Freemasonry." This work has also been annotated in a new edition by Dr. Oliver, and
republished in his Golden Remains of Early
Masonic Writers. During this century there
has been an abundance of single sermons
preached and published, but no other collected volume of any by one and the same
author has been given to the public since
those of Dr. Harris. Yet the fact that
annually in Great Britain and America
hundreds of sermons in praise or in defence of Freemasonry are delivered from
Christian pulpits, is a valuable testimony
given by the clergy to the purity of the
Institution.

Serpent. As a symbol, the serpent

obtained a prominent place in all the ancient initiations and religions.
Among the
Egyptians it was the symbol of Divine
Wisdom when extended at length, and the
serpent with his tail in his mouth was an
emblem of eternity. The winged globe and
serpent symbolized their triune deity. In
the ritual of Zoroaster, the serpent was a

707

Genesis, the evil principle. Faber's theory of the symbolism of the serpent, as set
forth in his work on the Origin of Pagan
Idolatry, is ingenious.
He says that the
ancients in part derived their idea of the
serpent from the first tempter, and hence
it was a hieroglyphic of the evil principle.
But as the deluge was thought to have
emanated from the evil principle, the serpent became a symbol of the deluge. He
also represented the good principle; the
idea being borrowed from the winged seraphim which was blended with the cherubim who guarded the tree of life,
the

seraphim and cherubim being sometimes

considered as identical
and besides, in
Hebrew, *ptP means both a seraph and a
serpent.
But as the good principle was
always male and female, the male serpent
represented the Great Father, Adam or
Noah, and the female serpent represented
the ark or world, the microcosm and the
macrocosm. Hence the serpent represented
the perpetually renovated world, and as
such was used in- all the mysteries. Dr.
;

Oliver brings his peculiar views to the inand says that in Christian
Masonry the serpent is an emblem of the
fall and the subsequent redemption of man.
In Ancient Craft Masonry, however, the
serpent does not occur as* a symbol. In
the Templar and in the Philosophic degrees,
such as the Knight of the Brazen
Serpent, where the serpent is combined
with the cross,
it is evidently a symbol
of Christ and thus the symbolism of these
degrees is closely connected with that of the
Rose Croix.
symbol used
Serpent
Cross,
in the degrees of Knight Templar and
Knight of the Brazen Serpent. The cross
is a tau cross T, and the serpent is twined
around. Its origin is found in Numbers
xxi. 9, where it is said, " Moses made a
serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole."
The word jD, Nes, here translated "a pole,"
literally means a standard, or something
elevated on high as a signal, and may be
represented by a cross as well as by a pole.
Indeed, Justin Martyr calls it a cross.
terpretation,

and

Serpent, Knight of the Brazen.

See Knight of the Brazen Serpent.

SERPENT

SEVEN

Serpent Worship. In ancient times,

the serpent was an object of adoration in
almost all nations. It was, in fact, one of
the earliest deviations from the true system,
and in almost all the ancient rites we find
some allusion to the serpent. It was worshipped in India, Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylonia, Greece, and Italy. Indeed, so widely was
this worship distributed, presenting everywhere so many similar features, that it is
not surprising that it has been regarded by
some writers as the primitive religion of
man. And so long did it continue, that
in the sect of Ophites it became one of the
In some
earliest heresies of the church.
nations, as the Egyptians, the serpent was
the representative of the good principle
but in most of them it was the emblem of
the evil principle.

various services inside or outside of the

Order.
Many rich and well-born men
belonged to this class. They were permitted to take part in the election of a Grand
Master. The treasurer of the Order was
always*a serving brother. Of these serving
brothers there were two kinds
servants at
arms and artificers. The former were the
most highly esteemed the latter being considered a very inferior class, except the
armorers, who were held, on account of the
importance of their occupation, in higher
estimation.
Seth. It is a theory of some Masonic
writers that the principles of the Pure or
Primitive Freemasonry were preserved in
the race of Seth, which had always kept
separate from that of Cain, but that after
the flood they became corrupted by a secession of a portion of the Sethites, who
established the Spurious Freemasonry of
the Gentiles. This theory has been very
extensively advanced by Dr. Oliver in all
The pillars erected by Seth to
his works.
preserve the principles of the arts and
But
sciences are mentioned by Josephus.
although the Old Constitutions speak of
Seth, they ascribe the erection of these
But in
pillars to the children of Lamech.
the high degrees of Masonry the erection
See Enoch.
is attributed to Enoch.
Sethos. In 1731, the Abbe Terrasson
published at Paris a work entitled Sethos

708
.

Serving Brethren.

Masons whose

to serve the Lodge as Tilers,

waiters at the Lodge table, and to perform
other menial services, are called in Euro-

duty

it

is

pean Lodges "serving brethren."

They

are not known in this country, but were

long recognized as a distinct class in England and on the continent. In 1753 the
Grand Lodge of England adopted a regulation for their initiation, which, slightly
modified, is still in force. By it every

Lodge

is empowered to initiate without

charge "serving brethren," who cannot,
however, become members of the Lodge,
although they may join another. In military Lodges private soldiers may be .received as serving brethren. On the continent, at one time, a separate and preliminary form of reception, with peculiar signs,
etc., was appropriated to those who were
initiated as serving brethren, and they
were not permitted to advance beyond the
first degree; which, however, worked no
inconvenience, as all the business and
refreshment of the Lodges were done at
that time in the Entered Apprentice's
degree.
The regulation for admitting serving brethren arose from the custom of
Lodges meeting at taverns and as at that
period labor and refreshment were intermixed, the waiters for the tavern were
sometimes required to enter the room while
the Lodge was in session, and hence it
became necessary to qualify them for such
service by making them Masons.
In
France they are called Frlres Servants; in
Germany, Dienenden Briider.
The Knights Templars had a class called
serving brothers, who were not, however,
introduced into the Order until it had
greatly increased in wealth and numbers.
The form of their reception varied very
slightly from that of the Knights; but their
habit was different, being black.
They
were designated for the performance of
'

ou vie tiree des monumens anecdotes

de Vancienne Egypte. It has passed through
a great many editions and been translated
Under the
into German and English.
form of fiction it contains an admirable
description of the initiation into the ancient
Egyptian mysteries. The labors and researches of Terrasson have been very freely
used by Lenoir, Clavel, Oliver, and other
writers on the ancient initiations.
histoire

Setting Sun. It was the duty of the

Warden to pay and dismiss the
Craft at the close of day, when the sun
sinks in the West; so now the Senior WarSenior

den

is said in the
setting sun.

Seven.

Lodge

to represent the

In every system of antiquity

a frequent reference to this number, showing that the veneration for it proceeded from some common cause. It is
equally a sacred number in the Gentile as
Oliver says that
in the Christian religion.
this can scarcely be ascribed to any event,
except it be the institution of the Sabbath.
Higgins thinks that the peculiar circumstance, perhaps accidental, of the number
of'the days of the week coinciding exactly
with the number of the planetary bodies
probably procured for it its character of
sanctity.
The Pythagoreans called it a
perfect number, because it was made up of
there

is

SEVEN

SHAMIR

3 and 4, the triangle and the square, which

are the two perfect figures. They called it
also a virgin number, and without mother,
comparing it to Minerva, who was a motherless virgin, because it cannot by multiplication produce any number within ten,
as twice two does four, and three times
three does nine nor can any two numbers,

perfect but the only explanation that I

can find in any of those rituals of the sacredness of the number is the seven liberal
arts and sciences, which, according to the
old " Legend of the Craft," were the foundation of Masonry. In modern ritualism the
symbolism of seven has been transferred
from the first to the second degree, and
there it is made to refer only to the seven
steps of the Winding Stairs
but the symbolic seven is to be found diffused in a
hundred ways over the whole Masonic system.
Seven Stars. In the Tracing-Board
of the seventeenth degree, or Knight of the
East and West, is the representation of a
man clothed in a white robe, with a golden

their multiplication, produce it.

It is singular to observe the important
part occupied by the number seven in all
the ancient systems. There were, for instance, seven ancient planets, seven Pleiades,
and seven Hyades seven altars burned continually before the god Mithras; the Arabians had seven holy temples the Hindus
supposed the world to be enclosed within
the compass of seven peninsulas; the Goths
had seven deities, viz., the Sun, the Moon,
Tuisco, Woden, Thor, Friga, and Seatur,

by

from whose names are derived our days of

the week; in the Persian mysteries were
seven spacious caverns, through which the
aspirant had to pass in the Gothic mysteries, the candidate met with seven obstructions, which were called the "road of the
seven stages " and, finally, sacrifices were
always considered as most efficacious when
the victims were seven in number.
Much of the Jewish ritual was governed
by this number, and the etymology of the
word shows its sacred import, for the radical
meaning of V^2&, shabang, is, says Park;

hurst, sufficiency or fulness.

The Hebrew
idea, therefore, like the Pythagorean, is that
of perfection. To both the seven was a perfect number. Again
t^fc^, means to swear,
because oaths were confirmed either by
seven witnesses, or by seven victims offered
in sacrifice, as we read in the covenant of
Abraham and Abimelech. (Gen. xxi. 28.)
Hence, there is a frequent recurrence to this
number in the scriptural history. The Sabbath was the seventh day ; Noah received
seven days' notice of the commencement of
:

the deluge, and was commanded to select

clean beasts and fowls by sevens ; seven persons accompanied him into the ark; the
ark rested on Mount Ararat in the seventh
month the intervals between despatching
the dove were, each time, seven days the
walls of Jericho were encompassed seven
days by seven priests, bearing seven rams'
horns
Solomon was seven years building
the Temple, which was dedicated in the
seventh month, and the festival lasted seven
days
the candlestick in the tabernacle
consisted of seven branches; and, finally, the
tower of Babel was said to have been elevated seven stories before the dispersion.
Seven is a sacred number in Masonic
symbolism. It has always been so. In the
earliest rituals of the last century it was
said that a Lodge required seven to make
;

it

709

girdle round his waist, his right hand extended, and surrounded with seven stars.
The seventeenth is an apocalyptic degree,
and this symbol is taken from the passage in
Eevelation i. 16, " and he had in his right

hand seven

stars."

It is a

symbol of the

seven churches of Asia.

Seventy Years of Captivity.

This period must be computed from the
defeat of the Egyptians at Carchemish, in
the same year that the prophecy was given,
when Nebuchadnezzar reduced the neighboring nations of Syria and Palestine, as
well as Jerusalem, under his subjection.
At the end of seventy years, on the accession of Cyrus, an end was put to the Babylonish monarchy.

Shaddai.

One of the names of God.

Exodus vi. 13, the word translated
God Almighty is, in the original, Shaddai,
*1d it is therefore the name by which he
was known to the Israelites before he com-

In

municated to Moses the Tetragrammaton.

is a pluralis majestatis, and signi-

The word
fies

all-powerful, omnipotent.

Shamir. King

Solomon is said, in a
rabbinical legend, to have used the worm
Shamir as an instrument for building the
Temple. The legend is that Moses engraved the names of the twelve tribes on
the stones of the breastplate by means of
the blood of the worm shamir, whose solvent power was so great that it could corrode the hardest substances. When Solomon was about to build the Temple of
stones without the use of any metallic implement, he was desirous of obtaining this
but the knowledge of the
potent blood
source whence Moses had derived it had
been lost by the lapse of time. Solomon
enclosed the chick of a bird, either an ostrich or a hoopoe, in a crystal vessel, and
placed a sentinel to watch it. The parent
bird, finding it impossible to break the
vessel with her bill so as to gain access to
the young one, flew to the desert, and returned with the miraculous worm, which,
;

SHEM

SHARP

710

by means of its blood, soon penetrated the

prison of glass, and liberated the chick.

By a repetition of the process, the King of

Israel at length acquired a sufficiency of
the dissolving blood to enable him to work
upon the stones of the Temple.
It is supposed that the legend is based on
a corruption of the word Smiris, the Greek
for emery, which was used by the antique
engravers in their works and medallions,

Maccabeus, issued about the year 144 B. c.

these, we generally find on the obverse
the sacred pot of manna, with the inscription, " Shekel Israel," in the old Samaritan
character on the reverse, the rod of Aaron,

Of

and that the name Shamir is merely the

Hebrew form of the Greek word.
Sharp Instrument. The emblema " sharp instrument," as indicated in the ritual of the first degree, is intended to be represented by a warlike
weapon, (the old rituals call it "a warlike
instrument,") such as a dagger or sword.
The use of the point of a pair of compasses,
as is sometimes improperly done, is an erroneous application of the symbol, which
should not be tolerated in a properly conatic use of

ducted Lodge. The compasses are, besides,

a symbol peculiar to the third degree.
Sinistra*. The sacred book of the
Hindus, which contains the dogmas of their
religion and the ceremonies of their worIt is a commentary on the Vedas,
ship.
and consists of three parts the moral law,
the rites and ceremonies of the religion, and
the distribution of the people into tribes.
To the Hindu Mason it would be the
Greater Light and his Book of the Law, as
the Bible is to his Christian brother.
Slieba, Queen of. In the Books of
Kings and Chronicles we are told that
"when the Queen of Sheba heard of the
fame of Solomon concerning the name of
the Lord, she came to prove him with hard
questions." Sheba, or Saba, is supposed to
have been a province of Arabia Felix, situated to the south of Jerusalem. The
queen, whose visit is thus described, is
spoken of nowhere else in Scripture. But
the Jews and the Arabs, who gave her the
name of Balkis, recite many traditions conThe Masonic one will be
cerning her.
found under the words Admiration, Sign of,
:

which

see.

Shekel.

In the fourth or Mark Mas-

that the value of a

mark' is "a Jewish half-shekel of silver, or
twenty-five cents in the currency of this
country."
The shekel of silver was a
weight of great antiquity among the Jews,
its value being about a half-dollar.
In the
time of Solomon, as well as long before and
long after, until the Babylonish exile, the
Hebrews had no regularly stamped money,
but generally used in traffic a currency
which consisted of uncoined shekels, which
they weighed out to one another. The
earliest specimens of the coined shekel
which we know are of the coinage of Simon

ter's degree, it is said

having three buds, with the inscription,

" Ierushalem Kadoshah," or Jerusalem the
Holy, in a similar character.
Shekinah. Heb.,
derived
from SHAKAN, to dwel]/ A term applied
by the Jews, especially in the Targums, to
the divine glory which dwelt in the tabernacle and the Temple,, and which was

HTD^

manifested by a visible cloud resting over

the mercy- seat in the Holy of Holies. It
first appeared over the ark when Moses
consecrated the tabernacle and was afterwards, upon the consecration of the Temple by Solomon, translated thither, where
it remained until the destruction of that
;

building.

The Shekinah disappeared after the destruction of the first Temple, and was not
present in the second. Mr. Christie, in his
learned treatise on the Worship of the Elements, says that " the loss of the Shekinah,
that visible sign of the presence of the
Deity, induced an early respect for solar
light as its substitute."
there is much
that is significative of Masonic history in
The sun still remains
this brief sentence.
as a prominent symbol in the Masonic

Now

system. It has been derived by the Masons

from those old sun worshippers. But the
idea of Masonic light is very different from
The Shekinah
their idea of solar light.
was the symbol of the divine glory but
the true glory of divinity is Truth, and
Divine Truth is therefore the Shekinah of
;

This is symbolized by light,

Masonry.
which is no longer used by us as a " substitute " for the Shekinah, or the divine glory,
the physical expression
but as its symbol

of

its

essence.

Sheni.

Dt^-

The Name.

The Jews
God

in their sacred rites often designated

by the word Name, but they applied it only

to him in his most exalted character as expressed by the Tetragrammaton, JEHOVAH. To none of the other titles of God,
such as El, Eheyeh, or Adonai, do they apply the word. Thus, Shemchah Kadosh,
Thy name is holy, means Thy name Jehovah is holy. To the Name thus exalted, in

SHEM

SHIELD

its reference to the Tetragrammaton, they

applied many epithets, among which are
the following used by the Talmudists,
V31X hw DW, Shem shal arbang, the name of
four, i. e., four letters IDIOT OK', Shem hamjuJcad, the appropriated name, i. e., appropriately solely to God.
bMi'n DS?, Shem
haggadol, the great name, and &yi"pn DIP,
Shem hakkadosh, the holy name. To the Jew,
as to the Mason, this great and holy name
was the symbol of all divine truth. The
Name was the true name, and therefore it
symbolized and represented the true God.
Shem. Haiti. Japheth. The three
sous of Noah, who assisted him in the construction of the ark of safety, and hence
they became significant words in the Royal
Arch degree according to the American
system. The interpolation of Adoniram in
the place of one of these names, which is
sometimes met with, is a blunder of some
modern, ignorant ritual maker.
Hamphoraseh. Kniflnn UV,
the separated name.
The Tetragrammaton is so called because, as Maimonides
[More Nevoch.) says, all the names of God
are derived from his works except the
Tetragrammaton, which is called the separated name, because it is derived from the
substance of the Creator, in which there is
no participation of any other thing. That
is to say, this name indicates the self-existent essence of God, which is something altogether within himself, and separate from
his works.
Sheriff. According to Preston, the
sheriff of a county possessed, before the
revival of 1717, a power now confined to
Grand Masters. He says (Illust, p. 182,)
that "A sufficient number of Masons met
together within a certain district, with the
consent of the Sheriff or chief magistrate of
the place, were empowered, at this time, to
make Masons, and practise the rites of Masonry without a Warrant of Constitution."
This is confirmed by the following passage
in the Cooke MS., (Lines 901-912 ) " When
the masters and fellows be forewarned, and
are come to such congregations, if need be,
the Sheriff of the Country, or the Mayor of
the City, or Aldermen of the Town in which
such Congregation is holden, shall be fellow
and sociate to the master of the congregation in help of him against rebels and [for
the] upbearing the right of the realm."
Shetharboznai. See Tatnai.
The twelve loaves
Shewbread.
which were placed upon a table in the
sanctuary of the Temple, and which were
called the shewbread or bread of the presence, are represented among the paraphernalia of a Lodge of Perfection in the
Ancient and Accepted Rite. B'ahr {Symbolik) says that the shewbread was a

of the etersymbol of the bread of life

nal life by which we are brought into the
presence of God and know him an inter-

Shem

711

pretation that

is

equally applicable to the

Masonic symbolism.

Shibboleth. (Heb.nSm) The word

which the Gileadites under Jephthah made
use of as a test at the passages of the river
after a victory over the Ephraimites.
The word has two meanings in Hebrew:
and, 2dly, a stream
1st, an ear of corn
of water. As the Ephraimites were desirous of crossing the river, it is probable
that this second meaning suggested it to
the Gileadites as an appropriate test word
en the occasion. The proper sound of the
first letter of this word is sh, a harsh breathing which is exceedingly difficult to be pronounced by persons whose vocal organs

Jordan

have not been accustomed to it. Such was

the case with the Ephraimites, who substituted for the aspiration the hissing sound
of s. Their organs of voice were incapable of the aspiration, and therefore, as the
record has it, they "could not frame to
pronounce it right." The learned Burder
remarks (Orient. Oust., ii. 782,) that in
Arabia the difference of pronunciation

among persons of various districts is much

greater than in most other places, and such
as easily accounts for the circumstance mentioned in the passage of Judges. Hutchinson, (Sp. of Mas., p. 113,) speaking of this
word, rather fancifully derives it from the
Greek crcjSw, i" revere, and Itdog, a stone, and,
therefore, he says " 2i[3o?u0ov, Sibbolithon,
Colo Lapidem, implies that they (the Ma-

sons) retain and keep inviolate their obligations, as the Juramentum per Jovem La-

pidem, the most obligatory oath held among

the heathen."
It may be remarked that in the ritual
of the Fellow Craft's degree, where the
story of the Ephraimites is introduced, and
where Shibboleth is symbolically interpreted as meaning plenty, the word water ford is
sometimes used incorrectly, instead of waShibboleth means a flood of water,
terfall.
a rapid stream, not a, ford. In Psalm lxix.
3 the word is used in this exact sense.
'JnSCOty phy&, Shibboleth shefafatni, the flood
has overwhelmed me. And, besides, a waterfall is an emblem of plenty, because it
indicates an abundance of water; while a
water ford, for the converse reason, is, if
any symbol at all, a symbol of scarcity.
Shield. The shape of the shield worn
by the knight in the Middle Ages varied
according to the caprice of the wearer, but
generally it was large at the top and gradually diminished to a point, being made of
wood and covered with leather, and on the
outside was seen the escutcheon or representation of the armorial bearings of the

SHIELD

SHOCK

owner. The shield, with all the other parts

of the armor worn by the knights except
the gauntlets, has been discontinued by the
modern Masonic knights. Oliver thinks
that in some of the military initiations, as
in those of the Scandinavian mysteries,
the shield was substituted for the apron.
An old heraldic writer quoted by SloaneEvans, ( Gram. Brit. Her., 153,) thus gives
the symbolic import of the shield " Like
as the shield served in the battle for a
safeguard of the body of soldiers against
wounds, even so in time of peace, the same
being hanged up, did defend the owner
against the malevolent detractions of the
envious."

K7JX, Agla, which was compounded of

the initials of the words of the sentence,
1
'JIN thy ) "OJ nnx, Atah Gibor Lolam Adonai, " Thou are strong in the eternal God."
Thus constructed, the shield of David was
supposed to be a preservative against all
sorts of dangers.
striking of hands and feet,
Shock.
so as to produce a sudden noise.
There is
a ceremony called " the shock," which was
in use in the reception of an Apprentice in
the beginning of this century, and is still
used by some Lodges in what is called
" the Shock of Entrance," and by all in
" the Shock of Enlightenment."
Of the
first shock as well as of the second, I have
found evident traces in some of the earlier
rituals of the last century, and I have no
doubt that it was an ancient ceremony, the
gradual disuse of which is an innovation.

712

Shield of DaYid. Two

interlaced

more commonly known as the

Seal of Solomon, and considered by the
ancient Jews as a talisman of great effitriangles,

Because the
cacy.
(Bee- Seal of Solomon.)
shield was, in battle, a protection, like a
talisman, to the person, the Hebrews used
the same word, J.1D, Magen, to signify both
a shield and a talismen. Gaffarel says, in
his Curiositates Inauditce (Lond. Trans.,
1650, p. 133,) " The Hebrew word Maghen
signifies a scutcheon, or any other thing

noted with Hebrew characters, the virtue

whereof is like to that of a scutcheon."
After showing that the shield was never an
image, because the Mosaic law forbade the
making of graven images, he adds " Maghen, therefore, signifies properly any piece
of paper or other like matter marked or
noted with certain characters drawn from
the Tetragrammaton, or Great Name of
:

four letters, or from any other."

The most

Shock of Enlightenment.

ceremony used in all the degrees of Symbolic Masonry.

By it we seek to symbolize the idea

of the birth of material

by the representation of the circumstances that accompanied it, and their

light,

reference to the birth of intellectual or Masonic light. The one is the type of the
other; and hence the illumination of the

candidate is attended with a ceremony

that may be supposed to imitate the primal
illumination of the universe
most feebly,
it is true, and yet not altogether without
impressiveness.
The Shock of Enlightenment is, then, a
symbol of the change which is now taking
place in the intellectual condition of the
candidate. It is the symbol of the birth of
intellectual light and the dispersion of intel-

lectual darkness.

Shock of Entrance. A

ceremony

formerly used on the admission of an Entered Apprentice, but now partly becoming
obsolete.
In the old initiations, the same

word

signified to die and to be initiated, because, in the initiation, the lesson of death
and the resurrection to eternal life was the
dogma inculcated. In the initiation of an
Apprentice in Masonry the same lesson is
begun to be taught, and the initiate, entering upon a new life and new duties, disrupting old ties and forming new ones,
passes into a new birth. This is, or ought
to be, necessarily accompanied by some cere-

mony which should

symbolically represent

this great moral change. Hence the impression of this idea is made by the symbolism
of the shock at the entrance of the candidate.

usual form of the Shield of David was to

place in the centre of the two triangles, and
at the intersecting points, the Hebrew word

The shock or entrance is then the symbol of the disruption of the candidate from
the ties of the world, and his introduction
into the life of Masonry.
It is the symbol
of the agonies of the first death and of the
throes of the new birth.

SHOE

SIGHT

Shoe. Among the ancient Israelites,

the shoe was made use of in several significant ways. To put off the shoes, imported
reverence, and was done in the presence of
God, or on entering the dwelling of a superior.
To unloose one's shoe and give it to
another was the way of confirming a conThus we read in the book of Ruth,
tract.
that Boaz having proposed to the# nearest
kinsman of Ruth to exercise liis legal
right by redeeming the land of Naomi,

ings of the brethren or companions possessing them, informally and temporarily called
for the sole purpose of conferring them.
These temporary assemblies owe no allegiance to any supreme, controlling body,
except so far as they are composed of Master or Royal Arch Masons, and when the
business of conferring the degrees is accomplished, they are dissolved at once, not
to meet again, except under similar circumstances and for a similar purpose.
Some of them are conferred on Master Ma-

which was

offered for sale,

and marrying

her daughter-in-law, the kinsman, being unable to do so, resigned his right of purchase
to Boaz and the narrative goes on to say,
(Ruth iv. 7, 8,) " Now this was the manner
in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things a man plucked off his shoe,
and gave it to his neighbor and this was a
testimony in Israel. Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So

some on Royal Arch Masons, and some

only on Knights Templars. There is another class which females, connected by certain ties of relationship with the Fraternity, are permitted to receive and this fact,
in some measure, assimilates these degrees
to the Masonry of Adoption, or Female
sons,

Masonry, which is practised in France and

some other European countries, although

he drew

off his shoe."

The

reference to
the shoe in the first degree is therefore
really as a symbol of a covenant to be entered into.
In the third degree the symbolism is altogether different.
For an explanation of it, see Discalceation.
Shovel. An instrument used to remove rubbish. It is one of the workingtools of a Royal Arch Mason, and symbolically teaches him to remove the rubbish
of passions and prejudices, that he may be

there are important points of difference between them. These female side degrees
have received the name of " androgynous
degrees," from two Greek words signifying
man and woman, and are thus called to indicate the participation in them by both sexes.
The principal side degrees practised in
this country are as follows
1. Secret Monitor.
2. Knight of the Three Kings.
3. Knight of Constantinople.
:

when he thus

escapes from the captivity of sin, for the search and the reception of Eternal Truth and Wisdom.
Shrine. Oliver says that the shrine
is the place where the secrets of the Royal
Arch are deposited. The word is not so
used in this country, nor does it seem
properly applicable according to the legend
of the degree.
Side Degrees. There are certain
Masonic degrees, which, not being placed
in the regular routine of the acknowledged
degrees, are not recognized as a part of
Ancient Masonry, but receive the name of
" Honorary or Side Degrees."
They constitute no part of the regular ritual, and are
not under the control of either. Grand
Lodges, Grand Chapters, or any other of
the legal, administrative bodies of the Institution.
Although a few of them are
very old, the greater number are of a
comparatively modern origin, and are genfitted,

erally supposed to have been indebted for

their invention to the ingenuity of either
Grand Lecturers, or other distinguished
Masons. Their history and ceremonies are
often interesting, and so far as we have
been made acquainted with them, their
tendency, when they are properly conferred, is always moral.
They are not given
in Lodges or Chapters, but at private meet-

4P

713

4.

Mason's Wife and Daughter.

5.

Ark and Dove.

Mediterranean Pass.
Knight and Heroine of Jericho.
8. Good Samaritan.
9. Knight of the Mediterranean Pass.
Sight, Making Masons at. The
prerogative of the Grand Master to make
6.
7.

Masons at sight is described as the eighth

landmark of the Order. It is a technical
term, which may be defined to be the power
to initiate, pass, and raise candidates, by the
Grand Master, in a Lodge of emergency,
or, as it is called in the Book of Constitutions, " an occasional Lodge," specially
convened by him, and consisting of such
Master Masons as he may call together for
the Lodge ceasing to
that purpose only
;

exist as soon as the initiation, passing, or

raising has been accomplished, and the

brethren have been dismissed by the Grand

Master.
It is but right to say that this doctrine is
not universally received as established law
by the Craft. I do not think, however,
that it was ever disputed until within a
comparatively recent period. It is true
that Cole, (Freemas., lib. 51,) as far back as
1817, remarked that it was " a great stretch
of power, not recognized, or at least, he beBut
lieved, not practised in this country."
the qualifying phrases in this sentence.

SIGHT

714

clearly show that he was by no means certain that he was correct in denying the
recognition of the right. Cole, however,
would hardly be considered as competent
authority on a question of Masonic law, as

he was evidently unacquainted with the

Book of Constitutions, and does not quote or
refer to it throughout his voluminous work.
In that Book of Constitutions, however,
several instances are furnished of the exercise of this right by various Grand Masters.
In 1731, Lord Lovell being Grand Master,
he " formed an occasional Lodge at Houghton Hall, Sir Eobert Walpole's House in
Norfolk," and there made the Duke of
Lorraine, afterwards Emperor of Germany,

and the Duke of Newcastle, Master Masons.

I do not quote the case of the initiation,
passing, and raising of Frederick, Prince
of Wales, in 1737, which was done in " an
occasional Lodge," over which Dr. Desaguliers presided, because, as Desaguliers was
not the Grand Master, nor even, as has been
incorrectly stated by the New York Committee of Correspondence, Deputy Grand

SIGHT
initiated the Duke of Lorheld at the residence of Sir
Bobert Walpole, in Norfolk, while the
Grand Lodge always met in London. In
1766, the Grand Lodge held its communications at the Crown and Anchor, but the
occasional Lodge, which in the same year
conferred the degrees on the Duke of Gloucester, was convened at the Horn tavern.
In the following year, the Lodge which initiated the Duke of Cumberland was convened at the Thatched House tavern, the
Grand Lodge continuing to meet at the

Lodge which

raine was

Crown and Anchor.

But I think that a conclusive argument
a fortiori may be drawn from the dispensing power of the Grand Master, which has
never been denied.
No one ever has
doubted, or can doubt, the inherent right
of the Grand Master to constitute Lodges

by Dispensation, and in these Lodges, so

constituted, Masons may be legally entered,
passed, and raised. This is done every day.
Seven Master Masons applying to the
Grand Master, he grants them a DispensaMaster, but only a Past Grand Master, it tion, under authority of which they procannot be called a making at sight. He ceed to open and hold a Lodge, and to
most probably acted under the Dispensation make Masons. This Lodge is, however, adof the Grand Master, who at that time was mitted to be the mere creature of the
Grand Master, for it is in his power at any
the Earl of Darnley.
But in 1766, Lord Blaney, who was then time to revoke the Dispensation he had
Grand Master, convened " an occasional granted, and thus to dissolve the Lodge.
But if the Grand Master has the power
Lodge," and initiated, passed, and raised
the

Duke

of Gloucester.
in 1767, John Salter, the Deputy,
acting as Grand Master, convened

Again
then

"an occasional Lodge," and conferred the

three degrees on the Duke of Cumberland.
In 1787, the Prince of Wales was made
a Mason "at an occasional Lodge convened," says Preston, " for the purpose at
the Star and Garter, Pall Mall, over which
the Duke of Cumberland (Grand Master)
presided in person."
It has been said, however, by those who
deny the existence of this prerogative, that
these " occasional Lodges " were only special communications of the Grand Lodge,
and the " makings " are thus supposed to
have taken place under the authority of
that body, and not of the Grand Master.
The facts, however, do not sustain this
position.
Throughout the Book of Constitutions, other meetings, whether regular
or special, are distinctly recorded as meetings of the Grand Lodge while these " occasional Lodges " appear only to have been
convened by the Grand Master for the
purpose of making Masons. Besides, in
many instances the Lodge was held at a
different place from that of the Grand
Lodge, and the officers were not, with the
exception of the Grand Master, the officers
of the Grand Lodge.
Thus the occasional
;

thus to enable others to confer the degrees

and make Masons, by his individual authority out of his presence, are we not permitted to argue a fortiori that he has also
the right of congregating seven brethren
and causing a Mason to be made in his
sight ? Can he delegate a power to others
which he does not himself possess ? And
is
his calling together an "occasional
Lodge," and making, with the assistance
of the brethren thus assembled, a Mason
" at sight," that is to say, in his presence,
any thing more or less than the exercise
of his dispensing power for the establishment of a Lodge under dispensation, for a
temporary period and for a special purpose. The purpose having been effected,
and the Mason having been made, he revokes his Dispensation, and the Lodge is
If we assumed any other
dismissed.
ground than this, we should be compelled
to say that though the Grand Master
might authorize others to make Masons
when he was absent, he could not do it
himself when present. The form of the
expression "making Masons at sight" is
borrowed from Laurence Dermott, the
Grand Secretary of the Athol or Schismatic

Grand Lodge " making Masons in an occasional Lodge " is the phrase used by
Anderson and his subsequent editors. Der;

SIGN

SIGN

715

TrueAhim. Rez.,) commenting on the its members, and Masonry, in this respect,
of the old regulations, which must have followed the universal custom
prescribes that Fellow Crafts and Master of adopting such modes of recognition.
The Abbe Grandidier (JEssais Historiques
Masons cannot be made in a private Lodge
except by the Dispensation of the Grand et Topographiques, p. 422,) says that when
Master, says: "This is a very ancient Josse Dotzinger, as architect of the Catheregulation, but seldom put in practice, new dral of Strasburg, formed, in 1452, all the
Masons being generally made at private Master Masons in Germany into one body,
Lodges however, the Right Worshipful "he gave them a word and a particular
Grand Master has full power and authority sign by which they might recognize those
Marto make, or caused to be made, in his who were of their Confraternity."
worship's presence, Free and Accepted tene, who wrote a treatise on the ancient rites
Masons at sight, and such making is good. of the monks, (De Antiquis Monachorum ritiBut they cannot be made out of his wor- bus,) says that, at the Monastery of Hirship's presence without a written Dispen- schau, where many Masons were incorposation for that purpose.
Nor can his rated as lay brethren, one of the officers of
worship oblige any warranted Lodge to re- the monastery was called the Master of the
ceive the person so made, if the members Works and the Masons under him had a
should declare against him or them; but sign which he describes as " pugnam super
in such case the Right Worshipful Grand pugnam pone vicissim quasi simules conMaster may grant them a Warrant and structors marum " that is, they placed
alternately fist upon fist, as if imitating the
form them into a new Lodge."
But the fact that Dermott uses the phrase builders of walls. He also says, and other
mott,

thirteenth,

does not militate against the existence of

the prerogative, nor weaken the argument
in its favor.
For, in the first place, he is
not quoted as authority and secondly, it is
very possible that he did not invent the expression, but found it already existing as
a technical phrase generally used by the
Craft, although not to be found in the
Book of Constitutions.
The form there
used is " making Masons in an occasional
Lodge," which, as I have already said, is of
the same signification.
The mode of exercising the prerogative
;

this

is

The Grand Master summons

to

not less than six other

Masons, convenes a Lodge, and without
any previous probation, but on sight of the
candidate, confers the clegrees upon him,
after which he dissolves the Lodge and
dismisses the brethren.
Sign. Signs constitute that universal
language of which the commentator on the
Leland MS. says that "it is a thing rather
to be wished than hoped for."
It is evident, however, that such a substitute for a
universal language has always existed
his

assistance

among mankind. There are certain expressions of ideas which, by an implied

common consent, are familiar even to the

writers confirm the statement, that in the

Middle Ages the monks had a system of
signs by which they were enabled to recognize the members of their different orders.
Krause (Kunsturhunden, iv. 420,) thinks
that the Masons derived their custom of
having signs of recognition from this rule
of the old monks. But we can trace the
existence of signs to remote antiquity. In
the Ancient Mysteries, the initiates were always instructed in a sign.

Thus, when a wreath was presented to an

initiate of the mysteries of Mithras by another, instead of receiving it, he cast it upon
the ground, and this gesture of casting down
was accepted as a sign of recognition.
So, too, Apuleius (Metamorph.) describes
the action of one of the devotees of the mysteries of Isis, and says " He walked gently,
with a hesitating step, the ancle of the left
foot being slightly bent, in order, no doubt,
that he might afford me some sign by which
And in another
I might recognize him."
work (Apologia) he says " If any one happens to be present who has been initiated
into the same rites as myself, if he will give
me the sign, he shall then be at liberty to hear
what it is that I keep with so much care."
Plautus, too, alludes to this custom in
one of his plays (Miles Gloriosus, iv. 2,)
:

most barbarous tribes. An extension forward of the open hands will be understood when he says
at once by an Australian savage or an
" Cedo signum, si harune Baccharum est,"
American Indian as a gesture betokening
peace, while the idea of war or dislike
would be as readily conveyed to either of i. e., "Give me the sign, if you are one of
them by a repulsive gesture of the same these Bacchantes."
hands. These are not, however, what conSigns, in fact, belong to all secret assostitute the signs of Masonry.
ciations, and are no more peculiar to MaIt

is

evident that every secret society

must have some conventional mode of distinguishing strangers from those who are

sonry than is a system of initiation. The

forms differ, but the principle has always
existed.

;;

SIGNATURE

716

Signature.

SIGN

Every Mason

who

re-

ceives a certificate or diploma from a Grand

Lodge is required to affix his signature in

the margin, for a reason which is given under the words Ne Varietur, which see.
ring on which there is an
Signet.
impression of a device is called a signet.
They were far more common among the
ancients than they are among the moderns,
although they are still used by many perFormerly, as is the custom at this
sons.
day in the East, letters were never signed
by the persons who sent them and their
authenticity depended solely on the impression of the signets which were attached
So common was their use among
to them.
the ancients, that Clement of Alexandria,
while forbidding the Christians of the second century to deck their fingers with rings,
which would have been a mark of vanity,
makes an exception in favor of signet
must wear," he says, " but one
rings. "
ring, for the use of a signet all other rings
we must cast aside." Signets were originally engraved altogether upon stone; and
Pliny says that metal ones did not come
into use until the time of Claudius Csesar.
Signets are constantly alluded to in

We

Hebrews called them

and they appear to have
been used among them from an early period,
for we find that when Judah asks Tamar
what pledge he shall give her, she replies,
"Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy

Scripture.

The

r\)V^D>

Sabaoth,

brings it to the Grand Council is in search

of Divine Truth, and to give to him the
promise that he will by its power speedily
obtain his reward in the possession of that
for which he is seeking.
The Signet of
Truth is presented to the aspirant to assure
him that he is advancing in his progress to
the attainment of truth, and that he is thus
invested with the power to pursue the
search.

Signet of Zeruobabel. This is

used in the American ritual of the Royal
Arch degree. It refers to a passage of
Haggai, (ii. 23,) where God has promised
that he will make Zerubbabel his signet.
It has the same symbolic meaning as is
given to its synonym the "Signet of
Truth," because Zerubbabel, as the head of
the second Temple, was the symbol of the
searcher after truth. But something may
be said of the incorrect form in which it
is found in many Chapters.
At least from
the time when Cross presented an engraving of this signet in his Hieroglyphic
Chart, and perhaps from a much earlier
period, for he may possibly have only perpetuated the blunder, it has been represented in most Chapters by a triangular plate
of metal. Now, an unattached plate of
metal, in any shape whatsoever, is about
as correct a representation of a signet as a
walking-cane is of a piece of money. The
signet is and always has been a fingerring, and so it should

hand." (Gen. xxxviii.

be represented in the
finger, gencerem oni es ofthe Chapter. What the peculiar
erally the index finger, and always on the
device of this signet
right hand, as being the most honorable
for every signet
was,
thus in Jeremiah xxii. 24, we read: "As I
must have a device,
live, saith the Lord, though Coniah, the
son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the we are unable to show, but we may suppose
signet upon my right hand, yet would I that it was the Tetragrammaton, perhaps
pluck thee thence." The signets of the an- in its well-known abbreviated form of a
cients were generally sculptured with reli- yod within a triangle. Whether this was so
gious symbols or the heads of their deities. or not, such a device would be most approThe sphinx and the sacred beetle were fa- priate to the symbolism of the Royal Arch
vorite signets among the Egyptians. The ritual.
former was adopted from that people by the
Significant Word. Significant is
Roman Emperor Augustus. The Babylo- making a sign. A significant word is a
nians followed the same custom, and many sign-making word, or a word that is equivof their signets, remaining to this day, ex- alent to a sign so the secret words used in
hibit beautifully sculptured images of Baal- the different degrees of Masonry, and the
knowledge of which becomes a sign of the
Berith and other Chaldean deities.
The impression from the signet-ring of a possession of the degree, are called signifiking gave the authority of a royal decree cant words. Such a word Lenning calls
" ein bedeutendes Wort," which has the
to any document to which it was affixed
and hence the delivery or transfer of the same meaning.
signet to any one made him, for the time,
Sign of Distress. This is probably
the representative of the king, and gave one of the original modes of recognition
adopted at the revival period, if not before.
him the power of using the royal name.
Signet of Truth. The signet of It is to be found in the earliest rituals exZernbbabel, used in the ritual of the Royal tant of the last century, and its connection
Arch degree, is also there called the Signet with the legend of the third degree makes
of Truth, to indicate that the neophyte who it evident that it probably belongs to that
staff that is in thine

18.)

They were worn on the

'

SILENCE

SIROC

The Craft in the last century

degree.
called it sometimes "the Master's Clap,"
and sometimes " the Grand Sign," which

is meant the great artery which receives the blood from the left ventricle of
the heart, here designated as the cistern.
This collection of metaphors is a part of
the Scripture reading in the third degree,
and forms an appropriate introduction to
those sublime ceremonies whose object is
to teach symbolically the resurrection and
life eternal.

latter name has been adopted by the Masons of the present century, who call it the
" Grand Hailing Sign," to indicate its use
in hailing or calling a brother whose assistance may be needed. The true form of
the sign has unfortunately been changed
by carelessness or ignorance from the ancient one, which is still preserved in Great
Britain and on the continent of Europe.
It is impossible to be explicit but it may
be remarked, that looking to its traditional
origin, the sign is a defensive one, first
made in an hour of attack, to give protection to the person. This is perfectly represented by the European and English form,
but utterly misrepresented by the American. The German Rite of Schroeder attempted some years ago to induce the Craft
to transfer this sign from the third to the
;

degree.
As this would have been an
evident innovation, and would have contradicted the ritual history of its origin
and meaning, the attempt was not successfirst

ful.

Silence. See Secrecy and Silence.

Silver and Gold. When St. Peter
healed the lame man whom he met at the
gate Beautiful of the Temple, he said to
him, "Silver and gold have I none; but
such as I have give I thee " and he bestowed on him the gift of health. When
the pious pilgrim begged his way, through
all the perils of a distant journey, to kneel
at the Holy Sepulchre, in his passage
through poor and inhospitable regions, a
crust of bread and a draught of water were
often the only alms that he received. This
has been symbolized in the ritual of reception of a Knight Templar, and in it the
words of St. Peter have been preserved, to
be applied to the allegorical pilgrimage
there represented.
Silver Cord. In the beautiful and
affecting description of the body of man
suffering under the infirmities of old age
given in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes,
we find the expression " or ever the silver
cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken,
or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or
the wheel broken at the cistern then shall
the dust return to the earth as it was, and
the spirit shall return to God who gave it."
Dr. Clarke thus explains these beautiful
metaphors. The silver cord is the spinal
marrow; its loosening is the cessation of
all nervous sensibility
the golden bowl is
the brain, which is rendered unfit to perform its functions by the approach of death
the pitcher means the great vein which
carries the blood to the right ventricle of
the heart, here called the fountain; by the
;

717

wheel

mountain of Arabia between

Sinai.
the horns of the Red Sea. It is the place
where Moses received the Law from Jehovah, and where he was directed to construct
the tabernacle. Hence, says Lenning, the
Scottish Masons make Mt. Sinai a symbol
of truth. Of the high degrees, the twentythird and twenty-fourth of the Ancient and
Accepted Rite, or the Chief and the Prince
of the Tabernacle, refer in their rituals
to this mountain and the Tabernacle there
constructed.

Sintooism. The ancient religiou of

Japan, and founded on the worship of ancestors.
It acknowledges a Supreme Creator and many subordinate gods called
Kami, many of whom are the apotheoses
of emperors and great men. It believes in
the immortality of the soul, and in its ritual
which is
uses symbols, such as the mirror,

the symbol of an unsoiled life,

and lustrations symbolic of moral purification.
Like tHe early Grecian mythology, Sintooism has deified natural objects, such as the
sun, the air, earth, fire, water, lightning,
thunder, etc. It is a system much mixed
up with the philosophy of Confucius and

with myths and legends.

Sir. This is the distinctive title given
to the possessors of the degrees of Masonic
knighthood, and is borrowed from the heraldic usage. The word " knight " is sometimes interposed between the title and the
personal name, as, for example, "Sir Knight
John Smith." English knights are in the
habit of using the word frater, or brother,
sl
usage which to some extent is being
adopted in this country. English Knights
Templars have been led to the abandonment of the title Sir because legal enactments made the use of titles not granted

by the crown unlawful. But there is no

such law in this country. The addition of
Sir to the names of all Knights is accounted,
says Ashmole, " parcel of their style." The
use of

it is

Edward

I.,

as old, certainly, as the time of

and it is supposed to be a con-

traction of the old

Seigneur, or Lord.

French

Sire,

meaning

Siroc. "P"W- A significant word, formerly used in the Order of High Priesthood in this country. It signifies a shoelatchet, and refers to the declaration of
Abraham to Melchizedek, that of the goods
which had been captured he would "nc*

SISTER

718

SIX

take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet,"

that is, nothing even of the slightest value.
The introduction of this word into some of
the lower capitular degrees is a recent error
of ignorant ritualists.

to have."

I cannot for a

moment

admit,

on the authority of a mistranslation of a

single letter, by which an a was taken for
an e, thus changing ille into ilia, or he into
she, that the Masonic gild admitted women
Sister Lodges. Lodges are so called into a craft whose labors were to hew heavy
which are in the same Masonic jurisdic- stones and to ascend tall scaffolds. Such
tion, and owe obedience to the same Grand never could have been the case in OperaLodge.
tive Masonry.
There is, however, abundant evidence
Sisters by Adoption . In the Lodges
of the French Adoptive Eite this is the that in the other gilds, or livery companies
of England, women or sisters were admittitle by which, the female members are
designated. The female members of all ted to the freedom of the company. Herandrogynous degrees are sisters, as the male bert {Hist. Liv. Comp., xi. 83.) thinks that
the custom was borrowed, on the constitution
members are brethren.
Sisters of the Gild. The attempt of the Companies, by Edward III. from the
of a few writers to maintain that women ecclesiastical or religious gilds, which were
were admitted into the mediaeval confra- often composed of both sexes. But I do
ternities of Masons fails to be substantiated not think that there is any evidence that
The entire the usage was extended to the building
for want of sufficient proof.
corporations or Freemasons' gilds. A wospirit of the Old Constitutions indicates
that none but men, under the titles of man might be a female grocer or haber" brethren " and " fellows," were admitted dasher, but she could hardly perform the
and the first duties of a female builder.
into these Masonic gilds
code of charges adopted at the revival in
Situation of the Lodge. A Lodge
1717, declares that "the persons admitted is, or ought to be, always situated due east
members of a Lodge must be good and true and west, for reasons which are detailed in
men. ... no women, etc." The opinion the articles East and Orientation, which see.
that women were originally admitted into
Six Lights. The six lights of Symthe Masonic gild, as it is asserted that bolic Masonry are divided into the Greater
they were into some of the others, is based and Lesser Lights, (which see.)
In the
upon the fact that, in what is ca#ed the American system of the Eoyal Arch there
" York MS., No. 4," whose date as affixed is no symbol of the kind, but in the Eng;

is 1693, we find the following

Then one of the elders takeing the

to the roll

words

"

Booke, and that hee or shee that

is to be
shall lay their hands thereon,
and the charge shall be given." But in
the " Alnwick MS.," which is inserted as
a Preface to the Eecords of the Lodge at
Alnwick, beginning Sept. 29, 1701, and
which manuscript was therefore probably
At least contemporary with that of York, we
find the corresponding passage in the following words " Then shall one of the most
ancient of them all hold a book that he or
they may lay his or their hands upon the
Again, in the " Harleian
said Book," etc.
MS.," whose date is supposed to be 1650,
we meet with the regulation in Latin thus
" Tunc unus ex senioribus teneat librum et
This was no
ill! vel ille teneat librum."
doubt the original form of which the writer
of the York MS. gives a translation, and
either through ignorance or clerical carelessness, the "illi vel ille," instead of they
Beor he, has been translated he or she.
sides, the whole tenor of the charges in the
York MS. clearly shows that they were inwoman could
tended for men only.
scarcely have been required to swear that
she " would not take her fellow's wife in
villainy," nor make any one a Mason unless " he has his right limbs as a man ought

made mason

lish

system there are six lights

three lesser

and three greater placed in the form of

two interlaced triangles. The three lesser
represent the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and
Christian dispensations the three greater
the Creative, Preservative and Destructive
power of God. The four lesser triangles,
formed by the intersection of the two great
triangles, are emblematic of the four degrees
of Ancient Craft Masonry.
;

Six Periods.

The Grand

Architect's

Six Periods constituted a part of the old

Prestonian lecture in the Fellow Craft's
It referred to the six days of creadegree.
tion, the six periods being the six days. It
no longer forms a part of the lecture as
modified by Hemming in England, although Oliver devotes a chapter in his Historical Landmarks to this subject.
It was
most probably at one time taught in this
country before Webb modified and abridged
the Prestonian lectures, for Hardie gives
the "Six Periods" in full in his Monitor,
which was published in 1818. The Webb
lecture, now practised in this country, comprehends the whole subject of the Six
Periods, which make a closely printed page
in Brown's Master Key, in these few words
" In six days God created the heavens and
the earth, and rested upon the seventh day
the seventh, therefore, our ancient brethren
;

SKELETON

SLOANE

consecrated as a day of rest from their labors thereby enjoying frequent opportunities to contemplate the glorious works of
creation, and to adore their great Creator."
symbol of death. The
Skeleton.
ancient Egyptians often introduced a skeleton in their feasts to remind the revellers of
the transitory nature of their enjoyments,
and to teach them that in the midst of life we
are in death. As such an admonitory symbol, it is used in some of the high degrees.
Skirrit. In the English system the
skirrit is one of the working- tools of a

and the word most probably sprang up,

Master Mason. It is an implement which

on a centre-pin, whence a line is drawn,
chalked, and struck to mark out the ground
for the foundation of the intended strucacts

ture.

Symbolically,

it

points to us that

straight and undeviating line of conduct

laid down for our pursuits in the volume

of the Sacred Law. The skirrit is not used

American system.
Skull. The skull as a symbol is not
used in Masonry except in Masonic Ternplarism, where it is a symbol of mortality.
Among the articles of accusation sent by
the Pope to the bishops and papal commissaries upon which to examine the
Knights Templars, those from the fortysecond to the fifty -seventh refer to the human skull, " cranium humanum," which the
Templars were accused of using in their
in the

reception, and worshipping as an idol. It

is possible that the Old Templars made use
of the skull in their ceremony of reception; but Modern Templars will readily
acquit their predecessors of the crime of
idolatry, and find in their use of a skull a
symbolic design. See Bafomet.
Skull
Cross-bones. They are
a symbol of mortality and death, and are
so used by heralds in funeral achievements.
As the means of inciting the mind to the

and

contemplation of the most solemn subjects,

the skull and cross-bones are used in the

Chamber

of Reflection in the French and

Scottish Rites, and in all those degrees where
that Chamber constitutes a part of the preliminary ceremonies of initiation.
Slander. Inwood, in his sermon on
" Union Amongst Masons," says " To defame our brother, or suffer him to be defamed, without interesting ourselves for the
preservation of his name and character,
there is scarcely the shadow of an excuse to
be formed. Defamation is always wicked.
Slander and evil speaking are the pests of
civil society, are the disgrace of every degree of religious profession, are the poisonous bane of all brotherly love."
Slave. See Free Born.
Slip. This technical expression in
American Masonry, but mostly confined to
the Western States, and not generally used,
is of very recent origin
and both the action
:

719

with a few other innovations intended as

especial methods of precaution, about the
time of the anti-Masonic excitement.

Sloane Manuscripts. There are

three copies of the Old Constitutions which
bear this name. All of them were found in
the British Museum among the heterogeneous collection of papers which were once
the property of Sir Hans Sloane. The first,
which is known in the Museum as No.
3848, is one of the most complete of the
copies extant of the Old Constitutions. At
the end of it, the date is certified by the
following subscription " Finis p. me Eduardu Sankey decimo sexto die Octobris
Anno Domini 1646." It was published for
the first time, from an exact transcript of
the original, by Bro. Hugh an in his Old
Charges of the British Freemasons. The second Sloane MS. is known in the British
Museum as No. 3323. It is in a large folio
volume of* three hundred and twenty-eight
leaves, on the fly-leaf of which Sir Hans
Sloane has written, " Loose papers of mine
Concerning Curiosities." There are many
:

Manuscripts by different hands. The Masonic one is subscribed "Hoc scripta fuerunt p. me Thomam Martin, 1659," and
It consists of six leaves
this fixes the date.
of paper five inches by four, is written in

a small, neat hand, and endorsed " Free

Masonry." It was first published, in 1871,
by Bro. Hughan in his Masonic Sketches and
Reprints.
The Rev. Bro. A. F. A. Woodford thinks this an "indifferent copy of
the former one." I cannot agree with him.
entire omission of the " Legend of the
Craft" from the time of Lamech to the
building of the Temple, including the important " Legend of Euclid," all of which is
given in full in the MS. No. 3848, together
with a great, many verbal discrepancies,
and a total difference in the eighteenth
charge, lead me to suppose that the former
MS. never was seen, or at least copied, by
the writer of the latter. On the whole^ it
is, from this very omission, one of the least
valuable of the copies of the Old Constitu-

The

tions.

The third Sloane MS. is really one of the

most interesting and valuable of those that
have been heretofore discovered. A portion of it, a small portion, was inserted by
Findel in his History of Freemasonry ; but
the whole has been since published in the
Voice of Masonry, a periodical printed at
Chicago in 1872. The number of the MS.
in the British Museum is 3329, and Mr.
Hughan places its date at from 1640 to
1700 but he says that Messrs. Bond and
;

Sims, of the British Museum, agree in

stating that it is " probably of the beginning of the eighteenth century." But the
Rev. Mr. Woodford mentions a great an-

SMITH

SMITH

thority on MSS., who declares it to be "previous to the middle of the seventeenth century." Findel thinks it originated at the
end of the seventeenth century, and " that
it was found among the papers which Dr.
Plot left behind him on his death, and was
one of the sources whence his communicaIt is
tions on Freemasonry were derived."
not a copy of the Old Constitutions, in
which respect it differs from all the other
Manuscripts, but is a description of the
ritual of the society of Free Operative Masons at the period when it was written.
This it is that makes it so valuable a contribution to the history of Freemasonry,
and renders it so important that its precise
date should be fixed.

a regulation that "it was incompatible

with the laws of the society for any brother
to hold more than one office at the same
time." In 1783, Capt. Smith published a
work entitled The Use and Abuse of Freemasonry : a work of the greatest utility to the
Brethren of the Society, to Mankind in general, and to the Ladies in particular.
The
interest to the ladies consists in some
twenty pages, in which he gives the " Ancient and Modern reasons why the ladies
have never been admitted into the Society
of Freemasons," a section the omission of
which would scarcely have diminished the
value of the work or the reputation of the

720

Smith, George.

Captain

Smith was a Mason of some

George

distinction

during the latter part of the eighteenth

century. Although born in England, he
at an early age entered the military service of Prussia, being connected with noble
During his
families of that kingdom.
residence on the continent it appears that
he was initiated in one of the German
Lodges. On his return to England he was
appointed Inspector of the Royal Military

Academy

at Woolwich, and published, in

1779, a Universal Military Dictionary, and,
in 1783, a Bibliotheca Militaris.
He devoted much attention to Masonic
studies, and is said to have been a good
workman in the Royal Military Lodge at
Woolwich, of which he was for four
During his Mastership
years the Master.
the Lodge had, on one occasion, been
opened in the King's Bench prison, and
some persons who were confined there were
For this the Master and brethinitiated.
ren were censured, and the Grand Lodge
declared that " it is inconsistent with the
principles of Masonry for any Freemason's
Lodge to be held, for the purpose of making, passing, or raising Masons, in any
prison or place of confinement." Smith

was appointed by the Duke of Manchester,

in 1778, Provincial Grand Master of Kent,
and on that occasion delivered his Inaugural Charge before the Lodge of Friendship
at Dover.
He also drew up a code of laws
for the government of the province, which
was published in 1781. In 1780 he was appointed Junior Grand Warden of the Grand
Lodge; but objections having been made by
Heseltine,

whom and

the

Grand

Secretary, between

himself there was no very kind

feeling, on the ground that no one could
hold two offices in the Grand Lodge, Smith
resigned at the next quarterly communication.
As at the time of his appointment
there was really no law forbidding the
holding of two offices, its impropriety was
so manifest, that the Grand Lodge adopted

author.

The work of Smith would not at the

present day, in the advanced progress of
Masonic knowledge, enhance the reputation of its writer. But at the time when it
appeared, there was a great dearth of Masonic literature Anderson, Calcott, Hutchinson, and Preston being the only authors
of any repute that had as yet written on the
subject of Masonry. There was much historical information contained within its
pages, and some few suggestive thoughts
on the symbolism and philosophy of the
Order. To the Craft of that day the book
was therefore necessary and useful. Nothing, indeed, proves the necessity of such a
work more than the fact that the Grand
Lodge refused its sanction to the publication on the general ground of opposition

to

Masonic

p. 347,) in

literature.

Noorthouck,

commenting on the

{Const.,

refusal of a

sanction, says
"No particular objection being stated
against the above-mentioned work, the
natural conclusion is, that a sanction was
refused on the general principle that, considering the flourishing state of our Lodges,
where regular instruction and suitable exercises are ever ready for all brethren who
zealously aspire to improve in masonical
knowledge, new publications are unnecessary on a subject which books cannot teach.
Indeed, the temptations to authorship have
effected a strange revolution of sentiments
since the year 1720, when even ancient
manuscripts were destroyed, to prevent
their appearance in & printed Book of Constitutions
for the principal materials in
this very work, then so much dreaded,
have since been retailed in a variety of
forms, to give consequence to fanciful productions that might have been safely withheld, without sensible injury, either to the
Fraternity or to the literary reputation of
the writers."
To dispel such darkness almost any sort
of book should have been acceptable. The
work wr as published without the sanction,
and the Craft being wiser than their repre!

SMITTEN

SOFISM

sentatives in the Grand Lodge, the edition

was speedily exhausted.
Dr. Oliver {Rev. of a Sq., 146,) describes
Captain Smith as a man " plain in speech

gether for a special purpose. Such confraternities, under the name of Sodalitia,
were established in Rome, by Cato the Censor, for the mutual protection of the memAs their proceedings were secret,
bers.
they gave offence to the government, and
were suppressed, 80 b. c, by a decree of the
senate, but were afterwards restored by a
law of Clodius.
Sofism. The Sons were a mystical
sect which greatly prevailed in Eastern

and manners, but honorable and upright

in his dealings, and an active and zealous
Mason." It is probable that he died about
the end of the last or the beginning of the
present century.

Smitten Builder. The old

lectures

used to say: " The veil of the Temple

is

and we are raised

from the tomb of transgression." Hutchinson, and after him Oliver, apply the exrent, the builder is smitten,

pression, "The smitten builder," to the

crucified Saviour, and define it as a symbol
of his divine mediation but the general
interpretation of the symbol is, that it refers to death as the necessary precursor of
immortality. In this sense, the smitten
builder presents, like every other part of
the third degree, the symbolic instruction
of Eternal Life.
;

Snow, John. A

distinguished lec-

on Masonry, who was principally instrumental in introducing the system of

Webb, of whom he was a pupil, into the
Lodges of the Western States. He was
also a Grand Master of the Grand Lodge
of Ohio, and was the founder and first
Grand Commander of the first Grand Encampment of Knights Templars in the
same State. He was born in Providence,
Rhode Island, February 25, 1780 was initiated into Freemasonry in Mount Vernon
Lodge, of Providence, in 1809, and died
May 16, 1852, at Worthington, Ohio.
Snows. See Rains.
turer

Soeial Character of Freemasonry. Freemasonry attracts our attention as a great social institution.
Laying
aside for the time those artificial distinctions of rank and wealth, which, however,
are necessary in the world to the regular
progression of society, its members meet in
their Lodges on one common level of
brotherhood and equality.
There virtue
and talent alone claim and receive preeminence, and the great object of all is to
see who can best work and best agree.
There friendship and fraternal affection are
strenuously inculcated and assiduously cultivated, and that great mystic tie is established which peculiarly distinguishes the
society.
Hence is it that Washington has
declared that the benevolent purpose of
the Masonic institution is to enlarge the
sphere of social happiness, and its grand
object to promote the happiness of the

human race.
Socius. The

sixth degree of the Order

of Strict Observance.

Sodalities.

Societies

or companies

of friends or companions assembled to-

4Q

46

721

countries, and especially in Persia, whose

religious faith was supposed by most writers
to embody the secret doctrine of Mohammedanism. Sir John Malcolm [Hist. Pers.,
ch. xx.,) says that they have among them
great numbers of the wisest and ablest men
of Persia and the East, and since his time
the sect has greatly increased.

The name is most probably derived from

the Greek aoipia, wisdom; and Malcolm states
that they also bore the name of philosaufs,
in which we may readily detect the word
philosophers.
He says also " The Mo:

hammedan Sons have endeavored

to connect their mystic faith with the doctrine of

their prophet, who, they assert, was himself
an accomplished Sofi." The principal Sofi
writers are familiar with the opinions of

Aristotle and Plato, and their most important works abound with quotations from
the latter. Sir John Malcolm compares
the school of Sofism with that of Pythagoras.
It is evident that there is a great
similarity between Sofism and Gnosticism, and all the features of the Sofic
initiation remind us very forcibly of those
of the Masonic. The object of the system
is the attainment of Truth, and the novice
is invited " to embark on the sea of doubt,"
that is, to commence his investigations,
which are to end in its discovery.
There are four stages or degrees of initiation:

and the

the

first

is

merely preliminary,

initiate is required to observe the

ordinary rites and ceremonies of religion

for the sake of the vulgar, who do not understand their esoteric meaning. In the
second degree he is said to enter the pale

of Sofism, and exchanges these external

The third
for a spiritual worship.
degree is that of Wisdom, and he who
reaches it is supposed to have attained
supernatural knowledge, and to be equal
The fourth and last degree
to the angels.
rites

called Truth, for he has now reached it,

and has become completely united with
Deity. They have, says Malcolm, secrets
and mysteries in every stage or degree
which are never revealed to the profane,
and to reveal which would be a crime of
is

the deepest turpitude. The tenets of the

sect, so far as they are made known to the
world, are, according to Sir William Jones

SOFISM

SOLOMON

(Asiat Researches, ii. 62,) " that nothing

exists absolutely but God ; that the human
soul is an emanation of his essence, and,
though divided for a time from its heavenly
source, will be finally reunited with it;
that the highest possible happiness will
arise from its reunion ; and that the chief
good of mankind in this transitory world
consists in as perfect a union with the
Eternal Spirit as the incumbrances >f a
mortal frame will allow." It is evident
that an investigation of the true system of
these Eastern mysteries must be an interesting subject of inquiry to the student of
Freemasonry; for Higgins is hardly too
enthusiastic in supposing them to be the

So
God. The usual obsecration or imprecation affixed in modern
times to oaths, and meaning, " May God so
help me as I keep this vow."
Sojourner. See Principal Sojourner.

722

ancient Freemasons of Mohammedanism.

His views are thus expressed in the second
volume of his Anacalypsis, p. 301 a wonderful work
wonderful for the vast and
varied learning that it exhibits; but still
more so for the bold and strange theories
which, however untenable, are defended
with all the powers of a more than ordi-

Help Me

Soldiers of Christ.

Milites Christi

the title by which St. Bernard addressed

his exhortations to the Knights Templars.
They are also called in some of the old documents, "Militia Templi Salomonis" The
Chivalry of the Temple of Solomon; but
their ancient statutes were entitled "Regula
pauperum commilitonum Templi Salomonis"
The Eule of the poor fellow -soldiers of the
Temple of Solomon and this is the title by
which they are now most generally desigis

nated.

Solomon. In writing the life of King

Solomon from a Masonic point of view, it

circumstances," he says, " of the

gradation of ranks, the initiation, and the
head of the Order in Persia being called
Grand Master, raise a presumption that the
Sons were, in reality, the Order of Ma-

is impossible to omit a reference to the legends which have been preserved in the
Masonic system. But the writer, who, with
this preliminary notice, embodies them in
his sketch of the career of the wise king
of Israel, is by no means to be held responsible for a belief in their authenticity.
It
is the business of the Masonic biographer
to relate all that has been handed down by
tradition in connection with the life of
Solomon it will be the duty of the severer

sons."

critic to

nary
"

intellect.

The

seek to separate out of

all these

Without subscribing at once to the theory materials that which is historical from that
of Higgins, we may well be surprised at the which is merely mythical, and to assign to
coincidences existing between the customs the former all that is valuable as fact, and
and the dogmas of the Sons and those of to the latter all that is equally valuable as
the Freemasons, and we would naturally symbolism.
be curious to investigate the causes of the
close communication which existed at various times during the Crusades between
this Mohammedan sect of philosophers and
the Christian Order of Templars.
Mr. C. W. King, in his learned treatise
on the Gnostics, seems to entertain a similar idea of this connection between the

He says that,
as "these Softs were composed
exclusively of the learned amongst the Persians and Syrians, and learning at that
time meant little more than a proficiency
in medicine and astrology, the two points
that brought the Eastern sages into amicable contact with their barbarous invaders
from the West, it is easy to see how the
latter may have imbibed the secret doctrines simultaneously with the science of
those who were their instructors in all matters pertaining to science and art. The Son
doctrine involved the grand idea of one
universal creed, which could be secretly
held under any profession of an outward
faith and in fact took virtually the same
view of religious systems as that in which
the ancient philosophers had regarded such
matters."
Templars and the Sons.

"inasmuch

Solomon, the king of

Israel, the

son of

David and Bathsheba, ascended the throne

of his kingdom 3989 years after the creation
of the world, and 1015 years before the
Christian era. He was then only twenty
years of age, but the youthful monarch is
said to have commenced his reign with the
decision of a legal question of some difficulty, in which he exhibited the first promise of that wise judgment for which he was
ever afterwards distinguished.
One of the great objects of Solomon's life,
and the one which most intimately connects
him with the history of the Masonic institution, was the erection of a temple to Je-

hovah. This, too, had been a favorite design of his father David. For this purpose,
that monarch, long before his death, had
numbered the workmen whom he found in
his kingdom had appointed the overseers
of the work, the hewers of stones, and the
had prepared a great
bearers of burdens
quantity of brass, iron, and cedar ; and had
amassed an immense treasure with which
But on consultto support the enterprise.
ing with the prophet Nathan, he learned
from that holy man, that although the pious
intention was pleasing to God, yet that he
;

SOLOMON

SOLOMON

would not be permitted to carry it into execution, and the Divine prohibition was proclaimed in these emphatic words " Thou
hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made

and David, was disposed to extend the

friendship he had felt for the father to the
son, and replied, therefore, to the letter of
Solomon in the following epistle

great wars; thou shalt not build a house

unto my name, because thou hast shed
much blood upon the earth in my sight."
The task was, therefore, reserved for the
more peaceful Solomon, his son and successor.

Hence, when David was about to die, he

charged Solomon to build the Temple of
God as soon as he should have received the
kingdom. He also gave him directions in
relation to the construction of the edifice,
and put into his possession the money,
amounting to ten thousand talents of gold

and ten times that amount of silver, which

he had collected and laid aside for defraying the expense.

Solomon had scarcely ascended the

throne of Israel, when he prepared to
carry into execution the pious designs of
his predecessor.
For this purpose, however, he found it necessary to seek the assistance of Hiram, king of Tyre, the ancient friend and ally of his father.
The
Tyrians and Sidonians, the subjects of
Hiram, had long been distinguished for

" It

is fit

to bless

God

723

that he hath com-

mitted thy father's government to thee,

who art a wise man endowed with all
virtues.
As for myself, I rejoice at the
condition thou art in, and will be subservient to thee in all that thou sendest to me
about; for when, by my subjects, I have
cut down many and large trees of cedar and
cypress wood, I will send them to sea, and
will order my subjects to make floats of
them, and to sail to what places soever of
thy country thou shalt desire, and leave
them there, after which thy subjects may
carry them to Jerusalem. But do thou
take care to procure us corn for this timber,
which we stand in need of, because we inhabit in an island."
Hiram lost no time in fulfilling the
promise of assistance which he had thus
given and accordingly we are informed
that Solomon received thirty-three thousand six hundred workmen from Tyre, besides a sufficient quantity of timber and
stone to construct the edifice which he was
about to erect. Hiram sent him, also, a
:

their great architectural skill ; and, in fact,

many of them, as the members of a mystic
operative society, the fraternity of Dionysian artificers, had long monopolized the
profession of building in Asia Minor.
The
Jews, on the contrary, were rather more
eminent for their military valor than for
their knowledge of the arts of peace, and
hence King Solomon at once conceived the
necessity of invoking the aid of these
foreign architects, if he expected to complete the edifice he was about to erect,
either in a reasonable time or with the
splendour and magnificence appropriate to
the sacred object for which it was intended.
For this purpose he addressed the following letter to King Hiram :
" Know thou that
father would have
built a temple to God, but was hindered by
wars and continual expeditions, for he did
not leave off to overthrow his enemies till
he made them all subject to tribute. But
I give thanks to God for the peace I, at
present, enjoy, and on that account I am
at leisure, and design to build a house to
God, for God foretold to my father, that
such a house should be built by me ; wherefore I desire thee to send some of thy subjects with mine to Mount Lebanon, to cut
down timber, for the Sidonians a*re more
skilful than our people in cutting of wood.
As for wages to the hewers of wood, I will
pay whatever price thou shalt determine."

more important gift than either men or

materials, in the person of an able architect, " a curious and cunning workman,"

Hiram, mindful of the former amity and

had existed between himself

of the Order.
In short, the utmost perfection of human

my

alliance that

far

skill and experience were to be exercised in superintending the labors of the

craft, and in adorning and beautifying the
building.
Of this personage, whose name
was also Hiram, and who plays so important a part in the history of Freemasonry,
an account will be found in the article
Hiram Abif, to which the reader is referred.
King Solomon commenced the erection

whose

of the Temple on Monday, the second day

of the Hebrew month Zif, which answers
to the twenty-first of April, in the vear of
the world 2992, and 1012 years before the
Christian era. Advised in all the details,
as Masonic tradition informs us, by the
wise and prudent counsels of Hiram, king
of Tyre, and Hiram Abif, who, with himself, constituted at that time the three
Grand Masters of the Craft, Solomon made
every arrangement in the disposition and
government of the workmen, in the payment of their wages, and in the maintenance of concord and harmony which
should insure dispatch in the execution and
success in the result.
To Hiram Abif was intrusted the general superintendence of the building, while
subordinate stations were assigned to other

eminent artists, whose names and offices

have been handed down in the traditions

724

SOLOMON

SOLSTICES

wisdom was displayed by this enlightened of vanities all is vanity," he is supposed

monarch in the disposition of everything to have acknowledged that in his own exthat related to the construction of the stu- perience he had discovered that falsehood
pendous edifice. Men of the most compre- and sensuality, however they may give
hensive minds, imbued with the greatest pleasure for a season, will, in the end, produce
share of zeal and fervency, and inspired the bitter fruits of remorse and sorrow.
with the strongest fidelity to his interests,
That King Solomon was the wisest monwere employed as masters to instruct and arch that swayed the sceptre of Israel, has
superintend the workmen while those who been the unanimous opinion of posterity.
labored in inferior stations were excitad to So much was he beyond the age in which
enthusiasm by the promise of promotion he flourished, in the attainments of science,
that the Jewish and Arabic writers have
and reward.
The Temple was at length finished in the attributed to him a thorough knowledge of
month Bui, answering to our November, in the secrets of magic, by whose incantations
the year of the world 3000, being a little more they suppose him to have been capable of
than seven years from its commencement.
calling spirits and demons to his assistAs soon as the magnificent edifice was ance and the Talmudists and Mohammecompleted, and fit for the sacred purposes dan doctors record many fanciful legends
for which it was intended, King Solomon
of his exploits in controlling these minisdetermined to celebrate the consummation ters of darkness. As a naturalist, he is
of his labors in the most solemn manner. said to have written a work on animals of
For this purpose he directed the ark to be no ordinary character, which has however
brought from the king's house, where it had perished while his qualifications as a poet
been placed by King David, and to be de- were demonstrated by more than a thouEosited with impressive ceremonies in the sand poems which he composed, of which
oly of holies, beneath the expanded wings his epithalamium on his marriage with an
of the cherubim. This important event is Egyptian princess and the Book of Ecclesicommemorated in the beautiful ritual of astes alone remain. He has given us in his
the Most Excellent Master's degree.
Proverbs an opportunity of forming a faOur traditions inform us, that when the vorable opinion of his pretensions to the
Temple was completed, Solomon assembled character of a deep and right-thinking phiall the heads of the tribes, the elders and
losopher; while the long peace and prosperchiefs of Israel to bring the ark up out of
ous condition of his empire for the greater
Zion, where King David had deposited it portion of his reign, the increase of his
in a tabernacle until a more fitting place kingdom in wealth and refinement, and the
should have been built for its reception. encouragement which he gave to architecThis duty, therefore, the Levites now per- ture, the mechanic arts, and commerce,
formed, and delivered the ark of the cove- testify his profound abilities as a sovereign
nant into the hands of the priests, who and statesman.
fixed it in its place in the centre of the
After a reign of forty years he died, and
holy of holies.
with him expired forever the glory and the
Here the immediate and personal con- power of the Hebrew empire.
nection of King Solomon with the Craft
Solomon, House of. Lord Bacon
It is composed, in his New Atlantis, an apologue,
begins to draw to a conclusion.
true, that he subsequently employed those in which he describes the island of Bensathat is, island of the Sons of Peace,
worthy Masons, whom the traditions say, lem,
at the completion and dedication of the and on it an edifice called the house of SolTemple, he had received and acknowledged omon, where there was to be a confraternity
as Most Excellent Masters, in the erection of philosophers devoted to the acquisition
of a magnificent palace and other edifices, of knowledge. Nicolai thought that out
but in process of time he fell into the most of this subsequently arose the society of
grievous errors; abandoned the path of Freemasons, which was, he supposes, estabtruth; encouraged the idolatrous rites of lished by Elias Ashmole and his friends.
spurious Masonry; and, induced by the See Nicolai.
persuasions of those foreign wives and conSolomon, Temple of. See Temple
cubines whom he had espoused in his later of Solomon.
days, he erected a fane for the celebration
Solstices. The days on which the sun
of these heathen mysteries, on one of the reaches his greatest northern and southern
hills that overlooked the very spot where, declination, which are the 21st of June and
in his youth, he had consecrated a temple the 22d of December. Near these days
to the one true God. It is however believed are those in which the Christian Church
that before his death he deeply repented commemorates St. John the Baptist and
of this temporary aberration from virtue, St. John the Evangelist, who have been
and in the emphatic expression, " Vanity selected as the patron saints of Freema!

"

SONGS

SONGS

donry for reasons which are explained in

the article on the Dedication of a Lodge,

leave." In the second edition the number

was greatly increased, and songs were appropriated to the Deputy Grand Master,
the Secretary, the Treasurer, and other offiFor all this provision was made in
cers.
the Old Charges, so that there should be no
confusion between the hours of labor and

which

see.

Songs of Masonry.

The song
formed in early times a very striking feature in what may be called the domestic
manners of the Masonic institution. Nor
has the custom of festive entertainments
been yet abandoned. In the beginning of
the eighteenth century songs were deemed
of so much importance that they were
added to the Books of Constitutions in
Great Britaiu and on the continent, a custom which was followed in America, where
all our early Monitors contain an abundant
supply of lyrical poetry. In the Constitutions published in 1723 we find the wellknown Entered Apprentice's song, written
by Matthew Birkhead, which

still

retains

popularity among Masons, and has attained an elevation to which its intrinsic
merits as a lyrical composition would
hardly entitle it. Songs appear to have
been incorporated into the ceremonies of
the Order at the revival of Masonry in
1717. At that time, to use the language
of the venerable Oliver, " Labor and refreshment relieved each other like two loving brothers, and the gravity of the former
was rendered more engaging by the characteristic cheerfulness and jocund gayety
of the latter." In those days the word
" refreshment " had a practical meaning,
and the Lodge was often called from labor
that the brethren might indulge in innocent gayety, of which the song formed an
This was called harmony,
essential part.
and the brethren who were blessed with
talents for vocal music were often invited "to contribute to the harmony of the
Lodge." Thus, in the minute-book of a
Lodge at Lincoln, in England, in the year
1732, which is quoted by Dr. Oliver, the
records show that the Master usually " gave
an elegant charge, also went through an
examination, and the Lodge was closed
with song and decent merriment."
In
this custom of singing there was an established system.
Each officer was furnished
with a song appropriate to his office, and
each degree had a song for itself.
Thus, in the first edition of the Book
of Constitutions, we have the "Master's
Song," which, says Dr. Anderson, the author, is "to be sung with a chorus,
when
the Master shall give leave,
either one
part only or all together, as he pleases;
the "Warden's song," which was "to be
sung and played at the Quarterly Communication " the " Fellow Craft's song," which
was to be sung and played at the grand
feast
and, lastly, the " Entered 'Prentiss'
song," which was "to be sung when all
grave business is over, and with the Master's

its

725

refreshment; for while the brethren were

forbidden to behave "ludicrously or jestingly while the Lodge is engaged in what
is serious or solemn," they were permitted,
when work was over, " to enjoy themselves
with innocent mirth."
The custom of singing songs peculiarly
appropriate to the Craft at their Lodge
meetings, when the grave business was
over, was speedily introduced into France
and Germany, in which countries a large
number of Masonic songs were written and
adopted, to be sung by the German and
French Masons at their "Table Lodges,"
which corresponded to the " refreshment
of their English brethren. The lyrical literature of Masonry has, in consequence of
this custom, assumed no inconsiderable
magnitude as an evidence of which it may
be stated that Kloss, in his Bibliography of
Freemasonry, gives a catalogue
by no
means a perfect one
of tw o hundred and
thirteen Masonic song books published between the years 1734 and 1837, in the English, German, French, Danish, and Polish
;

The Masons of the present day have not

abandoned the usage of singing at their
festive meetings after the Lodge is closed;
but the old songs of Masonry are passing
into oblivion, and we seldom hear any of
them, except sometimes the never-to-beforgotten Apprentice's song of Matthew
Birkhead. Modern taste and culture reject the rude but hearty stanzas of the old
song-makers, and the more artistic and
pathetic productions of Mackay, and Cooke,
and Morris, and Dibdin, and Wesley, and
other writers of that class, are taking their
place.

Some

of these songs cannot be strictly

called Masonic, yet the covert allusions

here and there of their authors, whether
intentional or accidental, have caused them
to be adopted by the Craft and placed
among their minstrelsy. Thus the wellknown ballad of "Tubal Cain," by Charles
Mackay, always has an inspiring effect
when sung at a Lodge banquet, because of
the reference to this old worker in metals,
whom the Masons fondly consider as one
of the mythical founders of their Order;
although the song itself has in its words or
its ideas no connection whatever with Free-

masonry. Burns's " Auld Lang Syne " is

another production not strictly Masonic,
which has met with the universal favor of

SON

SOUL

the Craft, because the warm fraternal spirit

that it breathes is in every way Masonic,
and hence it has almost become a rule of
obligation that every festive party of Freemasons should close with the great Scotchman's invocation to part in love and kind-

Hiram the Builder, who was " a widow's

son, of the tribe of Naphtali."
By the ad-

726

ness.

But Robert Burns has also supplied the

Craft with several purely Masonic songs,
and his farewell to the brethren of Tarbolton Lodge, beginning,
" Adieu

a heart- warm, fond adieu,

Dear brothers of the mystic tie,"
!

often sung with pathetic effect at the

table Lodges of the Order.
As already observed, we have many productions of our Masonic poets which are
taking the place of the older and coarser
songs of our predecessors. It would be
tedious to name all who have successfully
invoked the Masonic muse. Masonic songs
that is to say, songs whose themes are
Masonic incidents, whose language refers to
the technical language of Freemasonry,
is

and whose spirit breathes its spirit and its

teachings
are now a well-settled part of
the literary curriculum of the Institution.
At first they were all festive in character
and often coarse in style, with little or no
pretension to poetic excellence. Now they
are festive, but refined or sacred, and used
on occasions of public solemnity or mythical, and constituting a part of the ceremonies of the different degrees. But they
all have a character of poetic art which is
far above the mediocrity so emphatically
condemned by Horace.
Son of a Mason. The son of a Mason is called a Louveteau, and is entitled
to certain privileges, for which see Louve-

teau.

Sons of Light. The science

of Free-

masonry often has received the title of

" Lux," or " Light," to indicate that mental and moral illumination is the object of
the Institution.
Hence Freemasons are
often called " Sons of Light."

Sons of the Prophets. We

re-

peatedly meet in the Old Testament with

references to the Beni Hanabiim, or sons
of the prophets. These were the disciples
of the prophets, or wise men of Israel, who
underwent a course of esoteric instruction
in the secret institutions of the Nabiim, or
prophets, just as the disciples of the Magi
did in Persia, or of Pythagoras in Greece.
" These sons of the prophets," says Stehelin, {Rabbinical Literature, i. 16*) "were
their disciples, brought up under their
tuition and care, and therefore their masters or instructors were called their fathers."

Sons of the Widow.

often given to

Freemasons

This

is

title

in allusion to

vocates of the theory that Freemasonry

originated with the exiled house of Stuart,

and was organized

as a secret institution
purpose of re-establishing that house
on the throne of Great Britain, the phrase
has been applied as if referring to the ad-

for the

herents of Queen Henrietta, the widow

of Charles the First.
college of theological
Sorbonne.
professors in Paris, who exercised a great
influence over religious opinion in France
during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and
greater part of the eighteenth centuries.
The bigotry and intolerance for which they
were remarkable made them the untiring
persecutors of Freemasonry. In the year
1748 they published a Letter and Consultation on the Society of Freemasons, in which
they declared that it was an illegal association, and that the meetings of its members
should be prohibited.
This was republished in 1764, at Paris, by the Freemasons,
with a reply, in the form of an appendix,
by De la Tierce, and again in 1766, at
Berlin, with another reply by a writer under the assumed name of Jarhetti.
Sorrow Lodge. It is the custom
among Masons on the continent of Europe

hold special Lodges at stated periods,

the purpose of commemorating the virtues ana deploring the loss of their departed
members, and other distinguished worthies
of the Fraternity who have died. These
In
are called Funeral or Sorrow Lodges.
Germany they are held annually; in
France at longer intervals. In this country the custom has been introduced by the
Ancient and Accepted Rite, whose Sorrow
to

for

Lodge ritual is peculiarly beautiful and

impressive, and the usage has been adopted
by many Lodges of the American Rite. On
these occasions the Lodge is clothed in the
habiliments of mourning and decorated
with the emblems of death, solemn *!nusic
is played, funereal dirges are chanted, and
eulogies on the life, character, and Masonic
virtues of the dead are delivered.
platonic expresSoul of Nature.
sion, more properly the anima mundi, that
has been adopted into the English Royal
Arch system to designate the Sacred Delta,
or Triangle, which Dunckerley, in his lecture, considered as the symbol of the Trinity.
"So highly," says the modern lecture,
" indeed did the ancients esteem the figure,
that it became among them an object of
worship as the great principle of animated
existence, to which they gave the name of
God because it represented the animal,
mineral, and vegetable creation. They also
distinguished it by an appellation which, in
the Egyptian language, signifies the Soul

SOUTH

SOVEREIGN

Dr. Oliver {Juris., page 446,)

of Nature."
warmly protests against the introduction
of this expression as an unwarrantable innovation, borrowed most probably from the
Rite of the Philalethes. It has not been
'introduced into the American system.

only an ephemeral existence, and is not

heard of after the year 1830. There is now
but one Commandery in the State, which
derives its Warrant from the Grand Encampment of the United States, the date
of which is May 17, 1843.
The Supreme Council of the Ancient and
Accepted Rite was opened on May 31, 1801.
This body is now recognized as the Mother
Council of the World.
SoTereign. An epithet applied to
certain degrees which were invested with
supreme power over inferior ones as, Sovereign Prince of Hose Croix, which is the
highest degree of the French Rite and of
some other Rites, and Sovereign InspectorGeneral, which is the controlling degree of
the Ancient and Accepted Rite. Some degrees, originally Sovereign in the Rites in
which they were first established, in being
transferred to other Rites, have lost their sovereign character, but still improperly retain
the name. Thus the Rose Croix degree of
the Scottish Rite, which is there only the
eighteenth, and subordinate to the thirtythird or Supreme Council, still retains
everywhere, except in the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, the title of
Sovereign Prince of Rose Croix.

South.

When

the sun is at his mehis invigorating rays are

When he rises in
darted from the south.
the east, we are called to labor ; when he
sets in the west, our daily toil is over ; but
when he reaches the south, the hour is high
twelve, and we are summoned to refreshridian

height,

ment. In Masonry, the south is represented

by the Junior Warden and by the Corinthian column, because it is said to be the
place of beauty.

South Carolina.

Freemasonry was

introduced into South Carolina by the organization of Solomon's Lodge, in the city
of Charleston, on October 28, 1736, the
Warrant for which had been granted in the
previous year by Lord Weymouth, Grand
Master of England. John Hammerton was,
in 1736, appointed Provincial Grand Master by the Earl of Loudoun.
In 1738 a
Lodge was established in Charleston by the
but it
St. John's Grand Lodge of Boston
doe3 not appear to have long existed. The
Provincial Lodge appears after some time
to have suspended, for a second Provincial
Grand Lodge was established by the Deputation of the Marquis of Carnarvan to Chief
Justice Leigh in 1754. In 1777 this body
assumed independence, and became the
" Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons," Barnard Elliott being the first
Grand Master. As early as 1783 the
Athol or Ancient Masons invaded the jurisdiction of South Carolina, and in 1787,
there being then five Lodges of the Ancients in the State, they held a Convention,
and on the 24th of March organized the
" Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons."
Between the Modern and the Ancient
Grand Lodge there was always a very hostile feeling until the year 1808, when a
union was effected; which was, however,
but temporary, for a disruption took place
in the following year. However, the union
;

727

Sovereign

Commander

of the

Temple.

Commandeur du
more recent rituals
Temple.)
of the Southern Supreme Council "Knight
{Souverain
Styled in the

Commander of the Temple." This is the

twenty-seventh degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite. The presiding
officer is styled "

Most

Illustrious

and Most

Valiant," the Wardens are called "Most

Sovereign Commanders," and the Knights
" Sovereign Commanders." The place of
meeting is called a "Court." The apron
flesh - colored, lined and edged with
black, with a Teutonic cross encircled by a
wreath of laurel and a key beneath, all inscribed in black upon the flap. The scarf
is red bordered with black, hanging from
the right shoulder to the left hip, and suspending a Teutonic cross in enamelled
The jewel is a triangle of gold, on
gold.
which is engraved the Ineffable Name in
is

was permanently established in 1817, when Hebrew. It is suspended from a white

Grand Lodges were merged into collar bound with red and embroidered with
one, under the name of the " Grand Lodge four Teutonic crosses.
of Ancient Freemasons."
Vassal, Ragon, and Clavel are all wrong
The Grand Royal Arch Chapter was or- in connecting this degree with the Knights
ganized on May 29, 1812.
Templars, with which Order its own ritual
The Grand Council of Royal and Select declares that it is not to be confounded. It
Masters was established February, 1860, by is without a lecture. Vassal expresses the
the two

eight Councils, who had received their

Charters under the authority of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite.
The Grand Encampment of Knights
Templars was instituted in 1826 by three
subordinate Encampments, but it enjoyed

following opinion of this degree

" The twenty-seventh degree does not deserve to be classed in the Scottish Rite as
a degree, since it contains neither symbols
nor allegories that connect it with initiation.
It deserves still less to be ranked among

SOVEREIGN

728

SOVEREIGN

the philosophic degrees. I imagine that

has been intercalated only to supply
an hiatus, and as a memorial of an Order
once justly celebrated."
It is also the forty-fourth degree of the
Rite of Mizraim.
it

Sovereign
General. The

Grand

The decoration
cross.

rests upon a Teutonic

It is a nine-pointed star, namely,

one formed by three triangles of gold one

upon the other, and interlaced from the
lower part of the left side to the upper part

Inspector
and

thirty-third

last de-

gree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish

Rite.
The Latin Constitutions of 1786 call
it " Tertius et trigesimus et sublimissimus
gradus," i. e., " the thirty-third and most
sublime degree " and it is styled "the Protector and Conservator of the Order." The
same Constitutions, in Articles I. and II.,
say:
" The thirty- third degree confers on those
Masons who are legitimately invested with
it, the quality, title, privilege, and authority of Sovereign [Supremorum] Grand Inspectors General of the Order.
" The peculiar duty of their mission is
to teach and enlighten the brethren ; to preserve charity, union, and fraternal love
among them to maintain regularity in the
works of each degree, and to take care that
it is preserved by others ; to cause the dog;

mas, doctrines,

institutes,

constitutions,

and regulations of the Order to be

reverently regarded, and to preserve and
defend them on every occasion and, finally,
statutes,

everywhere to occupy themselves in works

of peace and mercy."
The body in which the members of this
degree assemble is called a Supreme Council.

The symbolic color of the degree is white,

denoting purity.
The distinctive insignia are a sash, collar,
jewel, Teutonic cross, decoration, and ring.
The sash is a broad, white- watered ribbon,
bordered with gold, bearing on the front a
triangle of gold glittering with rays of
gold, which has in the centre the numerals
33, with a sword of silver, directed from
above, on each side of the triangle, pointing to its centre. The sash, worn from the
right shoulder to the left hip, ends in a
point, and is fringed with gold, having at
the junction a circular band of scarlet and
green containing the jewel of the Order.
The collar is of white- watered ribbon
fringed with gold, having the rayed triangle at its point and the swords at the
sides.
By a regulation of the Southern
Supreme Council of the United States, the
collar is worn by the active, and the sash
by the honorary, members of the Council.
The jewel is a black double-headed eagle,
with golden beaks and talons, holding in
the latter a sword of gold, and crowned
with the golden crown of Prussia.
The red Teutonic cross is affixed to the
left side

of the breast.

of the right a sword extends, and in the

opposite direction is a hand of (as it is
called) Justice.
In the centre is the shield
of The Order, azure charged with an
eagle like that on the banner, having on
the dexter side a Balance or, and on the
sinister side a Compass of the second,
united with a Square of the second. Around
the whole shield runs a band of the first,
with the Latin inscription, of the second,
Ordo Ab Chao, which band is enclosed by
two circles, formed by two Serpents of the
second, each biting his own tail. Of the
smaller triangles that are formed by the intersection of the greater ones, those nine
that are nearest the band are of crimson
color, and each of them has one of the
letters that compose the word S. A. P. I.
E. N. T. I. A.

The

ring

is

of plain gold one-eighth of

an inch wide, and having on the inside

a delta surrounding the figures 33, and inscribed with the wearer's name, the letters
S.\ G.\ I.-. G.\ and the motto of the
Order, " Deus meumque Jus." It is worn
on the fourth finger of the left hand.
,

Until the year 1801, the thirty- third degree was unknown. Until then the highest

SOVEEEIGN

SPAIN

729

degree of the Rite, introduced into Anlerica second Lodge at Madrid is opposed by that
by Stephen Morin, was the Sublime Prince of G'adicke, who says that in 1751 there
of the Royal Secret, or the twenty-fifth of were two Lodges in Madrid.
Llorente says (Hist. Inquis., p. 525,) that
the Rite established by the Emperors of the
East and West. The administrative heads in 1741 Philip V. issued a royal ordinance
of the Order were styled Grand Inspectors against the Masons, and, in consequence,
General and Deputy Inspectors General; many were arrested and sent to the galleys.
but these were titles of official rank and The members of the Lodge at Madrid were
not of degree. Even as late as May 24, especially treated by the Inquisition with
All the members were ar1801, John Mitchell signs himself as " Ka- great severity.
dosh, Prince of the Royal Secret and Dep- rested, and eight of them sent to the galThe document leys. In 1751, Ferdinand VI., instigated
uty Inspector General."
thus signed is a Patent which certifies that by the Inquisitor Joseph Torrubia, pubFrederick Dalcho is a Kadosh, and Prince lished a decree forbidding the assemblies
of the Royal Secret, and which creates him of Freemasons, and declaring that all vioa Deputy Inspector General. But on May lators of it should be treated as persons
-31, 1801, the Supreme Council was created
guilty of high treason.
In that year, Pope
at Charleston, and from that time we hear Benedict XIV. had renewed the bull of
of a Rite of thirty-three degrees, eight Clement XII. In 1793, the Cardinal Vicar
having been added to the twenty-five in- caused a decree of death to be promulgated
troduced by Morin, and the last being against all Freemasons. Notwithstanding
called Sovereign Grand Inspector General. these persecutions of the Church and the
The degree being thus legitimately estab- State, Freemasonry continued to be cultilished by a body which, in creating a Rite, vated in Spain; but the meetings of the
possessed the prerogative of establishing Lodges were held with great caution and
secrecy.
its classes, its degrees and its nomenclature
On the accession of Joseph Napoleon to
were accepted unhesitatingly by all subsequently created Supreme Councils and it the throne in 1807, the liberal sentiments
continues to be recognized as the adminis- that characterized the Napoleonic dynasty
trative head of the Ancient and Accepted prevailed, and all restrictions against the
Freemasons were removed. In October,
Scottish Rite.
Sovereign Master. 1. The presid- 1809, a National Grand Lodge of Spain
ing officer in a Council of Knights of the was established, and, as if to make the
Red Cross. He represents Darius, king of victory of tolerance over bigotry complete,
its meetings were held in the edifice forPersia.
2. The sixtieth degree of the Rite
merly occupied by the Inquisition, which
of Mizraim.
Sovereign Prince Mason. A title body had been recently abolished by an
imperial decree.
first conferred on its members by the CounBut the York Rite, which had been forcil of Emperors of the East and West.
Sovereign Prince of Rose merly practised, appears now to have been
abandoned, and the National Grand Lodge
Croix. See Rose Croix.
Spain. Anderson says ( ConstiL, 2d ed., p. just alluded to was constituted by three
194,) that a Deputation was granted by Lord Lodges of the Scottish Rite which, during
Colerane, Grand Master, in 1728, for consti- that year, had been established at Madrid.
tuting a Lodge at Madrid another in 1731, From that time the Masonry of Spain has
by Lord Lovell, to Capt. James Cummer- been that of the Ancient and Accepted
ford, to be Provincial Grand Master of Scottish Rite.
Andalusia; and a third in 1732, by Lord
Clavel says (Hist. Pittoresque, p. 252,) that
Montagu, for establishing a Lodge at Va- "in 1810, the Marquis de Clermont-Ton;

lenciennes. Smith, writing in 1783, says,

"The first, and, I
( Use and Abuse, p. 203 :)
believe, the only Lodge established in Spain
was by a Deputation sent to Madrid to constitute a Lodge in that city, under the auspices of Lord Coleraine, A. d. 1727, which
continued under English jurisdiction till
the year 1776, when it refused that subordination, but still continues to meet under
its own authority."
From these two differing authorities we derive only this fact, in
which they concur that Masonry was introduced into Spain in 1727, more probably
1728, by the Grand Lodge of England.
Smith's statement that there never was a
:

4R

member of the Supreme Council of

France, created, near the National Grand
Lodge, (of the Scottish Rite in Spain,) a
Grand Consistory of the thirty-second deand, in 1811, the Count de Grasse
gree
added to this a Supreme Council of the
thirty-third degree, which immediately organized the National Grand Lodge under
the title of Grand Orient of Spain and the
The overthrow of French domiIndies.
nation dispersed, in 1813, most of the Spanish Masons, and caused the suspension of
Masonic work in that country."
In 1814, FerdinandVIL, having succeeded
to the throne, restored the Inquisition with
nere,

SPARTACUS

730
all its

SPECULATIVE

oppressive prerogatives, proscribed

Freemasonry, and forbade the meetings of

the Lodges. It was not until 1820 that
the Grand Orient of Spain recovered its

and in 1821 we find a Supreme

Council in actual existence, the history of
activity,

whose organization was thus given,

in 1870,
to Bro. A. G. Goodall, the Representative

of the

Supreme Council of the Northern

Jurisdiction of the United States

" The parties now claiming to be a Supreme Council assert that the Count de
Tilly, by authority from his cousin, De
Grasse Tilly, constituted a Supreme Council, Ancient Accepted Rite, at Seville, in
1807 but in consequence of a revolution,
in which Tilly was a prominent actor, the
Grand Body was removed to Aranjuez,
where, on the 21st of September, 1808, the
officers were duly installed; Saavedra as
;

Sov.\ Gr.\ Commander, advitam; Count

de Tilly, Lieutenant Grand Commander;
Carlos de Rosas, Grand Treasurer; Jovellanos, Grand Chancellor Quintana, Grand
Secretary; Pelajos, Captain of Guard.
On the death of Tilly and Saavedra, Badilla became Sovereign Grand Commander;
and under his administration the Supreme
Council was united with the Grand Orient
of Spain at Granada, in 1817, under the
title of Supreme Council, Grand Orient
National of Spain."
On the death of Ferdinand VII. in 1853,
the persecutions against the Freemasons
ceased, because, in the civil war that ensued, the priests lost much of their power.
Between 1845 and 1849, according to Fin;

[Hist., p. 584,) several Lodges were

founded and a Grand Orient established,
which appears to have exercised powers up
to at least 1848.
But subsequently, during
the reign of Queen Isabella, Masonry again
fell into decadence.
It has now, however,
revived, and many Lodges are in existence
who, three years ago, were under the juris-

del,

diction of the Grand Orient of Portugal.

There is at present a Supreme Council of
Spain.
Spartacus. The characteristic name
assumed by Weishaupt, the founder of the
Order of the Illuminati.

Speculative Masonry.

The

lec-

tures of the symbolic degrees instruct the

neophyte in the difference between the
Operative and the Speculative divisions of
Masonry. They tell him that " we work
in Speculative Masonry, but our ancient
brethren wrought in both Operative and
Speculative." The distinction between an
Operative art and a Speculative science is,
therefore, familiar to all Masons from their
early instructions.
To the Freemason, this Operative art has
been symbolized in that intellectual deduc-

tion from it which has been correctly called

Speculative Masonry. At one time each was
an integral part of one undivided system.
Not that the period ever existed when every
Operative Mason was acquainted with, or
initiated into, the Speculative science. Even
now, there are thousands of skilful artisans
who know as little of that as they do of the

Hebrew language which was spoken by its

founder. But Operative Masonry was, in
the inception of our history, and is, in some
measure, even now, the skeleton upon
which was strung the living muscles and
tendons and nerves of the Speculative system. It was the block of marble, rude and
unpolished it may have been, from which
was sculptured the life-breathing statue.
Speculative Masonry (which is but another name for Freemasonry in its modern
acceptation) may be briefly defined as the
scientific application and
the religious
consecration of the rules and principles,
the language, the implements, and materials of Operative Masonry to the veneration of God, the purification of the heart,
and the inculcation of the dogmas of a religious philosophy.
Speculative Masonry, or Freemasonry, is
then a system of ethics, and must therefore, like all other ethical systems, have its
distinctive doctrines.
These may be divided into three classes* viz., the Moral,

the Religious, and the Philosophical.

I. The Moral Doctrines.
These are dependent on, and spring out of, its character
as a social institution.
Hence among its
numerous definitions is one that declares it
to be " a science of morality," and morality
is said to be, symbolically, one of the precious jewels of a Master Mason. Freemasonry is, in its most patent, and prominent
sense, that which most readily and forcibly
attracts the attention of the uninitiated ; a
fraternity, an association of men bound
together by a peculiar tie; and therefore
it

is

that

essential, to its successful existence,

should, as it does, inculcate, at the

it

very threshold of its teachings, obligation

of kindness, man's duty to his neighbor.
"There are three great duties," says the
Charge given to an Entered Apprentice,
" which, as a Mason, you are charged to
inculcate
to God, your neighbor, and
yourself."
And the duty to our neighbor
is said to be that we should act upon the
square, and do unto him as we wish that he
should do unto ourselves.
The object, then, of Freemasonry, in this
moral point of view, is to carry out to their
fullest practical extent those lessons of mutual love and mutual aid that are essential
to the very idea of a brotherhood. There
is a socialism in Freemasonry from which
spring all Masonic virtues,
not that mod-

SPECULATIVE

SPECULATIVE

era socialism exhibited in a community of

goods, which, although it may have been
practised by the primitive Christians, is
found to be uncongenial with the indepenbut a comdent spirit of the present age
munity of sentiment, of principle, of design,

terminate by revealing the awful symbol

of a life after death and an entrance upon
immortality.
Now this and the former class of doctrines are intimately connected and mutuFor we must first know
ally dependent.
and feel the universal fatherhood of God
before we can rightly appreciate the uniHence the
versal brotherhood of man.
Old Records already alluded to, which
show us what was the condition of the
Craft in the Middle Ages, exhibit an eminently religious spirit. These ancient Constitutions always begin with a pious invocation to the Trinity, and sometimes to the
saints, and they tell us that " the first charge
is that a Mason shall be true to God and
holy Church, and use no error nor heresy."
And the Charges published in 1723, which
professes to be a compilation made from
those older records, prescribe that a Mason,
while left to his particular opinions, must
be of that " religion in which all men
agree," that is to say, the religion which
teaches the existence of God and an eternal

which gives
hence
tells

its

to

Masonry

all its social,

moral, character.

As the

and

old song

us

"That virtue has not left mankind,

Her social maxims prove,
For stamp'd upon the Mason's mind
Are unity and

love."

Thus the moral design of Freemasonry,

its social character, is to make
better to each other; to cultivate
brotherly love, and to inculcate the practice of all those virtues which are essential
to the perpetuation of a brotherhood.
Mason is bound, say the Old Charges, to
obey the moral law, and of this law the
the
very keystone is the divine precept,
" Golden Rule " of our Lord,
to do unto
others as we would that they should do
unto us. To relieve the distressed, to give
good counsel to the erring, to speak well of
the absent, to observe temperance in the indulgence of appetite, to bear evil with fortitude, to be prudent in life and conversation, and to dispense justice to all men, are
duties that are inculcated on every Mason
by the moral doctrines of his Order.
These doctrines of morality are not of
recent origin. They are taught in all the
Old Constitutions of the Craft, as the parchment records of the fifteenth, sixteenth,
and seventeenth centuries show, even when
the Institution was operative in its organization, and long before the speculative ele-

based upon

men

ment was made its predominating characThus these Old Charges tell us,
almost all of them in the same words, that
Masons "shal be true, each one to other,

teristic.

(that is to say,) to every Mason of the

science of Masonrye that are Masons allowed, ye shal doe to them as ye would
that they should doe unto you."
2. The Religious Doctrines of Freemasonry are very simple and self-evident.
They are darkened by no perplexities of
sectarian theology, but stand out in the
broad light, intelligible and acceptable by
all minds, for they ask only for a belief in
God and in the immortality of the soul.
He who denies these tenets can be no Mason, for the religious doctrines of the Institution significantly impress them in every
part of its ritual. The neophyte no sooner
crosses the threshold of the Lodge, but he
is called upon to recognize, as his first duty,
an entire trust in the superintending care
and love of the Supreme Being, and the
series of initiations into Symbolic Masonry

731

life.

3.

The Philosophical Doctrines of Free-

masonry are scarcely less important, although they are less generally understood
than either of the preceding

classes.

The

object of these philosophical doctrines is

very different from that of either the moral
or the religious. For the moral and religious doctrines of the Order are intended
to make men virtuous, while its philosophical doctrines are designed to make them
zealous Masons. He who knows nothing
of the philosophy of Freemasonry will be
apt to become in time lukewarm and indifferent, but he who devotes himself to its
contemplation will feel an ever-increasing
ardor in the study. Now these philosophical doctrines are developed in that symbolism which is the especial characteristic of
Masonic teaching, and relate altogether to
the lost and recovered word, the search
after divine truth, the manner and time of
its discovery, and the reward that awaits
the faithful and successful searcher. Such
a philosophy far surpasses the abstract
It brings us
quiddities of metaphysicians.
into close relation to the profound thought
of the ancient world, and makes us familiar
with every subject of mental science that
lies within the grasp of the human intellect.
So that, in conclusion, we find that the
moral, religious, and philosophical doctrines of Freemasonry respectively relate
to the social, the eternal, and the intellectual progress of man.
Finally, it must be observed that while
the old Operative institution, which was the
cradle and forerunner of the Speculative,
as we now have it, abundantly taught in its

SPIRITUAL

SPES

732

Constitutions the moral and religious doc-

as a decoration sculptured in front of

Ma-

which we have been treating, it sonic temples, or engraved at the head of

makes no reference to the philosophical Masonic documents. It cannot, however,
doctrines.
That our Operative predeces- be properly called an ancient, recognized
sors were well acquainted with the science symbol of the Order.
Its introduction has
of symbolism is evident from the architec- been of comparatively recent date, and
tural ornaments of the buildings which they rather as a symbolic decoration than as a
erected but they do not seem to have ap- symbol that announces any dogma.
plied its principles to any great extent to
Spire, Congress of. Spire is a city
the elucidation of their moral and religious in Bavaria, on the banks of the Rhine, and
teachings; at least, we find nothing said the seat of a cathedral which was erected
of this symbolic philosophy in the Old Re- in the eleventh century
A Masonic Concords that are extant. And whether the gress was convoked there in 1469 by the
Operative Masons were reticent on this Grand Lodge of Strasburg, principally to
subject from choice or from ignorance, we take into consideration the condition of the
may lay it down as an axiom, not easily Fraternity and of the edifices in the course
to be controverted, that the philosophic of construction by them, as well as to disdoctrines of the Order are altogether a de- cuss the rights of the Craft.
velopment of the system for which we are
Spiritualizing. In the early lecindebted solely to Speculative Freema- tures of the last century, this word was
used to express the method of symbolic insonry.
in Deo est. [My hope is struction applied to the implements of
Spes
in God.)
The motto of the thirty-second Operative Masonry. In a ritual of 1725,
degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scot- it is said: "As we are not all working
trines of

mea

Masons, we apply the working-tools to our

tish Rite.

Sphinx.

The Sphinx was a

fabled

monster, which was represented by the recumbent body of a lion with a human
head. There were two Sphinxes among
the ancients, the Greek and the Egyptian,
neither of which appears to have been
borrowed from the other; and they differed
in form, the head of the former having the
head of a woman, and the latter that of a
man.
Modern mythologists have sought
to find in each a different interpretation.
Thus, Cox {Mythol. of the Aryans, ii. 344,)
derives the Greek Sphinx from Sphingo,
to bind tightly, and says s"he represented
the cloud which imprisoned the rain in
hidden dungeons.
This, however, is a
modern thought, which was unknown to
the older mythologists, who always connected the Sphinx, both Grecian and
But
Egyptian, with the idea of mystery.
it is with the Egyptian Sphinx that our
Masonic symbolism is really connected.
Among the Egyptians, Sphinxes were
placed at the entrance of the temples to
guard the mysteries, by warning those who
penetrated within, that they should conceal
a knowledge of them from the uninitiated
and hence Portal derives the word from the

Hebrew TSaPHaN,

to hide.

Champollion

says that the Sphinx became successively

the symbol of each of the gods, by which
Portal suggests that the priests intended to
express the idea that all the gods were hidden from the people, and that the knowledge of them, guarded in the sanctuaries,
was revealed to the initiates only. As a
Masonic emblem, the Sphinx has been
adopted in its Egyptian character as a symbol of mystery, and as such is often found

morals, which we call spiritualizing." Thus

too, about the same time, Bunyan wrote
his

symbolic book which he called Solo<

mon's Temple Spiritualized. Phillips, in his

New World of Words, 1706, thus defines to
spiritualize: "to explain a passage of an
author in a spiritual manner, to give it a
godly or mystical sense."

Spiritual [Lodge.

Hutchinson

(Sp.

We

place the
of Masonry, p. 58,) says "
spiritual Lodge in the vale of Jehoshaphat,
implying, thereby, that the principles of
Masonry are derived from the knowledge
of God, and are established in the Judgment of the Lord; the literal translation of
the word Jehoshaphat, from the Hebrew
tongue, being no other than those express
words." This refers to the Lodge, which is
thus described in the old lectures at the
beginning of the last century, and which
were in vogue at the time of Hutchinson.
" Q. Where does the Lodge stand?
"A. Upon the Holy ground, on the
highest hill or lowest vale, or in the vale
of Jehoshaphat, or any other sacred place."
The spiritual Lodge is the imaginary or
symbolic Lodge, whose form, magnitude,
covering, supports, and other attributes are
described in the lectures.
:

Spiritual Temple. The French

Masons say: " We erect temples for virtue
and dungeons for vice " thus referring to
the great Masonic doctrine of a spiritual
temple. There is no symbolism of the
Order more sublime than that in which the
;

speculative Mason is supposed to be engaged in the construction of a spiritual

temple, in allusion to that material one
which was erected by his operative prede-

SPOULEE

SPURIOUS

Indeed, the differcessors at Jerusalem.

ence, in this point of view, between Opera-

Spreading the Ballot. Taking the

vote on the application of a candidate for
initiation or admission.
It is an Americanism, principally used in the Western
Thus " The ballot may be spread
States.

tive and Speculative Masonry is simply

this: that while the former was engaged in

the construction, on Mount Moriah, of a

material temple of stones and cedar, and
gold and precious stones, the latter is occupied,

from his

first

to his last initiation, in

the construction, the adornment, and the

completion of the spiritual temple of his
body. The idea of making the temple a
symbol of the body is not, it is true, exclusively Masonic. It had occurred to the
Christ himfirst teachers of Christianity.
self alluded to it when he said, " Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up " and St. Paul extends the
idea, in one of his Epistles, to the Corinthians, in the following language " Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and
"
that the spirit of God dwelleth in you ?
And again, in a subsequent passage of the
same Epistle, he reiterates the idea in a
more positive form " What, know ye not
that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost which is in you, which ye have of
God, and ye are not your own ? "
But the mode of treating this symbolism
by a reference to the particular Temple of
Solomon, and to the operative art engaged
in its construction, is an application of the
idea peculiar to Freemasonry. Hitchcock,
in his Essay on Swedenborg, thinks that the
same idea was also shared by the Hermetic
philosophers.
He says: "With perhaps
the majority of readers, the Temple of
Solomon, and also the tabernacle, were
mere buildings
very magnificent, indeed,
but still mere buildings
for the worship
of God. But some are struck with many
portions of the account of their erection admitting a moral interpretation ; and while
the buildings are allowed to stand (or to
have stood, once,) visible objects, these interpreters are delighted to meet with indications that Moses and Solomon, in building the Temples, were wise in the knowledge
of God and of man ; from which point it
is not difficult to pass on to the moral
meaning altogether, and affirm that the
building, which was erected without ' the
noise of a hammer, or axe, or any tool of
iron,' (1 Kings vi. 7,) was altogether a
moral building
a building of God, not
made with hands. In short, many see in
the story of Solomon's Temple a symbolical representation of
as the temple
of God, with its Holy of Holies deep
seated in the centre of the human heart."
Spoule'e,
de. He appears to
have presided over the Masons of England
in 1350, in the reign of Edward III. Anderson says he was called Master of the "Ghiblim."
;

Man

John

733

a second time in almost any case if the harmony of the Lodge seems to require it."
Swigert, G.\ M:. of Kentucky.
"It is
legal to spread the ballot the third time, if
for the correction of mistakes, not otherBob. Morris. It is a technicality,
wise."
and scarcely English.

Sprengseisen, Christian Friedrich Kessler Von. An ardent adherent

of Von Hund and admirer of his Templar
system, in defence of which, and against
the Spiritual Templarism of Starck, he
wrote, in 1786, the book, now very rare,
entitled Anti Saint Nicaise, and other
works. He was born at Saalsfield, in 1731,
and died Jan. 11, 1809. See Saint Nicaise.
Sprig of Acacia. See Acacia.

Spurious Freemasonry. For this

term, and for the theory connected with it,
we are indebted to Dr. Oliver, whose speculations led him to the conclusion that in
the earliest ages of the world there were
two systems of Freemasonry, the one of
which, preserved by the patriarchs and their
descendants, he called Primitive or Pure
Freemasonry. ( See Primitive Freemasonry.

The

other,

which was a schism from

this

system, he designated as the Spurious Freemasonry of Antiquity. To comprehend

this system of Oliver, and to understand
his doctrine of the declension of the Spurious from the Primitive Freemasonry, we
must remember that there were two races
of men descended from the loins of Adam,
whose history is as different as their charThere was the viracters were dissimilar.
tuous race of Seth and his descendants, and
the wicked one of Cain. Seth and his children, down to Noah, preserved the dogmas
and instructions, the legends and symbols,
which had been received from their common progenitor, Adam ; but Cain and his
descendants, whose vices at length brought
on the destruction of the earth, either totalTheir
ly forgot or greatly corrupted them.
Freemasonry was not the same as that of
the Sethites. They distorted the truth, and
varied the landmarks to suit their own profane purposes. At length the two races

became blended together. The descendants

of Seth, becoming corrupted by their frequent communications with those of Cain,
adopted their manners, and soon lost the
principles of the Primitive Freemasonry,
at length were confined to Noah and
his three sons, who alone, in the destruction of a wicked world, were thought
worthy of receiving mercy.
Noah consequently preserved this sys-

which

SPURIOUS

734
tern,

SPURS

and was the medium of communica-

to the post-diluvian world.

Hence,
immediately after the deluge, Primitive
Freemasonry was the only system extant.
But this happy state of affairs was not to

ting

last.

it

their great similarity in all important points

their derivation from a common
origin.
In the first place, they were communi-

showed

cated through a system of initiation, by

the aspirant was gradually prepared
for the reception of their final doctrines
the rites were performed at night, and in
the most retired situations, in caverns or
amid the deep recesses of groves and forests
and the secrets were only communicated to the initiated after the administration of an obligation. Thus, Firmicus (Astrol., lib. vii.,) tells us that "when Orpheus
explained the ceremonies of his mysteries
to candidates, he demanded of them, at the
very entrance, an oath, under the solemn
sanction of religion, that they would not
betray the rites to profane ears." And
hence, as Warburton says from Horus
Apollo, the Egyptian hieroglyphic for the
mysteries was a grasshopper, because that

Ham, the son of Noah, who had been which

accursed by his father for his wickedness,

had been long familiar with the corruptions
of the system of Cain, and with the gradual
deviations from truth which, through the
influence of evil example, had crept into
the system of Seth. After the deluge, he
propagated the worst features of both systems among his immediate descendants.
Two sects or parties, so to speak, now arose
in the world
one which preserved the
great truths of religion, and consequently
of Masonry, which had been handed down
from Adam, Enoch, and Noah
and another which deviated more and more from this
pure, original source. On the dispersion at
the tower of Babel, the schism became still

wider and more irreconcilable.

The legends of Primitive Freemasonry were altered, and its symbols perverted to a false
worship; the mysteries were dedicated to
the worship of false gods and the practice
of idolatrous rites, and in the place of the
Pure or Primitive Freemasonry which con-

tinued to be cultivated among the patriarchal descendants of Noah, was established

those mysteries of Paganism to which Dr.
Oliver has given the name of the "Spurious

Freemasonry."
It is not to Dr. Oliver, nor to any very
writer, that we are indebted for the
idea of a Masonic schism in this early age

modern

of the world. The doctrine that Masonry

was lost, that is to say, lost in its purity, to
the larger portion of mankind, at the tower
of Babel, is still preserved in the ritual of
Ancient Craft Masonry. And in the degree of Noachites, a degree which is attached to the Scottish Rite, the fact is
plainly adverted to as, indeed, the very
foundation of the degree. Two races of
Masons are there distinctly named, the
Noachites and the Hiramites ; the former
were the conservators of the Primitive
Freemasonry as the descendants of Noah
the latter were the descendants of Hiram,
who was himself of the race which had fallen
into Spurious Freemasonry, but had reunited himself to the true sect at the building of King Solomon's Temple, as we shall
hereafter see. But the inventors of the degree do not seem to have had any very precise notions in relation to this latter part of
the history.
The mysteries, which constituted what
has been thus called Spurious Freemasonry,
were all more or less identical in character.
Varying in a few unimportant particulars,
attributable to the influence of local causes.
;

insect was supposed to

have no mouth.

The ceremonies were

character. Commencing

of a funereal
in representations
of a lugubrious description, they celebrated
the legend of the death and burial of some
mythical being who was the especial object of their love and adoration. But these
rites, thus beginning in lamentation, and
typical of death, always ended in joy. The
object of their sorrow was restored to life
and immortality, and the latter part of the
ceremonial was descriptive of his resurrection.
Hence, the great doctrines of the
mysteries were the immortality of the soul
all

and the existence of a God.

Such, then, is the theory on the subject
of what is called "Spurious Freemasonry,"
as taught by Oliver and the disciples of his
school.
Primitive Freemasonry consisted
of that traditional knowledge and symbolic

which had been handed down

from Adam, through Enoch, Noah, and the
rest of the patriarchs, to the time of Solomon. Spurious Freemasonry consisted of
the doctrines and initiations practised at
first by the antediluvian descendants of
Cain, and, after the dispersion at Babel, by
the Pagan priests and philosophers in their
instruction

"Mysteries."

Spurs. In the Orders of Chivalry, the

spurs had a symbolic meaning as important as their practical use was neces-

"To win one's spurs" was a phrase

which meant " to win one's right to the
dignity of knighthood." Hence, in the investiture of a knight, he was told that the
spurs were a symbol of promptitude in
military service and in the degradation of
an unfaithful knight, his spurs were hacked
off by the cook, to show his utter unworthiness to wear them. Stowe says, {Annals, 902,) in describing the ceremony of
sary.

SQUARE

SQUARE

investing knights " Evening prayer being

ended, there stood at the chapel-door the
king's master-cook, with his white apron
and sleeves, andchopping-knifeinhis hand,
gilded about the edge, and challenged their
spurs, which they redeemed with a noble a
piece and he said to every knight, as they
Sir Knight, look that you
Eassed by him
e true and loyal to the king, my master,
or else I must hew these spurs from your
heels.' " In the Masonic Orders of Chivalry, the symbolism of the spurs has unfortunately been omitted.
Square. This is one of the most important and significant symbols in Freemasonry. As such, it is proper that its true
form should be pre-

stone an old brass square, much eaten away,

containing on its two surfaces the following

'

The French
Masons have almost
served.

given it
with one leg longer
than the other, thus
making it a carpensquare.

American

The

Masons,

following the

incor-

Jeremy L. Cross, have,

while generally preserving the equality of
length in the legs, unnecessarily marked its
surface with inches thus making it an instrument for measuring length and breadth,
which it is not. It is simply the trying
square of a stonemason, and has a plain
surface; the sides or legs embracing an angle of ninety degrees, and is intended only
to test the accuracy of the sides of a stone,
and to see that its edges subtend the same
rect delineations of

angle.

In Freemasonry, it is a symbol of moralThis is its general signification, and

ity.

applied in various ways 1. It presents

itself to the neophyte as one of the three
great lights ; 2. To the Fellow Craft as one
of his working-tools; 3. To the Master
Mason as the official emblem of the Master
of the Lodge.
Everywhere, however, it
inculcates the same lesson of morality, of
truthfulness, of honesty.
So universally
accepted is this symbolism, that it has
gone outside of the Order, and has been
is

in colloquial language communicating the same idea. Square, says Halliwell,

{Diet. Archaisms^)
means honest,
equitable, as in "square dealing."
To
play upon the square is proverbial for to play
honestly.
In this sense the word is found
in the old writers.
^ As a Masonic symbol, it is of very ancient date, and was familiar to the Operative Masons.
In the year 1830, the
architect, in rebuilding a very ancient
bridge called Baal bridge, near Limerick,
in Ireland, found under the foundation-

found

I.WILL. STRIUE. TO. LIUE.

LOUE. & CARE. UPON.
THE. LEUL. BY. THE. SQUARE., and

inscription

WITH.

the date 1517.

The modern Speculative
Mason will recognize the idea of living on
the level and by the square.
This discovery
proves, if proof were necessary, that the
familiar idea was borrowed from our Operative brethren of former days.
The square, as a symbol in Speculative
Masonry, has therefore presented itself
from the very beginning of the revival period.
In the very earliest catechism of the
last century, of the date of 1725, we find the
answer to the question, " How many make

a Lodge?" is '* God and the Square, with

or seven right or perfect Masons."
God and the Square, religion and morality, must be present in every Lodge as
governing principles. Signs at that early
period were to be made by squares, and the
furniture of the Lodge was declared to be
the Bible, Compasses, and Square.
In all rites and in all languages where
Masonry has penetrated, the square has
preserved its primitive signification as a
symbol of morality.
five

universally

ter's

735

Square and Compasses. These two

symbols have been so long and so universally
combined,
to teach
us, as says an early
ritual, " to square our
actions and to keep

them within due

bounds," they are so
seldom seen apart,
but are so kept to-

two great lights, or as a

jewel worn once by the Master of the
that
Lodge, now by the Past Master,
they have come at last to be recognized
as the proper badge of a Master Mason,
just as the triple tau is of a Royal Arch
Mason or the passion cross of a Knight
gether, either as

Templar.

So universally has this symbol been

recognized, even by the profane world, as
the peculiar characteristic of Freemasonry,
that it has recently been made in the
United States the subject of a legal decimanufacturer of flour having
sion.
made, in 1873, an application to the PatentOffice for permission to adopt the square
and compasses as a trade-mark, the Commissioner of Patents refused the permission
on the ground that the mark was a Masonic symbol.
"If this emblem," said Mr. J. M.
Thacher, the Commissioner, "were something other than precisely what it is
either less known, less significant, or fully

736

SQUARE

and universally understood

SQUIN

all this

might

readily be admitted. But, considering its peculiar character and relation to the public,
an anomalous question is presented. There
can be no doubt that this device, so com-

monly worn and employed by Masons, has

an established mystic

significance, univer-

whether comsally recognized as existing

prehended by all or not, is not material to
;

In view of the magnitude and

extent of the Masonic organization, it is

this issue.

impossible to divest its symbols, or at least

perhaps the best
this particular symbol
known of all of its ordinary signification, wherever displayed, either as an arbiIt will be
trary character or otherwise.

universally understood, or misunderstood,

as having a Masonic significance; and,
therefore, as a trade-mark, must constantly
work deception. Nothing could be more
mischievous than to create as a monopoly,
and uphold by the power of law, anything
so calculated, as applied to purposes of
trade, to be misinterpreted, to mislead all
classes, and to constantly foster suggestions of mystery in affairs of business."
In a religious work by John Davies, entitled Summa Totalis, or All in All and the
Same Forever, printed in 1607, we find an
allusion to the square and compasses by a
profane in a really Masonic sense. The
author, who proposes to describe mystically
the form of the Deity, says in his dedication:
" Yet I this forme of formelesse Deity,
Drewe by the Squire and Compasse of our
Creed."

elevation in his studies. Yet even in the

high degrees, the square and compesses combined retain their primitive signification
as a symbol of brotherhood and as a badge

of the Order."

Squin de Flexian.

recreant

Templar, to whom, with Noffodei and, as

some say, another unknown person, is attributed the invention of the false accusations upon which were based the persecutions and the downfall of the Order of
Knights Templars. He was a native of
the city of Beziers, in the south of France,
and having been received as a Knight
Templar, had made so much proficiency in
the Order as to have been appointed to the

head of the Priory of Montfaucon. Reghellini states that both Squin de Flexian
and Noffodei were Templars, and held the
rank of Commanders; but Dupuy {Condemnation des Templiers) denies that the
latter was a Templar.
He says " All historians agree that the origin of the ruin of
the Templars was the work of the Prior of
Montfaucon and of Noffodei, a Florentine,
banished from his country, and whom nobody believes to have been a Templar.
This Prior, by the sentence of the Grand
Master, had been condemned, for heresy
and for having led an infamous life, to pass
the remainder of his days in a prison. The
other is reported to have been condemned
to rigorous penalties by the provost of
:

Paris."
Reghellini's account [La Maconnerie consider^, etc., I., p. 451,) is more circumstantial.
He says: "In 1506, two Knights
Templars, Noffodei and Florian, were punished for crimes, and lost their Comman-

In Masonic symbolism the Square and

Compasses refer to the Mason's duty to the deries, that of the latter being Montfaucon.
Craft and to himself; hence it is properly a They petitioned the Provincial Grand
symbol of brotherhood, and there signifi- Master of Mount Carmel for a restoration
cantly adopted as the badge or token of the to their offices, but met with a refusal.
Fraternity.
They then obtained an entrance into the
Berage, in his work on the high degrees, Provincial Grand Master's country-house,
(Les jilus secrets Mysteres des Hants Grades,) near Milan, and having assassinated him,
gives an interpretation to the symbol concealed the body in the woods under
which I have nowhere else seen. He says
some thick shrubbery after which they
"The square and the compasses represent fled to Paris. There they obtained access
the union of the Old and New Testaments. to the king, and thus furnished Philip with
None of the high degrees recognize this in- an occasion for executing his projects, by
terpretation, although their symbolism of denouncing the Order and exposing to him
the two implements differs somewhat from the immense wealth which it possessed.
that of symbolic Masonry. The square is
"They proposed the abolition of the
with them peculiarly appropriated to the Order, and promised the king, for a reward,
lower degrees, as founded on the operative to be its denouncers. The king accepted
art; while the compasses, as an implement their proposition, and, assuring them of his
of higher character and uses, is attributed to protection, pointed out to them the course
the degrees, which claim to have a more which they were to pursue.
" They associated with themselves a third
elevated and philosophical foundation.
Thus they speak of the initiate, when he individual, called by historians 'the Unpasses from the blue Lodge to the Lodge known/ [Vlnconnu;) and Noffodei and Floof Perfection, as 'passing from the square rian sent a memorial to Enguerand de Ma;

to the compasses,' to indicate a progressive

rigni,

Superintendent of the Finances, in

SQUIN

STAFF

which they proposed, if he would guaranthem against the attacks of the Order of
Templars, and grant them civil existence
and rights, to discover to the king secrets
which they deemed of more value than the
conquest of an empire.

died of the tortures inflicted at Paris, and

several others in other places."
Of the ultimate fate of these traitors
nothing is really known. When the in-

tee

737

famous work which they had inaugurated

had been consummated by the king and
the pope, as their services were no longer

"As a sequel to this first declaration,

they addressed to the king an accusation,
which was the same as he had himself dictated to them for the purpose of the turn
which he desired to the affair. This accusation contained the following charges
"1. That the Order of Templars was the
foe of all kings and all sovereign authority

needed, they sank into merited oblivion.

Secret Societies of the
Middle Ages, (p. 268,) says " Squin was
afterwards hanged, and Noffodei beheaded,
as was said, with little probability, by the

The author of the

Templars."

condition of the penalty of death if they

divulged them and that the secret practices of their initiations were the consequences of irreligion, atheism, and rebel-

Hardly had the Templars, in their prostrate condition, the power, even if they had
the will, to inflict such punishment. It
was not Squin, but Marigni, his abettor,
who was hanged at Montfaucon, by order
of Louis X., the successor of Philip, two
years after his persecution Of the Templars.

lion.

The revenge they took was of a symbolic

that

it

communicated

under horrible

secrets to its initiates

oaths, with the criminal

"

That the Order had betrayed the religion of Christ, by communicating to the
Sultan of Babylon all the plans and opera2.

tions of the

Emperor Frederick the Second,

whereby the designs of the Crusaders for

the recovery of the Holy Land were frustrated.

"

That the Order prostituted the mysmost venerated by Christians, by

making a Knight, when he was received,
trample upon the Cross, the sign of redemption; and abjured the Christian religion by
making the neophyte declare that the true
God had never died, and never could die
that they carried about them and worshipped a little idol called Bafomet; and
that after his initiation the neophyte was
compelled to undergo certain obscene prac3.

teries

tices.

"4. That when a Knight was received,

the Order bound him by an oath to a complete and blind obedience to the Grand
Master, which was a proof of rebellion
against the legitimate authority.
" 5. That Good Friday was the day selected for the grand orgies of the Order.
" 6. That they were guilty of unnatural

crimes.
j

"7. That they burned the children of

their concubines, so as to destroy all traces
of their debauchery."
These calumnies formed the basis of the
longer catalogue of accusations, afterwards
presented by the pope, upon which the

Templars were finally tried and condemned.

In the preliminary examinations of the
accused, Squin de Flexian took an active
part as one of the commissioners. In the
pleadings for their defence presented by
the Knights, they declare that " Knights
were tortured by Flexian de Beziers, prior
of Montfaucon, and by the monk, William
Robert, and that already thirty-six had

4S

47

character.
In the change of the legend of
the third degree into that of the Templar
system, when the martyred James de Molay
was substituted for Hiram Abif, the three assassins were represented by Squin de Flexian, Noffodei, and the Unknown.
As there
is really no reference in the historical records of the persecution to this third accuser, it is most probable that he is altogether a mythical personage, invented
merely to complete the triad of assassins,
and to preserve the congruity of the Templar
with the Masonic legend.
The name of Squin de Flexian, as well
as that of Noffodei, have been differently
spelled by various writers, to say nothing
of the incomprehensible error found in
some of the oldest French Cahiers of the
Kadosh, such as that of De la Hogue, where
the two traitors are named Gerard Tabe
and Benoit Mehui. The Processus contra
Templarios calls him Esquius de Flexian
de Biteriis; and Raynouard always names
him Squin de Florian, in which he is
blindly followed by Reghellini, Ragon, and
Thory. But the weight of authority is in
favor of Squin de Flexian, which I have accordingly adopted as the true name of this
Judas of the Templars.
white staff is the proper inStaff.
In the first processignia of a Treasurer.
sion after the appointment of that officer by the Grand Lodge of England, we
find " the Grand Treasurer with the Staff."
In this country the use of the staff by the
Treasurer of a Lodge has been discontinued.
It was derived from the old custom for the
treasurer of the king's household to carry
a staff as the ensign of authority. In the
old "Customary Books" we are told that
the Steward or Treasurer of the household
for the offices were formerly identical
received the office from the king himself by

STAIRS

STARCK

the presentation of a staff in these words

Tennez le boston de nostre maison, " Receive
the staff of our house." Hence the Grand
Lodge of England decreed, June 24, 1741,
that "in the procession in the hall" the
Grand Treasurer should appear " with the

oflicer in a
of Knights Templars, whose
duty it is to carry and protect the standard
of the Order.
similar officer exists in
several of the high degrees.
Stand to
Abide by. The covenant of Masonry requires every Mason
" to stand to and abide by " the laws and
regulations of the Order, whether expressed
in the edicts of the Grand Lodge, the bylaws of his Lodge, or the landmarks of the
Institution.
The terms are not precisely
synonymous, although generally considered
to be so.
To stand to has a somewhat active

738

staff."

Stairs, Winding. See Winding Stairs.

Standard. An

ensign in war, being

that under which the soldiers stand or to
which they rally in the fight. It is sometimes used in the higher degrees, in connection with the word Bearer, to denote a
But the term mostly
particular oflicer.
used to indicate any one of the ensigns of
the different degrees of Masonry is Banner.
The Grand Standard of the Order of
Knights Templars in the United States is
described in the regulations as being " of
white woollen or silk stuff, six feet in height
and five feet in width, made tripartite at the
bottom, fastened at the top to the cross-bar
by nine rings; in the centre of the field a
blood-red passion cross, over which the
motto, In hoc Signo Vinces, and under, Non
Nobis, Domine ! non Nobis sed Nomini tuo da
Qloriam ! The cross to be four feet high,
and the upright and bar to be seven inches
On the top of the staff a gilded
wide.
globe or ball four inches in diameter, surmounted by the patriarchal cross, twelve
inches in height. The cross to be crimson,
edged with gold."
The standard of the Order in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is thus
described in the Fundamental Statutes. It
is white with a gold fringe, bearing in the
centre a black double-headed eagle with
wings displayed the beaks and thighs are
of gold it holds in one talon the golden
hilt and in the other the silver blade of an
antique sword, placed horizontally from
right to left; to the sword is suspended the
Latin device, in letters of gold, Deus meumque Jus. The eagle is crowned with a
triangle of gold, and holds a purple band
fringed with gold and strewn with golden
;

stars.

no standard of the Order

properly belonging to Symbolic or Royal
Arch Masonry. Many Grand Chapters,
however, and some Grand Lodges in this
country, have adopted for a standard the
blazonment of the arms of Masonry first
made by Dermott for the Athol Grand
Lodge of Masons. In the present condition of the ritual, occasioned by the disseverance of the Royal Arch degree from the
Master's, and its organization as a distinct
There

is

really

system, this standard, if adopted at all,

would be most appropriate to the Grand
Chapters, since its charges consist of symbols no longer referred to in the ritual of

Symbolic Masonry.

Standard-Bearer. An

Commandery

and

meaning, and

signifies to

fend the laws; while

to

maintain and de-

abide by

is

more pas-

meaning, and signifies to submit to

the award made by such laws.
Star. In the French and Scottish
sive in

Rites lighted candles or torches are called

stars when used in some of the ceremonies, especially in the reception of distinguished visitors, where the number of
lights or stars with which the visitor is
received is proportioned to his rank; but
the number is always odd, being 3, 5, 7, 9,
or 11.

Star, Blazing. See Blazing Star.

Star, Eastern. See Eastern Star.
Star, Five - Pointed. See FivePointed Star.

The Blazing Star

thus called by those who entertain the
theory that there is "an intimate and
necessary connection between Masonry and
Christianity." This doctrine, which Dr.
Oliver thinks is "the fairest gem that
Masonry can boast," is defended by him in
his early work entitled The Star in the East.
The whole subject is discussed in the
article Blazing Star, which see.
degree cited
Star of Jerusalem.
in the nomenclature of Fustier.

Star in tbe East.

is

Star of the Syrian Knights.

(Ftoile des Chevaliers Syriens.)

The Order

of Syrian Knights of the Star is contained

in the collection of Pyron. It is divided
into three degrees
Novice, Professed, and
Grand Patriarch.

Starch, Joliaim August von.

Von Starck, whose life is closely connected
with the history of German Freemasonry,
and especially with that of the Rite of
Strict Observance, was born at Schwerin,
October 29, 1741. He studied at the University of Gottingen, and was made in 1761
a Freemason in a French Military Lodge.
In 1763 he went to St. Petersburg, where
he received the appointment of teacher in
one of the public schools. There, too, it
is supposed that he was adopted into the
Rite of Melesino, then flourishing in the
Russian capital, and became first acquainted
with the Rite of Strict Observance, in which

STARCK

STARCK

he afterwards played so important a part.

After two years' residence at St. Petersburg,
he went for a short time to England, and
was in August, 1766, in Paris. In 1767 he

in 1768 there was a formal union of the two

branches at Wismar, but it was neither sincere nor permanent.
At the Congress of
Brunswick, in 1775, the clerical branch seceded and formed an independent Order;
and, after the death of Von Hund, the
Lodges of the Strict Observance abandoned
their name, and called themselves the
United German Lodges. The spiritual
branch, too, soon began to lose favor with
the German Freemasons, partly because
the Swedish system was getting to be popular in Germany, and partly because Starck
was suspected of being in league with the
Catholics, for whose sake he had invented
his system.
Documentary evidence has
since proved that this suspicion was well
founded. Ragon says that the Order continued in successful existence until the
year 1800 but I doubt if it lasted so long.
The German writers have not hesitated
to accuse Starck of having been an emissary
of the Jesuits, and of having instituted his
Rite in the interests of Jesuitism. This,
of course, rendered both him and the Rite
unpopular, and gave an impetus to its decay and fall. Starck himself, even before
his appointment as court chaplain at Darmstadt, in 1781, had, by his own confession,
not only abandoned the Rite, but all interIn 1785 he wrote his
est in Freemasonry.
Saint Nicaise, which was really anti-Masonic in principle, and in 1787 he published

was director of the schools at Wismar,

where he was Junior Warden of the Lodge
of the Three Lions. In 1770 he was called
to Konigsberg, to occupy the chair of theology, and to fill the post of court chaplain.
The following year he resigned both offices,
and retired to Mettau, to devote himself
But
to literary and philosophical pursuits.
in 1781 the court at Darmstadt conferred
upon him the posts of chief preacher and
the first place in the consistory, and there
he remained until his death, which occurred

March 3, 1816.
The knowledge

that Starck acquired of

the Rite of Strict Observance convinced
him of its innate weakness, and of the neHe therefore
cessity of some reformation.
was led to the idea of reviving the spiritual
branch of the Order, a project which he
sought to carry into effect, at first quietly
and secretly, by gaining over influential

Masons

to his views.

In this he so

far suc-

739

ceeded as to be enabled to establish, in 1767,

the new system of clerical Knights Templars, as a schism from the Strict Observance, and to which he gave the name of
Clerks of Relaxed Observance. It consisted
of seven degrees, as follows 1. Apprentice;
2. Fellow; 3. Master; 4. Young Scottish
Master; 5. Old Scottish Master, or Knight his work Ueber Kripto-Catholicesmus, etc.,
6. Provincial Chapter of
of St. Andrew
or A Treatise on Secret Catholicism, on Prosethe Red Cross; 7. Magus, or Knight of lyte Making, on Jesuitism, and on Secret Sowhich last degree cieties, which was a controversial work diBrightness and Light
was divided into five classes, of Novice, rected against Nicolai, Gadicke, and Biester.
Levite, and Priest
the summit of the In this book he says " It is true that in my
Order being Knight Priest. Thus he em- youthful days I was a Freemason. It is
bodied the idea that Templarism was a also true that when the so-called Strict Obhierarchy, and that not only was every Ma- servance was introduced into Masonry I
son a Templar, but every true Templar was belonged to it, and was, like others, an
both a Knight and a Priest. Starck, who was Eques, Socius, Armiger, Commendator, Preoriginally a Protestant, had been secretly fect, and Sub-Prior; and, having taken
connected with Romanism while in Paris
some formal cloister-like profession, I have
and he attempted surreptitiously to intro- been a Clericus. But I have withdrawn
duce Roman Catholicism into his new sys- from all that, and all that is called Freetem. He professed that the Rite which he masonry, for more than nine years."
was propagating was in possession of secrets
While an active member of the Masonic
not known to the chivalric branch of the Order, whatever may have been his secret
Order; and he demanded, as a prerequisite motives, he wrote many valuable Masonic
to admission, that the candidate should be works, which produced at the time of their
a Roman Catholic, and have previously appearance a great sensation in Germany.
received the degrees of Strict Observance. Such were his Apology for the Order of
Starck entered into a correspondence with Freemasonry, Berlin, 1778, which went
Von Hund, the head of the Rite of Strict through many editions On the Design of
Observance, for the purpose of effecting a the Order of Freemasonry, Berlin, 1781
the chivalric and On the Ancient and Modern Mysteries,
fusion of the two branches
and the spiritual. But, notwithstanding 1782. He was distinguished as a man of
the willingness of Von Hund to accept any letters and as a learned theologian, and has
league which promised to give renewed left numerous works on general literature
strength to his own decaying system, the and on religion, the latter class showing an
fusion was never effected. It is true that evident leaning towards the Roman Catho:

STARE

740

STATISTICS

of which he was evidently a par"There is," says Feller, {Biog.

lie faith,

tisan.

Unw.,) "in the

life

of Starck something

singular, that has never been made public."

I think the verdict is now well established,
that in his labors for the apparent reformation of Freemasonry there was a deplorable
want of honesty and sincerity, and that he
abandoned the Order finally because his
schemes of ambition failed, and the Jesuitical designs with which he entered it were
frustrated.

Stare Super Vias Antiquas.

(To
Latin adage, ap-

stand on the old paths.)

propriately applied as a Masonic motto to
inculcate the duty of adhering to the ancient landmarks.

State.

The

a half would be a very low estimate. The

following is a table of the countries in
which Freemasonry is openly practised
with the permission of the public authorities, omitting the States,
now, by the
increasing spirit of tolerance, very few, indeed, where the suspicions of the government compel the Masons, if they meet at
all, to meet in private
:

Portugal,
Posen, Duchy
Prussia,

Bavaria,

Bremen,

Denmark,

lous Territory there is a Grand Lodge and

a Grand Chapter, each of which exercises
exclusive jurisdiction over all the Lodges

Germany,

and Chapters within

Hanover,
Hesse-Darmstadt,

its political

bounda-

nor does it permit the introduction

of any other Grand Lodge or Grand Chapter within its limits; so that there is, and
can be, but one Grand Lodge and one
Grand Chapter in each State. In most of
the States there are also a Grand Council
of Royal and Select Masters, and a Grand
Commandery of Knights Templars, which
claim the same right of exclusive jurisdiction.
See Jurisdiction of a Grand Lodge.
Stations. The positions occupied by
the subordinate officers of a Lodge are
called places, as "the Junior Deacon's
place in the Lodge." But the positions occupied by the Master and Wardens are
called stations, as "the Senior Warden's
station in the Lodge."
This is because
these three officers, representing the sun in
his three prominent points of rising, culminating, and setting, are supposed to be
stationary, and therefore remain in the spot
appropriated to them by the ritual, while
the Deacon and other officers are required
to move about from place to place in the
Lodge.
;

France,
Greece,

Hamburg,

Saxe-Weimar,
Saxony,
Schwarzburg-

Holland,

Ionian Islands,

Eudolstadt,
Scotland,
Spain,

Ireland,

Sweden,

Holstein- Oldenburg,

Hungary,

Italy,

Switzerland,

Malta,

Wurtemberg.

MecklenburgSchwerin,
II.

Ceylon,
China,

well sustained by the statistics of the

Order, which show that, wherever civilized
men have left their footprints, its temples
have been established. It is impossible to
venture on anything more than a mere
approximation to the number of Freemasons scattered over the world but if we
are correct in believing that there are more
than 400,000 Masons in the United States
of America, any estimate that would place
the whole number of the Fraternity everywhere dispersed at less than a million and
is

Asia.
Persia,

Pondicherry
Turkey.

India,

Japan,
III.

New

OCEANICA.

South Wales,

Sumatra,

Sandwich

Java,

Islands.

New Zealand,
IV. Africa.
Algeria,

of Freemasonry. The Bourbon, Isle of,

" in every land a Mason may Canary Islands,

assertion that
find a home, and in every clime a brother,"

of,

Prussian Poland,
Saxe,
Saxe-Coburg,
Saxe-Gotha,
Saxe-Hildburghausen,
Saxe-Meiningen,

Brunswick,
political divisions of the

England,

Statistics

Netherlands,

Norway,

Belgium,

United States are called States and Territories.

In every State and in every popu-

ries

Europe.

I.

Anhalt-Bernburg,
Anhalt-Dessau,

Cape of Good Hope

Egypt,
Goa,

Guinea,
Mauritius,

Mozambique,
Senegambia,
St. Helena.

V. America.
Antigua,
Argentine Eepublic,
Barbadoes,

Martinico,

Mexico,
Brunswick,
Grenada,

Bermudas,

New
New

Brazil,

Nova

Canada,

Panama,

Scotia,

Carthagena,

Peru,

Chili,

Eio de

Colombia,

St.

la Plata,

Bartholomew's,

"

STATUTE

ST.

St. Croix,

text.

St. Eustatia,

bottom of No.

Statute of

Martin,

St.

Thomas,

United States,
Uruguay,
Venezuela.
VI. See La-

Henry

borers, Statute of.

Statutes. The permanent rules by

which a subordinate Lodge is governed are
regulations of a
Constitution;
but the laws enacted for the government
of a Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite
are denominated Statutes.
its

Clair Charters.

In the Advois a manuscript entitled "Hay's MSS.," which is,

St.

cates' Library,

of Edinburgh,

says Lawrie, "a collection of several things

relating to the historical account of the
most famed families of Scotland. Done by

Richard Augustine Hay, Canon Regular

of Sainte Genevefs of Paris, Prior of Sainte
Pierremont,

etc.,

Anno

Domini

1706."

Among

this collection are two manuscripts,

supposed to have been copied from the
originals by Canon Hay, and which are
known to Masonic scholars as the "St.
Clair Charters."
These copies, which it
seems were alone known in the last century, were first published by Lawrie, in his
History of Freemasonry, where they consti-

tute Appendixes I. and II.

But it appears
that the originals have since been discovered, and they have been republished
by Bro. W. J. Hughan, in his Unpublished

Records of the Craft, with the following

introductory account of them by Bro. D.

Murray Lyon
"These MSS. were

several years ago

accidentally discovered by David Laing,
Esq., of the Signet Library, who gave them
to the late Bro. Aytoun, Professor of BellesLettres in the University of Edinburgh, in

exchange

for

some antique documents he

The Professor presented them to the

Grand Lodge of Scotland, in whose repositories they now are.
There can be no
had.

doubt of their identity as originals. We

have compared several of the signatures
with autographs in other MSS. of the time.

The

charters are in scrolls of paper,

the

one 15 by 11J inches, the other 26 by 11J

and for their better preservation

have been affixed to cloth. The caligraphy
and though the edges of the
is beautiful
paper have been frayed, and holes worn in
one or two places where the sheets had
been folded, there is no difficulty in supplying the few words that have been obliterated, and making out the whole of the

inches,

1,

in depth at the
in the right hand corner,

entirely wanting, which may have contained some signatures in addition to those
given. The left hand bottom corner of No.
2 has been similarly torn away, and the
same remark with regard to signatures may
apply to it. The first document is a letter
of jurisdiction, granted by the Freemen
Masons of Scotland to William St. Clair
of Roslin, (probable date 1600-1.) The
second purports to have been granted by
the Freemen Masons and Hammermen of
Scotland to Sir William St. Clair of Roslin,
(probable date May 1, 1628.)
However difficult it may be to decide as
to the precise date of these charters, there
are no Masonic manuscripts whose claim
to authenticity is more indisputable; for
the statements which they contain tally
not only with the uniformly accepted traditions of Scotch Masonry, but with the
written records of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, both of which show the intimate
connection that existed between the Freemasonry of that kingdom and the once
powerful but now extinct family of St.
is

St. Vincent,
Trinidad,

called its By-Laws; the

Grand Lodge are called

741

About three inches

St. Christopher's,

Curaqoa,
Dominica,
Dutch Guiana,
English Guiana,
French Guiana,
Guadeloupe,
Hayti,
Jamaica,

St.

CLAIR

Clair.

St. Clair, William. The St. Clairs

of Roslin, or, as it is often spelled, of Rosslyn, held for more than three hundred years
an intimate connection with the history of
Masonry in Scotland. William St. Clair,
Earl of Orkney and Caithness, was, in 1441,
appointed by King James II. the Patron
and Protector of the Masons of Scotland,
and the office was made hereditary in his
family. Charles Mackie says of him, (Lond.
Freem., May, 1851, p. 166,) that "he was
considered one of the best and greatest
Masons of the age." He planned the construction of a most magnificent collegiate
church at his palace of Roslin, of which,
however, only the chancel and part of the
transept were completed. To take part in
this design, he invited the most skilful
Masons from foreign countries; and in order
that they might be conveniently lodged
and carry on the work with ease and dispatch, he ordered them to erect the neighboring town of Roslin, and gave to each
of the most worthy a house and lands.
After his death, which occurred about
1480, the office of hereditary Patron was
transmitted to his descendants, who, says
Lawrie, (Hist., p. 100,) "held their principal annual meetings at Kilwinning."
The prerogative of nominating the officebearers of the Craft, which had always
been exercised by the kings of Scotland,
appears to have been neglected by James
VI. after his accession to the throne of
England. Hence the Masons, finding themselves embarrassed for want of a Protector,

742

ST.

CLAIR

(if that be the real

of the St. Clair Manuscripts,)- appointed William St. Clair of
Roslin, for himself and his heirs, their
After presiding
"patrons and judges."
over the Order for many years, says Lawrie, William St. Clair went to Ireland, and
in 1630 a second Charter was issued, granting to his son, Sir William St. Clair, the
same power with which his father had been
invested. This Charter having been signed
by the Masters and Wardens of the principal Lodges of Scotland, Sir William St.
Clair assumed the active administration of
the affairs of the Craft, and appointed his

about the year 1600,

date of the

first

Deputies and Wardens, as had been customary with his ancestors. For more than
a century after this renewal of the compact
between the Lairds of Roslin and the Masons of Scotland, the Craft continued to
flourish under the successive heads of the
family.
But in the year 1736, William St. Clair,
Esq., to whom the Hereditary Protectorship
had descended in due course of succession,
having no children of his own, became
anxious that the office of Grand faster
should not become vacant at his death.
Accordingly, he assembled the members" of

the Lodges of Edinburgh and its vicinity,

and represented to them the good effects
that would accrue to them if they should
in future have at their head a Grand Master
of their own choice, and declared his intention to resign into the hands of the Craft
his hereditary right to the office.
It was
agreed by the assembly that all the Lodges
of Scotland should be summoned to appear
by themselves, or proxies, on the approaching St. Andrew's day, at Edinburgh, to
take the necessary steps for the election of
a Grand Master.
In compliance with the call, the representatives of thirty-two Lodges met at
Edinburgh on the 30th of November, 1736,
when William St. Clair tendered the following resignation of his hereditary office
" I, William St. Clair, Esq., of Roslin,
taking into my consideration that the Masons in Scotland did, by several deeds, constitute and appoint William and Sir William St. Clairs of Roslin, my ancestors and
their heirs, to be their patrons, protectors,
judges, or masters and that my holding
or claiming any such jurisdiction, right, or
privilege might be prejudicial to the Craft
and vocation of Masonry, whereof I am a
member; and I, being desirous to advance
and promote the good and utility of the
said Craft of Masonry to the utmost of my
power, do therefore hereby, for me and my
heirs, renounce, quit-claim, overgive, and
discharge all right, claim, or pretence that
I, or my heirs, had, have, or any ways may
;

ST.

CLAIR

have, pretended to, or claim to be, patron,

protector, judge, or mas'ter of the Masons
in Scotland, in virtue of any deed or deeds
made and granted by the said Masons, or
of any grant or charter made by any of the
kings of Scotland to and in favor of the
said William and Sir William St. Clairs of
Roslin, my predecessors, or any other manner or way whatsoever, for now and ever
and I bind and oblige me and my heirs to
warrant this present renunciation and discharge at all hands. And I consent to the
registration hereof in the books of council
and session, or any other judges' books
competent therein to remain for preservation."
And then follows the usual formal
and technical termination of a deed.
The deed of resignation having been accepted, the Grand Lodge proceeded to the
election of its office-bearers, when William
St. Clair, as was to be expected, was unanimously chosen as Grand Master an office
which, however, he held but for one year,
being succeeded in 1737 by the Earl of
;

Cromarty. He lived, however, more than

half a century afterwards, and died in
January, 1778, in the seventy-eighth year
of his age.

The Grand Lodge of Scotland was not

unmindful of his services to the Craft, and
on the announcement of his death a funeral
Lodge was convened, when four hundred
brethren, dressed in deep mourning, being
present, Sir William Forbes, who was then
the Grand Master, delivered an impressive
address, in the course of which he paid the
following tribute to the character of St.
CI air. After alluding to his voluntary resignation of his high office for the good of
the Order, he added " His zeal, however,
to promote the welfare of our society was
not confined to this single instance for he
continued almost to the very close of life,
on all occasions where his influence or his
example could prevail, to extend the spirit
of Masonry and to increase the number of
the brethren. ... To these more conspicuous and public parts of his character I am
happy to be able to add, that he possessed
in an eminent degree the virtues of a benevolent and good heart
virtues which ought
ever to be the distinguishing marks of a
true brother."
Bro. Charles Mackie, in the London Freemasons' Quarterly Review, (1831, p. 167,)
thus describes the last days of this venerable patron of the Order. " William St.
Clair of Roslin, the last of that noble
family, was one of the most remarkable
personages of his time although stripped
of his paternal title and possessions, he
walked abroad respected and reverenced.
He moved in the first society; and if he
did not carry the purse, he was stamped
:

STEINBACH

STIRLING

with the impress of nobility. He did not

require a cubit to be added to his stature,
for he was considered the stateliest man of

the step.

his age."

The

Steiubacn, Erwin

of.

See Erwin

of Steinbach.

Steinmetz. German. A stonemason.

For an account of the German fraternity of
Steinmetzen, see Stonemasons of the Middle
Ages.

Step. The step can hardly be called a

mode of recognition, although Apuleius informs us that there was a peculiar step in
the Osiriac initiation which was deemed a
sign.
It is in Freemasonry rather an
esoteric usage of the ritual.
The steps can
be traced back as far as to at least the
middle of the last century, in the rituals of
which they are fully described. The custom
of advancing in a peculiar manner and
form, to some sacred place or elevated personage, has been preserved in the customs
of all countries, especially among the
Orientalists, who resort even to prostrations
of the body when approaching the throne
of the sovereign or the holy part of a religious edifice.
The steps of Masonry are
symbolic of respect and veneration for the

whence Masonic light is to emanate.

In former times, and in some of the high
degrees, a bier or coffin was placed in front
of the altar, as a well-known symbol, and
in passing over this to reach

altar,

the altar, those various positions of the feet were necessarily taken

the proper

which constitute

mode of advancing.

Respect was thus necessarily

paid to the memory of a
worthy artist as well as to the
holy altar. Lenning says of
the steps

which the German

earliest times,

743

was the true symbolism of

Steps on the Master's Carpet.

three steps delineated on the Master's
carpet, as one of trie symbols of the third
degree, refer to the three steps or stages of
human life youth, manhood, and old age.

This symbol

is one of the simplest forms

or modifications of the mystical ladder,
which pervades all the systems of initiation ancient and modern.
St erkin. One of the 'three Assassins,
according to the Hiramic legend of some
of the high degrees.
Lenning says the
word means vengeance: I know not on what
authority. STR are the letters of the Chaldaic verb to strike a blovj, and it may be that
the root of the name will be there found
but the Masonic corruptions of Hebrew
words often defy the rules of etymology. I
am much inclined to b'elieve that this and
some kindred words are mere anagrams, or
corruptions introduced into the high degrees by the adherents of the Pretender,
who sought in this way to do honor to the
friends of the house of Stuart, or to cast
infamy on its enemies. See Romvel.
Stewards. Officers in a Symbolic
Lodge, whose appointment is generally
vested in the Junior Warden. Their duties
are, to assist in the collection of dues and
subscriptions to prtvide the necessary refreshments, and make a regular report to
the Treasurer; and generally to aid the
Deacons and other officers in the performance of their duties. They usually carry
white rods, and the jewel of their office is a
cornucopia, which is a symbol of plenty.
;

Stewards,

Grand.

See

Grand

See

Grand

Stewards.

Stewards'

Lodge.

Stewards' Lodge.

call die Schritte der

Stirling. A city in Scotland which
Aufzunehmenden, the steps of
was the seat of a Lodge called the "Stirling
the recipients, and the French,
Ancient Lodge," which the author of the
les pas Mystlrieux, the mysintroduction to the General .Regulations of
terious steps
that "every degree has a the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland says
different number, which are made in a dif- conferred the degrees of Royal Arch, Red
ferent way, and have an allegorical mean- Cross or Ark, the Sepulchre, Knight of
ing."
Of the "allegorical meaning" of Malta, and Knight Templar until about the
those in the third degree, I have spoken beginning of the last century, when two
above as explicitly as would be proper. Lodges were formed
one for the cultivaG'adicke says: "The three grand steps tion of St. John's Masonry, which was the
symbolically lead from this life to the old one, and a new one called the " Royal
source of all knowledge."
Arch," for the high degrees although it,
It must be evident to every Master Mason, too, soon began to confer the first three
without further explanation, that the three degrees.
The "Ancient Lodge" joined
steps are taken from the place of darkness the Grand Lodge of Scotland at its formato the place of light, either figuratively or tion in 1736, but the new Lodge remained
really over a coffin, the symbol of death, to independent until 1759.
teach symbolically that the passage from
The same authority tells us that " in the
the darkness and ignorance of this life is Stirling Ancient Lodge are still preserved
through death to the light and knowledge two old, rudely - engraved brass plates:
of the eternal life.
And this, from the one of these relates to the first two degrees

Masons

"

LEGER

744

ST.

of Masonry;

the other contains on the

one side certain emblems belonging to a

Master's Lodge, and on the reverse five
figures; the one at the top is called the
Jiedd Cross or Ark.' At the bottom is a
series of concentric arches, which might be
mistaken for a rainbow, were there not a
keystone on the summit, indicative of an
'

The three other figures are inclosed

within a border; the upper is called the
Sepulchre ;' the second, Knight of Malta;'
and the third, Knight Templar.' The age
of these plates is unknown, but they can
scarcely be more modern than the beginning or middle of the seventeenth cen-

arch.
'

'

'

tury.

"

So circumstantial a description, inserted,

too, in a book of official authority, would
naturally lead to the conclusion that these
plates must have been in existence in 1845,
when the description was written. If they
ever existed, they have now disappeared, nor
have any traces of them been discovered.
Bro. W. James Hughan, whose indefatigable labors have been rewarded with so
many valuable discoveries, has failed, in this
search, to find success.
He says, (Lond.
Freemason,) "I spent some weeks, in odd
hours, looking up the question a few years
ago, and wrote officials in Edinburgh and
at Stirling, and also made special inquiries
at Stirling by kind to-operation of Masonic students who also investigated the
matter; but all our many attempts only
resulted in confirming what I was told at
the outset, viz., that ' No one knows aught
about them, either in Stirling or elsewhere.
The friends at Stirling say the plates were
sent to Edinburgh, and never returned, and
the Fraternity at Edinburgh declared they
were returned, and have since been lost.'
St. Iieger. See Aldworth.
St. Martin. See Saint Martin.
Stockings. In the last century, when
knee-breeches constituted a portion of the
costume of gentlemen, Masons were required, by a ritual regulation, to wear white
stockings. The fashion having expired, the
regulation is no longer in force.
StoLkin. In the elu degrees this is the
name of one of those appointed to search for
the criminals commemorated in the legend
of the third degree. It is impossible to trace
its derivation to any Hebrew root.
It may
be an anagram of a name, perhaps that of
one of the friends of the house of Stuart.
Stone. The stone, on account of its
hardness, has been from the most ancient
times a symbol of strength, fortitude,
and a firm foundation. The Hebrew word
|3X, EBEN, which signifies a stone, is derived, by Gesenius, from an obsolete root,
ABAN, to build, whence aban, an architect

and he refers it

to

AM AN AH, which means

STONEMASONS
a column, a covenant, and truth. The stone,
therefore, says Portal, {Symb. des Egypt.,)
may be considered as the symbol of faith

and truth

whence Christ taught the very

principle of symbology, when he called
Peter, who represented faith, the rock or
stone on which he would build his Church.
But in Hebrew as well as in Egyptian symbology the stone was also sometimes the
symbol of falsehood. Thus the name of
Typhon, the principle of evil in the Egyptian theogony, was always written in the
hieroglyphic characters with the determinative sign for a stone. But the stone of
Typhon was a hewn stone, which had the
same evil signification in Hebrew. Hence
Jehovah says in Exodus, " Thou shalt not
build me an altar of hewn stone;" and
Joshua built, in Mount Ebal, " an altar of
whole stones, over which no man hath lift
up any iron." The hewn stone was therefore a symbol of evil and falsehood the
:

unhewn stone of good and truth. This must

satisfy us that the Masonic symbolism of
the stone, which is the converse of this, has
not been derived from either the Hebrew
or the Egyptian symbology, but sprang
from the architectural ideas of the Operative Masons; for in Masonry the rough
ashlar, or unhewn stone, is the symbol of
man's evil and corrupt condition while the
perfect ashlar, or the hewn stone, is the symbol of his improved and perfected nature.
;

Stone, Corner. See Corner-Stone.

Stone, Cubical. See Cubical Stone.
Stone Manuscript. This Manuno longer in existence, having been
one of those which was destroyed, in 1720,

script is

by some too scrupulous brethren.

Preston

(ed. 1755, p. 190,) describes it as "

an old
was destroyed with
many others in 1720, said to have been in
manuscript,

which

the possession of Nicholas Stone, a curious

sculptor under Inigo Jones." Preston gives,
however, an extract from it, which details
the affection borne by St. Alban for the
Masons, the wages he gave them, and the
charter which he obtained from the king
to hold a general assembly.
(See Saint
Alban.) Anderson, (2d ed., p. 99,) who calls
Stone the Warden of Inigo Jones, intimates
that he wrote the Manuscript, and gives it
as authority for a statement that in 1607

Jones held the Quarterly Communications.

The extract made by Preston, and the brief
reference by Anderson, are all that is left
of the Stone Manuscript.

Stonemasons
Ages.

The

of the Middle

history of the origin and progress of the Brotherhood of Stonemasons

in Europe, during the Middle Ages, is of
great importance, as a study, to the Masonic
scholar, because of the intimate connection
that existed between that Brotherhood and

STONEMASONS

STONEMASONS

the Fraternity of Freemasons. Indeed, the

history of the one is but the introduction
In an historto the history of the other.
ical excursus, we are compelled to take up
the speculative science where we find it
left by the operative art.
Hence, whoever
shall undertake to write a history of Freemasonry, must give, for the completiou of
his labor, a very full consideration to the
Brotherhood of Stonemasons.
In the year 1820, there issued from the
press of Leipsic, in Germany, a work, by
Dr. Christian Ludwig Steiglitz, under the
title of Von AltdeuUcher Baukunst, that is,
" An Essay on the Old German Architecture."
In this work the author traces, with
great exactness, the rise and the progress
of the fraternities of Stonemasons from
the earliest times, through the Middle
Ages, until their final absorption into the
associations of Freemasons.
From the
labors of Dr. Steiglitz, collated with some
other authorities in respect to matters upon
which he is either silent or erroneous, I
have compiled the following sketch.
It is universally admitted that, in the
early ages of Christianity, the clergy alone
were the patrons of the arts and sciences.
This was because all learning was then almost exclusively confined to ecclesiastics.
Very few of the laity could read or write,
and even kings affixed the sign of the cross,
in the place of their signatures, to the
charters and other documents which they
issued, because, as they frankly confessed,
of their inability to write their names and
hence comes the modern expression of signing a paper, as equivalent to subscribing
the name.
From the time of Charlemagne, in the
eighth century, to the middle of the twelfth,
all knowledge and practice of architecture,
painting, and sculpture were exclusively
confined to the monks ; and bishops personally superintended the erection of the
churches and cathedrals in their dioceses,
because not only the principles, but the
practice of the art of building were secrets
scrupulously maintained within the walls
of cloisters, and utterly unknown to lay-

the practice of building, under the name

of Operarii, or Craftsmen, and Magistri
Operum, or Masters of the Works. The
labors and duties of these monks were divided.
Some of them designed the plan
of the building others were painters and
sculptors others were occupied in working
in gold and silver and embroidery; and
others again, who were called Ccementarii,
or Stonemasons, undertook the practical
labors of construction. Sometimes, especially in extensive buildings, where many

men.

Many of the founders of the Monastic

Orders, and especially among these St.
Benedict, made it a peculiar duty for the
brethren to devote themselves to architecture and church building.
The English monk Winfrid, better known in ecclesiastical history as St. Boniface, and
who, for his labors in Christianizing that
country, has been styled the Apostle
of Germany, followed the example of his
predecessors in the erection of German
monasteries. In the eighth century he
organized an especial class of monks for

4T

745

workmen were

required, laymen were also

employed, under the direction of the
monks. So extensive did these labors become, that bishops and abbots often derived
a large portion of their revenues from the
earnings of the workmen in the monasteries.

Among

the laymen

who were employed

in the monasteries as assistants

and labor-

many were

of course possessed of superior intelligence.

The constant and
intimate association of these with the
monks in the prosecution of the same design led to this result, that in process of
time, gradually and almost unconsciously,
the monks imparted to them their art
secrets and the esoteric principles of architecture.
Then, by degrees, the knowledge
of the arts and sciences went from these
monkish builders out into the world, and
the laymen architects, withdrawing from
the ecclesiastical fraternities, organized
brotherhoods of their own. Such was the
beginning of the Masonic fraternities in
Germany, and the same thing occurred in
other countries. These brotherhoods of
ers,

Masons now began

to be called

upon, as

the monks formerly had been, when an important building, and especially a church
or a cathedral, was to be erected.
Eventually they entirely superseded their monkish teachers in the prosecution of the art
of building. To their knowledge of architecture they added that of the other sciences,
which they had learned from the monks.
Like these, too, they devoted themselves to
the higher principles of the art, and employed other laymen to assist their labors
And thus the union of
as stone-masons.
these architects and stone-masons presented,
in the midst of an uneducated people, a more
elevated and intelligent class, engaged as
an exclusive association in building important and especially religious edifices.
But now a new classification took place.
As formerly, the monks, who were the sole
depositaries of the secrets of high art, separated themselves from the laymen, who
were intrusted with only the manual labor
of building; so now the more intelligent
of the laymen, who had received these secrets from the monks, were distinguished as

STONEMASONS

STONEMASONS

from the ordinary laborers, or

masons. The latter knew only
the use of the trowel and mortar, while the
former were occupied in devising plans for
building and the construction of ornaments

Platonic philosophy, and he attributes their

adoption in architecture to the natural
compliance of the architects or Freemasons
with the predominant taste in the earlier
periods of the Middle Ages for mysticism,
and the favor given to grotesque decora-

746
architects

common

by sculpture and skilful stone- cutting.

These brotherhoods of high artists soon
won great esteem, and many privileges and
franchises were conceded to them by the
municipal authorities among whom they
Their places of
practised their profession.
assembly were called Hutten, Logen, or
Lodges, and the members took the name of
Freemasons. Their patron saint was St.
John the Baptist, who was honored by them
as the mediator between the Old and the
New Covenants, and the first martyr of the
Christian religion. To what condition of
art these Freemasons of the Middle Ages
had attained, we may judge from what
Hallam says of the edifices they erected
that they " united sublimity in general composition with the beauties of variety and
form, skilful or at least fortunate effects of
shadow and light, and in some instances
extraordinary mechanical science." {Mid.
And he subsequently adds,
Ages, iv. 280.)
as an involuntary confirmation of the truth
of the sketch of their origin just given, that
the mechanical execution of the buildings
was " so far beyond the apparent intellectual powers of those times, that some have
ascribed the principal ecclesiastical structures to the Fraternity of Freemasons, depositaries of a concealed and traditionary

science.
There is probably some ground
for this opinion, and the earlier archives
of that mysterious association, if they
existed, might illustrate the progress of
Gothic architecture, and perhaps reveal its
origin."
[lb., 284.)
These archives do
exist, or

many

of them

and although un-

known

to Mr. Hallam, because they were

out of the course of his usual reading, they
have been thoroughly sifted by recent Masonic scholars, especially by our German
and English brethren and that which the
historian of the Middle Ages had only assumed as a plausible conjecture has, by
their researches, been proved to be a fact.
The prevalence of Gnostic symbols such
as lions, serpents, and the like
in the
decorations of churches of the Middle Ages,
have led some writers to conclude that the
Knights Templars exercised an influence
over the .architects, and that by them the
Gnostic and Ophite symbols were introduced into Europe. But Dr. Steiglitz denies the correctness of this conclusion. He
ascribes the existence of Gnostic symbols
in the church architecture to the fact that,
at an early period in ecclesiastical history,
many of the Gnostic dogmas passed over
into Christendom with the Oriental and
;

which were admired without any

knowledge of their actual import.
That there ever was any association of
the Knights Templars with the Freemasons
is still an uncertain and an undetermined

tions,

point of history.

If

it

did take place,

it

must have been at a very late period and

if any community or similarity of symbolism is to be detected among the two Orders,
it is more reasonable to ascribe it to the circumstance, that the Templars always associated a body of architects with themselves
for the erection of their own churches and
other buildings, and that these architects
were united in one and the same fraternity
with the Freemasons, whose secrets they
possessed, and whose architectural opinions
;

they shared.
Steiglitz also denies any deduction of the
Builders' Fraternities, or Masonic Lodges,
of the Middle Ages from the Mysteries of
the old Indians, Egyptians, and Greeks;
although ho acknowledges that there is a
resemblance between the organizations.
This, however, he attributes to the fact, that

the Indians and Egyptians preserved all

the sciences, as well as the principles of
architecture, among their secrets, and because, among the Greeks, the artists were
initiated into their mysteries, so that, in the
old as well as in the new brotherhoods,
there was a purer knowledge di religious
truth, which elevated them as distinct associations above the people. In like manner,

he denies the descent of the Masonic fraternities from the sect of Pythagoreans, which
they resembled only in this that the Samian sage established schools which were
secret, and were based upon the principles
:

of geometry.
But he thinks that those are not mistaken who trace the associations of Masons
of the Middle Ages to the Roman Colleges,
the Collegia Ccementariorum, because these
colleges appear in every country that was
conquered and established as a province or
a colony by the Romans, where they erected
temples and other public buildings, and promoted the civilization of the inhabitants.
They continued until a late period. But
when Rome began to be convulsed by the
wars of its decline, and by the incursions
of hordes of barbarians, they found a welcome reception at Byzantium, or Constantinople, whence they subsequently spread
into the west of Europe, and were everywhere held in great estimation for their
skill in the construction of buildings.

;;

'

STONEMASONS

STONEMASONS

In Italy the associations of architects

never entirely ceased, as we may conclude
from the many buildings erected there during the domination of the Ostrogoths and
the Longobards. Subsequently, when civil

"Their government was

where they fixed near the

order was restored, the Masons of Italy

were encouraged and supported by popes,

nine."

princes, and nobles.

And Muratori tells
us, in his Historia oV Italia, that under the

Lombard kings the

inhabitants of

Como

were so superior as masons and bricklayers,

that the appellation of Magistri Comacini,
or Masters from Como, became generic to
all

those of the profession.

In England, when the Romans took possession of it, the corporations, or colleges
of builders, also appeared, who were subsequently continued in the Fraternity of Freemasons, probably established, as Steiglitz
thinks, about the middle of the fifth century, after the Romans had left the island.
The English Masons were subjected to

many adverse

from the repeated

incursions of Scots, Picts, Danes, and Saxons, which impeded their active labors yet
were they enabled to maintain their existdifficulties,

747
and

regular,

building in

hand, they made a camp of huts. A surveyor governed in chief; every tenth man
was called a warden, and overlooked each

Mr. Hope, who, from his peculiar course

of studies, was better acquainted than Mr.
Hallam with the history of these Travelling
Freemasons, thus speaks, in his Essay on
Architecture, of their organization at this
time, by which they effected an identity of
architectural science throughout all Europe:
" The architects of all the sacred edifices
of the Latin Church, wherever such arose,
thus derived
north, south, east, or west
their science from the same central school
obeyed in their designs the dictates of the
same hierarchy were directed in their constructions by the same principles of propriety and taste kept up with each other,
in the most distant parts to which they
might be sent, the most constant corre-

ence, until, in the year 926, they held that

spondence; and rendered every minute

improvement the property of the whole
body, and a new conquest of the art."

General Assembly at the city of York

which framed the Constitutions that governed the English Craft for eight hundred
years, and which is claimed to be the oldest
Masonic record now extant. It is but fair

Working in this way, the Stonemasons,

as corporations of builders, daily increased
in numbers and in power. In the thirteenth century they assumed a new organization, which allied them more closely than

to say that the recent researches of Brother

Hughan and other English writers have
thrown a doubt upon the authenticity of
these Constitutions, and that the very existence of this York assembly has been denied.
But these are historical problems, the true
solution of which must be waited for until
the further researches of Masonic archaeologists shall present us with the necessary

ever with that Brotherhood of Speculative

Freemasons into which they were finally
merged in the eighteenth century.
The most important event in the cultivation and spread of Masonic art on the continent of Europe was that wT hich occurred
at the city of Strasburg, in Germany, when
Erwin of Steinbach, the architect of the

data for determining them. Until then it

is safer to adhere to the traditional theory
which admits the genuineness of the Constitutions and the fact of the assembly.
In France, as in Germany, the Fraternities of Architects originally sprang out of
the connection of lay builders with the
monks in the era of Charlemagne. The
French Masons continued their fraternities
throughout the Middle Ages, and erected
many cathedrals and public buildings.
have now arrived at the middle of the
eleventh century, tracing the progress of the
fraternities of Stonemasons from the time
of Charlemagne to that period. At that
time all the architecture of Europe was in
their hands.
Under the distinctive name
of Travelling Freemasons they passed from
nation to nation, constructing churches and
cathedrals wherever they were needed. Of
their organization and customs, Sir Christopher Wren, in his Parentalia, gives the fol-

We

lowing account

summoned a great number of

master-builders out of Germany, England,
and Italy, and in the year 1275 established
a code of regulations and organized the
Fraternity of Freemasons after the mode
which had been adopted, as is maintained
by many writers, three hundred and fifty
years before, by the English Masons at the
Lodges were then estabcity of York.
lished in many of the cities of Germany,
all of which fraternized with each other
but of these the precedence was conceded
to the Lodge at Strasburg, because that
city had been, as it were, the central point
whence German Masonic art had flowed.
Erwin of Steinbach was elected their preThree
siding officer, or Grand Master.
Masgrades of workmen were recognized
cathedral,

Fellow Crafts, and Apprentices and

words, signs, and grips were created as
modes of recognition to be used by the
members of the Fraternity, a part of which
was borrowed from the English Masons.
Finally, ceremonies of initiation were in-

ters,

STONEMASONS

STONEMASONS

vented, which were of a symbolical character, and concealed, under their symbolism,
profound doctrines of philosophy, religion,

The Stonemasons, as a fraternity of Operative Freemasons, distinguished from the

ordinary masons and laborers of the craft,
acquired at this time great prominence, and
were firmly established as an association.

748

and architecture.

Of

these ceremonies of initiation used

by the old German Stonemasons of the In 1452 a general assembly was convened
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Findel at Strasburg, and a new constitution framed,
which embraced many improvements and
gives the following interesting account
" On the day fixed, the candidate went modifications of the former one.
But seven
into the house where the assemblies were years afterwards, in 1459, Jost Dotzinger,
held, where the master of the chair had then holding the position of architect of
had everything prepared in due order in the the Cathedral of Strasburg, and, by virtue
hall of the Craft. The brethren were then of his office, presiding over the Craft of
summoned, (of course bearing no weapon Germany, convened a general assembly of
of any kind, it being a place dedicated to the Masters of all the Lodges at the city of
peace,) and the assembly was opened by the Ratisbon. There the code of. laws which
Master, who first acquainted them with the had been adopted at Strasburg in 1452,
proposed inauguration of the candidate, under the title of "Statutes and Reguladispatching a brother to prepare him. The tions of the Fraternity of Stonemasons of
messenger, in imitation of an ancient hea- Strasburg," was fully discussed and sancIt was then also resolved that
then custom, suggested to his companion tioned.
that he should assume the demeanor of a there should be established four Grand
supplicant.
He was then stripped of all Lodges, at Strasburg, at Vienna, at Coweapons, and everything of metal taken logne, and at Zurich and they also deterfrom him he was divested of half his gar- mined that the master workman, for the
ments, and, with his eyes bound and breast time being, of the Cathedral of Strasburg
and left foot bare, he stood at the door of should be the Grand Master of the Freethe hall, which was opened to him after masons of Germany. These constitutions
three distinct knocks. The Junior Warden or statutes are still extant, and are older
conducted him to the Master, who made than any other existing Masonic record of
him kneel and repeat a prayer. The can- undoubted authenticity, except the manudidate was then led three times around the script of Halliwell. They were " kindly
hall of the Gild, halting at last at the door, and affably agreed upon," according to their
and putting his feet together in the form of preamble, " for the benefit and requirea right angle, that he might in three up- ments of the Masters and Fellows of the
right square steps place himself in front of whole Craft of Masonry and Masons in
the Master. Between the two, lying open Germany."
on the table, was a New Testament, a pair
General assemblies, at which important
of compasses, and a mason's square, over business was transacted, were held in 1464
which, in pursuance of an ancient custom, at Ratisbon, and in 1469 at Spire, while
he stretched out his right hand, swearing provincial assemblies in each of the Grand
to be faithful to the duties to which he Lodge jurisdictions were annually conpledged himself, and to keep secret what- vened.
ever had been, or might be thereafter, made
In consequence of a deficiency of emknown to him in that place. The bandage ployment, from political disturbances and^
was then removed from his eyes, the three other causes, the Fraternity now for a brief
great lights were shown him, a new apron period declined in its activity. But it was
bound round him, a password given him, speedily revived when, in October, 1498,
and his place in the hall of the Gild pointed the Emperor Maximilian I. confirmed its
out to him." {Hist of Freemasonry, p. 65.) statutes, as they had been adopted at StrasThese fraternities or associations became burg, and recQgnized its former rights and
at once very popular.
Many of the poten- privileges. This act of confirmation was
tates of Europe, and among them the Em- renewed
by the succeeding emperors,
peror Rudolf I., conceded to them consid- Charles V. and Ferdinand I. In 1563 a
erable powers of jurisdiction, such as would general assembly of the Masons of Gerenable them to "preserve the most rigid many and Switzerland was convened at the
system in matters pertaining to building, city of Basle by the Grand Lodge of Strasand would facilitate them in bringing mas- burg. The Strasburg constitutions were
ter builders and stone-masons together at again renewed with amendments, and what
any required point. Pope Nicholas III. was called the Stonemasons' Law (das Steingranted the Brotherhood, in 1278, letters werkrecht) was established.
The Grand
of indulgence, which were renewed by his Lodge of Strasburg continued to be recogsuccessors, and finally, in the next century, nized as possessing supreme appellate jurisby Pope Benedict XII.
diction in all matters relating to the Craft.
:

STONEMASONS

STONEMASONS
Even the senate of that

city

had acknowl-

prerogatives, and had conceded

to it the privilege of settling all controversies in relation to matters connected with
building; a concession which was, however,
revoked in 1620, on the charge that the
privilege had been misused.
Thus the Operative Freemasons of Germany continued to work and to cultivate
the high principles of a religious architecBut on March 16, 1707, up to
tural art.
which time the Fraternity had uninterruptedly existed, a decree of the Imperial
Diet at Ratisbon dissolved the connection
of the Lodges of Germany with the Grand
Lodge of Strasburg, because that city had
passed into the power of the French. The

edged

its

head being now

began rapidly

the subordinate bodies

In several of
the German cities the Lodges undertook to
assume the name and exercise the functions of Grand Lodges but these were all
abolished by an imperial edict in 1731,
which at the same time forbade the administration of any oath of secrecy, and transferred to the government alone the adjudication of all disputes among the Craft.
From this time we lose sight of any national organization of the Freemasons in
Germany until the restoration of the Order,
in the eighteenth century, through the
lost,

to decline.

749

France and the Roman Colleges of Buildwas more intimate and direct than that
of the Germans, because of the early and
very general occupation of Gaul by the
Roman legions but the French organization did not materially differ from the
German. Protected by popes and princes,
the Masons were engaged, under ecclesiasers

tical patronage, in the construction of religious edifices. In France there was also a
peculiar association, ihePontifices, or Bridge
Builders, closely connected in design and
character with the Masonic fraternity, and
the memory of which is still preserved in
the name of one of the degrees of the
Scottish Rite, that of "Grand Pontiff."
The principal seat of the French Stonemasonry was in Lombardy, whence the Lodges
were disseminated over the kingdom, a fact
which is thus accounted for by Mr. Hope
" Among the arts exercised and improved
in Lombardy," he says, " that of building
held a pre-eminent rank, and was the more
important because the want of those ancient edifices to which they might recur
for materials already wrought, and which
Rome afforded in such abundance, made
the architects of these more remote regions

dependent on their own

own

skill

and

free to

conceptions." But in the

beginning of the sixteenth century, the
English Fraternity. But in many cities
necessity for their employment in the furas in Basle, Zurich, Hamburg, Dantzic, ther construction of religious edifices havand Strasburg
they preserved an inde- ing ceased, the Fraternity began to decline,
pendent existence under the statutes of and the Masonic corporations were all
1559, although they lost much of the pro- finally dissolved, with those of other workfound symbolical knowledge of architec- men, by Francis I., 1539. Then originated
ture which had been possessed by their that system which the French call Compredecessors.
pagnonnage, s. system of independent Gilds
Before leaving these German Stonema- or brotherhoods, retaining a principle of
sons, it is worth while to say something of community as to the art which they practhe symbolism which they preserved in tised, and with, to some extent, a secret
their secret teachings.
They made much bond, but without elevated notions or genThe socieuse, in their architectural plans, of mysti- eral systematic organizations.
cal numbers, and among these five, seven, ties of Compagnons were, indeed, but the
and nine were especially prominent. Among debris of the Masonic Lodges. Freemacolors, gold and blue and white possessed sonry ceased to exist in France as a recogsymbolic meanings.
The foot-rule, the nized system until its revival in the eighcompasses, the square, and the gavel, with teenth century.
some other implements of their art, were
In England, we have already seen that
consecrated with a spiritual signification. the stone-masons, under the distinctive apThe east was considered as a sacred point pellation of Freemasons, held a general asand many allusions were made to Solo- sembly at the city of York, in the year
mon's Temple, especially to the pillars of 926, and there adopted those constitutions
the porch, representations of which are to which have always been. looked upon as
be found in several of the cathedrals.
the fundamental law of English Masonry.
In France the history of the Free Stone- Of course, the very calling of this assembly
masons was similar to that of their German proves that the Freemasons were previously
brethren.
Originating, like them, from in activity in the kingdom, which is, in
the cloisters, and from the employment of fact, otherwise proved by the records of the
laymen by the monkish architects, they building at an earlier period, by them, of
associated themselves together as a brother- cathedrals, abbeys, and castles. But we
hood superior to the ordinary stone-masons. date the York assembly as the first known
The connection between the Masons of and acknowledged organization of the Craft

follow their

750
in

England

STONEMASONS
into a national body, or

STONE
Grand

Their history differs but little

Lodge.
from that which has already been detailed.
but in the possession
Stonemasons, in fact

of many professional secrets originally derived from their monkish teachers, as well
as from the Roman colleges, with which,
like the Masons of France, they had an intimate communication through the legions

which had been encamped

years in England

for so

many

they called themselves

Freemasons, to be distinguished from the

ordinary laborers and common stone-masons, who were generally of a servile con'

dition, and had neither the intellectual

elevation, nor the devotion to high religious
art, which belonged exclusively to the
" freeborn " fraternity.

After the organization at York, annual

assemblies, it is said, were regularly held,
and the transactions of several of them
to us by historical
The Fraternity experienced, as
records.
in other countries, its alternate periods of

have been transmitted

Finally, about
prosperity and of decay.
the end of the seventeenth century it had
so far declined, that only seven Lodges
were to be found in the whole of London
and its suburbs. It is to the glory of the English Masons that they now adopted that
bold and wise policy which alone could
have saved the Brotherhood from absolute
dissolution.
In 1703 a statute was enacted,
which entirely changed the objects of the
From an operative society, it
institution.
became wholly speculative in its character.
It ceased to build material temples, and
devoted itself to the erection of a spiritual
It retained the working-tools and the
one.
technical terms of art of the original operative institution, simply because of the religious symbolism which these conveyed.
And its members invited to their assemblies men of learning and science, who
might find in their discussions topics congenial with their intellectual labors.
The happiest results speedily followed;
and in 1717 the Grand Lodge of England
was organized, or rather restored, on the
new basis of a speculative society. The
effect was soon seen in other countries
for,
through the instrumentality of the Grand
Lodge of England, which became, indeed,
the Mother Lodge of the world, Freema;

sonry was everywhere revived. Lodges on

the English moael, which afterwards gave
rise to the establishment of Grand Lodges
in their respective countries, were organized in France in 1729, in Holland in 1731,
in

Germany

in 1733,

and in Italy in 1735.

spread in other countries with more or

less activity, and was established in 1733 in
America. From that time to the present
day the history of Freemasonry has been
It

entirely separated from that of Stonemasonry.

see, then, in conclusion, that the
Stonemasons
coming partly from the Roman Colleges of Architects, as in England,
in Italy, and in France, but principally, as
in Germany, from the cloistered brotherhoods of monks
devoted themselves to
the construction of religious edifices. They
consisted mainly of architects and skilful
operatives ; but
as they were controlled
by the highest principles of their art, were
in possession of important professional secrets, were actuated by deep sentiments of
religious devotion, and had united with
themselves in their labors men of learning,
wealth, and influence
they assumed from
the very beginning the title of Freemasons,
to serve as a proud distinction between
themselves and the ordinary laborers and
uneducated workmen, many of whom were
of servile condition.
Subsequently, in the beginning of the
eighteenth century, they threw off the operative element of their institution, and,
adopting an entirely speculative character,
they became the Freemasons of the present
day, and established on an imperishable
foundation that sublime Institution which
presents over all the habitable earth the
most wonderful system of religious and
moral symbolism that the world ever saw.
Stone, Nicholas. See Stone Manu-

We

script.

Stone of Foundation. The

Stone

of Foundation constitutes one of the most

important and abstruse of all the symbols
of Freemasonry. It is referred to in numerous legends and traditions not only of
the Freemasons, but also of the Jewish
Rabbis, the Talmudic writers, and even
the Mussulman doctors. Many of these, it
must be confessed, are apparent^ puerile
and absurd but most of them, and especially the Masonic ones, are deeply interesting in their allegorical signification.
The Stone of Foundation' is, properly
speaking, a symbol of the higher degrees.
It makes its first appearance in the Royal
Arch, and forms indeed the most important symbol of that degree. But it is so
intimately connected, in its legendary history, with the construction of the Solomonic Temple, that it must be considered
as a part of Ancient Craft Masonry, although he who confines the range of his
investigations to the first three degrees
will have no means, within that narrow
limit, of properly appreciating the symbolism of the Stone of Foundation.
As preliminary to the inquiry, it is necessary to distinguish the Stone of Foundation, both in its symbolism and its legendary history, from other stones which play
;

STONE

STONE

an important part in the Masonic ritual,

but which are entirely distinct from it.
Such are the corner-stone, which was always

legends of Masonry should be read, the

legend of the Stone of Foundation becomes
one of the most important and interesting
of all the Masonic symbols.
The Stone of Foundation is supposed,
by the theory which establishes it, to have
been a stone placed at one time within the
foundations of the Temple of Solomon,
and afterwards, during the building of the
second Temple, transported to the Holy of
Holies. It was in form a perfect cube, and
had inscribed upon its upper face, within a
delta or triangle, the sacred Tetragrammaton, or ineffable name of God.
Oliver,
speaking with the solemnity of a historian,
says that Solomon thought that he had
rendered the house of God worthy, so far
as human adornment could effect, for the
dwelling of God, " when he had placed the
celebrated Stone of Foundation, on which
the sacred name was mystically engraven,
with solemn ceremonies, in that sacred depository on Mount Moriah, alone with the
foundations of Dan and Asher, the centre
of the Most Holy Place, where the ark was
overshadowed by the shekinah of God."
The Hebrew Talmudists, who thought as
much of this stone, and had as many legends concerning it, as the Masonic Talmudists, called it eben shatijah, or " Stone of
Foundation," because, as they said, it had
been laid by Jehovah as the foundation of
the world, and hence the apocryphal book
of Enoch speaks of the " stone which supports the corners of the earth."
This idea of a foundation-stone of the
world was most probably derived from that
magnificent passage of the book of Job
(ch. xxxviii.) in which the Almighty demands of Job,

placed in the north-east corner of the building about to be erected, and to which such
a beautiful reference is made in the ceremonies of the first degree or the keystone,
which constitutes an interesting part of the
Mark Master's degree or, lastly, the capestone, upon which all the ritual of the
Most Excellent Master's degree is founded.
These are all, in their proper places, highly
interesting and instructive symbols, but
have no connection whatever with the
Stone of Foundation, whose symbolism it
Nor, alis our present object to discuss.
though the Stone of Foundation is said,
for peculiar reasons, to have been of a cubical form, must it be confounded with that
stone called by the continental Masons the
the pierre cubique of the
cubical stone
French and the cubik stein of the German
Masons, but which in the English system
is known as the perfect ashlar.
The Stone of Foundation has a legendary history and a symbolic signification
which are peculiar to itself, and which differ from the history and meaning which
belong to these other stones. I propose
first to
define this Masonic Stone of
Foundation, then to collate the legends
which refer to it, and afterwards to invesTo the
tigate its significance as a symbol.
Mason who takes a pleasure in the study
of the mysteries of his Institution, the in;

vestigation cannot fail to be interesting, if

conducted with any ability.

in the very beginning, as a necessary preliminary to any investigation of
this kind, it must be distinctly understood
that all that is said of this Stone of Foundation in Masonry is to be strictly taken
in a mythical or allegorical sense.
Dr.
Oliver, while undoubtedly himself knowing that it was simply a symbol, has
written loosely of it as though it were a
it is

But

substantial reality and hence, if the passages in his Historical Landmarks, and in
his other works which refer to this celebrated stone, are accepted by his readers in
a literal sense, they will present absurdities
;

and

which would not occur if

the Stone of Foundation was received, as
it really is, as a myth conveying a most
profound and beautiful symbolism. It is
puerilities

as such that it is to be treated here; and,

therefore, if a legend is recited or a tradition related, the reader is requested on
every occasion to suppose that such legend
or tradition is not intended as the recital
or relation of what is deemed a fact in Masonic history, but to wait with patience for

the development of the symbolism which

it conveys.
Bead in this spirit, as all the

751

"

thou, when I laid the foundation

of the earth ?
Declare, since thou hast such knowledge
Who fixed its dimensions, since thou knowest!
Or who stretched out the fine upon it ?
Upon what were its foundations fixed?

Where wast

And who

laid its corner-stone,

When
And

the morning stars sang together,

all the sons of God shouted for joy

"

Noyes, whose translation I have adopted

as not materially differing from the common version, but far more poetical and
more in the strain of the original, thus explains the allusions to the foundationstone " It was the custom to celebrate the
:

laying of the corner-stone of an important

building with music, songs, shouting, etc.
Hence the morning stars are represented
as celebrating the laying of the cornerstone of the earth."
Upon this meagre statement has been
accumulated more traditions than apperThe
tain to any other Masonic symbol.

STONE

STONE

Rabbins, as has already been intimated,

divide the glory of these apocryphal hisindeed, there is
tories with the Masons
good reason for a suspicion that nearly all
the Masonic legends owe their first existence to the imaginative genius of the
But there
writers of the Jewish Talmud.
is this difference between the Hebrew and
the Masonic traditions that the Talmudic
scholar recited them as truthful histories,
and swallowed, in one gulp of faith, all

he cunningly obtained a knowledge of the

Tetragrammaton from the Stone of Foundation, and by its mystical influence was
enabled to perform his miracles.
The Masonic legends of the Stone of
Foundation, based on these and other rabbinical reveries, are of the most extraordinary character, if they are to be viewed
as histories, but readily reconcilable with
sound sense, if looked at only in the light
of allegories. They present an uninter-

752

rupted succession of events, in which the

Stone of Foundation takes a prominent
part, from Adam to Solomon, and from
Solomon to Zerubbabel.
Thus, the first of these legends, in order
of time, relates that the Stone of Foundation was possessed by Adam while in the
legends.
Garden of Eden; that he used it as an
In that blasphemous work, the Toldoth altar, and so reverenced it that, on his exJeshu, or Life of Jesus, written, it is sup- pulsion from Paradise, he carried it with
posed, in the thirteenth or fourteenth cen- him into the world in which he and his
tury, we find the following account of this descendants were afterwards to earn their
wonderful stone
bread by the sweat of their brow.
" At that time [the time of Jesus] there
Another legend informs us that from
was in the House of the Sanctuary [that is, Adam the Stone of Foundation descended
the Temple] a stone of foundation, which to Seth. From Seth it passed by regular
is the very stone that our father Jacob succession to Noah, who took it with him
anointed with oil, as it is described in the into the ark, and after the subsidence of
twenty- eighth chapter of the book of Gene- the deluge made on it his first thank-offersis.
On that stone the letters of the Tetra- ing. Noah left it on Mount Ararat, where
grammaton were inscribed, and whosoever it was subsequently found by Abraham,
of the Israelites should learn that name who removed it, and constantly used it as
would be able to master the world. To an altar of sacrifice. His grandson Jacob
prevent, therefore, any one from learning took it with him when he fled to his uncle
these letters, two iron dogs were placed Laban in Mesopotamia, and used it as a
upon two columns in front of the Sanctu- pillow when, in the vicinity of Luz, he had
ary.
If any person, having acquired the his celebrated vision.
knowledge of these letters, desired to deHere there is a sudden interruption in the
part from the Sanctuary, the barking of legendary history of the stone, and we have
the dogs, by magical power, inspired so no means of conjecturing how it passed
much fear that he suddenly forgot what he from the possession of Jacob into that of
had acquired."
Solomon. Moses, it is true, is said to have
This passage is cited by the learned taken it with him out of Egypt at the time
Buxtorf in his Lexicon Talmudicum ; but in of the exodus, and thus it may have finally
my copy of the Toldoth Jeshu, I find an- reached Jerusalem. Dr. Adam Clarke reother passage, which gives some additional peats, what he very properly calls " a foolparticulars, in the following words
ish tradition," that the stone on which Ja" At that time there was in the Temple cob rested his head was afterwards brought
the ineffable name of God, inscribed upon to Jerusalem, thence carried after a long
the Stone of Foundation.
For when King lapse of time to Spain, from Spain to IreDavid was digging the foundation for the land, and from Ireland to Scotland, where
Temple, he found in the depths of the exca- it was used as a seat on which the kings of
vation a certain stone on which the name Scotland sat to be crowned. Edward I.,
of God was inscribed. This stone he re- we know, brought a stone to which this
moved and deposited it in the Holy of legend is attached from Scotland to WestHolies."
minster Abbey, where, under the name of
The same puerile story of the barking Jacob's Pillow, it still remains, and is aldogs is repeated still more at length. It ways placed under the chair upon which
is not pertinent to the present inquiry, but
the British sovereign sits to be crowned;
it may be stated, as a mere matter of curious
because there is an old distich which deinformation, that this scandalous book, clares that wherever this stone is found the
which is throughout a blasphemous defa- Scottish kings shall reign.
mation of our Saviour, proceeds to say, that
But this Scottish tradition would take the
their

impossibilities

and

anachronisms

while the Masonic scholar has received

them as allegories, whose value is not in
the facts, but in the sentiments which they
convey.
With this understanding of their meaning, let us proceed to a collation of these

STONE

STONE
Stone of Foundation away from

Ma-

all its

sonic connections, and therefore it is rejected as a Masonic legend.

The legends just related are in manyrespects contradictory and unsatisfactory,
and another series, equally as old, is now
very generally adopted by Masonic scholars
as much better suited to the symbolism by
which all these legends are explained.
This series of legends commences with
the patriarch Enoch, who is supposed to have
been the first consecrator of the Stone of
Foundation. The legend of Enoch is so
interesting and important in this connection as to excuse its repetition in the present work.
The legend in full is as follows Enoch,
under the inspiration of the Most High, and
in obedience to the instructions which he
had received in a vision, built a temple
underground on Mount Moriah, and dedicated it to God. His son, Methuselah, constructed the building, although he was not
:

acquainted with his father's motives for the

erection.
This temple consisted of nine
vaults, situated perpendicularly beneath
each other, and communicating by apertures left in each vault.

Enoch then caused a triangular plate of

gold to be made, each side of which was a
cubit long he enriched it with the most
precious stones, and encrusted the plate
upon a stone of agate of the same form.
On the plate he engraved the true name of
God, or the Tetragrammaton, and placing
it on a cubical stone, known thereafter as
the Stone of Foundation, he deposited the
whole within the lowest arch.
When this subterranean building was
completed, he made a door of stone, and
attaching to it a ring of iron, by which it
might be occasionally raised, he placed it
over the opening of the uppermost arch,
and so covered it that the aperture could
not be discovered. Enoch, himself, was
not permitted to enter it but once a year
and on the deaths of Enoch, Methuselah,
and Lamech, and the destruction of the
world by the deluge, all knowledge of the
vault or subterranean temple and of the
Stone of Foundation, with the sacred and
;

ineffable name inscribed

for ages to the world.

upon

it,

was

lost

At the building of the first Temple of

Jerusalem, the Stone of Foundation again
makes its appearance. Reference has already been made to the Jewish tradition
that David, when digging the foundations
of the Temple, found in the excavation
which he was making a certain stone, on
which the ineffable name of God was inscribed, and which stone he is said to have
removed and deposited in the Holy of
Holies. That King David laid the founda-

4U

48

753

tions of the Temple upon which the superstructure was subsequently erected by Solomon, is a favorite theory of the legendmongers of the Talmud.
The Masonic tradition is substantially
the same as the Jewish, but it substitutes
Solomon for David, thereby giving a greater
air of probability to the narrative, and it
supposes that the stone thus discovered by
Solomon was the identical one that had
been deposited in his secret vault by Enoch.
This Stone of Foundation, the tradition

was subsequently removed by King

Solomon and, for wise purposes, deposited
in a secret and safer place.
In this the Masonic tradition again agrees
states,

with the Jewish, for we find in the third

chapter of the Treatise on the Temple, the
following narrative
" There was a stone in the Holy of Holies,
on its west side, on which was placed the
ark of the covenant, and before the pot of
manna and Aaron's rod. But when Solomon had built the Temple, and foresaw
that it was at some future time to be destroyed, he constructed a deep and winding vault under ground, for the purpose of
concealing the ark, wherein Josiah afterwards, as we learn in the Second Book of
Chronicles, xxxv. 3, deposited it with the
pot of manna, the rod of Aaron, and the
oil of anointing."
The Talmudical book Yoma gives the
same tradition, and says that " the ark of
the covenant was placed in the centre of
the Holy of Holies, upon a stone rising
three fingers' breadth above the floor, to
be as it were a pedestal for it." This stone,
says Prideaux, in his Old and New Testa-

ment Connected, (vol. i., p. 148,) "the Rabbins call the Stone of Foundation, and give
us a great deal of trash about it."
There is much controversy as to the
question of the existence of any ark in the
second Temple. Some of the Jewish writers
assert that a new one was made; others
that the old one was found where it had
been concealed by Solomon; and others
again contend that there was no ark at all
in the temple of Zerubbabel, but that its
place was supplied by the Stone of Founit had originally rested.
Royal Arch Masons well know how all

dation on which

these traditions are sought to be reconciled

by the Masonic legend, in which the substitute ark and the Stone of Foundation
play so important a part.
In the thirteenth degree of the Ancient
and Accepted Rite, the Stone of Foundation is conspicuous as the resting-place of
the sacred delta.
In the Royal Arch and Select Master's
degrees of the American Rite, the Stone
of Foundation constitutes the most im-

STONE

STONE

portant part of the ritual. In both of

these it is the receptacle of the ark, on
which the ineffable name is inscribed.
Lee, in his Temple of Solomon, has devoted
a chapter to this Stone of Foundation, and
thus recapitulates the Talmudic and Rabbinical traditions on the subject
"Vain and fut&ous are the feverish
dreams of the ancient Rabbins concerning
the Foundation-Stone of the Temple. >ome
assert that God placed this stone in the
centre of the world, for a future basis and
settled consistency for the earth to rest
upon. Others held this stone to be the
first matter out of which all the beautiful
visible beings of the world have been hewn
Others reforth and produced to light.
late that this was the very same stone laid
by Jacob for a pillow under his head, in
that night when he dreamed of an angelic
vision at Bethel, and afterwards anointed
and consecrated it to God. Which when
Solomon had found (no doubt by forged
revelation or some tedious search like another Rabbi Selemoh) he durst not but lay
it sure, as the principal Foundation-Stone
of the Temple. Nay, they say further, he
caused to be engraved upon it the Tetragrammaton, or the ineffable name of Jehovah."
It will be seen that the Masonic traditions on the subject of the Stone of Foundation do not differ very materially from
these Rabbinical ones, although they add a
few additional circumstances.
In the Masonic legend, the FoundationStone first makes its appearance, as we have
already said, in the days of Enoch, who
placed it in the bowels of Mount Moriah.
There it was subsequently discovered by
King Solomon, who deposited it in a crypt
of the first Temple, where it remained concealed until the foundations of the second
Temple were laid, when it was discovered
and removed to the Holy of Holies. But
the most important point of the legend of
the Stone of Foundation is its intimate
and constant connection with the Tetra-

there was a very general prevalence among

the earliest nations of antiquity of the worship of stones as the representatives of
Deity secondly, that in almost every ancient temple there was a legend of a sacred
or mystical stone; thirdly, that this legend is found in the Masonic system ; and
lastly, that the mystical stone there has
received the name of the " Stone of Foundation."
Now, as in all the other systems the
stone is admitted to be symbolic, and the
traditions connected with it mystical, we
are compelled to assume the same prediIt, too, is
cates of the Masonic stone.
symbolic, and its legend a myth or an

754

grammaton

allegory.

Of the fable, myth, or allegory, Bailly

has said that, " subordinate to history and
philosophy, it only deceives that it may the
better instruct us.
Faithful in preserving
the realities which are confided to it, it
covers with its seductive envelop the lessons of the one and the truths of the other."
It is from this stand-point that we are to
view the allegory of the Stone of Foundation, as developed in one of the most interesting and important symbols of Masonry.

The fact that the mystical stone in all

the ancient religions was a symbol of the
Deity, leads us necessarily to the conclusion that the Stone of Foundation was also
a symbol of Deity. And this symbolic idea
is strengthened by the Tetragrammaton, or
sacred name of God, that was inscribed
upon it. This ineffable name sanctifies the
stone upon which it is engraved as the symbol of the Grand Architect. It iakes from
it its

heathen signification as an idol, and

it to the worship of the true

consecrates

God.

The predominant idea of the Deity, in

the Masonic system, connects him with his
creative and formative power. God is to
the Freemason Al Gabil, as the Arabians
called him, that is, The Builder; or, as expressed in his Masonic title, the Grand
Architect of the Universe, by common consent abbreviated in the formula G A O T U.
Now, it is evident that no symbol could so
appropriately suit him in this character as
the Stone of Foundation, upon which he

or ineffable name. It is this

name, inscribed upon it within the sacred
and symbolic delta, that gives to the stone
all its Masonic value and significance.
It
is upon this fact, that it was so inscribed,
that its whole symbolism depends.
is allegorically supposed to have erected his
Looking at these traditions in anything world. Such a symbol closely connects the
like the light of historical narratives, we creative work of God, as a pattern and exare compelled to consider them, to use the emplar, with the workman's erection of his
plain language of Lee, "but as so many temporal building on a similar foundationidle and absurd conceits."
We must go stone.
behind the legend, which we acknowledge
But this Masonic idea is still further to
at once to be only an allegory, and study be extended.
The great object of all Maits

symbolism.

The following facts

can, I think, be readily established from history.

First, that

sonic labor is divine truth. The search for

the lost word is the search for truth. But
divine truth is a term synonymous with

:
;

STONE

STONE

God. The ineffable name is a symbol of

truth, because God, and God alone, is truth.
It is properly a scriptural idea.
The Book
of Psalms abounds with this sentiment.
Thus it is said that the truth of the Lord
"reacheth unto the clouds," and that "his
truth endureth unto all generations." If,
then, God is truth, and the Stone of Foundation is the Masonic symbol of God, it
follows that it must also be the symbol of
divine truth.
When we have arrived at this point in
our speculations, we are ready to show how
all the myths and legends of the Stone of
Foundation may be rationally explained as
parts of that beautiful " science of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by
symbols," which is the acknowledged definition of Freemasonry/
In the Masonic system there are two temples the first temple, in which the degrees
of Ancient Craft Masonry are concerned,
and the second temple, with which the
higher degrees, and especially the Eoyal
Arch, are related. The first temple is symbolic of the present life ; the second temple
The first
is symbolic of the life to come.
temple, the present life, must be destroyed
on its foundations the second temple, the
;

must be built.
But the mystical stone was placed by
King Solomon in the foundations of the
first Temple.
That is to say, the first temple of our present life must be built on the
life eternal,

bol of divine truth,

755,

upon which

all

specula-

tive Masonry is built, and the legends and

traditions which refer to it are intended to
describe, in an allegorical way, the progress
of truth in the soul, the search for which is
a Mason's labor, and the discovery of which
is his reward.

Pavement.

Oliver says that,

Stone
in the English system, " the stone pavement
is a figurative appendage to a Master Masons' Lodge, and, like that of the Most
Holy Place in the Temple, is for the High
Priest to walk on."
This is not recognized
in the American system, where the stone
or Mosaic pavement is appropriated to the
Entered Apprentice's degree.

Stone, Rejected.

St.

Matthew

re-

cords (xxi. 42) that our Lord said to the

chief priests and elders, " Did ye never
read in the Scriptures, The stone which the
builders rejected, the same is become the
head of the corner?"
Commenting on
" It is an exthis, Dr. Adam Clarke says
:

pression borrowed from masons, who, finding a stone which, being tried in a particular place, and appearing improper for it,
is thrown aside and another taken ; however, at last, it may happen that the very
stone which had been before rejected may be
found the most suitable as the head stone of
the corner." This is precisely the symbolism
of the Mark Master or fourth degree of the
American Rite, where the rejected stone is
suggested to the neophyte "as a consolation under all the frowns of fortune, and as
an encouragement to hope for better prospects."
Bro. G. F. Yates says that the
symbolism of the rejected stone in the
present Mark degree is not in the original
Master Mark Mason's degree, out of which

sure foundation of divine truth, " for other

foundation can no man lay."
But although the present life is necessarily built upon the foundation of truth, yet
we never thoroughly attain it in this sublunary sphere. The Foundation-Stone is
concealed in the first temple, and the Mas- Webb manufactured his ritual, but was
ter Mason knows it not.
He has not the introduced by him from some other untrue word. He receives only a substitute. known source.
But in the second temple of the future life,
Stone-Squarers. See Giblim.
we have passed from the grave which had
Stone, White. Among the ancient
Greeks and Romans, sentence was given in
been the end of our labors in the first.
have removed the rubbish, and have found courts of judicature by white and black
that Stone of Foundation which had been stones or pebbles. Those wno were in favor
hitherto concealed from our eyes.
now of acquittal cast a white stone, and those
throw aside the substitute for truth which who were for condemning, a black one.
had contented lis in the former temple, and So, too, in popular elections a white stone
the brilliant effulgence of the Tetragramma- was deposited by those who were favorable
ton and the Stone of Foundation are discov- to the candidate, and a black one by those
In this ancient
ered, and thenceforth we are the possessors who wished to reject him.
of the true word
of divine truth. And in practice we find the origin of white and
this way, the Stone of Foundation, or divine black balls in the Masonic ballot.
Hence,
truth, concealed in the first temple, but dis- too, the white stone has become the symbol
covered and brought to light in the second, of absolution in judgment, and of the conwill explain that passage of the Apostle
The white
ferring of honors and rewards.
" For now we see through a glass darkly
stone with the new name, mentioned in the
but then, face to face now I know in part
Mark Master's degree, refers to the keybut then I shall know face to face."
stone.
And so the result of this inquiry is, that
Stone, William Iieete. An Amerthe Masonic Stone of Foundation is a sym- ican journalist and writer, who was born in

We

We

STONE

STONE

New York in 1792, and died

in 1844. He was the author of several
literary works, generally of a biographical
But his largest work was " Letcharacter.
ters on Masonry and anti- Masonry, ad-

who, unable to frame, by their meagre

principles of plastic art, a true image of
the God whom they adored, were content
to substitute in its place a rude or scarcely
polished stone. Hence the Greeks, according to Pausanias, originally used unhewn
stones to represent their deities, thirty of
which, that historian says, he saw in the
city of Pharoe.
These stones were of a
cubical form, and, as the greater number
of them were dedicated to the god Hermes,
or Mercury, they received the generic name
of Hermce. Subsequently, with the improvement of the plastic art, the head was added.
So difficult, indeed, was it, in even the
most refined era of Grecian civilization, for
the people to divest themselves of the influences of this superstition, that Theophrastus characterizes " the superstitious
man " as one who could not resist the impulse to bow to those mysterious stones
which served to mark the confluence of the

756
the State of

dressed to the Hon. John Quincy Adams/'

New York, 1832, 8vo, pp. 56Q. This was
one of the productions which were indebted for their appearance to the antiMasonic excitement that prevailed at that
time in this country. Although free from
the bitterness of tone and abusive language
which characterized most of the contemporaneous writings of the anti-Masons, it
is, as an argumentative work, discreditable,
It
to the critical acumen of the author.
abounds in statements made without authority and unsustained by proofs, while its
premises being in most instances false, its
deductions are necessarily illogical.

Stone Worship. This was, perhaps,

the earliest form of fetichism. Before the
discovery of metals, men were accustomed
stones.
From Chna,
Sanchoniathan calls "the first

to worship

whom

unhewn

highways.

One of these consecrated stones was

placed before the door of almost every
house in Athens. They were also placed
in front of the temples, in the gymnasia or
schools, in libraries, and at the corners of
streets, and in the roads.
When dedicated
to the god Terminus they were used as
landmarks, and placed as such upon the
concurrent lines of neighboring possessions.

Phoenician," the Canaanites learned the

practice, the influence of which we may
trace in the stone pillar erected and consecrated by Jacob. The account in Genesis xxviii. 18, 22, is that " Jacob took the
stone that he had put for his pillows and
set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon
The Thebans worshipped Bacchus under
the top of it and he called the name of the
place Bethel, saying, This stone which I have the form of a rude, square stone.
Arnobius says that Cybele was represet for a pillar shall be God's house." The
Israelites were repeatedly commanded to sented by a small stone of a black color.
destroy the stone idols of the Canaanites, Eusebius cites Porphyry as saying that the
and Moses corrects his own people when ancients represented the Deity by a black
stone, because his nature is obscure and infalling into this species of idolatry.
Various theories have been suggested as scrutable. The reader will here be reLord minded of the black stone, Hadsjar el Asto the origin of stone worship.
Karnes supposes that fact by supposing wad, placed in the south-west corner of the
that stones erected as monuments of the Kaaba at Mecca, which was worshipped by
dead became the place where posterity paid the ancient Arabians, and is still treated
their veneration to the memory of the de- with religious veneration by the modern
ceased, and that at length the people, losing Mohammedans. The Mussulman priests,
sight of the emblematical signification, however, say that it was originally white,
which was not readily understood, the and of such surprising splendor that it could
monumental stones at length became ob- be seen at the distance of four days' journey, but that it has been blackened by the
jects of worship.
Others have sought to find the origin of tears of pilgrims.
The Druids, it is well known, had no
stone worship in the stone that was set up
and anointed by Jacob at Bethel, and the other images of their gods but cubical or
tradition of which had extended into the sometimes columnar stones, of which Toheathen nations and become corrupted. It land gives several instances.
The Chaldeans had a sacred stone, which
is certain that the Phoenicians worshipped
sacred stones under the name of Bcetylia, they held in great veneration, under the
which word is evidently derived from the name of Mnizuris, and to which they sacriHebrew Bethel, and this undoubtedly gives ficed for the purpose of evoking the Good
some appearance of probability to the Demon.
Stone worship existed among the early
theory.
But a third theory supposes that the American races. Squier quotes Skinner as
worship of stones was derived from the asserting that the Peruvians used to set up
unskilfulness of the primitive sculptors, rough stones in their fields and plantations,
;

STONE

STONE

757

which were worshipped as protectors of their

Even in the present day, the worship has
And Gama says that in Mexico the not been altogether abandoned, but still
presiding god of the spring was often repre- exists in some remote districts of Christensented without a human body, and in place dom. Scheffer, in his Description of Lapthereof a pilaster or square column, w hose land, (cited by Mr. Tennent, in Notes and
pedestal was covered with various sculp- Queries, 1st Ser., v. 122,) says, that in 1673
the Laplanders worshipped an unhewn
tures.
Indeed, so universal was this stone wor- stone found upon the banks of lakes and
ship, that Higgins, in his Celtic Druids, rivers, and which they called " hied kie
crops.

says that " throughout the world the first

object of idolatry seems to have been a
plain, unwrought stone, placed in the
ground, as an emblem of the generative
or procreative powers of nature."
And
Bryant, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, asserts that " there is in every oracular
temple some legend about, a stone."
Without further citations of examples
from the religious usages of antiquity, it
will, I think, be conceded that the cubical
stone formed an important part of the religious worship of primitive nations.
But
Cudworth, Bryant, Faber, and all other
distinguished writers who have treated the
subject, have long since established the
theory that the Pagan religions were eminently symbolic. Thus, to use the language of Dudley, the pillar or stone " was

adopted as a symbol of strength and firmness

a symbol, also, of the divine power,
and, by a ready inference, a symbol or idol
of the Deity himself." And this symbolism is confirmed by Phurnutus, whom Toland quotes as saying that the god Hermes
was represented without hands or feet, being a cubical stone, because the cubical
figure betokened his solidity and stability.

The

influence of this old stone worship,

but of course divested of its idolatrous
spirit, and developed into the system of
symbolic instruction, is to be found in Masonry, where the reference to sacred stones
is made in the Foundation-Stone, the Cubical Stone, the Corner-Stone, and some
other symbols of a similar character. Indeed, the stone supplies Masonic science

with a very important and diversified symbolism.

As stone worship was one of the oldest
of the deflections from the pure religion,
so it was one of the last to be abandoned.
decree of the Council of Aries, which was
held in the year 452, declares that " if, in
any diocese, any infidel either lighted
torches or worshipped trees, fountains, or
stones, or neglected to destroy them, he
"should be found guilty of sacrilege."
A
similar decree was subsequently issued by
the Council of Tours in 567, that of Nantes
in 658, and that of Toledo in 681.
Charlemagne, of France, in the eighth century,
and Canute, of England, in the eleventh,
found it necessary to execrate and forbid
the worship of stones.

jubmal, that

the stone god." Martin, in

Western Islands, (p.
88,) says: " There is a stone set up near a
mile to the south of St. Columbus's church,
about eight feet high and two broad. It is
called by the natives the bowing stone ; for
when the inhabitants had the first sight
of the church, they set up this, and then
bowed, and said the Lord's Prayer." He
also describes several other stones in different parts of the islands which were objects
of veneration. Finally, in a work published
about twenty years ago by the Earl of
Roden, entitled Progress of the Reformation
in Ireland, he says, (p. 51,) that at Inniskea, an island off the coast of Mayo, " a
stone carefully wrapped up in flannel is
brought out at certain periods to be adored
and when a storm arises, this god is supplicated to send a wreck on their coasts."
Tennent, to whom I am indebted for
these citations, adds another from Borlase,
who, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, says
(b. iii., c. ii., p. 162,) that "after Christianity took place, many [in Cornwall] concoming
tinued to worship these stones
thither with lighted torches, and praying
is,

his Description of the

for safety and success."

It is more than probable that in

many

remote regions of Europe, where the sun

of Christianity has only darted its dimmest
rays, this old worship of sacred stones still
remains.

Strasburg, Cathedral of. This

has always been considered as one of the
finest Gothic buildings in Europe, and its
spire is the highest in the world, being 466
feet.
The original cathedral was founded
in 504, but in 1007 it was almost completely destroyed

by lightning.

The

pres-

ent edifice was begun in 1015 and completed in 1439. The cathedral of Strasburg
is very closely connected witn the history
of Freemasonry. The most important association of master builders, says Stieglitz,
{Von Altdeusch. Bauk.,) for the culture and
extension of German art, was that which
took place at Strasburg under Erwin von
Steinbach. As soon as this architect had
undertaken the direction of the works at
the Strasburg cathedral, he summoned masons out of Germany, England, and Italy,
and formed with them a brotherhood,
through which, in 1275, a Freemasonry
according to the English system was es-

STRASBURG

758

Thence hutten, or Lodges, were

tablished.
In 1459, on April
scattered over Europe.
25, says Grandidier, the Masters of many

STUART
and materials
Temple.

for the construction of the

brotherhood for the continuation of the labors on the cathedral.

It was attended by
a large concourse of Masons from Germany,
England, and Italy. It was at this Congress that the German builders and architects, in imitation of their English brethren, assumed the name of Freemasons, and
established a system of regulations for the

Strict Observance, Rite of. The

Rite of Strict Observance was a modification of Masonry, based on the Order of
Knights Templars, and introduced into Germany in 1754 by its founder, the Baron
Hund. It was divided into the following
seven degrees: 1. Apprentice; 2. Fellow
Craft; 3. Master; 4. Scottish Master; 5.
Novice 6. Templar 7. Professed Knight.
According to the system of the founder
of this Rite, upon the death of Jacques
Molay, the Grand Master of the Templars,
Pierre dAumont, the Provincial Grand
Master of Auvergne, with two Commanders
and five Knights, retired for purposes of
safety into Scotland, which place they
reached disguised as Operative Masons,
and there finding the Grand Commander,
George Harris, and several Knights, they
determined to continue the Order. Aumont
was nominated Grand Master, at a Chapter
held on St. John's day, 1313. To avoid
persecution, the Knights became Freemasons.
In 1361, the Grand Master of the
Temple removed his seat to Old Aberdeen,
and from that time the Order, under the
veil of Masonry, spread rapidly through
France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and
elsewhere. These events constituted the
principal subject of many of the degrees of
the Rite of Strict Observance. The others
were connected with alchemy, magic, and
The great
other superstitious practices.
doctrine contended for by the followers of
the Rite was, " that every true Mason is a
Knight Templar." For an account of the
rise, the progress, the decay, and the final
extinction of this once important Rite,

government of the

see

of these Lodges assembled at Ratisbon and

drew up an Act of Fraternity, which made
the master of the works at Strasburg, and
his successors, the perpetual Grand Masters
of the Fraternity of German Freemasons.
This was confirmed by the Emperor Maximilian in 1498. By the statutes of this association, the Haupt-Hiitte, Grand or Mother Lodge of Strasburg, was invested with
a judicature, without appeal, over all the
Lodges of Germany. Strasburg thus takes
in German Masonry a position equivalent
to that of York in the Masonry of England,
or Kilwinning in that of Scotland. And
although the Haupt-Hiitte of Strasburg
with all other Haupt-Hutten were abolished by an imperial edict on August 16,
1731, the Mother Lodge never lost its prestige.
"This," says Findel, [Hist, 72,) "is
the case even now in many places in Germany the Saxon Stonemasons still regarding the Strasburg Lodge as their chief
Lodge." See Stonemasons.
Strasburg, Congress of. Two important Masonic Congresses have been hold;

en at Strasburg.
The first Congress of Strasburg. This was
convoked in 1275 by Erwin von Steinbach.
The object was the establishment of a

Craft.

The second Congress of Strasburg. This

was convoked by the Grand Lodge, or
Haupt-Hiitte of Strasburg, in 1564, as a
continuation of one which had been held
in the same year at Basle.
Here several
statutes were adopted, by which the Steinwerksrecht,
Stonemasons' law, was
or
brought into a better condition.
Strength. This is said to be one of
the three principal supports of a Lodge, as
the representative of the whole Institution,
because it is necessary that there should be
Strength to support and maintain every
great and important undertaking, not less
than there should be Wisdom to contrive it,
and Beauty to adorn it. Hence, Strength
is symbolized in Masonry by the Doric
column, because, of all the orders of architecture, it is the most massive; by the
Senior Warden, because it is his duty to
strengthen and support the authority of the
Master and by Hiram of Tyre, because of
the material assistance that he gave in men
;

Hund, Baron

Von.
Striking off a Lodge
from the registry of the Grand Lodge is a
phrase of English Masonry, equivalent to
what in America is called a forfeiture of
charter.
It is more commonly called

Striking Off.

"erasing from the

list

of Lodges."

Stuart Masonry.

This

title is

given

by Masonic historians to that system of

Freemasonry which is supposed to have
been invented by the adherents of the exiled house of Stuart for the purpose of
being used as a political means of restoring,
first, James II., and afterwards his son and
grandson, James and Charles Edward, re-

known in history as the ChevaGeorge and the Young Pretender.

Most of the conclusions to which Masonic
writers have arrived on the subject of this
connection of the Stuarts with the high
degrees of Masonry are based on conjecture; but there is sufficient internal evi-^
dence in the character of some of these
spectively

lier St.

degrees, as well as in the

known

history

STUART

STUART

of their organization, to establish the fact

that such a connection did actually exist.
The first efforts to create a Masonic influence in behalf of his family is attributed
to James II., who had abdicated the throne
of England in 1688. Of him, Noorthouck
says, [Const., 192,) that he was not "a
Brother Mason," and sneeringly adds, in
his index, that " he might have been a better king had he been a Mason."
But Lenning says that after his flight to France,
and during his residence at the Jesuit College of Clermont, where he remained for
some time, his adherents, among whom
were the Jesuits, fabricated certain degrees
with the ulterior design of carrying out
their political views.
At a later period
these degrees were, he says, incorporated
into French Masonry under the name of
the Clermont system, in reference to their
original construction at that place.
G'adicke had also said that many Scotchmen
followed him, and thus introduced Freemasonry into France. But this opinion
is only worthy of citation because it proves
that such an opinion was current among
the German scholars of the last century.
On his death, which took place at the
palace of St. Germain en Laye in 1701, he
was succeeded in his claims to the British

Chapter of Herodem, known under the title

of Knight of the Eagle and Pelican, and
since our misfortunes and disasters under
that of Rose Croix."
In 1748, the Rite of the Veille-Bru, or
Faithful Scottish Masons, was created at
Toulouse in grateful remembrance of the
reception given by the Masons of that

throne by his son, who was recognized by

Louis XIV., of France, under the title of
James III., but who is better known as the
Chevalier St. George, or the Old Pretender.
He also sought, says Lenning, to find in
the high degrees of Masonry a support for
his political views, but, as he remarks, with
no better results than those which had attended the attempts of his father.
His son, Prince Charles Edward, who
was commonly called by the English the
Young Pretender, took a more active part
than either his father or grandfather in the
pursuits of Masonry and there is abundant
historical evidence that he was not only a
Mason, but that he held high office in the
Order, and was for a time zealously engaged
in its propagation
always, however, it is
supposed, with political views.
In 1745 he invaded Scotland, with a view
to regain the lost throne of his ancestors,
and met for some time with more than par;

success.
On September 24, 1745, he
was admitted into the Order of Knights
Templars, and was elected Grand Master, an
office which it is said that he held until his
death. On his return to France after his
tial

the Prince established

on April 15, 1747, a
Rose Croix Chapter under the title of
Scottish Jacobite Chapter.
In the Patent
for this Chapter he styles himself " King
of England, France, Scotland, and Ireland,
and, as such, Substitute Grand Master of the
ill-fated expedition,

at the city of Arras,

759

Orient to Sir Samuel Lockhart, the aidde-camp of the Pretender. Ragon says,
(Orth. Magon., 122,) in a note to this statement, the " favorites who accompanied this
prince into France were in the habit of
selling to speculators Charters for Mother
Lodges, Patents for Chapters, etc. These
titles were their property, and they did not
fail to make use of them as a means of

livelihood."
It is admitted that the Chevalier Ramsay
fabricated degrees in the interest of the
Stuart cause. Ragon says ( Thuil. Gen., 367,)
th at th e degrees of Irish
aster, Perfect Irish
Master, and Puissant Irish Master were
invented in France, in 1747, by the favorites
of Charles Edward Stuart, and sold to the
partisans of that prince. One degree was
openly called the " Scottish Master of the
Sacred Vault of James VI.," as if to indiThe degree still
cate its Stuart character.
exists as the thirteenth of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite, but it has been
shorn of its political pretensions and its
Ramsay's interest in betitle changed.
half of the cause of the house of Stuart is
to be attributed to the fact that he was at
one time the tutor of the two princes,

Charles Edward afterwards the Young

Pretender, and Henry afterwards Cardinal

York.
Findel has given in his History of Freemasonry, (Lyon's trans., p. 209,) a very calm
and impartial account of the rise of this
Stuart Masonry. He says
"Ever since the banishment of the
Stuarts from England in 1688, secret alliances had been kept up between Rome and
Scotland for to the former place the Pre;

tender James Stuart had retired in 1719,

and his son Charles Edward was born there
in 1720 and these communications became
the more intimate, the higher the hopes of
the Pretender rose. The Jesuits played a
very important part in these conferences.
Regarding the reinstatement of the Stuarts
and the extension of the power of the
Roman church as identical, they sought at
that time to make the society of Freemasons subservient to their ends. But to
make use of the Fraternity to restore the
exiled family to the throne could not possibly have been contemplated, as Freemasonry could hardly be said to exist in
Perhaps in 1724, when
Scotland then.
Ramsay was a year in Rome, or in 1728.
;

SUBLIME

STUART

760

when the Pretender in Parma kept up an

intercourse with the restless Duke of Wharton, a Past Grand Master, this idea was
first entertained; and then, when it was
apparent how difficult it would be to corrupt the loyalty and fealty of Freemasonry
in the Grand Lodge of Scotland, founded
in 1736, this scheme was set on foot, of
assembling the faithful adherents of the
banished royal family in the high degrees
The soil which was best adapted for this
innovation was France, where the low ebb
to which Masonry had sunk had paved the
way for all kinds of new-fangled notions,
and where the Lodges were composed of
Scotch conspirators and accomplices of the
Jesuits.
When the path had thus been
smoothed by the agency of these secret
propagandists, Ramsay, at that time Grand
Orator (an office unknown in England), by
his speech completed the preliminaries
necessary for the introduction of the high
degrees their further development was left
to the instrumentality of others, whose influence produced a result somewhat different
from that originally intended. Their course
we can now pursue, assisted by authentic
historical information.
In 1752, Scottish
Masonry, as it was denominated, penetrated
into Germany, (Berlin,) prepared from a
ritual very similar to one used in Lille in
1749 and 1750. In 1743, Thory tells us, the
Masons in Lyons, under the name of the
" Petit Elu," invented the degree of Kadosh, which represents the revenge of the
Templars. The Order of Knights Templars had been abolished in 1311, and to
that epoch they were obliged to have recourse when, after tlie banishment of several
Knights from Malta in 1720 because they
were Freemasons, it was not longer possible
to keep up a connection with the Order of
St. John or Knights of Malta, then in the
plenitude of their power under the sovereignty of the Pope.
pamphlet entitled
Freemasonry Divested of all its Secrets, published in Strasburg in 1745, contains the
first glimpse of the Strict Observance, and
demonstrates how much they expected the
brotherhood to contribute towards the expedition in favor of the Pretender.
From what has been said, it is evident
that the exiled house of Stuart exercised
an important part in the invention and extension of what has been called the High
Masonry. The traces of the political system are seen at the present day in the internal organization of some of the high degrees
especially in the derivation and
meaning of certain significant words.
There is, indeed, abundant reason for believing that the substitute word of the
third degree was changed by Ramsay, or
some other fabricator of degrees, to give it
J

a reference to James

II. as

the " son of the

widow," Queen Henrietta Maria.

Further researches are needed to enable
any author to satisfactorily write all the details of this interesting episode in the history of continental Masonry. Documents
are still wanting to elucidate certain intricate and, at present, apparently contradictory points.
Sublime. The third degree is called
" the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason,"
in reference to the exalted lessons that it
teaches of God and of a future life.
The
epithet is, however, comparatively modern.
It is not to be found in any of the rituals
of the last century. Neither Hutchinson,
nor Smith, nor Preston use it ; and it was
not, therefore, I presume, in the original
Prestonian lecture. Hutchinson speaks
of "the most sacred and solemn Order"
and of " the exalted," but not of " the sublime " degree. Webb, who based his lectures on the Prestonian system, applies no
epithet to the Master's degree. In an edition of the Constitutions, published at Dublin in 1769, the Master's degree is spoken
of as "the most respectable;" and forty
years ago the epithet " high and honorable " was used in some of the rituals of this
country. The first book in which we meet
with the adjective " sublime " applied to the
third degree, is the Masonic Discourses of
Dr. T. M. Harris, published at Boston in
1801.
Cole also used it in 1817, in his
Freemasons' Library ; and about the same
time Jeremy Cross, the well-known lecturer, introduced it into his teachings,
and used it in his Hieroglyphic Chart,
which was, for many years, the textbook of American Lodges. The word is
now, however, to be found in the modern
English lectures, and is of universal use in
the rituals of the United States, where the
third degree is always called "the sublime
degree of a Master Mason."
The word sublime was the password of the
Master's degree in the Adonhiramite Rite,
because it was said to have been the surname of Hiram, or Adonhiram. On this
subject, Guillemain, in his Recueil Precieux,
(i., 106,) makes the following singular re-

marks
" For a long time a great number of Masons were unacquainted with this word, and
:

they erroneously made use of another in its

stead which they did not understand, and
to which they gave a meaning that was
doubtful and improbable. This is proved
by the fact that the first knights adopted
for the Master's password the Latin word
Sublimis, which the French, as soon as
they received Masonry, pronounced Sublime,
which was so far very well. But some profanes, who were desirous of divulging our

SUBLIME

SUBLIME

secrets, but who did not perfectly understand this word, wrote it Jiblime, which they
Others, who folsaid signified excellence.
lowed, surpassed the error of the first by
printing it Giblos, and were bold enough to
say that it was the name of the place where
the body of Adonhiram was found. As in
those days the number of uneducated was

considerable,

these

ridiculous

assertions

were readily received, and the truth was

generally forgotten."
The whole of this narrative is a mere visionary invention of the founder of the Adonhiramite system but it is barely possible
that there is some remote connection between the use of the word sublime in that
Rite, as a significant word of the third de;

The presiding

officer

761

represents

King

Solomon, and in the old rituals is styled

" Most Puissant," but in recent ones " Thrice
Illustrious."

The apron is white, lined and bordered

with black, with black strings on the flap
a flaming heart.
The sash is black, with a flaming heart
on the breast, suspended from the right
shoulder to the left hip.
The jewel is a sword of justice.
This is the last of the three Elus which
are found in the Ancient and Accepted
In the French Rite they
Scottish Rite.
have been condensed into one, and make
the fourth degree of that ritual, but not, as
Ragon admits, with the happiest effect.
;

The names of the Twelve Illustrious

modern employment as an
same degree. However, the Knights selected to preside over the twelve
ordinary signification of the word, as refer- tribes, as they have been transmitted to us
ring to things of an exalted character, in the ritual of this degree, have undoubtwould alone sufficiently account for the use edly assumed a very corrupted form. The
gree,

and

its

epithet of the

restoration of their correct orthography,

of the epithet.

Sublime Degrees. The

and with it their true signification, is

grees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish worthy the attention of the Masonic stueleven de-

Rite, from the fourth to the fourteenth inclusive, are so called. Thus Dalcho {Report
of Com., 1802,) says: " Although many of
the Sublime degrees are in fact a continuation of the Blue degrees, yet there is no
interference between the two bodies."

Sublime Orand Lodge. A

title

formerly given in the Ancient and Accepted

Rite to what is now simply called a Lodge
of Perfection. Thus, in 1801, Dr. Dalcho
delivered in Charleston, South Carolina, an
address which bears the title of " An oration delivered in the Sublime

{Sub-

Called also Sublime

lime Chevalier elu.)
Knight Elected of the Twelve. The eleventh degree of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite. Its legend is that it was instituted by King Solomon after punishment
had been inflicted on certain traitors at the
Temple, both as a recompense for the zeal
and constancy of the Illustrious Elect of
Fifteen, who had discovered them, and

him to elevate other deserving brethren from the lower degrees to that
which had been vacated by their promotion.
also to enable

Twelve of these fifteen he elected Sublime

Knights, and made the selection by ballot,
that he might give none offence, putting
the names of the whole in an urn. The
first twelve that were drawn he formed into
a Chapter, and gave them command over
the twelve tribes, bestowing on them a
name which in Hebrew signifies a true
man.
The meeting of a body of Sublime
Knights is called a Chapter.
The room is hung with black strewed
tears.

Sublime Masons. The initiates into

the fourteenth degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Rite are so called. Thus Dalcho
(Orat. 27) says " The Sublime Masons view
:

symbolic system with reverence, as

forming a test of the character and capacity
of the initiated." This abbreviated form
is now seldom
used, the fuller one of

the

"Grand,

Elect, Perfect,

and Sublime Ma-

sons " being more generally employed."

Sublime Prince of the Royal

Grand Lodge." Secret.

Sublime Knight Elected.

with

dent.

This is the thirty-second degree

of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. There
is abundant internal evidence, derived from
the ritual and from some historical facts,
that the degree of Sublime Prince of
the Royal Secret was instituted by the
founders of the Council of Emperors of
the East and West, which body was established in the year 1758.
It is certain that
before that period we hear nothing of such
a degree in any of the Rites. The Rite
of Heredom or of Perfection, which was
that instituted by the Council of Emperors,
consisted of twenty-five degrees. Of these
the twenty -fifth, and highest, was the Prince
of the Royal Secret. It was brought to
America by Morin, as the summit of the
High Masonry which he introduced, and
for the propagation of which he had received his Patent. In the subsequent extension of the Scottish Rite about the
beginning of the present century, by the
addition of eight new degrees to the original twenty-five, the Sublime Prince of the
Royal Secret became the thirty-second.
Bodies of the thirty-second degree are
called Consistories, and where there is a

SUBLIME

SUBSTITUTE

superintending body erected by the Supreme Council for the government of the
inferior degrees in a State or Province, it
is called a Grand Consistory.
The clothing of a Sublime Prince conThe
sists of a collar, jewel, and apron.
collar is black edged with white.
The jewel is a Teutonic cross of gold.
The apron is white edged with black.
On the flap are embroidered six flags, three
on each side the staffs in saltier, and the
On the centre
flags blue, red, and yellow.
of the flap, over these, is a Teutonic cross
surmounted by an All-seeing Eye, and on the
cross a double-headed eagle not crowned.
On the body of the apron is the tracingboard of the degree. The most important

the Mason, but not necessarily to be enforced.

In the " Charges of a Freemason,"

762

(Anderson, 1st

"With

ed., 56,) it is said, (vi. 6:)

respect to Brothers or Fellows at

law, the Master and Brethren should kindly

offer their mediation; which ought to be
thankfully submitted to by the contending
Brethren and if that submission is impracticable, they must, however, carry on their
process or lawsuit without wrath or rancour."
Subordinate Lodge. So called to
indicate its subordination to the Grand
Lodge as a supreme, superintending power.
;

See Lodge.

Subordinate Officers.

In a Grand
the officers below the Grand Master, and in a Lodge, all those below the
Worshipful Master, are styled Subordinate
So, too, in all the other branches
Officers.
of the Order, the presiding officer is supreme, the rest subordinate.
Subordination. Although it is the
theory of Freemasonry that all the brethren
are on a level of equality; yet in the practical working of the Institution a subordination of ranks has been always rigorously
observed. So the Charges approved in 1722,
Lodge,

all

and which had been collected by Anderson

from the Old Constitutions, say: "These
rulers and governors, supreme and subordinate, of the ancient Lodge, are to be
obeyed in their respective stations by all
the Brethren, according to the Old Charges
and Regulations, with all humility, rever-

ence, love,

part of the symbolism of the degree is the

tracing-board, which is technically called
"The Camp." This is a symbol of deep
import, and in its true interpretation is
found that " royal secret " from which the
degree derives its name. This Camp constitutes an essential part of the furniture
of a Consistory during an initiation, but
its explanations are altogether esoteric.
It
is a singular fact, that notwithstanding the
changes which the degree must have underfone in being transferred from the twenty fth of one Rite to the thirty-second of
another, no alteration was ever made in
the Camp, which retains at the present day
the same form and signification that were
originally given to it.
The motto of the degree is " Spes mea in

Deo

est,"

i. e.,

My

hope

is

in God.

Sublime Solomon. {Salomon SubA degree in the manuscript collec-

lime.)

tion of Peuvret.

Sublimes, Tbe. {Les Sublimes.) One

of the degrees of the Ancient Chapter of
Clermont.
Submission. Submission to the mediatorial offices of his brethren in the case
of a dispute is a virtue recommended to

and

alacrity."

Oh. iv.

Substitute Ark. See Ark, Substitute.

Substitute Candidate. An arrangement resorted to in the Royal Arch
degree of the American system, so as to
comply pro forma with the requisitions of
the ritual. In the English, Scotch, and
Irish systems, there is no regulation requiring the presence of three candidates, and,
therefore, the practice of employing substiIn
tutes is unknown in those countries.
the United States the usage has prevailed
from a very early period, although opposed
at various times by conscientious Companions, who thought that it was an improper
evasion of the law. Finally, the question
as to the employment of substitutes came
before the General Grand Chapter in September, 1872, when it was decided, by a
vote of ninety-one to thirty, that the use
of substitutes is not in violation of the
ritual of Royal Arch Masonry or the installation charges delivered to a High
Priest.
The use of them was therefore
authorized, but the Chapters were exhorted
not to have recourse to them except in
cases of emergency; an unnecessary exhortation, it would seem, since it was only
in such cases that they had been employed.

SUBSTITUTE
Substitute

Grand Master.

SUCCESSION

syllable, as it is now pronounced,

should properly be divided into two. These
four syllables compose three Hebrew words,
which constitute a perfect and grammatical
phrase, appropriate to the occasion of their
utterance.
But to understand them, the
scholar must seek the meaning in each syllable, and combine the whole.
In the language of Apuleius, I must forbear to enlarge upon these holy mysteries.

The

third officer in the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

He presides over the Craft in the
absence of the Grand and Deputy Grand
Masters. The office was created in the
year 1738. He is elected by the Grand
Lodge, and serves for one year.
This is an exSubstitute
pression of very significant suggestion to
the thoughtful Master Mason. If the Word
is, in Masonry, a symbol of Divine Truth;
if the search for the Word is a symbol of
the search for that Truth if the Lost Word
symbolizes the idea that Divine Truth has
not been found, then the Substitute Word is
a symbol of the unsuccessful search after
Divine Truth and the attainment in this
life, of which the first Temple is a type, of
what is only an approximation to it. The
idea of a substitute word and its history is to
be found in the oldest rituals of the last century but the phrase itself is of more recent
date, being the result of the fuller development of Masonic science and philosophy.
The history of the substitute word has
been an unfortunate one. Subjected from
a very early period to a mutilation of form,
it underwent an entire change in some
Kites, after the introduction of the high
degrees ; most probably through the influence of the Stuart Masons, who sought by an
entirely new word to give a reference to the
unfortunate representative of that house as
the similitude of the stricken builder. (See
Macbenac.) And so it has come to pass
that there are now two substitutes in use,
of entirely different form and meaning ; one
used on the continent of Europe, and one in
England and this country.
It is difficult in this case, where almost
all the knowledge that we can have of the
subject is so scanty, to determine the exact
time when or the way in which the new
word was introduced. But there is, I think,
abundant internal evidence in the words
themselves as to their appropriateness and
the languages whence they came, (the one
being pure Hebrew, and the other, I think,
Gaelic,) as well as from the testimony of old
rituals, to show that the word in use in the
United States is the true word, and was the
one in use before the revival.
Both of these words have, however, unfortunately been translated by persons
ignorant of the languages whence they are
derived, so that the most incorrect and even
absurd interpretations of their significations
have been given. The word in universal
use in this country has been translated as
"rottenness in the bone," or "the builder
is dead," or by several other phrases equally
as far from the true meaning.
The correct word has been mutilated.
Properly, it consists of four syllables, for the

763

last

Word.

Succession to the Chair.

The

regulations adopted in 1721 by the Grand

Lodge of England have been generally esteemed as setting forth the ancient landmarks of the Order. But certain regulations, which were adopted on the 25th of
November, 1723, as amendments to or explanatory of these, being enacted under the
same authority, and almost by the same
persons, can scarcely be less binding upon
the Order than the original regulations.
Both these compilations of Masonic law refer expressly to the subject of the succession
to the chair on the death or removal of the
Master.
The old regulation of 1721, in the second
of the thirty-nine articles adopted in that
year, is in the following words
" In case of death or sickness, or necessary absence of the Master, the Senior
Warden shall act as Master pro tempore, if
no brother is present who has been Master
of that Lodge before. For the absent Master's authority reverts to the last Master
present, though he cannot act till the Senior
Warden has congregated the Lodge"
The lines in italics indicate that even at
that time the power of calling the brethren
together and " setting them to work," which

technically called "congregating the

Lodge," was supposed to be vested in the
Senior Warden alone during the absence
of the Master although, perhaps, from a
supposition that he had greater experience,
the difficult duty of presiding over the communication was intrusted to a Past Master.
The regulation is, however, contradictory
For if the " last Master
in its provisions.
present" could not act, that is, could not
exercise the authority of the Master until
the Senior Warden had congregated the
Lodge, then it is evident that the authority of the Master did not revert to him in
an unqualified sense, for that officer required
no such concert nor consent on the part
of the Warden, but could congregate the
is

Lodge

himself.

This evident contradiction in the Ianguage of the regulation probably caused,

in a brief period, a further examination of
the ancient usage, and accordingly on the
25th of November, 1723, a very little more
than two years after, the following regulation was adopted:

SUCCESSION

SUCCESSION

" If a Master of a particular Lodge is deposed or demits, the Senior Warden shall

diction in different clauses of the regulation

itself.
But whether the Senior
Warden or a Past Master is to succeed, the
regulation of 1721 makes no provision for
an election, but implies that the vacancy
shall be temporarily supplied during the
official term, while that of 1723 expressly
states that such temporary succession shall
continue " till the next time of choosing,"
or, in the words of the present English Constitution, " until the next election of offi-

764

forthwith

fill

the Master's chair

till

the

next time of choosing and ever since, in

the Master's absence, he fills the chair, even
though a former Master be present."
;

The present Constitution of the Grand

Lodge of England appears, however, to
have been formed rather in reference to the
regulation of 1721 than to that of 1723. It
prescribes that on the death, removal, or
incapacity of the Master, the Senior Warden, or in his absence, the Junior Warden,
or in his absence, the immediate Past Master, or in his absence, the Senior Past Master, " shall act as Master in summoning the
Lodge, until the next election of officers."
But the English Constitution goes on to
direct that, " in the Master's absence, the
immediate Past Master, or if he be absent,
the Senior Past Master of the Lodge present shall take the chair. And if no Past
Master of the Lodge be present, then the
Senior Warden, or in his absence the Junior Warden, shall rule the Lodge."
Here again we find ourselves involved in
the intricacies of a divided sovereignty.
The Senior Warden congregates the Lodge,
but a Past Master rules it. And if the
Warden refuses to perform his part of the
duty, then the Past Master will have no

Lodge

to rule.

So

that, after all, it

appears

that of the two the authority of the Senior

Warden is the greater.
But in this country the usage has always
conformed to the regulation of 1723, as is
apparent from a glance at our rituals and
monitorial works.
Webb, in his Freemasons' Monitor, (edition of 1808,) lays down the rule, that "in
the absence of the Master, the Senior
Warden is to govern the Lodge;" and
that officer receives annually, in every
Lodge in the United States, on the night
of his installation, a charge to that effect.
It must be remembered, too, that we are

not indebted to Webb himself for this

charge, but that he borrowed it, word for
word, from Preston, who wrote long before,
and who, in his turn, extracted it from the
rituals which were in force at the time of
his writing.

In the United States, accordingly, it has

been held, that on the death or removal of
the Master, his authority descends to the
Senior Warden, who may, however, by
courtesy, offer the chair to a Past Master
present, after the Lodge has been congregated.

There is some confusion in relation to

the question of who is to be the successor
of the Master, which arises partly from the
contradiction between the regulations of
1721 and 1723, and partly from the contra-

of 1723

cers."

But, in addition to the authority of the

ancient regulation and general and uniform
usage, reason and justice seem to require
that the vacancy shall not be supplied permanently until the regular time of election.
By holding the election at an earlier period,
the Senior Warden is deprived of his right,
as a member, to become a candidate for the
vacant office. For the Senior Warden having been regularly installed, has of course
been duly obligated to serve in the office to
which he had been elected during the full
term. If then an election takes place before the expiration of that term, he must
be excluded from the list of candidates, because, if elected, he could not vacate his
present office without a violation of his
obligation.

The same

Junior Warden,

disability

would

who by

a similar
obligation is bound to the faithful discharge
of his duties in the South. So that by anticipating the election, the two most prominent officers of the Lodge, and the two
most likely to succeed the Master in due
course of rotation, would be excluded from
grievous
the chance of promotion.
wrong would thus be done to these officers,
which no Dispensation of a Grand Master
should be permitted to inflict.
But even if the Wardens were not ambitious of office, or were not likely, under
any circumstances, to be elected to the
vacant office, another objection arises to
the anticipation of an election for Master
which is worthy of consideration.
affect the

The Wardens, having been installed

under the solemnity of an obligation to
discharge the duties of their respective
offices to the best of their ability, and the
Senior Warden having been expressly
charged that " in the absence of the Master
he is to rule the Lodge," a conscientious
Senior Warden might very naturally feel
that he was neglecting these duties and
violating this obligation, by permitting the
office which he has sworn to temporarily
occupy in the absence of his Master to be
permanently filled by any other person.
On the whole, then, the old regulations,
as well as ancient, uninterrupted, and uniform usage and the principles of reason
and justice, seem imperatively to require

SUCCOTH

SUN

on the death or removal of the Master,

the chair shall be occupied temporarily
until the regular time of election and although the law is not equally explicit in
relation to the person who shall fill that
temporary position, the weight of law and
precedent seems to incline towards the
principle that the authority of the absent
Master shall be placed in the hands of the
Senior Warden.
Succoth. An ancient city of Palestine,
about forty-five miles north-east of Jerusalem, and the site of which is now occupied by the village of Seikoot. It is the
place near which Hiram Abif cast the
sacred vessels for the Temple. See Clay
Grounds.

and the work which it should do, must be

symbolized by the sun. The heraldic definition of the sun as a bearing fits most

that,

The second
[Souffrant.)
Sufferer.
degree of the Order of Initiated Knights
and Brothers of Asia.
A warning to appear at
the meeting of a Lodge or other Masonic
body. The custom of summoning the
members of a Lodge to every communication, although now often neglected, is of
very ancient date, and was generally observed up to a very recent period. In the
Anderson Charges of 1722, it is said: "In
ancient times, no Master or Fellow could
be absent from the Lodge, especially when
warned to appear at it, without incurring
a severe censure." In the Constitutions
of the Cooke MS., about 1490, we are told
that the Masters and Fellows were to be
forewarned to come to the congregations.
All the old records, and the testimony of
writers since the revival, show that it was
always the usage to summon the members
to attend the meetings of the General Assembly or the particular Lodges.
Sun. Hardly any of the symbols of
Masonry are more important in their signification or more extensive in their application than the sun. As the source of
material light, it reminds the Mason of
that intellectual light of which he is in
constant search. But it is especially as the
ruler of the day, giving to it a beginning
and end, and a regular course of hours,
that the sun is presented as a Masonic
symbol. Hence, of the three lesser lights,
we are told that one represents or symbolizes the sun, one the moon, and one
the Master of the Lodge, because, as the
sun rules the day and the moon governs
the night, so should the Worshipful Master
rule and govern his Lodge with equal reg-

Summons.

ularity

and

precision.

And

this is in strict

analogy with other Masonic symbolisms.

For if the Lodge is a symbol of the world,
which is thus governed in its changes of
times and seasons by the sun, it is evident
that the Master who governs the Lodge,
controlling its time of opening and closing,

765

appositely to the symbolism of the sovereignty of the Master. Thus Gwillim says
" The sun is the symbol of sovereignty, the
hieroglyphic of royalty; it doth signify
absolute authority." This representation
of the sun as a symbol of authority, while
it explains the reference to the Master, enables us to amplify its meaning, and apply
it to the three sources. of authority in the
Lodge, and accounts for the respective
positions of the officers wielding this authority. The Master, therefore, in the East
is a symbol of the rising sun ; the Junior
Warden in the South, of the Meridian Sun ;
and the Senior Warden in the West, of the
Setting Sun. So in the mysteries of India,
the chief officers were placed in the east,
the west, and the south, respectively, to
represent Brahma, or the rising; Vishnu,
or the setting; and Siva, or the meridian
sun. And in the Druidical rites, the Archdruid, seated in the east, was assisted by
the one in the west
two other officers,
representing the moon, and the other in
the south representing the meridian sun.
This triple division of the government
of a Lodge by three officers, representatives
of the sun in his three manifestations in
the east, south, and west, will remind us
of similar ideas in the symbolism of antiquity.
In the Orphic mysteries, it was
taught that the sun generated from an egg,
burst forth with power to triplicate himself
by his own unassisted energy. Supreme

power seems always

to

have been

associ-

ated in the ancient mind with a threefold

Thus the sign of authority was
division.
indicated by the three-forked lightning of
Jove, the trident of Neptune, and the threeheaded Cerberus of Pluto. The government of the Universe was divided between
these three sons of Saturn. The chaste
goddess ruled the earth as Diana, the
heavens as Luna, and the infernal regions
as Hecate, whence her rites were only performed in a place where three roads met.
The sun is then presented to us in Masonry first as a symbol of light, but then
more emphatically as a symbol of sovereign authority.
But, says Wemyss, (Symb. Lang.,) speaking of scriptural symbolism, " the sun may
be considered to be an emblem of Divine
Truth," because the sun or light, of which
it is the source, "is not only manifest in itself, but makes other things ; so one truth
detects, reveals, and manifests another, as
all truths are dependent on, and connected
with, each other more or less." And this
again is applicable to the Masonic doctrine
which makes the Master the symbol of the

SUN

SUPER

sun; for as the sun discloses and makes

manifest, by the opening of day, what had
been hidden in the darkness of night, so
the Master of the Lodge, as the analogue
of the ancient hierophant or explainer of
the mysteries, makes divine truth manifest
to the neophyte, who had been hitherto in
intellectual darkness, and reveals the hidden or esoteric lessons of initiation.

Surya in heaven, Indra in the sky, and

Agni on the earth." But Surya, Indra,
Agni are but manifestations of God in the
sun, the bright sky, and the fire derived
from the solar light. In the profoundly
poetic ideas of the Vedic hymns we find
perpetual allusion to the sun "with his lifebestowing rays. Everywhere in the East,
amidst its brilliant skies, the sun claimed,

766

Sign,

Knight of

the.

See Knight

of the Sun.

Moon, and

Stars. The plates

Sun,
prefixed to the Hieroglyphic Chart of Jeremy
Cross contain a page on which are delineated a sun, moon, seven stars, and a comet,
which has been copied into the later illustrated editions of Webb's Monitor, and is
now to be found in all the modern Masters'
carpets.
In the connection in which they
are there placed they have no symbolic
meaning, although many have erroneously
considered that they have. The sun and
moon are not symbols in the third, but only
in the first degree ; the stars are a symbol
in the high degrees, and the comet is no
symbol at all. They are simply mnemonic
in character, and intended to impress on the
memory, by a pictured representation of
the object, a passage in the Webb lectures
taken from the Prestonian, which is in
these words: "The All-seeing Eye, whom
the sun, moon, and stars obey, and under
whose watchful care even comets perform
their stupendous revolutions, pervades the
inmost recesses of the human heart, and
will reward us according to our merits."
It

would have been more

creditable* to

the symbolic learning of Cross, if he had

omitted these plates from his collection of
Masonic symbols. At least the too common
error of mistaking them for symbols in the
third degree would have been avoided.

Sun Worship. Sir William Jones

has remarked that two of the principal
sources of mythology were a wild admiration of the heavenly bodies, particularly
the sun, and an inordinate respect paid to
the memory of powerful, wise, and virtuous
ancestors, especially the founders of kingTo the
doms, legislators, and warriors.
latter cause we may attribute the euhemerism of the Greeks and the sintooism of
the Chinese. But in the former we shall
find the origin of sun worship the oldest
and by far the most prevalent of all the
ancient religions.
Eusebius says that the Phoenicians and
the Egyptians were the first who ascribed
divinity to the sun.
But long
very long
before these ancient peoples the primeval
race of Aryans worshipped the solar orb in
his various manifestations as the producer
of light.
"In the Veda," says a native
commentator, " there are only three deities:

as the glorious manifestation of Deity, the

adoration of those primitive peoples. The
Persians, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans,
all worshipped the sun.
The Greeks, a
more intellectual people, gave a poetic
form to the grosser idea, and adored Apollo
or Dionysus as the sun-god.
Sun worship was introduced into the
mysteries not as a material idolatry, but as
the means of expressing an idea of restoration to life from death, drawn from the
daily reappearance in the east of the solar
orb after its nightly disappearance in the
west. To the sun, too, as the regenerator
or revivifier of all things, is the Phallic

worship, which made a prominent part of

the mysteries, to be attributed. From the
Mithraic initiations, in which sun worship
played so important a part, the Gnostics
derived many of their symbols.
These,
again, exercised their influence upon the
mediaeval Freemasons. Thus it is that the
sun has become so prominent in the Masonic system not, of course, as an object
of worship, but purely as a symbol, the
interpretation of which presents itself in
many different ways. See Sun.
Super Excellent Masons. Dr.
Oliver devotes the fifteenth lecture of his Historical Landmarks (Vol. I., pp. 401-438,) to
an essay " On the number and classification
of the Workmen at the building of King
Solomon's Temple." His statement, based
entirely on old lectures and legends, is that
there were nine Masons of supereminent
ability who were called Super Excellent
Masons, and who presided over as many
Lodges of Excellent Masons, while the
nine Super Excellent Masons formed also a
Lodge over which Tito Zadok, Prince of
Harodim, presided. In a note on p. 423, he
refers to these Super Excellent Masons as
being the same as the Most Excellent Masters who constitute the sixth degree of the
American Rite. The theory advanced by
Dr. Oliver is not only entirely unauthenticated by historical evidence of any kind,
but also inconsistent with the ritual of that
degree. It is, in fact, merely a myth, and
not a well-constructed one.
;

Super Excellent Master. A

de-

gree which was originally an honorary or

side degree conferred by the Inspectors
General of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Charleston.
It has since been

SUPER

SUPPORTS

'67

introduced into some of the Royal and SeAs to the symbolic design of the degree,
Councils of the United States, and it is very evident that its legend and cerethere conferred as an additional degree. monies are intended to inculcate that imfidelity to vows.
This innovation on the regular series of portant Masonic virtue
Cryptic degrees, with which it actually has Zedekiah, the wicked king of Judah, is, by
no historical connection, met with great the modern ritualists who have symbolized
opposition so that the convention of Royal the degree, adopted very appropriately as
and Select Masters, which met at New the symbol of perfidy and the severe but
York in June, 1873, resolved to place it in well-deserved punishment which was inthe category of an honorary degree, which flicted on him by the king of Babylon is
might or might not be conferred at the op- set forth in the lecture as a great moral lestion of a Council, but not as an integral son, whose object is to warn the recipient
part of the Rite. Although this body had of the fatal effects that will ensue from a
no dogmatic authority, its decision will violation of his sacred obligations.
doubtless have some influence in settling
Superintendent of the Works,
the question. The degree is simply an en- Grand. An officer of the Grand Lodge
largement of that part of the ceremonies of of England, who is appointed annually by
the Royal Arch which refer to the Temple the Grand Master. He should be well
destruction.
To that place it belongs, if it skilled in geometry and architecture. His
belongs anywhere, but has no more to do duty is to advise with the Board of General
with the ideas inculcated in Cryptic Ma- Purposes on all plans of building or edisonry than have any of the degrees lately fices undertaken by the Grand Lodge, and
invented for modern secret societies.
furnish plans and estimates for the same
Whence the degree originally sprang, it to superintend their construction, and see
is impossible to tell.
It could hardly have that they are conformable to the plans aphad its birth on the continent of Europe
proved by the Grand Master, the Grand
at least, it does not appear to have been Lodge, and the Board of General Purposes
known to European writers. Neither G'a- to suggest improvements, and make an andicke nor Lenning mention it in their En- nual report on the condition of all the
cyclopaedias; nor is it found in the catalogue Grand Lodge edifices.
The office is not
of more than seven hundred degrees given known in the Grand Lodges of this country,
by Thory in his Acta Latomorum ; nor does but where there is a temple or hall belongRagon allude to it in his Tuileur General, ing to a Grand Lodge, the duty of attendalthough he has there given a list of one ing to it is referred to a hall committee,
hundred and fifty-three degrees or modifi- which, when necessary, engages the services
cations of the Master. Oliver, it is true, of a professional architect.
speaks of it, but he evidently derived his
Superior. The sixth and last deknowledge from an American source. It gree of the German Union of the Twentymay have been manufactured in America, two.
and possibly by some of those engaged in
See UnSuperiors,
founding the Scottish Rite. The only known Superiors.
Cahier that I ever saw of the original ritual,
Super Masonic. Ragon ( Orth. Mawhich is still in my possession, is in the con., p. 73,) calls the high degrees, as being
handwriting of Alexander McDonald, a beyond Ancient Craft Masonry, "Grades
very intelligent and enthusiastic Mason, super Maconniques."
who was at one time the Grand CommanSupplanting. All the Old Constituder of the Supreme Council for the South- tions, without exception, contain a charge
ern Jurisdiction.
against one Fellow supplanting another in
The Masonic legend of the degree of Su- his work. Thus, for instance, the third
per Excellent Master refers to circum- charge in the Harleian MS. says "Alsoe
stances which occurred on the last day of that noe maister nor fellowe shall subplant
the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuzaradan, others of their worke, that is to say, if they
the captain of the Chaldean army, who had have taken a worke or stand maister of a
been sent by Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Lord's work, y u shall not put him out of it
the city and Temple, as a just punishment if he be able of cuninge to end the worke."
of the Jewish king Zedekiah for his per- From this we derive the modern doctrine
fidy and rebellion.
It occupies, therefore, that one Lodge cannot interfere with the
precisely that point of time which is em- work of another, and that a candidate bebraced in that part of the Royal Arch de- ginning his initiation in a Lodge must finish
gree which represents the destruction of the it in the same Lodge.
Temple, and the carrying of the Jews in
Supports of the !Lodge. The symcaptivity to Babylon. It is, in fact, an ex- bolism connected With the supports of the
emplification and extension of that part of Lodge is one of the earliest and most exthe Royal Arch degree.
tensively prevalent in the Order. The oldlect

Unknown.

SUPPORTS

768

SUPPORTS

est Catechism of the last century gives it in

these words
" Q. What supports your Lodge ?
"A. Three great Pillars.
"Q. What are their names ?
" A. Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty.
" Q.
doth the Pillar of Wisdom
represent?
"A. The Master in the East.
" Q.
doth the Pillar of Strength
represent ?
" A. The Senior Warden in the West.
" Q. Who doth the Pillar of Beauty represent ?
"A. The Junior Warden in the South.
" Q.
should the Master represent
the Pillar of Wisdom ?
" A. Because he gives instructions to the
Crafts to carry on their work in a proper

Who

Who

Why

manner, with good harmony.

Why

" Q.
should the Senior Warden
represent the Pillar of Strength?
" A. As the Sun sets to finish the day,
so the Senior Warden stands in the West
to pay the hirelings their wages, which is
the strength and support of all business.
" Q.
should the Junior Warden
represent the Pillar of Beauty ?
" A. Because he stands in the South at
high twelve at noon, which is the beauty
of the day, to call the men off from work to
refreshment, and to see that they come on
again in due time, that the Master may
have pleasure and profit therein.
" Q.
is it said that your Lodge is
supported by these three great Pillars
Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty ?
"A. Because Wisdom, Strength, and
Beauty is the finisher of all works, and
nothing can be carried on without them.

Why

Why

by wisdom,

strength, and beauty because

necessary that there should be wisdom
to contrive, strength to support, and beauty
to adorn all great and important undertakings." He follows the ancient reference of the pillars to the three officers, and
adopts Preston's symbolism of the three
orders of architecture, but he very wisely
substitutes the Ionic for the Tuscan. Hemming, in his lectures adopted by the Grand
Lodge of England in 1813, retained the
symbolism of the pillars, but gave a change
in the language.
He said: "A Mason's
Lodge is supported by three grand pillars.
They are called Wisdom, Strength, and
Beauty. Wisdom to contrive, Strength to
support, and Beauty to adorn. Wisdom
to direct us in all our undertakings, Strength
to support us in all our difficulties, and
Beauty to adorn the inward man."
The French Masons preserve the same
symbolism. Bazot {Manuel, p. 225,) says:
" Three great pillars sustain the Lodge.
The first, the emblem of wisdom, is represented by the Master who sits in the east,
;

it is

light and his commands emanate.

second, the emblem of strength, is
represented by the Senior Warden, who
sits in the west, where the workmen are
paid, whose strength and existence are preserved by the wages which they receive.
The third and last pillar is the emblem of
beauty it is represented by the Junior
Warden, who sits in the south, because that
part typifies the middle of the day, whose
beauty is perfect; during this time the
workmen repose from work and it is thence
that the Junior Warden sees them return
to the Lodge and resume their labors."

whence

The

The German Masons have also main"Q. Why so, Brother?

tained these three pillars in their various
"A. Because there is Wisdom to con- rituals. Schroder, the author of the most
" The universal
trive, Strength to support, and Beauty to philosophical one, says
:

adorn."
Preston repeats

substantially (but, of
course, with an improvement of the language,) this lecture; and he adds to it the
symbolism of the three orders of architecture of which these pillars are said to be
composed. These, he says, are the Tuscan,

Doric, and Corinthian. The mistake of

enumerating the Tuscan among the ancient
orders was corrected by subsequent ritualists.
Preston also referred the supports
symbolically to the three Ancient Grand
Masters. This symbolism was afterwards
transferred by Webb from the first to the
third degree.
Webb, in modifying the lecture of Preston, attributed the supports not to the
Lodge, but to the Institution; an unnecessary alteration, since the Lodge is but
the type of the Institution. His language
" Our Institution is said to be supported
is
:

Lodge, as well as every particular one, is

supported by three great invisible columns
Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty; for as
every building is planned and fashioned
by Wisdom, owes its durability and solidity
to Strength, and is made symmetrical and
harmonious by Beauty, so ought our spiritual buildiug to be designed by Wisdom,
which gives it the firm foundation of Truth,
on which the Strength of conviction may
build, and self-knowledge complete the
structure, and give it permanence and continuance by means of right, justice, and
and Beauty will
resolute perseverance
finally adorn the edifice with all the social
virtues, with brotherly love and union,
with benevolence, kindness, and a comprehensive philanthropy."
Steiglitz, in his work On the Old German
Architecture, (i. 239,) after complaining that

the building principles of the old

German

SUPREME

SUPPORTS
artists

were

them as
deemed

lost to us, because, considering

secrets of the brotherhood, they
it unlawful to commit them to

writing, yet thinks that enough may be

found in the old documents of the Fraternity to sustain the conjecture that these
three supports were familiar to the Operative Masons. He says
"Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty were hon-

ored by them as supporting pillars for the

perfect accomplishment of the works and
thence they considered them symbolically
as essential pillars for the support of the
Wisdom, which, established on
Lodge.
science, gives invention to the artist, and
the right arrangement and appropriate disposition of the whole and of all its parts
Strength, which, proceeding from the harmonious balance of all the forces, promotes
the secure erection of the building; and
Beauty, which, manifested in God's creation of the world, adorns the work and
;

makes

it perfect."
I can hardly doubt, from the early appearance of this symbol of the three sup-

ports,

and from

its

unchanged form in

all

countries, that it dates its origin from a

period earlier than the revival in 1717, and
that it may be traced to the Operative Masons of the Middle Ages, where Stieglitz
says it existed.

One thing is clear, that the symbol is

not found among those of the Gnostics, and
was not familiar to the Rosicrucians and,
therefore, out of the three sources of our
symbolism,
Gnosticism, Rosicrucianism,
and Operative Masonry,
it is most probable that it has been derived from the last.
When the high degrees were fabricated,
;

and Christianity began to furnish its symand doctrine to the new Masonry, the
Temple of Solomon was by some of
them abandoned, and that other temple
adopted to which Christ had referred when
he said, " Destroy this temple, and in three
bols
old

769

new, as we did the

old, pillars.
Thus the
preserved; for the triangle is the
Masonic symbol of God, who is, after all,
the true support of the Lodge.

triangle

is

Supreme Authority.

The supreme

authority in Masonry is that dogmatic power

from whose decisions there is no appeal.
At the head of every Rite there is a supreme authority which controls and directs
the acts of all subordinate bodies of the
In the United States, and in the
Rite.
American Rite which is there practised, it
would, at the first glance, appear that the
supreme authority is divided. That of
symbolic Lodges is vested in Grand Lodges,
of Royal Arch Chapters in Grand Chapters, of Royal and Select Councils in Grand
Councils, and of Commanderies of Knights
Templars in the Grand Encampment. And
so far as ritualistic questions and matters
of internal arrangement are concerned, the
supreme authority is so divided. But the
supreme authority of Masonry in each
State is actually vested in the Grand Lodge
of that State. It is universally recognized
as Masonic law that a Mason expelled or
suspended by the Grand Lodge, or by a
subordinate Lodge with the approval and
confirmation of the Grand Lodge, thereby
stands expelled or suspended from Royal
Arch, from Cryptic, and from Templar

Masonry.
Nor can he be permitted to
any of the bodies in either of these
divisions of the Rite so long as he remains
under the ban of expulsion of the Grand
Lodge. So the status or condition of every
Mason in the jurisdiction is controlled by the
Grand Lodge, from whose action on that
The Masonic
subject there is no appeal.
life and death of every member of the Craft,
visit

in every class of the Order,

is

in

its

hands,

and thus the Grand Lodge becomes the

supreme authority of the jurisdiction.

real

Supreme Commander of the

(Supreme Commandeur des Astres.)

days I will raise it up." The old supports A degree said to have been invented at
of wisdom, strength, and beauty, which had Geneva in 1779, and found in the collection
sufficed for the Gothic builders, and which of M. A. Viany.
they, borrowing them from the results of
Supreme Consistory. (Supreme
their labors on the cathedrals, had applied
Consistoire.)
The title of some of the
symbolically to their Lodges, were discarded, highest bodies in the Rite of Mizraim.
and more spiritual supports for a more spir- In the original construction of the Rite at
itual temple were to be selected. There had Naples the members of the ninetieth debeen a new dispensation, and there was to gree met in a Supreme Consistory. When
be a new temple. The great doctrine of the Bederides took charge of the Rite they
that new dispensation was to furnish the changed the title of the governing body
supporting pillars for the new temple. In to Supreme Council.
these high Christianized degrees we thereSupreme Couneil. The Supreme
fore no longer find the columns of Wisdom, Masonic authority of the Ancient and AcStrength, and Beauty, but the spiritual ones cepted Scottish Rite is called a Supreme
of Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Council. A Supreme Council claims to
But the form of the symbolism is un- derive the authority for its existence from
changed.
The East, the West, and the the Constitutions of 1786. I have no inSouth are still the spots where we find the tention here of entering into the question
4W
49

Stars.

SUPREME

770

SUPREME

of the authenticity of that document. The

question is open to the historian, and has
been amply discussed, with the natural result of contradictory conclusions.

But he

who

accepts the Ancient and Accepted

Scottish Eite as genuine Freemasonry, and
owes his obedience as a Mason to its constituted authorities, is compelled to recognize those Constitutions wherever or whenever they may have been enacted as the
fundamental law
the constitutional rule
of his Rite. To their authority all the
Supreme Councils owe their legitimate
existence.
Dr. Frederick Dalcho, who, I think, may
very properly be considered as the founder
in the United States, and therefore in the
world, of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in its present form as the legitimate successor of the Rite of Perfection or
of Herodem, has given in the Circular
written by him, and published December 4,
1802, by the Supreme Council at Charleston, the following account of the establishment of Supreme Councils.
" On the 1st of May, 1786, the Grand
Constitution of the thirty -third degree,
called the Supreme Council of Sovereign
Grand Inspectors General, was finally ratified by his Majesty the King of Prussia,
who, as Grand Commander of the Order of
Prince of the Royal Secret, possessed the
Sovereign Masonic power over all the Craft.
In the new Constitution, this high power
was conferred on a Supreme Council of
nine brethren in each nation, who possess
all the Masonic prerogatives, in their own
district, that his Majesty individually possessed, and are Sovereigns of Masonry"
The law for the establishment of a Supreme Council is found in the following
words in the Latin Constitutions of 1786
" The first degree will be subordinated to
the second, that to the third, and so in
order to the sublime, thirty -third, and last,
which will watch over all the others, will
correct their errors and will govern them,
and whose congregation or convention will
be a dogmatic Supreme Grand Council, the
Defender and Conservator of the Order,
which it will govern and administer according to the present Constitutions and those
which may hereafter be enacted."
But the Supreme Council at Charleston
derived its authority and its information
from what are called the French Constitutions and it is in them that we find the
statement that Frederick invested the Supreme Council with the same prerogatives
that he himself possessed, a provision not
contained in the Latin Constitutions. The
twelfth article says " The Supreme Coun-

exercise all the Masonic sovereign

powers of which his Majesty Frederick II.,
King of Prussia, was possessed."
cil will

These Constitutions further

declare, (Art.

that " every Supreme Council is composed of nine Inspectors General, five of
whom should profess the Christian religion." In the same article it is provided
that "there shall be only one Council of
this degree in each nation or kingdom in
Europe, two in the United States of
America as far removed as possible the
one from the other, one in the English
islands of America, and one likewise in
5,)

the French islands."

It was in compliance with these Constitutions that the Supreme Council at Charleston, South Carolina, was instituted.
In the
Circular, already cited, Dalcho gives this
account of its establishment.
"On the 31st of May, 1801, the Supreme
Council of the thirty-third degree for the
United States of America was opened, with
the high honors of Masonry, by Brothers
John Mitchell and Frederick Dalcho,
Sovereign Grand Inspectors General; and
in the course of the present year, [1802,]
the whole number of Grand Inspectors
General was completed, agreeably to the

Grand Constitutions."
This was the first Supreme Council of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite ever
formed; from it has emanated either directly or indirectly all the other Councils

which have been since established in

America or Europe and although it now
;

exercises jurisdiction only over a part of

the United States under the title of the
Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, it claims to
be and is recognized as " the Mother Coun-

of the World."
its authority a Supreme Council,
the second in date, was established by Count
de Grasse in the French West Indies, in
1802 a third in France, by the same authority, in 1804; and a fourth in Italy in
In 1813 the Masonic jurisdiction
1805.
of the United States was divided the Mother
Council establishing at the city of New
York a Supreme Council for the Northern
Jurisdiction, and over the States north of
the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, reserving to itself all the remainder of the
territory of the United States.
The seat
of the Northern Council is now at Boston
and although the offices of the Grand
Commander and Secretary-General of the
Southern Council are now in the city of
cil

Under

Washington, whence its documents emanate,

constructively at Charleston/
organization, the Supreme
Councils were limited to nine members in
each. That rule continued to be enforced
in the Mother Council until the year 1859,
when the number was increased to thirtyits

seat

is still

On their

three.

made

first

Similar enlargements have been

Supreme Councils

in all the other

SUSPENSION

SUSPENSION

771

except that of Scotland, which still retains

the original number.
The officers of the original Supreme
Council at Charleston were: a Most Puissant Sovereign Grand Commander, Most

obliterated, but their exercise only interdicted for the period limited by the sen-

Illustrious Lieutenant Grand Commander,

Illustrious Treasurer-General of the Holy
Empire, Illustrious Secretary-General of
the Holy Empire, Illustrious Grand Master of Ceremonies, and Illustrious Captain

tence, and as soon as this has terminated

he at once resumes his former position in
the Order, and is reinvested with all his
Masonic rights, whether those rights be of
a private or of an official nature.

of the Guards.
In 1859, with the change of numbers in
the membership, there was also made a

Thus, if an officer of a Lodge has been

suspended for three months from all the
rights and privileges of Masonry, a suspen-

change in the number and titles of the officers.

These now in the Mother Council,

sion of

according to its present Constitution, are

2. LieuI. Sovereign Grand Commander
tenant Grand Commander; 3. SecretaryGeneral of the Holy Empire; 4. Grand
Prior; 5. Grand Chancellor; 6. Grand
Minister of State; 7. Treasurer-General
of the Holy Empire
8. Grand Auditor
9. Grand Almoner
10. Grand Constable
:

erty nor rights of citizens, but only drives

away from the country." So by suspension

the rights and duties of the Mason are not

his

official

functions

also

takes

But a suspension from the discharge

of the functions of an office is not a deprivation of the office and therefore, as soon
as the three months to which the suspension had been limited have expired, the
brother resumes all his rights in the Order
and the Lodge, and with them, of course, the
office which he had held at the time that
the sentence of suspension had been inflicted.
place.

Grand Chamberlain; 12. First Grand

2. Indefinite Suspension. This is a susEquerry; 13. Second Grand Equerry; 14. pension for a period not determined and
Grand Standard-Bearer 15. Grand Sword- fixed by the sentence, but to continue durBearer 16. Grand Herald. The Secretary- ing the pleasure of the Lodge. In this reII.

General

is

properly the seventh

by a decree of the Supreme he

officer,

is

but

third officer in rank " while the office continues to be filled by Bro. Albert G. Mackey,
the present incumbent, who is the Dean of
the Supreme Council."
The officers somewhat vary in other Supreme Councils, but the presiding and recording officers are everywhere a Sovereign
Grand Commander and a Secretary- General
of the Holy Empire.

Suspension. This is a Masonic punishment, which consists of a temporary

deprivation of the rights and privileges of
Masonry. It is of two kinds, definite and
indefinite ; but the effect of the penalty, for
the time that it lasts, is the same in both
kinds.

The mode

in

which restoration

effected differs in each.

1.

Definite Suspension.

By

is

definite sus-

meant a deprivation of the rights

and privileges of Masonry for a fixed period
of time, which period is always named in
pension

is

the sentence.
By the operation of this
penalty, a Mason is for the time prohibited
from the exercise of all his Masonic privileges.
His rights are placed in abeyance,
and he can neither visit Lodges, hold Masonic communication, nor receive Masonic
relief, during the period for which he has
been suspended. Yet his Masonic citizenship is not lost.
In this respect suspension
may be compared to the Roman punishment
of " relegatio," or banishment, which Ovid,

who had endured

describes, {Tristia, v.
11,) with technical correctness, as a penalty
it,

which " takes away neither

life

from the preceding

position of a Mason,
under definite or indefinite suspension, is
precisely the same as to the exercise of all
his rights and privileges, which in both
cases remain in abeyance, and restoration
in each brings with it' a resumption of all
the rights and functions, the exercise of
which had been interrupted by the sentence
of suspension.
Neither definite nor indefinite suspension
spect only does

made the punishment.

nor prop-

it differ

The

can be inflicted except after due notification and trial, and then only by a vote of
two-thirds of the members present.
Restoration to Masonic rights differs, as
I have said, in these two kinds. Restoration from definite suspension may tae
place either by a vote of the Lodge abridging the time, when two- thirds of the members must concur, or it will terminate by
the natural expiration of the period fixed
by the sentence, and that without any
vote of the Lodge. Thus, if a member is
suspended for three months, at the end of
the third month his suspension terminates,
and he is ipst facto restored to all his rights

and

privileges.

In the case of indefinite suspension, the

only method of restoration is by a vote of
the Lodge at a regular meeting, two-thirds
of those present concurring.
Lastly, it may be observed that, as the
suspension of a member suspends his preit also suspends his
cannot be expected, in justice,
that which he does not receive,
dues are simply a compensation

rogatives,

dues.
He
to pay for

and Lodge
made by a

SUSSEX

SWEDEN

member for the enjoyment of the privileges

of membership.
The Duke of
Sussex,
of.
Sussex is entitled to a place in Masonic biography, not only because, of all the Grand
Masters on record, he held the office the
longest, the Duke of Leinster, of Ireland,
alone excepted, but also because of his devotion to the Institution, and the zeal with
which he cultivated and protected its inAugustus Frederick, ninth child
terests.
and sixth son of George III., king of Eng-

the occasion of the presentation of an

by the Fraternity in 1838, the Duke
gave the following account of his Masonic
life, which embodies sentiments that are

772

Duke

land, was born January 27, 1773. He was

initiated in 1798 at a Lodge in Berlin.
In 1805, the honorary rank of a Past
Grand Master was conferred on him by the
Grand Lodge of England. May 13, 1812,

he was appointed Deputy Grand Master;

and April 13, 1813, the Prince Eegent,
afterwards George IV., having declined a
re-election as

Grand Master, the Duke of

Sussex was unanimously elected; and in the

same year the two rival Grand Lodges of
England were united. The Duke was Most
Excellent Zerubbabel of the Grand Chapter, and Grand Superintendent of the Grand
Conclave of Knights Templars. He never,
however, took any interest in the orders of
knighthood, to which, indeed, he appears to
have had some antipathy. During his long
career the Grand Conclave never met but
once. By annual elections, he retained the
office of Grand Master until his death, which
took place April 21, 1843, in the seventyfirst year of his age, having completed a

On

offering

highly honorable to him.

" My duty as your Grand Master is to
take care that no political or religious question intrudes itself; and had I thought
that, in presenting this tribute, any political feeling had influenced the brethren, I
can only say that then the Grand Master
would not have been gratified. Our object
is unanimity, and we can find a centre of

unanimity unknown elsewhere. I recollect

twenty-five years ago, at a meeting in many
respects similar to the present, a magnificent jewel (by voluntary vote) was presented to the Earl Moira previous to his
journey to India. I had the honor to preside, and I remember the powerful and
beautiful appeal which that excellent
brother made on the occasion. I am now
sixty-six years of age
I say this without
regret the true Mason ought to think that
the first day of his birth is but a step on
his way to the final close of life.
When I
tell you that I have completed forty years
of a Masonic life
there may be older Masons but that is a pretty good specimen of
my attachment to the Order.
" In 1798, I entered Masonry in a Lodge
at Berlin, and there I served several offices,
and as Warden was a representative of the
Lodge in the Grand Lodge of England. I
afterwards was acknowledged and received
with the usual compliment paid to a mem-

Masonic administration as head of the Engber of the Eoyal Family, by being apupwards of thirty years.
During that long period, it was impos- pointed a Past Grand Warden. I again
sible that some errors should not have been went abroad for three years, and on my recommitted. The Grand Master's conduct turn joined various Lodges, and upon the
in reference to two distinguished Masons, retirement of the Prince Eegent, who beDrs. Crucefix and Oliver, was by no means came Patron of the Order, I was elected
creditable to his reputation for justice or Grand Master. An epoch of considerable
forbearance. But the general tenor of his interest intervened, and I became charged,
in 1813-14, with a most important mission
life as an upright man and Mason, and his
the union of the two London societies.
great attachment to the Order, tended to
compensate for the few mistakes of his ad- My most excellent brother, the Duke of
ministration.
One who had been most Kent, accepted the title of Grand Master
bitterly opposed to his course in reference of the Athol Masons, as they were denomito Brothers Crucefix and Oliver, and had nated I was the Grand Master of those
not been sparing of his condemnation, paid, called the Prince of Wales's. In three
after his death, this tribute to his Masonic months we carried the union of the two
societies, and I had the happiness of previrtues and abilities.
" As a Freemason," said the Freemasons' siding over the united Fraternity. This I
quarterly Review, (1843, p. 120,) " the Duke consider to have been the happiest event
of Sussex was the most accomplished crafts- of my life. It brought all Masons upon
man of his day. His knowledge of the the Level and the Square, and showed the
mysteries was, as it were, intuitive; his world at large that the differences of comreading on the subject was extensive his mon life did not exist in Masonry, and it
correspondence equally so and his desire showed to Masons that by a long pull, a
to be introduced to any brother from whose strong pull, and a pull altogether, what
experience he could derive any information great good might be effected."
Sweden. Freemasonry was introduced
had in it a craving that marked his great
into Sweden in the year 1 735, when Count
devotion to the Order."
lish Craft of

SWEDENBORG

SWEDEN
Sparre, who had been initiated in Paris,
established a Lodge at Stockholm. Of this
Lodge scarcely anything is known, and it
probably soon fell into decay. In 1738,
King Frederick I. promulgated a decree
which interdicted all Masonic meetings
under the penalty of death. At the end of
seven years the edict was removed, and
Masonry became popular. Lodges were
publicly recognized, and in 1746 the Masons of Stockholm struck a medal on the
occasion of the birth of the Prince Royal,
In 1753, the
afterwards Gustavus III.
Swedish Masons laid the foundation of

an orphan asylum at Stockholm, which

was built by the voluntary contributions
of the Fraternity, without any assistance
from the State. In 1762, King Adolphus
Frederick, in a letter to the Grand Master,
declared

himself the

Protector

of

the

Swedish Lodges, and expressed his readiness to become the Chief of Freemasonry
in his dominions, and to assist in defraying
the expenses of the Order. In 1765, Lord
Blayney, Grand Master of England, granted
a Deputation to Charles Fullmann, Secretary of the English embassy at Stockholm,
as Provincial Grand Master, with the authority to constitute Lodges in Sweden.
At the same time, Schubarb, a member of
the Rite of Strict Observance, appeared at
Stockholm, and endeavored to establish that
Rite.
But he had but little success, as
the high degrees had been previously introduced from France.
But this admixture of English, French,
and German Masonry occasioned great dissatisfaction, and gave rise, about this time,
to the establishment of an independent system known as the Swedish Rite. In 1770,
the Illuminated Grand Chapter was established, and the Duke of Sudermania appointed the Vicarius Salomonis. In 1780,
the Grand Lodge of Sweden, which for
some years had been in abeyance, was revived, and the same Prince elected Grand
Master. This act gave an independent and
responsible position to Swedish Masonry,
and the progress of the Institution in that
kingdom has been ever since regular and
uninterrupted. On March 22, 1793, Gustavus IV., the king of Sweden, was initi-

Masonry

in a Lodge at Stockof Sudermania, then acting

as Regent of the kingdom, presiding as the
Grand Master of the Order.
In 1799, on the application of the Duke
of Sudermania, a fraternal alliance was
consummated between the Grand Lodges
of England and Sweden, and mutual representatives appointed.
In 1809, the Duke of Sudermania ascended the throne under the title of Charles
XIII. He continued his attachment' to the

ated into
holm, the

Duke

773

Order, and retained the Grand Mastership.

a singular mark of his esteem for Freemasonry, the King instituted, May 27, 1811,
a new order of knighthood, known as the
Order of Charles XIII., the members of

As

which were to be selected from Freemasons

In the Patent of institution the
only.

King declared that, in founding the Order,

his intention " was not only to excite his
subjects to the practice of charity, and to
perpetuate the memory of the devotion of
the Masonic Order to his person while it
was under his protection, but also to give
further proofs of his royal benevolence to
those whom he had so long embraced and
cherished under the name of Freemasons."
The Order, besides the princes of the royal
family, was to consist of twenty-seven lay,
and three ecclesiastical knights, all of whom
were to hold equal rank.
The Grand Lodge of Sweden practises
the Swedish Rite, and exercises its jurisdiction under the title of the National Grand
Lodge of Sweden and Norway.

Swedenborg. Emanuel Swedenborg,

a distinguished theologian of his age, and
the founder of a sect which still exists,
has been always mythically connected with
Freemasonry. The eagerness is indeed extraordinary with which all Masonic writers, German, French, English, and American, have sought to connect the name and
labors of the Swedish sage with the Masonic institution, and that, too, without the
slightest foundation for such a theory either
in his writings, or in any credible memorials of his life.
Findel, [Hist, Lyon's Trans., p. 529,)
speaking of the reforms in Swedish Masonry, says " Most likely Swedenborg, the
mystic and visionary, used his influence in
bringing about the new system
at all
events, he smoothed the way for it."
Lenning speaks of the influence of his teachings upon the Swedish system of Freemasonry, although he does not absolutely
claim him as a Mason.
Reghellini, in his Esprit du Dogme de la
Franche-Maconnerie, writes thus " Sweden:

borg made

many very learned

researches on
the subject of the Masonic mysteries. He
thought that their doctrines were of the
highest antiquity, having emanated from
the Egyptians, the Persians, the Magi, the
Jews, and the Greeks. He also became the
head of a new religion in his effort to reform that of Rome. For this purpose he
wrote his Celestial Jerusalem, or his Spiritual World * he mingled with his reform,
:

* There

is

which bears

no work written by Swedenborg

either of those titles.

It is possible
that Reghellini alludes either to the Arcana
Coelestia, published in 1749-1753, or to the De
Nova Hierosolyma, published in 1758.

SWEDENBORG

SWEDENBORG

774

which were purely Masonic.

In this
Jerusalem the Word formerly communicated by God to Moses is found this
word is Jehovah, lost on earth, but which
he invites us to find in Great Tartary, a
country still governed, even in our days,
by the patriarchs, by which he means allegorically to say that this people most nearly
approach to the primitive condition of the
ideas

celestial

perfection of innocence." The same writer,

in his Magonnerie consideree comme le resulted
des religions Egyptienne, Jeuve et Chretienne,
(ii. 454j) repeatedly speaks of Swedenborg
as a Masonic reformer, and sometimes as a
Masonic impostor. Ragon also cites Reghe] lini in his Orthodoxie Maconnique, (p.
255,) and recognizes Swedenborg as the
founder of a Masonic system. Thory, in
his Acta Latomorum, cites " the system of
Swedenborg " and in fact all the French
writers on Masonic ritualism appear to have
borrowed their idea of the Swedish theosophist from the statement of Reghellini,
and have not hesitated to rank him among
the principal Masonic teachers of his time.
Oliver is the earliest of the English Masonic writers of eminence who has referred
to Swedenborg.
He, too often careless of
the weight of his expressions and facile in
the acceptance of authority, speaks of the
degrees, the system, and the Masonry of
Swedenborg just in the same tone as he
would of those of Cagliostro, of Hund, or
;

of Tschoudy.

America we have a recent

Samuel Beswick, who is evidently a man of ability and of considerable
And,

lastly, in

writer, Bro.

research.
He has culminated to the zenith
in his assumptions of the Masonic character
of Swedenborg. He published at New York,
in 1870, a volume entitled, The Swedenborg
Rite and the Great Masonic Leaders of the
Eighteenth Century. In this work, which,
outside of its Swedenborgian fancies, contains much interesting matter, he traces the
Masonic life of Swedenborg from his ini-

the time and place of which he

makes in 1706, in a Scottish Lodge in the
town of Lund, in Sweden, which is a fair

tiation,

specimen of the value of his historical

statements. But after treating the great
Swede as a Masonic reformer, as the founder
of a Rite, and as evincing during his whole
life a deep interest in Freemasonry, he appears to me to surrender the whole question
in the following closing words of his work
" From the very moment of his initiation, Swedenborg appears to have resolved
never to allude to his membership or to his
knowledge of Freemasonry, either publicly
or privately.
He appears to have made up
his mind to keep it a profound secret, and
to regard it as something
lation to his public life.

which had no

re-

We

"
have searched his Itinerary, which
contains brief references to everything he
saw, heard, and read during his travels, for

something having relation to his Masonic

knowledge, intercourse, correspondence,
visits to Lodges, places, or persons; but
silence, a systematic
is a studied
avoidance of all allusion to it.
In his
theological works, his Memorable Relations
speak of almost every sect in Christendom,

there

and of all sorts of organizations, or of individuals belonging thereto. But Masonry is an

exception there is a systematic silence in
relation to it."
It is true that he finds in this reticence
of Swedenborg the evidence that he was a
Mason and interested in Masonry, but others
will most probably form a different conclusion.
The fact is that Swedenborg never
was a Freemason. The reputation of being
one, that has been so continuously attributed to him by Masonic writers, is based first
upon the assumptions of Reghellini, whose
statements in his Esprit du Dogme were
never questioned nor their truth investigated, as they should have been, but were
blindly followed by succeeding writers.
:

Neither Wilkinson, nor Burk, nor White,

who wrote his biography,. the last the
most exhaustively,
nor anything in his
own voluminous writings, lead us to any
such conclusion.
But the second and more important basis
on which the theory of a Swedenborgian
Masonry has been built is the conduct of
some of his own disciples, who, imbued
with his religious views, being Masons,
carried the spirit of the New Jerusalem

doctrines into their Masonic speculations.

There was, it is true, a Masonic Rite or
System of Swedenborg, but its true history
is

this

The two most important

religious

works

of Swedenborg, the Celestial Arcana and

the New Jerusalem, appeared, the former
between the years 1749 and 1753, and the
About that period we find
latter in 1758.
Pernetty working out his schemes of Masonic reform. Pernetty was a theosophist,
a Hermetic philosopher, a disciple, to some
extent, of Jacob Bbhme, that prince of
To such a man, the reveries, the
mystics.
visions, and the spiritual speculations of
Swedenborg were peculiarly attractive. He
accepted them as an addition to the theosophic views which he already had received.
About the year 1760 he established at Avignon his Rite of the Illuminati, in which
the reveries of both Bbhme and Swedenborg were introduced. In 1783 this system
was reformed by the Marquis de Thome,
another Swedenborgian, and out of that
reform arose what was called the " Rite of
Swedenborg," not because Swedenborg had

;:

SWEDENBORG

SWEDENBORG
established it, or had anything directly to do
with its establishment, but because it was
based on his peculiar theological views, and

because its symbolism was borrowed from

the ideas he had advanced in the highly
symbolical works that he had written. A
portion of these degrees, or other degrees
much like them, have been called apocalyptic not because St. John had, any more
than Swedenborg, a connection with them,
but because their system of initiation is
based on the mystical teachings of the
Apocalypse a work which, not less than
the theories of the Swede, furnishes abundant food for a system of Masonico-religious symbolism. Benedict Chastanier, also
another disciple of Swedenborg, and who
was one of the founders of the Avignon
Society, carried these views into England,
and founded at London a similar Rite,
which afterwards was changed into a purely
religious association under the name of
;

"The Theosophical

Society, instituted for

the purpose of promoting the Heavenly

Doctrines of the New Jerusalem."
In one of his visions, Swedenborg thus
describes a palace in the spiritual world
which he had visited. From passages such
as these which abound in his various treatises, the theosophic Masons concocted
those degrees which have been called the
Masonry of Swedenborg. To no reader of
the passage annexed can its appropriateness
as the basis of a system of symbolism fail to
be apparent.
" I accordingly entered the temple, which
was magnificent, and in the midst of which
a woman was represented clothed in purple, holding in her right hand a golden
crown piece, and in her left a chain of
pearls.
The stataie and the representation
were only fantastic representations ; for these
infernal spirits, by closing the interior degree and opening the exterior only, are
able at the pleasure of their imagination to
represent magnificent objects. Perceiving
that they were illusions, I prayed to the
Lord.
Immediately the interior of my
spirit was opened, and I saw, instead of the
superb temple, a tottering house, open to
the weather from the top to the bottom.
In the place of the woman-statue, an image
was suspended, having the head of a dragon, the body of a leopard, the feet of a
bear, and the mouth of a lion in short, it
was the beast rising out of the sea, as described in the Apocalypse xiii. 2. In the
place of a park, there was a marsh full of
frogs, and I was informed that under this
marsh there was a great hewn stone, beneath which the
was entirely hidden.
Afterwards I said to the prelate, who
was the fabricator of these illusions, 'Is that

Immediately his interior sight was opened

like mine, and he saw what I did.
How
now, what do I see ? cried he. I told him
that it was the effect of the celestial light,
which discovers the interior quality of everything, and w hich taught him at that very
moment what faith separated from good
works was. While I was speaking, a wind
blowing from the east destroyed the temple
and the image, dried up the marsh, and
discovered the stone under which the Sacred
Word was concealed. A genial warmth, like
that of the spring, descended from heaven
and in the place of that temple we saw a
tent, the exterior of which wa very plain.
I looked into the interior of it, and there I
saw the foundation-stone beneath which the
Sacred Word was concealed, ornamented
*

'

with precious stones, the splendor of which,

diffusing itself over the walls of the temple,
diversified the colors of the paintings, which
represented cherubims. The angels, perceiving me to be filled with admiration,
told me that I should see still greater wonders than these. They were then permitted
to open the third heaven, inhabited by the
celestial angels, who dwell in love.
All on
a sudden the splendor of a light of fire
caused the temple to disappear, and left
nothing to be seen but the Lord himself,
standing upon the foundation-stone
the
Lord, who was the Word, such as he showed
Himself. (Apocal.i. 13-16.) Holiness immediately filled all the interior of the spirit
of the angels, upon which they made an
effort to prostrate themselves, but the Lord
shut the passage to the light from the third
heaven, opening the passage to the light of
the second, which caused the temple to reappear, with the tent in the midst."
Such passages as these might lead one
to suppose that Swedenborg was familiar
with the system of Masonic ritualism. His
complete reticence upon the subject, however, and the whole tenor of his life, his
studies, and his habits, assure us that such
was not the case; and that if there was
really a borrowing of one from the other,
and not an accidental coincidence, it was
the Freemasons of the high degrees who
borrowed from Swedenborg, and not Swe-

denborg from them. And if so, we cannot

deny that he has unwittingly exercised a
powerful influence on Masonry.

Swedenborg, Rite

WORD

your temple?'

'Yes/ replied he,

'it

is.'

775

of.

The

so-

called Rite of Swedenborg, the history of

whose foundation has been given in the
preceding article, consists of six degrees
3. Master
2. Fellow Craft.
1. Apprentice.
4. Illuminated Theosophite.
Neophyte.
Blue Brother. 6. Red Brother. It is said
to be still practised by some of the Swedish
Lodges, but is elsewhere extinct. Reghellini, in his Esprit du Dogme, gives it as con5.

SWEDISH

776

SWITZERLAND

he has evidently
with the Eite of Martinism,

sisting of eight degrees but

;

confounded

it

also a theosophic Rite, and the ritualism of

which also partakes of a Swedenborgian
character.

Swedish Rite. The Swedish Rite

was established about the year 1777, and is
indebted for

its

existence to the exertions

and influence of King Gustavus III. It

is a mixture of the pure Rite of York, the
high degrees of the French, the Templarism
of the former Strict Observance, and the
system of Rosicrucianism. Zinnendorf also
had something to do with the formation of
the Rite, although his authority was subsequently repudiated by the Swedish Masons.
It is a Rite confined exclusively
to the kingdom of Sweden, and was really
established as a reform or compromise to
reconcile the conflicting elements of English,

German, and French Masonry that

about the middle of the last century convulsed the Masonic atmosphere of Sweden.
It consists of twelve degrees, as follows
I, 2, 3. The three Symbolic degrees, constituting the St. John's Lodge.
4, 5. The Scottish Fellow Craft and the
Scottish Master of St. Andrew.
These
constitute the Scottish Lodge.
The fifth
degree entitles its members to civil rank in
the kingdom.
In this degree,
6. Knight of the East.
which is apocalyptic, the New Jerusalem
and its twelve gates are represented.
7. Knight of the West, or True Templar,
Master of the Key. The jewel of this degree, which is a triangle with five red
rosettes, refers to the five

Geneva.

body

Warrants were granted by this

Lodges in and around the

to several

Geneva. Two years afterwards, a

Lodge, composed principally of Englishmen, was established at Lausanne, under
the name of " La Parfaite Union des
Etrangers." Findel, on the authority of
Mossdorf's edition of Lenning, says that
the Warrant for this Lodge was granted by
the Duke of Montagu; a statement also
made by Thory. This is an error. The
Duke of Montagu was Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of England in 1721, and could
not, therefore, have granted a Warrant in
1739. The Warrant must have been issued
by the Marquis of Carnarvon, who was
Grand Master from April, 1738, to May,
1739. In an old list of the Regular Lodges
on the registry of England, this Lodge is
thus described " Private Room, Lausanne,
in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, Feb.
city of

Soon after, this Lodge assumed

2, 1739."
a superintending authority with the title
of " Helvetic Roman Directory," and instituted many other Lodges in the Pays de

Vaud.
But in Switzerland, as elsewhere, Masonry
was at an early period exposed to persecution.
In 1738, almost immediately after
their institution, the Lodges at Geneva were
suppressed by the magistrates. In 1740, so
many calumnies had been circulated in the
Swiss Cantons against the Order, that the
Freemasons published an Apoloyy for the
wounds of the Order in Der Brachmann, a Zurich journal.

Saviour.

Knight of the South,

had, however, but little effect, for in

1743 the magistrates of Bern ordered the
closing of all the Lodges* This edict was
not obeyed; and therefore, on March 3,
It

Favorite
Brother of St. John. This is a Rosicrucian
degree, the ceremony of initiation being
derived from that of the Mediaeval Alche8.

tation for Geneva, in Switzerland, to George

Hamilton, Esq., who, in the same year, established a Provincial Grand Lodge at

or

1745, another, still more severe, was issued,

by which a penalty of one hundred thaThis lers, and forfeiture of his situation, was to
9. Favorite Brother of St. Andrew.
degree is evidently derived from the Ma- be inflicted on every officer of the governsonry of the Scottish Rite.
ment who should continue his connec-

mists.

Member

II.

of the Chapter.
Dignitary of the Chapter.

12.

Vicar of Solomon.

10.

The

first nine degrees are under the obedience of the National Grand Lodge of

Sweden and Norway, and essentially comThe members of the last

pose the Rite.

three are called "Brethren of the Red

Cross," and constitute another Masonic authority, styled the " Illuminated Chapter."
The twelfth degree is simply one of office,
and is only held by the king, who is perpetual Grand Master of the Order. No one
is admitted to the eleventh degree unless he
can show four quarterings of nobility.

Switzerland.

In 1737 Lord Darnley,

Grand Master of England, granted a Depu-

tion with the Freemasons. To this the

Masons replied in a pamphlet entitled Le
Frane-Magon dans la Republique, published
simultaneously, in 1746, at Frankfort and
Leipsic. In this work they ably defended
themselves from all the unjust charges that
had been made against them. Notwithstanding that the result of this defence was
that the magistrates pushed their opposition no farther, the Lodges in the Pays de

Vaud remained suspended

for

nineteen

But in 1764 the primitive Lodge at

Lausanne was revived, and the revival was
gradually followed by the other Lodges.
years.

This resumption of labor was, however, but

of brief duration. In 1770 the magistrates
again interdicted the meetings.

SWITZERLAND

SWITZERLAND
During

all

this

period the Masons of

Geneva, under a more liberal government,

were uninterrupted in their labors, and extended their operations into German Switzerland. In 1771 Lodges had been erected
in Vevay and Zurich, which, working at
first according to the French system, soon
afterwards adopted the German ritual.
In 1775 the Lodges of the Pays de Vaud
were permitted to resume their labors.
Formerly, they had worked according to the
system of the Grand Lodge of England,
whence they had originally derived their
Masonry; but this they now abandoned,
and adopted the Rite of Strict Observance.
In the same year the high degrees of France
were introduced into the Lodge at Basle.

Both it and the Lodge at Lausanne now

assumed higher rank, and took the title of
Scottish Directories.

In 1777 a Congress was held at the city

of Basle, in which there were representatives from the Strict Observance Lodges
of the Pays de Vaud and the English
Lodge of Zurich. It was then determined
that the Masonry of Switzerland should be
divided under two distinct authorities the
one to be called the German Helvetic Directory, with its seat at Zurich; and the
other to be called the Scottish Helvetic Roman Directory, whose seat was at Lausanne. This word Roman, or more properly Romansh, is the name of one of the four
languages spoken in Switzerland. It is a
corruption of the Latin, and supposed to
have been the colloquial dialect of a large
part of the Grisons.
Still there were great dissensions in the
Masonry of Switzerland.
clandestine
Lodge had been established in 1777, at
Lausanne, by one Sidrac, whose influence
The Helit was found difficult to check.
vetic Roman Directory found it necessary,
for this purpose, to enter, in 1779, into a
treaty of alliance with the Grand Lodge at
Geneva, and the Lodge of Sidrac was then
at length dissolved and its members dis:

persed.
In 1778, the Helvetic Roman Directory
published its Constitutions. The Rite it
practised was purely philosophic, every
hermetic element having been eliminated.
The appointment of the Masters of Lodges,
who held office for three years, was vested in
the Directory, and, in consequence, men of
ability and learning were chosen, and the
Craft were skilfully governed.
In November, 1782, the Council of Bern
interdicted the meetings of the Lodges and
the exercise of Freemasonry. The Helvetic
Roman Directory, to give an example of
obedience to law, however unjust and oppressive, dissolved its Lodges and discon-

tinued

its

4X

own

meetings.

But

it

provided

777

maintenance of its foreign relations,

by the appointment of a committee invested
with the power of conducting its correspondence and of controlling the foreign
Lodges under its obedience.
In the year 1785 there was a conference of the Swiss Lodges at Zurich to take
for a

into

consideration

propositions

certain

which had been made by the Congress of

Paris, held by the Philalethes but the de;

Congress should be convened at Lausanne met with no favor from

the Directorial Committee. The Grand
Orient of France began to exert an influ-

sire that a similar

and many Lodges of Switzerland,

ence,

among

others ten in Geneva, gave their

adhesion to that body. The seven other
Genevan Lodges which were faithful to the
English system organized a Grand Orient of Geneva, and in 1789 formed an alliance with the Grand Lodge of England.
About the same time, the Lodges of the
Pays de Vaud, which had been suppressed
in 1782 by the government of Bern, re-

sumed their vitality.

But the political disturbances consequent
on the French revolution began to exercise
their influences in the Cantons.

In 1792,

Roman

Directory suspended
work and its example was followed in 1793
by the Scottish Directory. From 1793 to

the Helvetic
;

1803, Freemasonry was dead in Switzerland, although a few Lodges in Geneva and

German one in
sickly existence.
a

Neuenburg continued a

In 1803 Masonry revived, with the restoration of a better order in the political
world.
Lodge, Zur Hoffnung or Hope
Lodge, allusive in its name to the opening
prospect, was established at Bern under a
French Constitution.
With the cession of the Republic of
Geneva to France, the Grand Lodge ceased

and all the Lodges were united

with the Grand Orient of France. Several
Lodges, however, in the Pays de Vaud,whose
Constitution had been irregular, united together to form an independent body under
the title of the " Grand National Helvetic
Orient." Peter Maurice Glaire introduced
to exist,

his modified Scottish Rite of seven degrees,

and was at the age of 87 elected its Grand
Master for life. Glaire was possessed of
great abilities, and had been the friend of
Stanislaus, king of Poland, in whose interests he had performed several important
missions to Russia, Prussia, Austria, and
France. He was much attached to Masonry, and while in Poland had elaborated
on the Scottish system the Rite which he

subsequently bestowed upon the Helvetic

Orient.
It would be tedious and painful to recapitulate all the dissensions and schisms with

SWORD

SWORD

which the Masonry of Switzerland continued for years to be harassed. In 1820

there were nineteen Lodges, which worked
under four different obediences, the Scottish
Directory, the Grand Helvetic Roman Orient, the English Provincial Grand Lodge,
and the Grand Orient of France. Besides
there were two Lodges of the Rite of Mizraim, which had been introduced by the
Brothers Bedarride.
The Masons of Switzerland, weary of
these divisions, had been long anxious to
build a firm foundation of Masonic unity,
and to obliterate forever this state of iso-

was considered a knight until the ceremony

of presenting him the sword had been performed; and when this weapon was presented, it was accompanied with the declaration that the person receiving it was

lation, where Lodges were proximate in

locality but widely asunder in their Masonic relations.
Many attempts were made, but the rival-

Middle Ages symbolism was referred to on

778

"

of petty authorities and the intolerance

of opinion caused them always to be failures.
At length a movement, which was
finally crowned with success, was inaugurated by the Lodge Modestia cum Libertate,
of Zurich. Being about to celebrate the
twenty-fifth anniversary of its existence in
1836, it invited the Swiss Lodges of all
Rites to be present at the festival. There
a proposition for a National Masonic union
was made, which met with a favorable response from all who were present. The reries

this festival had given so much

satisfaction that similar meetings were held
in 1838 at Bern, in 1840 at Basle, and in
1842 at Locle. The preliminary means for

union at

establishing a Confederacy were discussed

at these various biennial conventions, and
progress slowly but steadily was made towards the accomplishment of that object.
In 1842 the task of preparing a draft of a
Constitution for a United Grand Lodge
was intrusted to Bro. Gysi-Schinz, of Zurich, who so successfully completed it that
it gave almost universal satisfaction. Finally, on June 22, 1844, the new Grand Lodge

was inaugurated with the title of the

"Grand Lodge Alpina," and Bro. J. J.
Hottinger was elected the Grand Master.
Masonry has since then been in great activity in Switzerland.
The Grand Lodge
administers the government of about thirty
daughter Lodges and nearly two thousand
constituent members with such satisfaction
that uninterrupted peace reigns within its
borders.
Sword. The sword is in chivalry the
ensign or symbol of knighthood. Thus
Monstrelet says "The sons of the kings of
France are knights at the font of baptism,
being regarded as the chiefs of knighthood,
and they receive, from the cradle, the
sword which is the sign thereof." St. Pal:

aye calls the sword "the most honorable

badge of chivalry, and a symbol of the labor
the knight was to encounter." No man

thereby made a knight. "The lord or

knight," says St. Palaye, " on the girding
on of the sword, pronounced these or similar words
In the name of God, of St. Michael, and St. George, I make thee a
knight."
So important an ensign of knighthood
as the sword must have been accompanied
with some symbolic meaning, for in the
:

all occasions.

Francisco Redi, an Italian poet of the

seventeenth century, gives, in his Bacco in
Toscano, an account, from a Latin MS., of
an investiture with knighthood in the year
1260, which describes the symbolic meaning of all the insignia used on that occasion.
Of the sword it says " Let him be girded
with the sword as a sign of security against
the devil and the two edges of the blade
signify right and law, that the poor are to
be defended from the rich and the weak
from the strong."
But there is a still better definition of the
symbolism of the sword of knighthood in
an old MS. in the library of the London
College of Arms to the following effect
" Unto a knight, which is the most honorable office above all other, is given a
sword, which is made like unto a crosse for
the redemption of mankynde in signifying
that like as our Lord God died uppon the
crosse for the redemption of mankynde,
even so a knight ought to defend the crosse
and to overcome and destroie the enemies
of the same and it hath two edges in tokening that with the sword he ought to mayntayne knighthood and justice."
:

Hence in Masonic Templarism we find

that this symbolism has been preserved,
and that the sword with which the modern knight is created is said to be endowed
with the qualities of justice, fortitude, and
mercy.

The charge to a Knight Templar, that he

should never draw his sword unless convinced of the justice of the cause in which
he is engaged, nor to sheath it until his
enemies were subdued, finds also its origin
in the custom of the Middle Ages. Swords
were generally manufactured with a legend
on the blade. Among the most common
of these legends was that used on swords
made in Spain, many examples of which
are still to be found in modern collections.
That legend is " No me saques sin rason.
No me embaines sin honor i. e., Do not
:

draw me without justice.

without honor.

Do

not sheathe

me

SWORD

SWORD
So highly was the sword esteemed in the
Middle Ages as a part of a knight's equipment, that special names were given to
those of the most celebrated heroes, which
have been transmitted to us in the ballads
and romances of that period. Thus we
have among the warriors of Scandinavia,
Foot-breaath,the sword of ThoralfSkolinson
"
King Hako,
Quern-biter,
"
Siegfried,
Balmung,
Angurvardal,

To the

first

"
Frithiof.
two, Longfellow alludes in

the following lines

" Quern-biter of

Hakom

the Good,

Wherewith at a stroke he hewed

The millstone through and through,
Foot-breaath of Thoralf the Strong,
Were neither so broad nor so long
so true."

And among
have
Durandal,
Balisardo,

the knights of chivalry

we

the sword of Orlando,

"
Ruggiero,
"
the Cid,

Colado
Aroun-dight,

"
Lancelot du Sac,
Joyeuse,
Charlemagne,
"
Excalibar,
King Arthur.
Of the last of these, the well-known legend is, that it was found imbedded in a
stone as its sheath, on which was an inscription that ft could be drawn only by
him who was the rightful heir to the throne
of Britain. After two hundred and one of
the strongest knights had assayed in vain,
it was at once drawn forth by Arthur, who
was then proclaimed king by acclamation.
On his death-bed, he ordered it to be thrown
into a neighboring lake but as it fell, an
arm issued from the waters, and, seizing it
by the hilt, waved it thrice, and then it
sank never again to appear. There are
many other famous swords in these old
romances, for the knight invariably gave to
his sword, as he did to his horse, a name
expressive of its qualities or of the deeds
which he expected to accomplish with it.
In Masonry, the use of the sword as a
part of the Masonic clothing is confined to
the high degrees and the degrees of chivalry, when, of course, it is worn as a part
of the insignia of knighthood. In the
symbolic degrees its appearance in the
Lodge, except as a symbol, is strictly pro;

hibited.

which are

The Masonic prints engraved in

when the sword, at least as

the last century,

late as 1780, constituted a part of the dress

of every gentleman, show that it was discarded by the members when they entered
the Lodge. The official swords of the Tiler
and the Pursuivant or Sword-Bearer are the
only exceptions. This rule is carried so
far, that military men, when visiting a
Lodge, are required to divest themselves of

to

be

Sword and Trowel.

left

in the

See

Trowel

and Sword.

Sword Bearer. An officer in

mandery of Knights Templars. His

Com-

station

in the west, on the right of the Standard

Bearer, and when the knights are in line,
on the right of the second division. His
duty is to receive all orders and signals
from the Eminent Commander, and see
them promptly obeyed. He is, also, to assist in the protection of the banners of the
His jewel is a triangle and cross
order.
swords.
suborBearer, Grand.
dinate officer, who is found in most Grand
Lodges. Anderson says, in the second edition of the Constitutions, (p. 127,) that in
1731 the Duke of Norfolk, being then Grand
Master, presented to the Grand Lodge of
England " the old trusty sword of Gustavus
Adolphus, king of Sweden, that was worn
next by his successor in war the brave Bernard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, with both
their names on the blade, which the Grand

is

Sword

And

Nor

their swords,
Tiler's room.

779

Master had ordered Brother George Moody

(the king's sword cutler) to adorn richly
with the arms of Norfolk in silver on the
scabbard, in order to be the Grand Master's
sword of state in future." At the following
feast, Bro. Moody was appointed Sword
Bearer and the office has ever since existed,
and is to be found in almost all the Grand
Lodges of this country. Anderson further
;

says that, previous to this donation, the

Grand Lodge had no sword of state, but
used one belonging to a private Lodge. It
was borne before the Grand Master by the
Master of the Lodge to which it belonged,
as appears from the account of the procession in 1730.
The Grand Sword Bearer should be appointed by the Grand Master, and it is his
duty to carry the sword of state immediately in front of that officer in all processions
of the Grand Lodge. In Grand Lodges

which have not provided for a Grand

Sword Bearer, the duties of the office are
usually performed by the Grand Pursuivant.

Sword of State. Among the

ancient
public occasions, a lictor
carried a bundle of rods, sometimes with
an axe inserted among them, before the
consul or other magistrate as a token of his
authority and his power to punish criminals. Hence, most probably, arose the custom in the Middle Ages of carrying a
naked sword before kings or chief magisThus at the election of the Empetrates.
ror of Germany, the Elector of Saxony, as
Arch-Marshal of the Empire, carried a naked
sword before the newly-elected Emperor.

Romans, on

all

SWORD

SYMBOL

find the same practice prevailing in

as early certainly as the reign of
Henry III., at whose coronation, in 1236, a
sword was carried by the Earl of Chester.
It was named Curtana, and, being without
a point, was said to be emblematic of the
spirit of mercy that should actuate a sovereign. This sword is known as the " Sword
of State," and the practice prevailing to the
present day, it has always been borne in
England in public processions before all
chief magistrates, from the monarch of the
realm to the mayor of a city. The custom
was adopted by the Masons and we learn
from Anderson that, from the time of the
revival, a sword of state, the property of a
private Lodge, was borne by the Master of
that Lodge before the Grand Master, until

Kennet tells us (Paroch. Antiq.) that in the

commencement of the expedition of Wil-

780

We

England

the Grand Lodge acquired one by the liberality of the Duke of Norfolk, which has
ever since been borne by the Grand Sword
Bearer.

Sword Pointing to the Naked

Heart. Webb says that "the sword
pointing to the naked heart demonstrates
that justice will, sooner or later, overtake
us."
The symbol is, I think, a modern
one; but its adoption was probably suggested
by the old ceremony, both in English and
in continental Lodges, and which is still
preserved in some places, in which the candidate found himself surrounded by swords
pointing at his heart, to indicate that punishment would duly follow his violation of
his obligations.

Sword, Templar's.

According to

the regulations of the Grand Encampment

of the United States, the sword to be worn

by Knights Templars must have a helmet

head or pommel, a cross handle, and a
metal scabbard. The length from the top
of the hilt to the end of the scabbard must
be from thirty-four to forty inches.
Sword, Tiler's. In modern times
the implement used by the Tiler
is a sword of the ordinary form.
This is incorrect. Formerly, and
indeed up to a comparatively recent
period, the Tiler's sword was wavy
in shape, and so made in allusion
to the " flaming sword which was
placed at the east of the garden
of Eden, which turned every way
to keep the way of the tree of life."
It was, of course, without a scabbard, because the Tiler's sword
should ever be drawn and ready
for the defence of his post.

Sworn

Brothers. (Fratres jurati.)

It was the custom in the Middle Ages for
soldiers, and especially knights, when going
into battle, to engage each other by reciprocal oaths to share the rewards of victory
and to defend each other in the fight. Thus

liam of Normandy into England, Robert

de Oiley and Eoger de Iverio, "fratres
jurati, et per fidem et sacramentum confederal, venerunt ad conquestum Angliae,"
i. e., they came to the conquest of England,
as sworn brothers, bound by their faith and an
oath. Consequently, when William allotted
them an estate as the reward of their military service, they divided it into equal portions, each taking one.
Syllable. To pronounce the syllables,
or only one of the syllables, of a Sacred
Word, such as a name of God, was among
the Orientalists considered far more reverent than to give to it in all its syllables a
Thus the
full and continuous utterance.
Hebrews reduced the holy name Jehovah
to the syllable Jah; and the Brahmans,
taking the initial letters of the three words
which expressed the three attributes of the
Supreme Brahma, as Creator, Preserver,
and Destroyer, made of it the syllable
AUM, which, on account of its awful and
sacred meaning, they hesitated to pronounce aloud. To divide a word into syllables, and thus to interrupt the sound,
either by pausing or by the alternate pronunciation by two persons, was deemed a
mark of reverence.
symbol is defined to be a
Symbol.
visible sign with which a spiritual feeling,
emotion, or idea is connected. It was in
this sense that the early Christians gave
the name of symbols to all rites, ceremonies, and outward forms which bore a religious meaning ; such, for instance, as the
cross, and other pictures and images, and
even the sacraments and the sacramental
elements. At a still earlier period, the
Egyptians communicated the knowledge of
their esoteric philosophy in mystic symbols.
In fact, man's earliest instruction was by
means of symbols. " The first learning of
the world," says Stukely, "consisted chiefly^
of symbols. The wisdom of the Chaldeans,
Phoenicians, Egyptians, Jews, of Zoroaster,
Sanchoniathon, Pherecydes, Syrus, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, of all the ancients that
And the
is come to our hand, is symbolic."
learned Faber remarks that " allegory and
personification were peculiarly agreeable to
the genius of antiquity, and the simplicity
of truth was continually sacrificed at the
shrine of poetical decoration."
The word " symbol " is derived from a
Greek verb which signifies "to compare
one thing with another " and hence a symbol or emblem, for the two words are often
used synonymously in Masonry, is the expression of an idea which is derived from
the comparison or contrast of some object
with a moral conception or attribute. Thus

SYMBOL
plumb

SYMBOL

is a symbol of rectitude
the
of equality the beehive, of industry.
The physical qualities of the plumb are
compared or contrasted with the moral conception of virtue or rectitude of conduct.
The plumb becomes to the Mason, after he
has once been taught its symbolic meaning, forever afterwards the visible expression of the idea of rectitude, or uprightness of conduct. To study and compare
to elicit from them
these visible objects
the moral ideas which they are intended to
is to make one's self acquainted
express
with the symbolism of Masonry.
The objective character of a symbol,
which presents something material to the
sight and touch, as explanatory of an internal idea, is best calculated to be grasped
by the infant mind, whether the infancy of
that mind be considered nationally or individually.
And hence, in the first ages of
the world, in its infancy, all propositions,
theological, political, or scientific, were expressed in the form of symbols. Thus the
first religions were eminently symbolical, because, as that great philosophical historian,
Grote, has remarked, "At a time when language was yet in its infancy, visible symbols were the most vivid means of acting
upon the minds of ignorant hearers."
To the man of mature intellect, each
letter of the alphabet is the symbol of a
certain sound. When we instruct the child
in the form and value of these letters, we
make the picture of some familiar object
the representation of the letter which aids
the infantile memory.
Thus, when the
teacher says,
was an Archer," the
Archer becomes a symbol of the letter A,
just as in after-life the letter becomes the
symbol of a sound.
" Symbolical representations of things
sacred," says Dr. Barlow, {Essays on Symbolism, I., p. 1,) " were coeval with religion
itself as a system of doctrine appealing to
sense, and have accompanied its transmission to ourselves from the earliest known
period of monumental history.
" Egyptian tombs and stiles exhibit religious symbols still in use among Christians.
Similar forms, with corresponding meanings, though under different names, are
found among the Indians, and are seen on
the monuments of the Assyrians, the Etruscans, and the Greeks.
" The Hebrews borrowed much of their
early religious symbolism from the Egyptians, their later from the Babylonians, and
through them this symbolical imagery, both
verbal and objective, has descended to our-

the

level,

"A

selves.

"

The Egyptian

priests were great proin symbolism, and so were the

Chaldeans, and so were Moses and the

ficients

781

Prophets, and the Jewish doctors generally,

so were many of the early fathers
of the Church, especially the Greek fa-

and
thers.

" Philo of Alexandria was very learned

and the Evangelist St. John

in symbolism,

has made

much

use of

it.

"The

early Christian architects, sculptors, and painters drank deep of symbolical lore, and reproduced it in their works."
Squier gives in his Serpent Symbolism
in America (p. 19) a similar view of the antiquity and the subsequent growth of the
use of symbols. He says: "In the absence
of a written language or forms of expression capable of conveying abstract ideas,
we can readily comprehend the necessity,
among a primitive people, of a symbolic
system. That symbolism in a great degree
resulted from this necessity is very obvious
and that, associated with man's primitive
religious systems, it was afterwards continued, when in the advanced stage of the
human mind the previous necessity no
longer existed, is equally undoubted. It
thus came to constitute a kind of sacred
language, and became invested with an
esoteric significance understood only by the
few."
In Freemasonry, all the instructions in
its mysteries are communicated in the form
of symbols.
Founded, as a speculative
science, on an operative art, it has taken
the working-tools of the profession which
it spiritualizes, the terms of architecture,
'

the Temple of Solomon, and everything

that is connected with its traditional history, and adopting them as symbols, it
teaches its great moral and philosophical
lessons by this system of symbolism.
But
its symbols are not confined to material
objects as were the hieroglyphics of the
Egyptians.
Its myths and legends are
also, for the most part, symbolic.
Often
a legend, unauthenticated by history, distorted by anachronisms, and possibly absurd in its pretensions if viewed historically or as a narrative of actual occurrences, when interpreted as a symbol, is
found to impress the mind with some great
spiritual and philosophical truth.
The
legends of Masonry are parables, and a
parable is only a spoken symbol. By its
utterance, says Adam Clarke, "spiritual
things are better understood, and make a
deeper impression on the attentive mind."

Symbol, Compound. In my work

on the Symbolism of Freemasonry, I have
ventured to give this name to a species of
symbol that is not unusual in Freemasonry,
where the symbol is to be taken in a double
sense, meaning in its general application
one thing, and then in a special application
another.
example of this is seen in the

An

"

SYMBOLIC

SYMBOLIC

symbolism of Solomon's Temple, where, In

a general sense, the Temple is viewed as a
symbol of that spiritual temple formed by
the aggregation of the whole Order, and in
which each Mason is considered as a stone
and, in an individual or special sense, the
same Temple is considered as a type of that
spiritual temple which each Mason is di-

Masonry, the "golden legend" of the

Order, to be found in the Master's degree,
and which is, itself, a symbol of the most
abstruse and solemn signification. But
even in this instance, interesting as are the
details of the legend, they are only subor-

782

rected to erect in his heart.

Symbolic Degrees. The first three

degrees of Free Masonry, namely, those of
Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and
Master Mason, are known, by way of distinction, as the " symbolic degrees."
This
term is never applied to the degrees of
Mark, Past, and Most Excellent Master,
and the Royal Arch, which, as being conferred in a body called a Chapter, are generally designated as " capitular degrees ;
nor to those of Royal and Select Master,
which, conferred in a Council, are, by an excellent modern usage, styled " cryptic degrees," from the crypt or vault which plays
so important a part in their ritual.
But
the term ''symbolic" is exclusively confined to the degrees conferred in a Lodge
of the three primitive degrees, which Lodge,
therefore, whether opened on the first, the
second, or the third degree, is always referred to as a "symbolic Lodge."
As this
distinctive term is of constant and universal use, it may be considered not altogether
useless to inquire into its origin and signification.

The germ and nucleus of all Freemasonbe found in the three primitive deApprentice, the Fellow Craft,
and the Master Mason. They were at one
time (under a modification, however, which
included the Royal Arch) the only degrees
ry

is to
grees,

the

known

to or practised

by the

Craft,

and

hence they are often called " Ancient Craft

Masonry," to distinguish them from those
comparatively modern additions which constitute what are designated as the " high
degrees," or, by the French, " les hautes

The striking peculiarity of these

primitive degrees is that their prominent
mode of instruction is by symbols. Not
that they are without legends.
On the
contrary, they have each an abundance of
legends such, for instance, as the details
of the building of the Temple of the payment of wages in the middle chamber, or
of the construction of the pillars of the
porch. But these legends do not perform
any very important part in the constitution
of the degree.
The lessons which are communicated to the candidate in these primitive degrees are
conveyed, principally,
through the medium of symbols, while there
is (at least in the working of the degrees)
but little traditional or legendary teaching,
with the exception of the great legend of

grades."

dinate to the symbol. Hiram the Builder

the profound symbol of manhood laboring for immortality, and all the different
points of the legend are simply clustered
around it, only to throw out the symbol in
bolder relief. The legend is of itself inert
it is the symbol of the Master Workman
that gives it life and true meaning.
Symbolism is, therefore, the prevailing
characteristic of these primitive degrees;
and it is because all the science and philosophy and religion of Ancient Craft Masonry is thus concealed from the profane but
unfolded to the initiates in symbols, that
the first three degrees which comprise it are
said to be symbolic.
Now, nothing of this kind is to be found
in the degrees above and beyond the third,
if we except the Royal Arch, which, however, as I have already intimated, was originally a part of Ancient Craft Masonry, and
was unnaturally torn from the Master's degree, of which it, as every Masonic student
knows, constituted the complement and
consummation. Take, for example, the intermediate degrees of the American Chapter, such, for instance, as the Mark and
Most Excellent Master. Here we find the
symbolic feature ceasing to predominate,
and the traditional or legendary taking its
place.
It is true that in these capitular degrees the use of symbols is not altogether
abandoned. This could not well be, for the
symbol constitutes the very essence of Freeis

masonry. The symbolic element is still to

be discovered in these degrees, but only in
a position subordinate to legendary instruction.
As an illustration, let us consider the
keystone in the Mark Master's degree.
Now, no one will deny that this is strictly
speaking a symbol, and a very important
and beautiful one, too. It is a symbol of a
fraternal covenant between those who are
engaged in the common search after divine
But, in the role which it plays in,
truth.
the ritual of this degree, the symbol, however beautiful and appropriate it may be.
is in a manner lost sight of, and the keystone derives almost all its importance and
interest from the traditional history of its
architectural design, and
of a legend,
and not as a symbol, that it attracts attention.
Now, in the third or Master's degree
we find the trowel, which is a symbol of
almost precisely the same import as the
keystone. They both refer to a Masonic
covenant. But no legend, no tradition, no

construction,

its

fate.

its

It is as the subject

SYNDICATION

SYMBOLIC

783

It
is connected with the trowel.
Symbolic Lodge. Lodge of Master
presents itself simply and exclusively as a Masons, with the Fellow Craft and Apsymbol. Hence we learn that symbols do prentice Lodge worked under its Constitunot in the capitular, as in the primitive, de- tion, is called a Symbolic Lodge, because in
grees of Masonry strike the eye, and inform it the Symbolic degrees are conferred. See
the mind, and teach the heart, in every Symbolic Degrees.
Symbolic Machinery. Machinery
part of the Lodge, and in every part
of the ceremonial initiation. On the con- is a term employed in epic and dramatic
trary, the capitular degrees are almost al- poetry to denote some agency introduced
together founded on and composed of a by the poet to serve some purpose or accomEach plish some event. Faber, in treating of the
series of events in Masonic history.
of them has attached to it some tradition Apocalypse, speaks of " a patriarchal scheme
or legend which it is the design of the de- of symbolical machinery derived most
gree to illustrate, and the memory of which plainly from the events of the deluge, and
borrowed, with the usual perverse misappliis preserved in its ceremonies and instrucThat most of these legends are cation, by the contrivers of paganism, but
tions.
themselves of symbolic signification is not which has since been reclaimed by Christidenied. But this is their interior sense. anity to its proper use." Dr. Oliver thinks
In their outward and ostensible meaning, that this " scheme of symbolical machinery "
they appear before us simply as legends. was " the primitive Freemasonry, veiled in
To retain these legends in the memory of allegory and illustrated by symbols." WithMasons appears to have been the primary out adopting this questionable hypothesis,
design in the establishment of the higher it must be admitted that Freemasonry, in
degrees, and as the information intended to the scenic representations sometimes used
be communicated in these degrees is of a in its initiations, has, like the epic poets,
historical character, there can of course be and dramatists, and the old hierophants,
but little room for symbols or for symbolic availed itself of the use of symbolic mainstruction, the profuse use of which would chinery.
rather tend to an injury than to a benefit,
Symbolic Masonry. The Masonry
by complicating the purposes of the ritual that is concerned with the first three deand confusing the mind of the aspirant.
grees in all the Rites. This is the techniThe celebrated French writer, Ragon, cal meaning. But in a more general sense,
objects to this exclusive application of the Symbolic Masonry is that Masonry, wherterm " symbolic " to the first three degrees as ever it may be found, whether in the pria sort of unfavorable criticism on the higher mary or in the high degrees, in which the
degrees, and as if implying that the latter lessons are communicated by symbols. See
are entirely devoid of the element of sym- Symbolic Degrees.
bolism.
But he has mistaken the true imSymbolism, the Science of. The
port and meaning of the application. It is science which is engaged in the investiganot because the higher or capitular and tion of the meaning of symbols, and the
cryptic degrees are altogether without sym- application of their interpretation to moral,
bols
for such is not the case
that the religious, and philosophical instruction.
term symbolic is withheld from them, but In this sense, Freemasonry is essentially a
because symbolic instruction does not con- science of symbolism. The English lecstitute their predominating characteristic,
tures define Freemasonry to be " a science
as it does of the first three degrees.
of morality veiled in allegory and illusAnd hence the Masonry taught in these trated by symbols." The definition would
three primitive degrees is very properly be more correct were it in these words
called Symbolic Masonry, and the Lodge in Freemasonry is a system of morality devel-

history,

which

this

Masonry

is

taught

is

known

as

a Symbolic Lodge.

Symbolic ^Lectures. The

lectures

appropriated to the first, second, and third

degrees are sometimes called Symbolic lectures but the term is more properly applied
to any lecture which treats of the meaning
of Masonic symbols, in contradistinction to
one which discusses only the history of the
Order, and which would, therefore, be
called a Historical Lecture.
But the Eng;

lish

Masons have a

lecture

called

"the

symbolical lecture," in which is explained

the forms, symbols, and ornaments of Royal

Arch Masonry,
monies.

oped and inculcated by the science of symbolism.

as well as its rites

and

cere-

Symbol

of Glory. In the old lectures of the last century, the Blazing Star
was called " the glory in the centre ; " because it was placed in the centre of the
floor-cloth or tracing-board, and represented
hieroglyphically the glorious name of God.
Hence Dr. Oliver has given to one of his
most, interesting works, which treats of the
symbolism of the Blazing Star, the title of
the Symbol of Glory.
Syndication of Lodges. A term
used in France, in 1773, by the Schismatic
Grand Orient during its contests with the
Grand Lodge, to denote the fusion of sev-

SYNOD

TABERNACLE

Lodges into one. The word was never

introduced into English Masonry, and has
become obsolete in France.
Synod of Scotland. In 1757, the
Associate Synod of Seceders of Scotland
adopted an act, concerning what they called
" the Mason oath/' in which it is declared,
that all persons who shall refuse to make
such revelations as the Kirk Sessions may
require, and to promise to abstain from all
future connection with the Order, " shall be
reputed under scandal, and incapable of admission to sealing ordinances." In consequence of this act, passed more than a century ago, the sect of Seceders, of which
there are a few in this country, continue to
be at the present day inveterate enemies of
the Masonic institution.
country of Asia Minor lying
Syria.
on the western shores of the Mediterranean.
To the Freemason, it is associated with the
legendary history of his Order in several

in the Holy Land, p. 216,) that " the Order

of Freemasonry is not in a condition satisfactory to the members thereof, nor creditable to the great cause in which the Fraternity are engaged."
System. Lenning defines a system of
Freemasonry to be the doctrine of Freemasonry as exhibited in the Lodge government and Lodge work or ritual. The definition is not, I think, satisfactory.
In
Freemasonry, a system is a plan or scheme
of doctrines intended to develop a particular view as to the origin, the design, and
the character of the Institution. The word
is often used as synonymous with Rite, but
the two words do not always express the
same meaning.
system is not always developed into a Rite, or the same system may
give birth to two or more different Rites. Dr.
Oliver established a system founded on the
literal acceptance of almost all the legendary traditions, but he never invented a
Rite.
Ramsay and Hund both held the
same system as to the Templar origin of
Masonry but the Rite of Ramsay and the
Rite of Strict Observance are very different.
The system of Schroder and that of
the Grand Lodge of England do not essentially vary, but there is no similarity
between the York Rite and the Rite of
Schroder. Whoever in Masonry sets forth
a connected series of doctrines peculiar to
He may or
himself invents a system.
he may not afterwards fabricate a Rite.
But the Rite would be only a consequence, and not a necessary one, of the
svstem.

784
eral

interesting points, especially in reference

to Mount Lebanon, from whose forests was
derived the timber for the construction of
the Temple. The modern Templar will
view it as the scene of the contests waged

during the Crusades by the Christian knights

with their Saracen adversaries. In modern
Syria, Freemasonry has been slow to find a
home. The only Lodges existing in the
country are at the city of Beyrout, which
contains two
Palestine Lodge, No. 415,

by the Grand Lodge

of Scotland, March 4, 1861, and the Lodge
Le Liban, by the Grand Orient of France,
January 4, 1869. Morris says, {Freemasonry

which was

instituted

T.
Tabernacle. Many Masonic students
have greatly erred in the way in which they
have referred to the Sinaitic tabernacle, as
if it were represented by the tabernacle
said in the legends to have been erected by
Zerubbabel at Jerusalem at the time of the
building of the second Temple. The belief
that the tabernacle of Zerubbabel was an
exact representation of that erected by
Moses, arose from the numerous allusions
to it in the writings of Oliver, but in this
country principally from the teachings of
Webb and* Cross. It is, however, true, that
although the symbols of the ark, the golden
candlestick, the altar of incense, and some
others were taken, not from the tabernacle,
but from the Temple, the symbolism of the

veils was derived from the latter, but in a

form by no means similar to the original

disposition.

It is therefore necessary that

real

some notice should be taken of the

we may be enabled to know

how far the Masonic is connected with the
tabernacle, that

Sinaitic edifice.
The word tabernacle means a tent. It is
the diminutive of taberna, and was used by
the Romans to denote a soldier's tent. It
was constructed of planks and covered with
skins, and its outward appearance presented
the precise form of the Jewish tabernacle.
The Jews called it sometimes mishcan,
which, like the Latin taberna, meant a
dwelling-place, but more commonly ohel,
which meant, like tabernaculum, a tent. In

TABERNACLE
shape it resembled a tent, and
have derived
its form from
the tents used

is

TABERNACLE
supposed to colors

by the patriarchs during

nomad-

their

ic life.

There are
three tabernacles

the Sinaitic,

and the Davidic.

1. The Anti-Sinaitic tabernacle was the
tent used, perhaps from the beginning of
the exodus, for the transaction of business,
and was situated at some distance from the
camp. It was used only provisionally, and

was superseded by the tabernacle proper.

This was con2. The Sinaitic tabernacle.
structed by Aholiab and Bezaleel under the
immediate direction of Moses. The costliness and splendor of this edifice exceeded,
says Kitto, in proportion to the means of
the people who constructed it, the magnificence of any cathedral of the present day.
It was situated in the very centre of the
camp, with its door or entrance facing the
east, and was placed towards the western
part of an enclosure or outward court, which
was one hundred and fifty feet long and
fifty feet wide, and surrounded by canvas
screens seven and a half feet high, so as to
f>revent any one on the outside from overooking the court.
The tabernacle itself was, according to
Josephus, forty-five feet long by fifteen
wide its greater length being from east to
;

The sides were fifteen feet high, and

there was a sloping roof. There was no
aperture or place of entrance except at the
eastern end, which was covered by curtains.
Internally, the tabernacle was divided into
two apartments by a richly decorated curtain.
The one at the western end was fifteen feet long, making, therefore, a perfect
cube. This was the Holy of Holies, into
which no one entered, not even the high
priest, except on extraordinary occasions.
In it was placed the wArk of the Covenant,
against the western wall. The Holy of
Holies was separated from the Sanctuary
by a curtain embroidered with figures of
cherubim, and supported by four golden
pillars.
The Sanctuary, or eastern apartment, was in the form of a double cube, being fifteen feet high, fifteen feet wide, and
thirty feet long. In it were placed the table
of shewbread on the northern side, the
golden candlestick on the southern, and
the altar of incense between them. The
tabernacle thus constructed was decorated
with rich curtains. These were of four
west.

4Y

white or fine-twined linen, blue,

purple, and red. They were so suspended
as to cover the sides and top of the tabernacle, not being distributed as veils separating
it into apartments, as in the Masonic tabernacle.
Josephus, in describing the symbolic signification of the tabernacle, says
that it was an imitation of the system of
the world the Holy of Holies, into which
not even the priests were admitted, was as
it were a heaven peculiar to God; but
the Sanctuary, where the people were allowed to assemble for worship, represented
But
the sea and land on which men live.
the symbolism of the tabernacle was far
more complex than anything that Josephus has said upon the subject would lead
us to suppose. Its connection would, however, lead us to an inquiry into the religious
life of the ancient Hebrews, and into an
investigation of the question how much
Moses was, in the appointment of ceremonies, influenced by his previous Egyptian
life;
topics whose consideration would
throw no light on the subject of the Masonic symbolism of the tabernacle.
3. The Davidic tabernacle in time took
the place of that which had been constructed by Moses. The old or Sinaitic tabernacle accompanied the Israelites in all their
wanderings, and was their old temple until
David obtained possession of Jerusalem.
From that time it remained at Gibeon, and
we have no account of its removal thence.
But when David removed the ark to Jerusalem, he erected a tabernacle for its reception.
Here the priests performed their
daily service, until Solomon erected the
Temple, when the ark was deposited in the
Holy of Holies, and the Davidic tabernacle
put away as a relic. At the subsequent
destruction of the Temple it was most probably burned. From the time of Solomon we
altogether lose sight of the Sinaitic tabernacle, which perhaps became a victim to carelessness and the corroding influence of time.
The three tabernacles just described
are the only ones mentioned in Scripture
or in Josephus.
Masonic tradition, however, enumerates a fourth,
the tabernacle
erected by Zerubbabel on his arrival at Je;

mentioned

in Scripture
history
the Anti-Sin aitic,

785

50

rusalem with his countrymen, who had

been restored from captivity by Cyrus for
the purpose of rebuilding the Temple.
Ezra tells us that on their arrival they
built the altar of burnt-offerings and offered
sacrifice.
This would not, however, necessitate the building of a house, because
the altar of sacrifices had always been
erected in the open court, both of the old
tabernacle and Temple. Yet as the priests
and Levites were there, and it is said that
the religious ordinances of Moses were observed,

it is

not unlikely that some sort of

TABERNACLE

TABLE

temporary shelter was erected for the performance of divine worship. But of the
form and character of such a building we
have no account.
A Masonic legend has, however, for sym-

viewed, and there its symbolic meaning

presents, as in all other Masonic myths, a
fund of useful instruction. For an interpretation of that symbolism, see Veils, Symbolism of the.
In some Chapters a part of the furniture is called the tabernacle; in other
words, a piece of frame- work is erected inside of the room, and is called the tabernacle.
This is incorrect. According to the
ritual, the whole Chapter room represents
the tabernacle, and the veils should be suspended from wall to wall. Indeed, I have
reasons for believing that this interior tabernacle is an innovation of little more than
twenty years' standing. The oldest Chapter rooms that I have seen are constructed
on the correct principle.

786

bolical purposes, supplied the deficiency.

is, however, peculiar to the

This legend

American modification of the Royal Arch

degree. In the English system a Royal
Arch Chapter represents the " ancient
Sanhedrim," where Zerubbabel, Haggai,
In the
and Joshua administer the law.
American system a Chapter is said to represent " the tabernacle erected by our ancient
brethren near the ruins of

King Solomon's

Temple."

Of the erection of this tabernacle, I have

said that there is no historical evidence.
It is
simply a
myth, but a myth

Tabernacle, Chief of the.

Tabernacle, Prince of the.

constructed, of
course, for a symbolical
purpose.

In

its

legendary

description,

it

bears no resemblance
whatsoever, except in the
colors of its curtains or veils, to
the Sinaitic tabernacle.
In the latter the Holy of
Holies was in the
western extremity, in the former it is in the
eastern ; in that was contained the Ark of the
Covenant with the overshadowing cherubim and the Shekinah in this there are no
such articles in that the most holy was inaccessible to all persons, even to the priests
in this it is the seat of the three presiding
;

officers,

and

means.

is readily accessible by proper

In that the curtains were attached

to the sides of the tent; in this they are

suspended across, dividing it into four

apartments. The Masonic tabernacle used

in the American Royal Arch degree is not,
therefore, a representation of the ancient
tabernacle erected by Moses in the wilderness, but must be supposed to be simply a
temporary construction for purposes of
shelter, of consultation and of worship.
It
was, in the strictest sense of the word, a
tabernacle, a tent. As a myth, with no historical foundation, it would be valueless,
were it not that it is used, and was undoubtedly fabricated, for the purpose of developing a symbolism. And this symbolism is

found in

There is no harm in
a tabernacle any more than there
its

veils.

calling it
in calling it a sanhedrim, provided we
do not fall into the error of supposing that
either was actually its character.
As a
myth, and only as a myth, must it be

is

See

Chief of the Tabernacle.

See

Prince of the Tabernacle.

Table Lodge. After the labors of
the Lodge have been completed, Masons
frequently meet at tables to enjoy a repast
in

common.

In England and America,

this repast is generally called a banquet,

and the Lodge is said to be, during its continuance, at refreshment. The Master, of
course, presides, assisted by the Wardens,

and

it is considered most proper that no

profanes should be present. But with these
exceptions, there are no rules specially
laid down for the government of Masonic
banquets. It will be seen, by an inspection
of the article Refreshment in this work, that
during the last century, and even at the
commencement of the present, refreshments
in English Lodges were taken during the sessions of the Lodge and in the Lodge-room,
and then, of course, rigid rules were in existence for the government of the Fraternity,
and for the regulation of the forms in which
the refreshments should be partaken. But
this system has long grown obsolete, and
the Masonic banquets of the present day
differ very little from those of other societies, except, perhaps, in a more strict observance of the rules of order, and in the
exclusion of all non-Masonic visitors.
But French Masons have prescribed a
very formal system of rules for what they
call a " Loge de Table," or Table Lodge.
The room in which the banquet takes place
is as much protected by its insulation from
observation as the Lodge-room itself. Table Lodges are always held in the Appren-

and none but Masons are permitted to be present. Even the attendants
are taken from the class known as "Serving Brethren," that is to say, waiters who
have received the first degree for the special
purpose of entitling them to be present on
such occasions.
tice's degree,

TABLE

TACITURNITY

The table is in the form of a horseshoe

or elongated semi-

signs some striking reasons for the reference.

But this symbolism, although very
beautiful, is evidently very modern.
The Table Lodge is then closed with the
fraternal kiss, which is passed from the

circle.
sits

WM.

The Master
head,

at the

the Senior Warden at the northextremity, 9

west
and the Junior

table, and with the

usual forms.
One of the most curious things about
these Table Lodges is the vocabulary used.
The instant that the Lodge is opened, a
change takes place in the names of things,

Master around the

Warden at the"
The*
south-west.
Deacons or equiv*
alent officers sit
between the two

and no person

The

Wardens.

are

brethren

placed around the #

exterior margin of
the table, facing
and
each other
the void space be-
tween the sides is
Deacons
occupied by the ^jtit*
vv
serving brethren
or attendants. It is probable that the form
of the table was really adopted at first from
motives of convenience. But M. Hermitte
(Bull. G. 0., 1869, p. 83,) assigns for it a
symbolism. He says that as the entire circle represents the year, or the complete
revolution of the earth around the sun, the
semicircle represents the half of that revolution, or a period of six months, and
therefore refers to each the two solstitial
points of summer and winter, or the two
great festivals of the Order in June and
December, when the most important Table
;

jw:

Lodges are held.

The Table Lodge is formally opened with
an invocation to the Grand Architect.
During the banquet, seven toasts are
given. These are called " santes d'obligation," or obligatory toasts.
They are drunk
with certain ceremonies, which are prescribed by the ritual, and from which no
departure is permitted. These toasts are
1. The health of the Sovereign or Chief
Magistrate of the State. 2. That of the
Grand Master and the Supreme power of
the Order, that

is,

Grand Lodge.

3.

the

Grand Orient or the

is permitted to call a plate

a plate, or a knife a knife, or anything else
by the appellation by which it is known in
ordinary conversation. Such a custom formerly prevailed in England, if we may
judge from a passage in Dr. Oliver's Revelations of a Square, where an instance is
given of its use in 1780, when the French
vocabulary was employed. I am inclined
to believe, from the same authority, that
the custom was introduced into England
from France by Capt. George Smith, the
author of the Use and Abuse of Freemasonry,
who was initiated in a continental Lodge.
The vocabulary of the Table Lodge as

used at French Masonic banquets

new

be any.
7. That of all Masons wheresoever spread
over the face of the globe. See Toasts.

Ragon

(Thill.

Gen., p. 17,) refers these

seven toasts of obligation to the seven libations made by the ancients in their banquets
in honor of the seven planets, the Sun,
Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and
Saturn, and the seven days of the week

which are named

after

them; and he

as-

as fol-

they call standard.

Table-cloth

<i

Napkins

Table
Dishes

tt

Plates

Spoons
Knives
Forks

tt

Bottles
Glasses

tiles.

trowels.

swords.
pickaxes.

tt

casks.

cannons.

Lights
Snuffers

tt

Chairs

ft

Meals
Bread
Red wine
White wine

flags.

tracing-board.
great plates.

it
tt

stars.

pincers.
stalls.

tt

materials.

tt

rough ashlar.

tt

strong red powder.

strong white pow-

tt

der,

Water

tt

Beer
Brandy, or liqueurs

tt

Coffee
Salt

tt

tt

weak powder.
yellow powder.
fulminating
powder,

a
ti
tt

is

initiates or affiliates if there

is

lows:

That of the Master of Pepper

offered by the Senior To eat
Warden. 4. That of the two Wardens. To drink
To carve
5. That of the Visiting Brethren.
6. That
of the other officers of the Lodge, and the
Tablets
the Lodge; this

787

"

of

black powder.
white sand.
cement.
to masticate.
to fire.
to hew.

Hiram Abif. Among

the traditions of the Order there is a legend

referring to the tablets used by Hiram Abif
as a Trestle-Board on which to lay down
his designs.
This legend, of course, can
lay no claim to authenticity, but is intended
simply as a symbol inculcating the duty of
every man to work in the daily labor of life
after a design that will construct in his
body a spiritual temple. See Hiram Abif.
Taciturnity. In the earliest cate-

TACTICS

TALISMAN

chisms of the last century it is said that

" the three particular points that pertain to
a Mason are Fraternity, Fidelity, and Taciturnity," and that they "represent Love,
Relief, and Truth among all Right Ma-

the Middle Ages from the Gnostics. Of

the Gnostic talismans none were more frequent than those which were inscribed with
divine names. Of these the most common
were IAO and SABAO, although we find
also the Tetragrammaton, and Elohim,
Elohi, Adonai, and other Hebrew appellations of the deity.
Sometimes the talisman contained, not one of the names of
God, but that of some mystical person,
or the expression of some mystical idea.
Thus, on some of the Gnostic talismanic
gems, we find the names of the three mythical kings of Cologne, or the sacred Abraxas.
The orthodox Christians of the early
days of the church were necessarily influenced, by the popular belief in talismans, to
adopt many of them although, of course,
they sought to divest them of their magical
signification, and to use them simply as symbols.
Hence we find among these Christians the Constantinian monogram, composed of the letters
and P, or the vesica
piscis, as a symbol of Christ, and the image
of a little fish as a token of Christian recognition, and the anchor as a mark of Christian hope.
Many of the symbols and symbolic ex~
pressions which were in use by the alchemists, the astrologers, and by the Rosicrucians, are to be traced to the Gnostic talismans. The talisman was, it is true, converted from an instrument of incantation
into a symbol but the symbol was accompanied with a mystical signification which
gave it a sacred character.
It has been said that in the Gnostic talismans the most important element was
some one or more of the sacred names of
God, derived either from the Hebrews, the
Arabians, or from their own abstruse philosophy sometimes even in the same talis-

788

The symbol is now obsolete.

Tactics. The importance that has

sons."

in

the last few years been given to the military element in the Order of Masonic
Knights Templars has made it necessary
that special Manuals should be prepared
for the instruction of Knights in the elementary principles of military movements.
The most popular works of this kind are
1. Knights Templars' Tactics and Drill for
the use of Commanderies, and the Burial Service of the Orders of Masonic Knighthood.
Prepared by Sir Orrin Welsh, Past Grand
Commander, State of New York ; 2. Knights
Templars' Tactics and Drill, with the Working,
Text, and Burial Service of the Orders of
Knighthood, as adopted by the Grand Commandery of the State of Michigan. By Ellery
Irving Garfield, E. G. C. G. Grand Commandery of Michigan; and 3. Tactics for
Knights templars, and Appendant Orders.
Prepared by E. Sir Knight George Wingate
These works conChase, of Massachusetts.
tain the necessary instructions in the
" school of the knight," or the proper
method of marching, halting, saluting,
handling the sword, etc., and the " school
of the commandery," or directions for
properly performing the evolutions on a
public parade. Books of this kind have
now become as necessary and as common
to the Knight Templar as Monitors are to
the Master Mason.
Talisman. From the Hebrew tselem
and the Chaldaic tsalma, an image or idol.
talisman signifies an implement or instrument, either of wood, or metal, or some
precious stone, or even parchment, of various man from all these sources combined. Thus
forms, such as a triangle, a cross, a circle, there is a Gnostic talisman, said by Mr.
and sometimes a human head or human King to be still current in Germany as an
figure, generally inscribed with characters amulet against plague. It consists of a silver
and constructed with mystical rites and cere- plate, on which are inscribed various names
The talisman thus constructed of God surrounding a magic square, whose
monies.
was supposed by the ancients, and even figures computed every way make the numin the Middle Ages, to be invested with ber 34.
supernatural powers and a capacity for protecting its wearer or possessor from evil in*ELOHIM * ELOHI*
fluences, and for securing to him good fortune and success in his undertakings.
1
14
15
.
4
The word amulet, from the Latin verb
*
m
amolior, to bafile or do away with, though
< 9
12
6
7
sometimes confounded with the talisman,
<
has a less general signification. For while
PQ
10
8
5 . 11
the talisman served both to procure good
W
cs;
and to avert evil, the powers of the amulet
*
2
13
16
.
3
were entirely of a protective nature. Frequently, however, the two words are indif*ROCYEL * IOSIPHIEL*
ferently used.
The use of talismans was introduced in
;

o
p
<

TALISMAN

TALMUD

In this Gnostic talisman, we will observe

the presence not only of sacred names, but
And it is to the influence
also of mystical.
of these talismanic forms, developed in the
symbols of the secret societies of the Middle Ages, and even in the architectural decorations of the builders of the same period,
such as the triangle, the pentalpha, the
double triangle, etc., that we are to attribute the prevalence of sacred names and
sacred numbers in the symbolic system of

represent the male generative principle, and

the square held by the female, the female
productive principle. The subsequent interpretation given to the combined square
and compass was the transmutation from
the hermetic talisman to the Masonic sym-

789

bol.

Talmud.

Hebrew, TioSn, signifying

The Jews say that Moses received

on Mount Sinai not only the written law
doctrine.

which is contained in the Pentateuch, but

an oral law, which was first communicated
by him to Aaron, then by them to the seventy elders, and finally by these to the peoMasonic symbols, by a gradual transmis- ple, and thus transmitted, by memory, from
sion through alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and generation to generation. This oral law
mediaeval architecture, than a plate to be was never committed to writing until about

Freemasonry.
We do not need a better instance of this
transmutation of Gnostic talismans into

found in the Azoth Philosophorum of Basil

Valentine, the Hermetic philosopher, who
flourished in the seventeenth century.

the beginning of the third century, when

Rabbi Jehuda the Holy, finding that there
was a possibility of its being lost, from the
decrease of students of the law, collected all
the traditionary laws into one book, which
is called the Mishna, a word signifying
repetition, because it is, as it were, a repetition of the written law.
The Mishna was at once received with
great veneration, and many wise men
among the Jews devoted themselves to its
study.

Towards the end of the fourth century,

these opinions were collected into a book
of commentaries, called the Gemara, by the
school at Tiberias. This work has been
falsely attributed to Rabbi Jochanan
but
he died in 279, a hundred years before its
composition. The Mishna and its commentary, the Gemara, are, in their collected
form, called the Talmud.
The Jews in Chaldea, not being satisfied
with the interpretations in this work, composed others, which were collected together
by Rabbi Ashe into another Gemara. The
former work has since been known as the
Jerusalem Talmud, and that of R. Ashe as
the Babylonian Talmud, from the places in
which they were respectively compiled.
In both works the Mishna or law is the
same ; it is only the Gemara or commentary that is different.
The Jewish scholars place so high a
value on the Talmud as to compare the
Bible to water, the Mishna to wine, and the
Gemara to spiced wine or the first to salt,
the second to pepper, and third to spices.
;

This plate, which is hermetic in its debut is full of Masonic symbolism,

represents a winged globe inscribed with a
triangle within a square, and on it reposes a
dragon. On the latter stands a human figure of two hands and two heads, surrounded
sign,

by the sun, the moon, and five stars representing the seven planets. One of the
heads is that of a male, the other of a female. The hand attached to the male part
of the figure holds a compass, that to the
female, a square. The square and compass
thus distributed seem to me to indicate that
originally a phallic meaning was attached
to these symbols as there was to the point
within the circle, which in this plate also
appears in the centre of the globe. The
compass held by the male figure would

For a long time after its composition it

seemed to absorb all the powers of the
Jewish intellect, and the labors of Hebrew
writers were confined to treatises and speculations on Talmudical opinions.

The Mishna
called Sederim,

is

divided into six divisions

whose subjects are:

1.

The

productions of the earth 2. Festivals 3.

The rights and duties of women 4. Damages and injuries 5. Sacrifices 6. Purifi;

TAMARISK

TATNAI

cations.
Each of these Sederim is again
divided into Massicoth, or treatises, of which
there are altogether sixty-three.
The Gemara, which differs in the Jerusalem and Babylonian redactions, consists of
commentaries on these Massicoth, ortreatises.
Of the Talmud, Lightfoot has said that
the matters it contains "do everywhere
abound with trifles in that manner, as
though they had no mind to be read; with
obscurities and difficulties, as though they
had no mind to be understood so that the
reader has need of patience all along to enable him to bear both trifling in sense and
roughness in expression." Stehelin concurs
in a similar opinion but Steinschneider, as
learned a Hebraist as either, has expressed
a more favorable judgment.
Although the Talmud does indeed contain many passages whose conceits are puerile, it is, nevertheless, extremely serviceable as an elaborate compendium of Jewish
customs, and has therefore been much used
in the criticism of the Old and New Testaments. It furnishes also many curious illustrations of the Masonic system
and
several of the traditions and legends, especially of the higher degrees, are either found
in or corroborated by the Talmud. The
treatise entitled Middoth, for instance, gives
us the best description extant of the Temple
of Solomon.
Tamarisk. The sacred tree of the
Osirian mysteries, classically called the

Tarsel. In the earliest catechisms of

the eighteenth century, it is said that the
furniture of a Lodge consists of a " Mosaic

790

Erica,

which

see.

Tanneliill, Wilkins. Born in Tennessee, in 1787.

in 1813, of the

and was

for

He was one of the founders,

Grand Lodge of Tennessee,

seven years Grand Master of

that body. He was also a contributor to

the literature of Masonry, having published
in 1845 a Master Mason's Manual; which
was, however, little more than a compilation from the preceding labors of Preston
and Webb. In 1847, he commenced the
publication of a Masonic periodical under
the title of the Portfolio. This was a work
of considerable merit, but he was compelled
to discontinue it in 1850, in consequence
of an attack of amaurosis. One who knew
him well, has paid this just tribute to his
character: "Simple in feeling as a child,
with a heart warm and tender to the infirmities of his brethren, generous even to
a fault, he passed through the temptations
and trying scenes of an eventful life without a soil upon the purity of his garments."
He died June 2, 1858, aged seventy-one
years.

Tapis.

The name given

in

German

Lodges to the carpet or floor-cloth on

which formerly the emblems of Masonry
were drawn in chalk. It is also sometimes
called the Teppich.

Pavement, Blazing Star, and Indented

Tarsel." In more modern catechisms, the
expression is " indented tessel," which is
incorrectly defined to mean a " tessellated
border." Indented Tarsel is evidently a corruption of indented tassel; for a definition
of which see Tessellated Border.

Tarsel-Board. We meet with this

expression in some of the old catechisms as
a corruption of Trestle-Board.
Tarshatlia. Used in the degree of
Knight of the East in the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Eite, according to the
modern ritual of the Southern Jurisdiction
of the United States, for Tirshatha, and applied to the presiding officer of a Council
of Princes of Jerusalem. See Tirshatha.
Tassels. In the English and French
tracing-boards of the first degree, there are
four tassels, one at each angle, which are attached to a cord that surrounds a tracingboard, and which constitutes the true tessellated border. These four cords are described as
referring to the four principal points, the
guttural, pectoral, manual, and pedal, and
through them to the four cardinal virtues,
temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice.

See

Tessellated Border.

Tasting

and

Smelling. Of the
hearing, seeing, and feeling
only are deemed essential to Masons. Tasting and smelling are therefore not referred
to in the ritual, except as making up the
sacred number five. Preston says: "Smelling and Tasting are inseparably connected
and it is by the unnatural kind of life which
men commonly lead in society that these
senses are rendered less fit to perform their
natural duties."
five

senses,

Tatnai and Shethar-Boznai.

Tatnai was a Persian satrap of the province
west of the Euphrates in the time of Darius and Zerubbabel; Shethar-Boznai was
an officer under his command. The two
united with the Apharsachites in trying to
obstruct the building of the second Temple,
and in writing a letter to Darius, of which
a copy is preserved in Ezra, (ch. v.) In
this letter they reported that " the house
of the great God "in Judea was being builded
with great stones, and that the work was
going on fast, on the alleged authority of a
decree from Cyrus. They requested that
search might be made in the rolls' court
whether such a decree was ever given, and
asked for the king's pleasure in the matter.
The decree was found at Ecbatana, and a
letter was sent to Tatnai and ShetharBoznai from Darius, ordering them no
to obstruct, but, on the contrary, to
aid the elders of the Jews in rebuilding

more

'

TAU

TEARS

the Temple by supplying them both with

money and with beasts, corn, salt, wine,

the " Gallicum tau," or the tau of the ancient Gauls, was among the Druids a symbol of their supreme god, or Jupiter.
Among the Egyptians, the tau, with an
oval ring or handle, became the crux ansata, and was used by them as the conDr. Clarke says
stant symbol of life.
[Travels, v. 311,) that the tau cross was
a monogram of Thoth, " the symbolical or
mystical name of hidden wisdom among
the ancient Egyptians."
Dupuy, in his History of the Templars,
says that the tau was a Templar emblem.
Von Hammer, who lets no opportunity of
maligning the Order escape him, adduces
this as a proof of the idolatrous tendencies
of the Knights. He explains the tau, which,
he says, was inscribed on the forehead of
the Baphomet or Templar idol, as a figure
of the phallus whence he comes to the conclusion that the Knights Templars were
addicted to the obscene worship of that
symbol. It is, however, entirely doubtful,
notwithstanding the authority of Dupuy,
whether the tau was a symbol of the Templars.
But if it was, its origin is rather to
be looked for in the supposed Hebrew idea
as a symbol of preservation.
It is in this sense, as a symbol of salvation from death and of eternal life, that it
has been adopted into the Masonic system,
and presents itself, especially under its triple combination, as a badge of Royal Arch
Masonry. See Triple Tau.
cross of three limbs,
Tail Cross.
so called because it presents the figure of
the Greek letter "|\ See Tau.

Shethar-Boznai,
oil for the sacrifices.
after the receipt of this decree, offered no

and

further obstruction to the Jews.

Their

names have been hence introduced into

some of the high degrees in Masonry.
Tail. The last letter of the Hebrew
alphabet is called tau, and it has the power
of the Roman T. In its present form j"|,
in the square character now in use, it has
no resemblance to a cross; but in the ancient Hebrew alphabet, its figure X, or -f,
was that of a cross. Hence, when it is
said, in the vision of Ezekiel, (ix. 4,) "Go
through the midst of the city, and set a
mark (in the original, "|J"|, tau,) upon the
foreheads of the men that sigh and that
cry for all the abominations that be done
in the midst thereof," which mark was to
distinguish them as persons to be saved, on
account of their sorrow for sin, from those
who, as idolaters, were to be slain, the evident allusion is to a cross. The form of
this cross was X or +, a form familiar to
the people of that day. But as the Greek
letter tau subsequently assumed the form
which is still preserved in the Roman T,
the tau or tau cross was made also to assume the same form so that the mark tau is
now universally recognized in this form, T.
This tau, tau cross, or tau mark, was of veryuniversal use as a sacred symbol among the
ancients. From the passage of Ezekiel just
cited, it is evident that the Hebrews recognized it as a sign of salvation according to
the Talmudists, the symbol was much older
than the time of Ezekiel, for they say that
when Moses anointed Aaron as the high
priest, he marked his forehead with this
Speaking of the use of the tau cross
sign.
in the Old Testament, Didron says ( Christ.
Iconog., p. 370,) that "it saved the youthful Isaac from death, redeemed from destruction an entire people whose houses
were marked with that symbol, healed the
envenomed bites of those who looked at
the serpent raised in the form of a tau
upon a pole, and called back the soul
into the dead body of the son of that
poor widow who had given bread to the
prophet."
Hence, in Christian iconography, the
tau cross, or cross of the Old Testament, is
called the anticipatory cross, because it anticipated the four-limbed cross of the passion, and the typical cross because it was
It is also called the cross of St.
its type.
Anthony, because on it that saint is sup-

'

posed to have suffered martyrdom.

Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, refers
to it the tiluh, or mark worn by the devotees of Brahma.
Davies, in his Celtic Researches, says that

791

Team. Royal Arch Masons apply this

word rather inelegantly to designate the
three candidates upon whom the degree is
conferred at the same time. The phrase
I think, exclusively confined to this
country.
Tears. In the Master's degree in some
of the continental Rites, and in all the high
degrees where the legend of the
degree and the ceremony of reception are intended to express
grief, the hangings of the Lodge
are black strewn with tears. The
figures representing tears are in
the form depicted in the annexed
is,

The symbolism is borrowed

from the science of heraldry,
where these figures are called
guttes, and are defined to be
" drops of anything that is by nature liquid
or liquefied by art."
The heralds have
cut.

six of these charges, viz., yellow, or drops

of liquid gold white, or drops of liquid
silver; red, or drops of blood; blue, or
drops of tears black, or drops of pitch
and green, or drops of oil. In funeral
hatchments, a black velvet cloth, sprinkled
;

792

TEMPLAR

TEMPELORDEN

with these "drops of tears," is placed in

front of the house of a deceased nobleman
and thrown over his bier but there, as in
Masonry, the guttes de larmes, or drops of
tears, are not painted blue, but white.
;

Tempelorden
renorden. The

Tempelher-

or
title

in

German

of the

Order of Knights Templars.

Temperance. One of the four cardinal virtues, the practice of which is inculcated in the first degree. The Mason
who properly appreciates the secrets which
he has solemnly promised never to reveal,
will not, by yielding to the unrestrained
call of appetite, permit reason and judgment to lose their seats, and subject himself, by the indulgence in habits of excess,
to discover that which should be concealed,
and thus merit and receive the scorn and
detestation of his brethren. And lest any
brother should forget the danger to which
he is exposed in the unguarded hours of
dissipation, the virtue of temperance is
wisely impressed upon his memory, by its
reference to one of the most solemn portions of the ceremony of initiation.
Some
Masons, very properly condemning the vice
of intemperance and abhorring its effects,
have been unwisely led to confound temperance with total abstinence in a Masonic
application, and resolutions have sometimes been proposed in Grand Lodges
which declare the use of stimulating liquors
But
in any quantity a Masonic offence.
the law of Masonry authorizes no such
regulation.

It

man

the

tastes within

due

leaves to

indulgence of his

own

every

limits, and demands not abstinence, but

only moderation and temperance, in anything not actually wrong.
Templar. See Knight Templar.
Templarius. The Latin title of a
Knight Templar. Constantly used in the
Middle Ages.

Templar Land. The Order of

Knights Templars was dissolved in England, by an act of Parliament, in the seventeenth year of the reign of Edward II. and
their possessions transferred to the Order
of St. John of Jerusalem, or Knights Hos,

Subsequently, in the thirtysecond year of the reign of Henry VIII.,

their possessions were transferred to the
king. One of the privileges possessed by
the English Templars was that their lands
should be free of tithes; and these privileges still adhere to these lands, so that a
farm being what is termed "Templar
land," is still exempt from the imposition
of tithes, if it is occupied by the owner
an exemption which ceases when the farm
is worked under a lease.
pitallers.

Templar Origin of Masonry.

The theory that Masonry originated

in the

Holy Land during the Crusades, and was

by the Knights Templars, was
advanced by the Chevalier Ramsay,

instituted
first

the purpose,

for

an

it is

supposed, of giving

aristocratic character to the association.

was subsequently adopted by the College

of Clermont, and was accepted by t^e
Baron von Hund as the basis upon which
he erected his Rite of Strict Observance.
The legend of the Clermont College is
thus detailed by M. Berage in his work
entitled Les Plus Secrets Mysteres des Hants
" The Order of Masonry
Grades, (iii. 194.)
was instituted, by Godfrey de Bouillon, in
Palestine in 1330, after the defeat of the
Christian armies, and was communicated
only to a few of the French Masons, sometime afterwards, as a reward for the services
which they had rendered to the English
and Scottish Knights. From these latter
true Masonry is derived. Their Mother
Lodge is situated on the mountain of Heredom, where the first Lodge in Europe was
held, which still exists in all its splendor.
The Council General is always held there,
and it is the seat of the Sovereign Grand
Master for the time being. This mountain
is situated between the west and the north
of Scotland, sixty miles from Edinburgh.
" There are other secrets in Masonry which
were never known among the French, and
which have no relation to the Apprentice,
degrees which
Fellow Craft, and Master
were constructed for the general class
of Masons. The high degrees, which developed the true design of Masonry and
its true secrets, have never been known to
It

them.
" The Saracens having obtained possession
of the holy places in Palestine, where all
the mysteries of the Order were practised,
made use of them for the most profane purThe Christians then leagued toposes.
gether to conquer this beautiful country,
and to drive these barbarians from the land.
They succeeded in obtaining a footing on
these shores under the protection of the
numerous armies of Crusaders which had
been sent there by the Christian princes.
losses which they subsequently experienced put an end to the Christian power,
and the Crusaders who remained were subjected to the persecutions of the Saracens,
who massacred all who publicly proclaimed
the Christian faith. This induced Godfrey
de Bouillon, towards the end of the third
century, to conceal the mysteries of religion
under the veil of figures, emblems, and

The

allegories.

" Hence the Christians selected the Temple of Solomon because it has so close a
relation to the Christian Church, of which
its holiness and its magnificence make it
the true symbol. So the Christians con

'
;

TEMPLARS

TEMPLARS

sealed the mystery of the building up of

the Church under that of the construction
of the Temple, and gave themselves the
name of Masons, Architects or Builders,
because they were occupied in building the
faith.
They assembled under the pretext
of making plans of architecture to practise
the rites of their religion, with all the emblems and allegories that Masonry could
furnish, and thus protect themselves from
the cruelty of the Saracens.
"As the mysteries of Masonry were in
their principles, and still are only those of
the Christian religion, they were extremely
scrupulous to confide this important secret
only to those whose discretion had been

one body, under the title of the " Convent

General of the United Religious and
Military Orders of the Temple and of St.
John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes, and

tried,

and who had been found worthy. For

this purpose they fabricated degrees as a

test of those to whom they wished to confide it, and they gave them at first only the
symbolic secret of Hiram, on which all the

mystery of Blue Masonry is founded, and

which is, in fact, the only secret of that
Order which has no relation to true Masonry.
They explained nothing else to
them as they were afraid of being betrayed,
and they conferred these degrees as a proper means of recognizing each other, surrounded as they were by barbarians. To
succeed more effectually in this, they made
use of different signs and words for each
degree, so as not only to distinguish themselves from the profane Saracens, but to designate the different degrees. These they
fixed at the number of seven, in imitation
of the Grand Architect, who built the Universe in six days and rested on the seventh
and also because Solomon was seven years
in constructing the Temple, which they had
selected as the figurative basis of Masonry.
Under the name of Hiram they gave a
false application to the Masters, and developed the true secret of Masonry only to
the higher degrees."
Such is the theory of the Templar origin
of Masonry, which, mythical as it is, and
wholly unsupported by the authority of
history, has exercised a vast influence in
the fabrication of high degrees and the invention of continental Rites. Indeed, of
all the systems propounded during the
eighteenth century, so fertile in the construction of extravagant systems, none has
played so important a part as this in the
history of Masonry. Although the theory
is no longer maintained, its effects are
everywhere seen and felt.
Templars of England. An important change in the organization of Templarism in England and Ireland took place
in 1873. By it a union took place of the
Grand Conclave of Masonic Knights Templars of England and the Grand Conclave
of High Knights Templars of Ireland into
4 Z
;

793

Malta." The following is a summary of

the statutes by which the new Order is to
be governed, as given by Sir Knight W. J.
B. McLeod Moore, Grand Prior, in his
circular to the Preceptors of Canada.
"1. The existing Grand Masters in the
Empire are to be termed Great Priors, and
Grand Conclaves or Encampments, Great
Priories, under and subordinate to one
Grand Master, as in the early days of the
Order, and one Supreme Governing Body,
the Convent General.
" 2. The term Great is adopted instead
of Grand, the latter being a French word
and grand in English is not grand in
French. Great is the proper translation
of Magnus and Magnus Supremus.'
" 3. The Great Priories of each nationality
England, Scotland, and Ireland,
with their dependencies in the Colonies
'

'

retain their internal government and legislation, and appoint their Provincial Priors,
doing nothing inconsistent with the supreme statutes of the Convent General.

" 4. The title Masonic is not continued ;

the Order being purely Christian, none but
Christians can be admitted consequently
it cannot be considered strictly as a Masonic body: Masonry, while inculcating
the highest reverence for the Supreme Being, and the doctrine of the immortality
of the soul, does not teach a belief in one
particular creed, or unbelief in any. The
connection with Masonry is, however,
strengthened still more, as a candidate
must now be two years a Master Mason, in
addition to his qualification as a Roya]
;

Arch Mason.

The titles Eminent 'Commander'

Encampment' have been discontinued, and the original name 'Preceptor'
"5.

and

'

and 'Preceptory'
titles

'

substituted, as also the

Constable' and 'Marshal' for 'First

Encampment
and Second Captains.'
modern term, adopted probably when,
'

'

'

is

as

our traditions inform us, at the suppression of the ancient Military Order of the
Temple, some of their number sought refuge and held conclaves in the Masonic Society, being independent small bodies,
Prior is
without any governing head.'
the correct and original title for the head
of a langue or nationality, and Preceptor
The Precepfor the subordinate bodies.
tories were the ancient 'Houses' of the
'

'

'

'

Commander and ComTemplar Order

manderies was the title used by the Order
of St. John, commonly known as Knights
;

'

'

'

'

of Malta.
"

6.

The

title

by which the Order

is

now

TEMPLARS

TEMPLARS

is that of 'The United Religious

and Military Orders of the Temple and of
St. John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes,
and Malta.' The Order of the Temple
originally had no connection with that of
Malta or Order of St. John but the combined title appears to have been adopted in
commemoration of the union which took
place in Scotland with The Temple and
Hospital of St. John/ when their lands

but reflection will at once show that, as an

794

known

'

were in common, at the time of the Reformation. But our Order of 'St. John of
Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes, and Malta,'
has no connection with the present Knights
of Malta in the Papal States, or of the Protestant branches of the Order, the lineal
successors of the ancient Knights of St.
John, the sixth or English langue of which
still in existence, and presided over, in
London, by His Grace the Duke of Man-

is

The Order, when it occupied the

Island of Malta as a sovereign body, was
totally unconnected with Freemasonry.
"7. Honorary past rank is abolished,
substituting the chivalric dignities of
Grand Crosses' and Commanders,' limited
in number, and confined to Preceptors.
These honors to be conferred by His Royal
Highness the Grand Master, the Fountain
of Grace and Dignity and it is contemplated to create an Order of Merit, to be
conferred in like manner, as a reward to
Knights who have served the Order.
" 8.
Preceptor holds a degree as well
as rank, and will always retain his rank
and privileges as long as he belongs to a
Preceptory.
" 9. The abolition of honorary past rank
is not retrospective, as their rank and privileges are reserved to all those who now
enjoy them.
" 10. The number of officers entitled to
precedence has been reduced to seven but
others may be appointed at discretion, who
do not, however, enjoy any precedence.
" 11. Equerries, or serving brethren, are
not to receive the accolade, or use any but
a brown habit, and shall not wear any insignia or jewel they are to be addressed as
'Frater,' not Sir Knight.
In the early
days of the Order they were not entitled
to the accolade, and, with the esquires and
men-at-arms, wore a dark habit, to distinguish them from the Knights, who wore
white, to signify that they were bound by
their vows to cast away the works of darkness and lead a new life.
" 12. The apron is altogether discontinued, and a few immaterial alterations in
the insignia will be duly regulated and promulgated they do not, however, affect the
present, but only apply to future, members
of the Order. The apron was of recent introduction, tc accord with Masonic usage:
chester.

'

'

emblem of

and

care

toil, it is

entirely in-

appropriate to a Military Order, whose

badge is the sword. A proposition to confine the wearing of the star to the Preceptors was negatived the star and ribbon
being in fact as much a part of the ritual
as of the insignia of the Order.
" 13. From the number of instances of
persons totally unfitted having obtained
admission into the Order, the qualification
of candidates has been increased. A declaration is now required, to be signed by
every candidate, that he is of the full age
of twenty- one years, and in addition to
being a Royal Arch Mason, that he is a
Master Mason of two years' standing, professing the doctrines of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, and willing to submit to
the statutes and ordinances, present and
future, of the Order."
;

Templars of Scotland. The StatGrand Priory of the Temple of

Scotland prescribe for the. Order of Knights
Templars in that kingdom an organization
very different from that which prevails in
other countries.
"The Religious and Military Order of
the Temple " in Scotland consists of two
classes: 1. Novice and Esquire; 2. Knight
Templar. The Knights are again divided

utes of the

into four classes: 1. Knights created by

Priories; 2. Knights elected from the companions on memorial to the Grand Master

and Council, supported by the recommendation of the Priories to which they belong
3. Knights Commanders 4. Knights Grand
Crosses, to be nominated by the Grand
;

Master.

The supreme

legislative authority of the

the Chapter General, which consists of the Grand Officers, the Knights
Grand Crosses, and the Knights Commanders. One Chapter is held annually,
at which the Grand Master, if present, acts
The anniversary of the death
as President.
of James de Molay, March 11, is selected
as the time of this meeting, at which the

Order

is

Grand Officers are elected.

During the intervals of the meetings of
the Chapter General, the affairs of the
Order, with the exception of altering the
Statutes, is intrusted to the Grand Master's
Council, which consists of the Grand Officers, the Grand Priors of Foreign Langues,
and the Knights Grand Crosses.
The Grand Officers, with the exception
of the Past Grand Masters, who remain so
for life, the Grand Master, who is elected
triennially, and the Grand Aides-de-Camp,
who are appointed by him and removed at
his pleasure, are elected annually.
They
are as follows
Grand Master,

TEMPLE
Past Grand Masters,
Grand Seneschal,
Preceptor and Grand Prior of Scotland,
Grand Constable and Mareschal,
Grand Admiral,
Grand Almoner or Hospitaller,
Grand Chancellor,
Grand Treasurer,
Grand Registrar,
Primate or Grand Prelate,
Grand Provost or Governor- General,
Grand Standard-Bearer or Beaucennifer,
Grand Bearer of the Vexillum Belli,
Grand Chamberlain,
Grand Steward,
Two Grand Aides-de-Camp.
A Grand Priory may be instituted by the

Chapter General in any nation, colony, or

langue, to be placed under the authority
of a Grand Prior, who is elected for life,
unless superseded by the Chapter General.
A Priory, which is equivalent to our
Commanderies, consists of the following

TEMPLE

795

which was selected as his residence. The Hebrew idea was undoubtedly borrowed from
the Egyptian, where the same hieroglyphic
I signified both a house and a temple.
Thus, from an inscription at Philae, ChamI

pollion [Diet. Egyptienne) cites the senhas made his devotions in the
tence, "
house of his mother Isis."
The classical idea was more abstract and

He

philosophical. The Latin word templum

comes from a root which signifies " to cut
off," thus referring to any space, whether
open or occupied by a building, which was
cut off, or separated for a sacred purpose,

from the surrounding profane ground.

The word properly denoted a sacred enclosure where the omens were observed by the
augurs. Hence Varro [De Ling. Lat., vi.
81,) defines a temple to be "a place for auguries and auspices." As the same practice of worshipping under the sky in open

among the northern nawe might deduce from these facts that

places prevailed
tions,

Mareschal or Master of Ceremonies,

Hospitaller or Almoner,

the temple of the sky was the Aryan idea, and

the temple of the house the Semitic. It is
true, that afterwards, the augurs having for
their own convenience erected a tent within the enclosure where they made their ob-

Chancellor,
Treasurer,
Secretary,

servations, or, literally, their contemplations,

this in time gave rise among the Greeks
and the Romans to permanent edifices like

Chaplain and Instructor,

Beaucennifer, or Bearer of the Beau-

those of the Egyptians and the Hebrews.

Masonry has derived its temple symbolism, as it has almost all its symbolic ideas,
from the Hebrew type, and thus makes the
temple the symbol of a Lodge. But of the
Roman temple worship it has not been neglectful, and has borrowed from it one of
the most significant and important words
in its vocabulary. The Latin word speculor
means to observe, to look around. When
the augur, standing within the sacred precincts of his open temple on the Capitoline
hill, watched the flight of birds, that from
it he might deduce his auspices of good or
bad fortune, he was said, speculari, to specHence the word came at length to
ulate.
denote, like contemplate from templum, an
investigation of sacred things, and thus we
got into our technical language the title of
"Speculative Masonry," as distinguished
by its religious design from Operative or
Practical Masonry, which is devoted to
The Egyptian
more material objects.
Temple was the real archetype of the Mosaic tabernacle, as that was of the temple
of Jerusalem. The direction of an Egyptian temple was usually from east to west,
the entrance being at the east. It was a
quadrangular building, much longer than
its width, and was situated in the western
part of a sacred enclosure. The approach
through this enclosure to the temple proper was frequently by a double row of

officers

Prior,

Sub-Prior,

seant,

Bearer of the
illum Belli,

Red

Cross Banner, or Vex-

Chamberlain,
Aides-de-Camp.
The Chapter General or Grand Priory
may unite two or more Priories into a Commandery, to be governed by a Provincial
Commander, who is elected by the Chapter

Two

General.

The costume of the Knights, with the

exception of a few slight variations to designate difference of rank, is the same as the
ancient costume.
Temple. The symbolism of Speculative Masonry is so intimately connected
with temple building and temple worship,
that some notice of these edifices seems necessary.
The Hebrews called a temple
beth, which literally signifies a house or
dwelling, and finds its root in a word which
signifies " to remain or pass the night," or
hecal, which means a palace, and comes
from an obsolete word signifying " magnificent."
So that they seem to have had
two ideas in reference to a temple. When
they called it beth Jehovah, or the "house
of Jehovah," they referred to the continued
presence of God in it; and when they called
it hecalJehovah, or the " palace of Jehovah,"
they referred to the splendor of the edifice

TEMPLE

TEMPLE

sphinxes. In front of the entrance were

a pair of tall obelisks, which will remind
the reader of the two pillars at the porch
of Solomon's Temple. The temple was divided into a spacious hall, the sanctuary
where the great body of the worshippers
assembled. Beyond it, in the western extremity, was the cell or sekos, equivalent to
the Jewish Holy of Holies, into which the
and in the remotest
priests only entered
part, behind a curtain, appeared the image
of the god seated on his shrine, or the
sacred animal which represented him.
Grecian Temples, like the Egyptian
and the Hebrew, were placed within an
enclosure, which was separated from the
profane land around it, in early times,
by ropes, but afterwards by a wall. The
temple was usually quadrangular, although
some were circular in form. It was divided
into two parts, the pronanos, porch or vesIn this latter
tibule, and the naos, or cell.
part the statue of the god was placed, surrounded by a balustrade. In temples connected with the mysteries, the cell was
called the adytum, and to it only the
priests and the initiates had access and we
learn from Pausanias that various stories
were related of calamities that had befallen
persons who had unlawfully ventured to
Vitruvius says that
cross the threshold.
the entrance of Greek temples was always towards the west ; but this statement
is contradicted by the appearance of the
temples still partly existing in Attica,

with the Egyptians and the Jews was in the

west, being placed in Lodges in the east.

796

Ionia,

and

Sicily.

Roman Temples,

after they emerged

from their primitive simplicity, were constructed much upon the model of the
Grecian. There were the same vestibule
and cells, or adytum, borrowed, as with
the Greeks, from the holy and the most

holy place of the Egyptians. Vitruvius

says that the entrance of a Eoman temple
was, if possible, to the west, so that the
worshippers, when they offered prayers or
sacrifices, might look towards the east; but
this rule was not always observed.
It thus appears, notwithstanding what

Montfaucon

(Antiq.

ii., 1. ii.,

ch. 2,) says tp

the contrary, that the Egyptian form of a

temple was the type from which other na-

borrowed their idea.

This Egyptian form of a temple was borrowed by the Jews, and with some modifications adopted by the Greeks and Eomans,
whence it passed over into modern Europe.
The idea of a separation into a holy and a
most holy place has everywhere been preserved. The same idea is maintained in
the construction of Masonic Lodges, which
are but imitations, in spirit, of the ancient
temples. But there has been a transposition of parts, the most holy place, which

tions

Temple, Grand Commander of

the. (Grand Commandeur du Temple.)
The fifty-eighth degree of the collection of
the Metropolitan Chapter of France. It is
the name of the Knight Commander of the
Temple of the Scottish Rite.

Temple

of Ezekiel. An ideal temple seen by the prophet Ezekiel, in the>

twenty-fifth year of the captivity, while residing in Babylon. It is supposed by Calmet, that the description given by the prophet was that of the Temple of Solomon,
which he must have seen before its destrucBut an examination of its admeasurements will show that this could not have
been the fact, and that the whole area of
Jerusalem would not have been sufficient
tion.

to contain a building of its magnitude.

Yet, as Mr. Ferguson observes, (Smith
Diet.,) the description, notwithstanding its
ideal character, is curious, as showing what
were the aspirations of the Jews in that
direction, and how different they were from
those of other nations ; and also because it
influenced Herod to some extent in his

restoration of the temple of Zerubbabel.

Between the visionary temple of Ezekiel
and the symbolic city of the New Jerusalem, as described by the Evangelist, there
is a striking resemblance, and hence it
finds a place among the symbols in the
Apocalyptic degrees. But with Symbolic
or with Royal Arch Masonry it has no connection.

Temple

of Herod. This was not

the construction of a third temple, but only
a restoration and extensive enlargement of
the second, which had been built by Zerubbabel. To the Christian Mason it is interesting, even more than that of Solomon,
because it was the scene of our Lord's
ministrations, and was the temple from
which the Knights Templars derived their
name. It was begun by Herod seven years
B. c, finished A. D. 4, and destroyed by the
Romans in A. D. 70, having subsisted only
seventy-seven years.

Temple of Solomon.

The

first

Temple of the Jews was

called hecal Jehovah or beth Jehovah, the palace or the house

of Jehovah, to indicate its splendor and
magnificence, and that it was intended to

be the perpetual dwelling-place of the

Lord. It was King David who first proposed to substitute for the nomadic tabernacle a permanent place of worship for his
people; but although he had made the
necessary arrangements, and even collected
many of the materials, he was not permitted to commence the undertaking, and
the execution of the task was left to his
son and successor, Solomon.

"

TEMPLE

TEMPLE

Accordingly, that monarch laid the foundations of the edifice in the fourth year of
his reign, 1012 b. c, and, with the assistance of his friend and ally, Hiram, king
of Tyre, completed it in about seven years
and a half, dedicating it to the service of
the Most High in the year 1004 b. c. This
was the year of the world 3000, according
and although
to the Hebrew chronology
there has been much difference among
chronologists in relation to the precise date,
this is the one that has been generally accepted, and it is therefore adopted by Masons in their calculations of different epochs.
The Temple stood on Mount Moriah, one
of the eminences of the ridge which was
known as Mount Zion, and which was
originally the property of Oman the Jebusite, who used it as a threshing-floor, and
;

from whom it was purchased by David

the purpose of erecting an altar on it.

The Temple

retained

its

for

original splendor

In the year of
the world 3033, Shishak, king of Egypt,
having made war upon Eehoboam, king of
Judah, took Jerusalem, and carried away
the choicest treasures. From that time to
the period of its final destruction, the history of the Temple is but a history of alternate spoliations and repairs, of profanations to idolatry and subsequent restorations to the purity of worship.
One hundred and thirteen years after the conquest
of Shishak, Joash, king of Judah, collected
silver for the repairs of the Temple, and
restored it to its former condition in the
year of the world 3148. In the year 3264,
Ahaz, king of Judah, robbed the Temple
of its riches, and gave them to TiglathPileser, king of Assyria, who had united
with him in a war against the kings of
Israel and Damascus.
Ahaz also profaned
the Temple by the worship of idols. In
3276, Hezekiah, the son and successor of
Ahaz, repaired the portions of the Temple
for only thirty-three years.

which his father had destroyed, and restored the pure worship. But fifteen years
after he was compelled to give the treasures
of the Temple as a ransom to Sennacherib,
king of Assyria, who had invaded the land
of Judah. But Hezekiah is supposed, after
his enemy had retired, to have restored the
Temple.
Manasseh, the son and successor of Hezekiah, fell away to the worship of Sabianism, and desecrated the Temple in 3306 by

797

who was

then king of Judah, devoted his

the repairs of the Temple, portions of which had been demolished or neglected by his predecessors, and replaced
the ark in the sanctuary. In 3398, in the
reign of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar, king
of Chaldea, carried a part of the sacred
vessels to Babylon. Seven years afterwards,
in the reign of Jechoniah, he took away
another portion and finally, in 3416, in the
eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, he
took the city of Jerusalem, and entirely destroyed the Temple, and carried many of
the inhabitants captives to Babylon.
The Temple was originally built on a
very hard rock, encompassed with frightful
The foundations were laid very
precipices.
deep, with immense labor and expense. It
was surrounded with a wall of great height,
exceeding in the lowest part four hundred
and fifty feet, constructed entirely of white
marble.
The body of the Temple was in size
much less than many a modern parish
church, for its length
was but ninety feet, or,
including the porch, one
efforts to

Holy

hundred and
its

width but

five,

and

thirty.

of
Holies.

It

was its outer court, its

numerous terraces, and
the magnificence of its
external and internal
together
decorations,
with its elevated position above the surrounding dwellings which produced that splendor of
appearance that attracted the admiration of all
who beheld it, and gives
a color of probability
to the legend that tells
us how the Queen of
Sheba, when it first
broke upon her view,

Holy
Place.

<

exclaimed in admiration, "A most excellent

master must have done this

POECH.

which consisted of
the porch, the sanctuary, and the Holy of
Holies, was but a small part of the edifice
on Mount Moriah. It was surrounded with
spacious courts, and the whole structure

The Temple

itself,

occupied at least half a mile in circumference. Upon passing through the outer
wall, you came to the first court, called the
court of the Gentiles, because the Gentiles
were admitted into it, but were prohibited

up altars to the host of heaven.

Manasseh was then conquered by the king
of Babylon, who in 3328 carried him beyond the Euphrates. But subsequently
repenting of his sins he was released from
captivity, and having returned to Jerusalem
he destroyed the idols, and restored the

from passing farther. It was surrounded

by a range of porticos or cloisters, above
which were galleries or apartments, supported by pillars of white marble.

In 3380, Josiah,

Passing through the court of the Gentiles,

setting

altar of burnt-offerings.

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you entered the court of the children of

Israel, which was separated by a low stone
wall, and an ascent of fifteen steps, into
two divisions, the outer one being occupied by the women, and the inner by the
men. Here the Jews were in the habit of

men were engaged in building it for more

than seven years and after its completion
it was dedicated by Solomon with solemn
prayer and seven days of feasting during
which a peace-offering of twenty thousand
oxen and six times that number of sheep
was made, to consume which the holy fire
came down from heaven.
In Masonry, the Temple of Solomon has
played a most important part. Time was
when every Masonic writer subscribed with

798

resorting daily for the purposes of prayer.

Within the court of the Israelites, and
separated from it by a wall one cubit in
height, was the court of the priests. In
the centre of this court was the altar of
burnt-offerings, to which the people brought
their oblations and sacrifices, but none but
the priests were permitted to enter it.
From this court, twelve steps ascended to
the Temple, strictly so called, which, as I
have already said, was divided into three
parts, the porch, the sanctuary, and the
Holy of Holies.

The porch

of the

Temple was twenty

cubits in length, arid the same in breadth.

At its entrance was a gate made entirely of

Corinthian brass, the most precious metal

Beside this gate
to the ancients.
there were the two pillars Jachin and Boaz,
which had been constructed by Hiram
Abif, the architect whom the King of Tyre

known

had sent

to

Solomon.

From the porch you entered the sanctuary by a portal, which, instead of foldingdoors,
veil of

was furnished with a magnificent

many colors, which mystically rep-

resented the universe. The breadth of the

sanctuary was twenty cubits, and its length
forty, or just twice that of the porch and
Holy of Holies. It occupied, therefore,
one-half of the body of the Temple. In
the sanctuary were placed the various utensils necessary for the daily worship of the
Temple, such as the altar of incense, on
which incense was daily burnt by the officiating priest; the ten golden candlesticks;
and the ten tables on which the offerings
were laid previous to the sacrifice.
The Holy of Holies, or innermost
chamber, was separated from the sanctuary
by doors of olive, richly sculptured and inlaid with gold, and covered with veils of blue,
purple, scarlet, and the finest linen. The
size of the Holy of Holies was the same as
that of the porch, namely, twenty cubits
square. It contained the ark of the covenant, which had been transferred into it
from the tabernacle, with its overshadowing cherubim and its mercy-seat.
Into
the most sacred place, the high priest
alone could enter, and that only once a
year, on the day of atonement.
The Temple, thus constructed, must have
been one of the most magnificent structures of the ancient world. For its erection, David had collected more than four
thousand millions of dollars, and one hundred and eighty-four thousand six hundred

unhesitating faith to the theory that Masonry was there first organized that there
Solomon, Hiram of Tyre, and Hiram Abif
presided as Grand Masters over the Lodges
which they had established that there the
symbolic degrees were instituted and systems of initiation were invented and that
from that period to the present Masonry
has passed down the stream of Time in unbroken succession and unaltered form.
But the modern method of reading Masonic history has swept away this edifice of
imagination with as unsparing a hand, and
as effectual a power, as those with which
the Babylonian king demolished the structure upon which they are founded. No
writer who values his reputation as a critical
historian would now attempt to defend this
theory. Yet it has done its work. During
the long period in which the hypothesis
was accepted as a fact, its influence was
being exerted in moulding the Masonic organizations into a form closely connected
with all the events and characteristics of
the Solomonic Temple. So that now almost all the symbolism of Freemasonry
;

upon or is derived from the " House

of the Lord" at Jerusalem. So closely are
the two connected, that to attempt to separate the one from the other would be fatal
to the further existence of Masonry.
Each
Lodge is and must be a symbol of the Jewish Temple; each Master in the chair a
representative of the Jewish king; and
every Mason a personation of the Jewish
rests

workman.
Thus must it ever be while Masonry endures. We must receive the myths and legends that connect it with the Temple, not
indeed as historic facts, but as allegories
not as events that have really transpired,
but as symbols and must accept these allegories and these symbols for what their
inventors really meant that they should be
;

the foundations of a science of morality.

Temple of Zerubbabel.

For the

fifty-two years that succeeded the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, that

city saw nothing but the ruins of its ancient Temple. But in the year of the world

3468 and 536

b.

c, Cyrus gave permission

to the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and

there to rebuild the Temple of the Lord.

TEMPLE

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799

and lon, that three worn and weary sojourners,

returned after plodding on foot over the rough and
under the guidance of Joshua, the High devious roads between the two cities, offered
Priest, Zerubbabel, the Prince or Governor, themselves to the Grand Council as willing
and Haggai, the Scribe, and one year after participants in the labor of erection. Who
they laid the foundations of the second these sojourners were, we have no historical
Temple. They were, however, much dis- means of discovering; but there is a Maturbed in their labours by the Samaritans, sonic tradition (entitled, perhaps, to but
whose offer to unite with them in the little weight) that they were Hananiah,
building they had rejected. Artaxerxes, Mishael, and Azariah, three holy men, who
known in profane history as Cambyses, are better known to general readers by their
having succeeded Cyrus on the throne of Chaldaic names of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Persia, he forbade the Jews to proceed with Abed-nego, as having been miraculously
the work, and the Temple remained in an preserved from the fiery furnace of Nebuunfinished state until the death of Artax- chadnezzar.
erxes and the succession of Darius to the
Their services were accepted, and from
throne. As in early life there had been a their diligent labors resulted that important
great intimacy between this sovereign and discovery, the perpetuation and preservaZerubbabel, the latter proceeded to Baby- tion of which constitute the great end and
lon, and obtained permission from the mon- design of the Eoyal Arch degree.
arch to resume the labor. Zerubbabel reAs the symbolism of the first or Solomonturned to Jerusalem, and notwithstanding ic Temple is connected with and refers
some further delays, consequent upon the entirely to the symbolic degrees, so that of
enmity of the neighboring nations, the the second, or Temple of Zerubbabel, forms
second Temple, or, as it may be called by the basis of the Royal Arch in the York
way of distinction from the first, the Tem- and American Rites, and of several high
ple of Zerubbabel, was completed in the degrees in other Rites.
sixth year of the reign of Darius, 515 years
Temple, Order of the. When the
B. c, and just twenty years after its com- Knights Templars had, on account of their
mencement. It was then dedicated with power and wealth, excited the fears and the
all the solemnities that accompanied the cupidity of Pope Clement V., and King
dedication of the first.
Philip the Fair, of France, the Order was
The general plan of this second Temple soon compelled to succumb to the combined
was similar to that of the first. But it ex- animosity of a spiritual and a temporal
ceeded it in almost every dimension by one- sovereign, neither of whom was capable of
third.
The decorations of gold and other being controlled by a spirit of honor or a
ornaments in the first Temple must have dictate of conscience. The melancholy
far surpassed those bestowed upon the story of the sufferings of the Knights, and
second, for we are told by Josephus, (Antiq., of the dissolution of their Order, forms a
xi. 4,) that "the Priests and Levites and disgraceful record, with which the history
Elders of families were disconsolate at see- of the fourteenth century begins.
ing how much more sumptuous the old TemOn the 13th of March, in the year 1314,
ple was than the one which, on account of and in the refined city of Paris, James de
their poverty, they had just been able to Molay, the last of a long and illustrious
erect."
line of Grand Masters of the Order of
The Jews also say that there were five Knights Templars, testified at the stake
things wanting in the second Temple which his fidelity to his vows and eleven years
had been in the first, namely, the Ark, the of service in the cause of religion were terUrim and Thummim, the fire from heaven, minated, not by the sword of a Saracen,
the divine presence or cloud of glory, and but by the iniquitous sentence of a Catholic
the spirit of prophecy and power of pope and a Christian king.
miracles.
The manufacturers of Masonic legends
Such are the most important events that have found in the death of Molay and the
relate to the construction of this second dissolution of the Order of Templars a ferTemple. But there is a Masonic legend tile source from which to draw materials
connected with it which, though it may for their fanciful theories and surreptitious
have no historical foundation, is yet so documents. Among these legends there
closely interwoven with the Temple system was, for instance, one which maintained
of Masonry, that it is necessary it should that during his captivity in the Bastile the
be recounted. It was, says the legend, Grand Master of the Templars established
while the workmen were engaged in mak- four Chiefs of the Order in the north, the
ing the necessary excavations for laying south, the east, and the west of Europe,
the foundation, and while numbers con- whose seats of government were respectively
tinued to arrive at Jerusalem from Baby- at Stockholm, Naples, Paris, and EdinForty-two thousand three

sixty of the

liberated

hundred

captives

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800

burgh. Another invention of these Masonic speculators was the forgery of that
document so well known as the Charter of
Larmenius, of which I shall presently
take notice. Previously, however, to any
consideration of this document, I must advert to the condition of the Templar Order
in Portugal, because there is an intimate
connection between the society there organized and the Order of the Temple in
France, which is more particularly the subject of the present article.
Surprising as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that the Templars did not receive that check in Portugal to which they
were subjected in France, in England, and
some other countries of Europe. On the
contrary, they were there maintained by

King Denis

TEMPLE
the figure of a

who

man

trampling on a woman,

lay prostrate at his

feet.

The em-

blematic signification of this symbol was,

it is apparent, as unworthy of the character
of man as it was derogatory to the condition and claims of woman and the king,
having been informed of the infamous proceedings which took place at the meetings,
dissolved the society, (which it was said was
on the eve of initiating the dauphin ;) caused
its leader, a prince of the blood, to be ignominiously punished, and banished the
members from the court; the heaviest
penalty that, in those days of servile submission to the throne, could be inflicted on
a courtier.
In 1705, Philip of Orleans, who was subsequently the regent of France during the
minority of Louis XV., collected together
the remnants of this society, which still secretly existed, but had changed its object
from a licentious to one of a political character.
He caused new statutes to be con;

in all their rights and priviand although compelled, by a bull

of Clement V., to change their names to
that of the Knights of Christ, they continued to be governed by the same rules
and to wear the same costume as their pre- structed; and an Italian Jesuit, by name
decessors, excepting the slight addition of Father Bonani, who was a learned anplacing a white Latin cross in the centre tiquary and an excellent designer, fabriof the usual red one of the ancient Order; cated the document now known as the
and in the decree of establishment it was Charter of Larmenius, and thus pretended
leges

expressly declared that the king, in creating this new Order, intended only to effect
a reform in that of the Templars. In 1420,
John I., of Portugal, gave the Knights of
Christ the control of the possessions of
Portugal in the Indies, and succeeding
monarchs granted them the proprietorship
of all countries which they might discover,
reserving, of course, the royal prerogative
of sovereignty. In process of time the
wealth and the power of the Order became
so great, that the kings of Portugal found
it expedient to reduce their rights to a considerable extent ; but the Order itself was
permitted to continue in existence, the
Grand Mastership, however, being for the
future vested in the sovereign.
are- now prepared to investigate understandingly the history of the Charter of
Larmenius, and of the Order of the Temple at Paris, which was founded on the assumed authenticity of that document. The
writings of Thory, of Kagon, and of Clavel,
with the passing remarks of a few other
Masonic writers, will furnish us with
abundant materials for this narrative, in-

We

teresting to all Freemasons, but more especially so to Masonic Knights Templars.

In the year 1682, and in the reign of
Louis XIV., a licentious society was established by several young noblemen, which
took the name of " La Petite Resurrection
des Templiers," or " The little Resurrection
of the Templars" The members wore concealed upon their shirts a decoration in the

form of a

cross,

on which was embossed

to attach the

new

society to the ancient

Order of the Templars.

As this charter is not the least interesting of those forged documents with which
the history of Freemasonry unfortunately
abounds, a full description of it here will
not be out of place.
The theory of the Duke of Orleans and
his accomplice Bonani was, (and the theory
is still maintained by the Order of the
Temple at Paris,) that when James de Molay was about to suffer at the stake, he sent
for Larmenius, and in prison, with the consent and approbation of such of his knights
as were present, appointed him his successor, with the right of making a similar appointment before his death. On the demise
of Molay, Larmenius accordingly assumed
the office of Grand Master, and ten years
after issued this charter, transmitting his
authority to Theobaldus Alexandrinus, by
whom it was in like manner transmitted
through a long line of Grand Masters, until in 1705 it reached Philip, Duke of Orleans.
It will be seen hereafter that the
list was subsequently continued to a later
period.

signatures of all these Grand Masare affixed to the charter, which is

beautifully executed on parchment, illuminated in the choicest style of mediaeval
chirography, and composed in the Latin
language, but written in the Templar cipher. From the copy of the document
given by Thory in his Acta Latomorum, I
make the following translation

The

ters

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" I, Brother John Mark Larmenius, of

Jerusalem, by the grace of God and the
secret decree of the most venerable and
holy martyr, the Grand Master of the Soldiery of the Temple, (to whom be honor
and glory,) confirmed by the common council of the brethren, being endowed with the
Supreme Grand Mastership of the whole
Order of the Temple, to every one who

by the supreme authority to me committed,

I will, declare, and command that the Scot-

shall see these letters decretal thrice greet-

ing:
" Be

it known to all, both present and to

come, that the failure of my strength, on
account of extreme age, my poverty, and
the weight of government being well considered, I, the aforesaid humble Master of
the Soldiery of the Temple, have determined, for the greater glory of God and

the protection and safety of the Order, the

brethren, and the statutes, to resign the
Grand Mastership into stronger hands.
" On which account, God helping, and
with the consent of a Supreme Convention
of Knights, I have conferred, and by this
present decree do confer, for life, the authority and prerogatives of Grand Master
of the Order of the Temple upon the Eminent Commander and very dear brother,

Francis Thomas Theobald Alexandrinus,

with the power, according to time and circumstances, of conferring the Grand Mastership of the Order of the Temple and the
supreme authority upon another brother,
most eminent for the nobility of his education and talent and decorum of his manners: which is done for the purpose of
maintaining a perpetual succession of
Grand Masters, an uninterrupted series of
successors, and the integrity of the statutes.
Nevertheless, I command that the Grand
Mastership shall not be transmitted without the consent of a general convention of
the fellow-soldiers of the Temple, as often
as that Supreme Convention desires to be
convened; and, matters being thus conducted, the successor shall be elected at the
pleasure of the knights.
" But, lest the powers of the supreme
office should fall into decay, now and for
ever let there be four Vicars of the Grand
Master, possessing supreme power, eminence, and authority over the whole Order,
with the reservation of the rights of the
Grand Master; which Vicars of the Grand
Masters shall be chosen from among the
elders, according to the order of their profession.
Which is decreed in accordance
with the above-mentioned wish, commended to me and to the brethren by our most
venerable and most blessed Master, the
martyr, to whom be honor and glory.

Amen.
" Finally, in consequence of a decree of
a Supreme Convention of the brethren, and
5

51

801

tish Templars, as deserters from the Order,

are to be accursed, and that they and the

brethren of St. John of Jerusalem, (upon

whom may God have mercy,) as spoliators
of the domains of our soldiery, are now
and hereafter to be considered as beyond
the pale of the Temple.
" I have therefore established signs, unknown to our false brethren, and not to be
known by them, to be orally communicated
to our fellow-soldiers, and in which way I
have already been pleased to communicate
them in the Supreme Convention.
" But these signs are only to be made
known after due profession and knightly
consecration, according to the statutes,
rites, and usages of the fellow-soldiery of
the Temple, transmitted by me to the abovenamed Eminent Commander as they were
delivered into my hands by the venerable
and most holy martyr, our Grand Master,
Let it be
to whom be honor and glory.
said. So mote it be. Amen.
John Mark Larmenius, have done
on the thirteenth day of February,

done as I have
"I,
this
1324.

"

I,

Francis

Thomas Theobaldus Alexan-

God

helping, have accepted the

Grand Mastership, 1324."
And then follow the acceptances and signatures of twenty-two succeeding Grand
Masters
the last, Bernard Raymund Fabre, under the date of 1804.
The society, thus organized by the Duke
of Orleans in 1705, under this charter,
which purported to contain the signatures
manu propria of eighteen Grand Masters
in regular succession, commencing with
Larmenius and ending with himself, attempted to obtain a recognition by the Order of Christ, which we have already said
was established in Portugal as the legitimate successor of the old Templars, and of
which King John V. was at that time the
Grand Master. For this purpose the Duke
of Orleans ordered two of his members to
proceed to Lisbon, and there to open negoThe
tiations with the Order of Christ.
king caused inquiries to be made of Don
drinus,

Luis de Cunha, his ambassador at Paris,

upon whose report he gave orders for the

One
arrest of the two French Templars.
of them escaped to Gibraltar; but the other,
less fortunate, after an imprisonment of
two years, was banished to Angola, in
Africa, where he died.

The society, however, continued secretly

to exist for many years in France, and is
supposed by some to have been the same
which, in 1789, was known by the name of
the Societe d'Aloyau, a title which might be
translated into English as the " Society of

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the Sirloin,"
a name much more appropriate to a club of bons vivants than to an
association of knights.
The members of
this society were dispersed at the time of

construction. Dr. Burnes, who was a firm

believer in the legitimacy of the Parisian
Order and in the authenticity of its archives, has given in his Sketch of the History of the Knights Templars, ( App., p. xii.,)
a copy of this inventory in the original
French. Thory gives it also in his Acta
brief synopsis of
Latomorum, (ii. 143.)
it may not be uninteresting.
The relics
"
consist of twelve pieces
" a round dozen
and are as follows
1. The Charter of Larmenius, already
described.
But to the eighteen signatures
of Grand Masters in the charter, which was
in 1705 in possession of Philip, Duke of Orleans, are added six more, carrying the succession on from the last-named to Fabre
Palaprat, who attests as Grand Master in
1804.
volume of twenty -seven paper
2.
sheets, in folio, bound in crimson velvet,
satin, and gold, containing the statutes
of the Order in manuscript, and signed

802

the French Revolution, the

Duke

of Casse

Brissac, who was massacred at Versailles

in 1792, being its Grand Master at the period of its dispersion. Thory says that the
members of this association claimed to be
the successors of the Templars, and to be
in possession of their charters.
certain Brother Ledru, one of the sons

of the learned Nicholas Philip Ledru, was

the physician of Casse Brissac. On the
death of that nobleman and the sale of his
property, Ledru purchased a piece of furniture, probably

an

escritoire, in

which was

concealed the celebrated charter of Larmenius, the manuscript statutes of 1705, and
the journal of proceedings of the Order of
the Temple. Clavel says that about the
year 1804, Ledru showed these articles to
two of his friends
de Saintot and Fabre
Palaprat the latter of whom had formerly
been an ecclesiastic.
The sight of these
documents suggested to them the idea of
reviving the Order of the Temple. They
proposed to constitute Ledru the Grand
Master, but he refused the offer, and nominated Claudius Matheus Radix de Chevillon for the office, who would accept it only
under the title of Vicar and he is inscribed
as such on the list attached to the Charter
of Larmenius, his name immediately following that of Casse Brissac, who is recorded as the last Grand Master.
These four restorers of the Order were of
opinion that it would be most expedient to
place it under the patronage of some distinguished personage; and while making
the effort to carry this design into execution, Chevillon, excusing himself from further official labor on account of his advanced age, proposed that Fabre Palaprat
should be elected Grand Master, but for
one year only, and with the understanding
that he would resign the dignity as soon as
some notable person could be found who
would be willing to accept it. But Fabre,
having once been invested with the Grand
Mastership, ever afterwards refused to surrender the dignity.
Among the persons who were soon after
admitted into the Order were Decourchant,
a notary's clerk Leblond, an official of the
imperial library and Arnal, an ironmonger,
all of whom were intrusted with the secret
of the fraud, and at once engaged in the
construction of what have since been designated the " Relics of the Order." Of these
relics, which are preserved in the treasury
of the Order of the Temple at Paris, an inventory was made on the 18th day of May,
1810, being, it is probable, soon after their

"Philip."
small copper reliquary, in the shape
3.
of a Gothic church, containing four fragments of burnt bones, wrapped in a piece
of linen. These are said to have been
taken from the funeral pile of the martyred
Templars.
4. A sword, said to be one which belonged to James de Molay.
5. A helmet, supposed to have been that
of Guy, Dauphin of Auvergne.
6. An old gilt spur.
bronze patina, in the interior of
7.
which is engraved an extended hand, having the ring and little fingers bent in upon
the palm, which is the form of the episcopal benediction in the Roman Church.
8. A pax in gilt bronze, containing a
representation of St. John, under a Gothic
arch. The pax is a small plate of gold,
silver, or other rich material, carried round
by the priest to communicate the " kiss of
peace."

9.

10.

Three Gothic

A tall

seals.

ivory cross and three mitres,

richly ornamented.
11. The beauseant, in white linen, with
the cross of the Order.
12. The war standard, in white linen,
with four black rays.
Of these " relics," Clavel, who, as being

on the spot, may be supposed to know something of the truth, tells us that the copper
reliquary, the sword, the ivory cross, and
the three mitres were bought by Leblond
from an old iron shop in the market of St.
Jean, and from a maker of church vestments in the suburbs of Paris, while the
helmet was taken by Arnal from one of the
government armories.
Francisco Alvaro da Sylva Freyre de

TEMPLE

TEMPLE

Porto, a knight of the Order of Christ, and

a secret agent of John VI., king of Portugal, was admitted into the Order in 1805,
and continued a member until 1815. He
was one of the few, Clavel says, whom
Fabre and the other founders admitted into
their full confidence, and in 1812 he held

about the year 1814, the Grand Master

having obtained possession of a manuscript
copy of a spurious Gospel of St. John,
which is supposed to have been forged in

the office of Grand Master's Secretary.

Fabre* having signified to him his desire to
be recognized as the successor of James de
Molay by the Grand Master of the Order
of Christ, Da Sylva sent a copy of the
Charter of Larmenius to John VI., who
was then in Brazil but the request for recognition was refused.
The Order of the Temple, which had
thus been ingeniously organized by Fabre
Palaprat and his colleagues, began now to
assume high prerogatives as the only representative of ancient Templarism. The
Grand Master was distinguished by the
sounding titles of "Most Eminent Highness, Very Great, Powerful, and Excellent
Prince, and Most Serene Lord." The whole
world was divided into different jurisdictions, under the names of provinces, bailiwicks, priories, and commanderies, all of
which were distributed among the members and proofs of nobility were demanded
of all candidates but if they were not able
to give these proofs, they were furnished
by the Grand Master with the necessary
;

patents.

The ceremonies of initiation were divided

into three houses, again subdivided into
eight degrees, and were as follows
I.
1.

House of Initiation.

Initiate.

This

is

the Entered Ap-

prentice's degree of Freemasonry.

2.

Initiate of the Interior.

This

is

the

Fellow Craft.
3.
4.

This is the Master Mason.

Adept of the East. The Elu of Fifteen

Adept.

of the Scottish Eite.

5. Grand Adept of the Black Eagle of St.
John. The Elu of Nine of the Scottish
Eite.
II.

House of Postulance.

Postulant of the
Croix degree.
6.

III.

Order.

The Eose

Council.

Esquire.
Merely a preparation for
the eighth degree.
8. Knight, or Levite of the Interior Guard.
7.

The Philosophical Kadosh

At

the members of the Order proEoman Catholic religion, and

hence, on various occasions, Protestants
and Jews were denied admission. But
first

fessed the

803

the fifteenth century, and which contradicted in many particulars the canonical
Gospel, he caused it to be adopted as the
doctrine of the Order and thus, as Clavel
;

once transformed an Order which

had always been perfectly orthodox into a
schismatic sect. Out of this spurious Gos-

says, at

pel and an introduction and commentary

called the " Levitikon," said to have been
written by Nicephorus, a Greek monk of
Athens, Fabre and his colleagues composed
a liturgy, and established a religious sect to
which they gave the name of " Johannism."
The consequence of this change of religious views was a schism in the Order.
The orthodox party, however, appears to
have been the stronger; and after the others
had for a short time exhibited themselves
as soi-disant priests in a Johannite church
which they erected, and in which they publicly chanted the liturgy which they had
composed, the church and the liturgy were
given up, and they retired once more into
the secrecy of the Order.
Such is a brief history of the rise and
progress of the celebrated Order of the
Temple, which still exists at Paris, with,
however, a much abridged exercise, if not
with less assumption of prerogative. It
still claims to be the only true depository
of the powers and privileges of the ancient
Order of Knights Templars, denouncing
all other Templars as spurious, and its
Grand Master proclaims himself the legal
successor of James de Molay
with how
much truth the narrative already given
will enable every reader to decide.
The question of the legality of the " Order
of the Temple," as the only true body of
Knights Templars in modern days, is to be
settled only after three other points have
been determined: First, was the Charter
of Larmenius, which was brought for the
first time to light in 1705 by the Duke of
Orleans, an authentic or a forged document? Next, even if authentic, was the
story that Larmenius was invested with
the Grand Mastership and the power of
transmission by Molay a fact or a fable?
And, lastly, was the power exercised by
Ledru, in reorganizing the Order in 1804,
assumed by himself or actually derived
;

from Casse Brissac, the previous Grand

Master? There are many other questions
of subordinate but necessary importance to
be examined and settled before we can* consent to give the Order of the Temple the
high and, as regards Templarism, the exclusive position that

it

claims.

Temple, Second. The Temple built

;
;

TEMPLE

804
by Zerubbabel

is

so called.

TEMPLE
See Temple of

Zerubbabel.

Temple, Sovereign Commander

of"

the.

See Sovereign Commander of

the Temple.

Temple, Sovereign of the Sovereigns

Grand Commander of

(Souverain des Souverain Grands Commandeur du Temple.) A degree in the collection of Lemanceau and Le Page. It is
said to be a part of the Order of Christ or

the.

Portuguese Templarism.

Temple, Spiritual.

See Spiritual

Temple.

Temple, Symbolism of the. Of

the objects which constitute the Masonic
science of symbolism, the most important,
all

the most cherished by Masons, and by far

the most significant, is the Temple of Jerusalem. The spiritualizing of the Temple
is the first, the most prominent, and the
most pervading of all symbols of Freemasonry. It is that which most emphatically gives

it its

religious character.

Take

from Freemasonry its dependence on the

Temple; leave out of its ritual all reference to that sacred edifice, and to the
legends and traditions connected with it,
and the system itself would at once decay
and die, or at best remain only as some
fossilized bone, serving merely to show the
nature of the once living body to which it

had belonged.
Temple worship

is in itself an ancient
type of the religious sentiment in its progress towards spiritual elevation.
As soon
as a nation emerged out of Feticism, or the
worship of visible objects, which is the
most degraded form of idolatry, its people

began

to establish a priesthood, and to erect

The Goths, the Celts, the Egyp-

temples.

and the Greeks, however much they

differed in the ritual, and in the
objects of their polytheistic worship, were
all in the possession of priests and of temples.
The Jews, complying with this law
tians,

may have

of our religious nature, first constructed

their tabernacle, or portable temple, and
then, when time and opportunity permitted,
transferred their monotheistic worship to
that more permanent edifice which towered in all its magnificence above the pinnacle of Mount Moriah. The mosque of
the Mohammedan and the church or chapel
of the Christian is but an embodiment of
the same idea of temple worship in a
simpler form.
The adaptation, therefore, of the Temple
of Jerusalem to a science of symbolism,
would be an easy task to the mind of those

Jews and Tyrians who were engaged

in its
construction.
Doubtless, at its original
conception, the idea of this temple symbolism was rude and unembellished. It

was to be perfected and polished only by

future aggregations of succeeding intellects.
And yet no biblical nor Masonic scholar
will venture to deny that there was, in the
mode of building and in all the circumstances connected with the construction of

King Solomon's Temple, an apparent

design to establish a foundation for symbolism.

The Freemasons have, at all events,
seized with avidity the idea of representing
in their symbolic language the interior and
spiritual man by a material temple.
They
have the doctrine of the great Apostle of
the Gentiles, who has said, " Know ye are
the temple of God, and that the spirit of
God dwelleth in you." The great body of

the Masonic craft, looking only to this first

Temple erected by the wisdom of King
Solomon, make it the symbol of life and
as the great object of Masonry is the search
after truth, they are directed to build up
this temple as a fitting receptacle for truth
when found, a place where it may dwell,
just as the ancient Jews built up their
great Temple as a dwelling-place for Him
who is the author of all truth.
To the Master Mason, this Temple of
Solomon is truly the symbol of human life;
for, like life, it was to have its end.
For
four centuries it glittered on the hills of
Jerusalem in all its gorgeous magnificence
now, under some pious descendant of the
wise king of Israel, the spot from whose
altars arose the burnt-offerings to a living
God, and now polluted by some recreant
monarch of Judah to the service of Baal
until at length it received the divine punishment through the mighty king of Babylon, and, having been despoiled of all its
treasures, was burnt to the ground, so that
nothing was left of all its splendor but a
smouldering heap of ashes. Variable in
its purposes, evanescent in its existence,
now a gorgeous pile of architectural beauty,
and anon a ruin over which the resistless
power of fire has passed, it becomes a fit
symbol of human life occupied in the
search after divine truth, which is nowhere
to be found now sinning and now repentant now vigorous with health and strength,
and anon a senseless and decaying corpse.
Such is the symbolism of the first Temple, that of Solomon, as familiar to the
class of Master Masons.
But there is a
second and higher class of the Fraternity,
the Masons of the Eoyal Arch, by whom
this temple symbolism is still further developed.
This second class, leaving their early
symbolism and looking beyond this Temple of Solomon, find in scriptural history
another Temple, which, years after the destruction of the first one, was erected upon
;

TEMPLE

TENT

ruins; and they have selected the

its
second Temple, the Temple of Zerubbabel,
And as the
as their prominent symbol.

tucky. In December, 1811, a convention

was held at Knoxville, when an address
was directed to the Grand Lodge of North

of Masons find in their Temple

the symbol of mortal life, limited and perishable, they, on the contrary, see in this
second Temple, built upon the foundations
of the first, a symbol of life eternal, where
the lost truth shall be found, where new
incense shall arise from a new altar, and
whose perpetuity their great Master had
promised when, in the very spirit of symbolism, he exclaimed, " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
And so to these two classes or Orders of
Masons the symbolism of the Temple presents itself in a connected and continuous
form. To the Master Mason, the Temple
of Solomon is the symbol of this life ; to
the Royal Arch Mason, the Temple of
Zerubbabel is the symbol of the future life.
To the former, his Temple is the symbol of
the search for truth to the latter, his is the
symbol of the discovery of truth and thus
the circle is completed and the system

Carolina, soliciting its assent to the severance of the Masonic jurisdiction and the
establishment of an independent Grand
Lodge. In October, 1813, this consent was
granted, and a convention of the Lodges was
ordered by the Grand Master to assemble
at Knoxville on December 27, 1813, that
the Grand Lodge of Tennessee might be
Delegates from eight
legally constituted.
Lodges accordingly assembled on that day
at Knoxville, and a convention was duly
organized.
deed of relinquishment from
the Grand Lodge of North Carolina was
By this instrument the Grand Lodge
read.
of North Carolina relinquished all authority and jurisdiction over the several Lodges
in the State of Tennessee, and assented
to the erection of an independent Grand
Constitution was accordingly
Lodge.
adopted and the Grand Lodge of Tennessee
organized, Thomas Claiborne being elected

first class

805

Grand Master.
The first Royal Arch Chapters in TenTemple, Workmen at the. See nessee were instituted by the General Grand
Workmen at the Temple.
Chapter, and the Grand Chapter of TenTemnlier. The title of a Knight Tem- nessee was organized in 1826.
plar in French. The expression "ChevaThe Grand Council of Royal and Select
lier Templier " is scarcely ever used by Masters was established October 13, 1847.
The Grand Commandery of Tennessee
French writers.

made

perfect.

Tempi um

Hierosolynise.

Latin

Temple of Jerusalem. It is supposed

by some to be a phrase concealed under the
monogram of the Triple Tau, which see.
Ten. Ten cannot be considered as a
sacred number in Masonry. But by the
Pythagoreans it was honored as a symbol
of the perfection and consummation of all
things.
It was constituted of the monad
and duad, the active and passive principles,
for the

the triad or their result, andthequaternior or

first square, and hence they referred it to
their sacred tetractys.
They said that ten
contained all the relations of numbers and

harmony.

Tengu.

See

Tetractys.

significant

word in the

high degrees of the Scottish Rite. The

original old French rituals explain it, and
say that it and the two other words that
accompany are formed out of the initials
of the words of a particular sentence which
has reference to the " Sacred treasure " of
Masonry.
Tennessee. Until the end of the
year 1813, the State .of Tennessee constituted a part of the Masonic jurisdiction
of North Carolina, and the Lodges were
held under Warrants issuing from the
Grand Lodge of "North Carolina and Tennessee," with the exception of one Lodge
in Davidson County, which derived its
Charter from the Grand Lodge of Ken-

was organized October 12, 1859.

There are in the State a few bodies of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,
which derive their Charters from the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction.
Tent. The tent, which constitutes a
part of the paraphernalia or furniture of a
Commandery of Knights Templars, is not

only intended for a practical use, but also

has a symbolic meaning. The Order of the

Templars was instituted

for the protection

of Christian pilgrims who were visiting
the sepulchre of their Lord. The Hospitallers might remain in the city and fulfil
their vows by attendance on the sick, but
the Templar must away to the plains, the
hills, and the desert, there, in his lonely
tent, to watch the wily Saracen, and to
await the toilsome pilgrim, to whom he
might offer the crust of bread and the
draught of water, and instruct him in his
way, and warn him of danger, and give
him words of good cheer. Often in the
early history of the Order, before luxury
and wealth and vice had impaired its
purity, must these meetings of the toilsome
pilgrim, on his way to the holy shrine, with
the valiant Knight who stood by his tent
door on the roadside, have occurred. And
it is just such events as these that are
commemorated in the tent scenes of the

Templar

ritual.

TENURE

TERRITORIAL

of Office. All offices in the

bodies of the York and American Rites
But the
are held by annual election.
holder of an office does not become functus
officii by the election of his successor ; he
retains the office until that successor has
been installed. This is technically called
"holding over." It is not election only,
but" election and installation that give posIf a new
session of an office in Masonry.
Master, having been elected, should, after
the election and installation of the other
officers of the Lodge, refuse to be installed,
the old Master would " hold over," or retain the office until the next annual elecThe oath of office of every officer is
tion.
that he will perform the duties of the office
for twelve months, and until his successor
In France, in the
shall have been installed.
last century, Warrants of Constitution were
granted to certain Masters who held the
office for life, and were thence called " Maitres inamovibles," or immovable Masters.
They considered the Lodges committed to
their care as their personal property, and
governed them despotically, according to
But in 1772 this class
their own caprices.
of Masters had become so unpopular, that
the Grand Lodge removed them, and made
the tenure of office the same as it was in

Abbe Terrasson was born at Lyons, in

France, in 1670. He was educated by the
congregation of the Oratory, of which his
brother Andre was a priest, but eventually

806

Tenure

abandoned

it,

which gave so much offence

he left him by his will

to his father, that

only a very moderate income. The Abbe

obtained a chair in the Academy of Sciences
in 1707, and a professorship in the Royal
College in 1724, which position he occupied
until his death in 1750. He was the author
of a Critical Dissertation on the Iliad of
Homer, a translation of Diodorus Seculus,
and several other classical and philosophical works.
But his work most interesting to the Masonic scholar is his Sethos,
histoire ou vie tiree des monumens anecdotes
de I'ancienne Egypt, published at Paris in
This work excited on its appear1731.
ance so much attention in the literary
world, that it was translated into the German and English languages under the
respective titles of: 1. Abris der wahren
Helden- Tugend, oder Lebensgeschichte des
Sethos; translated by Chro. Gli. Wendt,
Hamburg, 1732. 2. Geschicte des Konigs
Sethos; translated by Matth. Claudius,
Breslau, 1777 and 3. The Life of Sethos,
taken from private Memoirs of the ancient
Egyptians; translated from a Greek MS. into
French, and now done into English, by M.
Lediard, London, 1732.
In this romance he has given an account
of the initiation of his hero, Sethos, an
Egyptian prince, into the Egyptian mysteries.
must not, however, be led into
the error, into which Kloss says that the
Masonic fraternity fell on its first appearance, that this account is a well-proved,
;

England.
In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite, the officers of a Supreme Council
hold their offices, under the Constitutions of
In the subordinate bodies
1786, for life.
We
of the Rite, the elections are held triennially. This is also the rule in the Supreme
Council of the Northern Jurisdiction, which
has abandoned the law of perpetual tenure.
Tercy. One of the nine Elus recorded historical narrative. Much as we know
in the high degrees as having been sent of the Egyptian mysteries, compared with
out by Solomon to make the search which our knowledge of the Grecian or the AsiThe atic, we have no sufficient documents from
is referred to in the Master's legend.
name was invented by Ramsay, with some which to obtain the consecutive and minute
allusion, not now explicable, to the political detail which the Abb6 Terrasson has conincidents of Stuart Masons. The name is structed. It is like Ramsay's Travels of
a
probably an anagram or corruption of some Cyrus, to which it has been compared
See Ana- romance rather than a history but it still
friend of the house of Stuart.
contains so many scintillations of truth, so
gram.
Terminus. The god of landmarks, much of the substantiate of fact amid the
whose worship was introduced among the ornaments of fiction, that it cannot but
Romans by Numa. The god was represent- prove instructive as well as amusing. We
ed by a cubical stone. Of all the gods, Termi- have in it the outlines of an initiation into
nus was the only one who, when the new the Egyptian mysteries such as the learned
Capitol was building, refused to remove his Abbe could derive from the documents and
altar. Hence Ovid {Fasti, ii. 673,) addressed monuments to which he was able to apply,
him thus: "O Terminus, no inconstancy with many lacuna? which he has filled up
was permitted thee in whatever situation from his own inventive and poetic genius.
thou hast been placed, there abide, and do
Terrible Brother. French, Frere
not yield one jot to any neighbor asking terrible. An officer in the French Rite,
thee." The Masons pay the same rever- who in an initiation conducts the candidate,
ence to their landmarks that the Romans and in this respect performs the duty of a
Senior Deacon in the York Rite.
did to their god Terminus.
Territorial Jurisdiction. It has
Terrasson, the Abbe* Jean. The

TESSELLATED

TESSELLATED
now become
least,

the settled

principle

of.

at

American Masonic law, that Masonic

and political jurisdiction should be coterminous, that is, that the boundaries which
circumscribe the territorial jurisdiction of
a Grand Lodge should be the same as
those which define the political limits of
the State in which it exists. And so it
follows that if a State should change its
political boundaries, the Masonic boundaries of the Grand Lodge should change
with it. Thus, if a State should diminish
its extent by the cession of any part of its
territory to an adjoining State, the Lodges
situated within the ceded territory would
pass over to the jurisdiction of the Grand
Lodge of the State to which that territory
had been ceded.
Tessellated. From the Latin tessella,
a little square stone. Chequered, formed
in little squares of Mosaic work.
Applied
in Masonry to the Mosaic pavement of the
Temple, and to the border which surrounds
the tracing-board, probably incorrectly in
the latter instance. See Tessellated Border.
Tessellated Border. Browne says
in his Master Key, which is supposed to
present the general form of the Prestonian
lectures, that the ornaments of a Lodge
are the Mosaic pavement, the Blazing Star,
and the Tessellated Border; and he defines
the Tessellated Border to be "the skirt- work
round the Lodge." Webb, in his lectures,
teaches that the ornaments of a Lodge are
the Mosaic pavement, the indented tessel,
and the blazing star; and he defines the
indented tessel to be that " beautifully tessellated border or skirting which surrounded
the ground-floor of King Solomon's Temple."
The French call it "la houpe dentelee," which is literally the indented tessel;
and they describe it as "a cord forming
true-lovers' knots, which surrounds the
tracing-board." The Germans call it " die
Schnur von starken Faden," or the cord of
strong threads, and define it as a border surrounding the tracing-board of an Entered
Apprentice, consisting of a cord tied in
lovers' knots, with two tassels attached to
the ends.
The idea prevalent in America, and derived from a misapprehension of the plate
in the Monitor of Cross, that the tessellated
border was a decorated part of the Mosaic
pavement, and made like it of little square
stones, does not seem to be supported by
these definitions. They all indicate that
the tessellated border was a cord. The interpretation of its symbolic meaning still
further sustains this idea. Browne says
u
it alludes to that kind care of Providence
which so cheerfully surrounds and keeps
us within its protection whilst we justly
and uprightly govern our lives and actions

by the four cardinal virtues in

807
divinity,

namely, temperance, fortitude, prudence,

and justice." This last allusion is to the
four tassels

attached to the cord.

(See

Tassels.

Webb says that it is "emblematic of

those blessings and comforts which surround us, and which we hope to obtain by
a faithful reliance on Divine Providence."
The French ritual says that it is intended
"to teach the Mason that the society of
which he constitutes a part surrounds the
earth, and that distance, so far from relaxing the bonds which unite the members to
each other, ought to draw them closer."
Lenning says that it symbolizes the fra-

bond by which all Masons are united.

But Gadicke is more precise. He defines
it as " the universal bond by which every
Mason ought to be united to his brethren,"
and he says that "it should consist of sixty
ternal

threads or yarns, because, according to the

ancient statutes, no Lodge was allowed to
have above sixty members."
Oliver (Landm., i. 174,) says " the TracingBoard is surrounded by an indented or tessellated border .... at the four angles appear as many tassels." But in the old
English tracing-boards the two lower
tassels are often omitted.
They are, however, generally found in the French.
Lenning, speaking, I suppose, for the German,
assigns to them but two.
Four tassels are,
however, necessary to complete the symbolism, which is said to be that of the four
cardinal virtues. The tessellated, more
properly, therefore, the tassellated, border
consists of a cord intertwined with knots,
to each end of which is appended a tassel.
It surrounds the border of the tracingboard, and appears at the top in the following form:

There is, however, in these old tracingboards another border, which surrounds the
entire picture with lines, as in the following figure

This indented border, which was made to

represent a cord of black and white threads,
was, I think, in time mistaken for tessella?,, or
little stones; an error probably originating

808

TESSELLATED

in confounding

it with the tessellated pavement, which was another one of the ornaments of the Lodge.

We

find that we have for this symbol five

different names in English, the indented
:

the indented tassel, the indented tessel, the tassellated border, and the tessellated
border ; in French, the houpe dentelee, or
indented tessel and in German, the Schnur
von starken Faden, or the cord of strong
tarsel,

threads.

The question what is the true tessellated

border would not be a difficult one to answer, if it were not for the variety of names
given to it in the English rituals. We
know by tradition, and by engravings that
have been preserved, that during the ceremonies of initiation in the early part of
the last century the symbols of the Order
were marked out in chalk on the floor, and
that this picture was encircled by a waving
This cord was ornamented with
cord.
tassels, and formerly a border to the tracing on the floor was called the indented
tassel, the cord and the tufts attached to it
being the tassel, which, being by its wavy
direction partly in and partly outside of
the picture, was said to be indented. This
indented tassel was subsequently corrupted
by illiterate Masons into indented tarsel, the
appellation met with in some of the early
catechisms.
Afterwards, looking to its decoration with
tassels and to its position as a border to the
tracing-board, it was called the tassellated
In time the picture on the floor
border.
was transferred to a permanent tracingboard, and then the tassels were preserved
at the top, and the rest of the cord was represented around the board in the form of

white and black angular spaces. These

were mistaken for little stones, and the tas-

was called, by a natural corruption, the tessellated border. Many years

ago,when I first met with the idea of this cor-

sellated border

ruption from tassellated to tessellated, which

was suggested to Dr. Oliver by " a learned
Scottish Mason," whose name he does not
give, I was inclined to doubt its correctSubsequent investigations have led
ness.
me to change that opinion. I think that I
can readily trace the gradual steps of cor-

ruption and change from the original name

indented tassel, which the early French Masons had literally translated by houpe dentelee, to indented tarsel, and sometimes, according to Oliver, to indented trasel; then to
iassellated border, and, finally, to tessellated
border, the name which it now bears.
The form and the meaning of the symbol
are now apparent. The tessellated border,
as it is called, is a cord, decorated with
tassels, which surrounds the tracing-board
of an Entered Apprentice, the said tracing-

TESTS
board being a representation of the Lodge,
and it symbolizes the bond of love
the
mystic tie which binds the Craft wheresoever dispersed into one band of brotherhood.
Tessel, Indented, See Tessellated

Border.

Tessera Hospitalis.

Latin.

Lit-

erally, "

the token of the guest," or " the

hospitable die." It was a custom among
the ancients, that when two persons formed
an alliance of friendship, they took a small
piece of bone, ivory, stone, or even wood,
which they divided into two parts, each

one inscribing his name upon his half.

They then made an exchange of the pieces,
each promising to retain the part intrusted
to him as a perpetual token of the covenant
into which they had entered, of which
its production at any future time would be
a proof and a reminder. See the subject
more fully treated in the article Mark.
Testimony. In Masonic trials the
testimony of witnesses is taken in two

ways

that

that of

of profanes by affidavit, and

Masons on

their

Masonic obliga-

tion.

Tests. Test questions, to which the

conventional answers would prove the Masonic character, of the person interrogated,
were in very common use in the last century in England. They were not, it is true,
enjoined by authority, but were conventionally used to such an extent that every
Mason was supposed to be acquainted with
them. They are now obsolete but not a
quarter of a century ago I heard such
"catch questions "as "Where does the
Master hang his hat ? " and a few others
equally trivial, used in this country.
Oliver gives ( Golden Remains, iv. 14,) the
following as the tests in use in the early
part of the last century. They were introduced by Desaguliers and Anderson at the
revival in 1717. Some of them, however,
were of a higher character, being taken
from the catechism or lecture then in use
as a part of the instructions of the Entered
Apprentice.
)hat is the place of the Senior Entered
Apprentice ?
What are the fixed lights ?
How ought the Master to be served?
What is the punishment of a cowan?
What is the bone box ?
How is it said to be opened only with
ivory keys ?
By what is the key suspended ?
What is the clothing of a Mason ?
What is the brand ?
How high was the door of the middlo
;

chamber ?

What

does this stone smell of?

of an Entered Apprentice ?

The name

TEST

TESTS
The name of a Fellow Craft?
The name of Master Mason ?
In the year 1730, Martin Clare having,
by order of the Grand Lodge, remodelled
the lectures, he abolished the old tests and
introduced the following

new

brought you here?

What recommendation do you bring?

Do you know the secrets of Masonry?
Where do you keep them?
Have you the key?
Where is it deposited?
When you were made a Mason, what did
you consider most desirable?

What

is

Where

the

is it

name of your
situated?

Lodge?

What

is its foundation?
did you enter the

How

Temple of

Solo-

mon?

How many windows did you see there?

What is the duty of the youngest apprentice?

ever worked as a Mason?

did you work with?
Salute me as a Mason.
Ten years afterwards Clare's tests were
superseded by a new series of " examination questions," which were promulgated
by Dr. Manningham, and very generally
They are as follows
adopted.
Where were you made a Mason?
What did you learn there?

Have you

What

How

do you hope to be rewarded?

access have you to that Grand

What
Lodge?

How many steps?

What

are their names ?

qualifications are required in

How many
a

Mason?

What
What

Did you endure the brand with

and patience ?
The situation of the Lodge ?

fortitude

What is its name?

With what have you worked as a Mason?
Explain the sprig of Cassia.
How old are you ?

ones.

Whence came you?

Who

809

Preston subsequently, as his first contribution to Masonic literature, presented the

following system of tests, which were at a
later period adopted.

Whither are you bound?

Are you a Mason?
How do you know that?
How will you prove it to me ?
Where were you made a Mason ?
When were you made a Mason ?
By whom were you made a Mason ?
From whence come you ?
What recommendation do you bring ?
Any other recommendation ?
Where are the secrets of Masonry kept?
To whom do you deliver them ?
How do you deliver them ?
In what manner do you serve your Mas,

ter?

What is
What is

your name ?

the name of your son ?

If a Brother were lost, where should you

hope

to find

him ?

How should you expect him to be clothed ?

How blows a Mason's wind ?
Why does it thus blow ?
What time is it ?
These Prestonian

tests continued in use

until the close of the last century, and Dr.
Oliver says that at his initiation, in 1801,
he was fully instructed in them.
Tests of this kind appear to have existed
at an early period.
The " examination of

the standard of a Mason's faith?

the standard of his actions?
Can you name the peculiar characteristics of a Mason's Lodge?
What is the interior composed of?
Why are we termed Brethren ?
By what badge is a Mason distinguished?
To what do the reports refer?
How many principal points are there in

a Steinmetz," given by Findel in his History

of Freemasonry presents all the characteristics of the English " tests."

Masonry ?
To what do they
Their names ?

tests will, I think, lead to

is
is

refer

The French Masons have one, "Comment etes vous entre dans le Temple de
Salomon?" and in this country, besides the
one already mentioned, there are a few
others which are sometimes used, but with-

review of these
the conclusion
adopted by Oliver, that " they are doubtless of great utility, but in their selection
a pure and discriminating taste has not alout legal authority.

The allusion ?
Thomas Dunckerley subsequently made ways been used."
a new arrangement of the lectures, and
Test Word. In the year 1829, during
with them the tests. For the eighteen the anti-Masonic excitement in this counwhich composed the series of Manning- try, the Grand Lodge of New York proham, he invented ten, but which were more posed, as a safeguard against " the introducsignificant and important in their bearing. tion of impostors among the workmen," a
They were as follows
test word to be used in all examinations in
How ought a Mason to be clothed ?
addition to the legitimate tests. But as
When were you born ?
this was deemed an innovation on the
Where were you born ?
landmarks, and as it was impossible that
How were you born?
it could ever become universal, the Grand

5B

TETRAGRAMMATON

TETRACTYS

810

Lodges of the United States very properly cially that of initiation, upon it. The exact
words of the oath are given in the Golden
rejected it, and it was never used.
Tetractys. The Greek word rerpaKrvg Verses, and are referred to by Jamblichus
signifies, literally, the number four, and is in his Life of Pythagoras :
therefore synonythe
inous with
quaternion ; but it

has

pecu-

liarly applied to a

symbol of the Pythagoreans, which

is composed often

been

dots arranged in

o a triangular form
of four rows.

This figure was in itself, as a whole, emblematic of the Tetragrammaton, or sacred

name of four letters, (for tetractys, in Greek,
means four,) and was undoubtedly learned
by Pythagoras during his visit to Babylon.
But the parts of which it is composed were
Thus the one point
also pregnant symbols.

was a symbol of the active principle or

creator, the two points of the passive principle or matter, the three of the world proceeding from their union, and the four of
the liberal arts and sciences, which may be
said to complete and perfect that world.
This arrangement of the ten points in a
triangular form was called the tetractys or

number four, because each of the sides of

the triangle consisted of four points, and
the whole number of ten was made up by
the summation of the first four figures, 1
10.
2
Hierocles says, in his Commentaries on the
Golden Verses (v. 47): "But how comes
God to be the Tetractys ? This thou mayst
learn in the sacred book ascribed to Pythagoras, in which God is celebrated as the
number of numbers. For if all things exist
by His eternal decrees, it is evident that in
each species of things the number depends
Now
on the cause that produces them.
the power of ten is four for before we come
to a complete and perfect decade, we discover
all the virtue and perfection of the ten in
the four. Thus, in assembling all numbers
from one to four inclusive, the whole com-

+ 3+4 =

Nt fxa rbv omerepa *pw%a napaSovia TerpaKTvv

YXayav aev&ov ^uraus, d\\' epXw ey' epyov.

position makes ten," etc.

And Dacier, in his Notes on these Commentaries and on this particular passage,
remarks that " Pythagoras, having learned
in Egypt the name of the true God, the

mysterious and ineffable name Jehovah,

and finding that in the original tongue it
was composed of four letters, translated it
into his own language by the word tetractys, and gave the true explanation of it,
saying that it properly signified the source
of nature that perpetually rolls along."
So much did the disciples of Pythagoras
venerate the tetractys, that it is said that
they took their most solemn oaths, espe-

it by him who has transmitted into

our soul the sacred tetractys,

"I swear

The source of nature, whose course

is

eternal."

Jamblichus gives a different phraseology

of the oath, but with substantially the same
meaning. In the symbols of Masonry, we
will find the sacred delta bearing the nearest analogy to the tetractys of the Pythagoreans.

The

outline of these points form,

it

will

be perceived, a triangle; and if we draw

short lines from point to point, we will
have within this great triangle nine smaller
ones.
Dr. Hemming, in his revision of the
English lectures, adopted in 1813, thus explains this symbol
" The great triangle

is generally denominated Pythagorean, because it served as a

principal illustration of that philosopher's
system. This emblem powerfully elucidates
the mystical relation between the numerical
and geometrical symbols. It
is composed of
ten points, so
arranged as to
form one great

equilateral triangle, and at

the same time

to divide it into nine similar triangles of
smaller dimensions. The first of these,
representing unity, is called a monad, and
answers to what is denominated a point in
geometry, each being the principle by the

multiplication of which all combinations

of form and number are respectively generated.
The next two points are denominated a duad, representing the number two,
and answers to the geometrical line which,
consisting of length without breadth, is
bounded by two extreme points. The three
following points are called the triad, representing the number three, and may be considered as having an indissoluble relation
to all superficies, which consist of length
and breadth, when contemplated as abstracted from thickness."
Dr. Hemming does not appear to have improved on the Pythagorean symbolization.

Tetragrammaton.

In Greek, it siga word of four letters. It is the title

given by the Talmudists to the name of
nifies

TEXAS

TEUTONIC
God Jehovah, which in the original Hebrew
consists of four letters,
vah.

Jill"!*'

Teutonic Knights. The

See Jehoorigin of

Order was an humble but a pious one.

During the Crusades, a wealthy gentleman
this

who resided at Jerusalem,

commiserating the condition of his countryof Germany,

men who came

there as pilgrims,

made

his

house their receptacle, and afterwards built

a hospital, to which, by the permission
of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, he added
an oratory dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
Other Germans coming from Lubeck and

Bremen contributed to the extension of

this charity, and erected at Acre, during
the third Crusade, a sumptuous hospital, and
assumed the title of Teutonic Knights, or
Brethren of the Hospital of our Lady of
the Germans of Jerusalem. They elected
Henry Walpott their first Master, and

adopted for their government a Eule closely

approximating to that both of the Templars and the Hospitallers, with an additional one that none but Germans should
be admitted into the Order. Their dress
consisted of a white mantle, with a black
Clark says
cross embroidered in gold.
{Hist of Knighthood, ii. 60,) that the original
badge, which was assigned to them by the
iii
Emperor Henry VI.,
1
black
cross
was a
potent; and that form of
cross has ever since
liiiii
WWII
been known as a Teu-

pi-

ll

tonic

Cross.

John,

king of Jerusalem,
added the cross double
potent gold, that is, a

ill

cross potent of gold

on the black cross.

II. gave them the
black double-headed eagle, to be borne in
an inescutcheon in the centre of the cross
and St. Louis, of France, added to it, as an
augmentation, a blue chief strewn with

The Emperor Frederick

811

ceiving Prussia proper as a brief of the

kings of Poland.
In 1511, Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg, was elected their Grand Master. In
1525 he abandoned the vows of his Order
became a Protestant, and exchanged his
title of Grand Master for that of Duke of
Eastern Prussia; and thus the dominion of
the Knights was brought to an end, and
the foundation laid of the future kingdom
of Prussia.
The Order, however, still continued its
existence, the seat of the Grand Master
being at Mergentheim, in Swabia. By the
peace of Presburg, in 1805, the Emperor
Francis II. obtained the Grand Mastership, with all its rights

and

privileges.

In

1809 Napoleon abolished the Order, but

still has a titular existence in Austria.

it

Attempts have been made to incorporate

the Teutonic Knights into Masonry, and
their cross has been adopted in some of the
high degrees. But we fail to find in history the slightest traces of any actual connection between the two Orders.

Texas,

Freemasonry was introduced

in Texas by the formation of a Lodge at

Brazoria, which met for the first time, December 27, 1835. The Dispensation for

Lodge was granted by J. H. Holland,

Grand Master of Louisiana, and in his
honor the Lodge was called Holland Lodge,
this

No.

36.

It continued to

ruary, 1836,

an end

meet until Feb-

when

the war with Mexico put

labors for the time. In Oc-

to its
tober, 1837, it

was reopened at Houston, a

Charter having in the interval been issued
for it by the Grand Lodge of Louisiana. In
the meantime two other Lodges had been
chartered by the Grand Lodge of Louisiana,
Milam, No.6 40, at Nacogdoches, and McFarlane, No. 41, at San Augustine. Delegates from these Lodges met at Houston,
December 20, 1837, and organized the
Grand Lodge of the Eepublic of Texas,
Anson Jones being elected Grand Master.

The introduction of Royal Arch MaAcre they did good sonry into Texas was accompanied with
service to the Christian cause but on the some difficulties. In 1838, the General
fall of that city, the main body returned to
Grand Chapter of the United States granted
Europe with Frederick II. For many a Charter for a Chapter at San Felipe de
years they were engaged in crusades against Austin. The members, finding it impractithe pagan inhabitants of Prussia and cable to meet at that place, assumed the rePoland. Ashmole says that in 1340 they sponsibility of opening it at Galveston,
built the city of Maryburg, and there es- which was done June 2, 1840.
This irregtablished the residence of their Grand ular action was, on application, healed
Master. They were for a long time en- by the General Grand Chapter. Subsegaged in contests with the kings of Poland quently this body united with two illegal
on account of their invasion of their terri- Chapters in the Republic to form a Grand
tory.
They were excommunicated by Pope Chapter. This body was declared illegal
John XXII., but relying on their great by the General Grand Chapter, and Mastrength, and the remoteness of their prov- sonic intercourse with it prohibited.
The
ince, they bid defiance to ecclesiastical Chapter at Galveston submitted to the
censures, and the contest ended in their re- decree, and the so-called Grand Chapter of
fleur-de-lis.

During the

siege of

812

THEOSOPHISTS

T.\ G.\ A/. 0.\ T.\ U.

Texas was dissolved. Charters were then

granted by the General Grand Chapter to
seven other Chapters, and in 1850 the Grand
Chapter of Texas was duly established.
The Grand Commandery of Texas was
organized January 19, 1855.
T.\ G.\ A.'. 0.\ TV. U.\ The initials of The Grand Architect of The Universe.
Often used in this abbreviated form by Masonic writers.

Tbammuz. Spelled
A deity worshipped by the
in the time of Ezekiel,

also

Tammuz.

apostate Jews

and supposed by

most commentators to be identical with the

Syrian god Adonis. See Adonis, Mysteries of.
Thanks. It is a usage of French Masonry, and in the high degrees of some
other Rites, for the candidate, after his initiation and the address of the orator to
him, to return thanks to the Lodge for the

honor that has been conferred upon him.

It is a voluntary and not an obligatory
duty, and is not practised in the Lodges of
the York and American Eites.
Theism. Theological writers have defined theism as being the belief in the existence of a deity who, having created the
world, directs its government by the constant
exercise of his beneficent power, in contradistinction to atheism, which denies the
existence of any such creative and superintending being. In this sense, theism is
the fundamental religion of Masonry, on
which is superimposed the additional and
peculiar tenets of each of its disciples.

Theocratic Philosophy of Free-

masonry.

This is a term invented by

Dr. Oliver to indicate that view of Freemasonry which intimately connects its
symbols with the teachings of pure religion,
and traces them to the primeval revelations
of God to man, so that the philosophy of
Masonry shall develop the continual government of the Divine Being. Hence he
says " It is the Theocratic Philosophy of
Freemasonry that commands our unqualified esteem, and seals in our heart that love
for the Institution which will produce an
:

active religious faith and practice, and

lead in the end to ' a building not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens.' " He
has developed this system in one of his
works entitled, The Theocratic Philosophy
of Freemasonry, in twelve lectures on its
Speculative, Operative, and Spurious Branches.
In this work he enters with great minuteness into an examination of the speculative character of the Institution and of its
operative division, which he contends had
been practised as an exclusively scientific
pursuit from the earliest times in every
country of the world. Many of the legendary speculations advanced in this work
will

be rejected at this day as unsound and

untenable, but his views of the true philosophy of Freemasonry are worthy of pro-

found study.

Theological Tirtnes.

Under the
of the Cardinal Virtues, because all
the other virtues hinged upon them, the
ancient Pagans gave the most prominent
place in their system of ethics to Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and Justice.
But the three virtues taught in the theology
of St. Paul, Faith, Hope, and Charity, as

name

such were unknown to them. To these, as

taking a higher place and being more intimately connected with the relations of man
to God, Christian writers have given the
name of the Theological Virtues. They
have been admitted into the system of Masonry, and are symbolized in the Theological ladder of Jacob.

Theoricns. The
German Eose

twelfth degree of the

Croix.

Theosophists.

There

were

many

theosophists
enthusiasts whom Vaughan
calls " noble specimens of the mystic "
but those with whom the history of Masonry has most to do were the mystical religious thinkers of the last century, who
supposed that they were possessed of a
knowledge of the Divinity and his works
by supernatural inspiration, or who regarded the foundation of their mystical
tenets as resting on a sort of Divine intuition.
Such were Swedenborg, who, if not
himself a Masonic reformer, has supplied
the materials of many degrees the Moravian brethren, the object of whose association is said to have been originally the
propagation of the Gospel under the Masonic veil; St. Martin, the founder of the
Philalethans Pernetty, to whom we owe
the Order of Illuminati at Avignon and
Chastanier, who was the inventor of the
Eite of Illuminated Theosophists. The
object proposed in all these theosophic degrees was the regeneration of man, and his
reintegration into the primitive innocence

from which he had fallen by original sin.

Theosophic Masonry was, in fact, nothing
else than an application of the speculative
ideas of Jacob Bohme, of Swedenborg, and
mystical philosophers of the same
in his Hours with the Mystics, (ii. 46,) thus describes the earlier theosophists of the fourteenth century "They
believed devoutly in the genuineness of the

other
class.

Vaughan,

Kabbala. They were persuaded that, beneath all the floods of change, this oral tradition had perpetuated its life unharmed
even
from the days of Moses downward
as Jewish fable taught them that the cedars
alone, of all trees, had continued to spread
the strength of their invulnerable arms
below the waters of the deluge. They rejoiced in the hidden lore of that book as in

THERAPEUT.E

THORY

a treasure rich with the germs of all philosophy. They maintained that from its
marvellous leaves man might learn the angelic heraldry of the skies, the mysteries
of the Divine nature, the means of converse
with the potentates of heaven."
Add to this an equal reverence for the
unfathomable mysteries contained in the
prophecies of Daniel and the vision of the
Evangelist, with a proneness to give to
everything divine a symbolic interpretation, and you have the true character of
those later theosophists who labored to invent their particular systems of Masonry.
For more of this subject, see the article on
Saint Martin.
Nothing now remains of theosophic Masonry except the few traces left through the
influence of Zinnendorf in the Swedish system, and what we find in the Apocalyptic
degrees of the Scottish Rite. The systems of
Swedenborg, Pernetty, Paschalis, St. Martin, and Chastanier have all become ob-

and female powers of nature united, because it is composed of the sum of the four
odd numbers, 1 + 3+ 5 + 7
16, added to

+ =

+ +

Thory, Claude Antoine. A

dis-

who was

born at Paris, May 26, 1759. He was by

profession an advocate, and held the official
position of Begistrar of the Criminal Court
of the Chatelet, and afterwards of first adjunct of the Mayor of Paris. He was a
member of several learned societies, and a
naturalist of considerable reputation.
He
devoted his attention more particularly to
botany, and published several valuable
works on the genus Rosa, and also one on
strawberries, which was published after his
death.

Thory took an important part, both as

an actor and a writer, in the Masonic
history of France. He was a member of
the Lodge "Saint Alexandre d'Ecosse,"
and of the " Contrat Social," out of whose
incorporation into one proceeded the Moth-

ascetic sect of Jews

in the first century after Christ,
Mil-

whom

the ancestors of the Christian

monks and hermits. They resided near
Alexandria, in Egypt, and bore a striking
resemblance in their doctrines to those of
the Essenians. They were, however, much
influenced by the mystical school of Alexandria, and, while they borrowed much
from the Kabbala, partook also in their
speculations of Pythagorean and Orphic
Their system pervades some of the
ideas.
high degrees of Masonry. The best account
of them is given by Philo Judseus.
Theurgy. From the Greek Theos, God,
and ergon, work. The ancients thus called
the whole art of magic, because they believed its operations to be the result of an
intercourse with the gods. But the moderns have appropriated it to that species of
calls

Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Bite,

of which Thory may be justly called the
founder. He was at its constitution made
the presiding officer, and afterwards its
In
treasurer, and keeper of its archives.
this last capacity, he made a collection of rare
and valuable manuscripts, books, medals,
seals, jewels, bronze figures, and other ober

Under
jects connected with Freemasonry.
his administration, the library and museum
of the Mother Lodge became perhaps the
most valuable collection of the kind in
France or in any other country. After the
Mother Lodge had ceased its labors in
1826, this collection passed by a previous
stipulation into the possession of the Lodge
of Mont Thabor, which was the oldest of
the Eite.
Thory, while making collections for the

magic which operates by celestial means as

opposed to natural magic, which is effected
by a knowledge of the occult powers of
nature, and necromancy or magic effected
by the aid of evil spirits. Attempts have
been made by some speculative authors to
apply this high' magic, as it is also called,
to an interpretation of Masonic symbolism.
The most notorious and the most prolific
writer on this subject is Louis Alphonse
Constance, who, under the name of Eliphas
Levy, has given to the world numerous
works on the dogma and ritual, the history
and the interpretation, of this theurgic Masonry.

See Master Mason.

See
Degree.

Frince of the Royal Secret.

Thirty-Six. In the Pythagorean doctrine of numbers, 36 symbolized the male

tinguished French Masonic writer,

Therapeutse. An

Third Degree.
Thirty - Second.

sum

of the four even numbers. 2

4
6
20
8
36.
It has, how20, for 16
ever, no place among the sacred numbers
of Masonry.
Thirty-Third Degree. See Sovereign Grand Inspector General.

the

solete.

man

813

Lodge, had amassed for himself a fund of

the most valuable materials towards the
history of Freemasonry, which he used
with. great effect in his subsequent publicaIn 1813 he published the Annales
tions.
Originis Magni Galliarum Orientis, ou Histoire de la Fondation du Grand Orient de
France, in 1 vol., 8vo; and in 1815 his
Acta Latomorum, ou Chronologie de I'Histoire de la Franc- Maconnerie, Frangaise et
etrangere, in 2 vols., 8vo.
The value of these works, especially of
the latter, if not as well-digested histories,
certainly as important contributions for
Masonic history, cannot be denied. Yet
they have been variously appreciated by his

THREE

THOUX

814

contemporaries. Eebold {Hist des 3 G. L.,

of the Annales, that it is one
of the best historical productions that
French Masonic literature possesses ; while
Besuchet {Precis Historique, ii. 275,) charges
that he has attempted to discharge the
functions of a historian without exactitude and without impartiality. These discordant views are to be attributed to the
active part that Thory took in the contests between the Grand Orient and the
Scottish Rite, and the opposition which he
offered to the claims of the former to the
Posterity
Supreme Masonic authority.
will form its judgment on the character of
Thory as a Masonic historian without reference to the evanescent rivalry of parties.
He died in October, 1827.
de Salverte. Founder in
1763, at Warsaw, of the Academy of Secrets,
p. 531,) says

Thonx

which

see.

Thread of JLife.

In the

tures of the last century,

chism

we

earliest lecfind this cate-

Have you

the key of the

A. "Yes, I have.
Q. "What is its virtue?

A.

"To open and

shut,

Lodge ?

Q. " Where do you keep it ?

A. " In an ivory box, between my tongue
and my teeth, or within my heart, where all
secrets are kept.
Q. " Have you the chain to the key?
A. "Yes, I have.

my

"How

long

A. "As long

is it?

as

from

my tongue to my

heart."

In a later lecture, this key is said to

" hang by a tow line nine inches or a
span."

it

perfect har-

as

we

see in Virgil's eighth eclogue

" Terna tibi hsec primum, triplici diversa colore,

Licia circumdo, terque hanc altaria circum
Effigiem duco."

And

later

still,

" First I surround thee with these three pieces

of list, and I carry thy image three times round
the altars."

and shut and

open.

Q.

called

mony. So sacred was this number deemed

by the ancients, that we find it designating
some of the attributes of almost all the
gods. The thunder-bolt of Jove was threeforked the sceptre of Neptune was a trident; Cerberus, the dog of Pluto, was
three-headed there were three Fates and
three Furies; the sun had three names,
Apollo, Sol, and Liber; and the moon
three also, Diana, Luna, and Hecate. In
all incantations, three was a favorite number, for, as Virgil says, "numero Deus imparl gaudet," God delights in an odd number.
A triple cord was used, each cord of
three different colors, white, red, and black
and a small image of the subject of the
charm was carried thrice around the altar,

%. e.,

Q. "

The Pythagoreans

in the old Presto-

nian lecture, it is said to hang by "the

thread of life, in the passage of entrance,
nine inches or a span long, the supposed
distance between guttural and pectoral."
All of which is intended simply to symbolize the close connection which in every
Mason should exist between his tongue and
his heart, so that the one may utter nothing
that the other does not truly dictate.
Three. Everywhere among the ancients the number three was deemed the
most sacred of numbers. A reverence for
its mystical virtues is to be found even
among the Chinese, who say that numbers
begin at one and are made perfect at three,
and hence they denote the multiplicity of

any object by repeating the character which

stands for it three times. In the philosophy of Plato, it was the image of the Supreme Being, because it includes in itself
the properties of the two first numbers, and
because, as Aristotle says, it contains within
itself a beginning, a middle, and an end.

The Druids paid no less respect to this

sacred number. Throughout their whole
system, a reference is constantly made to
its influence
and so far did their veneration for it extend, that even their sacred
poetry was composed in triads.
In all the mysteries, from Egypt to Scandinavia, we find a sacred regard for the
number three. In the rites of Mithras, the
;

Empyrean was said to be supported by

three intelligences, Ormuzd, Mithra, and
Mithras. In the rites of Hindustan, there
was the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva.
It was, in short, a general character
of the mysteries to have three principal
officers and three grades of initiation.
In Freemasonry, the ternary is the most
sacred of all the mystical numbers. Beginning with the old axiom of the Roman
Artificers, that tres faciunt collegium, or it
requires three to make a college, they have
established the rule that not less than three
shall congregate to form a Lodge.
Then
in all the Rites, whatever may be the number of superimposed grades, there lie at the
basis the three symbolic degrees.
There
are in all the degrees three principal officers, three supports, three greater and three
lesser lights, three movable and three immovable jewels, three principal tenets, three
working-tools of a Fellow Craft, three principal orders of architecture, three chief
human senses, three Ancient Grand Masters.
In fact, everywhere in the system the
number three is presented as a prominent
symbol. So much is this the case, that all

THREE

TIE

numbers depend upon

the other mystical

a multiple of three, its square

or its cube, or derived from them. Thus,
9, 27, 81, are formed by the multiplication
2
X 3
of three, as 3 X 3
27,
9, and 3

it,

for

each

is

81.
and 3 2 X 3 2
But in nothing is the Masonic

significa-

tion of the ternary made more interesting

than in its connection with the sacred delta,
the symbol of Deity. See Triangle.

Three Globes, Rite of

the

Grand Lodge of the. On September

13, 1740, the Lodge of the Three Globes, zu
den drei Weltkugeln, was established in the
In 1744 it assumed
city of Berlin, Prussia.
the rank and title of a Grand Mother Lodge.
It is now one of the three Prussian Grand
Lodges. At first it worked, like all the
other Lodges of Germany, in the English
system of three degrees, and adopted the
English Book of Constitutions as its law.
But it subsequently became infected with
the high degrees, which were at one time so

popular in Germany, and especially with

the Strict Observance system of Von Hund,
which it accepted in 1766. At the extinction of that system the Grand Lodge
adopted one of its own, in doing which it
was assisted by the labors of Dr. I. F.
Zollner, the Grand Master. Its Eite consists of seven high degrees added to the
three primitive. The latter are under the
control of the Grand Lodge but the seven
higher ones are governed by an Internal
;

whose members are, howby the Grand Lodge. The

Rite is practised by about two hundred
Lodges in Germany.

Supreme

Orient,

ever, elected

Three Grand Offerings.

Ground-Floor of

the

See

Lodge.

Three Points.

Three points in a

triangular form (.'.) are placed after letters

in a Masonic document to indicate that such
letters are the initials of a Masonic title or
of a technical word in Masonry, as G.\ M.\
for Grand Master, or G.\ L.\ for Grand
Lodge. It is not a symbol, but simply a
mark of abbreviation. The attempt, therefore, to trace it to the Hebrew three yods,
a Kabbalistic sign of the Tetragrammaton,
or any other ancient symbol, is futile. It
is an abbreviation, and nothing more;
although it is probable that the idea was
suggested by the sacred character of the
number three as a Masonic number, and
these three dots might refer to the position
of the three officers in a French Lodge.
Ragon says (Orthod. Macon., p. 71,) that the
mark was first used by the Grand Orient of
France in a circular issued August 12, 1774,
in which we read "G.\ 0.*. de France."
The abbreviation is now constantly used in
French documents, and, although not accepted by the English Masons, has been

815

very generally adopted in other countries.

In the United States, the use of this abbreviation is gradually extending.
Three Senses. Of the five human
senses, the three which are the most important in Masonic symbolism are Seeing,
Hearing, and Feeling, because of their respective reference to certain modes of recognition, and because, by their use, Masons
are enabled to practise that universal language the possession of which is the boast
of the Order.
Three Steps. See Steps on the Master's

Carpet.

Threshing-Floor. Among

the Hebrews, circular spots of hard ground were

used, as now, for the purpose of threshing
corn.
After they were properly prepared
for the purpose, they became permanent
possessions.
One of these, the property of
Oman the Jebusite, was on Mount Moriah.
It was purchased by David, for a place of
sacrifice, for six hundred shekels of gold,
and on it the Temple was afterwards built.
Hence it is sometimes used as a symbolic
name for the Temple of Solomon or for a
Master's Lodge. Thus it is said in the
ritual that the Mason comes "from the
lofty tower of Babel, where language was
confounded and Masonry lost," and that he
is travelling " to the threshing-floor of Oman
the Jebusite, where language was restored
and Masonry found." The interpretation
of this rather abstruse symbolic expression
is that on his initiation the Mason comes
out of the profane world, where there is
ignorance and darkness and confusion as
there was at Babel, and that he is approaching the Masonic world, where, as at the
built on Oman's threshing-floor,
knowledge and light and order.
Throne. The seat occupied by the
Grand Master in the Grand Lodge of Eng-

Temple
there

is

land

is called the throne, in allusion, probIn Amerably, to the throne of Solomon.

ican Grand Lodges it is styled the Oriental
Chair of Solomon, a title which is also given
to the seat of the Master of a subordinate

Lodge.
In ecclesiology, the seat in a cathedral
occupied by a bishop is called a throne;
and in the Middle Ages, according to Du
Cange, the same title was not only applied
to the seats of bishops, but often also to those
of abbots, or even priests who were in possession of titles or churches.
See TJrim and Thummim.
Tie. The first clause in the covenant
of Masonry which refers to the preservation
of the secrets is technically called the tie.
It is substantially the same in the covenant
of each degree, from the lowest to the
highest.

Thummim.

Tie, Mystic.

See Mystic

Tie.

TIERCE

816

Tierce, I>e la.

He

TITLES
was the

first

translator of Anderson's Constitutions into

French, the manuscript of which he says

that he prepared during his residence in
London. He afterwards published it at
Frankfort, in 1743, with the title of Histoire, obligations et statuts de la tres venerable confraternite des Francs- Maqons, tirez de
leur archives et conformes aux traditions les
plus anciennes, etc. De la Tierce is said to
have been, while in London, an intimate
friend of Anderson, the first edition of
whose Constitutions he used when he comBut he impiled his manuscript in 1725.
proved on Anderson's work by dividing the
history in epochs. This course Anderson
pursued in his second edition ; which circumstance has led Schneider, in the Neuen
Journale zur Freimaurerei, to suppose that,
in writing that second edition, Anderson
was aided by the previous labors of De la
Tierce, of whose work he was most probably in possession.
Lodge is said to be tiled when
Tile.
the necessary precautions have been taken
to prevent the approach of unauthorized
persons and it is said to be the first duty
of every Mason to see that this is done
before the Lodge is opened. The word to
tile is sometimes used in the same sense as
to examine, as when it is said that a visitor
has been tiled, that is, has been examined.
But the expression is not in general use,
nor do I think that it is a correct employment of the term.
Tiler. An officer of a symbolic Lodge,
whose duty is to guard the door of the
Lodge, and to permit no one to pass in who
is not duly qualified, and who has not the
permission of the Master.
necessary qualification of a Tiler is,
therefore, that he should be a Master MaAlthough the Lodge may be opened
son.
in an inferior degree, no one who has not
advanced to the third degree can legally
discharge the functions of Tiler.
As the Tiler is always compensated for
his services, he is considered, in some sense,
It is, thereas the servant of the Lodge.
fore, his duty to prepare the Lodge for its
meetings, to arrange the furniture in its
proper place, and to make all other arrangements for the convenience of the Lodge.
The Tiler need not be a member of the
Lodge which he tiles; and in fact, in
large cities, one brother very often performs
the duties of Tiler of several Lodges.
This is a very important office, and, like
that of the Master and Wardens, owes its
existence, not to any conventional regulations, but to the very landmarks of the
Order for, from the peculiar nature of our
Institution, it is evident that there never
could have been a meeting of Masons for

Masonic purposes, unless a Tiler had been

present to guard the Lodge from intrusion.
The title is derived from the operative
art for as in Operative Masonry the Tiler,
when the edifice is erected, finishes and
;

covers it with the roof (of tiles), so in

Speculative Masonry, when the Lodge is
duly organized, the Tiler closes the door,
and covers the sacred precincts from all intrusion.

Tiler's Oath. See Oath, Tiler's.

Tilly de Grasse. See Orasse, Tilly de.
Timbre. The French Masons so call
a stamp, consisting of the initials or monogram of the Lodge, which is impressed in
black or red ink upon every official document emanating from the Lodge. When
such a document has the seal also attached,
is said to be " timbree et scellee," i. e.,
stamped and sealed. The timbre, which
diners from the seal, is not used in English
or American Lodges.
Time. The image of Time, under the
conventional figure of a winged old man
with the customary scythe and hour-glass,
has been adopted as one of the modern
symbols in the third degree. He is repreit

sented as attempting to disentangle the

ringlets of a weeping virgin who stands
before him. This, which is apparently a

never-ending task, but one which Time undertakes to perform, is intended to teach
the Mason that time, patience, and perseverance will enable him to accomplish the
great object of a Mason's labor, and at last to
obtain that true Word which is the symbol
of Divine Truth. Time, therefore, is in
this connection the symbol of well-directed
perseverance in the performance of duty.

Time and Circumstances.

The

answer to the question in the ritual of initiation, "Has he made suitable proficiency?" is sometimes made, "Such as
time and circumstances would permit." This
is an error, and may be a mischievous one,
as leading to a careless preparation of the
candidate for qualification to advancement.
has." See AdvanceThe true reply is, "
ment.
Tirshatha. The title given to the
Persian governors of Judea. It was borne

He

by Zerubbabel and Nehemiah. It is supposed to be derived from the Persian torsch,

austere or severe, and is therefore, says
Gesenius, equivalent to "Your Severity."
It is in the modern ritual of the Supreme
Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of

the United States the title of the presiding

officer of a Council of Princes of Jerusalem.
It is also the title of the presiding officer
of the Eoyal Order of Heredom of Kilwinning.
Titles. The titles conferred in the rituals
of Masonry upon various officers are often

TITLES

TOASTS

apparently grandiloquent, and have given

occasion to some, who have not understood
their true meaning, to call them absurd and
bombastic. On this subject Brother Albert
Pike has, in the following remarks, given a
proper significance to Masonic titles
" Some of these titles we retain but they
have with us meanings entirely consistent
with the spirit of equality, which is the
foundation and peremptory ^aw of its being,
of all Masonry. The Knight, with us, is he
who devotes his hand, his heart, his brain
to the service of Masonry, and professes
himself the sworn soldier of truth
the
Prince is he who aims to be chief [Princeps],
first, leader among his equals, in virtue and
good deeds the Sovereign is he who, one
of an Order whose members are all sovereigns, is supreme only because the law and
Constitutions are so which he administers,
and by which he, like every other brother,
The titles Puissant, Potent,
is governed.
Wise, and Venerable indicate that power
of virtue, intelligence, and wisdom which
those ought to strive to attain who are
placed in high offices by the suffrages of
their brethren and all our other titles and
designations have an esoteric meaning con-

" of Maryland, of the District of

Columbia, of Florida, of Michigan, of Missouri, and of California, is the "Grand
Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons " of
South Carolina is the " Most Worshipful
Grand Lodge of Ancient Free Masons;"
of all the other States the title is simply
the " Grand Lodge."
Tito. A significant word in the high

modesty and equality, and

which those who receive them should fully
sistent with

understand."

Titles of Grand Lodges. The

of the Grand Lodge of England is
"the United Grand Lodge of Ancient Free
and Accepted Masons." That of Ireland,
"the Grand Masonic Lodge." Of Scotland, " the Grand Lodge of the Ancient and
title

Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted

Masons."
That of France is " the Grand
Orient." The same title is taken by the
Grand Lodges or Supreme Masonic authorities

of Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Spain,

and Greece, and also by the Grand Lodges

of all the South American States. Of the
German Grand Lodges, the only three that
have distinctive titles are " the Grand National Mother Lodge of the Three Globes,"
" The Grand National Lodge of Germany,"
and " the Grand Lodge Royal York of
Friendship."
In Sweden and Denmark
they are simply called "Grand Lodges."
In the English possessions of North America they are also called " Grand Lodges."
In the United States the title of the Grand
Lodge of Maine, of Massachusetts, of
Rhode Island, of Alabama, of Illinois, of
Iowa, of Wisconsin, of Minnesota, and of
Oregon, is the "Most Worshipful Grand
Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons " of New Hampshire, of Vermont,
of New York, of New Jersey, of Pennsylvania, of Arkansas, and of Indiana, is "the
Grand Lodge of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Ma;

5C

52

sons

817

degrees. The Scottish Rite rituals give the

name of Tito, Prince Harodim, to him who

they say was the first who was appointed by

Solomon a Provost and Judge. This person appears to be altogether mythical the
word is not found in the Hebrew language,
nor has any meaning been given to it. He
is represented as having been a favorite of
the king of Israel. He is said to have presided over the Lodge of Intendants of the
Building, and to have been one of the twelve
illustrious knights who were set over the
twelve tribes, that of Naphtali being placed
under his care. The whole of this legend
is, of course, connected with the symbolic
signification of those degrees.
Toasts. Anderson says, in his second
edition, that in 1719 Dr. Desaguliers, having
been installed Grand Master, " forthwith revived the old, regular, and peculiar toasts or
healths of the Freemasons." If Anderson's
statements could be implicitly trusted as
historical facts, we should have to conclude
that a system of regulated toasts prevailed
in the Lodges before the revival. The custom of drinking healths at banquets is a
very old one, and can be traced to the days
of the ancient Greeks and Romans. From
them it was handed down to the moderns,
and especially in England we find the " washael" of the Saxons, a term used in drinking, and equivalent to the modern phrase,
;

"

Your

health."

Steele, in the Tatler, inti-

mates that the word toast began to be applied to the drinking of healths in the
early part of the eighteenth century. And
although his account of the origin of the
word has been contested, it is very evident
that the drinking of toasts was a universal
custom in the clubs and festive associations
which were common in London about the
time of the revival of Masonry. It is therefore to be presumed that the Masonic
Lodges did not escape the influences of the
convivial spirit of that age, and drinking in
the Lodge room during the hours of refreshment was a usual custom, but, as Oliver observes, all excess was avoided, and the convivialities of Masonry were regulated by
the Old Charges, which directed the brethren to enjoy themselves with decent mirth,
not forcing any brother to eat or drink
beyond his inclination, nor hindering him
from going home when he pleased. The
drinking was conducted by rule, the Master

TOASTS

TOASTS

818

giving the toast, but first inquiring of the

Senior Warden, "Are you charged in the
West, Brother Senior?" and of the Junior
Warden, " Are you charged in the South,
Brother Junior?" to which appropriate replies being made, the toast was drunk with
honors peculiar to the Institution. In an old
Masonic song, the following stanza occurs
in the West?
charged in the South ?'

"'Are you charged

The Worshipful Master

was always

In the French Lodges the drinking of

toasts was, with the word itself, borrowed
from England. It was, however, subjected
to strict rules, from which there could be
no departure. Seven toasts were called

because drinking
and could not
be omitted at,the Lodge banquet. They
were as follows 1. The health of the Sovereign and his family; 2. That of the
Grand Master and the chiefs of the Order
4.
3. That of the Master of the Lodge;
That of the Wardens 5. That of the other
officers
6. That of the visitors
7. That
of all Masons wheresoever spread over
the two hemispheres. In 1872, the Grand
Orient, after long discussions, reduced the
number of santes d' obligation from seven to

"Santes

d' obligation,"

them was made

obligatory,

in the West,
in the South,'

Each Warden prompt

you

cries.

We are charged

are

ternity, the first toast given

" The King and the Craft."

we

are charged

replies."

One

of the catechetical works of the last

century thus describes the drinking customs
of the Masons of that period " The table
being plentifully supplied with wine and
punch, every man has a glass set before
:

fills it with what he chooses. But

he must drink his glass in turn, or at least
keep the motion with the rest. When,

him, and

therefore,

a public health

is

given, the

Master fills first, and desires the brethren

to charge their glasses; and when this is
supposed to be done, the Master says,
Brethren, are you all charged? The Senior
and Junior Wardens answer, We are all
charged in the South and West. Then they
stand up, and, observing the Master's
motions, (like the soldier his right-hand
man,) drink their glasses off." Another
work of the same period says that the first
toast given was " the King and the Craft."
But a still older work gives what it calls
"
Free-Mason's Health " in the following
words " Here's a health to our society and
to every faithful brother that keeps his oath
of secrecy. As we are sworn to love each
other, the world no Order knows like this
our noble and ancient Fraternity. Let them
wonder at the Mystery. Here, Brother, I
drink to thee."
In time the toasts improved in their style,
and were deemed of so much importance
that lists of them, for the benefit of those
who were deficient in inventive genius,
were published in all the pocket-books,
calendars, and song-books of the Order.
Thus a large collection is to be found in
the Masonic Miscellanies of Stephen Jones.
A few of them will show their technical
character: "To the secret and silent;"
"To the memory of the distinguished
Three " " To all that live within compass
and square " " To the memory of the Tyrian artist ;" " To him that first the work
began," etc.
But there was a regular series of toasts
which, besides these voluntary ones, were
always given at the refreshments of the
brethren. Thus, when the reigning sovereign happened to be a member of the Fraall

four,

are

their character.
They
To the Grand Orient of France,

and changed

now

1.

the Lodges of its correspondence, and foreign Grand Orients 2. To the Master of
the Lodge '3. To the Wardens, the officers,
4.
affiliated Lodges, and visiting brethren
To all Masons existing on each hemisphere.
The systematized method of drinking
toasts, which once prevailed in the Lodges
of the English-speaking countries, has been,
to a great extent, abandoned; yet a few
toasts still remain, which, although not
absolutely obligatory, are still never omitted. Thus no Masonic Lodge would neglect
;

at its

banquet to

offer,

as its first toast,

a sentiment expressive of respect for the

Grand Lodge.
The venerable Oliver was a great admirer
of the custom of drinking Masonic toasts,
and panegyrizes it in his Book of the Lodge,
He says that at the time of re(p. 147.)
freshment in a Masonic Lodge "the song
appeared to have more zest than in a private company; the toast thrilled more
vividly upon the recollection; and the
small modicum of punch with which it
was honored retained a higher flavor than
the same potation if produced at a private
board." And he adds, as a specimen, the
following " characteristic toast," which he
says was always received with a "profound
expression of pleasure."
"

To him that all things understood,

To him that found the stone and wood,
To him that hapless lost his blood,

In doing of his duty,

To that blest age and that blest morn

Whereon those three great men were born,
Our noble science to adorn
With Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty."
It is not surprising that he should afterwards pathetically deplore the discontinuance of the custom.

"

TOMB

TOKEN

819

Token. The word token is derived

from the Anglo-Saxon tacn, which means a

guage of the old charge, Masons shall be

of " that religion in which all men agree,,
sign, presage, type, or representation, that leaving their particular opinions to themwhich points out something; and this is selves." The same old Charges say, " No
traced to tozcan, to teach, show, or instruct, private piques or quarrels must be brought
because by a token we show or instruct within the door of the Lodge, far less any
others as to what we are. Bailey, whose quarrels about religion, or nations, or state
Dictionary was published soon after the re- policy, we being only, as Masons, of the
vival, defines it as " a sign or mark " but Catholic religion above-mentioned we are
also of all nations, tongues, kindreds, and
it is singular that the word is not found in
either of the dictionaries of Phillips or languages, and are resolved against all
Blount, which were the most popular glos- politics, as what never yet conduced to the
saries in the beginning of the last century. welfare of the Lodge, nor ever will."
;

The word was, however, well known to the

Fraternity, and was in use at the time of
the revival with precisely the same meaning that is now given to it as a mode of recognition.
The Hebrew word fllK, oth, is frequently
used in Scripture to signify a sign or memorial of something past, some covenant
made or promise given. Thus God says to
Noah, of the rainbow, " it shall be for a
token of a covenant between me and the
earth " and to Abraham he says of circumcision, " it shall be a token of the cove;

me and you." In Masonry,

the grip of recognition is called a token,
because it is an outward sign of the covenant of friendship and fellowship entered
into between the members of the Fraternity,
and is to be considered as a memorial of
that covenant which was made, when it
was first received by the candidate, between
him and the Order into which he was then
nant betwixt

initiated.

Neither the French nor the German Masons have a word precisely equivalent to
token, Krause translates it by merkmale,
a sign or representation, but which has no
technical Masonic signification. The French
have only attouchement, which means the
act of touching and the Germans, griff,
which is the same as the English grip. In
the technical use of the word token, the
;

English-speaking Masons have an advantage not possessed by those of any other

country.
Tolerance IiOdge. When the initiation of Jews was forbidden in the Prussian Lodges, two brethren of Berlin, Von
Hirschfeld and Catter, induced by a spirit
of toleration, organized a Lodge in Berlin
for the express purpose of initiating Jews,
to which they gave the appropriate name
of Tolerance Lodge. This Lodge was not
recognized by the Masonic authorities.

Toleration. The grand characteristic

of Masonry

is its

toleration in religion

and

In respect to the latter, its toleration has no limit. The question of a man's
political opinions is not permitted to be
broached in the Lodge in reference to the

politics.

former,

it

requires only that, to use the lan-

Tomb of Adoniram.

Margoliouth,

in his History of the Jews, tells the legend

that at Saguntum, in Spain, a sepulchre
was found four hundred years ago, with
the following Hebrew inscription: "This

the grave of Adoniram, the servant of

collect the tribute, and died on the day
" Margoliouth,
who believes the mythical story, says that
the Jesuit Villepandus, being desirous of
ascertaining if the statements concerning
the tomb were true, directed the Jesuit
students who resided at Murviedro, a small
village erected upon the ruins of Saguntum,
to make diligent search for the tomb and
inscription.
After a thorough investigation, the Jesuit students were shown a
stone on which appeared a Hebrew inscription, much defaced and nearly obliterated, which the natives stated was " the
stone of Solomon's collector.'"
Still unsatisfied, they made further search, and discovered a manuscript written in antique
Spanish, and carefully preserved in the
citadel, in which the following entry was
made " At Saguntum, in the citadel, in
the year of our Lord 1480, a little more or
less, was discovered a sepulchre of surprising antiquity. It contained an embalmed
corpse, not of the usual stature, but taller
is

King Solomon, who came to

than is common. It had and still retains

on the front two lines in the Hebrew language and characters, the sense of which
is: 'The sepulchre of Adoniram, the servant of King Solomon, who came hither to
collect tribute.'

The story has far more the appearance

of a Talmudic or a Eosicrucian legend than
that of a historical narrative.
of
Abif. All that is
said of it in Masonry is more properly referred to in the article on the Monument in the
Third Degree. See Monument.

Tomb

Hiram

Tomb of Hiram

of Tyre.

Five

miles to the east of the city of Tyre is an

ancient monument, called by the natives
Kabr Hairan, or the tomb of Hiram. The
tradition that the king of Tyre was there
interred rests only on the authority of the
It bears about it, however, the
natives.
unmistakable marks of extreme antiquity,

TONGUE

820

TORRUBIA

and, as Thompson says, [The Land and The

Book, i. 290,) there is nothing in the monument itself inconsistent with the idea that
it marks the final resting-place of that friend
of Solomon. He thus describes it " The
base consists of two tiers of great stones,
each three feet thick, thirteen feet long,
and eight feet eight inches broad. Above
this is one huge stone, a little more than fifteen feet long, ten broad, and three feet four
inches thick. Over this is another, twelve
feet three inches long, eight broad, and six
high. The top stone is a little smaller everyway, and only five feet thick. The entire
height is twenty-one feet. There is nothing
like it in this country, and it may well have
stood, as it now does, ever since the days
of Solomon. The large broken sarcophagi
scattered around it are assigned by tradition
to Hiram's mother, wife, or family."
Dr. Morris, who visited the spot in 1868,
gives a different 'admeasurement, which
is probably more accurate than that of
Thompson. According to him, the first
tier is 14 ft. long, 8 ft. 8 in. broad, 4 ft.
thick.
Second tier, 14 ft. long, 8 ft. 8 in.
broad, 2 ft. 10 in. thick. Third tier, 15 ft.
1 in. long, 9 ft. 11 in. broad, 2 ft. 11 in.
Fourth tier, 12 ft. 11 in. long, 7 ft.
thick.
Fifth tier, 12
8 in. broad, 6 ft. 5 in. thick.
ft. 11 in. long, 7 ft. 8 in. broad, and 3 ft. 6
in. thick.
He makes the height of the
whole 19 ft. 8 in.
Travellers have been disposed to give more
credit to the tradition which makes this monument the tomb of the king of Tyre than to
most of the other legends which refer to ancient sepulchres in the Holy Land.
Tongue. In the early rituals of the
last century, the tongue is called the key to
the secrets of a Mason and one of the toasts
that was given in the Lodge was in these
words " To that excellent key of a Mason's
tongue, which ought always to speak as
well in the absence of a brother as in his
presence ; and when that cannot be done
with honor, justice, or propriety, that adopts
the virtue of a Mason, which is silence."
:

Tongue, Instructive.
tive

See Instruc-

Tongue.

Tongue of Good Report.

Being

" under the tongue of good report " is

equivalent, in Masonic technical language,
to being of good character or reputation.
It is required that the candidate for initiation should be one of whom no tongue speaks
evil. The phrase is an old one, and is found
in the earliest rituals of the last century.
Topaz. In Hebrew, fylfot), pitdah. It
was the second stone in the first row of the

high priest's breastplate, and was referred to

Simeon. The ancient topaz, says King, [Antique Gems, p. 56,) was the present chrysolite, which was furnished from an island in

the

Red

low,

Sea.

and the

It is of a bright greenish yelsoftest of all precious stones. "

Torches. The ancients made use of

torches both at marriages and funerals.
They were also employed in the ceremonies
of the Eleusinian mysteries.
They have
been introduced into the high degrees,
especially on the continent, principally as
marks of honor in the reception of distinguished visitors, on which occasion they
are technically called " stars."
Du Cange
mentions their use during the Middle Ages
on funeral occasions.
Torgau, Constitutions of. Torgau is a fortified town on the Elbe, in the
Prussian province of Saxony. It was there
that Luther and his friends wrote the
Book of Torgau, which was the foundation
of the subsequent Augsburg Confession, and
it was there that the Lutherans concluded
a league with the Elector Frederick the
Wise. The Stonemasons, whose seat was
there in the fifteenth century, had, with the
other Masons of Saxony, accepted the Constitutions enacted in 1459 at Strasburg.
But, finding it necessary to make some
special regulations for their own internal
government, they drew up, in 1462, Constitutions in 112 articles, which are known as
the " Constitutions of Torgau."
duplicate of these Constitutions was deposited,
in 1486, in the Stonemason's hutte at Rochlitz.
authenticated copy of this document was published by C. L. Stieglitz at
Leipsic, in 1829, in a work entitled Ueber
die Kirche der heiligen Kunigunde zu BochAn ablitz und die Steinmetzhiitte daselbst
stract of these Constitutions, with critical
comparisons with other Constitutions, was
published by Kloss in his Die Freimaurerei
The Constiin ihrer wahren Bedeutung.
tutions of Torgau are important because,
with those of Strasburg, they are the only

An

authentic

Constitutions

of the

German

Stonemasons extant.

Torrubia, Joseph.
monk, who

in 1751

Franciscan

was the censor and

re-

viser of the Inquisition in Spain. Torrubia,

that he might be the better enabled to
carry into effect a persecution of the Free-

masons, obtained under an assumed name,

and in the character of a secular priest,
initiation into one of the Lodges, having
first received from the Grand Penitentiary
a dispensation for the act, and an absolution from the oath of secrecy. Having
thus acquired an exact list of the Lodges
in Spain, and the names of their members,
he caused hundreds of Masons to be
arrested and punished, and succeeded in
having the Order prohibited by a decree of
King Ferdinand VI. Torrubia combined
in his character the bigotry of the priest
and the villany of the traitor.

TOURNON

TRADITION

Tournon. M. A Frenchman and

Freemason, who had been invited into Spain
by the government in order to establish a
manufactory of brass buttons, and to inIn 1757 he
struct the Spanish workmen.
was arrested by the Inquisition on the
charge of being a Freemason, and of hav-

Levesque (Apergu, p. 47,) says

he has consulted it but his manner of referring to it throws suspicion on the statement,
and I doubt if he ever saw it.
Tracing -Board. The same as a
Floor- Cloth, which see.
Trade Gilds. See Gilds.
Tradition. There are two kinds of
traditions in Masonry
First, those which

ing invited his pupils to join the InstituHe was sentenced to imprisonment
for one year, after which he was banished
from Spain, being conducted under an esTournon
cort to the frontiers of France.
wT as indebted for this clemency to his want
he
of firmness and fidelity to the Order
having solemnly abjured it, and promised
never again to attend its assemblies.
Llorente, in his History of the Inquisition,
gives an account of Tournon's trial.
Tow, Cable. See Cable Tow.
tion.

Tower, Degree of the.

Tour.)

A name sometimes

Grade de la

given to the sec-

ond degree of the Royal Order of Scotland.

Tower of Babel.
Town, Salem.

See Babel.

The Rev. Salem

Town, L.L.D., was born

at Belchertown, in
the State of Massachusetts, March 5, 1779.
He received a classical education, and obtained at college the degree of Master of
Arts, and later in life that of Doctor of
Laws. For some years he was the Principal
of an academy, and his writings give the
evidence that he was endowed with more
than ordinary abilities. He was ardently
attached to Freemasonry, and wr as for many
years Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge
and Grand Chapter, and Grand Prelate of
the Grand Commandery of New York. In
1818 he published a small work, of two
hundred and eighty-three pages, entitled
A System of Speculative Masonry. This work
is of course tinged with all the legendaryideas of the origin of the Institution which
prevailed at that period, and would not now
be accepted as authoritative but it contains,
outside of its historical errors, many valuBrother
able and suggestive thoughts.
Town was highly respected for his many
virtues, the consistency of his life, and his
unwearied devotion to the Masonic Order.
He died at Greencastle, Indiana, February
24, 1864, at the ripe age of eighty-nine years.
Townshend, Simeon. The putative author of a book entitled Observations
and Inquiries relating to the Brotherhood
of the Free Masons, which is said to have
Boileau,
been printed at London in 1712.
Levesque, Thory, Oliver, and Kloss, mention it by name. None of them, however,
appear to have seen it. Kloss calls it a
doubtful book. If such a work is in existence, it will be a valuable and much needed
contribution to the condition of Masonry
in the south of England just before the
revival, and may tend to settle some mooted
;

821

questions.

detail events, either historically, authentic

in part, or in whole, or consisting altogether

and intended simply to

convey an allegorical or symbolic meaning;
and secondly, of traditions which refer to
customs and usages of the Fraternity, espeof arbitrary fiction,

cially in matters of ritual observance.

The first class has already been discussed
in this work in the article on Legends, to

which the reader

class is

now

to

referred.

is

The second

be considered.

The traditions which control and direct

the usages of the Fraternity constitute its
unwritten law, and are almost wholly applicable to its ritual, although they are
sometimes of use in the interpretation of
doubtful points in its written law. Between
the written and the unwritten lawT the
-

always paramount. This is evident from the definition of a tradition as

it is given by the monk Vincent of Lerins: "Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab
omnibus traditum est " i. e., tradition is
that which has been handed down at all

latter is

times, in all places,

and by

all persons.
antiquity, univerconsent for its support,

The law which thus has

and common
must override all subsequent laws which
are modern, local, and have only partial

sality,

agreement.
It is then important that those traditions
of Masonry which prescribe its ritual observances and its landmarks should be
thoroughly understood, because it is only
by attention to them that uniformity in the
esoteric instruction and work of the Order
can be preserved.
Cicero has wisely said that a well-constituted commonwealth must be governed not
by the written law alone, but also by the
unwritten law or tradition and usage and
this is especially the case, because the written
law, however perspicuous it may be, can
be diverted into various senses, unless the
republic is maintained and preserved by
its usages and traditions, which, although
mute and as it were dead, yet speak with a
living voice, and give the true interpreta;

tion of that

which

is

written.

This axiom is not less true in Masonry

than it is in a commonwealth. No matter
what changes may be made in its statutes

and regulations of to-day and its recent

customs, there is no danger of losing the
identity of its modern with its ancient form

TRAMPING

822

TRAVELLING

and

spirit while its traditions are recognized and maintained.

It began in 1600, and terminated in 1717

by the establishment of the Grand Lodge
of England in London, after which, says

Tramping Masons. Unworthy

members of the Order, who, using their Findel,
privileges for interested purposes, travelling
from city to city and from Lodge to Lodge,
that they may seek relief by tales of fictitious distress, have been called "tramping
Masons." The true brother should ever
obtain assistance; the tramper should be
driven from the door of every Lodge or

the house of every

Mason where he

seeks

to intrude his imposture.

Transfer of Warrant. When

by the misconduct of its members, rendered itself unworthy of longer

possessing a Warrant, the modern Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England prescribes that the Grand Master may, after
the Grand Lodge shall have decided on
that fact, transfer such Warrant to other
brethren whom he may think deserving,
with a new number at the bottom of the
Lodges then on record. No such power
has been granted to the Grand Masters of
this country.
They may, indeed, arrest a
Warrant
that is, suspend the labors of a
Lodge until the next meeting of the Grand
Lodge
but the power of forfeiture and
transferrence of Warrants is vested only in
Grand Lodges.
Transient Brethren. Masons who

Lodge

has,

do not reside in a particular place, but only

(Hist.,

Lyon's

trans., p. 131,)

"mod-

ern Freemasonry was to be taught as a spiritualizing art, and the Fraternity of Operative Masons was exalted to a Brotherhood
of symbolic builders, who, in the place of
visible, perishable temples, are engaged in
the erection of that one, invisible, eternal
temple of the heart and mind."
Transmission, Charter of.
deed said to have been granted by James
de Molay, just before his death, to Mark
Larmenius, by which he transmitted to him
and to his successors the office of Grand
Master of the Templars. It is the foundation deed of the " Order of the Temple."
It is preserved in the treasury of the Order
in Paris, and is written in Latin on a large
The outward
folio sheet of parchment.
appearance of the document is of great antiquity, but it wants internal evidence of
authenticity. It is therefore, by most authorities, considered a forgery. See Temple,
Order of the.
Travel. In the symbolic language of
Masonry, a Mason always travels from west
he travels from
to east in search of light
the lofty tower of Babel, where language
was confounded and Masonry lost, to the
threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite, where
language was restored and Masonry found.
The Master Mason also travels into foreign
countries in search of wages. All this is
pure symbolism, unintelligible in any other
For its interpretation, see Foreign
sense.
Countries and Threshing- Floor.

temporarily visit it, are called " transient

brethren." They are, if worthy, to be cordially welcomed, but are never to be admitted into a Lodge until, after the proper
precautions, they have been proved to be
"true and trusty." This usage of hosTravelling Freemasons. There
pitality has the authority of all the Old is no portion of the history of the Order so
Constitutions, which are careful to incul- interesting to the Masonic scholar as that
cate it. Thus the Landsdowne MS. charges, which is embraced by the Middle Ages of
"that every Mason receive ,or cherish Christendom, beginning with about the
Strange Fellows when they come over the tenth century, when the whole of civilized
countrey, and sett them on worke if they Europe was perambulated by those associawill worke, as the manner is, (that is to tions of workmen, who passed from country
say) if the Mason have any moulde stone to country and from city to city under the
in his place, on worke ; and if he have none, name of " Travelling Freemasons," for the
the Mason shall refresh him with money purpose of erecting religious edifices. There
unto the next Lodge."
is not a country of Europe which does not
Although Speculative Masons no longer at this day contain honorable evidences of
visit Lodges for the sake of work or wages, the skill and industry of our Masonic anthe usage of our Operative predecessors has cestors. I therefore propose, in the present
been spiritualized in our symbolic system. article, to give a brief sketch of the origin,
Hence visitors are often invited to take a the progress, and the character of these
part in the labors of the Lodge, and receive travelling architects.
their portion of the light and truth which
Mr. George Godwin, in a lecture pubconstitute the symbolic pay of a Specula- lished in the Builder, (vol. ix., p. 463,) says:
" There are few points in the Middle Ages
tive Mason.
Transition Period. Findel calls more pleasing to look back upon than the
that period in the history of Masonry, when existence of the associated Masons; they
it was gradually changing its character
are the bright spot in the general darkness
from that of an Operative to that of a Spec- of that period, the patch of verdure when
ulative society, "the Transition Period." all around is barren."

TRAVELLING
Clavel, in his Histoire Pittoresque de la

Franc- Maconnerie, has traced the organization of these associations to the "collegia
artificum," or colleges of artisans, which
were instituted at Rome, by Numa, in the
year b. c. 714, and whose members were
originally Greeks, imported by this lawgiver for the purpose of embellishing the
They concity over which he reigned.
tinued to exist as well-established corporations throughout all the succeeding years
of the kingdom, the republic, and the empire.
(See Roman Colleges of Artificers.)
These " sodalitates," or fraternities, began,
upon the invasion of the barbarians, to decline in numbers, in respectability, and in
power. But on the conversion of the whole
empire, they, or others of a similar characThe priests
ter, began again to nourish.
of the Christian Church became their patrons, and under their guidance they devoted themselves to the building of churches
and monasteries. In the tenth century,
they were established as a free gild or corporation in Lombardy. For when, after
the decline and fall of the empire, the city
of Rome was abandoned by its sovereigns
for other secondary cities of Italy, such as
Milan and Ravenna, and new courts and
new capitals were formed, the kingdom of
Lombardy sprang into existence as the
great centre of all energy in trade and industry, and of refinement in art and literature.
It was there, and as a consequence
of the great centre of life from Rome, and

the development not only of commercial

business, but of all sorts of trades and
handicrafts, that the corporations known as
gilds were first organized.
Among the arts practised by the Lombards, that of building held a pre-eminent
rank. And Muratori tells us that the inhabitants of Como, a principal city of Lombardy, Italy, had become so superior as
masons, that the appellation of Magistri
Comacini, or Masters from Como, had become generic to all of the profession.
Mr. Hope, in his Historical JEssay on
Architecture, has treated this subject almost
exhaustively. He says
"We cannot then wonder that, at a
period when artificers and artists of every
class, from those of the most mechanical,
to those of the most intellectual nature,
formed themselves into exclusive corpora-

TRAVELLING

823

was composed of those members who, after

a regular passage through the different
fixed stages of apprenticeship, were received as masters, and entitled to exercise
the profession on their own account.
" In an age, however, in which lay individuals, from the lowest subject to the
sovereign himself, seldom built except for
mere shelter and safety
seldom sought,
nay, rather avoided, in their dwellings an
elegance which might lessen their security
in which even the community collectively,
in its public and general capacity, divided
into component parts less numerous and
less varied, required not those numerous
public edifices which we possess either for

business or pleasure;

thus,

when

neither

domestic nor civic architecture of any sort

demanded great

ability or afforded great

employment, churches and monasteries

were the only buildings required to combine extent and elegance, and sacred architecture alone could furnish an extensive
field for the exercise of great skill, Lombardy itself, opulent and thriving as it was,
compared to other countries, soon became
nearly saturated with the requisite edifices,
and unable to give these companies of
Free and Accepted Masons a longer continuance of sufficient custom, or to render
the further maintenance of their exclusive
privileges of great benefit to them at home.
But if, to the south of the Alps, an earlier
civilization had at last caused the number
of architects to exceed that of new buildings wanted, it fared otherwise in the north

of Europe, where a gradually spreading

Christianity began on every side to produce
a want of sacred edifices, of churches and
monasteries, to design which architects
existed not on the spot.
" Those Italian corporations of builders,
therefore, whose services ceased to be necessary in the countries where they had
arisen, now began to look abroad towards
those northern climes for that employment
which they no longer found at home:
and a certain number united and formed
themselves into a single greater association,
or fraternity, which proposed to seek for
occupation beyond its native land; and La
any ruder foreign region, however remote,

where new religious

artists to erect

their services,

edifices

and

skilful

them, were wanted to

and bend

offer

their steps to un-

tions, architects
whose art may be said
to offer the most exact medium between
those of the most urgent necessity, and

dertake the work."

those of mere ornament, or, indeed, in its

wide span to embrace both
should, above
all others, have associated themselves into
similar bodies, which, in conformity to the
general style of such corporations, assumed
that, of Free and Accepted Masons, and

tianity, but recently established, required

From Lombardy
Alps into

they passed beyond the

all the countries

where Chris-

The popes encouraged their designs, and more than one

the erection of churches.

bull was dispatched, conferring on them

privileges of the most extensive character.
monopoly was granted to them for the

TRAVELLING

TRAVELLING

824

of mutual recognition, as carefully concealed from the knowledge of the uninitiawhose dominions they might be temporarily ted, as the mysteries of their art themselves.
residing, and subject only to their own pri- Thus supplied with whatever could facilivate laws they were permitted to regulate tate such distant journeys and labors as
the amount of their wages ; were exempted they contemplated, the members of these
from all kinds of taxation; and no Mason, corporations were ready to obey any sumnot belonging to their association, was per- mons with the utmost alacrity, and they
mitted to compete with or oppose them in soon received the encouragement they anthe pursuit of employment. And in one ticipated. The militia of the church of
of the papal decrees on the subject of these Rome, which diffused itself all over Europe
artisans, the supreme pontiff declares that in the shape of missionaries, to instruct
these regulations have been made "after nations, and to establish their allegiance to
the example of Hiram, king of Tyre, when the Pope, took care not only to make them
he sent artisans to King Solomon for the feel the want of churches and monasteries,
purpose of building the Temple of Jeru- but likewise to learn the manner in which
the want might be supplied. Indeed, they
salem."
After filling the continent with cathe- themselves generally undertook the supply
drals, parochial churches, and monasteries,
and it may be asserted, that a new apostle
and increasing their own numbers by ac- of the Gospel no sooner arrived in the recessions of new members from all the motest corner of Europe, either to convert
countries in which they had been laboring, the inhabitants to Christianity, or to introthey passed over into England, and there duce among them a new religious order,
introduced their peculiar style of building. than speedily followed a tribe of itinerant
Thence they travelled to Scotland, and Freemasons to back him, and to provide
there have rendered their existence ever the inhabitants with the necessary places
memorable by establishing, in the parish of of worship or reception.
" Thus ushered in, by their interior arKilwinning, where they were erecting an
abbey, the germ of Scottish Freemasonry, rangements assured of assistance and of
which has regularly descended through the safety on the road, and, by the bulls of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland to the present Pope and the support of his ministers
day.
abroad, of every species of immunity and
Mr. Hope accounts for the introduction preference at the place of their destination,
of non-working or unprofessional members bodies of Freemasons dispersed themselves
into these associations by a theory which in every direction, every day began to adis confirmed by contemporary history.
He vance further, and to proceed from country
says:
to country, to the utmost verge of the faith"Often obliged, from regions the most ful, in order to answer the increasing dedistant, singly to seek the common place mand for them, or to seek more distant
of rendezvous and departure of the troop, custom."
or singly to follow its earlier detachments
The government of these fraternities,
to places of employment equally distant; wherever they might be for the time loand that, at an era when travellers met on cated, was very regular and uniform. When
the road every obstruction, and no conven- about to commence the erection of a reliience, when no inns existed at which to gious edifice, they first built huts, or, as they
purchase hospitality, but lords dwelt every- were termed, lodges, in the vicinity, in
where, who only prohibited their tenants which they resided for the sake of economy
from waylaying the traveller because they as well as convenience. It is from these
considered this, like killing game, one of that the present name of our places of meettheir own exclusive privileges; the mem- ing is derived.
Over every ten men was
bers of these communities contrived to placed a warden, who paid them wages, and
render their journeys more easy and safe, took care that there should be no needless
by engaging with each other, and perhaps expenditure of materials and no careless
even, in many places, with individuals not loss of implements. Over the whole, a surdirectly participating in their profession, veyor or master, called in their old docuin compacts of mutual assistance, hospi- ments "magister," presided, and directed
tality and good services, most valuable to the general labor.
men so circumstanced. They endeavored
The Abbe Grandidier, in a letter at the
to compensate for the perils which attended end of the Marquis Luchet's Essai sur les
their expeditions, by institutions for their Illumines, has quoted from the ancient
needy or disabled brothers but lest such register of the Masons at Strasburg the regas belonged not to their communities should ulations of the association which built the
benefit surreptitiously by these arrange- splendid cathedral of that city.
Its great
ments for its advantage, they framed signs rarity renders it difficult to obtain a sight
erection of all religious edifices they were
declared independent of the sovereigns in
;

"

TRAVELLING

TRAVELLING

of the original work, but the Histoire Pittoresque of Clavel supplies the most prominent details of all that Grandidier has preserved. .The cathedral of Strasburg was
commenced in the year 1277, under the
The
direction of Erwin of Steinbach.

of the fraternity. Many of the old Charges

for the better government of their Lodges
have been preserved, and are still to be
found in our Books of Constitutions, every
line of which indicates that they were orig-

Masons who, under

directions, were
engaged in the construction of this noblest
specimen of the Gothic style of architecture, were divided into the separate ranks

his

of Masters, Craftsmen, and Apprentices.

The place where they assembled was called
a " hutte," a German word equivalent to
our English term lodge. They employed
the implements of masonry as emblems,

and wore them as insignia. They had certain signs and words of recognition, and
received their new members with peculiar
and secret ceremonies, admitting, as has
already been said, many eminent persons,
and especially ecclesiastics, who were not
Operative Masons, but who gave to them
their patronage and protection.
The fraternity of Strasburg became celebrated throughout Germany, their superiority was acknowledged by the kindred
associations, and they in time received the
appellation of the " haupt hutte," or Grand
Lodge, and exercised supremacy over the
hutten of Suabia, Hesse, Bavaria, Franconia,
Saxony, Thuringia, and the countries bordering on the river Moselle. The Masters
of these several Lodges assembled at Ratisbon in 1459, and on the 25th of April contracted an act of union, declaring the chief
of the Strasburg Cathedral the only and
perpetual Grand Master of the General
Fraternity of Freemasons of* Germany.
This act of union was definitively adopted
and promulgated at a meeting held soon
afterwards at Strasburg.
Similar institutions existed in France
and in Switzerland, for wherever Christianity had penetrated, there churches and
cathedrals were to be built, and the Traveling Freemasons hastened to undertake the
labor.

They entered England and Scotland at

an early period. Whatever may be thought
of the authenticity of the York and Kilwinning legends, there is ample evidence
of the existence of organized associations,
Operative Masons
at an epoch not long after their departure
from Lombardy. From that period, the
fraternity, with various intermissions, continued to pursue their labors, and con-

gilds, or corporations of

structed many edifices which still remain

as monuments of their skill as workmen
and their taste as architects. Kings, in
many instances, became their patrons, and
their labors were superintended by powerful noblemen and eminent prelates, who,
for this purpose, were admitted as members
5

825

drawn up for associations strictly and

exclusively operative in their character.
In glancing over the history of this singular body of architects, we are struck with
several important peculiarities.
In the first place, they were strictly eccleThe Pope,
siastical in their constitution.
the supreme pontiff of the Church, was
inally

and

their patron

protector.

They were

supported and encouraged by bishops and

abbots, and hence their chief employment
appears to have been in the construction

Like their ancestors,

in the erection of the
magnificent Temple of Jerusalem, they devoted themselves to labor for the " House
of the Lord." Masonry was then, as it had
been before, and has ever been since, intiof religious edifices.

who were engaged

mately connected with religion.

They were originally all operatives. But
the artisans of that period were not educated men, and they were compelled to seek
among the clergy, the only men of learn-

whose wisdom might conand whose cultivated taste might

adorn, the plans which they, by their practical skill, were to carry into effect. Hence
the germ of that Speculative Masonry
ing, for those

trive,

which, once dividing the character of the

fraternity with the Operative, now completely occupies it, to the entire exclusion
of the latter.
But lastly, from the circumstance of their
union and concert arose a uniformity of
design in all the public buildings of that
period
a uniformity so remarkable as to
find its explanation only in the fact, that
their construction was committed throughout the whole of Europe, if not always to
the same individuals, at least to members
of the same association. The remarks of
Mr. Hope on this subject are well worthy
of perusal. "The architects of all the
sacred edifices of the Latin church, whernorth, south, east, or
ever such arose,
thus derived their science from the
west,
same central school obeyed in their designs the same hierarchy were directed in

their constructions by the same principles

of propriety and taste kept up with ea'ch
other, in the most distant parte to which
;

they might be sent, the most constant correspondence and rendered every minute
improvement the property of the whole
body and a new conquest of the art. The
result of this unanimity was, that at each
successive period of the monastic dynasty,
on whatever point a new church or new
monastery might be erected, it resembled
;

"

TRAVELLING

TRESTLE-BOARD

those raised at the same period in every

other place, however distant from it, as if
both had been built in the same place by
the same artist. For instance, we find, at
particular epochs, churches as far distant
from each other as the north of Scotland
and the south of Italy, to be minutely
similar in all the essential characteristics.
In conclusion, we may remark, that the
world is indebted to this association for the
introduction of the Gothic, or, as it has
lately been denominated, the pointed style
so different
of architecture. This style
from the Greek or Roman orders, whose
pointed arches and minute tracery distinguish the solemn temples of the olden
time, and whose ruins arrest the attention
and claim the admiration of the spectator
has been universally acknowledged to be
the invention of the Travelling Freemasons
of the Middle Ages.
And it is to this association of Operative artists that, by gradual changes
into a speculative system, we are to trace
the Freemasons of the present day.

Many of the high degrees which were

fabricated in the last century were founded
on the hermetic philosophy and they, too,
borrowed from it the idea of an incomparable treasure. Thus in the ultimate degree
of the Council of Emperors of the East

826
all

Travelling Warrants. Warrants

under which military Lodges are organized,
and so called because the Lodges which act
under them are permitted to travel from
place to place with the regiments to which
they are attached. See Military Lodges.
zealous and
Travenol, Louis.
devoted French Mason of much ability,
who wrote several Masonic works, which
were published under the assumed name
of Leonard Gabanon. The most valuable
of his productions is one entitled, Catechisme des Francs- Maqons, precede oVun
Abrege de VHistoire d'Adoram, etc., published at Paris in 1743.

Treasure, Incomparable.

This

was a phrase of mystical import with the

al chemists and hermetic philosophers. Pernetty {Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermetique) thus
"The incomparable treasure
defines it.
is the powder of projection, the source
of all that is good, since it procures un-

bounded riches, and a long

life, without inenjoy them." The "powder

of projection" was the instrument by
which they expected to attain to the full
perfection of their work.
What was this
incomparable treasure was the great secret
of the hermetic philosophers. They concealed the true object of their art under a
" Believest thou, O
symbolic language.
fool," says Artephius, one of them, " that
we plainly teach this secret of secrets,
taking our words according to their literal

firmities, to

signification?"
But we do know that it
was not, as the world supposed, the transmutation of metals, or the discovery of an
elixir of life, but the acquisition of divine
truth.

and West, which degree became afterwards

the Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret of
the Scottish Rite, we find this very expression.
In the old French rituals we meet
with this sentence " Let us now offer to
the invincible Xerxes our sacred incomparable treasure, and we shall succeed victoriously."
And out of the initial letters
of the words of this sentence in the original French they fabricated the three most
important words of the degree.
This " incomparable treasure " is to the
Masons precisely what it was to the hermetic philosophers Divine Truth. "As for
the Treasure," says one of these books, (the
Lumen de Lumine, cited by Hitchcock,) " it
is not yet discovered, but it is very near."
Treasurer. An officer, found in all
Masonic bodies, whose duty it is to take
charge of the funds and pay them out
:

regulations. He is simply
the banker of the Lodge or Chapter, and
has nothing to do with the collection of
money, which should be made by the Sec-

under proper

retary.

He

is

an

elective

officer.

The

Treasurer's jewel is a key, as a symbol that

he controls the chest of the Lodge. His
position in the Lodge is on the right of the
Worshipful Master, in front.

Treasurer, Grand.

See

Grand

Treasurer.

Treasurer, Hermetic. {Tresorier

hermetique.)
degree in the manuscript
collection of Peuvret. This collection contains eight other degrees with a similar
Illustrious Treasurer, Treastitle, namely
urer of Paracelsus, Treasurer of Solomon,

Treasurer of the Masonic Mysteries, Treasurer of the Number 7, Sublime Treasurer,

Depositor of the Key of the Grand Work,
and, lastly, one with the grandiloquent
title of Grand and Sublime Treasurer, or
Depositor of the Great Solomon, Faithful
Guardian of Jehovah.

Trestle-Board. The trestle-board is

defined to be the board upon which the
Master inscribes the designs by which the
Craft are to be directed in their labors.
The French and German Masons have confounded the trestle-board with the tracingboard and Dr. Oliver (Landm., i. 132,) has
not avoided the error. The two things
The trestle is a
are entirely different.
in Scotch, trest;
framework for a table
the trestle-board is the board placed for convenience of drawing on that frame. It contains nothing but a few diagrams, usually
geometrical figures. The tracing-board is a
;

TRIAD

TRESTLE-BOARD
picture formerly

Lodge, whence

drawn on the floor of the

was called a floor-cloth

it

or carpet. It contains a delineation of the

symbols of the degree to which it belongs.
The trestle-board is to be found only in the
Entered Apprentice's degree. There is a
tracing-board in every degree, from the first
to the highest. And, lastly, the trestle-board
the tracing-board is a piece of
is a symbol
furniture or picture containing the representation of many symbols.
;

^if^-

827

of Strasburg and Cologne; and as they advanced in stature, the trestle-board became
the guardian spirit that directed their
Often have those old builders
growth.
pondered by the midnight lamp upon their
trestle-board, working out its designs with
consummate taste and knowledge,
here
springing an arch, and turning an angle
there, until the embryo edifice stood forth
in all the wisdom, strength, and beauty of
the Master's art.
What, then, is its true symbolism in
Speculative Masonry ?
To construct his earthly temple, the Operative Mason followed the architectural
designs laid down on the trestle-board, or
book of plans of the architect. By these he
hewed and squared his materials by these
he raised his walls by these he constructed
his arches and by these strength and durability, combined with grace and beauty,
were bestowed upon the edifice which he

probable that the trestle-board, from

necessary use in Operative Masonry,
was one of the earliest symbols introduced
into the Speculative system. It is not,
however, mentioned in the Grand Mystery, published in 1724.
But Prichard,
who wrote only six years afterwards, describes it, under the corrupted name of
trasel-board, as one of the immovable jewels
of an Apprentice's Lodge. Browne, in 1800,
following Preston, fell into the error of
calling it a tracing-board, and gives from
the Prestonian lecture what he terms "a
beautiful degree of comparison," in which
the Bible is compared to a tracing-board.
But the Bible is not a collection of symbols, which a tracing-board is, but a trestle-board that contains the plan for the
construction of a spiritual temple. Webb,
however, when he arranged his system of
lectures, took the proper view, and restored
the true word, trestle-board.
Notwithstanding these changes in the
It is

its

name, trestle-board, trasel-board, tracingboard, and trestle-board again, the definition has continued from the earliest part
of the last century to the present day the
same. It has always been enumerated
among the jewels of the Lodge, although
the English system says that it is immovable and the American movable; and it
has always been defined as " a board for
the master

workman

to

draw

his designs

upon."
In Operative Masonry, the trestle-board
is of vast importance.
It was on such an

was constructing.
In the Masonic ritual, the Speculative
Mason is reminded that, as the Operative
artist erects his temporal building in accordance with the rules and designs laid
down on the trestle-board of the master
workman, so should he erect that spiritual
building, of which the material is a type, in
obedience to the rules and designs, the precepts and commands, laid down by the

Grand Architect of the Universe in those

great books of nature and revelation which
constitute the spiritual trestle - board of
every Freemason.

The trestle-board is then the symbol of

the natural and moral law. Like every
other symbol of the Order, it is universal
and tolerant in its application and while,
as Christian Masons, we cling with unfaltering integrity to the explanation which
makes the Scriptures of both dispensations
our trestle-board, we permit our Jewish and
Mohammedan brethren to content themselves with the books of the Old Testament
or Koran.
Masonry does not interfere with
the peculiar form or development of any
one's religious faith. All that it asks is
that the interpretation of the symbol shall
be according to what each one supposes to
be the revealed will of his Creator. But
so rigidly exacting is it that the symbol
shall be preserved and, in some rational
way, interpreted, that it peremptorily excludes the atheist from its communion, because, believing in no Supreme Being
no
Divine Architect
he must necessarily be
without a spiritual trestle-board on which
the designs of that Being may be inscribed
;

implement that the genius of the ancient

masters worked out those problems of
architecture that have reflected an unfad- for his direction.
ing lustre on their skill. The trestle-board
Triad. In all the ancient mythologies
was the cradle that nursed the infancy of there were triads, which consisted of a myssuch mighty monuments as the cathedrals terious union of three deities. Each triad

:
;

TRIAD

828

TRIALS

was generally explained as consisting of a rights of the Order and of the accused,
The and which will enable the Lodge to obtain
creator, a preserver, and a destroyer.
a thorough knowledge of all the facts in
principal heathen triads were as follows
the Egyptian, Osiris, Isis, and Horus the the case. The rules to be observed in conOrphic, Phanes, Uranus, and Kronos; the ducting such trials have been already laid
down by me in my Text Booh of JurispruZoroastric, Ormuzd, Mithras, and Ahriman
the Indian, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; dence, (pp. 558-564,) and I shall refer to
the Cabiric, Axercos, Axiokersa, and Axi- them in the present article. They are as
;

okersos the Phoenician, Ashtaroth, Mil com,

and Chemosh; the Tyrian, Belus, Venus,
and Thammuz; the Grecian, Zeus, Poseidon,
and Hades the Roman, Jupiter, Neptune,
and Pluto the Eleusinian, Iacchus, Persephone, and Demeter the Platonic, Tagathon, Nous, and Psyche; the Celtic, Hu,
Ceridwen, and Creirwy; the Teutonic,
Fenris, Midgard, and Hela; the Gothic,
Woden, Friga, and Thor; and the Scandinavians, Odin, Vile, and Ve. Even the
;

Mexicans had their triads, which were

Vitzliputzli, Kaloc, and Tescalipuca.
This system of triads has, indeed, been so
predominant in all the old religions, as to
be invested with a mystical idea and hence
has become the type in Masonry of the
triad of three governing officers, who are to
The
be found in almost every degree.
Master and the two Wardens in the Lodge
give rise to the Priest, the King, and the
Scribe in the Royal Arch; to the Commander, the Generalissimo, and the Captain
General in Templarism; and in most of
the high degrees to a triad of three who
preside under various names.
We must, perhaps, look for the origin of
the triads in mythology, as we certainly
must in Masonry, to the three positions and
functions of the sun. The rising sun or
creator of light, the meridian sun or its
preserver, and the setting sun or its de;

it

stroyer.

Triad Society of China. The San

Hop Hwai, or Triad Society, is a secret poChina, which has been
mistaken by some writers for a species of
Chinese Freemasonry but it has in reality
no connection whatsoever with the Masonic
In its principles, which are far
Order.
from innocent, it is entirely antagonistic to
The Deputy Provincial
Freemasonry.
Grand Master of British Masonry in China
made a statement to this effect in 1855,

litical association in

in Notes and Queries,

1st

Ser., vol. xii.,

p. 233.

Trials, Masonic. As the only object of a trial should be to seek the truth
and fairly to administer justice, in a Masonic trial, especially, no recourse should
ever be had to legal technicalities, whose
use in ordinary courts appears simply to be
to afford a means of escape for the guilty.
Masonic trials are, therefore, to be conducted in the simplest and least technical
method, that will preserve at once the

follows
1. The preliminary step in every trial is
the accusation or charge. The charge
should always be made in writing, signed
by the accuser, delivered to the Secretary,
and read by that officer at the next regular
communication of the Lodge. The accused should then be furnished with an
attested copy of the charge, and be at the
same time informed of the time and place
appointed by the Lodge for the trial.
Any Master Mason may be the accuser
of another, but a profane cannot be permitted to prefer charges against a Mason,
Yet, if circumstances are known to a profane upon which charges ought to be predicated, a Master Mason may avail himself
of that information, and out of it frame an
accusation, to be presented to the Lodge.
And such accusation will be received and
investigated, although remotely derived
from one who is not a member of the Order.
It is not necessary that the accuser should
be a member of the same Lodge. It is

Mason. I
for it is generally
held, and I believe correctly, that an unaffiliated Mason is no more competent to

sufficient if

he

say an affiliated

is

an

affiliated

Mason

prefer charges than a profane.

2. If the accused is living beyond the
geographical jurisdiction of the Lodge, the

charges should be communicated to him by

means of a letter through the post-office,
and a reasonable time should be allowed
for his answer, before the Lodge proceeds
But if his residence be unknown,
to trial.
or if it be impossible to hold communication with him, the Lodge may then proceed
care being had that no undue
to trial
advantage be taken of his absence, and
that the investigation be as full and impartial as the nature of the circumstances will
permit.
3. The trial must commence at a regular
communication, for reasons which have
already been stated; but having commenced, it may be continued at special
communications, called for that purpose
for, if it was allowed only to be continued
at regular meetings, which take place but
once a month, the long duration of time
occupied would materially tend to defeat
the ends of justice.
4. The Lodge must be opened in the
highest degree to which the accuser has attained, and the examinations of all wit-

TRIANGLE

TRIALS
nesses must take place in the presence of
the accused and the accuser, if they desire
It is competent for the accused to emit.
ploy counsel for the better protection of his
interests, provided such counsel is a Master
Mason. But if the counsel be a member
of the Lodge, he forfeits, by his professional
advocacy of the accused, the right to vote
at the final decision of the question.
5. The final decision of the charge, and
the rendering of the verdict, whatever be
the rank of the accused, must always be
made in a Lodge opened on the third degree; and at the time of such decision,
both the accuser and the accused, as well
as his counsel, if he have any, should withdraw from the Lodge.
6. It is a general and an excellent rule,
that no visitors shall be permitted to be
present during a trial.
7. The testimony of Master Masons is
usually taken on their honor, as such.
That of others should be by affidavit, or in
such other manner as both the accuser and
accused may agree upon.
8. The testimony of profanes, or of those
who are of a lower degree than the accused,
is to be taken by a committee and reported
to the Lodge, or, if convenient, by the
whole Lodge, when closed and sitting as
a committee. But both the accused and
the accuser have a right to be present on

such occasions.
9. When the trial is concluded, the accuser and the accused must retire, and the
Master will then put the question of guilty,
or not guilty, to the Lodge.
Not less than two-thirds of the votes
should be required to declare the accused
bare majority is hardly sufficient
guilty.
to divest a brother of his good character,
and render him subject to what may per-

But

haps be an ignominious punishment.

on

this subject the authorities differ.

10. If the verdict is guilty, the Master
must then put the question as to the nature
and extent of the punishment to be inflicted,

beginning with expulsion and proceeding,

if necessary, to indefinite suspension and
public and private reprimand. To inflict
expulsion or suspension, a vote of twothirds of those present is required, but for
a mere reprimand, a majority will be suffiThe votes on the nature of the
cient.
punishment should be viva voce, or, rather,
according to Masonic usage, by a show of
hands.
Trials in a Grand Lodge are to be conducted on the same general principles but
here, in consequence of the largeness of the
body, and the inconvenience which would
result from holding the examinations in
open Lodge, and in the presence of all the
members, it is more usual to appoint a
;

committee, before

whom

829

the case

is tried,

and upon whose full report of the testimony

the Grand Lodge bases its action. And
the forms of trial in such committees must
conform, in all respects, to
usage already detailed.

Triangle.

There

the general

no symbol more
more various
in its application, or more generally diffused throughout the whole system of Freemasonry, than the triangle. An examinaimportant in

is

its signification,

tion of it, therefore, cannot fail to be interesting to the Masonic student.

The equilateral triangle appears to have

been adopted by nearly all the nations of
antiquity as a symbol of the Deity, in some
of his forms or emanations, and hence, probably, the prevailing influence of this symbol was carried into the Jewish system,
where the yod within the
triangle was made to represent the Tetragrammaton,
or sacred name of God.
The equilateral triangle, says Bro. D. W.
Nash, (Preem. Mag., iv. 294,) "viewed in
the light of the doctrines of those who gave
it currency as a divine symbol, represents
the Great First Cause, the creator and container of all things, as one and indivisible,
manifesting himself in an infinity of forms
and attributes in this visible universe."
Among the Egyptians, the darkness
through which the candidate for initiation
was made to pass was symbolized by the
trowel, an important Masonic implement,
which in their system of hieroglyphics has
the form of a triangle. The equilateral triangle they considered as the most perfect
of figures, and a representative of the great
principle of animated existence, each of its
sides referring to one of the three departments of creation, the animal, vegetable, and
mineral.
The equilateral triangle is to be found
scattered throughout the Masonic system.
It forms in the Koyal Arch the figure
within which the jewels of the officers are
suspended. It is in the ineffable degrees
the sacred delta, everywhere presenting
itself as the symbol of the Grand Architect
.of the Universe. In Ancient Craft Masonry, it is constantly exhibited as the element of important ceremonies. The seats
of the principal officers are arranged in a
triangular form, the three lesser lights have
the same situation, and the square and compass form, by their union on the greater
light, two triangles meeting at their bases.
In short, the equilateral triangle may be
considered as one of the most constant
forms of Masonic symbolism.
The right-angled triangle is another form
of this figure which is deserving of atten-

TRIANGLE

TRIANGLE

830

Among the Egyptians, it was the

symbol of universal nature the base representing Osiris, or the male principle; the
tion.

perpendicular, Isis, or the female principle

and the hypothenuse, Horus, their son, or
the product of the male and female prin-

But the true Masonic idea of

this glory
symbolizes that Eternal Light
of Wisdom which surrounds the Supreme
Architect as a sea of glory, and from him
as a common centre emanates to the universe of his creation.
is,

that

it

Triangle, Triple. The pentalpha,

or triangle of Pythagoras, is usually called
also the triple triangle,
because three triangles
are formed by the intersection of its sides.
But there is another
variety of the triple tri-

ciple.

angle which is more

properly entitled to the
appellation, and which is made in the an-

nexed form.
Osiris-male.

This symbol was received by Pythagoras

from the Egyptians during his long sojourn
in that country, and with it he also learned
the peculiar property it possessed, namely,
that the sum of the squares of the two shorter
sides is equal to the square of the longest
symbolically expressed by the forside
mula, that the product of Osiris and Isis is
Horus. This figure has been adopted in
the third degree of Masonry, and will be
there recognized as the forty-seventh prob-

lem of Euclid.

Triangle, Double. See

Seal of Sol-

omon and Shield of David.

Triangle of Pythagoras.

See

Pentalpha.

Triangle, Radiated.

triangle

placed within and surrounded by a circle

of rays. This circle is called, in Christian

It will be familiar to the Knight Templar as the form of the jewel worn by the
Prelate of his Order. Like every modification of the triangle, it is a symbol of the
Deity but as the degree of Knight Templar appertains exclusively to Christian
Masonry, the triple triangle there alludes
to the mystery of the Trinity.
In the
Scottish Rite degree of Knight of the East
the symbol is also said to refer to the triple
essence of Deity; but the symbolism is
made still more mystical by supposing that
it represents the sacred number 81, each
side of the three triangles being equivalent
to 9, which again is the square of 3, the
most sacred number in Freemasonry. In
the twentieth degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite, or that of " Grand
;

Master of

Symbolic Lodges,"

it is said
to the triple
covenant of God, symbolized by a triple
triangle said to have been seen by Solomon

that the

all

number 81

refers

when he

consecrated the Temple. Indeed,

throughout the ineffable and the philo-

sophic degrees, the allusions to the triple

triangle are much more frequent than they
are in Ancient Craft Masonry.

art,

"a

glory."

When

this glory is dis-

from the triangle, and surrounds it in

the form of a circle, it is then an emblem
of God's eternal glory. This is the usual
form in religious uses. But when, as is
most usual in the Masonic symbol, the rays
emanate from the centre of the triangle,
and, as it were, enshroud it in their brilliancy, it is symbolic of the Divine Light.
The perverted ideas of the Pagans referred
these rays of light to their sun-god and
their Sabian worship.
tinct

The Indian

trimourti, or triple triangle

TRIBUNAL

TRIBE
of the Hindus, is of a different form, consisting of three concentric triangles.
In
the centre

the sacred triliteral name,

is

AUM. The

interior triangle symbolizes

Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; the middle

one, Creation, Preservation, and Destruction and the exterior one, Earth, Water,
and Air.
;

Tribe of Judah, Lion of the.

The connection of Solomon,

as the chief of

the tribe of Judah, with the lion, which

was the achievement of the tribe, has
caused this expression to be referred, in the

him who brought light and

immortality to light. The old Christian
interpretation of the Masonic symbols here
prevails and in Ancient Craft Masonry all
allusions to the lion, as the lion's paw, the
lion's grip, etc., refer to the doctrine of the
resurrection taught by him who is known
The
as " the lion of the tribe of Judah."
expression is borrowed from the Apocalypse, (v. 5:) "Behold, the Lion which is of
the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath
prevailed to open the book, and to loose the
seven seals thereof." The lion was also a
mediaeval symbol of the resurrection, the
idea being founded on a legend. The poets
of that age were fond of referring to this
legendary symbol in connection with the
scriptural idea of the " tribe of Judah."
Thus Adam de St. Victor, in his poem De
Besurrectione Domini, says
third degree, to

" Sic de Juda Leo

fortis,

Fractis portis dirae mortis

Die surgit tertia,

Rugiente voce Patris."

i. e.,

Thus the strong lion of Judah,

The gates of cruel death being broken,
Arose on the third day
At the loud-sounding voice of the Father.

The lion was the symbol of strength and

sovereignty, in the human -headed figures
of the Nimrod gateway, and in other Babylonish remains. In Egypt, it was worshipped at the city of Leontopolis as typical of Dom, the Egyptian Hercules.
Plutarch says that the Egyptians ornamented
their temples with gaping lions' mouths,
because the Nile began to rise when the
sun was in the constellation Leo. Among
the Talmudists there was a tradition of the
lion, which has. been introduced into the
higher degrees of Masonry.
But in the symbolism of Ancient Craft

Masonry, where the lion is introduced, as in

the third degree, in connection with the
" lion of the tribe of Judah," he becomes
simply a symbol of the resurrection

thus

restoring the symbology of the mediaeval

ages, which was founded on a legend that
the lion's whelp was born dead, and only

831

brought to life by the roaring of its sire.

Philip de Thaun, in his Bestiary, written
in the twelfth century, gives the legend,
which has thus been translated by Mr.
Wright from the original old Norman

French

"Know

that the lioness, if she bring

forth a dead cub, she holds her cub and

the lion arrives he goes about and cries,
till it revives on the third day .... Know
that the lioness signifies St. Mary, and the
lion Christ, who gave himself to death for
the people; three days he lay in the earth
to gain our souls
By the cry of the
lion they understand the power of God, by
which Christ was restored to life and robbed
hell."
The phrase, "lion of the tribe of Judah,"
therefore, when used in the Masonic ritual,
referred in its original interpretation to
Christ, him who " brought life and immortality to light."
;

Tribes of Israel.

All the twelve

were engaged in the construction of the first Temple.

But long
tribes of Israel

destruction, ten of them revolted,

Israel while the
remaining two, the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin, retained possession of the Temple and of Jerusalem under the name of the
kingdom of Judah. To these two tribes
alone, after the return from the captivity,
was intrusted the building of the second
Temple. Hence in the high degrees, which,
of course, are connected for the most part
with the Temple of Zerubbabel, or with
events that occurred subsequent to the destruction of that of Solomon, the tribes of
Judah and Benjamin only are referred to.
But in the primary degrees, which are based
on the first Temple, the Masonic references
always are to the twelve tribes. Hence in
the old lectures the twelve original points
are explained by a reference to the twelve
tribes.
See Twelve Original Points of-Masonry.
Tribunal. The modern statutes of

before

its

and formed the nation of

the Supreme Council of the Ancient and

Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern
Jurisdiction of the United States direct
trials of Masonic offences, committed by any
brethren of the Rite above the 18th degree,
to be held in a court called a Tribunal of
the Thirty-First degree, to be composed of
not less nor more than nine members. An
appeal lies from such a Tribunal of Inspectors Inquisitors to the Grand Consistory
or the Supreme Council.

Tribunal, Supreme.

1.

enty-first degree of the Rite of

The

sev-

Mizraim.

2. The meeting of Inquisitors Inspectors

of the thirty-first degree of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite according to
the modern ritual of the Mother Council.

TRILITERAL

TROWEL

Tri literal Ifame. The sacred name

of God among the Hindus is so called because it consists of the three letters, A
M.

therefore resembling a letter T resting on

the traverse bar of an H. This emblem,
placed in the centre of a
triangle and circle
both
emblems of the Deity constitutes the jewel of the
Royal Arch as practised in
England, where it is so
highly esteemed as to be
called the " emblem of all

832

See Aum.

Trinidad. Masonry was

introduced

into the island of Trinidad by the establishment of a Lodge called " Les Freres

Unis," under a Charter from the Grand

Lodge of Pennsylvania, in 1797. A Charter
had been granted the year before by the
Grand Orient of France, but never acted
on, in consequence of the suspension of
that body by the French Revolution. In
1804, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, in
its capitular capacity, granted a Charter for
a Royal Arch Chapter, which continued to
meet until 1813, when it obtained a new
Warrant of Constitution from the Supreme
Chapter of Scotland. In 1814, Templar
Masonry was established by a Deuchar
Warrant from the Grand Conclave of Scotland. In 1819, a Council of Royal and
Select Masters was established. Trinidad
has at present a Provincial Grand Lodge
under the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and
there are also several Lodges under the
Grand Lodge of England.
Trinosophs. The Lodge of the Trinosophs was instituted at Paris by the celebrated Ragon, October 15, 1816, and installed by the Grand Orient, January 11,
1817. The word Trinosophs is derived from
the Greek, and signifies students of three sciences, in allusion to the three primitive degrees, which were the especial object of
study by the members; although they
adopted both the French and Scottish
Rites, to whose high degrees, however, they
gave their own philosophical interpretaIt was before this Lodge that Ragon
tion.
delivered his Interpretative and Philosophic
Course of Initiations. The Lodge was composed of some of the most learned Masons
of France, and played an important part in
Masonic literature. No Lodge in France
has obtained so much celebrity as did the
Trinosophs. It was connected with a Chapter and Council in which the high degrees
were conferred, but the Lodge confined
itself to the three symbolic degrees, which
it sought to preserve in the utmost purity.
Triple Alliance. An expression in
the high degrees, which, having been translated from the French rituals, should have
more properly been the triple covenant. It
is represented by the triple triangle, and
refers to the covenant of God with his people, that of King Solomon with Hiram of
Tyre, and that which binds the fraternity
of Masons.
Triple Tail. The tau cross, or cross
of St. Anthony, is a cross in the form of a
Greek T. The triple tau is a figure formed by
three of these crosses meeting in a point, and

emblems," and "the grand

emblem of Royal Arch Ma-

sonry." It was adopted in the same form,

as the Royal Arch badge, by the General
Grand Chapter of the United States in 1859
although it had previously been very generIt
ally recognized by American Masons.
is also found in the capitular Masonry of
Scotland. .(See Royal Arch Badge.)
The original signification of this emblem
has been variously explained. Some suppose it to include the initials of the Temple
of Jerusalem, T. H., Templum Hierosolymce ;
others, that it is a symbol of the mystical
union of the Father and Son,
signifying
Jehovah, and T, or the cross, the Son.
writer in Moore's Magazine ingeniously
supposes it to be a representation of three
T squares, and that it alludes to the three
jewels of the three ancient Grand Masters.
It has also been said that it is the monogram of Hiram of Tyre; and others assert
that it is only a modification of the Hebrew
letter shin, $, which was one of the Jewish
abbreviations of the sacred name. Oliver
thinks, from its connection with the circle
and triangle in the Royal Arch jewel, that
it was intended to typify the sacred name
as the author of eternal life.
The English
Royal Arch lectures say that "by its intersection it forms a given number of angles
that may be taken in five several combinations and, reduced, their amount in right
angles will be found equal to the five Platonic bodies which represent the four elements and the sphere of the Universe."
Amid so many speculations, I need not hesitate to offer one of my own.
The Prophet
Ezekiel speaks of the tau or tau cross as
the mark distinguishing those who were
to be saved, on account of their sorrow for
their sins, from those who, as idolaters,
were to be slain. It was a mark or sign of
favorable distinction; and with this allusion we may, therefore, suppose the triple
tau to be used in the Royal Arch degree as
a mark designating and separating those
who know and worship the true name of
God from those who are ignorant of that
august mystery.
Trivinm. See Quadrivium.
Trowel. An implement of Operative
Masonry, which has been adopted by speculative Masons as the peculiar working-

TROWEL

TRUST

By this imtool of the Master's degree.

plement, and its use in Operative Masonry
to spread the cement which binds all the
parts of the building into one common
mass, we are taught to spread the cement
of affection and kindness, which unites all
the members of the Masonic family, wheresoever dispersed over the globe, into one

of the East, which refers to the building

of the Temple of Zerubbabel, we find this
combination of the trowel and the sword
adopted as a symbol. The old ritual of
that degree says that Zerubbabel, being informed of the hostile intentions of the false
brethren from Samaria, " ordered that all
the workmen should be armed with the
trowel in one hand and the sword in the
other, that while they worked with the one
they might be enabled to defend themselves
with the other, and ever repulse the enemy
if they should dare to present themselves."
In reference to this idea, but not with
chronological accuracy, the trowel and
sword have been placed crosswise as symbols on the tracing-board of the English

companionship of Brotherly Love.

This implement is considered the appropriate working-tool of a Master Mason, because, in Operative Masonry, while the Apprentice is engaged in preparing the rude
materials, which require only the gauge and
gavel to give them their proper shape, the
Fellow Craft places them in their proper
position by means of the plumb, level, and
square ; but the Master Mason alone," having examined their correctness and proved
them true and trusty, secures them permanently in their place by spreading, with
the trowel, the cement that irrevocably
binds them together.
The trowel has also been adopted as the
jewel of the Select Master. But its uses
in this degree are not symbolical. They
are simply connected with the historical
legend of the degree.

Trowel and Sword. When Nehemiah received from Artaxerxes Longimanus the appointment of Governor of
Judea, and was permitted to rebuild the
walls of Jerusalem, and to restore the city
to its former fortified condition, he met
opposition from the Persian
envious of his favor with
the king, and from the heathen inhabitants
of Samaria, who were unwilling to see the
city again assume its pristine importance.

with great

satraps,

who were

The former undertook to injure him with

Artaxerxes by false reports of his seditious
designs to restore the independent kinddom of Judea. The latter sought to obstruct the workmen of Nehemiah in their
labors, and openly attacked them.
Nehemiah took the most active measures to refute the insidious accusations of the first,
and to repel the more open violence of the
latter.
Josephus says [Antiq., B. XI., ch.
vi., \ 8,) that he gave orders that the builders
should keep their ranks, and have their
armor on while they were building and,
accordingly, the mason had his sword on
as well as he that brought the materials for
;

building.

Zerubbabel had met with similar opposition from the Samaritans while rebuilding
the Temple and although the events connected with Nehemiah's restoration of the
walls occurred long after the completion
of the second Temple, yet the Masons have
in the high degrees referred them to the
time of Zerubbabel. Hence in the fifteenth
degree of the Scottish Rite, or the Knight
;

5E

53

833

Royal Arch.
Oliver correctly interprets the symbol of
the trowel and sword as signifying that,
" next to obedience to lawful authority, a

manly and determined

violence

is

resistance to lawless

an essential part of social duty."

Trowel, Society of the.

Vasari,

in his Lives of the Painters and Sculptors

(life of G. F. Rustici), says that about the
year 1512 there was established at Florence
an association which counted among its
members some of the most distinguished
and learned inhabitants of the city. It
was the " Societa della Cucchiara," or the
Society of the Trowel.
Vasari adds that its
symbols were the trowel, the hammer, the
square, and the level, and had for its patron
St. Andrew, which makes Reghellini think,
rather illogically, that it had some relation
to the Scottish Rite.
Lenning, too, says
that this society was the first appearance
of Freemasonry in Florence. It is to be
regretted that such misstatements of Masonic history should be encouraged by
writers of learning and distinction.
The
perusal of the account of the formation of
this society, as given by Vasari, shows that

had not the slightest connection with

Freemasonry. It was simply a festive as-

it

dinner-club of Florentine
derived its title from the accidental circumstance that certain painters
and sculptors, dining together in a garden,
found not far from their table a mass of
mortar, in which a trowel was sticking.
Some rough jokes passed thereupon, in the
casting of the mortar on each other, and
the calling for the trowel to scrape it off.
Whereupon they resolved to form an association to dine together annually, and, in
memorial of the ludicrous event that had
led to their establishment, they called themselves the Society of the Trowel.
True Masons. See Academy of True
Masons.
Trust in God. Every candidate on
his initiation is required * d^la^e that
sociation,
artists

and

or

it

TRUTH

TSCHOUDY

his trust is in God. And so he who denies

the existence of a Supreme Being is debarred the privilege of initiation, for atheism is a disqualification for Masonry. This
pious principle has distinguished the Fraand it is
ternity from the earliest period
a happy coincidence, that the company of
Operative Freemasons instituted in 1477
should have adopted, as their motto, the
truly Masonic sentiment, "The Lord is
all our Trust."
Truth. The real object of Freemasonry, in a philosophical and religious sense,
This truth is,
is the search for truth.
From
therefore, symbolized by the Word.
the first entrance of the Apprentice into
the Lodge, until his reception of the highIt is
est degree, this search is continued.
not always found, and a substitute must
sometimes be provided. Yet whatever be
the labors he may perform, whatever the
ceremonies through which he may pass,
whatever the symbols in which he may be
instructed, whatever the- reward he may
obtain, the true end of all is the attainment
of truth. This idea of truth is not the
same as that expressed in the lecture of
the first degree, where Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth are there said to be the
" three great tenets of a Mason's profession."
In that connection, truth, which is called a

Francs- Magons Venges; i. e., "A New Year' *

Gift for the Pope, or the Free Masons
Avenged." This was a caustic commentary
on the bull of Benedict XIV. excommunicating the Freemasons. It was followed, in the

834

" divine attribute, the foundation of every

virtue," is synonymous with sincerity, honesty of expression, and plain dealing.
The

higher idea of truth

w hich pervades the

T

whole Masonic system, and which is symbolized by the Word, is that which is properly expressed to a knowledge of God.

Tschoudy,
Michaud

Louis

Theodore.

name

Tschudi, but Lenning, Thory, Eagon, Oliver, and all other

Masonic writers, give the name as Tschoudy,
which form, therefore, I adopt as the most
usual, if not the most correct, spelling.
The Baron de Tschoudy was born at
Metz, in 1720. He was descended from a
family originally of the Swiss canton of
Glaris, but which had been established in
France since the commencement of the sixteenth century. He was a counsellor of
State and member of the Parliament of
Metz but the most important events of his
life are those which connect him with the
Masonic institution, of which he was a
zealous and learned investigator. He was
one of the most active apostles of the school
of Ramsay, and adopted his theory of the
Templar origin of Masonry. Having obtained permission from the king to travel,
he went to Italy, in 1752, under the assumed
spells the

name

of the Chevalier de Lussy. There he

excited the anger of the papal court by the
publication at the Hague, in the same year,
of a book entitled, Etrenne au Pape, ou les

same year, by another work entitled, Le Vatican Venge; i. e. } " The Vatican Avenged;"
an ironical apology, intended as a sequence
to the former book.
These two works subjected him to such persecution by the
Church that he was soon compelled to seek
safety in flight.
He next repaired to Russia, where his
means of living became so much impaired
that,

Michaud

says,

he was compelled to

enter the company of comedians of the Empress Elizabeth. From this condition he
was relieved by Count Ivan Schouwalon,
who made him his private secretary. He
was also appointed the secretary of the
Academy of Moscow, and governor of the

pages at the court.

But

this

advancement

of his fortunes, and the fact of his being a

Frenchman, created for him many enemies,
and he was compelled at length to. leave
Russia and return to France. There, however, the persecutions of his enemies pursued him, and on his arrival at Paris he
was sent to the Bastile. But the intercession of his mother with the Empress Elizabeth and with the Grand Duke Peter was
successful, and he was speedily restored to

He then retired to Metz, and for

the rest of his life devoted himself to the
task of Masonic reform and the fabrication
of new systems.
In 1762, the Council of Knights of the
East was established at Paris. Ragon says
{Orthod. Magon., p. 137,) that "its ritual
was corrected by the Baron de Tschoudy,
the author of the Blazing Star." But this
Tschoudy was then at Metz,
is an error.
and his work and system of the Blazing
Star did not appear until four years afterwards. It is at a later date that Tschoudy
became connected with the Council.
In 1766 he published, in connection with
liberty.

his most important work,

entitled, L'JEloile Flamboyante, ou la Societe
des Francs- Magons consider ee sous tous les
Aspects; i. e., "The Blazing Star, or the

Bardon-Duhamel,

Society of Freemasons considered under

every point of view."
In the same year he repaired to Paris,
with the declared object of extending his
Masonic system. He then attached himself to the Council of Knights of the East,
which, under the guidance of the tailor
Pirlet, had seceded from the Council of
Emperors of the East and West. Tschoudy
availed himself of the ignorance and of
the boldness of Pirlet to put his plan of reform into execution by the creation of new
degrees.

TUAPHOLL
In Tschoudy's system, however, as developed in the L'Etoile Flamboyante, he
does not show himself to be the advocate
of the high degrees, which, he says, are
"an occasion of expense to their dupes,

and an abundant and lucrative resource for

those who make a profitable traffic of their
pretended instructions." He recognizes the
three symbolic degrees because their gradations are necessary in the Lodge, which
he viewed as a school; and to these he adds
a superior class, which may be called the
architects, or by any other name, provided
we attach to it the proper meaning. All
the high degrees he calls "Masonic reveries," excepting two, which he regards as
containing the secrect, the object, and the
essence of Masonry, namely, the Scottish
Knight of St. Andrew and the Knight of
Palestine.
The former of these degrees
was composed by Tschoudy, and its ritual,
which he bequeathed, with other manuscripts, to the Council of Knights of the
East and West, was published in 1780,
under the title of Ecossais de Saint Andre,
contenant le developpement total de Vart royal
Subsequently,
de la Franche-Magonnerie.
on the organization of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite, the degree was adopted as the twenty-ninth of its series, and is
considered as one of the most important
and philosophic of the Scottish system.
Its fabrication is, indeed, an evidence of
the intellectual genius of its inventor.
Bagon, in his Orthodoxie Magonnique, attributes to Tschoudy the fabrication of the
Eite of Adonhiramite Masonry, and the
authorship of the Recueil Precieux, which
contains the description of the Eite. But
the first edition of the Recueil, with the acknowledged authorship of Guillaume de
This is probSt. Victor, appeared in 1781.
ably about the date of the introduction of
the Eite, and is just twelve years after
Tschoudy had gone to his eternal rest.

Tschoudy also indulged in light literaand several romances are attributed

to him, the only one of which now known,
entitled Therese Pkilosophe, does not add to
ture,

his reputation.

Chemins Despontes {Encyc. Magon., i.

"The Baron Tschoudy, whose

143,) says:

him a distinguished rank in sobehind him the reputation of an

excellent man, equally remarkable for his
birth gave
ciety, left

social virtues, his genius, and his military

talents."
Such appears to have been the
general opinion of those who were his contemporaries or his immediate successors.
died at Paris,
28, 1769.

He

Tuaplioll.
ids to designate

May

A term used by the Druan unhallowed circumam-

bulation around the sacred cairn, or altar

the movement being against the sun, that

TUBAL

)00

from west to east by the north, the cairn

being on the left hand of the circumambuis,

lator.

Tubal Cain. Of Tubal Cain, the sacred writings, as well as the Masonic legends, give us but scanty information. All
that we hear of him in the book of Genesis is that he was the son of Lamech and
Zillah, and was "an instructor of every
The Hebrew
artificer in brass and iron."
original does not justify the common version, for w\dl, lotesh, does not mean " an inone who
structor," but "a sharpener,"
Hence
whets or sharpens instruments.
Dr. Eaphall translates the passage as one
"who sharpened various tools in copper
and iron." The authorized version has,
however, almost indelibly impressed the
character of Tubal Cain as the father of
artificers; and it is in this sense that he
has been introduced from a very early period into the legendary history of Masonry.
The first Masonic reference to Tubal
Cain is found jn the " Legend of the Craft,"
where he is called " the founder of smithcraft."
I cite this part of the legend from
the Dowland MS. simply because of its
more modern orthography; but the story
is substantially the same in all the old
manuscript Constitutions. In that Manuscript we find the following account of

Tubal Cain
" Before Noah's flood, there

was a

man

called Lamech, as it is written in the Bible,

in the fourth chapter of Genesis ; and this
Lamech had two wives, the one named
Ada and the other named Zilla;' by his
first wife, Ada, -he got two sons, the one
Jubel, and the other Jubal: and .by the

other wife he got a son and a daughter.

And these four children founded the beginning of all the sciences in the world.
The elder son, Jabel, founded the science
of geometry, and he carried flocks of sheep
and lambs into the fields, and first built
houses of stone and wood, as it is noted in
the chapter above named. And his brother
Jubal founded the science of music and
songs of the tongue, the harp and organ.
And the third brother, Tubal Cain, founded smith-craft, of gold, silver, copper, iron,
and steel, and the daughter founded the
And these children knew
art of weaving.
well that God would take vengeance for
sin, either by fire or water, wherefore they
wrote the sciences that they had found, on
two pillars that they might be found after
Noah's flood. The one pillar was marble,
for that would not burn with fire
and the
other was of brass, for that would not
drown in water."
Similar to this is an old Eabbinical tradition, which asserts that Jubal, who was
the inventor of writing as well as of music.
;

TUBAL

TUBAL

having heard Adam say that the universe

would be twice destroyed, once by fire and
once by water, inquired which catastrophe

the omission in Tubal Cain of the initial

T, which is the Phoenician article, and its
valueless vowel, we get Balcan, which, by
the interchangeable nature of B and V, is
easily transformed to Vulcan.
" That Tubal Cain," says Bishop Stillingfleet, (Orig. Sac. } p. 292,) "gave first occasion to the name and worship of Vulcan,
hath been very probably conceived, both
from the very great affinity of the names,
and that Tubal Cain is expressly mentioned
to be an instructor of every artificer in
brass and iron, and as near relation as

836

first occur; but Adam refusing to

inform him, he inscribed the system of
music which he had invented upon two

would

and brick. A more modern

Masonic tradition ascribes the construction
of these pillars to Enoch.
To this account of Tubal Cain must be
added the additional particulars, recorded
by Josephus, that he exceeded all men in
strength, and was renowned for his warlike

pillars of stone

achievements.
The only other account of the protometallurgist that we meet with in any ancient author is that which is contained in
the celebrated fragment of Sanconiatho,
who refers to him under the name of
Chrysor, which is evidently, as Bochart
affirms, a corruption of the Hebrew chores
Sanur, a worker in fire, that is, a smith.
coniatho was a Phoenician author, who is
supposed to have flourished before the
Trojan war, probably, as Sir William
Drummond suggests, about the time when
Gideon was Judge of Israel, and who collected the different accounts and traditions
of the origin of the world which were extant at the period in which he lived.
fragment only of this work has been preserved, which, translated into Greek by
Philo Byblius, was inserted by Eusebius in
his Prceparatio Evangelica, and has thus
been handed down to the present day.
That portion of the history by Sanconiatho,
which refers to Tubal Cain, is contained in
the following words
"
long time after the generation of
Hypsoaranios, the inventors of hunting

Apollo had to Vulcan, Jubal had to Tubal

Cain, who was the inventor of music, or
the father of all such as handle the harp
and organ, which the Greeks attribute to
Apollo."
Vossius, in his
(lib.

i.,

cap. 36,)

treatise Be Idolatria,
this derivation of

makes

Vulcan from Tubal Cain.

But Bryant, in
his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, (vol. i.,
p. 139,) denies the etymology, and says
that

among

the Egyptians and Babyloni-

ans, Vulcan was equivalent to Orus or

Osiris, symbols of the sun.
traces the
name to the words Baal Cohen, Holy Bel,

He

or sacred Lord. Bryant's etymology may

be adopted, however, without any inter-

ference with the identity of Vulcan and

Tubal Cain. He who discovered the uses
of fire, may well, in the corruptions of idolatry, have typified the solar orb, the source
of all heat. It might seem that Tubal is
an attribute compounded of the definite
particle T and the word Baal, signifying
Lord. Tubal Cain would then signify " the
Lord Cain." Again, dhu or du, in Arabic,
signifies Lord and we trace the same signification of this affix, in its various interand fishing, Agreas and Alieas, were born changeable forms of Du, Tu, and Di, in
But the question of
after whom the people were called hunters many Semitic words.
and fishers, and from whom sprang two the identical origin of Tubal Cain and
brothers, who discovered iron, and the Vulcan has at length been settled by the
manner of working it. One of these two, researches of comparative philologists.
called Chrysor, was skilled in eloquence, Tubal Cain is Semitic in origin, and
The latter may be
and composed verses and prophecies. He Vulcan is Aryan.
was the same with Hephaistos, and in- traced to the Sanscrit ulka, a firebrand,
vented fishing-hooks, bait for taking fish, from which we get also the Latin fulgur
cordage and rafts, and was the first of all and fulraen, names of the lightning.
From the mention made of Tubal Cain
mankind who had navigated. He was
therefore worshipped as a god after his in the " Legend of the Craft," the word was
death, and was called Diamichios. It is long ago adopted as significant in the prisaid that these brothers were the first who mary degrees, and various attempts have
been made to give it an interpretation.
contrived partition walls of brick."
Hutchinson, in an article in his Spirit of
Hephaistos, it will be observed, is the
Greek of the god who was called by the Masonry devoted to the consideration of
Romans Vulcan. Hence the remark of the third degree, has the following referSanconiatho, and the apparent similarity ence to the word
" The Mason advancing to this state of
of names as well as occupations, have led
some writers of the last, and even of the Masonry, pronounces his own sentence, as
present, century to derive Vulcan from confessional of the imperfection of the
Tubal Cain by a process not very devious, second stage of his profession, and as proand therefore familiar to etymologists. By bationary of the exalted degree to which

TUNE

TURKEY

aspires, in the Greek distich, Tv/j./3ovxoeu,

(tumbonchoeo,) Struo tumulum: 'I prepare
my sepulchre; I make my grave in the
pollutions of the earth; I am under the
shadow. of death.' This distich has been
vulgarly corrupted among us, and an expression takes place scarcely similar in
sound, and entirely inconsistent with Masonry, and unmeaning in itself."
But however ingenious this interpretation
of Hutchinson may be, it is generally admitted that it is incorrect.

" This tune was very popular at the time

of the ballad operas, and I am informed
that the same words are still sung to it at
Masonic meetings.
"The air was introduced in The Village
Opera, The Chambermaid, The Lottery, The
Grub-Street Opera, and The Lover his own
Rival.
It is contained in the third volume
of The Dancing Master, and of Walsh's
New Country Dancing Master. Words and
music are included in Watt's Musical Miscellany, iii. 72, and in British Melody, or
The Musical Magazine, fol., 1739. They
were also printed on broadsides.
"In the Gentlemen 's Magazine, for October, 1731, the first stanza is printed as 'A
Health, by Mr. Birkhead.' It seems to be
there quoted from 'The Constitutions of
the Freemasons/ by the Rev. James Anderson, A.M., one of the Worshipful Mas-

he

The modern English Masons, and through

them the French, have derived Tubal Cain
from the Hebrew tebel, earth, and kanah, to
acquire possession, and, with little respect
grammatical rules of the Hebrew
language, interpret it as meaning worldly
for the

In the Hemming lectures, now the authorized English system, we find the answer to the question, " What does Tubal
Cain denote?" is "Worldly possessions."
And Delaunay, in his Thuilleur, (p. 17,) dehies the reference to the proto-smith, and
says " If we reflect on the meaning of the
two Hebrew words, we will easily recognize in their connection the secret wish of
the hierophant, of the Templar, of the
Freemason, and of every mystical sect, to
govern the world in accordance with its
own principles and its own laws." It is fortunate, I think, that the true meaning of the
words will authorize no such interpretation.
The fact is, that even if Tubal Cain were
derived from tebel and kanah, the precise
rules of Hebrew construction would forbid
:

837

ters.

"There are several versions of the tune.

in Pills to Purge Melancholy, ii. 230,

One

(1719,) has a second part; but that being

almost a repetition of the first, taken an octave higher, is out of the compass of ordinary voices, and has therefore been gen-

erally rejected.

A Complete Collection of Old and

English and Scotch Songs, ii. 172,
(1735,) the name is given as 'Ye Commoners and Peers;' but Leveridge composed another tune to these words.
"In The Musical Mason, or Freemasons
Pocket Companion, being a collection of
songs used in all Lodges, to which are
added the Freemasons' March and Ode,'
"In

New

'

affixing to their union any such

as " worldly possessions."
Such

meaning (8vo, 1791,) this is entitled 'The Entered

an inter- Apprentice's Song.'
pretation of it in the French and English
"Many stanzas have been added from
systems is, therefore, a very forced and in- time to time, and others have been altered."
accurate one.
Turban. The usual head-dress worn
The use of Tubal Cain as a significant in Eastern nations, consisting of a quilted
word in the Masonic ritual is derived from cap, without rim, and a sash or scarf of
the " Legend of the Craft," by which the cotton or linen wound about the cap. In
name was made familiar to the Operative Royal Arch Chapters, the turban, of a purand then to the Speculative Masons and it ple color, constitutes the head-dress of the
;

refers not symbolically, but historically to

his scriptural and traditional reputation as

an artificer. If he symbolized anything, it

would be labor and a Mason's labor is to
acquire truth, and not worldly possessions.
The English and French interpretation has
fortunately never been introduced into this
;

country.

Tune, Freemasons'. The air of

the song written by Matthew Birkhead,
and first published in the Book of Constitutions of 1723, with the title of " the Entered Prentice's Song," is familiarly and
distinctively

known

as

"the Freemasons'

Mr. William Chappell, in a work

entitled Popular Music of the Olden Time,
gives the following interesting account of it.
Tune."

Scribe, because that officer represents the

Jewish prophet Haggai.

Turcopolier. The third dignity in

the Order of Knights Hospitallers of St.
John, or Knights of Malta. It took its
name from the Turcopoles, a sort of light
horse mentioned in the history of the
Christian wars in Palestine. The office of
Turcopolier was held by the Conventual
Bailiff, or head of the language of England. He had the command of the cavalry
of the Order.
writer in the Freemasons''
Turkey.
Quarterly Review (1844, p. 21,) says that
there was a Masonic meeting in Constantinople, at which some Turks were initiated,
but that the government prohibited the

TWELVE

TUKQUOISE

838

future meetings. This must have been an

irregular Lodge, for organized Masonry was
not introduced into Turkey until 1838,
when the first Lodges were erected by the
Grand Lodge of England. They were,
however, soon discontinued, in consequence
of the opposition of the Mohammedan
more tolerant spirit, howhierarchy.
ever, now exists, and there is a Provincial
Grand Lodge of England, having under
its jurisdiction four Lodges at Constantinople and four at Smyrna. There are also
four Lodges at Constantinople, under the
Grand Orient of France; four at Smyrna
and one at Constantinople, under the Grand
one at Constantinople,
Orient of Italy
under the Grand Lodge of Ireland; and
one at Constantinople, under the Grand
Lodge of Scotland. There are also three
two of them at
Eoyal Arch Chapters,
* Smyrna and Constantinople, chartered by
the Supreme Chapter of Scotland, and one
at Constantinople, chartered by the Grand
Chapter of England. There are also two
one, from the SuEose Croix Chapters,
preme Council of England, in Constantinople and the other, from the Grand Orient of Italy, in Smyrna. In these Lodges
many native Mohammedans have been in-

the high priest's breastplate " was a ligure,

hyacinth, or turquoise." The stone was a
ligure but Oliver is incorrect in supposing
that it is a synonym of either a hyacinth
or a turquoise, which are stones of a very
;

different nature.

Tuscan Order.

The simplest of the

five orders of architecture, as its columns

are never fluted, and it does not allow the

The Turks, however, have always

introduction of any kind of ornament. It

one of the two modern orders, not being
found in any ancient example. Hence it
is of no value in Masonic symbolism.
Twelve. Twelve being composed of
the mystical numbers 7 -)- 5 or of 3x4,
the triad multiplied by the quarternion, was
a number of considerable value in ancient
systems. Thus there were twelve signs of
the zodiac, twelve months in the year,
twelve tribes of Israel, twelve stones in the
pectoral, and twelve oxen supporting the
molten sea in the Temple. There were
twelve apostles in the new law, and the
New Jerusalem has twelve gates, twelve
foundations, is twelve thousand furlongs
square, and the number of the sealed is
twelve times twelve thousand. Even the
Pagans respjected this number, for there
were in their mythology twelve superior
and twelve inferior gods.

had

secret societies of their own, which

has led some writers to suppose, erroneously, that Freemasonry existed long before

Twelve Illustrious Knights.

The eleventh degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Kite; more correctly

the date of its actual introduction. Thus,

the Begtaschi form a secret society in
Turkey, numbering many thousands of
Mussulmans in its ranks, and none but a
true Moslem can be admitted to the brotherhood. It is a religious Order, and was
founded in the year 1328 by the Hadji
Begtasch, a famous dervish, from whom it
derives its name. The Begtaschi have certain signs and passwords by which they are
enabled to recognize the " true brethren,"
and by which they are protected from vagabond impostors.
writer in Notes and

Sublime Knight Elected, which

itiated.

is

see.

Twelve Lettered Name.

The

Constantinople, encountered a Turk, who

made use of various signs of Freemasonry,
some of which, the captain being a Mason,
he understood, and others he did not." It
is, however, probable in this instance, considering the date, that the Turk was really
a Mason, and possessed some higher degrees, which had not been attained by the
English captain. There is also another
equally celebrated Order in Turkey, the
Melewi, who have also secret modes of

Jews had among their divine names, besides the Tetragrammaton, a two lettered
name, which was Jah, a twelve lettered
and a forty-two lettered name. None of
these, however, were so sacred and unutterable as the Tetragrammaton. Maimonides
says of the twelve lettered name, that it
was formerly used instead of Adonai, as
being more emphatic, in place of the Tetragrammaton, whenever they came to that
sacred name in reading. It was not, however, like the Tetragrammaton, communicated only to their disciples, but was imparted to any that desired its knowledge.
"But after the death of Simeon the Just, the
Tetragrammaton ceasing to be used at all,
the twelve lettered name was substituted in
blessing the people and then it became a
secret name, and was communicated only
What
to the most pious of the priests.
was the twelve lettered name is uncertain,
though all 'agree that it was not a name,
but a sentence composed of twelve letters.
Rabbi Bechai says it was formed by a triple combination and permutation of the
four letters of the Tetragrammaton; and

recognition.

there are other explanations equally unsat-

Queries says, in allusion to this society, that

"One day, during the summer of 1855, an
English merchant captain, while walking
through the streets of a Turkish quarter of

Turquoise.
521,) that the first

Oliver says (Landm., ii.

stone in the third row of

isfactory.

There was also a forty-two lettered name,

TWELVE

TWELVE

839

composed, says Bechai, of the first forty- was divided into twelve parts, in allusion
two letters of the book of Genesis. An- to the twelve tribes of Israel, to each of
other and a better explanation has been which one of the points was referred, in the
propounded by Franck, that it is formed following manner:
out of the names of the ten Sephiroth,
1. The opening of the Lodge was symbolvau, or and, amount ex- ized by the tribe of Reuben, because Reuwhich with the
actly to forty-two letters.
There was an- ben was the first-born of his father Jacob,
other name of seventy-two letters, which who called him "the beginning of his
*),

is

still

more inexplicable.

Of

all

these

names, Maimonides [More Nev., I. lxii.,)

says that, as they could not possibly constitute one word, they must have been composed of several words, and he adds
" There is no doubt that these words conveyed certain ideas, which were designed
to bring man nearer to the true conception
of the Divine essence, through the process
we have already described. These words,
composed of numerous letters, have been
designated as a single name, because, like
all accidental proper names, they indicate
one single object; and to make the object
more intelligible, several words are employed, as many words are sometimes used
This must be
to express one single thing.
well understood, that they taught the ideas
indicated by these names, and not the simple
pronunciation of the meaningless letters."

Twelve Original Points of MaThe old English 'lectures, which

were abrogated by the United Grand Lodge
of England in 1813, when it adopted the
system of Hemming, contained the follow-

sonry.

ing passage
" There are in Freemasonry twelve original points, which form the basis of the system, and comprehend the whole ceremony
of initiation.
Without the existence of
these points, no man ever was, or can be^
legally and essentially received into the
Order. Every person who is made a Mason
must go through these twelve forms and
ceremonies, not only in the first degree,
but in every subsequent one."
Hence, it will be seen that our ancient
Brethren deemed these " Twelve Original
Points of Masonry," as they were called,
of the highest importance to the ceremony
of initiation, and they consequently took
much pains, and exercised much ingenuity,
in giving them a symbolical explanation.
But as, by the decree of the Grand Lodge,
they no longer constitute a part of the English ritual, and were never introduced into
this country, where the "Four Perfect
Points" constitute an inadequate substitute, there can be no impropriety in presenting a brief explanation of them, for
which I shall be indebted to the industry
of Oliver, who has treated of them at great
length in the eleventh lecture of his His:

torical

Landmarks.

The ceremony of

initiation, when these

points constituted a portion of the ritual,

He was, therefore, appropristrength."

ately adopted as the emblem of that ceremony which is essentially the beginning of
every
2.

initiation.,

The preparation of the candidate was

symbolized by the tribe of Simeon, because

Simeon prepared the instruments for the
slaughter of the Shechemites and that part
of the ceremony which relates to offensive
weapons, was used as a token of our abhorrence for the cruelty exercised on that
;

occasion.
3. The report of the Senior Deacon referred to the tribe of Levi, because, in the

slaughter of the Shechemites, Levi was

supposed to have made a signal or report
to Simeon his brother, with whom he was
engaged in attacking these unhappy people
while unprepared for defence.
4. The entrance of the candidate into the
Lodge was symbolized by the tribe of Judah, because they were the first to cross the
Jordan and enter the promised land, coming from the darkness and servitude, as it
were, of the wilderness into the light and
liberty of Canaan.
5. The prayer was symbolized by the
tribe of Zebulun, because the blessing and
prayer of Jacob were given to Zebulun, in
preference to his brother Issachar.
6. The circumambulation referred to the
tribe of Issachar, because, as a thriftless
and indolent tribe, they required a leader
to advance them to an equal elevation with
the other tribes.
7. Advancing to the altar was symbolized
by the tribe of Dan, to teach us, by contrast, that we should advance to truth and
holiness as rapidly as that tribe advanced
to idolatry, among whom the golden serpent
was first set up to receive adoration.
8. The obligation referred to the tribe of
Gad, in allusion to the solemn vow which
was made by Jephthah, Judge of Israel, who
was of that tribe.
9. The intrusting of the candidate with
the mysteries was symbolized by the tribe
of Asher, because he was then presented
with the rich fruits of Masonic knowledge,
as Asher was said to be the inheritor of
fatness and royal dainties.
10. The investiture of the lambskin, by
which the candidate is declared free, referred to the tribe of Naphtali, which was
invested by Moses with a peculiar freedom,
when he said, " O Naphtali, satisfied with

840

TWENTY-FOUR

TYRE

and full with the blessing of the

Twenty-Seven. Although the numLord, possess thou the West and the ber twenty-seven is found in the degree
South."
of Select Master and in some of the other
11. The ceremony of the north-east corner high degrees, it can scarcely be called in itof the Lodge referred to Joseph, because, as self a sacred number. It derives its imthis ceremony reminds us of the most super- portance from the fact that it is produced
ficial part of Masonry, so the two half tribes by the multiplication of the square of three
of Ephraim and Manasseh, of which the by three, thus
27.
tribe of Joseph was composed, were acTwenty-Six. This is considered by
counted to be more superficial than the the Kabbalists as the most sacred of mysrest, as they were descendants of the grandtical numbers, because it is equal to the
sons only of Jacob.
numerical value of the letters of the Te12. The closing of the Lodge was symbol- tragrammaton, thus
ized by the tribe of Benjamin, who was the
youngest of the sons of Jacob, and thus
closed his father's strength.
5
6
5
10
26.
Such were the celebrated twelve original
points of Freemasonry of the ancient EngLettered Name. The title
lish lectures.
They were never introduced given by the Talmudists to the name of
into this country, and they are now dis- God, j"]% or Jan which see.
used in England. But it will be seen that,
Tyler. Tyle and Tyler are the old and
while some of the allusions are perhaps now obsolete spelling of Tile and Tiler,
abstruse, many of them are ingenious and which see.
appropriate. It will not, perhaps, be reType. In the science of symbology it is
gretted that they have become obsolete yet the picture or model of something of which
it cannot be denied that they added someit is considered as a symbol.
Hence the
thing to the symbolism and to the religious word type and symbol are in this sense syreference of Freemasonry. At all events, nonymous.
Thus the tabernacle was a
they are matters of Masonic antiquity, and, type of the Temple, as the Temple is a
as such, are not unworthy of attention.
type of the Lodge.
Twenty-Four Incli Gauge. A
Typhon. The brother and slayer of
rule two feet long, which is divided by Osiris, in the' Egyptian mythology.
As
marks into twenty-four parts, each one inch Osiris was a type or symbol of the sun, Tyin length. The Operative Mason uses it to phon was the symbol of winter, when the
take the necessary dimensions of the stone vigor, heat, and, as it were, life of the sun
that he is about to prepare. It has been are destroyed, and of darkness as opposed
adopted as one of the working-tools of the to light.
Entered Apprentice in Speculative MaTyre. An ancient city of Phoenicia,
sonry, where its divisions are supposed to which in the time of King Solomon was
represent hours. Hence its symbolic use celebrated as the residence of King Hiram,
to whom that monarch and his father
is to teach him to measure his time so that,
of the twenty-four hours of the day, he may David were indebted for great assistance in
devote eight hours to the service of God and the construction of the Temple at Jerua worthy distressed brother, eight hours to salem. Tyre was distant from Jerusalem
his usual vocation, and eight to refresh- about one hundred and twenty miles by
ment and sleep. In the symbolic language sea, and was thirty miles nearer by land.
of Masonry, therefore, the twenty-four inch An intercourse between the two cities and
their respective monarchs was, therefore,
gauge is a symbol of time well employed.
Twenty-One. A number of mystical easily cultivated. The inhabitants of Tyre
import, partly because it is the product of were distinguished for their skill as artif3 and 7, the most sacred of the odd num- icers, especially as workers in brass and
and it is said to have been a
bers, but especially because it is the sum other metals
of the numerical value of the letters of the principal seat of that skilful body of architects known as the Diouysiac fraternity.
Divine name, Eheyeh, thus
The city of Sidon, which was under the
Tyrian government, was but twenty miles
n
from Tyre, and situated in the forest of
21.
10
5
5
Lebanon. The Sidonians were, therefore,
It is little valued in Masonry, but is naturally woodcutters, and were engaged in
deemed of great importance in the Kabbala felling the trees, which were afterwards sent
and in Alchemy in the latter, because it on floats by sea from Tyre to Joppa, and
refers to the twenty-one days of distillation thence carried by land to Jerusalem, to be
necessary for the conversion of the grosser employed in the Temple building.
metals into silver.
Dr. Morris, who visited Tyre in 1868, defavor,

3x3x3 =

n
+ + +
*\

Two

>

<>

TYRE

UNAFFILIATED

scribes it (Freemasonry in the Holy Land, p.

91,) as a city under ground, lying, like Jerusalem, twenty to fifty feet beneath a debris
of*many centuries. It consists, to use the
language of a writer he has cited, of " prostrate and broken columns, dilapidated tem-

ished at Tyre. Many of them were sent to

Jerusalem by Hiram, king of Tyre, to as-

and mounds of buried fragments."

of. It is an error
of Oliver, and some other writers, to suppose
that the stones of the Temple of Jerusalem

Tyre, Quarries

sustain the hypothesis that Freemasonry

originated at the Temple of Solomon have
advanced the theory that the Tyrian Freemasons were the members of the Society
of Dionysiac Artificers, who at the time of

the building of Solomon's Temple flour-

King Solomon

in the construction of
There, uniting with the Jews,
who had only a knowledge of the speculative principles of Freemasonry, which had
been transmitted to them from Noah,
through the patriarchs, the Tyrian Freemasons organized that combined system of
Operative and Speculative Masonry which
continued for many centuries, until the beginning of the eighteenth, to characterize
the Institution. This hypothesis is maintained with great ingenuity by Lawrie in
his History of Freemasonry, or by Dr.
Brewster, if he was really the author of
that work, and until recently it has been
the most popular theory respecting the
origin of Masonry. But as it is wanting in
the support of historical evidence, it has
yielded to the more plausible speculations
of recent writers.
sist

his Temple.

ples,

were furnished from the quarries of Tyre.

If there were such quarries, they were not
used for that purpose, as the stones were
taken from the immediate vicinity of the
edifice.
See Quarries.
Tyrian Freemasons. Those who

841

u.
And, accordingly, the first reference that we
find to the duty of Lodge membership is in
the Charges, published in 1723, in Andersignify Under Dispensation.
son's Constitutions, where it is said, after
Uden, Conrad Friederich. A describing a Lodge, that "every Brother
Masonic writer of some celebrity. He was ought to belong to one " and that " in ana Doctor of Medicine, and at one time a cient times, no Mason or Fellow could be
Professor in Ordinary of the University of absent from it, especially when warned to
Dorpat; afterwards an Aulic Counsellor appear at it, without incurring a severe cenand Secretary of the Medical College of St. sure, until it appeared to the Master and
Petersburg. He was from 1783 to 1785 the Wardens that pure necessity hindered him."
editor of the Archiv fur Freimaurerei und In this last clause, Anderson evidently reRosenkreuzer, published during those years fers to the regulation in the Old ConstituThis work contains much inter-' tions, that required attendance on the Anat Berlin.
esting information concerning Kosicruci- nual Assembly.
For instance, in the oldanism. He also edited, in 1785 and 1786, est of these, the Halliwell MS., it is said,)
at Altona, the Ephemeriden der gesammten
(I modernize the language,) "that every
Freimaurerei auf das Logenjahr 1785 und Master that is a Mason must be at the Gen1786.
eral Congregation, if he is told in reasonUnaffiliated Mason . A Mason who able time where the Assembly shall be^
is not a member of any Lodge.
As this holden and to that Assembly he must go,
class of Masons contribute nothing to the unless he have a reasonable excuse."
revenues nor to the strength of the Order,
But the "Assembly" was rather in the
while they are always willing to partake of nature of a Grand Lodge, and neglect to
its benefits, they have been considered as
attend its annual meeting would not place
an encumbrance upon the Craft, and have the offender in the position of a modern
received the general condemnation of Grand unaffiliated Mason.
But after the organiLodges.
zation of subordinate Lodges, a permanent
It is evident that, anterior to the present membership, which had been before unsystem of Lodge organization, which dates known, was then established and as the
about the end of the last century, there revenues of the Lodges, and through them
could have been no unaffiliated Masons. of the Grand Lodge, were to be derived
U.'. !>.. Letters placed after the names
of Lodges or Chapters which have not yet
received a Warrant of Constitution. They

UNANIMOUS

UNAFFILIATED

842

from the contributions of the members, it and punished for any offence by the Lodge
was found expedient to require every Ma- within whose geographical jurisdiction he
son to affiliate with a Lodge, and hence the resides.
rule adopted in the Charge already cited.
8. And, lastly, as non-affiliation is a vioYet, in Europe, non-affiliation, although lation of Masonic law, he may, if he redeemed to some extent a Masonic offence, fuses to abandon that condition, be tried
has not been visited by any penalty, except and punished for it, even by expulsion, if
that which results from a deprivation of deemed necessary or expedient, by any
the ordinary advantages of membership in Grand Lodge within whose jurisdiction he

any

association.

lives.

The modern

Constitution of England,
however, prescribes that " a brother who is
not a subscribing member to some Lodge,
shall not be permitted to visit any one
Lodge in the town or place where he resides

more than once during

from the Craft."

He

is

his secession
permitted to visit

each Lodge once, because

that this visit

is

him

to

enabling

supposed
purpose of
a selection of the
prefer working.
But

made
make

it

is

for the

one in which he may

afterwards he is excluded, in order to discountenance those brethren who wish to

continue members of the Order, and to partake of its benefits, without contributing to
its s upport. The Constitutions of the Grand
Lodges of Ireland and Scotland are silent
upon the subject, nor is any penalty prescribed for unaffiliation by any of the Grand
Lodges of the continent of Europe.
In this country a different view has been
taken of the subject, and its Grand Lodges
have, with great unanimity, denounced unaffiliated Masons in the strongest terms of
condemnation, and visited them with penalties, which vary, however, to some extent
in the different jurisdictions. I know, however, of no Grand Lodge in the United
States that has not concurred in the opinion that the neglect or refusal of a Mason
to affiliate with a Lodge is a Masonic offence, to be visited by some penalty and a
deprivation of some rights.
The following principles may be laid
down as constituting the law in this country on the subject of unaffiliated Masons
:

1.

An

unaffiliated

Mason

is still

bound

by all those Masonic duties and obligations

which refer to the Order in general, but not
by those which relate to Lodge organization.

He

possesses, reciprocally, all those

2.
rights which are derived from membership
in the Order, but none of those which result from membership in a Lodge.
3. He has a right to assistance when in
imminent peril, if he asks for that assistance in the conventional way.
4.
has no right to pecuniary aid from

Unanimous Consent. In the beginning of the last century, when Masonry

was reviving from the condition of decay
into

which

it

had

fallen,

and when the ex-

periment was tried of transforming

it

from

a partly operative to a purely speculative

system, the great object was to maintain a
membership which, by the virtuous character of those who composed it, should secure
the harmony and prosperity of the infant
safeguard was therefore to
Institution.
be sought in the care with which Masons
should be selected from those who were
It was the
likely to apply for admission.
quality, and not the quantity, that was desired.
This safeguard could only be found
Hence, in
in the unanimity of the ballot.
the sixth of the General Eegulations, adopted in 1721, it is declared that "no man can
be entered a Brother in any particular
Lodge, or admitted to be a member thereof,
without the unanimous consent of all the
members of that Lodge then present when
the candidate is proposed, and their consent is formally asked by the Master."
And to prevent the exercise of any undue
influence of a higher power in forcing an
unworthy person upon the Order, it is
further said in the same article: "Nor is
this inherent privilege subject to a dispensation because the members of a particular
Lodge are the best judges of it and if a
fractious member should be imposed on
them, it might spoil their harmony, or
hinder their freedom j or even break and
But a few years
disperse the Lodge."
after, the Order being now on a firm footing, this prudent fear of "spoiling harmony," or "dispersing the Lodge," seems
to have been lost sight of, and the brethren
began in many Lodges to desire a release
from the restrictions laid upon them by
the necessity for unanimous consent. Hence
Anderson says in his second edition " But
it was found inconvenient to insist upon

unanimity

And,

in several cases.

there-

Lodges, or to

the Grand Masters have allowed the

Lodges to admit a member if not above
three ballots are against him though some
Lodges desire no such allowance." This

walk in Masonic processions.

6. He has no right to Masonic burial.
7. He still remains subject to the government of the Order, and may be tried

still
prevails in England; and its
modern Constitution still permits the admission of a Mason where there are not
more than three ballots against him, though

He

a Lodge.
5.

He

fore,

has no right to

visit

rule

UNFAVORABLE
many

of the Lodges still demand unanimity.

In the United States, where Masonry is
more popular than in any other country, it
was soon seen that the danger of the Institution lay not in the paucity, but in the
multitude of its members, and that the
only provision for guarding its portals was
the most stringent regulation of the ballot.
Hence, in every jurisdiction of the United
States, I think, without an exception,
unanimous consent is required. And this
rule has been found to work with such advantage to the Order, that the phrase, "the
black ball is the bulwark of Masonry," has
become a proverb.
Unfavorable Report. Should the
committee of investigation on the character
of a petitioner for initiation make an unfavorable report, the general usage is (although some Grand Lodges have decided
otherwise) to consider the candidate rejected by such report, without proceeding
to the formality of a ballot, which is thereThis usage is founded
fore dispensed with.
on the principles of common sense; for, as
by the ancient Constitutions one black ball
is sufficient to reject an application, the
unfavorable report of a committee must
necessarily, and by consequence, include
two unfavorable votes at least. It is therefore unnecessary to go into a ballot after
such a report, as it is to be taken for granted
that the brethren who reported unfavorably
would, on a resort to the ballot, cast their
negative votes. Their report is indeed virtually considered as the casting of such
votes, and the applicant is therefore at
once rejected without a further and unnecessary ballot.

Uniformity of Work. An identity

of forms in opening and closing, and in
conferring the degrees, constitutes what is
technically called uniformity of work.
The expression has no reference, in its restricted sense, to the working of the same
degrees in different Rites and different
countries, but only to a similarity in the
ceremonies practised by Lodges in the
same Rite, and more especially in the same
jurisdiction.
This is greatly to be desired,
because nothing is more unpleasant to a
Mason, accustomed to certain forms and
ceremonies in his own Lodge, than on a
visit to another to find those forms and
ceremonies so varied as to be sometimes
scarcely recognizable as parts of the same
Institution.
So anxious are the dogmatic
authorities in Masonry to preserve this uniformity, that in the charge to an Entered
Apprentice he is instructed never to "suffer
an infringement of our rites, or a deviation from established usages and customs."
In the act of union in 1813, of the two

UNIFORMITY
Grand Lodges of England,

in

843
whose

sys-

tems of working there were many differences, it was provided that a committee
should be appointed to visit the several
Lodges, and promulgate and enjoin one system, " that perfect reconciliation, unity of
obligation, law, working, language, and
dress, might be happily restored to the
few years ago, a writer
English Craft."
in C. W. Moore's Magazine, proposed the
appointment of delegates to visit the Grand
Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland,
that a system of work and lectures might
be adopted, which should thereafter be
The
rigidly enforced in both hemispheres.
proposition was not popular, and no delegation was ever appointed. It is well that
it was so, for no such attempt could have
met with a successful result.
It is a fact, that uniformity of work in

Masonry, however much it may be desired,

can never be attained. This must be the
case in all institutions where the ceremonies, the legends,
oral.

and the instructions are

The treachery of memory, the weak-

ness of judgment, and the fertility of imagination, will lead men to forget, to diminish, or to augment, the parts of any
system which is not prescribed within cerThe Rabtain limits by a written rule.
bins discovered this when the Oral Law
was becoming perverted, and losing its authority as well as its identity by the interpretations that were given to it in the schools'
of the Scribes and Prophets. And hence,
to restore

it

to its integrity, it

was found

necessary to divest it of its oral character

and give to it a written form. To this are
we to attribute the origin of the two Talmuds which now contain the essence of
Jewish theology. So, while in Masonry we
find the esoteric ritual continually subjected
to errors arising mainly from the ignorance
or the fancy of Masonic teachers, the monitorial instructions
few in Preston, but
greatly enlarged by Webb and Cross
have suffered no change.
It would seem from this that the evil of
non-conformity could be removed only by
making all the ceremonies monitorial; and so
much has this been deemed expedient, that
a few years since the subject of a written
ritual was seriously discussed in England.
But the remedy would be worse than the
It is to the oral character of its
disease.
ritual that Masonry is indebted for its permanence and success as an organization.

written, which would soon become a

printed, ritual would divest Symbolic Masonry of its attractions as a secret association, and would cease to offer a reward to
the laborious student who sought to master
Its philosophy and
its mystical science.
its

symbolism would be the same, but the

UNION

UNION

844

books containing them would be consigned

ized

to the shelves of a Masonic library, their

pages to be discussed by the profane as the

signed to detect clandestine and irregular

Masons, and consisted only of the investiture of the recipient with certain new
modes of recognition.

common

property of the antiquary, while

the Lodges, having no mystery within their
portals, would find but few visitors, and certainly no workers.
It is, therefore, a matter of congratulation that uniformity of work, however desirable and however unattainable, is not
so important and essential as many have

deemed

it.
Oliver, for instance, seems to
confound in some of his writings the ceremonies of a degree with the landmarks of

the Order. But they are very different.

The landmarks, because they affect the
identity of the Institution, have long since
been embodied in its written laws, and unless by a wilful perversion, as in France,
where the Grand Mastership has been
abolished, can never be changed. But variations in the phraseology of the lectures,
or in the forms and ceremonies of initiation, so long as they do not trench upon
the foundations of symbolism on which the
science and philosophy of Masonry are
built, can produce no other effect than a
temporary inconvenience. The errors of
an ignorant Master will be corrected by his
better instructed successor.
The variation
in the ritual can never be such as to destroy the true identity of the Institution.
Its

profound dogmas of the unity of God,

and the eternal life, and of the universal

brotherhood of man, taught in its symbolic
method, will forever shine out pre-eminent
above all temporary changes of phraseology.
Uniformity of work may not be attained,
but uniformity of design and uniformity
of character will forever preserve Freemasonry from disintegration.

Union, Grand Masters'.

Efforts

were made at various times in Germany to

organize an association of the Grand Masters of the Grand Lodges of Germany.
At
length, through the efforts of Bro. Warnatz,
the Grand Master of Saxony, the scheme
was fully accomplished, and on May 31,
1868, the

Grand Masters' Union

Gross-

miestertag, literally, the diet of Grand Masters

assembled at the city of Berlin, the

Grand Masters of seven German Grand

Lodges being present. The meetings of
this body, which are annual, are entirely
unofficial ; it claims no legislative powers,

and meets only for consultation and advisement on matters connected with the ritual,
the history, and the philosophy of Masonry.

Union

Master's

Degree.

An

honorary degree, said to have been invented by the Lodge of Eeconciliation in

England, in 1813, at the union of the two
Grand Lodges, and adopted by the Grand

Lodge of New York

in 1819,

which author-

its

Lodges

Union

of

to confer

it.

was de-

It

German Masons.

(Verein deutscher Maurer.)

An association
of Freemasons of Germany organized at
Potsdam, May 19, 1861.
The society

meets annually at

different places.
Its
object is the cultivation of
Masonic science, the advancement of the
prosperity and usefulness of the Order,
and the closer union of the members in
the bonds of brotherly love and affection.

professed

Union of
sons.

{Bund

Scientific
scientifischer

FreemaFreimaurer.)

An

association founded, November 28,

1802, by Fessler, Fischer, Mossdorf, and
other learned Masons of Germany. According to their act of union, all the members pledged themselves to investigate the
history of Freemasonry, from its origin
down to the present time, in all its different parts, with all its systems and retrogressions, in the most complete manner,
and then to communicate what they knew
to trustworthy brethren.
In the assemblies of the members, there

were no

rituals,

nor ceremonies, nor any

especial vestments requisite, nor, indeed,

any outward distinctions whatever.
common interest and the love of truth, a
general aversion of all deception, treachery, and secrecy were the sentiments which
bound them together, and made them feel
the duties incumbent on them, without binding themselves by any special oath. Consequently, the members of the Scientific Union
had all equal rights and obligations they did
not acknowledge a superior, or subordination to any Masonic authority whatever.
Any upright, scientifically-cultivated
Master Mason, a sincere seeker after truth,
might join this Union, no matter to what Rite
or Grand Lodge he belonged, if the whole
of the votes were given in his favor, and he
pledged himself faithfully to carry out the

intention of the founders of the Order.

Each circle of scientific Masons was provided with a number of copies of the deed
of union, and every new candidate, when
he signed it, became a partaker of the
privileges shared in by the whole; the
Chief Archives and the centre of the Confederation were at first to be in Berlin.
But the association, thus inaugurated
with the most lofty pretensions and the
most sanguine expectations, did not well
succeed. " Brethren," says Findel, {Hist.,
Lyon's Trans., p. 501,) " whose co-operation
had been reckoned upon, did not jorn; the
active working of others was crippled by
all sorts of scruples and hindrances, and

UNION

UNITED

Fessler's purchase of Kleinwall drew off his

attention wholly from the subject. Differences of opinion, perhaps also too great egotism, caused dissensions between many members of the association and the brethren of
the Lodge at Altenburg. Distrust was excited in every man's breast, and, instead of
the enthusiasm formerly exhibited, there
was only lukewarmness and disgust."
Other schemes, especially that of the es-

their respective titles, the remainder of this

article may more properly be devoted to
the character of the Masonic organization
in the United States.
The Rite practised in this country is
most correctly called the American Rite.

tablishment of a Saxon Grand Lodge, impaired the efforts of the Scientific Masons.
The Union gradually sunk out of sight, and
finally ceased to exist.
Union of the Twenty-Two. See
German Union of Two and Twenty.

United Grand Lodge of England. The

present

Grand Lodge of Eng-

land assumed that title in the year 1813,

because it was then formed by the union
of the Grand Lodge of the Ancients, called
the " Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted
Masons of England according to the Old
Institutions," and the Grand Lodge of
Moderns, called the " Grand Lodge of Free
and Accepted Masons under the Constitution of England." The body thus formed,
by which an end was put to the dissensions
of the Craft which had existed in England
for more than three-quarters of a century,
adopted the title, by which it has ever since
been known, of the " United Grand Lodge
of Ancient Freemasons of England."

United States of America.

The

history of the introduction of Freemasonry

into the United States ofAmerica is discussed
in this work under the titles of the different
States into which the Union is divided, and
to which therefore the reader is referred.
It may, however, be necessary to say, in
a general view of the subject, that the first
notice we have of Freemasonry in the
United States is in 1729, in which year,
during the Grand Mastership of the Duke
of Norfolk, Mr. Daniel Cox was appointed
Provincial Grand Master for New Jersey.
I have not, however, been able to obtain
any evidence that he exercised his prerogative by the establishment of Lodges in
that province, although it is probable that
he did. In the year 1733, the "St. John's
Grand Lodge" was opened in Boston, in
consequence of a Charter granted, on the
application of several brethren residing in
that city, by Lord Viscount Montacute,
Grand Master of England. From that
time Masonry was rapidly disseminated
throughout the country by the establishment of Provincial Grand Lodges, all of

which

after the Eevolutionary War, which

separated the colonies from the mother
country, assumed the rank and prerogatives of independent Grand Lodges.
The
history of these bodies being treated under

This

title,

845

however, has been adopted with-

in only a comparatively recent period. It

is still very usual with Masonic writers to
call the Rite practised in this country the
York Rite. The expression, however, is
wholly incorrect.
The Masonry of the
United States, though founded, like that
practised in every other country, upon the
three symbolic degrees which alone constitute the true York Rite, has, by its
modifications and its adoption of high degrees, so changed the Rite as to give it an
entirely different form from that which
properly constitutes the pure York Rite.
(See American Rite.)
In each State of the Union, and in most
of the Territories, there is a Grand Lodge
which exercises jurisdiction over the symbolic degrees.
The jurisdiction of the
Grand Lodge, however, is exercised to a
certain extent over what are called the
higher bodies, namely, the Chapters, Coun-

For by the
and Commanderies.
American construction of Masonic law, a
Mason expelled by the Grand Lodge forfeits his membership in all of these bodies
Hence a
to which he may be attached.
Knight Templar, or a Royal Arch Mason,
cils,

becomes ipso facto suspended or expelled

by his suspension or expulsion by a symbolic Lodge, the appeal from which action
Thus the
lies only to the Grand Lodge.
Masonic standing and existence of even the
Grand Commander of a Grand Commandery is actually in the hands of the Grand
Lodge, by whose decree of expulsion his
relation with the body over which he presides may be dissevered.
Royal Arch Masonry is controlled in
each State by a Grand Chapter. Besides

Grand Chapters, there is a General

Grand Chapter of the United States, which,
these

however, exercises only a moral influence

over the State Grand Chapters, since it
possesses "no power of discipline, admonition, censure, or instruction over the Grand
Chapters." In Territories where there are no
Grand Chapters, the General Grand Chapter
constitutes subordinate Chapters, and over
these it exercises plenary jurisdiction.
The next highest branch of the Order is
Cryptic Masonry, which, although rapidly
growing, is not yet as extensive as Royal
Arch Masonry. It consists of two degrees,
Royal and Select Master, to which is sometimes added the Super Excellent, which,
however, is considered only as an honorary
degree.

These degrees are conferred in

UNKNOWN

UNITED

846

Councils which owe their

obedience to

thology of the ancients there were

many

Only one Grand Council gods. It was to correct this false opinion,
can exist in a State or Territory, as is the and to teach a purer theogony, that the incase with a Grand Lodge, a Grand Chapter, itiations were invented. And so, as Waror a Grand Commandery. Grand Councils burton says, "the famous secret of the
exist in many of the States, and in any mysteries was the unity of the Godhead."
State where no such body exists, the Coun- This, too, is the doctrine of Masonic initiation, which is equally distant from the
cils are established by Charters emanating
from any one of them. There is no Gen- blindness of atheism and the folly of polyEfforts have been re- theism.
eral Grand Council.

Grand Councils.

peatedly made to establish one, but the

proposition has not met with a favorable
response from the majority of Grand Councils.

Templarism is governed by a Supreme

body, whose style is the Grand Encampment of the United States, and this body,

which meets triennially, possesses sovereign power -over the whole Templar system
Its presiding officer
in the United States.
is called Grand Master, and this is the
highest office known to American Templarism. In most of the States there are Grand
Commanderies, which exercise immediate
jurisdiction over the Commanderies in the
State, subject, however, to the superintend-

ing control of the Grand Encampment.

Where

there are no Grand Commanderies,

Charters are issued directly to subordinate
Commanderies by the Grand Encampment.
The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
is very popular in the United States. There
are two Supreme Councils,
one for the
Southern Jurisdiction, which is the Mother
Council of the world. Its nominal Grand
East is at Charleston, South Carolina; but
its Secretariat has been removed to Washington city since the year 1870.
The
other Council is for the Northern JurisdicIts Grand East is at Boston, Massation.
chusetts; but its Secretariat is at New
York city. The Northern Council has jurisdiction over the States of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Con-

necticut,
sylvania,

Island, New York, PennJersey, Delaware, Ohio, In-

Rhode

New

and Wisconsin. The Southern Supreme Council exercises jurisdiction

over all the other States and Territories of
the United States.
diana, Illinois,

United Supreme Council.

body of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish

Rite was formed February 13, 1832, in the
city of New York, by the union of the socalled Supreme Council of the United States
and the Supreme Council of South America, which assumed the title of the " United
Supreme Council for the Western Hemisphere." This body, irregular in its formation and illegal in its origin, was never
recognized by either of the regular Supreme
Councils of the United States, and is now
extinct.

Unity of God.

In the popular my-

Universality of Masonry.
boast of the

The

Emperor Charles

V., that the

sun never set on his vast empire, may be
applied with equal truth to the Order of

Freemasonry. From east to west, and from

north to south, over the whole habitable
Wherglobe, are our Lodges disseminated.
ever the wandering steps of civilized man
have left their footprints, there have our
temples been established. The lessons of
Masonic love have penetrated into the wilderness of the West, and the red man of
our soil has shared with his more enlightened brother the mysteries of our science;
while the arid sands of the African desert
have more than once been the scene of a
Masonic greeting. Masonry is not a fountain, giving health and beauty to some single hamlet, and slaking the thirst of those
only who dwell upon its humble banks;
but it is a mighty stream, penetrating
through every hill and mountain, and gliding through every field and valley of the
earth, bearing in its beneficent bosom the
abundant waters of love and charity for
the poor, the widow, and the orphan of
every land.
Universal Language. See Language, Universal.

Universal

Harmony, Order of.

See Mesmeric Masonry.

Universi Terrarum, etc. Documents emanating from any of the bodies

of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
commence with

the following epigraph:

"Universi Terrarum Orbis Architectonis
per Gloriam Ingentis," i. e., " By the Glory
of the Grand Architect of the Universe."
This is the correct form as first published,
in 1802, by the Mother Council at Charleston in its Circular of that year, and used
in all its Charters and Patents.
Philosopher. One of
the mystical and theosophic works written
by Saint Martin, the founder of the Rite of
Martinism, was entitled Le Philosophe Inconnu, or The Unknown Philosopher,
whence the appellation was often given
by his disciples to the author. A degree
of his Rite also received the same name.

Unknown

Unknown

When the
established his system or
Rite of Strict Observance, he declared that
the Order was directed by certain Masons
Baron Von

Superiors.

Hund

UNTEMPERED

UPPER

of superior rank, whose names as well as

their designs were to be kept secret from
all the brethren of the lower degrees;
although there was an insinuation that
they were to be found or to be heard of in

human wisdom and human means, it has'

been unable to give strength and perfection

Scotland.

gave the

To
title

Unknown

or

these secret dignitaries- he

of " Superiores Incogniti,"
Superiors.

Many Masonic

writers, suspecting that Jesuitism

was

at

the bottom of all the Masonry of that day,

asserted that S. I., the initials of Superiores
Incogniti,

meant

really Societas Jesu, i. e.,

the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. It is
scarcely necessary now to say that the
whole story of the Unknown Superiors was

a myth.

to all

who come

within

847

its pale.

The

de-

nial of a Peter, the doubtings of a Thomas,

or even the betrayal of a Judas, could cast
no reproach on that holy band of Apostles
of which each formed a constituent part.
" Is Freemasonry answerable," says Dr.
Oliver, (Landm,, i., p. 148,) "for the misdeeds of an individual Brother? By no

He

has had the advantage of Maand has failed to profit

by it. He has enjoyed Masonic privileges,
but has not possessed Masonic virtue."
Such a man it is our duty to reform, or to
dismiss but the world should not condemn
us, if we fail in our attempt at reformation.
God alone can change the heart. Masonry
furnishes precepts and obligations of duty
which, if obeyed, must make its members
wiser, better, happier men
but it claims

means.

sonic instruction,

Untempered Mortar.

In the lecture used in the United States in the early

part of the present century, and in some
parts of the country almost as recently as
the middle of the century, the apprentices
at the Temple were said to wear their
aprons in the peculiar manner characteristic of that class that they might preserve
their garments from being defiled by " untempered mortar." This is mortar which
has not been properly mixed for use, and
it thus became a symbol of passions and
appetites not duly restrained.
Hence the
Speculative Apprentice was made to wear
his apron in that peculiar manner to teach
him that he should not allow his soul to be
defiled by the "untempered mortar of unruly passions."

Unutterable Jfanie. The Tetragrammaton, or Divine Name, which is more

commonly

called the Ineffable Name.

words are precisely synonymous.

Condemn when
but not when our

no power of regeneration.

our instruction is evil,

pupils are dull, and deaf to our lessons for,
in so doing, you condemn the holy religion
which you profess. Masonry prescribes no
principles that are opposed to the sacred
teachings of the Divine Lawgiver, and
sanctions no acts that are not consistent
with the sternest morality and the most faithful obedience to government and the laws
;
and while this continues to be its character,
it cannot, without the most atrocious injustice, be made responsible for the acts of its
;

unworthy members.

Of all human societies, Freemasonry is

The undoubtedly, under all circumstances, the

fittest to form the truly good man.

But
That there however well conceived may be its laws,
are men in our Order whose lives and char- they cannot completely change the natural
acters reflect no credit on the Institution, disposition of those who ought to observe
whose ears turn coldly from its beautiful them. In truth, they serve as lights and
lessons of morality, whose hearts are un- guides; but as they can only direct men
touched by its soothing influences of by restraining the impetuosity of their pasbrotherly kindness, whose hands are not sions, these last too often become domiopened to aid in its deeds of charity, is a nant, and the Institution, is forgotten.
fact which we cannot deny, although we
Upper Chambers. The practice of
may be permitted to express our grief while holding Masonic Lodges in the upper rooms
we acknowledge its truth. But these men, of houses is so universal that, in all my exthough in the Temple, are not of the Tem- perience, I have no knowledge of a single
ple they are among us, but are not with instance in which a Lodge has been holden
us they belong to our household, but they in a room on the first floor of a building.
are not of our faith they are of Israel, but The most apparent reason' for this is, that
they are not Israel. We have sought to security from being overseen or overheard
teach them, but they would not be in- may be thus obtained, and hence Dr. Olistructed seeing, they have not perceived
ver says, in his Book of the Lodge, (p. 44,)
and hearing, they have not understood the that "a Masonic hall should be isolated,
symbolic language in which our lessons of and, if possible, surrounded with lofty
wisdom are communicated. The fault is walls
As, however, such a situation
not with us, that we have not given, but in large towns, where Masonry is usually
with them, that they have not received. practised, can seldom be obtained with
And, indeed, hard and unjust would it be convenience to the brethren, the Lodge
to censure the Masonic institution, because, should be formed in an upper story." This,
partaking Qf the infirmity and weakness of as a practical reason, will be perhaps suf-

two

Unworthy Members.

UPPER

848

URIM

Masons in general. But to those

are more curious, it may be well to
say, that for this custom there is also a
mystical reason of great antiquity.
Gregory, in his Notes and Observations on
some Passages of Scripture, (1671, p. 17,)
says " The upper rooms in Scripture were
places in that part of the house which was
highest from the ground, set apart by the
Jews for their private orisons and devotions, to be addressed towards Solomon's
Temple." This room received, in the Hebrew language, the appellation of Alijah,
which has been translated by the Greek
huperoon, and improperly by the Latin coznaculum. The Hebrew and the Greek both
have the signification of an upper room,
while the Latin appellative would give the
idea of a dining-room or place for eating,
thus taking away the sacred character of
the apartment. The Alijah was really a
secret chamber or recess in the upper part
of the house, devoted to religious uses.
Hence the wise men or Rabbins of Israel
are called by the Talmudists beni Alijah,
or " the sons of the upper or secret room."
And so, in Psalm civ. 2, 3, the Psalmist
speaks of God as stretching out the heavens
like a curtain, and laying the beams of his
chambers in the waters, where, in the orig"
inal, the word here translated " chambers

tians,

the plural of Alijah, and should more

properly be rendered "his secret chambers " an allusion, as Dr. Clarke thinks,
to the holy of holies of the tabernacle.
Again, in 2 Chronicles ix. 3, 4, it is said
that when the Queen of Sheba had seen
the wisdom of Solomon and the house that

and Mason." The same symbolism is referred to by Hutchinson, who says that " as
the builder raises his column by the plane
and perpendicular, so should the Mason

ficient to

who

is

performed their devotions in upper

rooms. And the care with which Alijah,
huperoon, or upper chamber, is always used
to designate the place of devotion, abundantly indicates that any other place would
have been considered improper.
Hence we may trace the practice of holding Lodges in upper rooms to this ancient
custom and that, again, has perhaps some
connection with the sacred character always
given by the ancients to " high places," so
that it is said, in the Masonic lectures, that
our ancient brethren met on high hills and
low vales. The reason there assigned by
implication is that the meeting may be
secret that is, the lectures place the Lodge
on a high hill, a vale, or other secret place.
And this reason is more definitely stated in
the modern lectures, which say that they so
met " to observe the approach of cowans
and eavesdroppers, and to guard against
surprise." Yet it is not improbable that
the ancient symbolism of the sanctity of a
high place was referred to as well as that
more practical idea of secrecy and safety.
Upright Posture. The upright posture of the Apprentice in the north-east corner, as a symbol of upright conduct, was introduced into the ritual by Preston, who
taught in his lectures that the candidate
then represented "a just and upright man
;

built
his provisions, servants, and
cup-bearers, " and his ascent by which he
went up into the house of the Lord there
was no more spirit in her." The word
which our translators have rendered " his
ascent," is again this word Alijah, and the

carry himself towards the world. " Indeed,

the application of the corner-stone, or the
square stone, as a symbol of uprightness of
conduct, which is precisely the Masonic
symbolism of the candidate in the northeast, was familiar to the ancients for Plato
says that he who valiantly sustains the
shocks of adverse fortune, demeaning himself uprightly, is truly good and of a square

passage should

posture.

he had

be rendered "his secret

chamber," or " u^per room " the one by
which, through a private way, he was enabled to pass into the Temple.
On the advent of Christianity, this Jewish custom of worshipping privately in an
upper room was adopted by the apostles
and disciples, and the New Testament con;

many

Hebrew, ixmx, meaning the

An archangel, mentioned
God.
only in 2 Esdras. Michael Glycas, the
Byzantine historian, says that his post is in
the sun, and that he came down to Seth
and Enoch, and instructed them in the
length of the years and the variations of
the seasons. The book of Enoch describes
him as the angel of thunder and lightning.
In some of the Hermetic degrees of Masonry, the name, as representing the angel
of fire, becomes a significant word.

Uriel,

fire

of

instances of the practice, the

as I have already remarked, translated by the Greek huperoon,
which has a similar meaning. Thus in
Acts i. 13, we find the apostles praying in
an upper room and again, in the twentieth
chapter, the disciples are represented as
having met at Ephesus in an upper room,

The HeUrim and

brew words Dnix, Aurim, and DW, Thumim, have been variously translated by

where Peter preached to them. But it is

unnecessary to multiply instances of this
usage. The evidence is complete that the
Jews, and after them the primitive Chris-

commentators. The Septuagint translates

them, " manifestation and truth " the
Vulgate, "doctrine and truth;" Aquila,
"lights and perfections;" Kalisch, "per-

tains

word Alijah being,

Thnmmim.

URIM

URN

but the most generallyreceived interpretation is, "light and truth."

What the Urim and Thummim were has
also been a subject of as much doubt and
difference of opinion.
Suddenly introduced to notice by Moses in the command,
(Exod. xxviii. 30,) "and thou shalt put in
the breastplate of judgment the Urim and
the Thummim,"
as if they were already
familiar to the people,
we know only of
them from the scriptural account, that they
were sacred lots to be worn concealed in or
behind the breastplate, and to be consulted
by the high priest alone, for the purpose
of obtaining a revelation of the will of
God in matters of great moment. Some
writers have supposed that the augury
consisted in a more splendid appearance of
certain letters of the names of the tribes
inscribed upon the stones of the breastplate;
others, that it was received by voice from
two small images which were placed beyond the folds of the breastplate.
variety of other conjectures have been hazarded, but as Godwyn (Moses and Aaron,
iv. 8,) observes, "he spoke best, who ingeniously confessed that he knew not what

Christ, to be Masonically applied in his

peculiar system of a Christian interpretation of all the Masonic symbols. But the fact
that after the construction of the Temple
of Solomon we hear no more of the consultation by the priests of the Urim and Thummim, which seem to have given way to the
audible interprefation of the divine will by
the prophets, would necessarily disconnect
them with Masonry as a symbol, to be ac-

feet brilliancy;"

Urim and Thummim was."

The opinion now almost

universally acthat the Jewish lawgiver borrowed this, as he did the ark, the brazen
serpent, and many other of the symbols
of his theocracy, from the usages so familiar to him of the Egyptian priests,

cepted

is

with which both he and Aaron were familiar, eliminating, of course, from them
their previous heathen allusion, and giving
to them a purer signification.
In reference to the Urim and Thummim,
we know not only from the authority of ancient writers, but
also from the confirmatory
testimony of more recent monumental
explorations, that
the
judges
of

chains around their necks, to which was

suspended a small figure of Theme, the
Egyptian goddess of Justice and Truth.
"Some of these breastplates," says Gliddon,
(Ane. Egypt, p. 32,) "are extant in European museums; others are to be seen on

the monuments as containing the figures

of two deities
Ra, the sun, and Theme.
These represent Ra, or the sun, in a double
capacity, physical and intellectual light;
and Theme iu a double capacity, justice and
truth."

Neither in Ancient Craft nor in Royal

Arch Masonry have the Urim and Thumintroduced; although Oliver dis-

cusses them, in his Landmarks, as a type of

5G

cepted even by those who place the foundation of the Order at the Solomonic era.
Yet they have been introduced as a symbol into some of the continental high degrees.
Thus, in the last degree of the Order of Brothers of Asia, the presiding officer
wears the Urim and Thummim suspended
from a golden chain as the jewel of his office.
Reghellini {Esprit du dogme, p. 60,) thus
gives the continental interpretation of the
symbol.
" The folly of Solomon is commemorated
in the instructions and ceremonies of a
high degree, where the Acolyte is reminded
that Solomon, becoming arrogant, was for a
time abandoned by the Divinity, and as he
was, although the greatest of kings, only a
mortal, he was weak enough to sacrifice to
idols, and thereby lost the communication
which he had previously had through
the Urim and Thummim.
" These two words are found in a degree
of the Maltre ecossais. The Venerables
of the Lodges and the Sublime Masters explain the legend to their recipients of an
elevated rank, as intended to teach them
that they should always be guided by reason, virtue, and honor, and never abandon
themselves to an effeminate life or silly superstition."
It is, I think, undeniable that

Urim and
have no legitimate existence as
a Masonic symbol, and that they can only
be considered such by a forced and modern

Thummim

interpretation.

Egypt wore golden

mim been

849

54

Uriot, Joseph. The author of a

work entitled Le veritable Portrait oVun
Franc-Macon, which was published by a
Lodge at Frankfort, in 1742. It may be
looked upon, says Kloss, as the earliest
public exposition of the true principles of
Masonry which appeared in Germany.
Many editions of it were published. M.
Uriot also published at Stongard, in 1769,
a work entitled Lettres sur la Franche Maconnerie; which was, however, only an enlargement of the Portrait,
Urn. Among the ancients, cinerary
urns were in common use to hold the ashes
of the deceased after the body had been
subjected to incremation, which was the
usual mode of disposing of it. He who
would desire to be learned upon this subject

should read Sir Thomas Browne's

URUGUAY

VALE

celebrated work entitled Hydriotaphice, or

Urn Burial, where everything necessary to
be known on this topic may be found. In
Masonry, the cinerary urn has been intro-

New World." Up to 1856, other Lodges

were established by the G. Bodies of France
and Brazil. In that year authority was obtained from the Supreme Council and Grand
Orient of Brazil, Valley of Lavradio, to establish a governing Masonic body, and the
Supreme Council and Grand Orient of

850

duced as a modern symbol, but always as

having reference to the burial of the Temple
Builder. In the comparatively recent symbol of the Monument, fabricated by Cross
for the degree of Master in the American
Eite, the urn is introduced as if to remind
the beholder that the ashes of the great artist were there deposited.
Cross borrowed,
it may be supposed, his idea from an older
symbol in the high degrees, where, in the
description of the tomb of Hiram Abif, it
is said that the heart was enclosed in a
golden urn, to the side of which a triangular stone was affixed, inscribed with the
letters J. M. B. within a wreath of acacia,
and placed on the top of an obelisk.

Uruguay. Freemasonry was introduced into the Eepublic of Uruguay by the

Grand Orient of France, which, in 1827,
chartered a Lodge called " the Children of

the

regularly constituted at Montevideo, in the A. A. Scottish Rite.

Usages, See Usages, in Addendum.

Uruguay was

Utah.

Freemasonry was introduced

by the
Grand Lodge of Montana, which chartered
Wasatch Lodge, No. 8. Mount Moriah
Lodge, No. 70, was chartered October 21,
1868, by the Grand Lodge of Kansas, and
Argenta Lodge, No. 21, by the Grand
Lodge of Colorado, September 26, 1871.
All of these Lodges are situated in Salt
Lake City. In January 16-20, 1872, the
representatives of the three Lodges met at
Salt Lake City and organized the Grand
Lodge of Utah, O. F. Strickland being

into the Territory, October 7, 1867,

elected

Grand Master.

V.
Office. Every Ma- " our ancient brethren met on the highest
and installed to hold hills, the lowest dales, even in the valley
his office for the time for which he has been of Jehoshaphat, or some such secret place."
Hutchinson (Sp. of Mas., p. 58,) has dilated
elected, and until his successor shall be installed.
This is in the nature of a contract on this subject, but, as I think, with a misbetween the officer and the Lodge, Chapter, taken view of the true import of the symor other body which has elected him, and bol. He says: "We place the spiritual
to its terms he signifies his assent in the Lodge in the vale of Jehoshaphat, implymost solemn manner at the time of his in- ing thereby that the principles of Masonry
stallation.
It follows from this that to are derived from the knowledge of God,
resign the office would be on his part to and are established in the judgment of
violate his contract.
Vacancies in office, the Lord. " And he adds " The highest
Even hills and lowest valleys were from the
therefore, can only occur by death.
a removal from the jurisdiction, with the earliest times esteemed sacred, and it was
intention of permanent absence, will not supposed the spirit of God was peculiarly
vacate a Masonic office, because the person diffusive in those places."
It is true that worship in high places
removing might change his intention, and
return.
For the reasons why neither res- was an ancient idolatrous usage. But
ignation nor removal can vacate an office, there is no evidence that the superstition
extended to valleys. Hutchinson's subsesee Succession to the Chair.
Vale or Valley. The vale or valley quent reference to the Druidical and
was introduced at an early period into the Oriental worship in groves has no bearing
symbolism of Masonry. A catechism of on the subject, for groves are not necessarily

Vacancies in

sonic officer

is

elected

the beginning of the last century says that

" the Lodge stands upon holy ground, or
the highest hill or lowest vale, or in the
vale of Jehoshaphat, or any other secret
place." And Browne, who in the beginning
of the present century gave a correct version of the Prestonian lectures, says that

The particular reference to the

valley of Jehoshaphat would seem in that
case to carry an allusion to the peculiar
sanctity of that spot, as meaning, in the
original, the valley of the judgment of God.
But the fact is that the old Masons did not
derive their idea, that the Lodge was situ-

valleys.

VALLEY
ated in a valley, from
tice of the ancients.

VAULT

any idolatrous prac-

Valley, in Masonry, is a symbol of

secrecy.
And although I am not disposed
to believe that the use of the word in this
sense was

which

it

borrowed from any meaning

in Hebrew, yet it is a singu-

had

lar coincidence that the Hebrew word for

valley, gnemeth, signifies also " deep," or, as
Bate ( Critica Hebrcea) defines it, " whatever
lies remote from sight, as counsels and de-

signs

word

which are deep or close." This very

is used in Job xii. 22, where it is

said that God " discovereth deep things out

of darkness, and bringeth out to light the
shadow of death."
The Lodge, therefore, is said to be placed
in a valley because, the valley being the
symbol of secrecy, it is intended to indicate
the secrecy in which the acts of the Lodge
should be concealed. And this interpretation agrees precisely with what is said in
the passages already cited, where the Lodge
is said to stand in the lowest vale " or any
It is supported also by the
secret place."
present lecture in this country, the ideas
of which at least Webb derived from Preston.
It is there taught that our ancient
brethren met on the highest hills and
lowest vales, the better to observe the approach of cowans and eavesdroppers, and to
guard against surprise.
Valley. In the capitular degrees of
the French Rite, this word is used instead
of Orient, to designate the seat of the
Chapter. Thus on such a body a document would be dated from the " Valley of
Paris," instead of the "Orient of Paris."
The word, says the Dictionnaire Magonnique,
is often incorrectly employed to designate
the south and north sides of the Lodge,
where the expression should be " the column of the south " and " the column of

the north." Thus, a Warden will address

the brethren of his valley, instead of the
brethren of his column.
The valley includes
the whole Lodge or Chapter; the columns
are its divisions.

Vassal, Pierre Gerard.

A French

physician and Masonic writer, who was

born at Manosques, in France, October 14,
1769. He was intended by his parents for
the Church, and entered the Seminary of
Marseilles for the purpose of pursuing his
ecclesiastical studies.
At the commencement of the revolution he left the school
and joined the army, where, however, he
remained only eighteen months. He then
applied himself to the study of medicine,
and pursued the practice of the profession
during the rest of his life, acquiring a large
reputation as a physician. He was elected
a member of several medical societies, to
whose transactions he contributed several

851

valuable essays. He is said to have introduced to the profession the use of the digitalis purpurea as a remedial agent, especially in diseases of the heart.
He was
initiated into Masonry about the year 1811,
and thenceforth took an active part in the
He presided in the Lodge,
Institution.
Chapter, and Areopagus of the Sept Ecossais reunis with great zeal and devotion
was in 1819 elected Secretary General of
the Grand Orient, and in 1827 President of
He attained the
the College of Rites.
thirty-third degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, and was a warm advocate of
Scottish Masonry. But his zeal was tempered by his judgment, and he did not
hesitate to denounce the errors .that had
crept into the system, an impartiality of
criticism which greatly surprised Ragon.
His principal Masonic works are Essai historique sur I'institution du Hit JEcossais, etc.,
Paris, 1827, and a valuable historical contribution to Masonry entitled Cours complet de la Maconnerie, ou Histoire generate de
P Initiation depuis son Origine jusqu'a sou institution en France, Paris, 1832.
In private
life, Vassal was distinguished for his kind
heart and benevolent disposition.
The
Lodge of Sept Ecossais reunis presented
him a medal in 1830 as a recognition of
his active labors in Masonrv.
He died
May 4, 1840, at Paris.

Vault of Steel. {Voute d'acier.) The

French Masons so call the Arch of Steel,
which see.
Vault, Secret.

As a symbol, the

Se-

Vault does not present itself in the

primary degrees of Masonry. It is found
only in the high degrees, such as the Royal
Arch of all the Rites, where it plays an
important part. Dr. Oliver, in his Historical Landmarks, (vol. ii., p. 434,) gives,
while referring to the building of the second
Temple, the following general detail of the
Masonic legend of this vault.
"The foundations of the Temple were
opened, and cleared from the accumulation
of rubbish, that a level might be procured
cret

the commencement of the building.

While engaged in excavations for this purfor

pose, three fortunate sojourners are said to

have discovered our ancient stone of foundation, which had been deposited in the secret crypt by Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty,
to prevent the communication of ineffable
secrets to profane or unworthy persons.
The discovery having been communicated
to the prince, prophet, and priest of the
Jews, the stone was adopted as the chief
corner-stone of the re-edified building, and
thus became, in a new and more expressive
sense, the type of a more excellent dispensation.
avenue was also accidentally

An

discovered,

supported by seven

pair of

VAULT

VAULT

which, from their

had escaped the fury of the flames
that had consumed the Temple, and the
desolation of war that had destroyed the
The secret vault, which had been
city.
built by Solomon as a secure depository for
certain secrets that would inevitably have
been lost without some such expedient for
their preservation, communicated by a subterranean avenue with the king's palace;

viewed with equal reverence by Jews and

Mohammedans, the former of whom, says
Mr. Prime, (Tent Life in the Holy Land, p.
183,) " have a faith that the ark is within
its bosom now."
Bartlett, ( Walks about Jerusalem^. 170,)
in describing a vault beneath this mosque
of Omar, says " Beneath the dome, at the

52

pillars, perfect arid entire,

situation,

but at the destruction of Jerusalem the

entrance having been closed by the rubbish
of falling buildings, it had been discovered
by the appearance of a keystone, amongst
the foundations of the sanctum sanctorum.
A careful inspection was then made, and
the invaluable secrets were placed in safe
custody."
To support this legend, there is no historical evidence and no authority except
that of the Talmudic writers. It is clearly
a mythical symbol, and as such we must
accept it.
we cannot altogether reject it,
because it is so intimately and so extensively connected with the symbolism of the
Lost and the Recovered Word, that if we
reject the theory of the Sacret Vault, we
must abandon all of that symbolism, and
with it the whole of the science of Masonic
symbolism. Fortunately, there is ample
evidence in the present appearance of Jerusalem and its subterranean topography,
to remove from any tacit and, as it were,
conventional assent to the theory, features
of absurdity or impossibility.
Considered simply as a historical question, there can be no doubt of the existence
of immense vaults beneath the superstructure of the original Temple of Solomon.
Prime, Robison, and other writers who in
recent times have described the topography
of Jerusalem, speak of the existence of
these structures, which they visited and, in

some

instances, carefully examined.

After the destruction of Jerusalem by

Titus, the Roman Emperor Hadrian erected
on the site of the "House of the Lord" a
temple of Venus, which in its turn was destroyed, and the place subsequently became
a depository of all manner of filth. But
the Caliph Omar, after his conquest of Jerusalem, sought out the ancient site, and,
having caused it to be cleansed of its impurities, he directed a mosque to be erected
on the rock which rises in the centre of
the mountain. Fifty years afterward the
Sultan Abd-el-Meluk displaced the edifice
of Omar, and erected that splendid building which remains to this day, and is still
incorrectly called by Christians the mosque
of Omar, but known to Mussulmans as Elkubbet-es-Sukrah, or the Dome of the Rock.
This is supposed to occupy the exact site
of the original Solomonic Temple, and is

south-east angle of the Temple wall, conspicuous from all points, is a small subterraneous place of prayer, forming the entrance to the extensive vaults which support the level platform of the mosque
above."
Dr. Barclay ( City of the Great King) describes, in many places of his interesting
topography of Jerusalem, the vaults and
subterranean chambers which are to be
found beneath the site of the old Temple.

Conformable with this historical account

the Talmudical legend, in which the
Jewish Rabbins state that, in preparing
the foundations of the Temple, the workis

men

discovered a subterranean vault sustained by seven arches, rising from as many

pairs of pillars.
This vault escaped notice
at the destruction of Jerusalem, in consequence of its being filled with rubbish.
The legend adds that Josiah, foreseeing
the destruction of the Temple, commanded
the Levites to deposit the ark of the cove-

nant in this vault, where it was found by

some of the workmen of Zerubbabel at the
building of the second Temple.
In the earliest ages, the cave or vault
was deemed sacred. The first worship was
in cave temples, which were either natural
or formed by art to resemble the excavations of nature.
Of such great extent was
this practice of subterranean worship by
the nations of antiquity, that many of the
forms of heathen temples, as well as the
naves, aisles, and chancels of churches
subsequently built for Christian worship,
are said to owe their origin to the religious
use of caves.
From this, too, arose the fact, that the
initiation into the ancient mysteries was almost always performed in subterranean
edifices
and when the place of initiation,
as in some of the Egyptian temples, was
really above ground, it was so constructed
as to give to the neophyte the appearance,
in its approaches and its internal structure,
of a vault. As the great doctrine taught
in the mysteries was the resurrection from
as to die and to be initiated were
the dead,
synonymous terms, it was deemed proper
that there should be some formal resemblance between a descent into the grave
and a descent into the place of initiation.
" Happy is the man," says the Greek poet
Pindar, "who descends beneath the hollow
earth having beheld these mysteries, for
;

;
:;

VEDAS

VEILS

knows the end as well as the divine

;
origin of life " and in a like spirit Sophocles exclaims, " Thrice happy are they who
descend to the shades below after having
beheld these sacred rites, for they alone
have life in Hades, while all others suffer
there every kind of evil."
The vault was, therefore, in the ancient
mysteries, symbolic of the grave for initiation was symbolic of death, where alone
Divine Truth is to be found. The Masons
have adopted the same idea. They teach
that death is but the beginning of life
that if the first or evanescent temple of our
transitory life be on the surface, we must
descend into the secret vault of death before
we can find that sacred deposit of truth
which is to adorn our second temple of
It is in this sense of an eneternal life.
trance through the grave into eternal life
that we are to view the symbolism of the
Like every other myth and
secret vault.
allegory of Masonry, the historical relation
may be true or it may be false it may be
founded on fact or be the invention of imagination the lesson is still there, and the symbolism teaches it exclusive of the history.

whence the Greeks got their

Ouranas ; and next was the Sun, called
sometimes Savitar, the progenitor, and
sometimes Mitra, the loving one, whence
the Persian Mithras. Side by side with
these was Agni, fire, whence the Latin
ignis, who was the divinity coming most
directly in approximation with man on
earth, and soaring upwards as the flame to
But in this naturethe heavenly gods.
worship the Vedas frequently betray an
inward spirit groping after the infinite
and the eternal, and an anxious search for
the divine name, which was to be reverenced just as the Hebrew aspired after the
unutterable Tetragrammaton. Bunsen {God
in History, b. iii., ch. 7,) calls this "the desire
the yearning after the nameless
Deity, who nowhere manifests himself in
the Indian pantheon of the Vedas
the
voice of humanity groping after God."
One of the most sublime of the Veda
hymns [Rig- Veda, b. X. hymn 121) ends
each strophe with the solemn question:
" Who is the god to whom we shall offer
our sacrifice ? " This is the question which

lie

fc

Vedas. The

most ancient of the

ligious writings of the Indian Aryans,

re-

and

now

constituting the sacred canon of the

Hindus, being to them what the Bible is
to the Christians, or the Koran to the

The word Veda denotes

in Sanscrit, the language in which these
books are written, wisdom or knowledge,
and comes from the verb Veda, which, like
the Greek 016a, Foida, signifies " I know."
The German weiss and the English wit
came from the same root. There are four
collections, each of which is called a Veda,
namely, the Rig- Veda, the Yazur-Veda,

Mohammedans.

853

called Varuna,

every religion asks; the search after the

All-Father is the labor of all men who are
seeking divine truth and light. The Semitic, like the Aryan poet in the same longing
spirit for the knowledge of God, exclaims,
" Oh that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his seat." It is
the great object of all Masonic labor, which
thus shows its true religious character and
design.

Mason.

The Vedas have not exercised any direct

influence on the symbolism of Freemasonry.
But, as the oldest Aryan faith, they became
infused into the subsequent religious systems of the race, and through the ZendAvesta of the Zoroastrians, the mysteries of
Mithras, the doctrines of theNeo-platonists,
and the school of Pythagoras, mixed with
the Semitic doctrines of the Bible and the
Talmud, they have cropped out in the
mysticism of the Gnostics and the secret
societies of the Middle Ages, and have
shown some of their spirit in the religious philosophy and the symbolism of
Speculative Masonry.
To the Masonic
scholar, the study of the Vedic hymns is
therefore interesting, and not altogether
fruitless in its results.
The writings of
Bunsen, of Muir, of Cox, and especially of
Max Miiller, will furnish ample materials
for the study.
Vehm-gericlit. See Westphalia, Secret Tribunal of.

The religion of the Vedas is apparently

an adoration of the visible powers of nature,
such as the sun, the sky, the dawn, and the
fire, and, in general, the eternal powers of
The supreme divinity was the sky,
light.

Three officers in a Royal Arch Chapter of

the American Rite, whose duty it is to protect and defend the Veils of the Tabernacle,
for which purpose they are presented with

the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva- Veda

but the first only is the real Veda, the others
being but commentaries on it, as the Talmud is upon the Old Testament.
The Rig- Veda is divided into two parts
the Mantras or hymns, which are all metrical, and the Brahmanes, which are in prose,
and consist of ritualistic directions concerning the employment of the hymns, and
the method of sacrifice. The other Vedas
consist also of hymns and prayers; but
they are borrowed, for the most part, from
the Rig-Veda.
The Vedas, then, are the Hindu canon of
his book of the law; and to
Scripture
the Hindu Mason they are his trestleboard, just as the Bible is to the Christian

Veils,

Grand Masters of

the.

854

VEILS

VEILS

a sword. The jewel of their office is a the symbolism of the veils as a whole, and
sword within a triangle, and they bear each next, as to the symbolism of each veil sepa banner, which is respectively blue, purple, arately.
As a whole, the four veils, constituting
and scarlet. The title of "Grand Master"
appears to be a misnomer. It would have four divisions of the tabernacle, present
"
"
obstacles to the neophyte in his advance
been better to have styled them Masters
or "Guardians." In the English system, to the most holy place where the Grand
the three Sojourners act in this capacity, Council sits. Now he is seeking to advance
which is an absurd violation of all the facts to that sacred spot that he may there reof history, and completely changes the ceive his spiritual illumination, and be
invested with a knowledge of the true Disymbolism.
Veils, Symbolism of the. Neither vine name. But Masonicaliy, this Divine
the construction nor the symbolism of the name is itself but a symbol of Truth, the
veils in the Royal Arch tabernacle is de- object, as has been often said, of all a Marived from that of the Sinai tic. In the son's search and labor. The passage through
Sinaitic tabernacle there were no veils of the veils is, therefore, a symbol of the trials
separation between the different parts, ex- and difficulties that are encountered and
cept the one white one that hung before must be overcome in the search for and the
the most holy place. The decorations of acquisition of Truth.
This is the general symbolism but we
the tabernacle were curtains, like modern
tapestry, interwoven with many colors no lose sight of it, in a great degree, when we
curtain being wholly of one color, and not come to the interpretation of the symbolism
running across the apartment, but covering of each veil independently of the others,
The exterior form of for this principally symbolizes the various
its sides and roof.
the Royal Arch tabernacle was taken from virtues and affections that should characterthat of Moses, but the interior decoration ize the Mason. Yet the two symbolisms
from a passage of Josephus not properly are really connected, for the virtues symbolized are those which should distinguish
understood.
Josephus has been greatly used by the every one engaged in the Divine search.
The symbolism, according to the system
fabricators of high degrees of Masonry,
not only for their ideas of symbolism, but adopted in the American Rite, refers to the
In the colors of the veils and to the miraculous
for the suggestion of their legends.
Second Book of Chronicles (iii. 14), it is signs of Moses, which are described in Exsaid that Solomon "made the veil of blue, odus as having been shown by him to prove
and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, his mission as the messenger of Jehovah.
and wrought cherubims thereon." This
Blue is a symbol of universal friendship
description evidently alludes to the single and benevolence.
It is the appropriate
;

which, like that of the Sinaitic tabwas placed before the entrance of
the holy of holies. It by no means resembles the four separate and equidistant veils
of the Masonic tabernacle.
But Josephus had said (Antiq., 1. viii., c.
iii., I 3), that the king "also had veils of
veil,

ernacle,

blue, and purple, and scarlet, and the

brightest and softest linen, with the most
curious flowers wrought upon them, which
were to be drawn before these doors." To
which is a very inaccurate
this description
one, which refers, too, to the interior of the
first Temple, and not to the supposed tabernacle subsequently erected near its ruins,
and which, besides, has no biblical authority for its support we must trace the ideas,
even as to the order of the veils, which the
inventors of the Masonic tabernacle- adopted in their construction of it. That tabernacle cannot be recognized as historically correct, but must be considered, like the
three doors of the Temple in the symbolic
But this does
degrees, simply as a symbol.
not at all diminish its value.

The symbolism of the veils must be considered in two aspects first, in reference to
;

color of the symbolic degrees, the possession of which is the first step in the progress of the search for truth to be now instituted.
The Mosaic sign of the serpent
was the symbol among the ancients of resurrection to life, because the serpent, by
casting his skin, is supposed continually to
renew his youth. It is the symbol here of
the loss and the recovery of the Word.
Purple is a symbol here of union, and refers to the intimate connection of Ancient
Craft and Royal Arch Masonry. Hence it
is the appropriate color of the intermediate
degrees, which must be passed through in
the prosecution of the search. The Mosaic
sign refers to the restoration of the leprous
hand to health. Here again, in this representation of a diseased limb restored to
health, we have a repetition of the allusion
to the loss and the recovery of the Word ;
the Word itself being but a symbol of Divine truth, the search for which constitutes
the whole science of Freemasonry, and the
symbolism of which pervades the whole
system of initiation from the first to the
last degree.
Scarlet is a symbol of fervency and zeal,

VENERABLE

VENGEANCE

and is appropriated to the Royal Arch degree because it is by these qualities that
the neophyte, now so far advanced in his
progress, must expect to be successful in his
search.
The Mosaic sign of changing water into wine bears the same symbolic referfrom a
ence to a change for the better
from the elemental
lower to a higher state
water in which there is no life to the* blood
from darkness to
which is the life itself
light.
The progress is still onward to the
recovery of that which had been lost, but
which is yet to be found.
White is a symbol of purity, and is peculiarly appropriate to remind the neophyte, who is now almost at the close of
his search, that it is only by purity of life
that he can expect to be found worthy of
the reception of divine truth. " Blessed,"
says the Great Teacher, "are the pure in

tablished by the same authority. In 1825,

Cerneau, the head of the irregular Supreme
Council at New York, established in Caracas a Grand Lodge and Supreme Council
of the Scottish Rite. In 1827, the Liberator, Simon Bolivar, having by his decree
prohibited all secret societies, the Masonic
Lodges, with the exception of the one at
Porto Cabello, suspended their labors. In
1830, Venezuela having become independent by the division of the Colombian Republic, several brethren obtained from some
of the dignitaries of the extinct Grand
Lodge, in their capacity as Sovereign Inspectors General of the thirty-third degree, a temporary Dispensation to hold a
Lodge for one year, in the expectation that
they would, in the course of that time, be
enabled to obtain a Charter from some foreign Grand Lodge. But their efforts, in
consequence of irregularities, were unsuccessful, and the Lodge was suspended.

heart, for they shall see

God."

The Mosaic

signs now cease, for they have taught their

lesson and the aspirant is invested with
the Signet of Truth, to assure him that,
;

having endured all trials and overcome

all obstacles, he is at length entitled to receive the reward for which he has been
seeking for the Signet of Zerubbabel is a
royal signet, which confers power and authority on him who possesses it.
;

And

so we now see that the Symbolism

of the Veils, however viewed, whether collectively or separately, represent the laborious, but at last successful, search for di-

vine truth.

Venerable. The
ful

title

of a Worship-

Master in a French Lodge.

Tenerable Grand Master of all

Symbolic Lodges. The twentieth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite. See Grand Master of all Symbolic
Lodges. The Dictionnaire Magonnique says
that this degree was formerly conferred on
those brethren in France who, in receiving
it, obtained the right to organize Lodges,
and to act as Masters or Venerables for life,
an abuse that was subsequently abolished
by the Grand Orient. Ragon and Vassal
both make the same statement. It may be
true, but they furnish no documentary evidence of the fact. An examination of an
old MS. French ritual of the degree, when
it formed part of the Rite of Perfection,
is in my possession, shows nothing
in the catechism that renders this theory
of its origin improbable.
Venerable, Perfect. ( Venerable
degree in the collection of
Parfait.)

which

Viany.

Veneznelal Freemasonry

855

For eight years, Freemasonry in Venezuwas in a dormant condition. But in

1838 the Masonic spirit was revived, the
Lodge just referred to renewed its labors,
the old Lodges were resuscitated, and the
National Grand Lodge of Venezuela was
constituted, whether regularly or not, it is
ela

impossible at this time, with the insufficient

light before us, to determine.
It was, however, recognized by several foreign bodies.
The Grand Lodge thus established, issued
Charters to all the old Lodges, and erected
new ones. In conjunction with the Inspectors General, it established a supreme
legislative body, under the name of the
Grand Orient, and also constituted a Grand
Lodge, which continued to exist, with only
a few changes, made in 1852, until the present Grand

Lodge and Supreme Council were

There are
established, January 12, 1865.
at present in Venezuela a Grand Lodge,
which, in 1870, had thirty-two Lodges under its obedience, and a Supreme Council
of the Scottish Rite.
word used in the high
degrees.
Barruel, Robison, and the other
detractors of Freemasonry, have sought to
find in this word a proof of the vindictive
character of the Institution. " In the degree of Kadosh," says Barruel, {Memoires,
ii. 310,)
"the assassin of Adoniram becomes the king, who must be slain to avenge

Vengeance. A

the Grand Master Molay and the Order of

Masons, who are the successors of the Templars."

No calumny was

ever fabricated with so

pretension to truth for its foundation.
The reference is altogether historical it is
the record of the punishment which followed a crime, not an incentive to revenge.
The word nekam is used in Masonry in
precisely the same sense in which it is emlittle

first

pene-

trated into Venezuela in the beginning of

the present century, when a Lodge was
instituted by the Grand Orient of Spain.

Several other Lodges were subsequently es-

VERGER

856

VERTOT
from Joseph K. Stapleton, Deputy General
Grand High Priest of the United States.
The Grand Council of Royal and Select
The Masters was organized August 19, 1854, by

ployed by the prophet Jeremiah (1. 15)

when he speaks of nikemat Jehovah, "the
vengeance of the Lord/'
the punishment

which God will inflict on evil-doers.

word is used symbolically to express the

universally recognized doctrine that crime

will inevitably be followed by its penal conIt is the dogma of all true resequences.
ligions
for if virtue and vice entailed the
same result, there would be no incentive to
the one and no restraint from the other.
Verger. An officer in a Council of
Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, whose duties are similar to those of a Senior Deacon
in a Symbolic Lodge.
;

Vermont. Freemasonry was introduced into the State of Vermont in 1781, in

which year the Grand Lodge of Massachugranted a Charter for the establishThis town
at Cornish.
having soon afterwards been claimed by
New Hampshire, the Lodge removed to
Windsor, on the opposite side of the river.
In 1785, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts
chartered another Lodge at the town of
Manchester. A Grand Lodge was organized October 19, 1794, at Rutland. I have
been unable to find any record of the number of Lodges that were engaged in that
organization, nor is there any evidence that
there were at that time in existence in Vermont any other than the two which had
been chartered by the Grand Lodge of Massetts

ment of a Lodge

sachusetts.

In no State of the Union did the antiMasonic party, as a political power, exercise so much influence as it did in Vermont. The Grand Lodge was, under the
pressure of persecution, compelled to susAll the Lodges
its labors in 1833.
under its jurisdiction surrendered their
Charters, and Masonry for fifteen years
had no active existence in that State. The
Grand Lodge, however, did not dissolve,

pend

a Convention of four Councils held at Vergennes, and Nathan B. Haswell was elected
Grand Master.
The Grand Encampment (now the Grand
Commandery) was originally organized in
1825. It subsequently became dormant.
In 1850, the Grand Encampment was revived but it appearing that the revival was
attended by irregularities, and in violation
of the Grand Constitution of the Grand
Encampment of the United States, the
members dissolved the body, and the Deputy Grand Master, William H. Ellis, having, in December, 1850, issued a commission to three subordinate Encampments to
organize a Grand Encampment, that body
;

was formed January 14, 1852.

Vernhes, J. F. A French litterateur
and Masonic writer, who was in 1821 the
Venerable of the Lodge la Parfaite Humanite at Montpellier. He wrote an Essai
sur VHistoire de la Franche-Magonnerie,
depuis son etablissement jusq'a nos jours,
Paris, 1813
and Le Par/ait Macon ou Repertoire complet de la Magonnerie Sym;

This work was published at Montnumbers, of which

the sixth was republished the next year,
with the title of Apologie des Magons. It
contained a calm and rational refutation
of several works which had been written
against "Freemasonry. Vernhes became an
active disciple of the Rite of Mizraim, and
published in 1822, at Paris, a defence of it
and an examination of the various Rites
then practised in France.
bolique.

pellier, in 1820, in six

Vertot d'Aubceuf, Rene*-Aubert

The Abbe Vertot was born at the

Chateau de Bennelot, in Normandy, in
1665. In 1715 the Grand Master of the
but continued its legal life by regular, Knights of Malta appointed him the hisalthough private, communications of the toriographer of that Order, and provided him
officers, and by adjournments, until the year with the Commandery of Santenay. Vertot
1846, when it resumed vigor, Bro. Nathan discharged the duties of his office by
B. Haswell, who was the Grand Master at writing his well-known work entitled Histhe time of the suspension, having taken tory of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John
the chair at the resumed communication in of Jerusalem, afterwards Knights of Rhodes,
January, 1846. The regularity of this re- and now Knights of Malta, which was pubsumption, although at first denied by the. lished at Paris, in 1726, in four volumes.
Grand Lodge of New York, was generally It has since passed through a great number
admitted by all the Grand Lodges of the of editions, and been translated into many
United States, with a welcome to which the languages. Of this work, to which the
devotion and steady perseverance of the Ma- Abb6 principally owes his fame, although
sons of Vermont had justly entitled them. he was also the author of many other hisThe Grand Chapter was organized De- tories, French critics complain that the
cember 20, 1804, Jonathan Wells being style is languishing, and less pure and
elected first Grand High Priest.
It shared natural than that of his other writings.
the destinies of the Grand Lodge during Notwithstanding that it has been the basis
the period of persecution, but was reorgan- of almost all subsequent histories of the
ized July 18, 1849, under a commission Order, the judgment of the literary world

de.

VINTON

VESICA
needs exactitude in many of its
is too much influenced by the
personal prejudices of the author. The
Abbe Vertot died in 1735.
is,

that

details,

it

Belli

and

cross.

Vesica Piscis. The

fish

was among

primitive Christians a symbol

The
of Jesus.
(See Fish.)
vesica piscis, signifying literally
the air-bladder of a fish, but,
as some suppose, being the
rough outline of a fish, was
adopted as an abbreviated form
of that symbol. In some old
manuscripts it is used as a
representation of the lateral
wound of our Lord. As a
symbol, it was frequently employed as a church decoration
by the Freemasons of the Middle Ages.
The seals of all
colleges, abbeys, and other religious communities, as well as of ecclesiastical persons, were invariably made of this shape.
Hence, in reference to the religious character of the Institution, it has been suggested
that the seals of Masonic Lodges should
also have that form, instead of the circular
one now used.

Vexillum

Belli.

war-flag.

In

classical Latin, Vexillum meant a flag consisting of a piece of cloth fixed on a frame
or cross-tree, as contradistinguished from

a signum, or standard, which was simply a

pole with the image of an eagle, horse, or
some other device on
Among the
the top.
pretended relics of the
Order of the Temple
is one called "le drapeau de guerre, eu laine
blanche, a quatre raies
noires ;" i.e., the standard of war, of white
linen, with four black rays; and in the
statutes of the Order, the Vexillum Belli is
described as being " albo nigroque palatum,"
or pales of white and black, which is the
same thing couched in the technical language of heraldry. This is incorrect. The
only war-flag of the ancient Knights TemAdplars was the Beauseant.
dison, on the title-page of his
Temple Church, gives what he
calls "the war-banner of the
Order of the Temple," and
which is, as in the margin/the
Beauseant, bearing in the centre
the blood-red Templar cross.
Some of the Masonic Templars,
those of Scotland, for example,
have both a Beaucenifer or
Beauseant bearer, and a bearer of the Vexillum Belli. The difference would appear
to be that the Beauseant is the plain
white and black flag, and' the Vexillum

5H

857

the same flag charged with the red

is

Viany, Auguste de.

Masonic

writer of Tuscany, and one of the founders

there of the Philosophic Scottish Rite. He
was the author of many discourses, dissertations, and didactic essays on Masonic
subjects.
He is, however, best known as
the collector of a large number of manuscript degrees and cahiers or rituals, several
of which have been referred to in this

work.

Vielle-Bru, Bite of. In 1748, the

year after the creation of the Chapter of
Arras by the Young Pretender, Charles
Edward, a new Rite, in favor of the cause
of the Stuarts, was established at Toulouse
by, as it is said, Sir Samuel Lockhart, one
of the aides-de-camp of the Prince. It
was called the Rite of Vielle-Bru, or Faithful Scottish Masons.
It consisted of nine
degrees, divided into three chapters as follows: First Chapter, 1, 2, 3. The symbolic
degrees 4. Secret Master. /Second Chapter,
5, 6, 7, 8. Four elu degrees, based on the
Templar system. Third Chapter, 9. Scientific Masonry.
The head of the Rite was
a Council of Menatzchim. In 1804 the
Rite was refused a recognition by the Grand
Orient of France, because it presented no
moral or scientific object, and because the
Charter which it claimed to have from
Prince Charles Edward was not proved to
be authentic. It continued to exist in the
south of France until the year 1812, when,
being again rejected by the Grand Orient,
it fell into decay.
;

Villars,

Abbe Montfaucon

de.

He

was born in Languedoc in T.653, and

was shot by one of his relatives, on the high
road between Lyons and Paris, in 1675.

The Abbe Villars is celebrated as the author

of The Count de Gabalis, or Conversations on
the Secret Sciences, published in 2 vols., at
Paris, in 1670.
In this work the author's
design was, under the form of a romance, to
unveil some of the Kabbalistic mysteries
of Rosicrucianism. It has passed through
many editions, and has been translated
into English as well as into other lan-

Vincere aut Mori. French, Vaincre

ou Mourir, to conquer or to die. The motto
of the degree of Perfect Elect Mason, the
first of the tlus according to the Clermont
or Templar system of Masonry.
Vinton, David.

distinguished

lecturer on Masonry, and teacher of the

ritual in the first quarter of the present
century. His field of labors was principally confined to the Southern States, and
he taught his system for some time with
great success in North and South Carolina.
There were, however, stains upon his char-

VIOLET

VIRGINIA

and he was eventually expelled by, I

think, the Grand Lodge of the former State.
He died at Shakertown, Kentucky, in July,
1833. Vinton published at Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1816, a volume, containing
Selections of Masonic, Sentimental, and
Humorous songs, under the title of The Masonic Minstrel.
Of this rather trifling work
no less than twelve thousand copies were
sold by subscription. To Vinton's poetic
genius we are indebted for that beautiful
dirge commencing, "Solemn strikes the
funeral chime," which has now become in
almost all the Lodges of the United States
a part of the ritualistic ceremonies of the
third degree, and has been sung over the
graves of thousands of departed brethren.
This contribution should preserve the
memory of Vinton among the Craft, and
in some measure atone for his faults, whatever they may have been.

December 22, 1758, the " Eoyal Exchange

Lodge" at Norfolk was chartered by the
Athol or Ancient York Lodge. But between 1741 and 1758 the Lodge of Fredericksburg had sprung into existence, for its
records show that General Washington was
there initiated November 4, 1752.
This
Lodge was chartered by the Grand Lodge
of Massachusetts on July 21, 1758, but had

858
acter,

Violet. This is not a Masonic color,

except in some of the high degrees of the
Scottish Rite, where it is a symbol of mourning, and thus becomes one of the decorations of a Sorrow Lodge.
Portal ( Coleurs
Symboliques, p. 236,) says that this color was
adopted for mourning by persons of high
rank. And Campini ( Vetera Monumental)
states that violet was the mark of grief,
especially among kings and cardinals.
In
Christian art, the Saviour is clothed in a
purple robe during his passion and it is
the color appropriated, says Court de Gebelin, (Monde prim., viii. 201,) to martyrs,
because, like their divine Master, they undergo the punishment of the passion. Prevost (Hist, des Voyages, vi. 152,) says that
in China violet is the color of mourning.
Among that people blue is appropriated to
the dead and red to the living, because
with them red represents the vital heat,
and blue, immortality and hence, says
Portal, violet, which is made by an equal
admixture of blue and red, is a symbol of
the resurrection to eternal life. Such an
idea is peculiarly appropriate to the use of
violet in the high degrees of Masonry as a
symbol of mourning. It would be equally
appropriate in the primary degrees, for
everywhere in Masonry we are taught to
mourn not as those who have no hope.
Our grief for the dead is that of those who
believe in the immortal life. The red symbol of life is tinged with the blue of immortality, and thus we would wear the violet
as our mourning to declare our trust in the
;

resurrection.

Virginia.

There

is

much

obscurity

about the early history of Freemasonry in

this State.
The first chartered Lodge appears to have been the " St. John's Lodge"
at Norfolk, which received its Warrant in
1741 from the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

been acting under Dispensation for several

years before.
In 1777 there were ten
Lodges in Virginia, namely, two at Norfolk and one at each of the following places
Port Royal, Fredericksburg, Hampton,
Williamsburg, Gloucester, Cabin Point,
Petersburg, and Yorktown. On the 6th
of May in that year, deputies from five of
these Lodges met in convention at Williamsburg, " for the purpose of choosing a Grand
Master for Virginia." So says the record
as contained in Dove's Text- Book. The
convention, however, adjourned to June 23,
after stating its reasons for the election of

such an officer.
again adjourned.

On

that day it met, but

Finally, it met on October 13, 1778. The record calls it " a Convention of the Craft " but it assumed the
form of a Lodge, and the Master and Wardens of Williamsburg Lodge presided.
Only four Lodges were represented, namely,
Williamsburg, Blandford, Botetourt, and
Cabin Point. The modern forms of Masonic conventions are not found in the proceedings of this convention. Nothing is
said of the formation of a Grand Lodge,
but the following resolution was adopted
" It is the opinion of this Convention,
that it is agreeable to the Constitutions of
Masonry that all the regular chartered
Lodges within this State should be subject to the Grand Master of the said State."
;

Accordingly, John Blair, Past Master of

the Williamsburg Lodge, was nominated
and unanimously elected, and on the same
day he was installed, by the Master of Williamsburg Lodge, as " Grand Master of Free
and Accepted Masons of the State of VirAll this was done, if we may trust
ginia."
the record, in Williamsburg Lodge, the
Master thereof presiding, who afterwards
closed the Lodge without any reference to
the organization of a Grand Lodge.
may, however, imply that such a body was
without, however,
then formed, for Dove
giving any account of the proceedings in
the interval, when there might or might not
have been quarterly or annual communications
says that a Grand Lodge was held
in the city of Richmond, October 4, 1784,
when Grand Master Blair having resigned
the chair, James Mercer was elected Grand
Master. Dove dates the organization of the

We

Grand Lodge at October 13, 1778.

Royal Arch Masonry was introduced

VIRGIN

VISITATION

into Virginia, it is said, by Joseph Myers,

who was acting under his authority as
a Deputy Inspector of the Scottish Rite.

conveyed by these words. By " Invisible

Masonry " they denoted that body of intelligent and virtuous Masons who, irre-

The Grand Chapter was organized

spective of any connection with dogmatic

authorities, constituted " a Mysterious and
Invisible Society of the True Sons of Light,"
who, scattered over the two hemispheres,
were engaged, with one heart and soul, in
doing everything for the glory of the Grand
Architect and the good of their fellow-men.
By " Visible Masonry " they meant the
congregation of Masons into Lodges, which
were often affected by the contagious vices
of the age in which they lived. The former is perfect the latter continually needs
The words were originally
purification.
invented to effect a particular purpose, and
to bring the recusant Lodges of France
But they might be
into their obedience.
advantageously preserved, in the technical
language of Masonry, for a more general
and permanent object. Invisible Masonry
would then indicate the abstract spirit of
Masonry as it has always existed, while
Visible Masonry would refer to the concrete form which it assumes in Lodge and
Chapter organizations, and in different Rites
and systems. The latter would be like the
material church, or church militant the
former like the spiritual church, or church

May

at

Nor-

has never recognized the authority of the General Grand

Chapter.
The Cryptic degrees are conferred in
Virginia in the Chapters preparatory to
the Royal Arch. There are therefore no
Councils of Royal and Select Masters in
the State.
The register, or roll published in the Profolk,

1,

1808.

It

ceedings of the Grand Encampment of the

United States for 1871, (p. 27,) states that

the Grand Commandery of Virginia was

organized, November 27, 1823. But from
a report of the committee of the Grand

Encampment, made September 17, 1847,

we learn the following facts. In 1824 there
existed three subordinate Encampments in
Virginia, which about the year 1826 formed
a Grand Encampment, that was represented
that year in the General Grand Encampment. It is supposed that this body ceased
to exist soon after its organization, and a
Charter was granted, by the General Grand

an Encampment to meet

Encampment,

for

at Wheeling.

On December

11, 1845, delegates from various Encampments in Virginia met at Richmond and organized a
new Grand Encampment which they declared to be independent of the General
Grand Encampment. At the session of
the latter body in 1847, it declared this
new Grand Encampment to be " irregular
and unauthorized," and it refused to recognize it or its subordinates. Wheeling En-

campment, however, was acknowledged to

be a lawful body, as it had not given its
adhesion to the irregular Grand Encampment. In January, 1851,, the Grand Encampment of Virginia receded from its position of independence, and was recognized
by the General Grand Encampment as one
of

its

1861,

constituents.

when

the

It so

remained until

Grand Commandery

(the

which had been adopted in 1859)

seceded from the Grand Encampment in
title

consequence of the civil war. It, however,

returned to its allegiance in 1865, and has
ever since remained a regular portion of
the Templar Order of the United States.
Virgin, Weeping. See Weeping
Virgin.

divisions of the Order, namely, Visible

triumphant. Such terms might be found

convenient to Masonic scholars and writers.
Visitation, Grand. The visit of aGrand Master, accompanied by his Grand
Officers, to a subordinate Lodge, to inspect
its condition, is called a Grand Visitation.
There is no allusion to anything of the
kind in the Old Constitutions, because
there was no organization of the Order before the eighteenth centuiy that made such
an inspection necessary. But immediately
after the revival in 1717, it was found expedient, in consequence of the growth of
Lodges in London, to provide for some
form of visitation and inspection. So, in
the very first of the Thirty-nine General
Regulations, adopted in 1721, it is declared
that " the Grand Master or his Deputy hath
authority and right not only to be present
in any true Lodge, but also to preside wherever he is, with the Master of the Lodge on
his left hand, and to order his Grand Wardens to attend him, who are not to act in
any particular Lodges as Wardens, but in
because
his presence and at his command
there the Grand Master may command the
Wardens of that Lodge, or any other brethren he pleaseth, to attend and act as his
Wardens pro tempore"
In compliance with this old regulation,
whenever the Grand Master, accompanied
by his Wardens and other officers, visits a
Lodge in his jurisdiction, for the purpose
of inspecting its condition, the Master and
;

Visible Masonry. In a circular

published March 18, 1775, by the Grand
Orient of France, reference is made to two
and

Masonry. Did we not know something of the Masonic contentions then existing in France between the Lodges and
the supreme authority, we should hardly
comprehend the meaning intended to be
Invisible

859

VOGEL

VISITING

860

Lodge thus visited surrender nience and this is called, in Masonic law,
Grand Master and the " the right of visit." It is one of the most
Grand Officers.
important of all Masonic privileges, beGrand Visitations are among the oldest cause it is based on the principle of the
usages of Freemasonry since the revival identity of the Masonic institution as one
period.
In this country they are not now universal family, and is the exponent of
so frequently practised, in consequence of that well-known maxim that "in every
the extensive territory over which the clime a Mason may find a home, and in
Lodges are scattered, and the difficulty of every land a brother." It has been so long
collecting at one point all the Grand Offi- and so universally admitted, that I have not
officers

of the

their seats to the

cers, many of whom generally reside at

great distances apart. Still, where it can
be done, the practice of Grand Visitations
should never be neglected.
The power of visitation for inspection is
confined to the Grand and Deputy Grand
Master. The Grand Wardens possess no
such prerogative. The Master must always
tender the gavel and the chair to the Grand
or Deputy Grand Master when either of
them informally visits a Lodge; for the
Grand Master and, in his absence, the
Deputy have the right to preside in all
Lodges where they may be present. But
this privilege does not extend to the Grand

Wardens.

hesitated to rank it among the landmarks

of the Order.
The admitted doctrine on this subject is,
that the right of visit is one of the positive
rights of every Mason, because Lodges are
justly considered as only divisions for convenience of the universal Masonic family.
The right may, of course, be lost, or forfeited on special occasions, by various circumstances but any Master who shall refuse admission to a Mason in good standing,
who knocks at the door of his Lodge, is
expected to furnish some good and satisfactory reason for his thus violating a Masonic
right.
If the admission of the applicant,
whether a member or visitor, would, in his
opinion, be attended with injurious consequences, such, for instance, as impairing
the harmony of the Lodge, a Master would
then, I presume, be justified in refusing
admission.
But without the existence of
some such good reason, Masonic jurists
have always decided that the right of visitation is absolute and positive, and inures
to every Mason in his travels throughout
the world. See this subject discussed in its
fullest extent in the author's Text Book of
Masonic Jurisprudence, pp. 203-216.
Vivat. " Vivat vivat vivat " is the
;

Visiting Brethren. Every brother

from abroad, or from any other Lodge,
when he visits a Lodge, must be received
with welcome and treated with hospitality.
He must be clothed, that is to say, furnished
with an apron, and, if the Lodge uses them,
(as every Lodge should,) with gloves, and,
if a Past Master, with the jewel of his
rank. He must be directed to a seat, and
the utmost courtesy extended to him. If
of distinguished rank in the Order, the
honors due to that rank must be paid to
him.
This hospitable and courteous spirit is acclamation which accompanies the honors
derived from the ancient customs of the in the French Eite. Bazot {Manuel, p. 165,)
Craft, and is inculcated in all the Old Con- says it is " the cry of joy of Freemasons of
stitutions.
Thus, in the Stone MS., it is the French Eite." Vivat is a Latin word,
directed "that every Mason receive and and signifies, literally, " May he live " but
cherish strange fellowes when they come it has been domiciliated in French, and
over the countrie, and sett them on worke, Boiste {Dictionnaire Universel) defines it as
if they will worke, as the manner is
that "a cry of applause which expresses the
wish for the preservation of any one." The
is to say, if the Mason have any mould
stone in his place, he shall give him a French Masons say, " He was received with
mould stone, and sett him on worke and the triple vivat," to denote that " He was
if he have none, the Mason shall refresh received with the highest honors of the
him with money unto the next Lodge." Lodge."
A similar regulation is found in all the Vogel, Paul Joachim SigisA distinguished Masonic writer
ii nd.
other manuscripts of the Operative Masons; and from them the usage has de- of Germany, who was born in 1753. He
was at one time co-rector of the Sebastian
scended to their speculative successors.
At all Lodge banquets it is of obligation School at Altdorf, and afterwards First
that a toast shall be drunk " to the visiting Professor of Theology and Ecclesiastical
brethren."
To neglect this would be a Counsellor at Erlangen. In 1785 he published at Nuremberg, in three volumes, his
great breach of decorum.
Visit, Right of. Every affiliated Ma- Briefe, die Freimaurerei betreffend; or, "Letson in good standing has a right to visit ters concerning Freemasonry." The first
any other Lodge, wherever it may be, as volume treats of the Knights Templars;
and
often as it may suit his pleasure or conve- the second, of the Ancient Mysteries
!

VOIGT

VOUCHING

the third, of Freemasonry. This was, says

Kloss, the first earnest attempt made in
Germany to trace Freemasonry to a true,
historical origin.
Vogel's theory was, that
the Speculative Freemasons were derived
from the Operative or Stonemasons of the
Middle Ages. The abundant documentary
evidence that more recent researches have
produced were then wanting, and the views
of Vogel did not make that impression to
which they were entitled. He has, however, the credit of having opened the way,
after the AJ^be Grandidier, for those who
have followed him in the same field. He
also delivered before the Lodges of Nuremberg, several Discourses on the Design,
Character, and Origin of Freemasonry which
were published in one volume, at Berlin,
in 1791.
Doctor of
Toigt, Friedericli.
Medicine, and Professor and Senator at
Dresden. He was a member of the high
degrees of the Rite of Strict Observance,
where his Order name was Eques a Falcone,
or Knight of the Falcon. In 1788 he attacked Starck's Rite of the Clerks of Strict
Observance, and published an essay on the
subject, in the year 1788, in the Acta Historico-Ecclesiastica of Weimar.
Voigt exposed the Roman Catholic tendencies of the
new system, and averred that its object was
" to cite and command spirits, to find the
philosopher's stone, and to establish the
reign of the millennium." His development of the Kabbalistic character of the
Rite made a deep impression on the Masonic world, and was one of the most effective attacks upon it made by its antagonists
of the old Strict Observance.
Toting. Voting in Lodges viva voce, or
by " aye " and " nay," is a modern innovaDuring the Grand
tion in this country.
Mastership of the Earl of Loudon, on April
6, 1736, the Grand Lodge of England, on
the motion of Deputy Grand Master Ward,
adopted " a new regulation of ten rules for
explaining what concerned the decency of
assemblies and communications."
The
tenth of these rules is in the following

nify the same by the same sign." The votes

are now counted by the Senior Deacon in a

words
" The opinions or votes of the members
are always to be signified by each holding
up one of his hands which uplifted hands
the Grand Wardens are to count, unless the
number of hands be so unequal as to render
;

the counting useless. Nor should any other

kind of division be ever admitted on such
occasions."
The usual mode of putting the question is
" So many
for the presiding officer to say
:

as are in favor will signify the same by the

usual sign of the Order," and then, when
those votes have been counted, to say " So
many as are of a contrary opinion will sig:

861

subordinate Lodge, and by the Senior Grand

Deacon in a Grand Lodge, it having been
found inconvenient for the Grand Wardens
to perform that duty. The number of votes
on each side is communicated by the Deacon to the presiding officer, who announces
the result.
The same method of voting should be
observed in all Masonic bodies.
Toting, Right of. Formerly, all
members of the Craft, even Entered ApThis
prentices, were permitted to vote.
was distinctly prescribed in the last of the
Thirty-nine General Regulations adopted
in 1721.
But the numerical strength of
the Order, which was then in the first degree, having now passed over to the third,
the modern rule is that the right of voting
shall be restricted to Master Masons.

Master Mason may, therefore, speak and

vote on all questions, except in trials where
he is' himself concerned as accuser or de-

Yet by special regulation of his

Lodge he may be prevented from voting on
ordinary questions where his dues for a cergenerally twelve months
tain period
have not been paid and such a regulation
But no
exists in almost every Lodge.
local by-law can deprive a member, who has
not been suspended, from voting on the
fendant.

ballot for the admission of candidates, because the sixth regulation of 1721 distinctly requires that each member present
on such occasion shall give his consent beAnd
fore the candidate can be admitted.
if

member were deprived by any by-law

of the Lodge, in consequence of non-payment of his dues, of the right of expressing his consent or dissent, the ancient regulation would be violated, and a candidate
might be admitted without the unanimous
consent of all the members present. And
this rule is so rigidly enforced, that on a
ballot for initiation no member can be excused from voting. He must assume the
responsibility of casting his vote, lest it
should afterwards be said that the candidate was not admitted by unanimous consent.

Touching. It is a rule in Masonry,

that a Lodge may dispense with the examination of a visitor, if any brother present
will vouch that he possesses the necessary
qualifications.
This is an important prerogative that every Mason is entitled to exercise; and yet it is one which may so
materially affect the well-being of the
whole Fraternity, since, by its injudicious
use, impostors might be introduced among
the faithful, that it should be controlled by
the most stringent regulations.
To vouch for one is to bear witness for

"

VOUCHING

VOUCHING

him, and in witnessing to truth, every caution should be observed, lest falsehood may
cunningly assume its garb. The brother
who vouches should know to a certainty
that the one for whom he vouches is really
what he claims to be. He should know
this, not from a casual conversation, nor a
loose and careless inquiry, but from " strict
trial, due examination, or lawful information" These are the three requisites which
the ritual has laid down as essentially
necessary to authorize the act of vouching.
Let us inquire into the import of

that point." The candidate for examination is only entitled to know that he has
not complied generally with the requisitions of his examiner. To descend to particulars is always improper, and often dangerous.
Above all, never ask what the
lawyers call " leading questions," which include in themselves the answer, nor in any
way aid the memory, or prompt the forgetfulness of the party examined, by the

862

each.
1.

Strict Trial.

every question

is

By
to

this

is

meant that

be asked, and every

answer demanded, which is necessary to

convince the examiner that the party examined is acquainted with what he ought
to know, to entitle him to the appellation
of a brother. Nothing is to be taken for
granted
categorical answers must be returned to all that it is deemed important to
be asked; no forgetfulness is to be excused;
nor is the want of memory to be considered
as a valid reason for the want of knowledge.

The Mason who

is so unmindful of his obligations as to have forgotten the instructions he has received, must pay the penalty
of his carelessness, and be deprived of his
contemplated visit to that society whose
secret modes of recognition he has so little
valued as not to have treasured them in his
memory. The "strict trial" refers to the
matter which is sought to be obtained by
inquiry and while there are some things
which may safely be passed over in the investigation of one who confesses himself to
be " rusty," because they are details which
require much study to acquire and constant
practice to retain, there are still other
;

things of great importance which must be

rigidly demanded.
If " strict trial
2. Due examination.
refers to the matter, " due examination
alludes to the mode of investigation. This

must be conducted with all the necessary

forms and antecedent cautions. Inquiries
should be made as to the time and place of
initiation as a preliminary step, the Tiler's

OB. of course never being omitted. Then

the good old rule of " commencing at the
beginning " should be pursued. Let every
thing go on in regular course nor is it to
be supposed that the information sought
was originally received. Whatever be the
;

suspicions of imposture, let no expression

of those suspicions be made until the final
decree for rejection is uttered. And let
that decree be uttered in general terms,
such as, " I am not satisfied," or " I do not

recognize you," and not in more specific

language, such as, "You did not answer
this inquiry," or "You are ignorant on

slightest hints.

Lawful information. This authority

vouching is dependent on what has been
already described. For no Mason can law3.

for

fully give information of another's quali-*

fications unless he has himself actually
But it is not every Mason who
tested him.
is competent to give " lawful information."

Ignorant or unskilful brethren cannot do

because they are incapable of discovering truth or of detecting error. A " rusty
Mason " should never attempt to examine
a stranger, and certainly, if he does, his
opinion as to the result is worth nothing.
If the information given is on the ground
that the party who is vouched for has been
seen sitting in a Lodge, care must be taken
to inquire if it was a "just and legally constituted Lodge of Master Masons."
A
person may forget from the lapse of time,
and vouch for a stranger as a Master
so,

Mason, when the Lodge in which he saw

him was only opened in the first or second
Information given by letter, or
degree.
through a third party, is irregular. The
person giving the information, the one receiving it, and the one of whom it is given,
should all be present at the time, for otherwise there would be no certainty of idenThe information must be positive,
tity.
not founded on belief or opinion, but derived from a legitimate source.
And,
lastly, it must not have been received casually, but for the very purpose of being
used for Masonic purposes. For one to say
to another, in the course of a desultory
conversation, " A. B. is a Mason," is not
sufficient.
He may not be speaking with
due caution, under the expectation that his
words will be considered of weight. He
must say something to this effect, " I know
this man to be a Master Mason, for such or
such reasons, and you may safely recognize
him as such." This alone will insure the
necessary care and proper observance of
prudence.
Lastly, never should an unjustifiable delicacy weaken the rigor of these rules. For
the wisest and most evident reasons, that
merciful maxim of the law, which says
that

men
man

it is better that ninety-nine guilty

should escape than that one innocent
should be punished, is with us re-

versed; so that in

Masonry

it is

better that

VOYAGES

WAGES

nine true men should be turned

the door of a Lodge, than that
one cowan should be admitted.
Voyages. The French Masons thus
call some of the proofs and trials to which
a candidate is subjected in the course of
initiation into any of the degrees.
In the
French Rite, the voyages in the symbolic
degrees are three in the first, five in the
second, and seven in the third.
Their
symbolic designs are thus briefly explained
by Ragon ( Cours des Init., pp. 90, 132,) and
Lenoir, (La Franche-Maqonnerie, p. 263:)

The voyages of the Entered Apprentice

and
away from
ninety

863

are now, as they were in the Ancient Mysthe symbol of the life of man.
Those of the Fellow Craft are emblematic
of labor in search of knowledge.
Those of
the Master Mason are symbolic of the
pursuit of crime, the wandering life of
the criminal, and his vain attempts to escape remorse and punishment. It will be
evident that the ceremonies in all the
.Rites of Masonry, although under a different name, lead to the same symbolic re-

teries,

sults.

w.
W.\

An abbreviation of Worshipful,
of West, of Warden, and of Wisdom.

Masonry, on the ruins, perhaps, of both

branches of the Strict Observance, and
declared that he possessed the true secrets
of the Order. His proposition for a reform
was not accepted by the German Masons,
because they suspected that he was an
agent of the Jesuits. Kloss (Bibliog., No.
622 b) gives the title of a work published by
him in 1822 as Worte der Wahrheit an die

Waechter, Eberhard, Baron

Von. Lord of the Chamber to the king
of

Denmark, and Danish Ambassador

at

Ratisbon; was born in 1747. He was at

one time a very active member of the Rite
of Strict Observance, where he bore the
characteristic name of Eques a ceraso, and
had been appointed Chancellor of the German Priories of the 7th Province. When
the spiritual schism of the Order made its

Menschen, meine Bruder. He died May 25,

1825, one, perhaps, of the last actors in the
great Masonic drama of the Strict Observ-

vast pretensions to a secret authority derived

from unknown superiors, whose names they

refused to divulge, Von Wachter was sent
to Italy by the old Scottish Lodge of which
Duke Ferdinand was Grand Master, that
he might obtain some information from the
Pretender, and from other sources, as to the
true character of the Rite. Von Wachter
was unsuccessful, and the intelligence which
he brought back to Germany was unfavorable to Von Hund, and increased the embarrassments of the Strict Observance
Lodges. But he himself lost reputation.

host of enemies attacked him. Some

declared that while in Italy he had made
a traffic of Masonry to enrich himself;
others that he had learned and was practising magic; and others again that he had
secretly attached himself to the Jesuits.
Von Wachter stoutly denied these charges;

but it is certain that, from being in very

moderate circumstances, he had, after his
return from Italy, become suddenly and
unaccountably rich. Yet Mossdorf says
that he discharged his mission with great
delicacy and judgment.
Thory, quoting
the Beytrag zur neuesten Geschicte, (p. 150,)
says that in 1782 he proposed to give a
new organization to the Templar system of

ance.

Wages of a Master Mason, Symbolic.

See Foreign Countries.

Wages of Operative Masons.

the Old Constitutions praise is given
Alban because he raised the wages
Thus the Edinburghof the Masons.
Kilwinning MS. says: "St. Albans loved
Masons well, and cherished them much,
and made their pay right good, standing
by as the realme did, for he gave them iis.
a week, and 3c?. to their cheer for before
that time, through all the land, a Mason
had but a penny a day and his meat, until

In

all

to St.

it."
We may compare
wages in the third century with
that of the fifteenth, and we will be surprised at the little advance that was made.
In Grosse and Astle's Antiquarian Repertory
(iii., p. 58,) will be found an extract from
the Roles of Parliament, which contains a
petition, in the year 1443, to Parliament to
regulate the price of labor. In it are the
following items: "And y from the Fest
of Ester unto Mighelmasse y e wages of eny
free Mason or maister carpenter exceed not
by the day iiiid, with mete and drynk, and
withoute mete and drink yd., ob.
"A Maister Tyler or Sclatter, rough ma-

St.

Alban amended

this rate of

WAGES

WAGES

864

son and meen carpenter, and other artificers concernyng beldyng, by the day iii<,
with mete and drynk, and withoute mete
and drynke, Hid., ob.
"And from the Fest of Mighelmasse
unto Ester, a free Mason and a maister
carpenter by the day Hid., with mete and
drynk, withoute mete and drink, Hid., ob.
"Tyler, meen carpenter, rough mason,
and other artificers aforesaid, by the day
iid., ob, with mete and drynk, withoute,
mete and drynk iiiid, and every other
werkeman and laborer by the day id, ob,
with mete and drynk, and withoute mete
and drink Hid., and who that lasse deserveth,
to take lasse."

Wages of the Workmen

at the

Temple.

Neither the Scriptures, nor

Josephus, give us any definite statement
of the amount of wages paid, nor the manner in which they were paid, to the workmen who were engaged in the erection of
King Solomon's Temple. The cost of its
construction, however, must have been immense, since it has been estimated that the
edifice alone consumed more gold and silver
than at present exists upon the whole
earth; so that Josephus very justly says
that "Solomon made all these things for
the honor of God, with great variety and
magnificence, sparing no cost, but using
all possible liberality in adorning the Temlearn, as one instance of this
ple."
liberality, from the 2d Book of Chronicles,
that Solomon paid annually to the Tyrian
Masons, the servants of Hiram, "twenty
thousand measures of beaten wheat, and
twenty thousand measures of barley, and
twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty
thousand baths of oil." The bath was a
measure equal to seven and a half gallons
wine measure and the cor or chomer, which
we translate by the indefinite word measure,
contained ten baths so that the corn, wine,

We

and oil furnished by King Solomon, as

wages to the servants of Hiram of Tyre,
amounted to one hundred and ninety
thousand bushels of the first, and one
hundred and fifty thousand gallons each
of the second and third. The sacred records do not inform us what further wages
they received, but we elsewhere learn that
King Solomon gave them as a free gift a
sum equal to more than thirty-two millions
of dollars. The whole amount of wages
paid to the craft is stated to have been
about six hundred and seventy-two millions of dollars; but we have no means of
knowing how that amount was distributed;
though it is natural to suppose that those
of the most skill and experience received
the highest wages. The Harodim, or-chiefs
of the workmen, must have been better
paid than the Ish Sabal, or mere laborers.

The legend-makers

of

Masonry have not

idle in their invention of facts and

circumstances in relation to this subject, the
whole of which have little more for a foun-

been

dation than the imaginations of the inThey form, however, a part of the
legendary history of Masonry, and are interesting for their ingenuity, and sometimes
even for their absurdity.
There was an old tradition among the
English Masons, that the men were paid
in their Lodges by shekels,
a silver coin
of about the value of fifty cents,
and that
the amount was regulated by the square of
the number of the degree that the workman
had attained. Thus, the Entered Apprentice received one shekel per day; the
Fellow Craft, who had advanced to the
second degree, received the square of 2, or
2x2 4 shekels ; and the Mark Man, or
third degree, received the square of 3, or
3x3 9 shekels ; whilst the ninth degree,
or Super Excellent Mason, received the
square of 9, or 9 X 9
81 shekels.
According to this tradition the pay-roll
would be as follows
ventors.

=
=

Shekel.

An

Entered Apprentice received 1

Fellow Craft
4

A
A Mark Man
A Mark Master
A Master Mason
An Architect
A Grand Architect
An Excellent Mason
A Super Excellent Mason

"

9
16

25
36

"
"

49
64
81

=
=z
=
=
=
=
=
=

$00 50
2 00
4 50
8 00
12 50
18 00
24 50
32 00
40 50

But this calculation seems to have been

only a fanciful speculation of some of our
ancient brethren.
Other traditions give a classification of
the workmen as to their classes and the
number of men in each class. From this
classification,

we may

estimate the daily

expenditure at the Temple, in the article of

wages, at the following amount
Shekels.

30,000 Entered Apprentices rece

110,600 Fellow Crafts
2,000 Mark Men
1,000 Mark Masters
3,564 Master Masons

24 Architects
12 Grand Architects
72 Excellent Masons
9 Super Excellent Masons

Dollars.

30,000= 15,000
442,400
18,000

= 221,000
= 9,000

16,000= 8.000
89,100= 44,550

588=

432
294

4,600=

2,394

729=

364

864

Prideaux says that King David had laid

up

for the building of the

Temple immense

quantities of gold, silver, copper, iron, and

other materials, to the amount of 800,000,000, or in round numbers about four thousand million dollars. Now the daily pay
estimated in the preceding roll, which is
$276,944, would amount in one year, deducting Sabbaths, to $86,406,528, or, in the
seven years occupied in building the Tern-

WARDENS

WAGES
A

large amount would

therefore still remain out of the four thousand millions for other expenses. So that
comparing the estimate of the tradition with
that of Prideaux, if the latter be true, (which
pie, to $604,845,686.

is,

however, denied by many commentators,)

is not incredible.
But after all,
is merely a legend founded on a specula-

the former
it

tion.

These traditions are not now familiarly

known, and would perhaps be soon forgotten, were it not that they have been
preserved by some of our writers simply as
antiquarian relics of the speculations of
our brethren of former days.
The traditions in reference to the pay of
the Fellow Crafts have been preserved in
the ritual of the Mark Master's degree.
According to these traditions, there were
two divisions of the Fellow Crafts. The
first, or higher class, worked in the quarries, in finishing the stones, or, as we say
in our lectures, "in hewing, squaring, and
numbering" them; and, that each one
might be enabled to designate his own
work, he was in possession of a mark which
he placed upon the stones prepared by him.
Hence, this class of Fellow Crafts were
called Mark Masters, and received their
pay from the Senior Grand Warden, whom
some suppose to have been Adoniram, the
brother-in-law of Hiram Abif, and the
first of the Provosts and Judges.
These
Fellow Crafts received their pay in money,
at the rate of a half-shekel of silver per
day, equal to about twenty-five cents.
They were paid weekly, at the sixth hour
of the sixth day of the week, that is to say
on Friday, at noon. And this hour appears to have been chosen because, as we
are taught in the third degree, at noon, or
high twelve, the Craft were always called
from labor to refreshment, and hence the
payment of their wages at that hour would
not interfere with or retard the progress
of the work.
But there was another, and it is probable a larger, class of Fellow Crafts, younger and more inexperienced men, whose
skill and knowledge were not such as to
entitle them to advancement to the grade
of Mark Masters. These workmen were
not, therefore, in possession of a mark.
They proved their right to reward by another token, and received their wages in
the middle chamber of the Temple, and
were paid in corn, wine, and oil, agreeably
to the stipulation of King Solomon with
Hiram of Tyre.
Of course, it would be a waste of words to
attempt to defend the authenticity of these
legends. Based on the theory that Freemasonry, as now organized, was existing at
the building of the Temple of King Solo-

51

55

865

mon, they pass away with that assumption.

There is no countenance of history about
them. Parts of them are symbolical, and,
Greater portions are
as such, of use.
merely fanciful speculations, indulged in
only to exhibit ingenuity and to test creduDr. Oliver, who is never reluctant to
accept a plausible legend, says of the tradition of the wages, that "indeed the probability is that the tradition has been fabricated in a subsequent age without the
existence of any document to attest its
lity.

authenticity."

Wales,

Anderson says, in his second

that Grand Master Inchiquin
granted a Deputation, May 10, 1727, to
Hugh Warburton, Esq., to be Provincial
Grand Master of North Wales, and another,
June 24 in the same year, to Sir Edward
Mansel, to be Provincial Grand Master of
South Wales and it is at this period that
we may date the introduction of Freemasonry into the principality, for ten years
afterwards the same writer says that Lodges
were in existence. Wales forms a part of
the Masonic obedience of the Grand Lodge
of England, and the Fraternity there are
directly governed by three Provincial Grand
edition,

Lodges.

Wands.

Oliver, under this title in his

Dictionary, refers to the three sceptres
which, in the Royal Arch system of England, are placed in a triangular form beneath the canopy in the East, and which,
being surmounted respectively by a crown,
an All-seeing eye, and a mitre, refer to the
regal, the prophetical, and the sacerdotal
In his Landmarks he calls them
offices.
But rod or wand is the better
sceptres.
word, because, while the sceptre is restricted
to the insignia of kings, the rod or wand
was and still is used as an indiscriminate
mark of authority for all offices.

Wardens. In every Symbolic Lodge,

three are three principal officers, namely,
a Master, a Senior Warden, and a Junior
Warden. This rule has existed ever since
the revival, and for some time previous to
that event, and is so universal that it has
been considered as one of the landmarks.
It exists in every country and in every Rite.
The titles of the officers may be different
in different languages, but their functions,
as presiding over the Lodge in a tripartite
division of duties, are everywhere the same.
The German Masons call the two Wardens
erste and zweite Aufseher ; the French, premier and second Surveillant ; the Spanish,
primer and segundo Vigilante; and the
Italians, primo and secondo Sorvegliante.
In different Rites, the positions of these
In the York and American
officers vary.
Rites, the Senior Warden sits in the West
and the Junior in the South. In the French

WARDENS

WARDER

and Scottish Rites, both Wardens are in

the West, the Senior in the North-west and
the Junior in the South-west; but in all, the
triangular position of the three officers
relatively to each other is preserved for a
triangle being formed within the square of
the Lodge, the Master and Wardens will
each occupy one of the three points.
The precise time when the presidency of
the Lodge was divided between these three
officers, or when they were first introduced
into Masonry, is unknown. The Lodges of
Scotland, during the Operative regime,
were governed by a Deacon and one Warden. The Deacon performed the functions
of a Master, and the Warden was the second officer, and took charge of and distributed the funds. In other words, he acted
This is evident from the
as a treasurer.
minutes of the Edinburgh Lodge, recently
published by Bro. Lyon. But the head of
the Craft in Scotland at the same time was
This regulacalled the Warden General.
tion, however, does not appear to have been
universal even in Scotland, for in the " Mark
Book" of the Aberdeen Lodge, under date
of December 27, 1670, which was published
by Bro. W. J. Hughan in the Voice of Masonry, (Feb., 1872,) we find there a Master
and Warden recognized as the presiding
officers of the Lodge in the following statute " And lykwayse we all protest, by the
oath we have made at our en trie, to own
the Warden of our Lodge as the next man
in power to the Maister, and in the Maister's absence he is full Maister."
Some of the English manuscript Constitutions recognize the offices of Master and
Wardens. Thus the Harleian MS., No.
1942, whose date is supposed to be about
1670, contains the " new articles " said to
have been agreed on at a General Assembly
held in 1663, in which is the following passage " That for the future the sayd Society,
Company and Fraternity of Free Masons
shal bee regulated and governed by one

fourteenth century. In the Charters granted

by Edward III., in 1354, it is permitted
that these companies shall yearly elect for
their government "a certain number of
Wardens." To a list of the companies of
the date of 1377 is affixed what is called
the "Oath of the Wardens of Crafts," of
which this is the commencement " Ye shall
swere that ye shall wele and treuly oversee
the Craft of
whereof ye be chosen
Wardeyns for the year." It thus appears
that the Wardens were at first the presiding
officers of the gilds.
At a later period, in
the reign of Elizabeth, we find that the
chief officer began to be called Master; and
in the time of James L, between 1603 and
1625, the gilds were generally governed by
a Master and Wardens. An ordinance of
the Leather-Sellers Company at that time
directed that on a certain occasion "the

866

Master

& Assembly & Wardens,

Company

shall think

fit

as y said
to chose, at every

yearely General Assembly."

As the word "Warden" does not appear
in the earlier manuscripts, it might be concluded that the office was not introduced
into the English Lodges until the latter
part of the seventeenth century. Yet this
does not absolutely follow. For the office
of Warden might have existed, and no
statutory provision on the subject have
been embraced in the general charges which
are contained in those manuscripts, because
they relate not to the government of Lodges,
but the duties of Masons. This, of course,
is conjectural
but the conjecture derives
weight from the fact that Wardens were
officers of the English gilds as early as the
;

Master and Wardens shall appear in state."

It is not, therefore, improbable that the
government of Masonic Lodges by a Master
and two Wardens was introduced into the
regulations of the Order in the seventeenth
century, the "new article" of 1663 being
a statutory confirmation of a custom which
had just begun to prevail.
Senior Warden. He is the second officer
in a Symbolic Lodge, and governs the
Craft in the hours of labor. In the absence
of the Master he presides over the Lodge,
appointing some brother, not the Junior
Warden, to occupy his place in the west.
His jewel is a level, a symbol of the equality
which exists among the Craft while at
labor in the Lodge. His seat is in the
west, and he represents the column of
Strength. He has placed before him, and
carries in all processions, a column, which
is

the

pillar

representative of the right-hand

that stood at the porch of King

Solomon's Temple. The Junior Warden

has a similar column, which represents the
left-hand pillar. During labor the column
of the Senior Warden is erect in the Lodge,
while that of the Junior is recumbent. At
refreshment, the position of the two columns
is

reversed.

Junior Warden. The duties of this officer

have already been described. See Junior
Warden.
There is also an officer in a Commandery
of Knights Templars, the fifth in rank, who
He takes an
is styled "Senior Warden."
important part in the initiation of a candidate.
His jewel of office is a triple triangle, the emblem of Deity.
Wardens, Grand. See Grand
Wardens.
Warder. The literal meaning of
Warder is one who keeps watch and ward.
In the Middle Ages, the Warder was stationed at the gate or on the battlements

WARLIKE

WAR

of the castle, and with his trumpet sounded

alarms and announced the approach of all
comers. Hence the Warder in a Commandery of Knights Templars bears a
trumpet, and his duties are prescribed to
be to announce the approach and departure
of the Eminent Commander, to post the
sentinels, and see that the Asylum is duly
guarded, as well as to announce the approach of visitors. His jewel is a trumpet
and crossed swords engraved on a square

umbrage or ground of political jealousy to

the government for the time being, they
cannot expel him from the Lodge, and his

plate.

Warlike Instrument.

In the an-

cient initiations, the aspirant was never

permitted to enter on the threshold of the
Temple in which the ceremonies were con-

ducted until, by the most solemn warning,

he -had been impressed with the necessity
of secrecy and caution. The use, for this
purpose, of a "warlike instrument" in the
first degree of Masonry, is intended to produce the same effect. A sword has always
been employed for that purpose; and the
substitute of the point of the compasses,
taken from the altar at the time, is an absurd sacrifice of symbolism to the convenience of the Senior Deacon. The compasses are peculiar to the third degree. In
the earliest rituals of the last century it is
said that the entrance is "upon the point
of a sword, or spear, or some warlike instrument." Krause, (Kunsturk., ii. 142,) in
commenting on this expression, has completely misinterpreted its signification. He
supposes that the sword was intended as a
sign of jurisdiction now assumed lofy the
Lodge. But the real object of the ceremony is to teach the neophyte that as the
sword or warlike instrument will wound or
prick the flesh, so will the betrayal of a
trust confided wound or prick the conscience of him who betrays it.

War, Masonry

in.

The

question

how Masons

should conduct- themselves in

time of war, when their own country is
one of the belligerents, is an important one.
Of the political course of a Mason in his
individual and private capacity there is no
doubt. The Charges declare that he must
be "a peaceable subject to the civil powers,
and never be concerned in plots and conspiracies against the peace and welfare of
the nation." But so anxious is the Order to
be unembarrassed by all political influences,
that treason, however discountenanced by
the Craft, is not held as a crime which is
amenable to Masonic punishment. For
the same charge affirms that " if a brother
should be a rebel against the State, he is
not to be countenanced in his rebellion,

however he may be pitied as an unhappy

man and if convicted of no other crime,
though the loyal brotherhood must and
ought to disown his rebellion and give no
;

relation to

it

867

remains indefeasible."

The Mason, then,

like every other citizen,

should be a patriot. He should love his
country with all his heart; should serve it
faithfully and cheerfully; obey its laws in
peace and in war should be ever ready to
support its honor and defend it from the
attacks of its enemies.
But even then the
benign principles of the Institution extend their influence, and divest the contest
;

of many of its horrors. The Mason fights,

of course, like every other man, for victory
but when the victory is won, he will remember that the conquered foe is still his
;

brother.

On

the occasion,

many

years ago, of a

Masonic banquet given immediately after

the close of the Mexican war to Gen. Quitman by the Grand Lodge of South Carolina, that distinguished soldier and Mason
remarked that, although he had devoted
much of his attention to the nature and
character of the Masonic institution, and
had repeatedly held the highest offices in
the gift of his brethren, he had never really
known what Masonry was until he had seen
its workings on the field of battle.
But as a collective and organized body
in its Lodges and its Grand Lodges it must
have nothing to do with war. It must be
silent and neutral.
The din of the battle,

the cry for vengeance, the shout of vicmust never penetrate its portals. Its
dogmas and doctrines all teach love and
fraternity; its symbols are symbols of
peace; and it has no place in any of its
rituals consecrated to the inculcation of
tory,

human

contention.
Bro. C. W. Moore, in his Biography of
Thomas Smith Webb, the great American

mentions a circumstance which

occurred during the period in which Webb
presided over the Grand Lodge of Rhode
ritualist,

Island, and to which Moore, I think, inconsiderately has given his hearty com-

mendation.
The United States was at that time engaged in a war with England. The people
of Providence having commenced the erection of fortifications, the Grand Lodge
volunteered its services and the members,
marching in procession as a Grand Lodge
to the southern part of the town, erected a
breastwork, to which was given the name
of Fort Hiram. I doubt the propriety of
the act. While (to repeat what has been
just said) every individual member of the
Grand Lodge, as a Mason, was bound by his
obligation to be " true to his government,"
and to defend it from the attacks of its
enemies, it was, I think, unseemly, and
;

WARRANT

WARRANT

contrary to the peaceful spirit of the Institution, for any organized body of Masons,
organized as such, to engage in a warlike
But the patriotism, if not the
enterprise.
prudence of the Grand Lodge, cannot be
denied.
Since writing this paragraph, I have
met in Bro. Murray Lyon's History of the
Lodge of Edinburgh (p. 83) with a record
of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, a century
ago, which sustains the view that I have
taken. In 1777, recruits were being enlisted in Scotland for the British army,
which was to fight the Americans in the
war of the Revolution, which had just
begun. Many of the Scotch Lodges offered,
through the newspapers, bounties to all
who should enlist. But on February 2, 1778,
the Grand Lodge passed a resolution, which
was published on the 12th, through the
Grand Secretary, in the following circular
" At a quarterly meeting of the Grand
Lodge of Scotland, held here the second
instant, I received a charge to acquaint all
the Lodges of Scotland holding of the
Grand Lodge that the Grand Lodge has
seen with concern advertisements in the
public newspapers, from different Lodges in
Scotland, not only offering a bounty to recruits who may enlist in the new levies,
but with the addition that all such recruits
shall be admitted to the freedom of Masonry. The first of these they consider as
an improper alienation of the funds of the
Lodge from the support of their poor and
distressed brethren; and the second they
regard as a prostitution of our Order,
which demands the reprehension of the
Grand Lodge. Whatever share the brethren
may take as individuals in aiding these
levies, out of zeal to serve their private
friends or to promote the public service,
the Grand Lodge considered it to be repugnant to the spirit of our Craft that
any Lodge should take a part in such a
business as a collective body. For Masonry is an Order of Peace, and it looks on
all mankind to be brethren as Masons,
whether they be at peace or at war with
each other as subjects of contending countries.
The Grand Lodge therefore strongly
enjoins that the practice may be forthwith
discontinued.
By order of the Grand
Lodge of Scotland. W. Mason, Gr. Sec."

usually with the formula, "for which this

shall be your sufficient warrant."
The practice of granting Warrants for
the constitution of Lodges, dates only from
the period of the revival of Masonry in
1717. Previous to that period "a sufficient
number of brethren," says Preston, (p. 182,)
" met together within a certain district with
the consent of the sheriff, or other chief
magistrate of the place, were empowered to
make Masons, and practise the rites of Masonry without a Warrant of Constitution."
But in 1717 a regulation was adopted "that
the privilege of assembling as Masons,
which had been hitherto unlimited, should
be vested in certain Lodges or assemblies
of Masons convened in certain places and
that every Lodge to be hereafter convened,
except the four old Lodges at this time existing, should be legally authorized to act
by a Warrant from the Grand Master, for
the time being, granted to certain individuals by petition, with the consent and approbation of the Grand Lodge in communication; and that without such Warrant
no Lodge should be hereafter deemed
regular or constitutional." And consequently, ever since the adoption of that
regulation, no Lodge has been regular un-

868

Of

all

human

institutions,

Freemasonry

the greatest and purest Peace Society.

And, this is because its doctrine of universal peace is founded on the doctrine of a
universal brotherhood.

is

Warrant of

Constitution.

The

document which authorizes or gives a Warrant to certain persons therein named to

organize and constitute a Lodge, Chapter,
or other Masonic body, and which ends

less it is

working under such an authority.

The word Warrant

is

appropriately used,

because in its legal acceptation it means a

document giving authority to perform some
specified act.

In England, the Warrant of Constitution

emanates from the Grand Master; in the
United States, from the Grand Lodge.
Here the Grand Master grants only a Dispensation to hold a Lodge, which may be
revoked or confirmed by the Grand Lodge;
in the latter case, the Warrant will then be
issued.
The Warrant of Constitution is
granted to the Master and Wardens, and to
their successors in office; it continues in
force only during the pleasure of the Grand
Lodge, and may, therefore, at any time be
revoked, and the Lodge dissolved by a vote
of that body, or it may be temporarily arrested or suspended by an edict of the
Grand Master. This will, however, never
be done, unless the Lodge has violated the
ancient landmarks, or failed to pay due respect and obedience to the Grand- Lodge or
to the Grand Master.
When a Warrant of Constitution is rerecalled, the jewels, furniture, and
funds of the Lodge revert to the Grand
Lodge.
Lastly, as a Lodge holds its communications only under the authority of this Warrant of Constitution, no Lodge can be
opened, or proceed to business, unless it be
If it be mislaid or destroyed, it
present.
must be recovered, or another obtained;

voked or

WASHINGTON

WASHING

Lodge attached

8G&

and until that is done, the communications

of the Lodge must be suspended and if the
Warrant of Constitution be taken out of
the room during the session of the Lodge,
the authority of the Master instantly

in a military

ceases.

records of the Lodge are or were, not long

since, extant, and furnish the evidence that
Washington was there, and received some
Masonic degree. It is equally clear that he

Washing Hands.

See Lustration.
A
of.

Washington, Congress

Congress of American Masons was convoked at the city of Washington, in the

year 1822, at the call of several Grand
Lodges, for the purpose of recommending
the establishment of a General Grand
Lodge of the United States. The result
was an unsuccessful one.

Washington, George. The name

of Washington claims a place in Masonic
biography, not because of any services he
has done to the Institution either as a
worker or a writer, but because the fact of
his connection with the Craft is a source
of pride to every American Mason, at
least, who can thus call the "Father of his
country " a brother. There is also another
reason.
While the friends of the Institution have felt that the adhesion to it of a
man so eminent for virtue was a proof of
its moral and religious character, the opponents of Masonry, being forced to admit
the conclusion, have sought to deny the
premises, and, even if compelled to admit
the fact of Washington's initiation, have
persistently asserted that he never took any
interest in it, disapproved of its spirit, and
at an early period of his life abandoned it.
The truth of history requires that these
misstatements should be met by a brief recital of his Masonic career.
Washington was initiated, in 1752, in the
Lodge at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and the
records of that Lodge, still in existence,
present the following entries on the subject.
The first entry is thus
"Nov. 4th, 1752. This evening Mr.

George Washington was initiated as an

Entered Apprentice;" and the receipt of
the entrance fee, amounting to 2 3s., is
acknowledged.
On the 3d of March in the following
year, "Mr. George Washington" is recorded as having been passed a Fellow
Craft; ,and on the 4th of the succeeding
August, the record of the transactions of
the evening states that " Mr. George Washington," and others whose names are mentioned, have been raised to the sublime
degree of Master Mason.
For five years after his initiation, he was

engaged in active military service, and it is

not likely that during that period- his attendance on the communications of the
Lodge could have been frequent. Some
English writers have asserted that he was
made a Mason during the old French War,

to the 46th

Regiment. The Bible on which he is said

to have been obligated is still in existence,
although the Lodge was many years ago
dissolved, at Halifax,

was

first

Nova

Scotia.

The

initiated in Fredericksburg Lodge,

for the record is still in possession of the

Lodge.

Three methods have been adopted to

reconcile this apparent discrepancy.
Bro.
Hay den, in his work on Washington and his
Masonic Compeers, (p. 31,) suggests that an
obligation had been administered to him as
a test-oath when visiting the Lodge, or that
the Lodge, deeming the authority under

which he had been made

required

him

to be healed

insufficient, had
and reobligated.

Neither of these attempts to solve the difficulty appears to have any plausibility.
Bro. C. W. Moore, of Massachusetts, in
the Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, (vol. xi.,
p. 261,) suggests that, as it was then the
custom to confer the Mark degree as a side
degree in Masters' Lodges, and as it has
been proved that Washington was in possession of that degree, he may have received it in Lodge No. 227, attached to the
46th Regiment. This certainly presents a
more satisfactory explanation than either
of those offered by Bro. Hayden.
The connection of Washington with the
British military Lodge will serve as some
confirmation of the tradition that he was
attentive to Masonic duties during the five
years from 1753 to 1758, when he was engaged in military service.
There is ample evidence that during the

Revolutionary War, while he was Commander-in-Chief of the American armies,

he was a frequent attendant on the meetings
of military Lodges. A few years ago, Captain Hugh Maloy, a revolutionary veteran,
then residing in Ohio, declared that on one
of these occasions he was initiated in Washington's marquee, the chief himself presiding at the ceremony. Bro. Scott, a Past
Grand Master of Virginia, asserted that
Washington was in frequent attendance on
the communications of the brethren. The
proposition made to elect him a Grand
Master of the United States, as will be
hereafter seen, affords a strong presumption
that his name as a Mason had become
familiar to the Craft.
In 1777, the Convention of Virginia
Lodges recommended Washington as the
most proper person to be elected Grand
Master of the Independent Grand Lodge of
that commonwealth. Dove has given in his
Text-Book the complete records of the Con-

WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON

vention; and there is therefore no doubt

that the nomination was made. It was,
however, declined by Washington.
Soon after the beginning of the Revolution, a disposition was manifested among
American Masons to dissever their connection, as subordinates, with the Masonic
authorities of the mother country, and
in several of the newly-erected States the
Provincial Grand Lodges assumed an independent character. The idea of a Grand
Master of the whole of the United States
had also become popular. On February 7,
1780, a convention of delegates from the
military Lodges in the army was holden
at Morristown, in New Jersey, when an
address to the Grand Masters in the various States was adopted, recommending the
establishment of "one Grand Lodge in
America," and the election of a Grand
Master.
This address was sent to the
Grand Lodges of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia ;,and although the name
of Washington is not mentioned in it, those
Grand Lodges were notified that he was
the first choice of the brethren who had

ing that Washington was a Grand Master.

Lenning and Thory, for instance, place the
date of his election to that office in the year
in which the medal was struck. More recent European writers, however, directed
by the researches of the American authorities, have discovered and corrected the
mistake.
next hear of Washington's official
connection in the year 1788. Lodge No.
39, at Alexandria, which had hitherto been
working under the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, in 1788 transferred its allegiance
to Virginia.
On May 29 in that year the
Lodge adopted the following resolution
"The Lodge proceeded to the appointment of Master and Deputy Master to be
recommended to the Grand Lodge of Vir-

framed

to

870

it.

We

when George Washington, Esq.,

was unanimously chosen Master; Eobert
McCrea, Deputy Master; Wm. Hunter, Jr.,

ginia,

Warden; John Allison, Junior

Warden."
It was also ordered that a committee
should wait on Gen. Washington, "and

Senior

him whether it will be agreeable

to be named in the Charter." What
was the result of that interview, we do not
positively know. But it is to be presumed
that the reply of Washington was a favorable one, for the application for the Charter
contained his name, which would hardly
have been inserted, if it had been repugnant to his wishes. And the Charter or

inquire of

him

While these proceedings were in progress,

Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania had
taken action on the same subject. On
January 13, 1780, it had held a session, and
it was unanimously declared that it was for
the benefit of Masonry that " a Grand Mas"
ter of Masons throughout the United States
should be nominated; whereupon, with Warrant under which the Lodge is still
equal unanimity, Gen. Washington was working is granted to Washington as
elected to the office. It was then ordered Master. The appointing clause is in the
the

that the minutes of the election be transmitted to the different Grand Lodges in
the United States, and their concurrence
therein be requested. The Grand Lodge
of Massachusetts, doubting the expediency
of electing a General Grand Master, declined to come to any determination on
the question, and so the subject was

dropped.
This will correct the error into which

many

foreign
writers have

Grand Lodges and Masonic

fallen,

of

supposing that

Washington was ever a Grand Master of

the United States. The error was strengthened by a medal contained in Merzdorf 's
Medals of the

Fraternity

of Freemasons,

which the editor states was struck by the

Lodges of Pennsylvania. This statement
however, liable to great doubt. The date
of the medal is 1797. On the obverse is
a likeness of Washington, with the device,
"Washington, President, 1797." On the
reverse is a tracing-board and the device,
" Amor, Honor, et Justitia. G. W., G. G.

is,

M."

following words
" Know ye that we, Edmund Randolph,
Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth
aforesaid, and Grand Master of the Most
Ancient and Honorable Society of Freemasons within the same, by and with the
consent of the Grand Lodge of Virginia,

do hereby constitute and appoint our illustrious and well-beloved Brother, George
Washington, Esquire, late General and
Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the
United States of America, and our worthy
Brethren Robert McCrea, William Hunter, Jr., and John Allison, Esqs., together
with all such other brethren as may be admitted to associate with them, to be a
'first, true, and regular Lodge of Freemasons, by the name, title, and designation
of the Alexandria Lodge, No. 22.'" In
1805, the Lodge, which is still in existence,
was permitted by the Grand Lodge to
change its name to that of " Washington
Alexandria," in honor of its first Master.

The

evidence, then,

is

clear that

Wash-

French and German Masonic histo- ington was the Master of a Lodge. Whether
rians have been deceived by this medal, he ever assumed the duties of the office,
and refer to it as their authority for assert- and, if he assumed, how he discharged them,

: :

WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON
we know only from

the testimony of Timothy Bigelow, who, in a Eulogy delivered

before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts,
two months after Washington's death, and
eleven after his appointment as Master,
made the following statement:
"The information received from our
brethren who had the happiness to be
members of the Lodge over which he pre-

sided for many years, and of which he

died the Master, furnishes abundant proof
of his persevering zeal for the prosperity of
the Institution. Constant and punctual in
his attendance, scrupulous in his observance of the regulations of the Lodge, and
solicitous, at all times, to communicate
light and instruction, he discharged the
duties of the Chair with uncommon dignity and intelligence in all the mysteries
of our art."
There is also a very strong presumption

that Washington accepted and discharged

the duties of the Chair to the satisfaction
of the Lodge. At the first election held
after the Charter had been issued, he was
elected, or we should rather say re-elected,
Master. The record of the Lodge, under
the date of December 20, 1788, is as follows:
" His Excellency, General Washington,

unanimously elected Master; Robert McCrea, Senior Warden; Wm. Hunter, Jr.,
Junior Warden; Wm. Hodgson, Treasurer;
Joseph Green way, Secretary; Dr. Frederick
Spanbergen, Senior Deacon George Richards, Junior Deacon."
The subordinate
officers had undergone a change
McCrea,
who had been named in the petition as
Deputy Master, an officer not recognized in
this country was made Senior Warden;
Wm. Hunter, who had been nominated as
Senior Warden, was made Junior Warden
and the original Junior Warden, John
Allison, was dropped.
But there was no
change in the office of Master. Washington was again elected.
The Lodge
would scarcely have been so persistent
without his consent; and if his consent was
given, we know, from his character, that he
would seek to discharge the duties of the
;

office to his best

abilities.

This circum-

stance gives, if it be needed, strong confirmation to the statement of Bigelow.

But incidents like these are not all that
are left to us to exhibit the attachment of
Washington to Masonry. On repeated occasions he has announced, in his letters and
addresses to various Masonic bodies, his profound esteem for the character, and his just
appreciation of the principles, of that Institution into which, at so early an age, he
had been admitted. And during his long
and laborious life, no opportunity was presented of which he did not avail himself
to evince his esteem for the Institution.

871

Thus, in the year 1797, in reply to an affectionate address from the Grand Lodge
attachof Massachusetts, he says:
ment to the Society of which we are members will dispose me always to contribute
my best endeavors to promote the honor
and prosperity of the Craft."
Five years before this letter was written,
he had, in a communication to the same
body, expressed his opinion of the Masonic
institution as one whose liberal principles
are founded on the immutable laws of
"truth and justice," and whose "grand
object is to promote the happiness of the
human race."

"My

In answer to an address from the Grand

in 1791, he says
" I recognize with pleasure my relation to
the brethren of your Society," and "I shall
be happy, on every occasion, to evince my
regard for the Fraternity." And in the
same letter he takes occasion to allude to
the Masonic institution as " an association
whose principles lead to purity of morals,
and are beneficial of action."
In writing to the officers and members
of St. David's Lodge at Newport, (R. I.,)
in the same year, he uses this language
" Being persuaded that a just application
of the principles on which the Masonic fraternity is founded must be promotive of
private virtue and public prosperity, I shall
always be happy to advance the interests
of the Society, and to be considered by
them as a deserving brother."
And lastly, for I will not further extend
these citations, in a letter addressed in November, 1798, only thirteen months before his death, to the Grand Lodge of
Maryland, he has made this explicit declaration of his opinion of the Institution
" So far as I am acquainted with the doctrines and principles of Freemasonry, I
conceive them to be founded in benevolence, and to be exercised only for the
I cannot, therefore,
good of mankind.
upon this ground, withdraw my approba-

Lodge of South Carolina

tion from it."

So much has been said upon the Masonic

career and opinions of Washington because
American Masons love to dwell on the fact
that the distinguished patriot, whose memory is so revered that his unostentatious
grave on the banks of the Potomac has be-

come the Mecca of America, was not only

a brother of the Craft, but was ever ready
good opinion of the Society.
that under the panoply of his
great name they may defy the malignant
charges of their adversaries. They know
that no better reply can be given to such
charges than to say, in the language of
Clinton, " Washington would not have encouraged an Institution hostile to morality,
to express his

They

feel

religion,
fare."

WEBB

WASHINGTON

872

good order, and the public wel

Washington Territory.

Free-

masonry in an organized form was introduced into Washington Territory by the

Grand Lodge of Oregon, which established
four Lodges there previous to the year 1858.
These Lodges Were Olympia, No. 5; Steilacoom, No. 8; Grand Mound, No. 21, and
Washington, No. 22. On December 6-9,
1858, delegates from these four Lodges met
in convention at the city of Olympia, and
organized the Grand Lodge of Free and
Accepted Masons of the Territory of Washington. T. F. McElroy was elected Grand
Master, and T. M. Reed, Grand Secretary.
The high degrees of the American Rite
have not yet been established in Washington Territory; but in 1872 the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite was introduced by
Bro. Edwin A. Sherman, the agent of the
Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction, and several bodies of that Rite were
organized.

Watchwords.

Used

in the thirty-

second degree of the Ancient and Accepted

Scottish Rite because that degree has a
military form, but not found in other degrees of Masonry.
Water -fall. Used in the Fellow
Craft's degree as a symbol of plenty, for
which the word water-ford is sometimes improperly substituted. See Shibboleth.
Wayfaring Man. A word used in
the legend of the third degree to denote the
person met near the port of Joppa by certain persons sent out on a search by King
Solomon. The part of the legend which
introduces the wayfaring man, and his interview with the Fellow Crafts, was probably introduced into the American system by Webb, or found by him in the older
rituals practised in this country.
It is not
in the old English rituals of the last century, nor is the circumstance detailed in
the present English lecture. A wayfaring
man is denned by Phillips as " one accustomed to travel on the road." The expression is becoming obsolete in ordinary language, but it is preserved in Scripture
" he saw a wayfaring man in the street of
the city," (Judges xix. 17,)
and in Masonry, both of which still retain many
words long since disused elsewhere.

Weary

Sojourners. Spoken of in
the American legend of the Royal Arch as
three of the captives who had been restored
to liberty by Cyrus, and, after sojourning
or remaining longer in Babylon than the
main body of their brethren, had at length
repaired to Jerusalem to assist in rebuilding the Temple.
It was while the workmen were engaged
in making the necessary excavations for

laying the foundation, and while numbers

continued to arrive at Jerusalem from
Babylon, that these three worn and weary
sojourners, after plodding on foot over the
rough and devious roads between the two
cities, offered themselves to
the Grand
Council as willing participants in the labor
of erection. Who these sojourners were,
we have no historical means of discovering
but there is a Masonic tradition (entitled,
perhaps, to but little weight) that they
were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
three holy men, who are better known to
general readers by their Chaldaic names
of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-nego, as
having been miraculously preserved from
the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar.
Their services were accepted, and from
their diligent labors resulted that important discovery, the perpetuation and preservation of which constitutes the great end
and design of the Royal Arch degree.
Such is the legend of the American
Royal Arch. It has no known foundation
in history, and is therefore altogether
mythical. But it presents, as a myth, the
symbolic idea of arduous and unfaltering
search after truth, and the final reward
that such devotion receives.

Webb-Preston Work. The

title

given by Dr. Robert Morris to a system of

lectures which he proposed to introduce, in
1859, into the Lodges of the United States,

and in which he was partly successful. He

gave this name to his system because his
theory was that the lectures of Thomas
Smith Webb and those of Preston were
But this theory is untenable,
identical.
for it has long since been shown that the
lectures of Webb were an abridgement,
and a very material modification of those
of Preston. In 1863, and for a few years
afterwards, the question of the introduction
of the " Webb-Preston work " was a subject of warm, and sometimes of intemperate,
discussion in several of the western jurisIt has now, however, at least as
dictions.
a subject of controversy, ceased to attract
the attention of the Craft. One favorable
result was, however, produced by these discussions, and that is, that they led to a more
careful investigation and a better understanding of the nature and history of the
rituals which have, during the present cenThe
tury, been practised in this country.
bitterness of feeling has passed away, but
the knowledge that it elicited remains.

Webb, Thomas Smith. No name

more familiar to the Amerthat of Webb, who was
really the inventor and founder of the system of work which, under the appropriate
name of the American Rite (although
often improperly called the York Rite), is
in

Masonry

ican

is

Mason than

WEBB

WEBB

universally practised in the United States.

of him
that has been written is that of Bro. Cornelius Moore, in his Leaflets of Masonic
Biography, and from that, with a few additions from other sources, the present
sketch is derived.
Thomas Smith Webb, the son of parents
who a few years previous to his birth had
emigrated from England and settled in
Boston, Massachusetts, was born in that
He was educated
city, October 13, 1771.
in one of the public schools, where he acquired such knowledge as was at that time
imparted in them, and became proficient
in the French and Latin languages.
He selected as a profession either that
of a printer or a bookbinder his biographer
is uncertain which, but inclines to think
that it was the former. After completing
his apprenticeship he removed to Keene, in
New Hampshire, where he worked at his
trade, and about the year 1792 (for the
precise date is unknown) was initiated in
Freemasonry in Eising Sun Lodge in that

well established, for a committee was appointed by St John's Lodge of Providence

to wait upon and inform him that this
Lodge (for his great exertions in the cause
of Masonry) wish him to become a member
of the same." He accepted the invitation,
and passing through the various gradations
of office was elected, in 1813, Grand Master
of the Masons of Rhode Island.
But it is necessary now to recur to preceding events. In 1797, on October 24, a
convention of committees from several
Chapters in the Northern States was held in
Boston for the purpose of deliberating on
the propriety and expediency of establishing a Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons
for the Northern States. Of this convention
Webb was chosen as the chairman. Previously to this time the Royal Arch degrees
had been conferred in Masters' Lodges and
under a Lodge Warrant. It is undoubtedly
to the influence of Webb that we are to
attribute the disseverance of the degree
from that jurisdiction and the establishment of independent Chapters. It was one
of the first steps that he took in the organization of the American Rite.
The circular addressed by the convention to the
Chapters of the country was most probably
from the pen of Webb.
The Grand Chapter having been organized in January, 1798, Webb was elected
Grand Scribe, and re-elected in 1799, at
which time the body assumed the title of
the General Grand Chapter. In 1806 he
was promoted to the office of General
Grand King, and in 1816 to that of Deputy
General Grand High Priest, which he held
until his death.
During all this time, Webb, although
actively engaged in the labors of Masonic
instruction, continued his interest in the
manufacture of wall paper, and in 1817 removed his machinery to the West, Moore
thinks, with the intention of making his
residence there.
In 1816 he visited the Western States,
and remained there two years, during which
time he appears to have been actively engaged in the organization of Chapters,

The most exhaustive biography

town.

While residing at Keene he married

Miss Martha Hopkins, and shortly afterwards removed to Albany, New York, where
he opened a book-store. When and where
he received the high degrees has not been
stated, but we find him, while living at
Albany, engaged in the establishment of a
Chapter and an Encampment.
It was at this early period of his life that
Webb appears to have commenced his
labors as a Masonic teacher, an office
which he continued to fill with great influence until the close of his life. In 1797
he published at Albany the first edition of
his Freemasons' Monitor ; or, Illustrations of
Masonry. It purports to be " by a Eoyal
Arch Mason, K. T., K. M., etc." He did
not claim the authorship until the subsequent edition; but his name and that of
his partner, Spencer, appear in the imprint
He acknowledges in the
as publishers.
preface his indebtedness to Preston for the
observations on the first three degrees.
But he states that he has differently arranged Preston's distributions of the sections, because they were " not agreeable to
the mode of working in America." This
proves that the Prestonian system was not
then followed in the United States, and
ought to be a sufficient answer to those
who at a later period attempted to claim
an identity between the lectures of Preston

and Webb.
About the year 1801

he removed

to

Providence, Rhode Island, where he engaged in the manufacture of wall-paper on

a rather extensive scale. By this time his
reputation as a Masonic teacher had been

5K

Grand Chapters and Encampments.

873

It

he established
the Grand Chapters of Ohio and Kentucky,
by virtue of his powers as a General Grand

was during

this visit that

Officer.

In August, 1818, he left Ohio and returned to Boston. In the spring of 1819,
he again began a visit to the West, but he
reached no farther than Cleveland, Ohio,
where he died very suddenly, it is supposed
in a fit of apoplexy, on July 6, 1819, and
was buried the next day with Masonic
honors. The body was subsequently disinterred and conveyed to Providence, where,

WEDEKINB

874

WEISHAUPT

on the 8th of November, it was reinterred xxxii.,) a woman having her hair dishevelled and standing near a tomb is a symbol
by the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island.
Webb's influence over the Masons of the of the soul.
United States, as the founder of a Kite, was
Weishanpt, Adam. He is celealtogether personal. In Masonic literature brated in the history of Masonry as the
he has made no mark, for his labors as an founder of the Order of Illuminati of Baauthor are confined to a single work, his varia, among whom he adopted the charMonitor, and this is little more than a syl- acteristic or Order name of Spartacus.
labus of his lectures. Although, if we may He was born February 6, 1748, at Ingoldjudge by the introductory remarks to the stadt, and was educated by the Jesuits,
various sections of the degrees, and espe- towards whom, however, he afterwards excially to the second one of the third de- hibited the bitterest enmity, and was equally
gree, Webb was but little acquainted with hated by them in return.
In 1772 he bethe true philosophical symbolism of Free- came extraordinary professor of law, and in
masonry, such as it was taught by Hutchin- 1775 professor of natural and canon law, at
son in England and by his contemporaries the University of Ingoldstadt. As the proin this country, Harris and Town, he was fessorship of canon law had been hitherto
what Carson properly calls him, " the ablest held only by an ecclesiastic, his appointMasonic ritualist of his day
the very ment gave great offence to the clergy.
prince of Masonic workmen," and this was Weishaupt, whose views were cosmopolitan,
the instrument with which he worked for and who knew and condemned the bigotry
the extension of the new Rite which he and superstitions of the priests, established
The American Rite would an opposing party in the University, conestablished.
have been more perfect as a system had its sisting principally of young men whose
founder entertained profounder views of confidence and friendship he had gained.
the philosophy and symbolism of Masonry They assembled in a private apartment,
as a science but as it is, with imperfections and there he discussed with them philowhich time, it is hoped, will remove, and sophic subjects, and sought to imbue them
This was the begindeficiencies which future researches of the with a liberal spirit.
Masonic scholar will supply, it still must ning of the Order of the Illuminati, or the
a name which he bestowed
ever be a monument of the ritualistic skill, Enlightened
the devotion, and the persevering labor of upon his disciples as a token of their adThomas Smith Webb.
vance in intelligence and moral progress.
The few odes and anthems composed by
At first, it was totally unconnected with
Webb for his rituals possess a high degree Masonry, of which Order Weishaupt was
of poetic merit, and evince the possession not at that time a member. It was not
of much genius in their author.
until 1777 that he was initiated in the
Wedekind, Georg Christian Lodge Theodore of Good Counsel, at MunGottlieb, Baron Ton. A German ich. Thenceforward Weishaupt sought to
physician and Professor of Medicine at incorporate his system into that of MaMetz, and a medical writer of reputation. sonry, so that the latter might become subHe was born at Gottingen, January 8, 1761. servient to his views, and with the assistAs a Mason, he was distinguished as a ance of the Baron Knigge, who brought
member of the Eclectic Union, and labored his active energies and genius to the aid of
effectually for the restoration of good feel- the cause, he succeeded in completing his
ing between it and the Directorial Lodge system of Illuminism. But the clergy, and
at Frankfort.
His Masonic works, which especially the Jesuits, who, although their
are numerous, consist principally of ad- Order had been abolished by the governdresses, controversial pamphlets, and con- ment, still secretly possessed great power,

tributions to the Altenburg Journal of Freemasonry. He died in 1831.

Weeping Virgin.

The weeping

vir-

gin with dishevelled hair, in the monument

of the third degree, used in the American
Rite, is interpreted as a symbol of grief for
the unfinished state of the Temple. Jeremy
Cross, who is said to have fabricated the
monumental symbol, was not, we are satisfied, acquainted with hermetic science.
Yet a woman thus portrayed, standing near
a tomb, was a very appropriate symbol for
the third degree, whose dogma is the resurrection.
In hermetic science, according
to Nicolas Flammel, {Hieroglyphica, cap.

redoubled their efforts to destroy their opponent, and they at length succeeded. In
1784, all secret associations were prohibited
by a royal decree, and in the following
year Weishaupt was deprived of his professorship and banished from the country.
He repaired to Gotha, where he was kindly
received by Duke Ernest, who made him a
counsellor and gave him a pension. There
he remained until he died in 1811.
During his residence at Gotha he wrote
and published many works, some on philo-

sophical subjects and several in explanaAmong

tion and defence of Illuminism.
Picture of the Illuminati,
the latter were

WEISHAUPT

WEISHAUPT

1786 A complete History of the Persecutions

of the llluminati in Bavaria, 1786. Of this
work only one volume was published; the
second, though promised, never appeared.
An Apology for the llluminati, 1786 An
Improved System of the llluminati, 1787, and

" Whoever does not close his ear to the

lamentations of the miserable, nor his
heart to gentle pity; whoever is the friend
and brother of the unfortunate; whoever
has a heart capable of love and friendship;

many

others.

No man

has ever been more abused and

than Weishaupt by the adversaries
of Freemasonry. In such partisan writers
as Barruel and Eobison we might expect to
find libels against a Masonic reformer. But
it is passing strange that Dr. Oliver should
have permitted such a passage as the following to sully his pages. {Landmarks, ii. 26.)
" Weishaupt was a shameless libertine,
who compassed the death of his sister-inlaw to conceal his vices from the world and,
as he termed it, to preserve his honor."
To charges like these, founded only in

villified

the bitterness of his persecutors, Weishaupt

has made the following reply
" The tenor of my life has been the opand no
posite of everything that is vile
man can lay any such thing to my charge."
Indeed, his long continuance in an important religious professorship at Ingoldstadt, the warm affections of his pupils, and
the patronage and protection, during the
closing years of his life, of the virtuous and
amiable Duke of Gotha, would seem to give
some assurance that Weishaupt could not
have been the monster that he has been
painted by his adversaries.
Illuminism, it is true, had its abundant
;

and no one will regret its dissoluBut its founder had hoped by it to
effect much good: that it was diverted
from its original aim was the fault, not of
him, but of some of his disciples and their
faults he was not reluctant to condemn in

errors,

tion.

his writings.

His ambition was, I think, a virtuous

one that it failed was his, and perhaps the
;

world's, misfortune.
he says, "is good,

"

My

general plan,"

though in the detail

there may be faults. I had myself to create.
In another situation, and in an active station in life, I should have been keenly occupied, and the founding of an Order would
never have come into my head. But I
would have executed much better things,
if the government had not always opposed
my exertions, and placed others in situations which suited my talents.
It was the
full conviction of this, and of what could
be done, if every man were placed in the
office for which he was fitted by nature,
and a proper education, which first sug-

me the plan of Illuminism."

What he really wished Illuminism to be,
we may judge from the instructions he gave
gested to

as to the necessary qualifications of a candidate for initiation. They are as follows

875

whoever

is steadfast in adversity, unwearied

in the carrying out of whatever has been
once engaged in, undaunted in the overcoming of difficulties whoever does not
mock and despise the weak whose soul is
susceptible of conceiving great designs, desirous of rising superior to all base motives,
and of distinguishing itself by deeds of
benevolence; whoever shuns idleness; whoever considers no knowledge as unessential
which he may have the opportunity of acquiring, regarding the knowledge of mankind as his chief study; whoever, when
truth and virtue are in question, despising
the approbation of the multitude, is sufficiently courageous to follow the dictates of
his own heart,
such a one is a proper
candidate."
;

The Baron von Knigge, who, perhaps, of

men, best knew him, said of him that

all

he was undeniably a man of genius, and a

profound thinker and that he was all the
more worthy of admiration because, while
;

subjected to the influences of a bigoted

Catholic education, he had formed his mind
by his own meditations, and the reading
of good books. His heart, adds this companion of his labors and sharer of his
secret thoughts, was excited by the most
unselfish desire to do something great, and
that would be worthy of mankind, and in
the accomplishment of this he was deterred
by no opposition and discouraged by no

embarrassments.

The

truth

is,

I think, that

Weishaupt

has been misunderstood by Masonic and

slandered by un-Masonic writers. His success in the beginning as a reformer was
due to his own honest desire to do good.
His failure in the end was attributable to
ecclesiastical persecution, and to the faults
and follies of his disciples. The master
works to elevate human nature the scholars,
Weishaupt's place in history
to degrade.
should be among the unsuccessful reformers,
and not among the profligate adventurers.
Welcome. In the ritual, it is said to
be the duty of the Senior Deacon " to wel;

come and clothe all

That is to say, he is to

brethren."
at the
door with all courtesy and kindness, and to
furnish them, or see that they are furnished,
with the necessary apron and gloves, and,
if they are Past Masters, with the appropriate collar and jewel of that office, with
an extra supply of which all Lodges were
in the olden time supplied.
He is to conduct the visitor to a seat, and thus carry
out the spirit of the old Charges, which
visiting
receive

them

876

WELL

especially inculcate hospitality to strange

brethren.

WESTPHALIA
Westphalia, Secret Tribunals

of. The Vehmgerichte, or Fehmgerichte,

Well Formed, True, and Trus- were secret criminal courts of Westphalia
ty. A formula used by the Grand Master in the Middle Ages. The origin of this inHaving stitution, like that of Masonry, has been
at the laying of a corner-stone.
applied the square, level, and plumb to its involved in uncertainty. The true meandifferent surfaces and angles, he declares it ing of the name even is doubtful.
Vaern
to be "well formed, true, and trusty." is said by Dreyer to signify holy in the old
Borrowed from the technical language of Northern languages and, if this be true,
Operative Masonry, it is symbolically ap- a Fehmgericht would mean a holy court.
plied in reference to the character which But it has also been suggested that the word
the Entered Apprentice should sustain comes from the Latin fama, or rumor, and
when, in the course of his initiation, he as- that a Fehmgericht was so called because
sumes the place of a typical corner-stone it proceeded to the trial of persons whose
only accuser was common rumor, the maxin the Lodge.
Wesley, Samuel. At one time the im of the German law, " no accuser, no
most distinguished organist of England, judge," being in such a case departed from.
and called by Mendelssohn " the father of They were also called Tribunals of WestEnglish organ-playing." He was initiated phalia, because their jurisdiction and existas a Mason December 17, 1788, and in 1812, ence were confined to that country.
the office of Grand Organist of the Grand
The Mediae val Westphalia was situated
Lodge of England being in that year first within the limits of the country bounded
instituted, he received the appointment from on the west by the Rhine, on the east by
the Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex, and the Weser, on the north by Friesland, and
held it until 1818. He composed the an- on the south by Westerwald.
Render
them performed at the union of the two (Tour through Germany, p. 186,) says that
Grand Lodges in 1813, and was the com- the tribunals were only to be found in the
poser of many songs, glees, etc., for the use duchies of Gueldres, Cleves, and Westof the Craft. He was the son of the Eev. phalia, in the principal cities of Corvey
Charles Wesley, and nephew of the cele- and Minden, in the landgravate of Hesse,
brated John Wesley, the founder of Meth- in the counties of Bentheim, Limburg,
odism. Born February 24, 1766, at Bristol, Lippe, Mark, Ravensberg, Rechlinghausen,
England, and died October 11, 1837. He Rietzberg, Sayn, Waldeck, and Steinfort,
was well entitled to the epithet of the in some baronies, as Gehmen, Neustadt,
" Great Musician of Masonry."
and Rheda, and in the free imperial city
West. Although the west, as one of of Dortmund but these were all included
the four cardinal points, holds an honor- within the limits of Mediaeval Westphalia.
It has been supposed that the first secret
able position as the station of the Senior
Warden, and of the pillar of Strength that tribunals were established by the Emperor
supports the Lodge, yet, being the place of Charlemagne on the conquest of Saxony.
the sun's setting and opposed to the east, the In 803 the Saxons obtained among other
recognized place of light, it, in Masonic privileges that of retaining their national
symbolism, represents the place of darkness laws, and administering them under impeand ignorance. The old tradition, that in rial judges who had been created Counts
primeval times all human wisdom was con- of the Empire. Their courts, it is said,
fined to the eastern part of the world, and were held three times a year in an open
that those who had wandered towards the field, and their sessions were held in public
west were obliged to return to the east in on ordinary occasions but in all cases of
search of the knowledge of their ancestors, religious offence, such as apostasy, heresy,
is not confined to Masonry.
Creuzer (Sym- or sacrilege, although the trial began in a
bolik) speaks of an ancient and highly-in- public session, it always ended in a secret
structed body of priests in the East, from tribunal.
whom all knowledge, under the veil of symIt has been supposed by some writers
bols, was communicated to the Greeks and that these courts of the Counts of the Emother unenlightened nations of the West. pire instituted by Charlemagne gave origin
And in the " Legend of the Craft," contained to the secret tribunals of Westphalia,
in the old Masonic Constitutions, there is which were held in the thirteenth and
always a reference to the emigration of the fourteenth centuries. There is no exterMasons from Egypt eastward to the " land nal evidence of the truth of this hypotheof behest," or Jerusalem. Hence, in the sis. It was, however, the current opinion
modern symbolism of Speculative Masonry, of the time, and all the earlier traditions
it is said that the Mason during his adand documents of the courts themselves
vancement is travelling from the West to the trace their origin to Charlemagne. Paul
East in search of light.
Wigand, the German jurist and historian.
;

WESTPHALIA

WESTPHALIA
who

wrote a history of their tribunals,

(Fehmgericht Westfalens, Hamburg, 1826,)
contends for the truth of these traditions
and Sir Francis Palgrave, in his Rise and
Progress of the English Commonwealth, says,
unhesitatingly, that " the Vehmic tribunals
*can only be considered as the original jurisdictions of the old Saxons which survived the subjugation of their country."
The silence on this subject in the laws and
capitularies of Charlemagne has been explained on the ground that these tribunals
were not established authoritatively by
that monarch, but only permitted by a
tacit sanction to exist.
The author of the article on the Secret
Societies of the Middle Ages, published in
the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, who
has written somewhat exhaustively on this
subject, says that the first writers who have
mentioned these tribunals are Henry of
Hervorden in the fourteenth, and iEneas
Sylvius in the fifteenth century; both of
whom, however, trace them to the time of
Charlemagne; but Jacob (Recherches Historiquessurles Croisadeset

les

Templiers, p. 132,)

diploma of Count Engelbert de la

Mark, of the date of 1267, in which there is
an evident allusion to some of their usages.
cites a

Eender says that they are

first

generally

known

But their absoin the year 1220.

lute historical existence is confined to the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The secret Westphalian tribunals were
apparently created for the purpose of preserving public morals, of punishing crime,
and of protecting the poor and weak from
the oppressions of the rich and powerful.
They were outside of the regular courts of
the country, and in this respect may be
compared to the modern "vigilance committees " sometimes instituted in this #country for the protection of the well-disposed
citizens in newly-settled territories from the
annoyance of lawless men. But the German
tribunals differed from the American committees in this, that they were recognized by
the emperors, and that their decisions and
executions partook of a judicial character.
The Vehmic tribunals, as they are also
called,

were governed by a minute system

of regulations, the strict observance of

which preserved their power and influence
for at least

two centuries.

At the head of the institution was the

Emperor, for in Germany he was recognized
as the source of law.
His connection with
the association was either direct or indiIf he had been initiated into it, as
rect.
was usually the case, then his connection
was direct and immediate. If, however, he
was not an initiate, then his powers were
delegated to a lieutenant, who was a member of the tribunal.

Next

to

the

877

Emperor came the

free

Free counties were certain districts

comprehending several parishes, where the
judges and counsellors of the secret ban
exercised jurisdiction in conformity with
The free count, who was
the statutes.
counts.

called Stuhlherr, or tribunal lord, presided

over this free county and the tribunal held
within it. He had also the prerogative of
erecting other tribunals within his territorial limits, and if he did not preside in person, he appointed a Ereigraf or free judge,
to supply his place.
o one could be invested with the dignity of a free judge unless he were a Westphalian by birth, born
in lawful wedlock of honest parents
of
good repute, charged with no crime, and
well qualified to preside over the county.
They derived their name of free judges from
the fact that the tribunals exercised their
jurisdiction over only free men, serfs being
left to the control of their own lords.
Next in rank to the free judges were the
Schoppen, as assessors or counsellors. They
formed the main body of the association,
and were nominated by the free judge, with
the consent of the stuhlherr, and vouched for
schoppe
by two members of the tribunal.
was required to be a Christian, a Westphalian of honest birth, neither excommunicated nor outlawed, nor involved in any
suit before the Fehmgericht, and not a
member of any monastic or ecclesiastical
order.
There were two classes of these assessors or schoppen
a lower class or grade
called the Ignorant, who had not been initiated, and were consequently not permitted to be present at the secret session and
a higher grade, called the Knowing, who
were subjected to a form of initiation.
The ceremonies of initiation of a free
judge were very solemn and symbolic. The
candidate appeared bareheaded before the
tribunal, and answered certain questions
respecting his qualifications. Then, kneeling, with the thumb and forefinger of the
right hand on a naked sword and halter,
he pronounced the following oath " I swear
by the Holy Trinity that I will, from henceforth, aid, keep, and conceal the holy Fehms
from wife and child, from father and mother,
from sister and brother, from fire and wind,
from all that the sun shines on and the rain
covers, from all that is between sky and
earth, especially from the man who know*
the law and will bring before this free tribunal, under which I am sitting, all that
belongs to the secret jurisdiction of the Emperor, whether I know it to be true myself
or have heard it from trustworthy men,
whatever requires correction or punishment, whatever is committed within the
jurisdiction of the Fehm, that it may be
judged, or, with the consent of the accuser.

878

WESTPHALIA

WESTPHALIA

be put off in grace and will not cease so to

do for love or for fear, for gold or for silver,
;

or for precious stones and will strengthen

this tribunal and jurisdiction with all my
and that I do not
five senses and power
take on me this office for any other cause
than for the sake of right and justice. Moreover, that I will ever advance and honor
this free tribunal more than any other free
tribunals ; and what I thus promise will I
steadfastly and firmly keep so help me God
and his Holy Gospel."
He further swore in an additional oath
that he would, to the best of his ability,
enlarge the holy empire, and would undertake nothing with unrighteous hand against
the land and people of the Stuhlherr, or Lord
;

of the Tribunal.

His name was then

in-

serted in the Book of Gold.

The secrets of the tribunal were then
communicated to the candidate, and with

them the modes of

the peace of the empire.

They were charged

to be cool and sober, lest passion or intoxication should lead them to pass an unjust

judgment.
Writers of romance have clothed these
tribunals with additional mystery. But the
stories that they were held at night, and in*
subterranean places, have no foundation
save in the imagination of those who have
invented them. They were held, like other
German courts, at break of day and in the
open air, generally beneath a tree in the

The public tribunals

were, of course, open to all. It was the
secret ones only that were held in private.
But the time and place were made known
to the accused in the notification left at his
residence, or, if that were unknown, as in
the case of a vagabond, at a place where
four roads met, being affixed to the ground
or to a tree, and the knowledge might be
easily communicated by him to his friends.
forest, or elsewhere.

recognition by which
The Chapter-General met once a year,
he could be enabled to discover his fellowmembers. The sign is described to have generally at Dortmund or Arensburg, but
been made by placing, when at table, the always at some place in Westphalia. It
point of their knife pointing to themselves, consisted of the tribunal lords and free
and the haft away from them. This was counts, who were convoked by the EmpeIf the Emperor was
also accompanied by the words Stock Stein, ror or his lieutenant.
Oras Grein, the meaning of which phrase an initiate, he might preside in person if
is unknown.
he was not, he was represented by his lieuThe duties of the initiated were to act as tenant. At these Chapters the proceedings
assessors or judges at the meetings of the of the various Fehm courts were reviewed,
courts, to constitute which at least seven and hence these latter made a return of the
were required to be present; and also to go names of the persons initiated, the suits
through the country, serve citations upon they had commenced, the sentences they
the accused, and to execute the sentences had passed, and the punishments they had
of the tribunals upon criminals, as well as inflicted. The Chapter-General acted also
In fact, the relation
to trace out and denounce all evil-doers. as a court of appeals.
The punishment of an initiate who had be- of a Chapter-General to the Fehm courts
trayed any of the secrets of the society was was precisely the same as that of a Grand
His tongue was torn out by the Lodge of Masons to its subordinates. The
severe.
roots, and he was then hung on a tree seven resemblance, too, in the symbolic character
feet higher than any other felon.
of the two institutions was striking. But
;

The ceremonies practised when a Fehm

court was held were very symbolic in their
character.
Before the free count stood a
table, on which were placed a naked sword
and a cord of withe. The sword, which
was cross-handled, is explained in their
ritual as signifying the cross on which
Christ suffered for our sins, and the cord
the punishment of the wicked. All had
their heads uncovered, to signify that they
would proceed openly and fairly, punish in
proportion to guilt, and cover no right with
a wrong. Their hands also were uncovered,
to show that they would do nothing covertly and underhand and they wore cloaks,
to signify their warm love for justice, for
as the cloak covers all the other garments
and the body, so should their love cover
justice.
Lastly, they were to wear neither
armor nor weapons, that no one might feel
fear, and to indicate that they were under
;

here the resemblance ended, for it has never

been contended that there was or could be
any connection whatever between the two

But the coincidences show

that peculiar spirit and love of mystery
which prevailed in those times, and the influence of which was felt in Masonry as
well as in the Westphalian tribunals, and
all the other secret societies of the Middle
institutions.

Ages.

The crimes of which the Fehmgericht

claimed a jurisdiction were, according to
the statutes passed at Arensburg in 1490,
of two kinds those cognizant by the secret
tribunal, and those cognizant by the public
The crimes cognizant by the
tribunal.
:

secret tribunal were, violations of the

secrets of Charlemagne and of the Fehmand
gericht, heresy, apostasy, perjury,

witchcraft or magic. Those cognizant by

the public tribunal were, sacrilege, theft,

WESTPHALIA

WHITE

rape, robbery of women in childbirth, treason, highway robbery, murder or manslaughter, and vagrancy. Sometimes the
catalogue of crimes was modified and often
enlarged. There was one period when all
the crimes mentioned in the decalogue were
included ; and indeed there was no positive
restriction of the jurisdiction of the tribunals, which generally were governed in
their proceedings by what they deemed ex-

disorganization of society, had renitself powerless

and when
in the hands of persons of irreproachable
character, the weak could only thus be
protected from the oppressions of the
strong, the virtuous from the aggression of
the vicious. It was in its commencement
a safeguard for society and hence it became so popular that its initiates numbered at one time over one hundred thousand, and men of rank and influence
sought with avidity admission into its

pedient for the public peace and safety.

In the early history of the institution, its
trials were conducted with impartiality, and
its judgments rendered in accordance with
justice, being constantly restrained by
mercy, so that they were considered by the
populace as being of great advantage in
those times of lawlessness. But at length
the institution became corrupt, and often
aided instead of checking oppression, a

change which finally led to its decay.

When any one was accused, he was summoned to appear before the tribunal at a certain specified time and place.
If he was an
initiate, the summons was repeated three
times but if not, that is, if any other than
an inhabitant of Westphalia, the summons
was given only once. If he appeared, an
opportunity was afforded him of defence.
An initiate could purge himself by a simple
oath of denial, but any 'other person was
required to adduce sufficient testimony of
;

If the accused did not aphis innocence.

pear, nor render a satisfactory excuse for
his absence, the court proceeded to declare
him outlawed, and a free judge was delegated to put him to death wherever found.

Where three free judges found any one flagrante delicto, or in the very act of committing
a crime, or having just perpetrated it, they
were authorized to put him to death without the formality of a trial. But if he succeeded in making his escape before the
penalty was inflicted, he could not on a
subsequent arrest be put to death. His
case must then be brought for trial before

879

eral

dered the law

circle.

In time the institution became demoralPurity of character was no longer

insisted on as a qualification for admission.
Its decrees and judgments were no longer
marked with unfaltering justice, and, instead
of defending the weak any longer from the
ized.

it often became itself the willing instrument of oppression. Efforts were

made from time to time to inaugurate reforms, but the prevailing spirit of the age,

oppressor,

now beginning

to be greatly improved by
the introduction of the Koman law and the
spread of the Protestant religion, was opposed to the self-constituted authority of
the tribunals. They began to dissolve
almost insensibly, and after the close of the
sixteenth century we hear no more of them,
although there never was any positive decree of dissolution enacted or promulgated
by the State. They were destroyed, not by
any edict of law, but by the progressive
spirit of the people.
Virginia. Originally, all the
Lodges in the western part of Virginia were
under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge
of that State. But the new State of West
Virginia having been formed in 1863, nine
Lodges sent delegates to a convention held
at Fairmount, April 12, 1865, which, after

West

some

discussion, adjourned to

meet again on

May 10th of the same year, when the Grand

Lodge of West Virginia was organized, and

W. J. Bates elected Grand Master.
The Grand Chapter of Hoyal Arch
a tribunal.
The sentence of the court, if capital, Masons of West Virginia was organized,
was not announced to the criminal, and November 16, 1871, by a convention of five
he learned it only when, in some secret Chapters. The Grand Chapter of Virginia,
place, the executioners of the decree of under which these Chapters held their Warthe Fehmgericht met him and placed the rants, had previously given its consent to
halter around his neck and suspended him the organization.
to a neighboring tree.
The punishment of
White. White is one of the most
death was always by hanging, and from a ancient as well as most extensively diffused
tree.
The fact that a dead body was thus of the symbolic colors. It is to be found
found in the forest, was an intimation to in all the ancient mysteries, where it conthose who found it that the person had stituted, as it does in Masonry, the investidied by the judgment of the secret tri- ture of the candidate. It always, however,
bunal.
and everywhere has borne the same signifiIt is very evident that an institution like cation as the symbol of purity and innobe justified, or even tolerated,
only in a country and at a time when the
power and vices of the nobles, and the gen-

this could

cence.

In the religious observances of the Hebrews, white was the color of one of the

WHITE

WHITE

880

curtains of the tabernacle, where, according

to Josephus, it was a symbol of the element
of earth ; and it was employed in the construction of the ephod of the high priest,
of his girdle, and of the breastplate. The
word pS, laban, which in the Hebrew language signifies "to make white," also denotes " to purify " and there are to be
found throughout the Scriptures many allusions to the color as an emblem of purity.
" Though thy sins be as scarlet," says Isaiah,
" they shall be as white as snow." Jeremiah,
;

describing the once innocent condition

of Zion, says, "her Nazarites were purer
than snow, they were whiter than milk."
"Many," says Daniel, "shall be purified
and made white." In Revelation, a white
stone was the reward promised by the Spirit
to those who overcame; and again, "he
that overcometh, the same shall be clothed
in white garments " and in another part of
the same book the Apostle is instructed to
say that fine linen, clean and white, is the
righteousness of the saints. The ancient
prophets always imagined the Deity clothed
in white, because, says Portal, {Des Couleurs
Symboliques, p. 35,) " white is the color of
absolute truth, of Him who is ; it alone reflects all the luminous rays ; it is the unity
whence all the primitive colors emanate."
Thus Daniel, in one of his prophetic visions,
saw the Ancient of days, " whose garment
was white as snow, and the hair of his head
Here, says Dr. Henry,
like pure wool."
{Coram, in loco,) the whiteness of the garment "noted the splendor and purity of
God in all the administrations of his justice."
Among the Gentile nations, the same
reverence was paid to this color. The
Egyptians decorated the head of their
In the
deity, Osiris, with a white tiara.
school of Pythagoras, the sacred hymns
were chanted in white robes. The Druids
clothed their initiates who had arrived at
the ultimate degree, or that of perfection,
in -white vestments. In all the mysteries
of other nations of antiquity, the same custom was observed. White was, in general,
the garment of the Gentile as well as of the
Hebrew priests in the performance of their
sacred rites. As the divine power was supposed to be represented on earth by the
priesthood, in all nations the sovereign
pontiff was clad in white.
Aaron was directed to enter the sanctuary only in white
garments in Persia, the Magi wore white
robes, because, as they said, they alone were
pleasing to the Deity and the white tunic
of Ormuzd is still the characteristic garment
of the modern Parsees.
White, among the ancients, was consecrated to the dead, because it was the symbol of the regeneration of the soul. On
the monuments of Thebes the manes or
;

ghosts are represented as clothed in white

the Egyptians wrapped their dead in white
linen; Homer (Iliad xviii. 353,) refers to the
same custom when he makes the attendants
cover the dead body of Patroclus, pharei
leuko, with a white pall and Pausanias tells
us that the Messenians practised the same
customs, clothing their dead in white, and
placing crowns upon their heads, indicating
by this double symbolism the triumph of
the soul over the empire of death.
The Hebrews had the same usage. St.
Matthew (xxvii. 59,) tells us that Joseph
of Arimathea wrapped the dead body of our
Lord "in a clean linen cloth." Adopting
this as a suggestion, Christian artists have,
in their paintings of the Saviour after his
resurrection, depicted him in a white robe.
And it is with this idea that in the Apocalypse white vestments are said to be the
symbols of the regeneration of souls, and
the reward of the elect. It is this consecration of white to the dead that caused it to
be adopted as the color of mourning among
the nations of antiquity. As the victor in
the games was clothed in white, so the same
color became the symbol of the victory
achieved by the departed in the last combat
of the soul with death. " The friends of the
deceased wore," says Plutarch, " his livery,
in commemoration of his triumph." The
modern mourning in black is less philosophic and less symbolic than this ancient
one in white.
In Speculative Masonry, white is the
symbol of purity. This symbolism commences at the earliest point of initiation,
when the white apron is presented to the
candidate as a symbol of purity of life and
rectitude of conduct.
Wherever in any of
the subsequent initiations this color appears, it is always to be interpreted as symbolizing the same idea. In the thirty-third
degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the Sovereign Inspector is invested with a white scarf as inculcating
that virtuous deportment above the tongue
of all reproach which should distinguish
the possessors of that degree, the highest in
the Rite.
This symbolism of purity was most probably derived by the Masons from that of
the primitive church, where a white garment was placed on the catechumen who
was about to be baptized, as a token that
he had put off the lusts of the flesh, and,
being cleansed from his former sins, had
obliged himself to maintain an unspotted
life.
The ancient symbolism of regeneration which appertained to the ancient idea
of the color white has not been adopted in
Masonry and yet it would be highly appropriate in an Institution one of whose
chief dogmas is the resurrection.
;

WHITE

WIDOW'S

Ball. In Freemasonry, equivalent to a favorable or affirmative vote.

The custom of using white and black balls
seems to have been derived from the Romans, who in the earlier days of the republic used white and black balls in their
judicial trials, which, were cast into an urn,
the former acquitting and with the latter
condemning the accused.

Master of the Lodge, and presided until

1809. In 1805 he was appointed a Grand

White

881

Steward, and in 1810 Grand Secretary, as

the assistant of his father. This office was
held by them conjointly for three years.
In 1813, at the union of the two Grand
Lodges, he was appointed, with Edwards
Harper, Joint Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England, and in 1838
White Cross Knights. A title sole Grand Secretary. In 1857, after a sersometimes applied to the Knights Hos- vice of nearly half a century, he retired from
pitallers of St. John, from the color of their theoffice, the Grand Lodge unanimously votPorter [Hist. Knts. of Malta, i. 166,) ing him a retiring pension equal in amount
cross.
says " Villiers hastily assembled a troop to his salary.
On that occasion the Earl of
of White Cross Knights, and, issuing from Zetland, Grand Master, said " I know of
the city by a side gate, made a circuit so no one, and I believe there never was any
as, if possible, to fall upon the flank of the
one who has done more, who has rendered
more valuable services to Masonry than
foe unperceived."
White Mantle, Order of the. our worthy Brother White." In view of
The Teutonic Knights were so denomi-' the great names in Masonic literature and
nated in allusion to the color of their labor which preceded him, the eulogium will
cloaks, on which they bore a black cross.
be deemed exaggerated but the devotion
{Maconnerie of the Grand Secretary to the Order, and
White Masonry.
blanche.)
title given by French writers
his valuable services during his long and
During the
to Female Masonry, or the Masonry of active life, cannot be denied.
Adoption,
latter years of his official term, he was
White Stone. A symbol in the Mark charged with inactivity and neglect of duty,
degree referring to the passage in the but the fault has been properly attributed
Apocalypse (ii. 17): "To him that over- to the increasing infirmities of age. A sercometh will I give to eat of the hidden vice of plate was presented to him by the
manna and I will give him a white stone, Craft, June 20, 1850, as a testimonial of
and in the stone a new name written, which esteem. He died April 5, 1866.
no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth
Widow's Son. In Ancient Craft Mait."
In this passage it is supposed that the sonry, the title applied to Hiram, the archiEvangelist alluded to the stones or tesserae tect of the Temple, because he is said, in the
which, among the ancients and the early First Book of Kings, (vii. 14,) to have been
Christians, were used as tokens of alliance "a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali."
and friendship. Hence in the Mark de- The Adonhiramite Masons have a tradition
gree, the white stone and the new name in- which Ch apron gives {Necessaire Magonn.,
scribed upon it is a symbol of the covenant p. 101,) in the following words "The Mamade between the possessors of the degree, sons call themselves the widow's sons, bewhich will in all future time, and under cause, after the death of our respectable
every circumstance of danger or distress, Master, the Masons took care of his mother,
secure the kind and fraternal assistance of whose childen they called themselves, because Adonhiram had always considered
all upon whom the same token has been
bestowed. In the symbolism of the degree them as his brethren. But the French
the candidate represents that white stone Masons subsequently changed the myth and
upon whom the new name as a Mark Master called themselves 'Sons of the Widow,' and
is to be inscribed.
See Mark and Tessera for this reason. 'As the wife of Hiram
ITospitalis.
remained a widow after her husband was
White, William Henry. Distin- murdered, the Masons, who regard themguished for his services to the Craft of Eng- selves as the descendants of Hiram, call
But this
land, whom he served as Grand Secretary themselves Sons of the Widow.' "
for the long period of forty-seven years. myth is a pure invention, and is without
He was the son of William White, who was the scriptural foundation of the York myth,
also Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge which makes Hiram himself the widow's
of England for thirty -two years, the office son.
But in French Masonry the term
having thus been held by father and son " Son of the Widow " is synonymous with
for seventy-nine years.
William Henry " Mason."
White was born in 1778. On April 15,
The adherents of the exiled house of
1799, he was initiated in Emulation Lodge, Stuart, when seeking to organize a system
No. 12, now called the Lodge of Emulation, of political Masonry by which they hoped
No. 21, having been nominated by his to secure the restoration of the family to
father.
December 15, 1800, he was elected the throne of England, transferred to
:

5L

56

WIFE

882

WINDING

Charles II. the tradition of Hiram Abif

betrayed by his followers, and called him.
"the Widow's Son," because he was the
son of Henrietta Maria, the widow of
Charles I. For the same reason they subsequently applied the phrase to his brother,

James

II.

Wife and Daughter, Mason's.

See Mason's Wife and Daughter.

Wilhelmsbad, Congress

of.

At

Wilhelmsbad, near the city of Hanau in

Hesse- Cassel, was held the most important
Masonic Congress of the eighteenth century.
It was convoked by Ferdinand,
Duke of Brunswick, Grand Master of the
Order of Strict Observance, and was opened
July 16, 1782. Its duration extended to

and in its discussions the

most distinguished Masons of Germany
were engaged. Neither the Grand Lodge
of Germany, nor that of Sweden, was
represented and the Grand Lodge of the
Three Globes, at Berlin, sent only a letter
but there were delegates from Upper and
Lower Germany, from Holland, Russia,
Italy, France, and Austria and the Order
of the Illuminati was represented by the
Baron von Knigge. It is not therefore
surprising that the most heterogenous
opinions were expressed. Its avowed object was the reform of the Masonic system,
and its disentanglement from the confused
mass of rites and high degrees with which
French and German pretenders or enthusiasts had been for years past overwhelming
thirty sessions,

Important topics were proposed, such

as the true origin of Speculative Masonry,
it.

whether it was merely conventional and

the result of modern thought, or whether it
was the offspring of a more ancient order,
and, if so, what was that order; whether
there were any Superiors General then existing, and who these Unknown Superiors
were, etc. These and kindred questions
were thoroughly discussed, but not defined,
and the Congress was eventually closed
without coming to any other positive determination than that Freemasonry was not
essentially connected with Templarism, and
that, contrary to the doctrine of the Rite
of Strict Observance, the Freemasons were
not the successors of the Knights Templars.
The real effect of the Congress of Wilhelmsbad was the abolition of that Rite,
which soon after drooped and died.
Will. In some of the continental Rites,
and in certain high degrees, it is a custom
to require the recipiendary to make, before
his initiation, a will and testament, exhibiting what are his desires as to the distribution of his property at his decease.
The
object seems to be to add solemnity to the
ceremony, and to impress the candidate
with the thought of death. But I am in-

clined to think that

would be

"

it is a custom which
more honored in the breach than

the observance."

It is not practised in the

Rites.

York and American

Wilson Manuscript. In the marginal notes to the Manifesto of the Lodge of

Antiquity, published in 1778, there is reference to an " 0. MS. in the hands of Mr.
Wilson of Broomhead, near Sheffield,
Yorkshire, written in the reign of King
Henry VIII." It seems, from the context,
to have been cited as authority for the existence of a General Assembly of the Craft
at the city of York. ' But no part of the
MS. has ever been printed or transcribed,
and it is now apparently lost.
Stairs. In the First Book

Winding

of Kings (vi. 8) it is said: "The door for

the middle chamber was in the right side
of the house and they went up with windings stairs into the middle chamber, and
out of the middle into the third." From
this passage the Masons of the last century
adopted the symbol of the winding stairs,
and introduced it into the Fellow Craft's
degree, where it has ever since remained,
in the York and American Rites.
In one
of the high degrees of the Scottish Rite the
;

winding stairs are called cochleus, which is

a corruption of cochlis, a spiral staircase.
The Hebrew word is lulim, from the obsoThe whole
lete root lul, to roll or wind.
story of the winding stairs in the second
degree of Masonry is a mere myth, without
any other foundation than the slight allusion in the Book of Kings which has been
just cited, and it derives its only value
from the symbolism taught in its legend.
See Middle Chamber and Winding
Legend of the.

Stairs,

Winding Stairs, Legend of the.

I formerly so fully investigated the true

meaning of the legend of the winding stairs,

as taught in the degree of Fellow Craft, that
I can now find nothing to add to what I
have already said in my work on The Symbolism of Freemasonry, published in 1869.
1 might, in writing a new article, change
the language, but I could furnish no new
idea.
I shall not, therefore, hesitate to
transfer much of what I have said on this
subject in that work to the present article.
It is an enlargement and development of
the meagre explanations given in the ordinary lecture of Webb.
In an investigation of the symbolism of
the winding stairs, we shall be directed to
the true explanation by a reference to
their origin, their number, the objects
which they recall, and their termination,
but above all by a consideration of the great
design which an ascent upon them was intended to accomplish.
The steps of this winding staircase com-

WINDING

WINDING

menced, we are informed, at the porch of

considered as a fortunate omen. But the

is, that the symbolism of numbers was
borrowed by the Masons from Pythagoras,
in whose system of philosophy it plays an

the Temple
trance.

But

to say, at its very ennothing is more undoubted in

that

is

the science of Masonic symbolism than that

the Temple was the representative of the
world purified by the Shekinah, or the Divine Presence. The world of the profane
is without the Temple
the world of the initiated is within its sacred walls.
Hence to
enter the Temple, to pass within the porch,
to be made a Mason, and to be born into the
world of Masonic light, are all synonymous
and convertible terms. Here, then, the symbolism of the winding stairs begins.
The Apprentice, having entered within
the porch of the temple, has begun his
Masonic life. But the first degree in Masonry, like the lesser mysteries of the ancient systems of initiation, is only a prepa;

ration and purification for something

higher. The Entered Apprentice is the
child in Masonry. The lessons which he
receives are simply intended to cleanse the
heart and prepare the recipient for that
mental illumination which is to be given
in the succeeding degrees.
As a Fellow Craft, he has advanced another step, and as the degree is emblematic
of youth, so it is here that the intellectual
education of the candidate begins. And
therefore, here, at the very spot which separates the porch from the sanctuary, where
childhood ends and manhood begins, he
finds stretching out before him a winding
stair which invites him, as it were, to ascend, and which, as the symbol of discipline
and instruction, teaches him that here must
commence his Masonic labor here he
must enter upon those glorious though difficult researches the end of which is to be
the possession of divine truth. The winding stairs begin after the candidate has

passed within the porch and between the

and establishment, as a
significant symbol to teach him that as soon
as he has passed beyond the years of irrational childhood, and commenced his entrance upon manly life, the laborious task
of self-improvement is the first duty that is
placed before him. He cannot stand still,
his
if he would be worthy of his vocation
destiny as an immortal being requires him
to ascend, step by step, until he has reached
the summit, where the treasures of knowledge await him.
The number of these steps in all the systems has been odd. Vitruvius remarks
and the coincidence is at least curious
that the ancient temples were always ascended by an odd number of steps and he
assigns as the reason, that, commencing
with the right foot at the bottom, the worshipper would find the same foot foremost
when he entered the temple, which was
pillars of strength

883

fact

important part, and in which odd numbers

were considered as more perfect than even
Hence, throughout the Masonic sysones.
tem we find a predominance of odd numbers;
teen,

and while three, five, seven, nine, fifand twenty-seven, are all-important

symbols,

we seldom

find a reference to two,

four, six, eight, or ten.

The odd number

of the stairs was therefore intended to symbolize the idea of perfection, to which it
was the object of the aspirant to attain.
As to the particular number of the
stairs, this has varied at different periods.
Tracing-boards of the last century have
been found, in which only five steps are delineated, and others in which they amount
to seven.
The Prestonian lectures, used in
England in the beginning of this century,
gave the whole number as thirty- eight, dividing them into series of one, three, five,
seven, nine, and eleven. The error of
making an even number, which was a violation of the Pythagorean principle of odd
numbers as the symbol of perfection, was
corrected in the Hemming lectures, adopted
at the union of the two Grand Lodges of
England, by striking out the eleven, which
was also objectionable as receiving a sectarian explanation.
In this country the
number was still further reduced to fifteen,
divided into three series of three, five, and
seven.
I shall adopt this American division
in explaining the symbolism; although,
after all, the particular number of the steps,
or the peculiar method of their division
into series, will not in any way affect the
general symbolism of the whole legend.
The candidate, then, in the second degree of Masonry, represents a man starting
forth on the journey of life, with the great
task before him of self-improvement. For
the faithful performance of this task, a reward is promised, which reward consists in
the development of all his intellectual faculties, the moral and spiritual elevation of
his character, and the acquisition of truth
and knowledge. Now, the attainment of
this moral and intellectual condition supposes an elevation of character, an ascent
from a lower to a higher life, and a passage
of toil and difficulty, through rudimentary
instruction, to the full fruition of wisdom.
This is therefore beautifully symbolized by
the winding stairs, at whose foot the aspirant stands ready to climb the toilsome
steep, while at its top is placed " that hieroglyphic bright which none but Craftsmen
ever saw," as the emblem of divine truth.
And hence a distinguished writer has said
that " these steps, like all the Masonic sym-

884

WINDING

WINDING

bols, are illustrative of discipline and doctrine, as well as of natural, mathematical,

and metaphysical science, and open to us

necessary preparations for the attainment

of these objects. In the allusions to the
officers of a Lodge, and the degrees of Maan extensive range of moral and specula- sonry as explanatory of the organization
of our own society, we clothe in our symtive inquiry."
The candidate, incited by the love of vir- bolic language the history of the organizatue and the desire of knowledge, and withal tion of society.
Advancing in his progress, the candieager for the reward of truth which is set
before him, begins at once the toilsome as- date is invited to contemplate another
cent.
At each division he pauses to gather series of instructions. The human senses,
instruction from the symbolism which these as the appropriate channels through which
we receive all our ideas of perception,
divisions present to his attention.
At the first pause which he makes he is and which, therefore, constitute the most
instructed in the peculiar organization of important sources of our knowledge, are
the order of which he has become a disci- here referred to as a symbol of intellecBut the information here given, if tual cultivation. Architecture, as the most
ple.
taken in its naked, literal sense, is barren, important of the arts which conduce to
and unworthy of his labor. The rank of the comfort of mankind, is also alluded to
the officers who govern, and the names of here, not simply because it is so closely
the degrees which constitute the Institution, connected with the operative institution of
can give him no knowledge which he has Masonry, but also as the type of all the
must look there- other useful arts. In his second pause, in
not before possessed.
fore to the symbolic meaning of these allu- the ascent of the winding stairs, the aspisions for any value which may be attached rant is therefore reminded of the necessity
of cultivating practical knowledge.
to this part of the ceremony.
The reference to the organization of the
So far, then, the instructions he has reMasonic institution is intended to remind ceived relate to his own condition in society
the aspirant of the union of men in society, as a member of the great social compact,
and the development of the social state out and to his means of becoming, by a knowlof the state of nature. He is thus re- edge of the arts of practical life, a necessary
minded, in the very outset of his journey, and useful member of that society.
But his motto will be, " Excelsior." Still
of the blessings which arise from civilization, and of the fruits of virtue and knowl- must he go onward and forward.
The stair
edge which are derived from that condition. is still before him; its summit is not yet
Masonry itself is the result of civilization
reached, and still further treasures of wiswhile, in grateful return, it has been one of dom are to be sought for, or the reward will
the most important means of extending not be gained, nor the middle chamber, the
abiding-place of truth, be reached.
that condition of mankind.
All the monuments of antiquity that the
In his third pause, he therefore arrives at
ravages of time have left, combine to prove that point in which the whole circle of huthat man had no sooner emerged from the man science is to be explained. Symbols,
savage into the social state, than he com- we know, are in themselves arbitrary and
menced the organization of religious mys- of conventional signification, and the comteries, and the separation, by a sort of divine plete circle of human science might have
instinct, of the sacred from the profane. been as well symbolized by any other sign
Then came the invention of architecture as or series of doctrines as by the seven liberal
a means of providing convenient dwellings arts and sciences. But Masonry is an instiand necessary shelter from the inclemencies tution of the olden time and this selection
and vicissitudes of the seasons, with all the of the liberal arts and sciences as a symbol
mechanical arts connected with it; and of the completion of human learning is one
lastly, geometry, as a necessary science to of the most pregnant evidences that we have
enable the cultivators of land to measure of its antiquity.
and designate the limits of their possessions.
In the seventh century, and for a long
All these are claimed as peculiar character- time afterwards, the circle of instruction to
istics of Speculative Masonry, which may which all the learning of the most eminent
be considered as the type of civilization, the schools and most distinguished philosophers
former bearing the same relation to the pro- was confined, was limited to what were then
fane world as the latter does to the savage called the liberal arts and sciences, and
state.
Hence we at once see the fitness of consisted of two branches, the trivium and
the symbolism which commences the aspi- the quadrivium.
The trivium included
rant's upward progress in the cultivation of grammar, rhetoric, and logic; the quadknowledge and the search after truth, by rivium comprehended arithmetic, geometry,
recalling to his mind the condition of civili- music, and astronomy.
" These seven heads," says Enfield, " were
zation and the social union of mankind as

We

WINDING

WINDING

supposed to include universal knowledge.

He who was master of these was thought
to have no need of a preceptor to explain
any books or to solve any questions which
lay within the compass of human reason,
the knowledge of the trivium having furnished him with the key to all language,
and that of the quadrivium having opened
to him the secret laws of nature."

At a period, says the same writer, when

few were instructed in the trivium, and very
few studied the quadrivium, to be master of
both was sufficient to complete the character
of a philosopher. The propriety, therefore,
of adopting the seven liberal arts and sciences as a symbol of the completion of human learning is apparent. The candidate,

having reached this point, is now supposed

to have accomplished the task upon which
he has reached the last
he had entered
step, and is now ready to receive the full

fruition of human learning.

So far, then, we are able to comprehend
the true symbolism of the winding stairs.

They represent the progress of an inquiring

mind, with the toils and labors of intellectual cultivation and study, and the preparatory acquisition of all human science, as a
preliminary step to the attainment of divine
truth, which, it must be remembered, is
always symbolized in Masonry by the

Word.
Here

All these are but symbols.

oil.

His wages are Truth, or that approximation

to it which will be most appropriate to the
degree into which he has been initiated.
It is one of the most beautiful, but at the
same time most abstruse, doctrines of the
science of Masonic symbolism that the

Mason

ever to be in search of truth, but

it.
This divine truth, the
object of all his labors, is symbolized by the
Word, for which we all know he can only
obtain a substitute ; and this is intended to
teach the humiliating but necessary lesson
that the knowledge of the nature of God
and of man's relation to him, which knowledge constitutes divine truth, can never be
acquired in this life. It is only when the
portals of the grave open to us, and give us
an entrance into a more perfect life, that
this knowledge is to be attained. " Happy
is the man," says the father of lyric poetry,
" who descends beneath the hollow earth,
having beheld these mysteries: he knows
the end, he knows the origin of life."
The middle chamber is therefore symbolic of this life, where the symbol only of
the Word can be given, where the truth is
is

is

never to find

to

be reached by approximation only, and

we are to learn that that truth

will consist in a perfect knowledge of the

yet where

G. A. O. T. U. This is the reward of the

inquiring Mason in this consist the wages
of a Fellow Craft
he is directed to the
truth, but must travel farther and ascend
still higher to attain it.
It is, then, as a symbol, and a symbol
only, that we must study this beautiful
legend of the winding stairs. If we attempt
to adopt it as a historical fact, the absurdity of its details stares us in the face,
and wise men will wonder at our credulity.
Its inventors had no desire thus to impose
upon our folly but offering it to us as a
great philosophical myth, they did not for
a moment suppose that we would pass over
its sublime moral teachings to accept the
allegory as a historical narrative without
;

me

again allude to the symbolism of numbers, which is for the first time
presented to the consideration of the Masonic student in the legend of the winding
stairs.
The theory of numbers as the symbols of certain qualities was originally borrowed by the Masons from the school of
Pythagoras. It will be impossible, however, to develop this doctrine, in its entire
extent, in the present article, for the numeral symbolism of Masonry would itself
let

materials for an ample essay.

It will be sufficient to advert to the fact
that the total number of the steps, amounting in all to fifteen in the American system,

constitute

is

wine, nor

885

a significant symbol.

For

fifteen

was a

sacred number among the Orientals, because

the letters of the holy name JAH, pp, were,
in their numerical value, equivalent to fifteen; and hence a figure in which the
nine digits were so disposed as to make
fifteen either way when added together
perpendicularly, horizontally, or diagonally, constituted one of their most sacred
talismans. The fifteen steps in the winding
stairs are therefore symbolic of the name
of God.
But we are not yet done. It will be remembered that a reward was promised for
all this toilsome ascent of the winding
stairs.
Now, what are the wages of a Speculative Mason ? Not money, nor corn, nor

meaning, and wholly irreconcilable with

the records of Scripture, and opposed by
all the principles of probability.
To suppose that eighty thousand craftsmen were
weekly paid in the narrow precincts of the
Temple chambers, is simply to suppose an
absurdity. But to believe that all this pictorial representation of an ascent by a winding staircase to the place where the wages
of labor were to be received, was an allegory to teach us the ascent of the mind
from ignorance, through all the toils of
study and the difficulties of obtaining
knowledge, receiving here a little and there
a little, adding something to the stock of
our ideas at each step, until, in the middle
in the full fruition of
chamber of life,

WIND

886

manhood
purified

the reward

is

WISCONSIN
attained,

and the

and elevated

intellect is invested
in the direction how to seek

with the reward

God and God's truth

no foundation in truth, as there was no

such appendage to the Temple. It is simply intended to represent the place where

the workman received his wages, symbolic

of the reward earned by labor.
Wine. One of the elements of Masonic
consecration, and, as a symbol of the inward
refreshment of a good conscience, is instudy.
" wine of reIts historical details are barren, but its tended, under the name of the
symbols and allegories are fertile with in- freshment," to remind us of the eternal
refreshments which the good are to receive
struction.
Wind, Mason's. Among the Ma- in the future life for the faithful performsonic tests of the last century was the ance of duty in the present.
"
Wings of the Cherubim, Exquestion, " How blows a Mason's wind ?
and the answer was, " Due east and west." tended. The candidate in the degree
Browne gives the question and answer more of Royal Master of the American Rite is
in extenso, and assigns the explanation as said to be received "beneath the extended
wings of the cherubim." The expression
follows
" How blows the wind in Masonry ?
is derived from the passage in the First
" Favorable due east and west.
Book of Kings (vi. 27), which describes the
setting of " the cherubim within the inner
"To what purpose?
" To call men to, at, and from their labor. house." Practically, there is an anachron" What does it further allude to ?
ism in the reference to the cherubim in this
" To those miraculous winds which proved degree. In the older and purer ritual, the
so essential in working the happy deliver- ceremonies are supposed to take place in
ance of the children of Israel from their the council-chamber or private apartment
Egyptian bondage, and proved the over- of King Solomon, where, of course, there
throw of Pharaoh and all his host when he were no cherubim. And even in some
more modern rituals, where a part of the
attempted to follow them."
Krause very correctly thinks that the ceremony referred to in the tradition is said
fundamental idea of the Masonic wind to have occurred in the holy of holies, that
blowing from the east is to be found in the part of the Temple was at that time unfinbelief of the Middle Ages that all good ished, and the cherubim had not yet been
But symbolically the referthings, such as philosophy and religion, placed there.
came from the East. In the German ritual ence to the cherubim in this degree, which
of The Three Sts. John's Degrees of the Mother represents a searcher for truth, is not obLodge of the Three Globes, the idea is ex- jectionable. For although there is a great
pressed a little differently. The catechism diversity of opinion as to their exact signification, yet there is a very general agreeis as follows
" Whence comes the wind ?
ment that, under some one manifestation
" From the east towards the west, and or another, they allude to and symbolize
from the south towards the north, and from the protecting and overshadowing power
the north towards the south, the east, and of the Deity. When, therefore, the initiate
is received beneath the extended wings of the
the west.
" What weather brings it?
cherubim, we are taught by this symbolism
" Variable, hail and storm, and calm and how appropriate it is, that he who comes to
ask and to seek Truth, symbolized by the
pleasant weather."
The explanation given is, that these True Word, should begin by placing himself
changing winds symbolize the changing under the protection of that Divine Power
progress of man's life in his pursuit of who alone is Truth, and from whom alone
now clear and full of hope, now truth can be obtained.
knowledge
Wisconsin. In January, 1843, Freedark with storms. Bode's hypothesis that
these variable winds of Masonry were in- masonry was introduced into Wisconsin by
tended to refer to the changes of the con- the establishment of Mineral Point Lodge
dition of the Roman church under English at Mineral Point, Melody Lodge at Plattemonarchs, from Henry VIII. to James II., ville, and Milwaukee Lodge at Milwaukee,
and thus to connect the symbolism with all under the authority of the Grand Lodge
the Stuart Masonry, is wholly untenable, of Missouri. December 18, 1843, delegates
as the symbol is not found in any of the from these three Lodges assembled in conIt is not recognized in vention at Madison, and organized the
high degrees.
the French, and is obsolete in -the York Grand Lodge of Wisconsin, Rev. B. T.
Kavanaugh, the Master of Melody Lodge,
Rite.
piece of furniture in the being elected Grand Master.
The Grand Chapter was established FebMark degree. It is a mere symbol, having

to believe this, is to
believe and to know the true design of Speculative Masonry, the only design which
makes it worthy of a good or a wise man's

Window. A

WISDOM

WOELLNER

ruary 13, 1850, and Dwight F. Lawton

the Creator and the creation, and acting

His agent. "Jehovah," says Solomon,
{Proverbs iii. 19,) "by wisdom hath founded
the earth." Hence wisdom, in this philosophy, answers to the idea of a vivifying
spirit brooding over and impregnating the
elements of the chaotic world. In short,
the world is but the outward manifestation
of the spirit of wisdom.
This idea, so universally diffused throughout the East, is said to have been adopted
into the secret doctrine of the Templars, who
are supposed to have borrowed much from
the Basilideans, the Manicheans, and the
Gnostics.
From them it easily passed over
to the high degrees of Masonry, which were
founded on the Templar theory. Hence, in
the great decoration of the thirty-third degree of the Scottish Rite, the points of the
triple triangle are inscribed with the letters
S.A.P.I.E.N.T.I.A., or Wisdom.
It is not difficult now to see how this word
Wisdom came to take so prominent a part
in the symbolism of Ancient Masonry, and
how it was expressly appropriated to King
Solomon. As wisdom, in the philosophy
of the East, was the creative energy,
the
architect, so to speak, of the world, as the
emanation of the Supreme Architect,
so
Solomon was the architect of the Temple,
the symbol of the world. He was to the
typical world or temple what wisdom was
to the great world of the creation.
Hence
wisdom is appropriately referred to him and
to the Master of the Lodge, who is the representative of Solomon.
Wisdom is always
placed in the east of the Lodge, because
thence emanate all light, and knowledge,

Grand High Priest.

The Grand Council of Royal and Select
Masters was organized in 1857, and James
Collins elected Grand Master.
The Grand Commandery was organized
October 20, 1859, and Henry L. Palmer
elected Grand Commander.
elected

Wisdom.

In Ancient Craft Masonry,

symbolized by the east, the place
of light, being represented by the pillar that
there supports the Lodge and by the Wor-

wisdom

is

shipful Master.

It is also referred to

King

Solomon, the symbolical founder of the

Order. In Masonic architecture the Ionic
column, distinguished for the skill in its
construction, as it combines the beauty of
the Corinthian and the strength of the
Doric, is adopted as the representative of
wisdom.
King Solomon has been adopted in Spec-

Masonry as the type or representaof wisdom, in accordance with the

character which has been given to him in
the First Book of Kings (iv. 30-32) " Solomon's wisdom exceeded the wisdom of all
the children of the east country, and all
the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser
than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite,
and Heman and Chalcol and Darda, the
sons of Mahol and his fame was in all the
nations round about."
In all the Oriental philosophies a conspicuous place has been given to wisdom.
In the book called the Wisdom of Solomon,
(vii. 7, 8,) but supposed to be the production of a Hellenistic Jew, it is said " I
called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom
came to me. I preferred her before sceptres and thrones, and esteemed riches
nothing in comparison of her." And farther on in the same book, (vii. 25-27,) she
is described as " the breath of the power
of God, and a pure influence [emanation]
flowing from the glory of the Almighty,
.... the brightness of the everlasting
light, the unspotted mirror of the power of
God, and the image of his goodness."
The Kabbalists made Chochma, nDDfT
or Wisdom, the second of the ten Sephiroth,
placing it next to the Crown. They called
it a male potency, and the third of the
Sephiroth, Binah, Jl^O* or Intelligence,
female. These two Sephiroth, with Keter,
""IfO* or the Crown, formed the first triad,
and their union produced the Intellectual
World.
The Gnostics also had their doctrine of
Wisdom, whom they called Achamoth. They
said she was feminine styled her Mother,
and said that she produced all things
through the Father.
The Oriental doctrine of Wisdom was,
that it is a Divine Power standing between
ulative
tive

887

as

and

truth.

Withdrawal of Petition,

It is, a
law of Masonry that a petition for initiation
having been once presented to a Lodge,
cannot be withdrawn. It must be subjected
It must be submitted to the
to a ballot.
action of the Lodge. The rule is founded
on prudential reasons. The candidate having submitted his character for inspection,
the inspection must be made. It is not for
the interests of Masonry, (the only thing to
be considered,) that, on the prospect of an
unfavorable judgment, he should be permitted to decline the inspection, and have
the opportunity of applying to another
Lodge, where carelessness or ignorance might
lead to his acceptance. Initiation is not
like an article of merchandise sold by rival
dealers, and to be purchased, after repeated
trials, from the most accommodating seller.
Witnesses. See Trials.

Woellner, Johann Christoplt

Von. A

distinguished Prussian

man, and equally distinguished

states-

one of
the leaders of the Rosicrucian Order in

Germany, and the Rite of

as

Strict Observ-

WOLF

WOOG

ance, to whose advancement he lent all the

He was
influence of his political position.
born at Dobritz, May 19, 1732. He studied
theology in the orthodox church, and in
1750 was appointed a preacher near Berlin,
and afterwards a Canon at Halberstadt. In
1786, King William III., of Prussia, appointed him privy counsellor of finance,

Perhaps the best reason that can be assigned for the exclusion of women from our
Lodges will be found in the character of
our organization as a mystic society. Speculative Freemasonry is only an application
of the art of Operative Masonry to purposes
of morality and science. The Operative
branch of our Institution was the forerunner and origin of the Speculative.
Now, as we admit of no innovations or
changes in our customs, Speculative Masonry retains, and is governed by, all the

888

an

to have been
as a concession to the Rite of Strict

appointment supposed

made

Observance, of which Wollner was a Provincial Grand Master, his Order name being
Eques a cubo. In 1788 he became Minister
of State, and was put at the head of eccleaffairs.
No Mason in Germany
labored more assiduously in the cause of
the Order and in active defence of the
Rite of Strict Observance, and hence he
had many enemies as well as friends. On
the demise of King William he was dismissed from his political appointments, and

siastical

retired to his estate at Grossriez,

died September 11, 1800.

where he

rules and regulations that existed in and

controlled its Operative prototype. Hence,
as in this latter art only hale and hearty
men, in possession of all their limbs and
members, so that they might endure the
fatigues of labor, were employed, so in the
former the rule still holds, of excluding all
who are not in the possession of these prerequisite qualifications.
i% not
permitted to participate in our rites and

Woman

ceremonies, not because we deem her unIn the Egyptian mysteries, the worthy or unfaithful, or incapable, as has
candidate represented a wolf and wore a been foolishly supposed, of keeping a secret,
wolf's skin, because Osiris once assumed but because, on our entrance into the Order,
the form of that animal in his contests with we found certain regulations which preTyphon.
In the Greek mythology, the scribed that only men capable of enduring
wolf was consecrated to Apollo, or the sun, the labor, or of fulfilling the duties of Opbecause of the connection between luke, erative Masons, could be admitted. These
light, and lukos, a wolf.
In French, wolf regulations we have solemnly promised
is louve, and hence the word louveteau, signever to alter nor could they be changed,
nifying the son of a Mason. See Lewis without an entire disorganization of the
M.S.
whole system of Speculative Masonry.
See
-cutters, Order of.
Wolfenbiittel, Congress of. A
city of Lower Saxony, in the principality Fendeurs.

Wolf.

Wood

of Wolfenbiittel, and formerly a possession

of the Duke of Brunswick. In 1778 Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, convoked a Masonic Congress there, with a view of reforming the organization of the Order. Its
results, after a session of five weeks, were a
union of the Swedish and German Masons,
which lasted only for a brief period, and
the preparation for a future meeting at

Wilhelmsbad.

Woman.
women from

The law which excludes

Masonry is not
contained in the precise words in any of
the Old Constitutions, although it is continually implied, as when it is said in the
Landsdowne MS., (year 1560,) that the
Apprentice must be " of limbs whole, as a
man ought to be," and that he must be " no
bondman." All the regulations also refer
to men only, and many of them would be
wholly inapplicable to women. But in the
Charges compiled by Anderson and Desaguliers, and published in 1723, the word
woman" is for the first time introduced,
and the law is made explicit. Thus it is
said that " the persons admitted members
of a Lodge must be good and true men,
initiation into

.... no bondmen, no women,"

etc.

Woog, Carl Christian.

Born

at

Dresden in 1713, and died at Leipsic, April

Mossdorf says that he was, in
24, 1771.
1740, a resident of London, and that there
he was initiated into Ancient Craft Masonry,
and also into the Scottish degree of Knight
of St. Andrew. In 1749, he published a
Latin work entitled, Preshyterorum et Diaconovum Achaice de Martyrio Sancti Andrew
Apostoli, Epistola Encyclica, in which he
refers to the Freemasons (p. 32) in the
following language " Unicum adhuc addo,
:

esse inter csementarios, seu lapicidas liberos,

(qui Franco muratoriorum Franc-Magons

nomine communiter insigniuntur quique

rotunda quadratis miscere dicuntur,) quosdam qui S. Andrese memoriam summa veneratione recolant. Ad minimum, si scriptis,
quge detecta eorum mysteria et arcana recensent, fides non est deneganda, certum
erit, eos quotunnis diem quoque Andreas,
ut Sancti Johannis diem solent, festum
agCre atque ceremoniosum celebrare, esseque
inter eos sectam aliquam, quae per crucem,
quam in pectore gerant, in qua Sanctus
Andreas funibus alligatus hsereat, k reliquis
se destinguunt " i. e., "I add only this,
that among the Freemasons (commonly
;

WORD

WORD
called Franc- Magons, who are said to mingle circles with squares,) there are certain
ones who cherish the memory of St. Andrew with singular veneration. At all
events, if we may credit those writings in
which their mysteries and secrets are detected and exposed, it will be evident that
they are accustomed to keep annually, with
ceremonies, the festival of St. Andrew as
well as that of St. John and that there is a
sect among them which distinguish themselves from the others by wearing on their
breast the cross on which St. Andrew was
fastened by cords." Woog, in a subsequent
passage, defends the Freemasons from the
charge made by these Expositions that they
were irreligious, but declares that by him
their mysteries shall remain buried in profound
;

"per me vero maneant eorum

mysteria alto silentio sepulta." It is apparently from these passages that Mossdorf
draws his conclusion that Woog was a Freemason, and had received the Scottish degree of Knight of St. Andrew. They at
least prove that he was an early friend of
the Institution, and that he must have
known something of Ramsay's degree,
which was about that time introduced into
silence

England.

Word,

When emphatically used, the

expression, "the Word," is in Masonry
always referred to the third degree, although
there must be a word in each degree. In this
latter and general sense, the Word is called
by French Masons "la parole," and by
the Germans "ein Worterzeichen." The
use of a Word is of great antiquity.
In those
find it in the ancient mysteries.
of Egypt it is said to have been the Tetragrammaton. The German Stonemasons of
the Middle Ages had one, which, however,
I think was only a password by which the
travelling Companion might make himself
known in his professional wanderings.
Lyon [Hist of the L. of Edinb., p. 22,) shows
that it existed, in the sixteenth and subsequent centuries, in the Scotch Lodges, and
he says that "the Word is the only secret
that is ever alluded to in the minutes of
Mary's Chapel, or in those of Kilwinning,
Atcheson's Haven, or Dumblane, or any
other that we have examined of a date
prior to the erection of the Grand Lodge."
Indeed, he thinks that the communication of this Word constituted the only
ceremony of initiation practised in the
Operative Lodges. At that time there was
evidently but one Word for all the ranks of
Apprentices, Craftsmen, and Masters. He
thinks that this communication of the
Mason Word to the Apprentices under oath
constituted the germ whence has sprung the

We

Symbolical Masonry. But it must be remembered that the learned and laborious

5M

889

investigations of Bro. Lyon refer only to

the Lodges of Scotland. There is no sumcient evidence that a more extensive system
of initiation did not prevail at the same
time, or even earlier, in England and Germany. Indeed, Findel has shown that it
did in the latter country and it is difficult
to believe that the system, which we know
was in existence in 1717, was a sudden development out of a single Word, and for
which we are indebted to the inventive
genius of those who were engaged in the
revival at that period.
Be this as it may,
the evidence is conclusive that everywhere,
and from the earliest times, there was a
Word. This at least is no modern usage.
But it must be admitted that this Word,
whatever it was, was at first a mere mark
of recognition. Yet it may have had, and
probably did have, a mythical signification,
and had not been altogether arbitrarily
adopted. The word given in the Sloane
MS., No. 3329, which Bro.Hughan places at
a date not posterior to 1700, is undoubtedly
a corrupted form of that now in use, and
with the signification of which we are well
acquainted. Hence we may conclude that
the legend, and the symbolism connected
with it, also. existed at the same time, but
only in a nascent and incomplete form.
The modern development of Speculative
Masonry into a philosophy has given a
perfected form to the symbolism of the
Word no longer confined to use as a means
of recognition, but elevated, in its connection with the legend of the third degree, to
;

the rank of a symbol.

So viewed, and by the scientific Mason it
is now only so viewed, the Word becomes
the symbol of Divine Truth, the loss of
which and the search for it constitute the
whole system of Speculative Masonry. So
important is this Word, that it lies at the
very foundation of the Masonic edifice.
The Word might be changed, as might a
grip or a sign, if it were possible to obtain
the universal consent of the Craft, and

Masonry would still remain unimpaired.

But were the Word abolished, or released
from its intimate connection with the Hiramic legend, and with that of the Royal
Arch, the whole symbolism of Speculative
Masonry would be obliterated. The Institution might withstand such an innovation,
but its history, its character, its design,
would belong to a newer and a totally
The word is what Derdifferent society.
mott called the Royal Arch, " the marrow
of Masonry."
Word, Lost. See Lost Word.
Word, Mason. In the minutes and
documents of the Lodges of Scotland during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, the expression

"Mason

WORKMEN

WORD

890

word"

This continuis constantly used.

ous use would indicate that but one word
was then known. Nicoiai, in his Essay on
the Accusations against the Templars, quotes
a "small dictionary published at the beginning of the eighteenth century," in
which the " Mason's word " is defined.
Word, Sacred. A term applied to
the chief or most prominent word of a degree, to indicate its peculiarly sacred character, in contradistinction to a password,
which is simply intended as a mode of
It is sometimes ignorantly
recognition.
corrupted into "secret word." All significant words in Masonry are secret. Only
certain ones are sacred.
Word, Significant. See Significant
Word.

Word,

True. Used in contradistinction to the Lost Word and the Substitute

Word. To find it is the object of all Masonic search and labor. For as the Lost
Word is the symbol of death, the True Word
It indicates
is the symbol of life eternal.
truth
the change that is always occurring
after error, light after darkness, life after
death.
Of all the symbolism of Speculative
Masonry, that of the True Word is the most
philosophic and sublime.

Work.

See Labor.

Working-Tools.

In each of the degrees of Masonry, certain implements of

the Operative art are consecrated to the
Speculative science, and adopted to teach
as symbols lessons of morality. With these
the Speculative Mason is taught to erect
his spiritual temple, as his Operative predecessors with the same implements constructed their material temples.
Hence
they are called the working-tools of the degree.
They vary but very slightly in the
different Rites, but the same symbolism is
preserved. The principal working- tools of
the Operative art that have been adopted
as symbols in the Speculative science, confined, however, to Ancient Craft Masonry,
and not used in the higher degrees, are, the
twenty-four inch gauge, common gavel,
square, level, plumb, skerrit, compasses,
pencil, trowel, mallet, pickaxe, crow, and
shovel.
heads.

See them under their respective

Work, Master of

An

archithe.
tect or superintendent of the building of an
edifice.

Du

Cange (Glossarium) thus de-

"Magister operis vel operarum

vulgo, maitre de l'oeuvre, cui operibus pubfines

it:

vacare incumbit," i. e "Master of the

work or of the works, commonly, maitre de
1' ceuvre, one whose duty it is to attend to
the public works." In the Cooke MS., (line
licis

"And

he that were
scholde be governour of the werke, and scholde be callyd

529,) it is said:

most of connying

also

[skill]

In the old record of the date of

cited by Anderson in his
second edition, (p. 71,) it is prescribed "that
Master Masons, or Masters of Work, shall
be examined whether they be able of cunning to serve their respective lords." The
word was in common use in the Middle
maister."

Edward

III.,

Ages, and applied to the Architect or Masan edifice. Thus Edwin of

Steinbach, the architect of the Cathedral
of Strasburg, is called Master of the Work.
In the monasteries there was a similar
officer, who was, however, more generally
called the Operarius, but sometimes Magis-

ter Builder of

ter operis.

Workmen

at the Temple.
-

We

have no

historical account, except the meagre details in the Books of Kings and
Chronicles, of the number or classification

workmen at the Temple of Solomon.

subject has, however, afforded a fertile
theme for the exercise of the inventive
of the

The

genius of the ritualists. Although devoid

of interest as a historical study, an acquaintance with these traditions, especially the
English and American ones, and a comparison of them with the Scriptural account
and with that given by Josephus, are necessary as a part of the education of a Masonic
student. I furnish the legends, therefore,
simply as a matter of curiosity, without the
slightest intention to vouch for their authenticity.

In the Second Book of Chronicles, chap,

ii.,

"

verses 17

and

we read

as follows
all the stranin the land of Israel, after
wherewith David his father
18,

And Solomon numbered

gers that were

the numbering

had numbered them and they were found

an hundred and fifty thousand and three
thousand and six hundred.
" And he set threescore and ten thousand
of them to be bearers of burdens, and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred
;

overseers to set the people a-work."

The same numerical details are given in
the second verse of the same chapter.
Again, in the First Book of Kings, chap,
v., verses 13 and 14, it is said
" And King Solomon raised a levy out
of all Israel ; and the levy was thirty thou-

sand men.
"And he sent them to Lebanon, ten
thousand a month by courses: a month
they were in Lebanon, and two months
at home:
levy."

and Adoniram was over the

The succeeding

verses

make

the 'same

enumeration of workmen as that contained

in the Book of Chronicles quoted above,
with the exception that, by omitting the
three hundred Harodim, or rulers over all,
the

number of

overseers

is

stated in the

;:

WORKMEN

WORKMEN

to be only three thousand

three hundred.
With these authorities, and the assistance of Masonic traditions, Anderson, in the
Book of Constitutions, (2d ed., p. 11,) constructs the following table of the Craftsmen
at the Temple

This account makes no allusion to the

300 Harodim, nor to the levy of 30,000 it is,
therefore, manifestly incorrect.
Indeed, no
certain authority can be found for the complete classification of the workmen, since
neither the Bible nor Josephus gives any
account of the number of Tyriaus employed.
Oliver, however, in his Historical Landmarks,
has collected from the Masonic traditions an
account of the classifications of the workmen, which I shall insert, with a few additional facts taken from other authorities.
According to these traditions, the following was the classification of the Masons
who wrought in the quarries of Tyre

Book of Kings

Harodim, Princes, Rulers, or Pro300

vosts,

Menatzchim, Overseers, or Master

Masons,

3,300

Ghiblim, Stone Squarers,

Ischotzeb,

Hewers,

Benai, Builders,
The levy out of Israel,

timber cutters,

all

]
V

Fellow

Crafts,

....

80,000

30,000

113,600

Josephus makes a different estimate.

He

The number, according

was as follows

Total,

to

300

3,300
83,000
30,000

116,600

Master Masons,

Mark

Masters,

Markmen,
Fellow Crafts,

Total,

consisted of eighty in each.

The

classification of the

forest of

Lebanon was

Grand

Fellow Crafts,
Entered Apprentices,

Architects,
Architects,
.

Master Masons,

Mark Masters,
Markmen,
Fellow Crafts,
Entered Apprentices,
Total,

workmen

in the

as follows

186,600 workmen.
According to the statement of Webb,
which has been generally adopted by the
Fraternity in the United States, there were

3,300
80,000
70,000

1,400
53,900

These were arranged as follows The six

Super Excellent Masons were divided into
two Grand Lodges, with three brethren in
each to superintend the work. The Excellent Masons were divided into six Lodges
of nine each, including one of the Super
Excellent Masons, who presided as Master.
The eight Grand Architects constituted one
Lodge, and the sixteen Architects another.
The Grand Architects were the Masters,
and the Architects the Wardens, of the
Lodges of Master Masons, which were eight
in number, and consisted, with their ofliThe Mark
cers, of three hundred in each.
Masters were divided into fourteen Lodges
of fifty in each, and the Markmen into
fourteen Lodges also, of one hundred in
each. The Mark Masters were the Masters,
and the Markmen the Wardens, of the
Lodges of Fellow Crafts, which were seven
hundred in number, and with their officers

Super Excellent Masons,

Excellent Masons,

Grand Masters,

16
2,376
700

58,454

which, together with the 70,000 Ish Sabal,

or laborers, will make a grand total of

Overseers,

48

includes the 3,300 Overseers in the 80,000

Fellow Crafts, and makes the number of
Masons, exclusive of the 70,000 bearers of
burthens, amount to only 110,000.
work published in 1764, entitled The
Masonic Pocket-Book, gives a still different

Ghiblim,
Adoniram's men,

Super Excellent Masons,

Excellent Masons,

Grand Architects,
Architects,

Besides the Ish Sabal, or men of burthen, the remains of the old Canaanites,
amounting to 70,000, who are not numbered among the Masons.
In relation to the classification of these
workmen, Anderson says, "Solomon partitioned the Fellow Crafts into certain
Lodges, with a Master and Wardens in
each, that they might receive commands in
a regular manner, might take care of their
tools and jewels, might be paid regularly
every week, and be duly fed and clothed
and the Fellow Crafts took care of their succession by educating Entered Apprentices."

Harodim,
Menatzchim,

who were

All the Freemasons employed in

the work of the Temple, exclusive of the two Grand Wardens,

classification.
this authority,

891

24
4
8
1,188

300
600
23,100
10,000
35,227

WORKMEN

WORLDLY

These were arranged as follows: The

Masons formed one
Lodge. The Excellent Masons were divided into three Lodges of nine each, including one of the Super Excellent Masons

are supposed to have been classified aa

follows
3 Grand Masters.
300 Harodim, or Chief Superintendents,
who were Past Masters.
3,300 Overseers, or Master Masons, divided into Lodges of three in each.
80,000 Fellow Crafts, divided into Lodges
of five in each.
70,000 Entered Apprentices, divided into
Lodges of seven in each.
According to this account, there must
have been eleven hundred Lodges of Master
Masons ; sixteen thousand of Fellow Crafts;
and ten thousand of Entered Apprentices.
No account is here taken of the levy of
thirty thousand who are supposed not to
have been Masons, nor of the builders sent
by Hiram, king of Tyre, whom the English
ritual places at thirty-three thousand six
hundred, and most of whom we may suppose to have been members of the Dionysiac
Fraternity of Artificers, the institution from

892

three Super Excellent

as Master.
The four Grand Architects constituted one Lodge, and the eight Architects another, the former acting as Masters
and the latter as Wardens of the Lodges
of Master Masons, which were four in number, and consisted, with their officers, of
three hundred in each. The Mark Masters
were divided into six Lodges of fifty in
each, and the Markmen into six Lodges
These two
also, of one hundred in each.
classes presided, the former as Masters and
the latter as Wardens, over the Lodges of
Fellow Crafts, which were three hundred
in number, and were composed of eighty in
each, including their officers.
After three years had been occupied in

"hewing, squaring, and numbering" the

and in " felling and preparing " the
timbers, these two bodies of Masons, from which Freemasonry, according to legendary
the quarries and the forest, united for the authority, took its origin.
purpose of properly arranging and fitting
On the whole, the American system seems
the materials, so that no metallic tool too defective to meet all the demands of the
might be required in putting them up, and inquirer into this subject
an objection to
they were then carried up to Jerusalem. which the English is not so obnoxious.
Here the whole body was congregated under But, as I have already observed, the whole
the superintending care of Hiram Abif, and account is mythical, and is to be viewed
to them were added four hundred and rather as a curiosity than as having any
twenty Lodges of Tyrian and Sidonian Fel- historical value.
low Crafts, having eighty in each, and the
Workshop. The French Masons call
twenty thousand Entered Apprentices of a Lodge an "atelier" literally, a workthe levy from Israel, who had heretofore shop, or, as Boiste defines it, "a place
been at rest, and who were added to the where Craftsmen work under the same
Lodges of their degree, making them now Master."
consist of three hundred in each, so that
World. The Lodge is said to be a
the whole number then engaged at Jeru- symbol of the world. Its form
an oblong
salem amounted to two hundred and seven- square, whose greatest length is from east
teen thousand two hundred and eighty-one, to west
represents the shape of the inwho were arranged as follows
habited world according to the theory of
the ancients. The "clouded canopy," or
the " starry-decked covering " of the Lodge,
9 Lodges of Excellent Masons, 9
in each, were
81 is referred to the sky. The sun, which enlightens and governs the world at morning,
12 Lodges of Master Masons, 300
in each, were
3,600 noon, and evening, is represented by the
three superior officers.
And, lastly, the
1,000 Lodges of Fellow Crafts, 80
in each, were
80,000 Craft, laboring in the work of the Lodge,
present a similitude to the inhabitants of
420 Lodges of Tyrian Fellow
Crafts, 80 in each, were
33,600 the world engaged in the toils of life.
While the Lodge is adopted as a copy of the
100 Lodges of Entered Apprentices, 300 in each, were
30,000 Temple, not less universal is that doctrine
70,000 which makes it a symbol of the world.
70,000 Ish Sabal, or laborers,
See Form of the Lodge.
Total,
217,281
Worldly Possessions. In the
English lectures of Dr. Hemming, the word
Such is the system adopted by our Eng- Tubal Cain is said "to denote worldly poslish brethren.
The American ritual has sessions," and hence Tubal Cain is adopted
greatly simplified the arrangement.
Ac- in that system as the symbol of worldly
cording to the system now generally possessions. The idea is derived from the
adopted in this country, the workmen en- derivation of Cain from kanah, to acquire,
gaged in building King Solomon's Temple to gain, and from the theory that Tubal
stones,

....
....
.

WREN

WORLDLY
Cain, by his inventions, had enabled his
pupils to acquire riches. But the derivative meaning of the word has reference to
the expression of Eve, that in the birth of
her eldest son she had acquired a man by
the help of the Lord; and any system
which gives importance to mere wealth as
a Masonic symbol, is not in accord with the
moral and intellectual designs of the Institution, which is thus represented as a mere
instrument of Mammon. The symbolism
is quite modern, and has not been adopted
elsewhere than in English Masonry.
Worldly Wealth. Partial clothing
is, in Masonry, a symbol teaching the aspirant that Masonry regards no man on account of his worldly wealth or honors and
that it looks not to his outward clothing,
but to his internal qualifications.
Worship. Originally, the word "to
worship " meant to pay that honor and
reverence which are due to one who is
Thus, where our authorized
worthy.
translates
Matthew xix. 19,
version
"Honor thy father and thy mother,"
Wycliffe says, " Worschip thi fadir and thi

the elective officers of a

low the Grand Master.

modir." And in the marriage service of

the Episcopal Church, the expression is still
retained, " with my body I thee worship,"

at

that

is,

honor or reverence

thee.

Hence

common

use in England of the

words worshipful and right worshipful as
titles of honor applied to municipal and
judicial officers. Thus the mayors of small
towns, and justices of the peace, are styled
" Worshipful," while the mayors of large
cities, as London, are called " Right Worshipful."
The usage was adopted and retained in Masonry. The word worship, or
its derivatives, is not met with in any of the
old manuscripts. In the " Manner of constituting a New Lodge," adopted in 1722,
and published by Anderson in 1723, the
word " worship " is applied as a title to the
Grand Master. In the seventeenth century,
the gilds of London began to call themselves " Worshipful," as, " the Worshipful
Company of Grocers," etc.; and it is likely
that the Lodges at the revival, and perhaps a few years before, adopted the same

the

still

style.

Worshipful. A title applied to a

symbolic Lodge and to its Master. The
Germans sometimes use the title " hochwiirdig." The French style the Worshipful
Master " Venerable," and the Lodge, " Respectable."

Worshipful Lodge.

See Worship-

ful.

Worshipful Master.

See Worship-

ful.

Worshipful, Most. The title of a

Grand Master and of a Grand Lodge.
Worshipful, Right. The title of

893

Grand Lodge

Worshipful, Very.

be-

Not now

was formerly applied as a title

the Senior and Junior Grand Wardens
the Grand Lodge of South Carolina.
use.

It

in
to
in

Wren, Sir Christopher. One of

the most distinguished architects of England, was the son of Dr. Christopher Wren,
Rector of East Knoyle in Wiltshire, and
was born there October 20, 1632. He was
entered as a gentleman commoner at Wadham College, Oxford, in his fourteenth
year^ being already distinguished for his
He is said to
mathematical knowledge.
have invented, before this period, several
astronomical and mathematical instruments. In 1645, he became a member of a
scientific club connected with Gresham
College, from which the Royal Society subsequently arose. In 1653, he was elected
a Fellow of All Souls' College, and had
already become known to the learned men
of Europe for his various inventions. In
1657, he removed permanently to London,
having been elected Professor of Astronomy

Gresham

College.

political disturbances which

led to the abolition of the monarchy and
the establishment of the commonwealth,
Wren, devoted to the pursuits of philosophy, appears to have kept away from the
contests of party. Soon after the restoration
of Charles II., he was appointed Savillian
Professor at Oxford, one of the highest distinctions which could then have been conferred on a scientific man.
During this
time he was distinguished for his numerous
contributions to astronomy and mathematics, and invented many curious machines, and discovered many methods for
facilitating the calculations of the celestial
bodies.
Wren was not professionally educated as
an architect, but from his early youth had
devoted much time to its theoretic study.
In 1665 he went to Paris for the purpose
of studying the public buildings in that
city, and the various styles which they presented. He was induced to make this visit,
and to enter into these investigations, because, in 1660, he had been appointed by
King Charles II. one of a commission to
superintend the restoration of the Cathedral of St. Paul's, which had been much
dilapidated during the times of the commonwealth. But before the designs could
be carried into execution, the great fire occurred which laid so great a part of London, including St. Paul's, in ashes.
In 1661, he was appointed assistant to
Sir John Denham, the Surveyor-General,
and directed his attention to the restoration
of the burnt portion of the city. His plans

During the

WREN

894

WREN

were, unfortunately for the good of London, not adopted, and he confined his attention to the rebuilding of particular edifices.
In 1667, he was appointed the successor of

Wren, and are now

Denham

fact.

as Surveyor- General and Chief

Architect. In this capacity he erected a large
number of churches, the Royal Exchange,
Greenwich Observatory, and many other
public edifices. But his crowning work,
the masterpiece that has given him his
largest reputation, is the Cathedral of St.
Paul's, which was commenced in 1675 and
The original plan that
finished in 1710.
was proposed by Wren was rejected through
the ignorance of the authorities, and differed greatly from the one on which it has
been constructed. Wren, however, superintended the erection as master of the
work, and his tomb in the crypt of the
Cathedral was appropriately inscribed with
the words " Si monumentum requiris, circumspice ; " i. e., " If you seek his mon-

in possession of that

Lodge." By the order of the Duke of Sussex, a plate was placed on the mallet or
maul which contained a statement of the

Mr. C. W. King, who is not a Mason, but

has derived his statement from a source to
which he does not refer, (but which was
perhaps Nicolai,) makes, in his work on the
Gnostics, (p. 176,) the following statement,
which is here quoted merely to show that
the traditionary belief of Wren's connection
with Speculative Freemasonry is not confined to the Craft, He says
"Another and a very important circumstance in this discussion must always be
kept in view our Freemasons (as at present
organized in the form of a secret society)
derive their title from a mere accidental
circumstance connected with their actual
establishment. It was in the Common Hall
of the London Gild of Freemasons (the
ument, look around."
trade) that their first meetings were held
In 1672, Wren was made a Knight, and under Christopher Wren, president, in the
in 1674 he married a daughter of Sir John time of the Commonwealth. Their real
Coghill. To a son by this marriage are we object was political
.the restoration of
indebted for memoirs of the family of his monarchy; hence the necessary exclusion
father, published under the title of Paren- of the public, and the oaths of secrecy enialia.
After the death of this wife, he mar- joined on the members. The pretence of
ried a daughter of Viscount Fitzwilliam.
promoting architecture, and the choice of
In 1680, Wren was elected President of the place where to hold their meetings,
the Eoyal Society, and continued to a late suggested by the profession of their presiperiod his labors on public edifices, build- dent, were no more than blinds to deceive
ing, among others, additions to Hampton the existing government."
Court and to Windsor Castle.
Anderson, in the first edition of the
After the death of Queen Anne, who was Constitutions, makes but a slight reference
the last of his royal patrons, Wren was re- to Wren, only calling him " the ingenious
moved from his office of Surveyor-General, architect, Sir Christopher Wren." I am
which he had held for a period of very almost afraid that this passing notice of
nearly half a century. He passed the few him who has been called " the Vitruvius of
remaining years of his life in serene retire- England" must be attributed to servility.
ment. He was found dead in his chair George I. was the stupid monarch who reafter dinner, on February 25, 1723, in the moved Wren from his ofiice of Surveyorninety-first year of his age.
General, and it would not do to be too difNotwithstanding that much that has been fuse with praise of one who had been
said by Anderson and other writers of the marked by the disfavor of the king. But
last century, concerning Wren's connection in 1727 George I. died, and in his second
with Freemasonry, is without historical edition, published in ]738, Anderson gives
confirmation, there can, I think, be no to Wren all the Masonic honors to which
doubt that he took a deep interest in the he claims that he was entitled. It is from
Speculative as well as in the Operative what Anderson has said in that work, that
Order. The Rev. J. W. Laughlin, in a lec- the Masonic writers of the last century and
ture on the life of Wren, delivered in 1857, the first half of the present, not requiring
before the inhabitants of St. Andrew's, Hol- the records of authentic history, have drawn
born, and briefly reported in the Freema- their views of the official relations of Wren
He first introduces Wren
sons' Magazine, said that " Wren was for to the Order.
eighteen years a member of the old Lodge (p. 101) as one of the Grand Wardens at
of St. Paul's, then held at the Goose and the General Assembly held December 27,
Gridiron, near the Cathedral, now the 1663, when the Earl of St. Albans was
Lodge of Antiquity; and the records of Grand Master, and Sir John Denham,
that Lodge show that the maul and trowel Deputy Grand Master. He says that in
used at the laying of the stone of St. 1666 Wren was again a Grand Warden,
Paul's, together with a pair of carved ma- under the Grand Mastership of the Earl of
hogany candlesticks, were presented by Rivers; but immediately afterwards he
:

WYKEHAM

WREN

895

" This day, May the 18tjti, being Monday,

him "Deputy Wren," and continues
him the title of Deputy Grand 1691, after Rogation Sunday, is a great conMaster until 1685, when he says (p. 106) vention at St. Paul's Church of the frater-

calls

to

give

that "the Lodges met, and elected Sir

Christopher Wren Grand Master, who appointed Mr. Gabriel Gibber and Mr. Edmund Savage Grand Wardens; and while
carrying on St. Paul's, he annually met
those brethren who could attend him,

nity of the

Christopher

Adopted Masons, where

Wren

is

Sir
to be adopted a Bro-

and Sir Henry Goodric of the Tower,

and divers others. There have been kings
that have been of this sodality."
If this statement be true,
and we have
Anderson no reason to doubt it, from Aubrey's gento keep up good old usages."
eral antiquarian accuracy,
Anderson is
(p. 107) makes the Duke of Richmond and
Lennox Grand Master, and reduces Wren incorrect in making him a Grand Master
to the rank of a Deputy but he says that in 1685, six years before he was initiated
in 1698 he was again chosen Grand Master, as a Freemason.
The true version of the
and as such " celebrated the Cape-stone " of story probably is this Wren was a great
"
Some few years after architect the greatest at the time in EngSt. Paul's in 1708.
this," he says, "Sir Christopher Wren land. As such he received the appointment
neglected the office of Grand Master." of Deputy Surveyor-General under DenFinally, he says (p. 109) that in 1716 "the ham, and subsequently, on Denham's
Lodges in London finding themselves neg- death, of Surveyor-General. He thus belected by Sir Christopher Wren," Masonry came invested, by virtue of his office, with
was revived under a new Grand Master. the duty of superintending the construcSome excuse for the aged architect's neglect tion of public buildings. The most impormight have been found in the fact that he tant of these was St. Paul's Cathedral, the
was then eighty-five years of age, and had building of which he directed in person,
been long removed from his 'public office of and with so much energy that the parsiSurveyor-General.
monious Duchess of Marlborough, when
Noorthouck is more considerate. Speak- contrasting the charges of her own archiing of the placing of the last stone on the tect with the scanty remuneration of Wren,
which, notwithstanding observed that " he was content to be dragged
top of St. Paul's,
the statement of Anderson, was done, not up in a basket three or four times a week to
by Wren, but by his son, he says, ( Consti- the top of St. Paul's, and at great hazard,
for 200 a year."
All this brought him
tutions, p. 204,) " the age and infirmities of
the Grand Master, which prevented his at- into close connection with the gild of Freetendance on this solemn occasion, confined masons, of which he naturally became the
him afterwards to great retirement so that patron, and subsequently he was by initiathe Lodges suffered from want of his usual tion adopted into the sodality. Wren was,
presence in visiting and regulating their in fact, what the mediaeval Masons called
meetings, and were reduced to a small Magister Operis, or Master of the Work.
Anderson, writing for a purpose, naturally
number."
Noorthouck, however, repeats substan- transformed this title into that of Grand
tially the statements of Anderson in refer- Master
an office supposed to be unknown
ence to Wren's Grand Mastership. How until 1717. Aubrey's authority sufficiently
much of these statements can be authenti- establishes the fact that Wren was a Freecated by history is a question that must be mason, and the events of his life prove his
decided only by more extensive investiga- attachment to the profession.
tions of documents not yet in possession of
Wrestle. A degree sometimes called
the Craft. Flndel says {Hist, p. 127,) that the " Mark and Link," or Wrestle. It was
Anderson, having been commissioned in formerly connected with the Mark degree
1735 by the Grand Lodge to make a list of in England. Its ceremonies were founded
the ancient Patrons of the Masons, so as to on the passage contained in Genesis xxxii.
afford something like a historical basis, 24-30.
" transformed the former Patrons
into
Writing. The law which forbids a
Grand Masters, and the Masters and Super- Mason to commit to writing the esoteric
intendents into Grand Wardens and the like, parts of the ritual is exemplified in some
which were unknown until the year 1717." American Lodges by a peculiar ceremony
Of this there can be no doubt but there but the usage is not universal. The Druids
is other evidence that Wren was a Freehad a similar rule and we are told that they,
mason. In Aubrey's Natural History of in keeping their records, used the letters of
Wiltshire, (p. 277,) a manuscript in the the Greek alphabet, so that they might be
library of the Royal Society, Halliwell unintelligible to those who were not authorfinds and cites, in his Early History of ized to read them.
ther,

Freemasonry in England,
lowing passage

(p. 46,)

the

fol-

Wykeham, William of.

Winchester.

Born

at

Wykeham

Bishop of
in

Hamp-

896

WYSEACRE

XAINTRAILLES

shire in 1324, an^d died in 1404.

He was
eminent both as an ecclesiastic and statesman. In 1359, before he reached the episcopate, Edward III. appointed him surveyor of the works at Windsor, which castle
he rebuilt. In his warrant or commission,

he was invested with power "to appoint all

workmen, to provide materials, and to order
everything relating to building and repairs."
He was, in fact, what the old manuscript

Constitutions

call

"The Lord,"

under whom were the Master Masons.

Anderson says that he was at the head of
four hundred Freemasons, was Master of
Work under Edward III., and Grand Master under Eichard II. And the Freemasons'
Magazine (August, 1796,) styles him " one
of the brightest ornaments that Freemasonry has ever boasted." In this there is,

myth and history.

an architect as well as a

of course, a mixture of

Wykeham was

bishop, and superintended the building of

many public edifices in England in the
fourteenth century, being a distinguished
example of the connection so common in
mediaeval times between the .ecclesiastics
and the Masons.
Wyseacre. The Leland MS., referring
to Pythagoras, says that, "wynnynge entraunce yn al Lodges of Maconnes, he
lerned muche, and retournedde and worked

yn Grecia Magna wachsynge, and becommynge a mighty e wyseacre." The word

wiseacre, which now means a dunce or silly
person,

is

a corruption of the

German

weis-

and originally signified a wise sayer

or philosopher, in which sense it is used in

sager,

the passage cited.

X.
Xaintrailles, Madame de. A it was the commission of an aide-de-camp,
who was initiated into Masonry by a which had been granted by the Directory to

lady

French Lodge that did not have the excuse

for this violation of law that we must accord
to the Irish one in the case of Miss St.
Leger. Clavel (Hist. Pittoresq., p. 34,) tells
the story, but does not give the date, though
it must have been about the close of the last
century. The law of the Grand Orient of
France required each Lodge of Adoption
to be connected with and placed under the
immediate guardianship of a regular Lodge
of Masons. It was in one of these guardian Lodges that the female initiation
which we are about to describe took place.
The Lodge of " Freres-Artistes," at Paris,
over which Brother Cuvelier de Trie presided as Master, was about, to give what is
called a Fete of Adoption, that is, to open
a Lodge for female Masonry, and initiate
candidates into that rite. Previous, however, to the introduction of the female
members, the brethren opened a regular
Lodge of Ancient Masonry in the first
degree. Among the visitors who waited
in the antechamber for admission was a
youthful ofiicer in the uniform of a captain
of cavalry. His diploma or certificate was
requested of him by the member deputed for
the examination of the visitors, for the purpose of having it inspected by the Lodge.
After some little hesitation, he handed the
party asking for it a folded paper, which
was immediately carried to the Orator of the
Lodge, who, on opening it, discovered that

the wife of General de Xaintrailles, a lady

who, like several others of her sex in those
troublous times, had donned the masculine
attire and gained military rank at the point
of the sword. When the nature of the supposed diplom a was made known to the Lodge,
it may readily be supposed that the surprise
was general. But the members were Frenchmen: they were excitable and they were
gallant and consequently, in a sudden and
exalted fit of enthusiasm, which as Masons
we cannot excuse, they unanimously determined to confer the first degree, not of
Adoption, but of regular and legitimate
Freemasonry, on the brave woman who had
so often exhibited every manly virtue, and
to whom her country had on more than one
occasion committed trusts requiring the
greatest discretion and prudence as well
Madame de Xaintrailles was
as courage.
made acquainted with the resolution of the
Lodge, and her acquiescence in its wishes
requested. To the offer, she replied, "I
have been a man for my country, and I will
again be a man for my brethren." She was
forthwith introduced and initiated as an
Entered Apprentice, and repeatedly afterwards assisted the Lodge in its labors in the
;

first

degree.

Doubtless the Irish Lodge was, under all

the circumstances, excused, if not justified,
But
in the initiation of Miss St. Leger.
for the reception of Madame de Xaintrailles

XAVIER
we look

YATES

in vain for the slightest

shadow of

an apology. The outrage on their obligations as Masons, by the members of the

Parisian Lodge, richly merited the severest
punishment, which ought not to have been
averted by the plea that the offence was
committed in a sudden spirit of enthusiasm
and gallantry.

Xavier Mier e Cainpello, FranHe was Bishop of Almeria, and

cisco.

Inquisitor-General of Spain, and an ardent

persecutor of the Freemasons. In 1815,
Ferdinand VII. having re-established the
Inquisition in Spain and suppressed the
Masonic Lodges, Xavier published the bull
of Pius VII., against the Order, in an ordinance of his own, in which he denounced
the Lodges as "Societies which lead to
sedition, to independence, and to all errors
and crimes." He threatened the utmost
rigors of the civil and canon laws against
all who did not, within the space of fifteen
days, renounce them and then instituted a
series of persecutions of the most atrocious
character.
Many of the most distinguished
persons of Spain were arrested, and imprisoned in the dungeons of the Inquisition, on the charge of being " suspected of
;

Freemasonry."

Xerophagists. On the

28th of April,

Pope Clement XII. issued his bull

forbidding the practice of Freemasonry by
1748,

897

the members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Many of the Masons of Italy continued,
however, to meet but, for the purpose of
escaping the temporal penalties of the
bull, which extended, in some cases, to the
punishment, they
infliction of capital
;

changed their esoteric name, and called

themselves Xerophagists. This is a compound of two Greek words signifying "eaters
of dry food," and by it they alluded to an
engagement into which they entered to
abstain from the drinking of wine. They
were, in fact, the first temperance society
on record. Thory says [Act. LaL, i. 346,)
that a manuscript concerning them was
contained in the collection of the Mother

Lodge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite.

Xerxes. A significant word in the
degree of Sublime Prince of the Royal
Secret, the thirty-second of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite. He is referred to in
the old rituals of that degree as represented by Frederick the Great, the supposed
founder of the Rite. Probably this is on
account of the great military genius of both.
significant word in the high
Xinxe.

degrees.
Delaunay (Tuileur, p. 49,) gives
it as Xincheu, and says that it has been
translated as " the seat of the soul." But
in either form it has evidently undergone
such corruption as to be no longer comprehensible.

Y.
Y. One of the symbols of Pythagoras Yates is accompanied with a feeling of
was the Greek letter Upsilon, T, for which, melancholy, because it brings to my mind
on account of the similarity of shape, the the recollections of years, now passed forRomans adopted the letter Y of their own ever, in which I enjoyed the intimate
alphabet. Pythagoras said that the two friendship of that amiable man and zealhorns of the letter symbolized the two dif- ous Mason and scholar. His gentle mien
ferent paths of virtue and vice, the right won the love, his virtuous life the esbranch leading to the former and the left to teem, and his profound but unobtrusive
the latter. It was therefore called " Litera scholarship the respect, of all who knew
Pythagorse," the letter of Pythagoras. Thus him.
Giles Fonda Yates was born in 1796, in
the Roman poet Martial says, in one of his
epigrams
what was then the village of Schenectady,
in the State of New York. After acquiring
" Litera Pythagorse, discrimine secta bicorni,
Humanae vitae speciem prasferre videtur."
i. e.,

"

The

letter of

Pythagoras, parted by its twoto exhibit the image

branched division, appears

of

human

life."

Yates, Giles Fonda.

writing a sketch of the

5N

life

The task of
of Giles Fonda
57

at the ordinary schools of the period a

preliminary liberal education, he entered
Union College, and graduated with distinction, receiving in due time the degree of
Master of Arts.
He subsequently commenced the study
of the law, and, having been admitted to
the bar, was, while yet young, appointed
Judge of Probate in Schenectady, the du-

YATES

YATES

of which office he discharged with

great ability and fidelity.
Being blessed with a sufficient competency of the world's goods, (although in the
latter years of his life he became poor,)
Bro. Yates did not find it necessary to pursue the practice of the legal profession as a
source of livelihood.
At an early period, he was attracted, by
the bent of his mind, to the study not only
of general literature, but especially to that
of archaeology, philosophy, and the occult
sciences, of all of which he became an ardent
investigator.
These studies led him naturally to the Masonic institution, into which
he was initiated in the year 1817, receiving
the degrees of Symbolic Masonry in St.
George's Lodge, No. 6, at Schenectady.
In 1821 he affiliated with Morton Lodge,
No. 87, of the same place, and was shortly
afterwards elected its Senior Warden. Returning subsequently to the Lodge of his
adoption, he was chosen as its Master in
1844. He had in the meantime been admitted into a Chapter of the Royal Arch
and an Encampment of Knights Templars but his predilections being for Scottish Masonry, he paid but little attention
to these high degrees of the American

G. M. of the Grand Lodge of

York, I aided in effecting its revival.
The necessary proceedings were then instituted to place the same under the superintendence of a Grand Council of Princes of
Jerusalem, as required by the Old Constitutions and such Grand Council was subsequently opened in due form in said city.
" Having been made aware of the New
Constitutions of the Thirty-third Degree/
ratified on the 1st of May, 1786, conferring
the supreme power over our Rite on Councils of Nine Brethren,' I hastened to place
myself in correspondence with Moses
Holbrook, M. D., at the time Sovereign
Grand Commander of the Supreme Council at Charleston, and with my esteemed
friends, Joseph McCosh, Illustrious Grand
Secretary General of the last-named Council, and Bro. Gourgas, at that time Illustrious Grand Secretary General of the H.
E. for this Northern Jurisdiction. Lodges

898
ties

Rite.

The following extract from an address

delivered by him in 1851, before the Supreme Council of the Northern Jurisdiction, contains a brief summary of a portion
of his labors in the cause of Scottish Masonry.
"I turned my attention," says Bro.
Yates, " to the history of the Sublime degrees very soon after my initiation as, a
Mason.
intercourse, in 1822, with several old Masons in the city of Albany, led
to the discovery that an Ineffable Lodge
of Perfection had been established in that
ancient city on the 20th of December, 1767.
I also discovered that not only the Ineffable but the Superior degrees of our Rite
had been conferred at the same time on a
chosen few by the founder of the Lodge,
Henry A. Francken, one of the Deputies of
Stephen Morin of glorious memory. It
was not long, moreover, before I found the
original Warrants of this Lodge, its Book
of Minutes, the Patents of 111. Bros. Samuel
Stringer, M. D., Jeremiah Van Rensselaer,
and Peter W. Yates, Esquires, Deputy Inspectors General under the old system also
the Regulations and Constitutions of the
nine Commissioners, etc., 1761, and other
documents that had been left by Bro.
Francken with the Albany brethren when
he founded their Lodge. With the concurrence of the surviving members of said
Lodge in Albany, Dr. Jonathan Eights and
the Hon. and R. W. Stephen Van Rens-

My

selaer, P.

New

'

'

of Perfection in the counties of Montgomery, Onondaga, Saratoga, and Monroe, in

the State of New York, were successively
organized and placed, agreeably to the Constitutions, under the superintendence of the
Grand Council before named. The establishment of this last-named body was confirmed, and all our proceedings in Sublime
Freemasonry were legalized and sanctioned
by the only lawful authorities in the United
States, the aforesaid Supreme Councils.
" On the 16th day of November, 1824,
received a Patent appointing me S. of S.
of a Consistory of S. P. of the R. S. established in the city of Albany.
" In 1825, I took my vows, as a Sovereign Grand Inspector General,' between the
hands of our said Brother Joseph McCosh,
he having been specially deputed for that
purpose. I was shortly after constituted
and accredited the Representative of the
Southern Supreme Grand Council near the
Northern Supreme Grand Council, of which
last I was made and ever since have been a
'

member."
In 1851, he was elected Sovereign Grand

Commander of the Supreme Council for the

Northern Jurisdiction, but soon

after re-

signed the office in favor of Edward A.

Raymond. As he at that time had removed
his residence to the city of New York, he
was immediately appointed Deputy Inspector for the State, and afterwards was

Grand Commander of Cosmopolitan

Sovereign Consistory of the State of New
York.
The last years of his life were oppressed
with poverty, and he was compelled to accept a subordinate office in the CustomHouse of New York, where, in my visits
to that city, I often beheld him faithfully
laboring at his desk on tasks which I painelected

YEAR

YATES
were uncongenial to his cultiHe died December 13,
vated intellect.
1859, in the city of New York.
Bro. Yates was the author of a work entitled History of the Manners and Ceremonies of the Indian Tribes, in which he seeks
ingeniously, if not satisfactorily, to discover
a Masonic meaning in the Indian mystic
rites.
He was also engaged for many years
in the compilation of a valuable Repertorium of Masonry, a work the manuscript of
which he left unfinished at the time of his
death. But most of his Masonic writings
appeared in contemporary journals. Moore's
Freemasons' Magazine and Mackey's Masonic Quarterly Review contain valuable
fully felt

communications from his pen on subjects

of Masonic archaeology, in which science
he had no superior. He was also a poet
of no mean pretension, as his Odes of Perfection sufficiently show.

In an address delivered before the Lodge

of Sorrow held by the New York Lodge of
Perfection on the occasion of his demise,
Bro. Charles T. McClenachan has paid to
Giles F. Yates this true and appropriate
tribute :
" In the latter years of his life, this illustrious Brother,
so just, so pure, so firm in
mind, so unobtrusive, and yet so deeply
wrapt in the one great ideal of Perfection,

known by Masonic reputation around the

passed daily unheeded from
wide world,
the tediousness of duty to the pleasures of
study never forsaking the one great object

the solving of the Mysteries,

of his life
the searching after Truth. Active, thoughtful, penetrating, his whole soul ever centred in a grasping desire to comprehend the
fulness of the Great Intelligence, the Eouhis
ach Elohim, or Divine Existence
bright ideal of Perfection which dwells not
on earth
he has now found full relief in
death and the certain knowledge of the

Diyine

But the subject of this sketch has himand honestly, as was ever his

self frankly

wont, described his

own

character

believe, my dear
brethren/' said he, " that, as a member of
the Masonic institution, if I have had any
ambition, it has been to study its science,
and to discharge my duties as a faithful
Mason, rather than to obtain its official
honors or personal benefits of any kind.
Self-aggrandizement has never formed any
part of my Masonic creed, and all who
know me can bear witness that it never has
of my practice."
The motto he had selected was " prodesse
quam conspici," to do good rather than to
be conspicuous, and to that sentiment he
was consistently faithful throughout his
well-spent life.

"I

would

fain

Yaveron Hamaim. A

significant
in the high degrees.
The French
"
rituals explain it as meaning
the passage
of the river," and refer it to the crossing
of the river Euphrates by the liberated
Jewish captives on their return from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.
It is in its present form a corruption of the

word

Hebrew

sentence, Q*Oj"f

hamaim, which

have you

signifies

1^D^*> y^varu

"they will

cross,

or pass over, the waters," alluding to the

streams lying between Babylon and Jerusalem, of which the Euphrates was the most
important.
The same as the
Year,
Year of the World, which see.
of Light. Anno Lucis, in the
year of light, is the epoch used in Masonic
documents of the Symbolic degrees. This
era is calculated from the creation of the
world, and is obtained by adding four thousand to the current year, on the supposition
that Christ was born four thousand years
after the creation of the world.
But the
chronology of Archbishop Usher, which
has been adopted as the Bible chronology
in the authorized version, places the birth
of Christ in the year 4004 after the creation.
According to this calculation, the
Masonic date for the " year of light" is four
years short of the true date, and the year
of the Lord 1874, which in Masonic documents is 5874, should correctly be 5878.
The Ancient and Accepted Masons in the
beginning of this century used this correct
or Usherian era, and the Supreme Council
at Charleston dated their first circular, issued in 1802, as 5806. Dalcho (Ahim. Rez.,
2d ed., p. 37,) says: "If Masons are determined to fix the origin of their Order at the
time of the creation, they should agree
among themselves at what time before
Christ to place that epoch." At that agree-

Hebrew.

Year

ment they have now

arrived.

Whatever

may have

once existed, there is

now a general consent to adopt the incorrect theory that the world was created 4000
The error is too unimportant, and
B. c.
the practice too universal, to expect that it
will ever be corrected.
Noorthouck, (Constitutions, p. 5,) speaking of the necessity of adding the four
years to make a correct date, says " But
this being a degree of accuracy that Masons in general do not attend to, we must,
after this intimation, still follow the vulgar
mode of computation to be intelligible."
differences

reality."

899

to the meaning of the expression, it

by no means to be supposed that Masons,
now, intend by such a date to assume that
their Order is as old as the creation.
It is

As

is

simply used as expressive of reverence for

that physical light which was created by
the fiat of the Grand Architect, and which is

YEAR

YELLOW

adopted as the type of the intellectual light

of Masonry. The phrase is altogether sym-

institutions it would have the same insignificance, were it not that it has been
adopted as the representative of the sun,
and of the noble metal gold. Thus, in

900

bolic.

Year of Masonry

Sometimes used
.
synonymous with Year of Light. In the colored blazonry, the small dots, by which
last century, it was in fact the more frequent the gold in an engraved coat of arms is designated, are replaced by the yellow color. La
expression.
Year of the Deposite. An era Colombiere, a French heraldic writer, says,
adopted by Eoyal and Select Masters, and {Science Heroique, p. 30,) in remarking on,
refers to the time when certain important the connection between gold and yellow,
secrets were deposited in the first Temple. that as yellow, which is derived from the
sun, is the most exalted of colors, so gold
See Anno Depositionis.

as

Year of the Discovery. An

era

adopted by Eoyal Arch Masons, and refers

to the time when certain secrets were made
known to the Craft at the building of the
second Temple. See Anno Inventionis.
Year of the Order. The date used
in documents connected with Masonic
Templarism. It refers to the establishment
of the Order of Knights Templars in the
year 1118. See Anno Ordinis.
Year of the World. This is the era
adopted by the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite, and is borrowed from the Jewish
computation. The Jews formerly used the
era of contracts, dated from the first conquests of Seleucus Nicator in Syria.
But
since the fifteenth century they have
counted from the creation, which they suppose to have taken place in September,
3760 before Christ. See Anno Mundi.

Yeas and

Nays. The rule existing

in all parliamentary bodies that a vote may
be called for " by yeas and nays," so that
the vote of each member may be known
and recorded, does not apply to Masonic
Lodges. Indeed, such a proceeding would
be unnecessary. The vote by yeas and
nays in a representative body is taken that
the members may be held responsible to
their constituents.
But in a Lodge, each
member is wholly independent of any responsibility, except to his own conscience.
To call for the yeas and nays being then
repugnant to the principles which govern
Lodges, to call for them would be out of
order, and such a call could not be entertained by the presiding officer.
But in a Grand Lodge the responsibility
of the members to a constituency does exist,
and there it is very usual to call for a vote
by Lodges, when the vote of every member
is recorded.
Although the mode of calling
for the vote is different, the vote by Lodges
is actually the same as a vote by yeas and
nays, and may be demanded by any member.

Yeldis. An old hermetic degree, which

Thory says was given in some secret societies
in Germany.

Yellow. Of all the colors, yellow

seems to be the least important and the least
general in Masonic symbolism. In other

the most noble of metals. Portal (Des

Couleurs Symboliques, p. 64,) says that the
sun, gold, and yellow are not synonymous,
but mark different degrees which it is difficult to define.
The natural sun was the
symbol of the spiritual sun, gold represented
the natural sun, and yellow was the emblem
of gold. But it is evident that yellow derives all its significance as a symbolic color
from its connection with the hue of the
rays of the sun and the metal gold.
Among the ancients, the divine light or
wisdom was represented by yellow, as the
divine heat or power was by red.
And
this appears to be about the whole of the
is

ancient symbolism of this color.

In the old ritual of the Scottish and hermetic degree of Knight of the Sun, yellow
was the symbol of wisdom darting its rays,
like the yellow beams of the morning, to
enlighten a waking world. In the Prince
of Jerusalem, it was also formerly the characteristic color, perhaps with the same
meaning, in reference to the elevated position that that degree occupied in the Eite
of Perfection, and afterwards in the Ancient

and Accepted

Eite.

Thirty or forty years ago, yellow was the

characteristic color of the Mark Master's
degree, derived, perhaps, from the color of
the Princes of Jerusalem, who originally
issued charters for Mark Lodges; for it does
not seem to have possessed any symbolic
meaning.
In fact, as I have already intimated, all
the symbolism of yellow must be referred
to and explained by the symbolism of gold
and of the sun, of which it is simply the
representative.

Yellow Jacket.

Prichard says that

in the early part of the last century the

following formed a part of the catechism

" Have you seen your Master to-day ?

"Yes.
" How was he cloathed ?
" In a yellow jacket and a blue pair of
breeches."
And he explains it by saying that " the
yellow jacket is the compasses, and the blue
breeches the steel points."
On this Krause (Kunsturk., ii. 78,) remarks that this sportive comparison is

YEVELE

YORK

altogether in the puerile spirit of the pecuwhich are found among

many other crafts, and is without doubt
genuine as originating in the working
Lodges. Prichard's explanation is natural,

Yoni. Among the Orientalists, the

yoni was the female symbol corresponding
to the lingam, or male principle.
The
lingam and yoni of the East assumed the
names of Phallus and Cteis among the
Greeks.
Constitutions. This document, which is also called Krause's MS.,
purports to be the Constitutions adopted
by the General Assembly of Masons that
was held at York in 926. (See York Legend.)
No original manuscript copy of it
can be found, but a German translation
from a Latin version was published, for the

liar interrogatories

and Krause's remark

But it is vain
by attaching
to it a symbolism of gold and azure
the
blue sky and the meridian sun. No such
thought entered into the minds of the illitcorrect.
to attempt to elevate the idea

erate operatives with whom the

and answer originated.

question

Yevele, Henry. He was one of the

Magistri Operis, or Masters of the Work, in
the reign of Edward III., for whom he constructed several public edifices. Anderson
says that he is called, " in the Old Records,
the King's Freemason ;" but his name does
not occur in any of the old manuscript
Constitutions that are now extant.
Yggrasil. The sacred ash-tree of the
Scandinavian mysteries, which Oliver says
was analogous to the mystical ladder of other
Rites. If so, the symbolism is very abstruse.

Y-ha-ho.

Higgins

(Anacalypsis,

ii.

the Abbe Bazin as saying that

this was the name esteemed most sacred
among the ancient Egyptians. Clement of
Alexandria asserts, in his Stromata, that all
those who entered into the temple of Serapis
were obliged to wear conspicuously on their
persons the name I-ha-ho, which he says
signifies the Eternal God. The resemblance
to the Tetragrammaton is apparent.
Yod. The Hebrew letter % equivalent
in sound to I or Y.
It is the initial letter
of the word nii"7* or Jehovah, the Tetragrammaton, and hence was peculiarly sacred among the Talmudists. Basnage, (lib.
iii., c. 13,) while treating of the mysteries
of the name Jehovah among the Jews, says
of this letter
"The yod in Jehovah is one of those
things which eye hath not seen, but which
has been concealed from all mankind. Its
essence and matter are incomprehensible
it is not lawful so much as to meditate upon
it.
Man may lawfully revolve his thoughts
from one end of the heavens to the other,
but he cannot approach that inaccessible
light, that primitive existence, contained in
the letter yod; and indeed the masters call
the letter thought or idea, and prescribe no
17,) cites

bounds

to its efficacy.

It

was

this letter

which, flowing from the primitive light,

gave being to emanations. It wearied itself
by the way, but assumed a new vigor by the
sense of the letter jf, which makes the second letter of the Ineffable Name."
In Symbolic Masonry, the yod has
been replaced by the letter G.
But
in the high degrees it is retained,
and within a triangle, thus, constitutes the symbol of the Deity.

901

York

time, by Krause in Die drei dltesten

Kunsturkunden der Freimaurerbruderschaft.
It will be found in the third edition of that
work, (vol. iii., pp. 58-101.) Krause's account of it is, that it was translated from

first

the original, which is said, in a certificate

dated January 4, 1806, and signed "Stonehouse," to have been written on parchment in the ancient language of the country, and preserved at the city of York,
" apud Rev. summam societatem architectonicam," which Woodford translates " an
architectural society," but

which

is

evi-

dently meant for the "Grand Lodge."

From this Latin translation a German version was made in 1808 by Bro. Schneider
of Altenberg, the correctness of which, having been examined by three linguists, is
certified by Carl Erdmann Weller, Secretary of the Government Tribunal of Saxony.

And

this certified

German

translation
in his
Kunsturkunden. An English version was
inserted by Bro. Hughan in his Old Charges
of British Freemasons. The document consists, like all the old manuscripts, of an introductory invocation, a history of architecture or the " Legend of the Craft," and
the general statutes or charges but several
of the charges differ from those in the other
Constitutions. There is, however, a general resemblance sufficient to indicate a
it is

that has been published

by Krause

common

The appearance of
in Germany to

origin.

document gave

rise

this
dis-

cussions as to its authenticity.

Krause,
Schneider, Fessler, and many other distinguished Masons, believed it to be genuine;
while Kloss denied it, and contended that
the Latin translation which was certified
by Stonehouse had been prepared before
1806, and that in preparing it an ancient
manuscript had been remodelled on the
basis of the 1738 edition of Anderson's
Constitutions, because the term " Noachida "
is employed in both, but is found nowhere
else.
At length, in 1864, Bro. Findel was
sent by the " Society of German Masons "
to England to discover the original.
His
report of his journey was that it was negative in its results

no such document was

to

902

YORK

YORK

be found in the archives of the old Lodge gations. It may be premised that, of all
at York, and no such person as Stonehouse those who have subjected these legends to
was known in that city. These two facts, the crucible of historical criticism, Brother
to which may be added the further argu- William James Hughan of Cornwall, in
ments that no mention is made of it in the England, must unhesitatingly be acknowlFabrie Bolls of York Minster, published by edged as " facile princeps," the ablest, the
the Surtees Society, nor in the inventory most laborious, and the most trustworthy
of the Grand Lodge of York which was ex- investigator. He was the first and the
tant in 1777, nor by Drake in his speech most successful remover of the cloud of
delivered before the Grand Lodge in 1726, tradition which so long had obscured the
and a few other reasons, have led Findel to sunlight of history.
agree with Kloss that the document is not
a genuine York Charter. Such, too, is the
general opinion of English Masonic scholThere can be little doubt that the
ars.
General Assembly at York, in 926, did frame
a body of laws or Constitutions but there
is almost as little doubt that they are not
represented by the Stonehouse or Krause

The legend which connects the origin of

English Masonry at York in 926 is sometimes called the " York Legend," sometimes
the "Athelstane Legend," because the
General Assembly, said to have been held
there, occurred during the reign of that
king and sometimes the " Edwin Legend,"
because that prince is supposed to have been

document.

head of the Craft, and to have convoked them together to form a Constitution.
The earliest extant of the old manuscript
Constitutions is the ancient poem commonly known as the Halliwell MS., and
the date of which is conjectured (on good
grounds) to be about the year 1390. In
that work we find the following version of

at the

York Legend.

The

city of

York,

in the north of England, is celebrated for

its traditional connection with Masonry
in that kingdom. No topic in the history of Freemasonry has so much engaged
the attention of modern Masonic scholars,
or given occasion to more discussion,
than the alleged facts of the existence of
Masonry in the tenth century at the city
of York as a prominent point, of the calling of a congregation of the Craft there in
the year 926, of the organization of a General Assembly and the adoption of a Constitution.

the legend
"

Thys

craft

com ynto Englond

as

y yow

say,

Yn tyme of good kynge Adeistonus' day

He made tho bothe halle and eke bowre,
And hye

templus of gret honowre,

To sportyn him yn bothe day and nygth,

to worschepe hys God with alle hys mygth.
Thys goode lorde loved thys craft fill wel,

During the whole of the last and An

the greater part of the present century, the

Fraternity in general have accepted all of
these statements as genuine portions of
authentic history and the adversaries of
the Order have, with the same want of discrimination, rejected them all as myths;
while a few earnest seekers for truth have
been at a loss to determine what part was
historical and what part legendary.
Recently, the discovery of many old manuscripts has directed the labors of such
scholars as Hughan, Woodford, Lyon, and
others, to the critical examination of the
early history of Masonry, and that of York
has particularly engaged their attention.
For a thorough comprehension of the
true merits of this question, it will be necessary that the student should first acquaint
himself with what was, until recently, the
recognized theory as to the origin of Masonry at York, and then that he should
examine the newer hypotheses advanced by
the writers of the present day. In other
words, he must read both the tradition and
the history.
In pursuance of this plan, I propose to
commence with the legends of York Masonry, as found in the old manuscript Constitutions, and then proceed to a review of
what has been the result of recent investi;

And purposud

to strenthyn hyt every del,

For dyvers defawtys that yn the craft he fonde

He sende aboute ynto the londe

After alle the masonus of the crafte,
To come to hym ful evene strayfte,
For to amende these defautys alle

By

good consel gef hyt mytgth

falle.

A semble thenne he cowthe let make

Of dyvers

lordis

yn here

state

Dukys, erlys, and barnes also,

Knygthys, sqwyers and mony mo,

And

the grete burges of that syt6,

ther alle yn here degr
These were there uchon algate,
To ordeyne for these masonus astate,
Ther they sowgton by here wytte
How they mygthyn governe hytte
Fyftene artyculus they there sowgton,
And fyftene poyntys ther they wrogton."

They were

For the benefit of those who are not familiar with this archaic style, the passage
is translated into modern English.
" This craft came into England, as I tell
you, in the time of good king Athelstan's
reign; he made then both hall, and also
bower and lofty temples of great honor, to
take his recreation in both day and night,
and to worship his God with all his might.
This good lord loved this craft full well, and
purposed to strengthen it in every part on
account of various defects that he discovered

YORK

YORK

in the craft. He sent about into all the

land, after all the masons of the craft, to
come straight to him, to amend all these
defects by good counsel, if it might so happen. He then permitted an assembly to be
made of divers lords in their rank, dukes,
earls, and barons, also knights, squires, and
many more, and the great burgesses of that
city, they were all there in their degree;
these were there, each one in every way to
make laws for the estate of these masons.

be made by maisters, of all maisters masons and felaus in the forsayd art. And so
at such congregations they that be made
masters schold be examined of the articuls
after written, & be ransacked [thoroughly
examined] whether thei be abull and kunnyng [able and skilful] to the profyte of
the lordys hem to serve [to serve them],
and to the honor of the forsayd art."
Seventy years later, in 1560, the Lands-

There they sought by their wisdom how

they might govern it there they found out
fifteen articles, and there they made fifteen

the legend

points."

The next

old document in which we find

is that known as the
" Cooke MS.," whose date is placed at 1490.
The details are here much more full than
those contained in the Halliwell MS. The
passage referring to the legend is as follows
" And after that was a worthy kynge in
Englond, that was callyd Athelstone, and
his yongest son lovyd well the sciens of
Gemetry, and he wyst well that hand craft
had the practyke of the sciens of Gemetry
so well as masons wherefore he drew him
to consell and lernyd [the] practyke of that
For of speculasciens to his speculatyf.
tyfe he was a master, and he lovyd well
this legend recited

downe MS. was

still

903

written, and in it we .find

further developed, and

Prince Edwin for the first time introduced

by name. That manuscript reads thus
" Soone after the Decease of St. Albones,
there came Diverse Warrs into England
out of Diverse Nations, so that the good
:

Masons was dishired [disturbed]

and put down until the tyme of King
Adilston. In his tyme there was a worthy

rule of

King

in England, that brought this Land

into good rest, and he builded many great
workes and buildings, therefore he loved
well Masons, for he had a sone called Ed-

win, the which Loved Masons

much more

than his Father did, and he was soe practized in Geometry, that he delighted much
to come and talke with Masons and to
learne of them the Craft. And after, for the
love he had to Masons and to the Craft,

masonry and masons. And he bicome a he was made Mason at Windsor, and he
mason hymselfe. And he gaf hem [gave gott of the King, his Father, a Charter and
them] charges and names as it is now usyd commission once every yeare to have Asin Englond and in other countries.
And sembley, within the Realme where they
he ordeyned that they schulde have reson- would within England, and to correct
abull pay. And purchesed [obtained] a fre within themselves Faults & Tresspasses
patent of the kyng that they schulde make that were done as touching the Craft, and
a sembly when thei sawe resonably tyme a he held them an Assembley, and there he
made Masons and gave them Charges, and
[to] cum togedir to her [their] counsell of
the whiche charges, manors & semble as is taught them the Manners and Comands
write and taught in the boke of our charges the same to be kept ever afterwards. And
wherefor I leve hit at this tyme."
tooke them the Charter and commission to
Thus much is contained in the MS. from keep their Assembly, and Ordained that it
lines 611 to 642.
Subsequently, in lines should be renewed from King to King, and
688-719, which appear to have been taken when the Assembly were gathered tofrom what is above called the " Boke of geather he made a Cry, that all old Masons
Charges," the legend is repeated in these or young, that had any Writeings or Vnderstanding of the Charges and manners that
words
"In this manner was the forsayde art weere made before their Lands, wherebegunne in the lond of Egypt bi the for- soever they were made Masons, that they
sayd maister Euglat [Euclid], & so hit went should shew them forth, there were found
fro lond to londe and fro kyngdome to some in French, some in Greek, some in
kyngdome. After that, many yeris, in the Hebrew, and some in English, and some in
tyme of Kyng Adhelstone, wiche was sum other Languages, and when they were read
tyme kynge of Englonde, bi his counsell and over seen well the intent of them was
and other gret lordys of the lond bi comin vnderstood to be all one, and then he

[common] assent for grete defaut y-fennde

[found] among masons thei ordeyned a
certayne reule amongys hem [them]. On
[one] tyme of the yere or in iii yere, as
nede were to the kyng and gret lordys of
the londe and all the comente [community], fro provynce to provynce and fro

caused a Book to be made thereof

how

this

worthy Craft of Masonrie was first founded,

and he himselfe comanded, and also then
caused, that it should be read at any tyme
when it should happen any Mason or Masons to be made to give him or them their
Charges, and from that, until this Day,
countre to countre congregations scholde Manners of Masons have been kept in this

YORK

904

YORK

Manner and forme, as well as Men might being taught Geometry and Masonry, for
Governe it, and Furthermore at diverse the love he had to the said Craft, and to the
Assemblyes have been put and Ordained honorable principles whereon it is grounded,
diverse Charges by the best advice of Mas- purchased a Free Charter of King Athelstan his Brother, for the Free Masons havters and Fellows."
All the subsequent manuscripts contain
the legend substantially as it is in the
Landsdowne and most of them appear to
be mere copies of it, or, most probably, of
some original one of which both they and
it are copies.
In 1723 Dr. Anderson published the first
edition of the Book of Constitutions, in
which the history of the fraternity of Freemasons is, he says, " collected from their
general records and their faithful traditions
of many ages." He gives the legend taken,
as he says, from "a certain record of Freemasons written in the reign of King Edward IV.," which manuscript, Preston asserts, "is said to have been in the possession
of the famous Elias Ashmole." As the old
manuscripts were generally inaccessible to
the Fraternity, (and, indeed, until recently
but few of them had been discovered,) it is
to the publication of the legend by Anderson, and subsequently by Preston, that we
are to attribute its general adoption by the
Craft for more than a century and a half.
The form of the legend, as given by Anderson in his first edition, varies slightly from
that in his second. In the former, he places
the date of the occurrence at 930 in his
second, at 926 in the former, he styles the
congregation at York a General Lodge in
his second, a Grand Lodge.
Now, as the
modern and universally accepted form of
the legend agrees in both respects with the
latter statement, and not with the former,
it must be concluded that the second edition, and the subsequent ones by Entick
and Noorthouck, who only repeat Anderson, furnished the form of the legend as
now popular.
In the second edition of the Constitutions,
(p. 63,) published in 1738, Anderson gives
the legend in the following words :
" In all the Old Constitutions it is written to this purpose, viz.
" That though the antient records of the
Brotherhood in England were most of them
destroyd or lost in the war with the Danes,
who burnt the Monasteries where the Records were kept yet King Athelstan, (the
Grandson of King Alfred,) the first annointed King of England, who translated
the Holy Bible into the Saxon language,
when he had brought the land into rest and
peace, built many great works, and encour;

aged

many Masons from France and

else-

where, whom he appointed overseers thereof: they brought with them the Charges and
Regulations of the foreign Lodges, and preYail'd with the King to increase the wages.
"That Prince Edwin, the King's Brother,

ing

among themselves a Connection,

or a

power and freedom to regulate themselves,

to amend what might happen amiss, and to
hold an yearly Communication in a General
Assembly.

"That accordingly Prince Edwin summon'd all the Free and Accepted Masons in
the Realm, to meet him in the Congregation at York, who came and form'd the
Grand Lodge under him as their Grand
Master, A. d. 926.
" That they brought with them many old
Writings and Records of the Craft, some in
Greek, some in Latin, some in French, and
other languages; and from the contents
thereof, they framed the Constitutions
of the English Lodges, and made a Law for
themselves, to preserve and observe the
same in all Time coming, etc., etc., etc."
Preston accepted the legend, and gave it
in his second edition (p. 198) in the fol-

lowing words
"

Edward died

by Athelstane

in 924, and was succeeded

his son, who appointed his

brother Edwin patron of the Masons. This

prince procured a Charter from Athelstane,
empowering them to meet annually in communication at York. In this city, the first
Grand Lodge of England was formed in
926, at which Edwin presided as Grand
Master. Here many old writings were produced in Greek, Latin, and other languages,
from which it is said the Constitutions of the

English Lodge have been extracted."

Such

is

the

"York

legend," as

it

has

been accepted by the Craft, contained in

all the old manuscripts from at least the
end of the fourteenth century to the present
day; officially sanctioned by Anderson,
the historiographer of the Grand Lodge in
1723, and repeated by Preston, by Oliver,
and by almost all succeeding Masonic
writers. Only recently has any one thought
of doubting its authenticity; and now
the important question in Masonic literature is whether it is a myth or a history
whether it is all or in any part fiction or
truth
and if so, what portion belongs to
the former and what to the latter category.
In coming to a conclusion on this subject,
the question necessarily divides itself into
three forms.
1. Was there an Assembly of Masons held
in or about the year 926, at York, under
the patronage or by the permission of King
Athelstan ?
There is nothing in the personal character or the political conduct of Athelstan
that forbids such a possibility or even prob-

ability.

He

was

liberal in his ideas, like

YORK

YORK
his grandfather the great Alfred he was a
of civilization; he patronized
learning, built many churches and monasteries, encouraged the translation of the
Scriptures, and gave charters to many operative companies.
In his reign, the " frith;

promoter

gildan" free gilds or sodalities, were incorporated by law. There is, therefore, nothing improbable in supposing that he extended his protection to the Operative
Masons. The uninterrupted existence for
several centuries of a tradition that such an

Assembly was held, requires that those who

deny it should furnish some more satisfactory reason for their opinion than has yet
been produced. " Incredulity," says Voltaire, " is the foundation of history."
But
it must be confessed that, while an excess
of credulity often mistakes fable for reality,
an obstinacy of incredulity as frequently
leads to the rejection of truth as fiction.
The Rev. Mr. Woodford, in an essay on Tlie
Connection of York with the History of Freemasonry in England, inserted in Hughan's
Unpublished Beco?'ds of the Craft, has critically discussed this subject, and comes to
this conclusion.
"I see no reason, therefore, to reject so old a tradition, that under
Athelstan the Operative Masons obtained
his patronage, and met in General Assembly." To that verdict I subscribe.
2. Was Edwin, the brother of Athelstan,
the person who convoked that Assembly ?
This question has already been discussed in
the article Edwin, where the suggestion is
made that the Edwin alluded to in the
legend was not the son or brother of Athelstan, but Edwin, king of Northumbria.
Francis Drake, in his speech before the
Grand Lodge of York in 1726, was, I
think, the first who publicly advanced this
opinion but he does so in a way that shows
that the view must have been generally accepted by his auditors, and not advanced by
him as something new. He says: "You
know we can boast that the first Grand
Lodge ever held in England was held in
this city, where Edwin, the first Christian
king of Northumbria, about the six hundredth year after Christ, and who laid the
foundation of our Cathedral, sat as Grand
;

Master."

Edwin, who was born in 586, ascended

the throne in 617, and died in 633. He
was pre-eminent, among the Anglo-Saxon
kings who were his contemporaries, for
military genius and statesmanship. So inflexible was his administration of justice,
that it was said that in his reign a woman
or child might carry everywhere a purse
of gold without danger of robbery,
high
commendation in those days of almost unbridled rapine. The chief event of the
reign of Edwin was the introduction of

50

Christianity into the

905

kingdom of Northum-

Previous to his reign, the northern

metropolis of the Church had been placed
at York, and the king patronized Paulinus
the bishop, giving him a house and other
possessions in that city. The only objection to this theory is its date, which is three
hundred years before the reign of Athelstan
and the supposed meeting at York in 926.
3. Are the Constitutions which were
adopted by that General Assembly now extant? It is not to be doubted, that if a
General Assembly was held, it must have
adopted Constitutions or regulations for the
government of the Craft. Such would
mainly be the object of the meeting. But
there is no sufficient evidence that the Regulations now called the "York Constitutions,"
or the "Gothic Constitutions," are those
that were adopted in 926. It is more probable that the original document and all
genuine copies of it are lost, and that it
formed the type from which all the more
modern manuscript Constitutions have been
formed. There is the strongest internal
evidence that all the manuscripts, from the
Halliwell to the Papworth, had a common
original, from which they were copied with
more or less accuracy, or on which they
were framed with more or less modification.
And this original I suppose to be the Constitutions which must have been adopted at
the General Assembly at York.
The theory, then, which I think may safely
be advanced on this subject, and which must
be maintained until there are better reasons
than we now have to reject it, is, tfrat about
the year 926 a General Assembly of Masons
was held at York, under the patronage of
Edwin, brother of Athelstan, at which
Assembly a code of laws was adopted, which
became the basis on which all subsequent
Masonic Constitutions were framed.
Originally
Manuscripts.
there were six manuscripts of the Old Constitutions bearing this title, because they
were deposited in the Archives of the now
extinct Grand Lodge of all England, whose
But the MS.
seat was at the city of York.
No. 3 is now missing, although it is mentioned in the inventory made at York in
1779. Nos. 2, 4, and 5 are now in posRecently Bro.
session of the York Lodge.
Hughan discovered Nos. 2 and 6 in the
Archives of the Grand Lodge of England,
at London. The dates of these manuscripts,
which do not correspond with the numbe*
of their titles, are as follows
No. 1 has the date of 1600.
u
" 2
1704.
bria.

York

"
"

"
"

it

tt

5
6

((

((

1630.
1693.
1670.
1680.

YORK

YORK

Of these manuscripts, No. 1 was published

by Bro. Hughan in his Old Charges of
British Freemasons, and Nos. 2 and 4, by the
same author, in his History of Freemasonry

abolished the Royal Arch degree, which was

then practised as an independent Order in
England, and reincorporated its secrets in
the degree of Master Mason, the York Rite
would have been revived. But by recognizing the Royal Arch as a separate degree,
and retaining the Master's degree in its
mutilated form, they repudiated the Rite.
In the United States it has been the almost
universal usage to call the Masonry there
practised the York Rite.
But it has no
better claim to this designation than it has
to be called the Ancient and Accepted Rite,
or the French Rite, or the Rite of Schroder.
It has no pretensions to the York Rite. Of
its first three degrees, the Master's is the
mutilated one which took the Masonry of
England out of the York Rite, and it has
added to these three degrees six others
which were never known to the Ancient
York Rite, or that which was practised in
England, in the earlier half of the eighteenth
century, by the legitimate Grand Lodge.
In all my writings for years past, I have
ventured to distinguish the Masonry practised in the United States, consisting of
nine degrees, as the "American Rite," a

906

The other manuscripts are as yet

unpublished. Bro. Hughan deems No. 4
of some importance because it contains the
following sentence " The one of the elders
takeing the Booke, and that hee or shee that
is to be made mason shall lay their hands
thereon, and the charge shall bee given."
in York.

This, he thinks, affords some presumption

that women were admitted as members of
the old Masonic gilds, although he admits
that we possess no other evidence confirmatory of this theory. The truth is, that the
sentence was a translation of the same
clause written in other old Constitutions
In the York MS. No. 1, the
in Latin.
sentence is thus " Tunc unus ex senioribus
teneat librum et ille vel illi" etc., i. e., " he
The writer of No. 4 copied, most
or they."
probably, from No. 1, and his translation
"
"
ille vel illi" instead
hee or shee " from
of
of " he or they" was either the result of ignorance in mistaking illi, they, for ilia, she,
or of carelessness in writing shee for they.
It is evident that the charges thus to be
:

sworn to, and which immediately follow,

were of such a nature as made most of them
physically impossible for women to perform
nor are females alluded to in any other of
the manuscripts. All Masons there are
" Fellows," and are so to be addressed.
There are two other York Manuscripts of
the Operative Masons, which have been
published in the Fabric Rolls of York Minster, an invaluable work, edited by the Rev.
James Raine, and issued under the patronage and at the expense of the Surtees Society.

York. Rite. This is the oldest of all

the Rites, and consisted originally of only
three degrees: 1. Entered Apprentice; 2.
Fellow Craft 3. Master Mason. The last
included a part which contained the True
Word, but which was disrupted from it
by Dunckerley in the latter part of the
last century, and has never been restored.
The Rite in its purity does not now exist
anywhere. The nearest approach to it is
the St. John's Masonry of Scotland, but
the Master's degree of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland is not the Master's degree of the
;

York Rite. When Dunckerley dismembered

the third degree, he destroyed the identity
of the Rite. In 1813, it was apparently
recognized by the United Grand Lodge of
England, when it defined "pure Ancient
Masonry to consist of three degrees, and no
more: viz., those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the
Holy Royal Arch." Had the Grand Lodge

and justly entipeculiar to America,

and is practised in no other country.
Bro. Hughan, speaking of the York Rite,
" there is no such
( TJnpubl. Rec, p. 148,) says
title

to

tled, as

which

it

is

the system

clearly

is

Rite, and what it was no one now knows."

I think that this declaration is too sweep-

ing in its language. He is correct in saying that there is at this time no such Rite.
I have just described its decadence but he
is wrong in asserting that we are now ignorant of its character. In using the title,
there is no reference to the Grand Lodge of
all England, which met for some years during the last century, but rather to the York
legend, and to the hypothesis that York
was the cradle of English Masonry, The
York Rite was that Rite which was most
probably organized or modified at the revival in 1717, and practised for fifty years
by the Constitutional Grand Lodge of EngIt consisted of only the three symland.
bolic degrees, the last one, or the Master's,
containing within itself the secrets now
This Rite
transferred to the Royal Arch.
was carried in its purity to France in 1725,
and into America at a later period. About
the middle of the eighteenth century the
continental Masons, and about the end of
it the Americans, began to superimpose
upon it those high degrees which, with the
necessary mutilation of the third, have given
But the Anrise to numerous other Rites.
cient York Rite, though no longer cultivated, must remain on the records of history
as the oldest and purest of all the Rites.
;

ZEDEKIAH

ZABUD

907

Z.
A

historical personage at the

Zabud.
court of King Solomon, whose name appears in several of the high degrees. In
that of Select Master in the American Rite,
it has been corrupted into Izabud.
He is

mentioned in

Kings

iv.

5,

where he

is

described in the authorized version as

being "principal officer and the king's
friend." The original is Zabud ben Nathan
cohen regneh hahmelek, which is literally
" Zabud, son of Nathan, a priest, the friend
of the king." Adam Clarke says he was
" the king's chief favorite, his confidant."
Smith {Did. Bib.) says: "This position,
if it were an official one, was evidently distinct from that of counsellor, occupied by
Ahithophel under David, and had more of
the character of private friendship about
it." Kitto (Cyclopwd. Bib. Lit.) says of Zabud and of his brother Azariah, that their
advancement in the household of King
Solomon "may doubtless be ascribed not
only to the young king's respect for the
venerable prophet (their father), who had
been his instructor, but to the friendship
he had contracted with his sons during the
course of education. The office, or rather
honor, of friend of the king/ we find in
all the despotic governments of the East.
It gives high power, without the public responsibility which the holding of a regular
office in the state necessarily imposes.
It
implies the possession of the utmost confidence of, and familiar intercourse with, the
monarch, to whose person ' the friend ' at
all times has access, and whose influence is
therefore often far greater, even in matters
of state, than that of the recognized ministers of government."
This has been fully carried out in the legend of the Select Master's degree.
Zabulon. The Greek form of ZebuDelaunay
lun, the tenth son of Jacob.
(Thuilleur, p. 79,) says that some ritualists
suppose that it is the true form of the word
of which Jabulum is a corruption. This is
Jabulum is a corrupt form of
incorrect.
Giblim.
Zabulon has no connection with
the high degrees, except that in the Eoyal
Arch he represents one of the stones in the
'

Pectoral.

Zadok. A

personage in some of the

In
Ineffable degrees of the Scottish Rite.
Scripture he is recorded as having been one
of the two chief priests in the time of
David, Abiathar being the other. He subsequently, by order of David, anointedSolomon to be king, by whom he was rewarded
with the post of high

priest.

Josephus

says that "Sadoc, the high

priest, was the first high priest of the Tem{Ant. x.

8, 6,)

which Solomon built." Yet it has

been supposed by some authors, in consequence of his name not being mentioned in
the detailed account of the dedication, that
he had died before- the completion of the
Temple.
Zarathustra. The name, in the Zend
ple

language, of that great reformer in religion

more commonly known to Europeans as

Zoroaster, which see.
Zartbaii. The Zarthan of 2 Chronicles iv. 17 appears to be the same place as
the Zeredatha of 1 Kings vii. 46. In the
Masonic ritual, the latter word is always
used.

See Zeredatha.

Zeal.

Ever since the revival in 1717,

found in the earliest lectures,) it

was taught that Apprentices served their
Masters with "freedom, fervency, and
zeal " and the symbols of the first two of
these virtues were chalk and charcoal. In
the oldest rituals, earthen pan (which see)
was designated as the symbol of zeal but
this was changed by Preston to clay, and so
it still remains.
See Fervency and Freedom.
The instruction to the Operative Mason
to serve his Master with freedom, fervency,
(for it is

and zeal' to work for his interests willingly, ardently, and zealously
is easily
understood.

In

application to Speculative Masonry, for the Master of the Work

we substitute the Grand Architect of the
Universe, and then our zeal, like our
freedom and our fervency, is directed to a
higher end. The zeal of a Speculative
Mason is shown by advancing the morality,
and by promoting the happiness of his
its

fellow-creatures.

personage in some of
Zedekiah.
the high degrees, whose melancholy fate is
described in the Second Book of Kings and
in the prophecies of Jeremiah. He was
the twentieth and last king of Judah.
When Nebuchadnezzar had in his second
siege of Jerusalem deposed Jehoiachin,
whom he carried as a captive to Babylon,
he placed Zedekiah on the throne in his
stead.

By

this act

Zedekiah became

trib-

utary to the king of the Chaldees, who exacted from him a solemn oath of fidelity
and obedience. This oath he observed no
longer than till an opportunity occurred of
violating it. In the language of the author
of the Books of Chronicles, " he rebelled
against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had

made him swear by God."

This course soon brought down upon him
the vengeance of the offended monarch,
who invaded the land of Judah with an
immense army. Remaining himself at
Riblah, a town on the northern border of

ZELATOR

ZENNAAR

Palestine, he sent the army under his genNebuzaradan, to Jerusalem, which

original form, the work as it now exists

makes but a comparatively small book.
The ancients, to whom it was familiar, as
well as the modern Parsees, attribute its
authorship to Zoroaster. But Dr. Haug,
rightly conceiving that it was not in the
power of any one man to have composed so
vast a work as it must have been in its
original extent, supposes that it was the

908

eral,

was invested by the Babylonian forces.

After a siege of about one year, during
which the inhabitants endured many hardships, the city was taken by an assault, the
Chaldeans entering it through breaches in
the northern wall.
It is very natural to suppose, that when
the enemy were most pressing in their atwhen the
tack upon the devoted city
breach which was to give them entrance
had been effected and when, perhaps, the
streets most distant from the Temple were
already filled with Chaldean soldiery, a
council of his princes and nobles should
have been held by Zedekiah in the Temple, to which they had fled for refuge, and
that he should ask their advice as to the
most feasible method of escape from the
impending danger.
History, it is true,
gives no account of any such assembly but
the written record of these important events
which is now extant is very brief, and, as
there is every reason to admit the probability of the occurrence, there does not appear to be any historical objection to the
introduction of Zedekiah into the legend
of the Super Excellent Master's degree, as
having been present and holding a council
at the time of the siege.
By the advice of
;

this council, Zedekiah attempted to make

his escape across the Jordan.
But he" and
his attendants were, says Jeremiah, pur-

sued by the Chaldean army, and overtaken

in the plains of Jericho,

and carried before

Nebuchadnezzar. His sons and his nobles

were slain, and, his eyes being put out, he

was bound in chains and carried captive to

Babylon, where at a later period he died.

Zelator.

The

degree of the Gertitle expresses the

spirit of emulation which should characterize the neophyte.
Zendavesta. The scriptures of the
Zoroastrian religion containing the doctrines of Zoroaster.
Avesta means the sacred text, and Zend the commentary. The

man Rose

Croix.

first

The

work as we now have it is supposed to have

been collected by learned priests of the Sassanian period, who translated it into the
Pehlevi, or vernacular language of Persia.
The greater part of the work was lost during the persecutions by the Mohammedan
conquerors of Persia. One only of the
books has been preserved, the Vendidad,
comprising twenty -two chapters.
The
Yasna and the Vispered together constitute the collection of fragments which are
termed Vendidad Sade. There is another
fragmentary collection called Yesht Sade.
And these constitute all that remain of the
original text.

So

that,

however compre-

hensive the Zendavesta must have been in

its

joint production of the original Zarathustra

Sitama and his successors, the high priests

of the religion, who assumed the same
name.
The Zendavesta is the scripture of the
modern Parsee and hence for the Parsee
Mason, of whom there are not a few, it constitutes the Book of the Law, or Trestle;

Board. Unfortunately, however, to the Parit is a sealed book, for, being written in
the old Zend language, which is now extinct,
its contents cannot be understood.
But the
Parsees recognize the Zendavesta as of Divine authority, and say in the catechism,
or compendium of doctrines in use among
them "We consider these books as heavenly books, because God sent the tidings
of these books to us through the holy
prophet Zurthost."
Zenith. That point in the heavens
which is vertical to the spectator, and from
which a perpendicular line passing through
him and extended would reach the centre
of the earth. All the old documents of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite are
dated " under the Celestial Canopy of the
Zenith which answers to
" the latitude of the place whence the document is
issued being then given. The latitude
alone is expressed because it indicates the
place of the sun's meridian height. The longitude is always omitted, because every place
whence such a document is issued is called
the Grand East, the one spot where the sun
rises.
The theory implied is, that although
the south of the Lodge may vary, its chief
point must always be in the east, the point
of sunrising, where longitude begins.
Zennaar. The sacred cord used in the
see

Hindustanee initiation, and which writers

on ritualism have compared to the Masonic
apron. Between eight and fifteen years of
age, every Hindu boy is imperatively required to receive the investiture of the zennaar.

The

investiture

is

many solemn ceremonies

accompanied by

of prayer and sacrifice.

After the investiture, the boy is
said to have received Jiis second birth, and
from that time a Hindu is called by a name
which signifies ' twice born."
Coleman (Mythology of the Hindus, p.
155,) thus describes the zennaar:
" The sacred thread must be made by a
Brahman. It consists of three strings, each
ninety-six hands (forty-eight yards), which

ZERBAL

ZERUBBABEL

are twisted together it is then folded into

and again twisted these are'a second
time folded into the same number, and tied
It is worn over the
at each end in knots.

assembled at Babylon, and prepared to return to Jerusalem, for the purpose of rebuilding the Temple. Some few from the
other tribes, whose love of their country
and its ancient worship had not been obliterated by the luxuries of the Babylonian
court, united with the followers of Zerubbabel, and accompanied him to Jerusalem.
The greater number, however, remained
and even of the priests, who were divided
into twenty-four courses, only four courses
returned, who, however, divided themselves,
each class into six, so as again to make up
the old number. Cyrus also restored to the
Jews the greater part of the sacred vessels
of the Temple which had been carried

three,

left

shoulder (next the skin, extending half-

way down the right thigh) by the Brahmans,

Retries, and Vaisya castes. The first are
usually invested with it at eight years of
age, the second at eleven, and the Vaisya
at twelve.
The period may, from especial
causes, be deferred but it is indispensable
that it should be received, or the parties
omitting it become outcasts."
Zerbal. The name of King Solomon's
Captain of the Guards, in the degree of
Intimate Secretary.
No such person is
mentioned in Scripture, and it is therefore
an invention of the ritualist who fabricated
the degree. If derived from Hebrew, its
zer, an enemy,
roots will be found in
and hy2, baal, and it would signify "an
enemy of Baal."
Zeredatlia. The name of the place
between which and Succoth are the clay
;

grounds where Hiram Abif is said to have

cast the brazen utensils for the use of the
Temple. See Clay Ground.
Zerubbabel. In writing the life of
Zerubbabel in a Masonic point of view, it
is incumbent that reference should be made
to the legends as well as to the more strictly
historical details of his eventful career.
With the traditions of the Royal Arch, and
some other of the high degrees, Zerubbabel
is

not

less

intimately connected than

is

Solomon with those of Symbolic or Ancient

Craft Masonry. To understand those traditions properly, they must be placed in
their appropriate place in the life of him
who plays so important a part in them.
Some of these legends have the concurrent
support of Scripture, some are related by

Josephus, and some appear to have no hisWithout, therefore,

torical
foundation.
vouching for their authenticity, they must
be recounted, to make the Masonic life of
the builder of the second Temple complete.
Zerubbabel, who, in the book of Ezra, is
called " Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah,"
was the grandson of that King Jehoiachin,
or Jeconiah, who had been deposed by
Nebuchadnezzar and carried as a captive to
Babylon. In him, therefore, was vested the
regal authority, and on him, as such, the
command of the returning captives was
bestowed by Cyrus, who on that occasion,
according to a Masonic tradition, presented
to him the sword which Nebuchadnezzar

had received
hoiachin.

from

his grandfather,

Je-

As soon as the decree of the Persian

monarch had been promulgated to his
Jewish subjects, the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin, with the priests and Levites,

909

away by Nebuchadnezzar, and five thousand

and four hundred were received by Zerubbabel, the remainder being brought back,
many years after, by Ezra. Only forty-two
thousand three hundred and sixty Israelites,
exclusive of servants and slaves, accom-

panied Zerubbabel, out of whom he selected seven thousand of the most valiant,
whom he placed as an advanced guard at
the head of the people. Their progress
homewards was not altogether unattended
with danger for tradition informs us that
at the river Euphrates they were opposed
by the Assyrians, who, incited by the temptation of the vast amount of golden vessels
which they were carrying, drew up in hostile array, and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the Jews, and the edict of Cyrus,
disputed their passage. Zerubbabel, however, repulsed the enemy with such ardor
as to ensure a signal victory, most of the
Assyrians having been slain in the battle, or
drowned in their attempt to cross the river
in their retreat. The rest of the journey
;

after a march of
four months, Zerubbabel arrived at Jerusalem, with his weary followers, at seven
o'clock in the morning of the 22d of June,
five hundred and thirty-five years before

was uninterrupted, and,

Christ.

During their captivity, the Jews had continued, without intermission, to practise the
rights of Freemasonry, and had established
at various places regular Lodges in Chaldea.
Especially, according to the Rabbinical traditions, had they instituted their mystic fraternity at Naharda, on the Euphrates; and,
according to the same authority, we are informed that Zerubbabel carried with him to
Jerusalem all the secret knowledge which
was the property of that Institution, and established a similar fraternity in Judea. This
coincides with, and gives additional strength
to, the traditions of the Royal Arch degree.
As soon as the pious pilgrims had arrived
at Jerusalem, and taken a needful rest of
seven days, a tabernacle for the temporary purposes of divine worship was erected

ZERUBBABEL

ZERUBBABEL

near the ruins of the ancient Temple, and

a Council was called, in which Zerubbabel
presided as King, Jeshua as High Priest,

been discovered by the three sojourners.

and Haggai

that the ancient people disturbed them

with their groans and lamentations, when
they reflected on the superb magnificence
of the first Temple, and compared it with
the expected inferiority of the present
structure.
As in the building of the first
Temple, so in this, the Tyrians and Sidonians Were engaged to furnish the timber
from the forests of Lebanon, and to conduct
it in the same manner on floats by sea to

910

as Scribe, or principal officer

of State. It was there determined to commence the building of the second Temple
upon the same holy spot which had been
occupied by the first, and the people
liberally contributed sixty-one thousand
drachms of gold, and five thousand minas
of silver, or nearly a quarter of a million of
dollars, towards defraying the expenses; a
sum which sinks into utter insignificance,
when compared with the immense amount
appropriated by David and Solomon to the
construction of their Temple.

The

having been thus determined

was found necessary to begin by
removing the rubbish of the old Temple,
which still encumbered the earth, and prevented the workmen from making the necupon,

site

it

essary arrangements for laying the foundaIt was during this operation that an
tion.
important discovery was made by three sojourners, who had not originally accom-

panied Zerubbabel, but who, sojourning

some time longer at Babylon, followed their

countrymen at a later period, and had arrived at Jerusalem just in time to assist
in the removal of the rubbish. These three
sojourners, whose fortune it was to discover
that stone of foundation, so intimately connected with the history of Freemasonry,
and to which we have before had repeated
occasion to allude, are supposed by a Masonic tradition to have been Esdras, Zachariah, and Nehemiah, the three holy men,
who, for refusing to worship the golden

On

this occasion, we learn that the young

rejoiced with shouts and acclamations, but

Joppa.

workmen well comwhen they were interSamaritans, who made ap-

Scarcely had the

menced

their labors,

rupted by the

plication to be permitted to unite with

them in the construction of the Temple.
But the Jews, who looked upon them as
idolaters, refused to accept of their serThe Samaritans in consequence bevices.
came their bitter enemies, and so prevailed,
by misrepresentations, with the ministers
of Cyrus, as to cause them to put such obstructions in the way of the construction of
the edifice as seriously to impede its progWith such diffiress for several years.
culty and danger were the works conducted
during this period, that the workmen were
compelled to labor with the trowel in one
hand and the sword in the other. To commemorate these worthy craftsmen, who were
thus ready, either to fight or to labor in the
cause of God, as circumstances might require, the sword and trowel crosswise, or,
as the heralds would say, en saltire, have

been placed upon the Royal Arch TracingBoard or Carpet of our English brethren.
In the American ritual this expressive symbol of valor and piety has been unfortu-

image, had been thrown by Nebuchadnezzar into a fiery furnace, from which they
emerged uninjured. In the Chaldee language, they were known by the names of
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. It was
in penetrating into some of the subterranean vaults, that the Masonic stone of
foundation, with other important mysteries connected with it, were discovered by
the three fortunate sojourners, and presented
by them to Zerubbabel and his companions
Jeshua and Haggai, whose traditionary
knowledge of Masonry, which they had
received in a direct line from the builders
of the first Temple, enabled them at once to
appreciate the great importance of these

nately omitted.
In the seventh year after the restoration
of the Jews, Cyrus, their friend and benefactor died, and his son Cambyses, in Scripture called Ahasuerus, ascended the throne.
The Samaritans and the other enemies of
the Jews, now becoming bolder in their
designs, succeeded in obtaining from Cambyses a peremptory order for the stoppage
of all the works at Jerusalem, and the
Temple consequently remained in an unfinished state until the second year of
the reign of Darius, the successor of Cam-

treasures.

byses.

As soon

as that wonderful discovery

was

made, on which depends not only the existence of the Royal Arch degree, but the
most important mystery of Freemasonry,
the Jews proceeded on a certain day, before the rising of the sun, to lay the foundation-stone of the second Temple; and for

that purpose, we are told, Zerubbabel selected that stone of foundation which had

Darius appears to have had, like Cyrus,

a great friendship for the Israelites, and
especially for Zerubbabel, with whom he
are
was well acquainted in his youth.
informed, as an evidence of this, that, when
a private man, he made a vow, that if he
should ever ascend the throne, he would
restore all the vessels of the Temple that
had been retained by Cyrus. Zerubbabel,

We

ZERUBBABEL

ZINNENDORF

911

annoyed by their adversaries, the builders

met with no serious obstruction, and finally,
twenty years after its commencement, in
application to him for his assistance and the sixth year of the reign of Darius, and
protection in rebuilding the Temple. Ac- on the third day of the month Adar, 515
cordingly he departed from Jerusalem, and years b. c, the Temple was completed, the
after a journey full of peril, in which he cope-stone celebrated, and the house solwas continually attacked by parties of emnly dedicated to Jehovah with the greathis enemies, he was arrested as a spy by est joy.
being well aware of the friendly disposition
of the king, determined, immediately after
his accession to power, to make a personal

the Persian guards

in

the vicinity

of

After this

we hear nothing

further of

and carried in chains before Zerubabbel, nor is the time or manner of

Darius, who however immediately recog- his death either recorded in Scripture or
nized him as the friend and companion of preserved by Masonic tradition. We have,
his youth, and ordering him instantly to be however, reason for believing that he lived
released from his bonds, invited him to be to a good old age, since we find no sucpresent at a magnificent feast which he was cessor of him mentioned until Artaxerxes
about to give to the Court. It is said that appointed Ezra as the Governor of Judea,
on this occasion, Zerubbabel, having ex- fifty-seven years after the completion of
Babylon,

plained to Darius the occasion of his visit, the Temple.

implored the interposition of his authority
Zinnendorf, Joiiann Wilhelm
for the protection of the Israelites engaged Ton.
Few men made more noise in Gerin the restoration of the Temple. The man Masonry, or had warmer friends or
king promised to grant all his requests, more bitter enemies, than Johann Wilhelm
provided he would reveal to him the secrets Ellenberger, who, in consequence of his
But this the faithful adoption by his mother's brother, took subof Freemasonry.
prince at once refused to do. He declined sequently the title of Von Zinnendorf, by
the favor of the monarch at the price of which he is universally known. He was
his infamy, and expressed his willingness born at Halle, August 10, 1731.
He was
rather to meet death or exile, than to vio- initiated into Masonry at the place of his
late his sacred obligations as a Mason. birth.
He afterwards removed to Berlin,
This firmness and fidelity only raised his where he received the appointment of
character still higher in the estimation of General Staff Surgeon, and chief of the
Darius, who seems, indeed, to have been medical corps of the army.
There he
endowed with many noble qualities both joined the Lodge of the Three Globes,
of heart and mind.
and became an ardent disciple of the Rite
It was on this occasion, at the feast given of Strict Observance, in which he took the
by King Darius, that, agreeably to the Order name of Eques a lapide nigro. He
custom of Eastern monarchs, he proposed was elected Master of the Scottish Lodge.
to his courtiers the question whether the He had the absolute control of the funds
power of wine, women, or the king, was the of the Order, but refusing to render any
Answers were made by different account of the disposition which he had
strongest.
persons, assigning to each of these the pre- made of them, an investigation was comcedency in power; but when Zerubbabel menced. Upon this, Zinnendorf withdrew
was called on to assert his opinion, he de- from the Rite, and sentence of excommuniclared that though the power of wine and cation was immediately afterwards proof the king might be great, that of women nounced against him.
Zinnendorf in return declared the Strict
was still greater, but that above all things
truth bore the victory. Josephus says that Observance an imposture, and denounced
the sentiments of Zerubbabel having been its theory of the Templar origin of Madeemed to contain the most wisdom, the sonry as false.
king commanded him to ask something
In the meantime, he sent his friend Hans
over and above what he had promised as Carl Baumann to Stockholm, that he might
the prize of the victor in the philosophic receive manuscripts of the degrees of the
Zerubbabel then called upon Swedish system which had been promised
discussion.
the monarch to fulfil the vow that he had him by Carl Friederich von Eckleff, Scottish
made in his youth, to rebuild the Temple, Grand Master of the Chapter in that city.
and restore the vessels that had been taken Baumann returned with the manuscripts,
away by Nebuchadnezzar. The king forth- which, however, it appears from a subsewith granted his request, promised him the quent declaration made by the Duke of
most ample protection in the future prose- Sudermania, were very imperfect.
cution of the works, and sent him home to
But, imperfect as they were, out of them
Jerusalem laden with honors, and under Zinnendorf constructed a new Rite in opposition to the Strict Observance. Posthe conduct of an escort.
Henceforth, although from time to time sessed of great talent and energy, and, his

ZINNENDORF

ZOROASTER

enemies said, of but little scrupulousness as

to means, he succeeded in attracting to him
many friends and followers. In 1766, he
established at Potsdam the Lodge "Minerval," and in 1767, at Berlin, the Lodge

over the Grand Lodge with unabated zeal

and undiminished vigor until his death,
which took place June 6, 1782.
Von Zinnendorf undoubtedly committed
many errors, but we cannot withhold from

912

Masons him the praise of having earnestly sought

of the "Three Golden Keys."
to give him countenance and to introduce into German Masonry a better
assistance in other places, so that in June system than the one which was prevail24, 1770, twelve Lodges of his system were ing in the last quarter of the eighteenth
enabled to unite in the formation of a body century.
Zinnendorf, Rite of. The Rite
which they called the Grand Lodge of all
invented by Count Von Zinnendorf, and
the Freemasons of Germany.
The success of this body, under the ad- fabricated out of imperfect copies of the
verse circumstances by which it was sur- Swedish system, with additions from the
rounded, can only be attributed to the Illuminism of Avignon and the reveries of
ability and energy of its founder, as well Swedenborg. It consisted of seven degrees,
as to the freedom with which he made use divided into three sections as follows
of every means for its advancement withI. Blue Masonry.
out any reference to their want of firmness.
1. Apprentice.
Having induced the Prince of Hesse2. Fellow Craft.
Darmstadt to accept the Grand Mastership,
3. Master.
he succeeded, through his influence, in obII. Red Masonry.
taining the recognition and alliance of the
4. Scottish Apprentice and Fellow
Grand Lodge of England in 1773 but that
Craft.
body seven years after withdrew from the
5. Scottish Master.
connection. In 1774, Zinnendorf secured
III. Capitular Masonry.
the protectorship of the king of Prussia for
his Grand Lodge. Thus patronized, the
6. Favorite of St. John.
Grand Lodge of Germany rapidly ex7. Chapter of the Elect.
tended its influence and increased in
It was practised by the Grand Lodge of
growth, so that in 1778 it had thirty-four
Lodges under its immediatejurisdiction, and Germany, which had been established by
provincial Lodges were established in Aus- Zinnendorf, and by the Lodges of its obewere found

Pomerania, Lower Saxony,

Findel explains this great accession of strength by supposing that it
could only have been the consequence of
the ardent desire of the German Masons to
obtain the promised revelations of the high
degrees of the system of Zinnendorf.
In 1774, Zinnendorf had been elected
Grand Master, which office he held until
tria,

Silesia,

and Russia.

his death.

But he had his difficulties to encounter.

In the Lodge " Royal York," at Berlin, he
found an active and powerful antagonist.
The Duke of Sudermania, Grand Master of
Sweden, in an official document issued in
1777, declared that the Warrant which had
been granted by Eckleff to Zinnendorf, and
on the strength of which he had founded his
Grand Lodge, was spurious and unauthorized; the Grand Lodge of Sweden pronounced him to be a fomenter of disturbances and an insolent calumniator of the
Swedish Grand Master, and in 1780 the
Grand Lodge of England withdrew from

dience.

Zion. Mount Zion was the south-western of the three hills which constituted the
high table-land on which Jerusalem was
built.
It was the royal residence, and
hence it is often called " the city of David."
The name is sometimes used as synonymous
with Jerusalem.
Zizon. This

is said, in one of the Ineffable degrees of the Scottish Rite, to be

the name of the balustrade before the Sanctum Sanctorum. There is no such word in

Hebrew, but it may be a corruption of the

Talmudic $<J*f, ziza, which Buxtorf (Lex.
lalm.) defines as " a beam, a little beam, a
small rafter."

Zodiac, Masonic.

[Zodiaque Magon-

nique.)
series of twelve degrees, named
after the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the
It was in the series
first being the Ram.

of the Metropolitan Chapter of France, and

in the manuscript collection of Peuvret.

Zoroaster.
tra.

He

was the

More correctly, Zarathuslegislator and prophet of

the ancient Bactrians, out of whose docBut Zinnendorf was undismayed. Hav- trines the modern religion of the Parsees
ing quit the service of the government in has been developed.
As to the age in
1779, he made a journey to Sweden in an which Zoroaster flourished, there have been

its alliance.

unsuccessful effort to secure all the documents connected with the Swedish system.
Returning hence, he continued to preside

the greatest discrepancies

among

the an-

cient authorities. The earliest of the Greek

writers who mentions his name is Xanthus

ZOROASTER

ZOROASTER

of Lydia, and he places his era at about

600 years before the Trojan war, which
would be about 1800 years before Christ.
Aristotle and Eudoxus say that he lived
6000 years before Plato while Berosus, the
Babylonian historian, makes him a king
of Babylon, and the founder of a dynasty
which reigned over Babylon between 2200
and 2000 b. c. The Parsees are more moderate in their calculations, and say that
their prophet was a contemporary of Hystaspes, the father of Darius, and accordingly place his era at 550 b. c. Haug, however, in his Essays on the Sacred Language,
etc., of the Parsees, declares that this supposition is utterly groundless.
He thinks
that we can, under no circumstances, assign
him a later date than 1000 B. c, and is not

the founder of magic, by others

and deceiver, he was, nevertheless, recognized already by Hippocrates
as a great spiritual hero, and esteemed the
earliest sage of a primeval epoch
reaching
back to 5000 years before their date
by

even disinclined
lier,

to place his era

much

ear-

and make him a contemporary of

Moses.
Bro. Albert Pike, who has devoted much
labor to the investigation of this confused
subject of the Zoroastrian era, says, in an
able article in Mackey's National Freemason,
(vol.

iii.,

No.

3:)

" In the year 1903 before Alexander, or

2234 b. c, a Zarathustrian king of Media
conquered Babylon. The religion even
then had degenerated into Magism, and
was of unknown age. The unfortunate
theory that Vitacpa, one of the most efficient allies of Zarathustra, was the father
of Darius Hystaspes, has long ago been set
at rest.
In the Chaldean lists of Berosus,
as found in the Armenian edition of Eusebius, the name Zoroaster appears as that of
the Median conqueror of Babylon but he
can only have received this title from being
a follower of Zarathustra and professing his
religion.
He was preceded by a series of
eighty-four Median kings; and the real
Zarathustra lived in Bactria long before
the tide of emigration had flowed thence
into Media.
Aristotle and Eudoxus, according to Pliny, place Zarathustra 6000
years before the death of Plato Hermippus,
5000 years before the Trojan war. Plato
died 348 B. c. so that the two dates substantially agree, making the date of Zarathustra's reign 6300 or 6350 B. c. ; and I
have no doubt that this is not far from the
truth."
Bunsen, however, (God in History, vol.
1, b. iii., ch. vi., p. 276,) speaks of Zarathustra Spitama as living under the reign
of Vistaspa towards the year 3000 b. c,
certainly not later than towards 2500 B. c.
He calls him " one of the mightiest intellects and one of the greatest men of all
time; " and he says of him "Accounted
by his contemporaries a blasphemer, atheist, and firebrand worthy of death
regarded
even by his own adherents, after some cen;

5P

58

913

turies, as

as a sorcerer

Eudoxus, Plato, and Aristotle."

The name of this great reformer is always

spelled in the Zendavesta as Zarathustra,
with which is often coupled /Spitama ; this,

Haug

says, was the family name, while the

former was his surname, and hence both he
and Bunsen designate him as Zarathustra
Spitama. The Greeks corrupted Zarathustra into Zarastrades and Zoroastres, and the

Romans

into Zoroaster,

by which name he

has always, until recently, been known to

Europeans. His home was in Bactria, an
ancient country of Asia between the Oxus
River on the north and the Caucasian range
of mountains on the south, and in the immediate vicinity, therefore, of the primal
seat of the Aryan race, one of whose first
emigrations, indeed, was into Bactria.
The religion of Zoroaster finds its origin
in a social, political, and religious schism
of the Bactrian Iranians from the primitive Aryans.
These latter led a nomadic
and pastoral life in their native home, and
continued the same habits after their emigration.
But a portion of these tribes,
whom Haug calls "the proper Iranians,"
becoming weary of these wanderings, after
they had reached the highlands of Bactria
abandoned the pastoral and wandering life
of their ancestors, and directed their attention to agriculture. This political secession
was soon followed by wars, principally of a
predatory kind, waged, for the purpose of
booty, by the nomadic Aryans on the agricultural settlements of the Iranians, whose
rich fields were tempting objects to the
spoiler.
The political

estrangement was speedily

and naturally followed by a religious one.
It was at this time that Zoroaster appeared,

and, denouncing the nature-worship of the

old Aryan faith, established his spiritual
religion, in which, says Bunsen, "the antagonisms of light and darkness, of sunshine and storm, become transformed into
antagonisms of good and evil, of powers
exerting a beneficent or corrupting influence
on the mind."
The doctrine of pure Zoroastrianism was
The Supreme Being was
monotheistic.
called Ahuramazda, and Haug says that
Zoroaster's conception of him was perfectly
identical with the Jewish notice of Jehovah.
He is called " the Creator of the earthly
and spiritual life, the Lord of the whole
universe, at whose hands are all the creaHe is wisdom and intellect; the
tures."
light itself, and the source of light; the

ZOROASTER

ZURTHOST

rewarder of the virtuous and the puuisher

of the wicked.

thustra that the utterance of one of his

sacred names, of which he enumerates
twenty, is the best protection from evil.
Of these names, one is ahmi, " I am," and
another, ahmi yat ahmi, " I am who I am."
The reader will be reminded here of the
holy name in Exodus, Ehyeh asher Ehyeh,
or " I am that I am."
The doctrine of Zoroaster was not forever confined to Bactria, but passed over
into other countries nor in the transmission did it fail to suffer some corruption.
From its original seat it spread into Media,
and under the name of Magism, or the doctrine of the Magavas, i. e./the mighty ones,
was incorporated at Babylon with the Chaldean philosophy, whence we find its traces
in the Rabbinism and the Kabbalism of the

914

The dualistie doctrine of Ormuzd and

Ahrimanes, which has falsely been attributed to Zoroaster, was in reality the development of a later corruption of the Zoroasteric
teaching. But the great reformer sought
to solve the puzzling question of the origin
of evil in the world, by supposing that there
existed in Ahuramazda two spirits, inherent in his nature, the one positive and the
other negative. All that was good was real,
existent while the absence of that reality
was a non-existence or evil. Evil was the
absence of good as darkness was the absence
of light.
Zoroaster taught the idea of a future life
and the immortality of the soul. The doctrine of the resurrection is one of the principal dogmas of the Zendavesta.
He
also clearly inculcated the belief of a heaven
and a hell. The former called the house
of hymns, because the angels were supposed
to sing hymns .there the latter the house
of destruction, and to it were relentlessly
consigned the poets and priests of the old
;

Aryan religion.
The doctrine of sacred names,
to the
aster.

so familiar

Hebrews, was also taught by ZoroIn one of the Yashts, a portion of

the Zendavesta,

Ahuramazda

tells

Zara-

Hebrews. It was carried, too, into Persia,

where it has been developed into the modern and still existing sect of the Parsees,
of whom we now find two divisions, the
conservatives and liberals the former cultivating the whole modified doctrine of Zoroaster, and the latter retaining much of the
doctrine, but rejecting to a very great extent the ceremonial ritual.
Zurthost. The name given by the
modern Parsees to Zarathustra or Zoroaster. They call him their prophet, and their
religious sect the Zarthosti community.
;

INDEX
A

ARON,

Active Member, 13.

Actual Past Masters,

1.

Rod,

il. Aaron's

1.

Adad,

Ab, 1.
Abacus, 1.
Abaddon, 1.

Abda,

Adar,

1.

3.
3.

Abelites, 3.

Abibalk,

3.

Abide by.

See Stand

abide by,
Abif,

to

and

14.

Ahriman,

Adelph, 15.
Adept, 15.

Aid and Assistance,

Aitcheson

Prince, 16.

Abraxas,

Admiration, Sign
Admission, 17.
Admonition, 17.
Adonai, 17.
6.

6.

Stones,

6.

Academy,

51.

Alabama,

Alarm, 52.
Alban, St. See Saint Alban, 53.
Albertus Magnus, 53.

of, 17.

Albrecht,

Luminous Ring,

9.

9.

Adonhiram, 18.
Adonhiramite Masonry,
Adoniram, 21.

Acanthus, 10.
Accepted, 10.
Acclamation, 11.

11.

Acerellos, R. S., 11.

Achad,

Advtum,

Affiliated

Accolade, 11.
Accord, 11.
Accusation. See Charge, 11.
Accuser, 11.

Aceldama,

Advancement, Hurried,

Alexander

18.

21.

37.

Architects, 41.

Lodges.

Schilton, 12.

Achias, 12.
Achishar, 12.
Achtariel, 12.

Acknowledged,

34.

Affirmation, 38.
Africa, 38.
African Architects, Order of, 38.
Brother, 41.
Brothers, 41.
Builders.
See African

11.

Acharon

See Negro Lodges,

41.

Agapse, 41.
Agate, 42.
Stone of, 42.

12.

Age, Lawful, 42.

Masonic, 42.

Acousmatici, 12.
Acquittal, 12.

Acta Latomorum, 13.

Acting Grand Master,
Active Lodge, 13.

13.

Agla, 43.
Agnostus, Irenseus, 43.

Agnus

Dei, 43.

I.,

54.

55.

Alexandria, School
See

37.

Mason,

53.

Alethophile, 55.

.Eneid, 37.
.Eon, 37.
iEra Architectonica, 37.

Platonic, 10.

Henry Christoph,

Alchemy, 53.
Aldworth, the Hon. Mrs.,

of Ancients or of Secrets, 9. Adoptive Masonry, 27.

American, 33.
of Sages, 9.
Egyptian, 34.
of Secrets. See Academy of
Adoration, 34.
Ancients, 9.
of Sublime Masters of the Advanced, 34.

of True Masons,

52.

Alapa, 52.

Adonis, Mysteries of, 21.

Adoption, Masonic, 26.

9.

50.

Haven Manuscript,

Akirop, 52.

Adoniramite
Masonry.
Adonhiramite Masonry,

Absence, 7.
Acacia, 7.
Acacian, 9.

Aix-la-Chapelle, 51.
16.

Exemptus, 16.
Adhering Mason, 16.
Adjournment, 16.

Abraham, 5.
Abraham, Antoine Firmin,

50.

Aichmalotarch, 50.

Coronatus, 16.

4.

46.

Ahisar. See Achishar, 49.

Aholiab, 49.

Adarel, 14.
Addresses, Masonic, 14.

Adeptus Adoptatus,

Able, 4.
Ablution, 5.
Abnet, 5.
Aborigines, 5.
Abrac, 5.
Abracadabra, 5.

45.

46.

Ahiman Rezon,
14.

the, 16.

3.

3.

Abiram,

Ahabath Olam,
Ahiah,

Adam, 13.
Adams, John Quincy,

Abbreviations,

Abdamon,

Agrippa, Henry Cornelius, 43.

13.

13.

of, 55.

Alfader, 55.
Algabil, 56.
Alincourt, Francois
Allegiance, 56.
Allegory, 56.
Allocution, 56.

d', 56.

Allowed, 56.
All-Seeing Eye, 57.
All-Souls' Day, 57.
Almanac, Masonic, 57.
Almighty, 57.

Almond-Tree, 57.
Almoner, 58.
Alms-Box, 58.
Almsgiving, 58.

Alnwick Manuscript, 58.

Al-om-Jah, 58.
Aloyau, Societe de 1\ 58.

Alpha and Omega,

58.

Alphabet, Angels', 59.

Hebrew,

59.

Masonic. See Cipher, 59.

Samaritan, 59.
Alpina, 59.
Altar, 60.

Altenberg, Congress

of, 60.

Lodge at, 61.

Amaranth, 61.
Amar-jah,

61.

Amazons, Order

Amen, 61.
Amendment,

of, 61.

61.

915

INDEX.

916
American Mysteries,

Anti-Masonic Party, 75.

Anti-Masonry, 76.
Antin, Duke d', 76.
Antipodeans, 76.

62.

Rite, 62.

See Kmeth, 63.

Amethyst, 63.
Amicists, Order of, 63.

Ameth.

Antiquity, Lodge of, 76.

Manuscript, 76.
of Freemasonry, 77.
Anton, Dr. Carl Gottlob von, 78.

Amis Reunis, Loge des, 63.

Ammon. See Amun, 63.
Amrnonitish War,
Amphibalus. See

63.

Saint

Am-

phibalus, 63.
See Talisman, 63.

Amulet.

Amun,

63.

Anachronism,

Anagram,

63.

64.
64.

Ananiah,
Anchor and Ark, 64.
Knight of the. See Knight
of the Anchor, 65.
Order of Knights and LaAncient and Accepted Rite. See
Scottish Rite, 65.

Craft Masonry, 65.

and Accepted

Apocalyptic Degrees, 80.

Aporrheta, 80.
Appeal, Right of, 81.

Appendant Orders,

Ma-

See

Ma-

sons, 68.

Ancient, The, 68.

York Masons,

Anderson, James, 68.

Manuscript, 68.
Andrea, John Valentine, 69.
Andre, Christopher, 69.
Andrew, Apprentice and Fellow
Craft of St., 69.
Cross of St. See Cross, St.

Andrew's, 69.
Favorite of St., 69.
Grand Scotch Knight of.
See Knight of St. Andrew,

Masonry,

69.

70.

Angel, 70.
Angelic Brothers, 70.
Angels' Alphabet. See Alphabet,

Angels', 70.

Angerona, 70.
Angle, 70.

Angular Triad, 70.

Animal Worship, 70.

Ann ales

Chronologiques, 71.

Originis

Magni Galliarum

Orientis, etc., 71.

Anniversary. See Festivals, 71.

Anno

Perfect, 81.

Arras, Primordial

Hebraico, 71.
Inventionis, 71.
Lucis, 71.

82.

Masoness, 82.
Masoness, Egyptian, 82.
Mystic, 82.
of Paracelsus, 82.
of the Egyptian Secrets, 82.
Philosopher, by the No. 3,
83.

Hermetic, 83.
to the No. 9, 83.
Pillar.
See Prentice Pil-

71.
Ordinis, 71.
Annuaire, 71.

Ascension Day, 90.

Ashe, D. D., Rev. Jonathan, 90.
Asher, Dr. Carl Wilhelm, 91.
Ashlar, 91,
Ashmole, Elias, 91.
Asia, Initiated Knights and
Brothers of, 92.
Perfect Initiates

Ask Seek, Knock,

Apron, 83.
Araunah. See

Assembly,

Oman,

93.

Assistance. See Aid and Assistance, 94.

Associates of the Temple, 94.
Association, 94.
Astrsea, 94.

85.

Arbitration, 85.

Arcana, 85.
Arcani Disciplina, 85.
Arch, Antiquity of, 85.
Catenarian. See Catenarian Astronomy, 94.
Asylum, 94.
Arch, 85.
for Aged Freemasons,
of Enoch, 85.
Atelier, 94.
of Heaven, 85.
Atheist, 95.
of Solomon, Royal, 85.
of Steel, 85.
of Zerubbabel, Royal, 85.

3, 5,

Grand,

and

7,

Grand, 86.

86.

Grand

Athol Masons, 95.

Attendance. See Absence, 95.
Attouchement, 95.
Attributes, 95.

Atwood, Henry C,
Atys, 95.
Auditor, 95.
Aufseher, 96.
Augustine, St.

Little, 86.

Aumont,

of Solomon, 86.

Auserw'ahlter, 96.

Ansyreeh, 72.
Antediluvian Masonry,

Anthem,

See

Master Architect,

72.

72.

Anti-Masonic Books, 72.

86.

gustine, 96.

Aum,

96.
96.

See Saint Augustine, 96.

Perfect, 86.

Austin

Perfect and Sublime Grand,

Australasia, 96.
Austria, 96.

86.

Architectonicus, 86.

95.

See Saint Au-

Anonymous

Master.

94.

Athelstan, 95.

Proceedings, 71.
Annuities, 71.
Anointing, 71.
Society, 72.

of, 92.

92.

Assassins, 92.
of the Third Degree, 93.

Theosophist, 83.

tects, 86.

71.

Arts, 90.
Liberal. See Liberal Arts
and Sciences, 90.

by

Annual Communication,

of,

Aspirant, 92.

lar, 83.

Architect, 86.
African. See African Archi-

Mundi,

Chapter

Arrest of Charter, 90.

Arthusius, Gotthardus, 90.
Art, Royal. See Royal Art, 90.

Entered, 81.
Hermetic, 82.
Kabbalistic, 82.

Royal. See Royal Arch, 85.

Archaeology, 85.
Archetype, 86.

Depositionis, 71.

89.

90.

Scottish, 83.

69.

Androgynous Degrees,

Arkite Worship, 89.

Armenbiische, 89.

Prussian, 81.

Mason,

68.

87.

Armes, 89.
Armiger, 89.
Armory, 89.
Arms of Masonry,

Cohen, 81.
Egyptian, 81.

Ancient

Arelim,

Substitute, 88.

81.
81.

Architect, 81.

sons, 65.

Ancients.

87.

Mariners, 87.
Noah's, 87.
of the Covenant, 87.

Apprenti, 81.
Apprentice.
See Apprentice,
Entered, 81.

Masons,

65.
Reformed Rite, 68.
of Days, 68.

Grand Guardian of the,

Keeper of the, 87.
Archiviste, 87.
Ardarel, 87.

Hieronymus, 78.
Areopagus, 87.
Ape and Lion, Knight of the. Arithmetic, 87.
See Knight of the Ape and Ark, 87.
Lion, 79.
and Anchor. See Anchor
Aphanism, 79.
and Ark, 87.
Apocalypse, Masonry of the, 79.
and Dove, 87.
Order of the, 80.
Mariners. See Royal Ark

Apple-Tree Tavern,

dies of the, 65.

Free

Architecture, 86.
Piece of, 87.
Archives, 87.

Authentic, 97.

INDEX.
Authenticity of the Scriptures,

Behold Your Master,

917
112.

Bel, 112.

97.

Autopsy, 97.
Auxiliary Degrees, 97.
Avenue, 97.
Avignon, Illuminati of, 97.
Avouchment. See Vouching, 97.

Award, 97.
Ayes and Noes,
Aynon, 97.

97.

Azariah, 97.

BAAL,

Belief, Beligious, 112.

Bells, 112.
Benac, 112.
Bendekar, 112.
Benedict XIV., 113.
Benediction, 113.
Beneficiary, 113.
Benefit Fund, 113.

Fund

Babylon, 98.
Cross

Belgium, 112.

Benevolence, "113.

98.

Babel, 98.

Bed

Belenus, 112.

of, 99.

Babylonish Captivity. See Captivity, 99.

Pass, 99.

Back, 99.
Bacon, Francis, 99.
Baculus, 100.
Baden, 101.
Badge, 101.
of a Mason, 102.
Boyal Arch, 102.
Bafomet. See Baphomet, 102.
Bag, 102.
Bagulkal, 102.
Bahrdt, Karl Fred., 102.
Baldachin, 102.
Baldrick, 102.

Baldwyn II., 102.

Encampment,

113.
Bengabee, 113.
Bengal, 113.
Benjamin, 114.
Benkhurim, 114.
Benyah, 111.
Berith, 114.
Berlin, 114.
Bernard, David, 114.
Saint, 114.
Beryl, 114.
of,

Beyerle, Francois Louis de, 114.

Bezaleel, 114.
Bible, 114.
Bearer, 115.

Bibliography, 115.
Bielfeld, Jacob Frederick, 115.
Birkhead, Matthew, 115.
Black, 115.
Ball, 115.

Black-board, 116.

102.

Balkis, 103.

Black Brothers,' Order of the, 116

BaUot, 103.
Box, 104.
Beconsiderationofthe. See
Eec.of theBal., 104.

Blazing Star, 116.

Order of the, 118.
Blessing. See Benediction, 118.

Secrecy of the, 105.

Unanimity of the,
Balsam o, Joseph. See

105.
Caglios-

tro, 105.

Baltimore Convention, 105.

Baluster, 106.

Balzac, Louis Charles, 106.

Banners, Boyal Arch, 106.
Banquet. See Table-Lodge, 107.

Baphomet,

107.

Baptism, Masonic, 107.

Bard, 108.
Bastard, 108.
Barefeet. SeeDiscalceation,108.
Barruel, Abbe, 108.
Basket, 109.
Basle, Congress of, 109.
Baton, 109.
Bat Parliament, 109.
Bavaria, 109.
Bay Tree, 109.
Bazot, Etienne Francois, 110.
B. D. S. P. H. G. F., 110.
Beadle, 110.
Beaton, Mrs., 110.
Beaucenifer, 110.

Beauchaine, 110.
Beauseant, 110.
Beauty, 111.
and Bands, 111.
Becker. See Johnson, 111.

Budolph Zacharias, 111.

BSdarride, The Brothers, 111.
Beehive, 111.
Behavior, 111.

Blind, 118.
Blindness, 118.

Blow, 118.
Blue, 119.
Blanket, 120.
Degrees, 120.

Lodge, 120.
Masonry, 120.
Master, 120.
Board of General Purposes, 120.
of Belief. See Belief, Board
of,

120.

Boaz, 120.
Bode, Johann Joachim Christoph, 120.

Boeber, Johann, 121.

Boehmen, Jacob, 121.
Bohemann, Karl Adolf, 121.

Bourn, 125.
Box-Master, 125.
Boys' School, 125.

Brahmanism, 125.
Brazen Serpent. See Serpent
and Cross, 125.
Knight of the. See Knight
of the Brazen Serpent, 125
Brazil, 125.

Bread, Consecrated, 126.

Breadth of the Lodge. See Form

of the Lodge, 126.
Breast, 126.
Breastplate, 126.
Breast, The Faithful, 128.
Breast to Breast. See Five Points
of Fellowship, 128.
Brethren, 128.
of the Bridge. See Bridge
Builders, etc., 128.
of the Mystic Tie, 128.
Bridge Builders of the Middle
Ages, 128.
Brief, 130.

Bright, 130.

Broached Thurnel, 130.

Broken Column, 131.
Brother, 131.

Brotherhood, 131.
Brotherly Kiss. See Kiss, Fraternal, 131.

Love, 131.
Brothers of the Bosy Cross. See
Bosicrucians, 132.
Browne, John, 132.
Bru. See Vielle Brit, Bite of, 132.
Bruce, Bobert, 132.
Briin, Abraham Van, 133.
Brunswick, Congress of, 133.

Buenos Ayres,
Buh, 133.

133.

Buhle, Johann Gottlieb, 133.

Builder, 133.
Smitten. See Smitten Builder, 133.

Builders, Corporations

Stonemasons of the

Bunyan, John,

134.

Burdens, Bearers

of, 134.

Burial, 134.

Burning Bush

134.
;

Bohemia,

Bombay,

Business, 135.

Bonaim,

Byblos, 135.

Bonneville, Chevalier de, 122.

Nicolas de, 122.
Book of Charges, 122.
of Constitutions, 122.
guarded by the Tiler's

Sword, 124.
of Gold, 124.
of the Law, 124.
Books, Anti-Masonic. See AntiMasonic Books, 125.
Border, Tesselated. See Tesselated Border, J 25.

See

MiddU

Bulletin, 134.

Burnes, James, 135.

Burns, Bobert, 135.

121.
121.
121.
Bondman, 122.
Bone, 122.
Box, 122.

of.

Ages, 133.
Bui, 133.
Bull, Papal, 133.

By-Laws,

135.

CABALA,

126.

Cabiric Mysteries, 136.

Cable Tow, 136.

Cable Tow's Length, 136.
Cabul, 136.
Cadet-Gassicourt,Charles Louis,
137.

Cadmillus, 137.
Caduceus, 137.
Csementarius, 137.
Cagliostro, 138.
Cahier, 143.
Cairns, 143.

INDEX.

918

Chair, 155.

Calcott, Wellins, 143.

Calendar, 143.

California, 144.

Calling Off, 144.

On, 145.
Calumny. See Back, 145.
Calvary, 145.

Camp, 146.
Campe, Joachim Heinrich,

Master in the, 155.

Oriental, 155.
Passing the, 155.
Chairman, 155.

Canada, 146.

Chili, 161.
China, 161.

Chaldeans or Chaldees, 156.

Chinese Secret Societies, 162.

Chalice, 156.

Chisel, 162.
Chivalry, 162.
Christ, Order of, 162.
Christianization of Freemasonry, 162.
Church, Freemasons of the, 163.
Cipher Writing, 163.
Circle, 165.
Circular Temples, 165.
Circumambulation, Rite of, 165.
Circumspection, 166.
City of David, 166.
of the Great King, 166.
Civilization and Freemasonry,
166.
Clandestine, 167.
Lodge, 167.
Mason, 167.
Clare, Martin, 167.
Classification of Masons, 167.
Clay Ground, 167.
Clean Hands. 168.
Cleave, 168.
Clefts of the Rocks, 168.
Clement XII., 168.

of Reflection, 156.
Chancellor, 156.

of.

See Advancement, Hurried,

Grand, 156.

146.

Candlestick, Golden, 146.

Chaos, 156.
Disentangled, 156.

Canopy, 147.

Chapeau, 156.

Clouded, 147.
Canzler, Carl Christian, 147.

Chapel, 157.
St. Mary's, 157.

Cape-Stone, 147.
Capitular Degrees, 147.

Chapiter, 157.

Masonry, 148.
Captain General, 148.
of the Guard, 148.
of the Host, 148.

Chaplain, 157.

Grand, 157.
Chapter, 157.

General Grand.

See Gen-

Grand Chapter, 157.

Grand. See Grand Chapter,

Captivity, 148.
Carausius, 149.

eral

Carbonarism, 149.
Carbuncle, 150.
Cardinal Points, 150.

157.

Mason, 157.
Masonry, 157.
Rose Croix.
See Rose
Croix, Prince of, 157.
Royal Arch, 157.
Chapters, Irish.
See Irish

Virtues, 150.
Carlile, Richard, 150.
Carpet, 150.
Casmaran, 150.
Cassia, 150.
Castellan, 151.

Chapters, 157.
Characteristic Name.

der Name, 157.

Charcoal. See Chalk,

Casting Voice or Vote, 151.

Catafalque, 151.
Catch Questions, 151.
Catechism, 151.
Catenarian Arch, 151.
Catharine II., 151.
Caution, 152.
Cavern, 152.
Cedars of Lebanon, 152.
Celebration, 153.
Celestial Alphabet. See Alphabet of Angels, 153.
Celtic Mysteries. See Druidism,

etc.,

157.

See Committee

on Charity,
Fund, 158.

158.

Charlatan, 159.

Charlemagne, 159.

and

XIII., 159.
of,

159.

Charleston, 159.

Charms, Magical.

Cemeteries, Masonic, 153.

Censer, 153,.
Censor, 153.
Censure, 153.
Centaine, Order of, 153.
Centennial, 154.

man,

See Talis-

Chartered Lodge, 160.

Charter Member, 160.
of Cologne.
See Cologne,
Charter of, 160.
of Transmission. See Transmission, Charter of, 160.
Chasidim, 160.

Central Point. See Point within a Circle, 154.

Centre, Opening on the, 154.
Cephas, 154.
Ceremonies, 154.
Master of. See Master of
Ceremonies, 154.

Chastanier, Benedict, 160.

Chastity, 160.

Chasuble, 160.

Checkered Floor.
Pavement, 160.

Ceres, 154.

Cerneau, Joseph, 154.

See Mosaic

Certificate, 154.

Chef-d'oeuvre, 160.

Chaillou de Joinville, 155.

Chain, Mystic, 155.
of Flowers, 155.
of Union. See Chain, Mys-

Chereau, Antoine Guilliaume,

tic,

160.

Cherubim,

155.

Triangular, 155.

161.

Chesed, 161.
Chevalier, 161.
I

Chibbelum,

161.

Observance,

of, 169.

Clothing the Lodge, 170.

Clouded Canopy. See Canopy,
Clouded, 170.
Cloud, Pillar of. See Pillar of
Fire and Cloud, 170.
Cloudy, 170.
Tiler, 170.

Cochleus, 170.
Cock, 170.

Cockade, 171.
Cockle Shell, 171.
Coetus, 171.
Coflin, 171.
Cohen, 171.

159.

Chart, 159.
Charter, 159.

Centralists, 154.

Count

Coat of the

II., 159.

Order

Strict

Clubs, 170.

Charles Martel, 159.

I.

of

Clermont, Chapter of, 169.

College of, 169.
Clinton, De Witt, 169.
Closing, 169.
Clothed, 170.

Charity, 158.

Committee.

Clerks
168.

See Or-

Charge, 157.
Charges, 157.
of 1722, 158.

153.
Celts, 153.
Cement, 153.

Chicago, Congress of, 161.

Chief of the Tabernacle, 161.
of the Twelve Tribes, 161.
Chiefs of Masonry, 161.

Chaldea, 155.

Chalk, Charcoal, and Clay, 156.

Chamber, Middle. See Middle
Chamber, 156.

146.

Candidate, 146.
Candidates, Advancement

Cohens, Elected. See Pascalis,

Martin, 171.
Cole, Benjamin, 171.
Manuscript, 171.
Samuel, 171.
Collar, 171.
Colleges, Masonic, 172.
Collegia Artificum, 172.
Collegium, 172.
Cologne, Cathedral of, 172.
Charter of, 173.
Congress of, 174.
Colonial Lodges, 174.
Colorado, 174.
Colors, Symbolism of, 174.
Columbia, British, 174.
District of, 175.
Column, 175.
Combination of Masons, 175.

'

INDEX.
Commander,

175.

Grand.
See Grand Commander, 175.
in-Chief, 175.
Commandery, 175.
Grand, 176.
Committee, 176.

186.

Cornucopia, 187.
Correspondence. See Committee
on Foreign Correspondence,
187.

Corresponding Grand Secretary,

176.

Private, 178.
of.

Como, 179.
Compagnon, 179.
Compagnonage, 179.
Compagnons de la Tour,
Companion, 181.

181.

Concealment of the Body.

Aphanism, 181.

Crux Ansata,

See

Concordists, 181.
Confederacies, 182.

Conference Lodges, 182.

Conferring Degrees, 182.
Confusion of Tongues, 182.
Congregations, 182.
Congresses, Masonic, 182.
Consecration, 182.
182.

Conservators of Masonry, 182.

Grand. See Grand Conservators, 183.

Consistory, 183.

See Grand Con-

sistory, 183.

Constable, Grand, 183.

Constantine. See Bed Cross of
Home and Constantine, 183.
Constituted Legally, 183.
Constitution of a Lodge, 183.
Constitutions of 1762, 183.
of 1786, 184.
Old. See Records, Old, 185.
Secret.
See Secret Constitutions, 185.
est, 185.
Contemplative, 185.
Continental Lodges, 185.
Contumacy, 185.
Convention, 185.
Night, 185.
Conversation, 185.
Convocation, 185.
Grand, 185.
Cooke's Manuscript, 185.
Cope-Stone. See Cape-Stone, 186.

Consummatum

Sacred. See Zennaar, 186.

Silver. See Silver Cord, 186.
Threefold.
See Threefold
Cord, 186.
Cordon, 186.

198.

Crypt, 199.
Cryptic Degrees, 199.

188.

of Knights of the

Bed

Cross,

188.

of Boyal and Select Masters,

of Boyal Masters, 188.
of Select Masters, 188.
of the Trinity, 188.

See

Cteis, 199.

Cubit, 199.
Culdees, 199.

188.

Supreme.

Conclave, 181.

Hindu

Crucefix, Bobert T., 197.

Crucifix, 198.
Crusades, 198.

Cubical Stone, 199.

,188.

Compasses, 181,
Composite, 181.

Grand.

of, 187.

Grand. See Grand Council,

of Degrees, 178.
Quarterly, 179.
Communion of the Brethren.
See Bread, Consecrated, 179.

of,

Princesses of the, 197.

Crowned Martyrs. See Four

Crowned Martyrs, 197.
Crowning of Masonry, 197.

Masonry, 199.

Corybantes, Mysteries
Cosmopolite, 188.
Council, 188.

Chamber,

Communication, 178.
Grand, 178.

Elements

Crown, Knightof the. SeeKnight

of the Crown, 197.

187.

See Report of a
Committee, 178.
Common Gavel. See Gavel, 178.

Cord,

Corinthian Order, 186.

Corner, North-East. See NorthEast Corner, 186.
Stone, Symbolism of the,

Corn of Nourishment, 187.

Wine, and Oil, 187.

General, 176.
of Charity, 176.
of Finance, 176.
on Foreign Correspondence,

Eeport

919

Cunning,

199.

Cup of Bitterness, 200.

Curetes, 200.
Curiositv, 200.
Curious* 200.
Customs, Ancient.
in

See Usages,

Addendum.

Cynocephalus, 200.
Cyrus, 200.

Supreme

DA

Council, 188.
Courtesy, 188.
Coustos, John, 188.

COSTA HYPPOLITO,

Jose, 200.
Daduchos, 201.
Dagger, 201.
Dais, 201.
Dalcho, M.D., Fred., 201.
Damascus, 202.
Dame, 202.
Dames of Mt. Tabor, 202.

Couvreur, 190.
Couvrir le Temple, 190.
Covenant of Masonry, 190.
Covering of the Lodge, 191.

Cowan,

191.
Craft, 192.

Masonry, Ancient.
the Order of
See
Ancient Craft Masonry, Damoisel, 202.
Dan, 202.
192.
Danger, 202.
Crafted, 192.
Dannebrog, 203.
Craftsman, 192.

St.

John, 202.

Dantzic, 203.
Darius, 203.

Create, 192.
Creation, 192.

Mason's, 192.
Creed,
Creuzer, Georg Fred., 193.
Crimes, Masonic, 193.

'

Cromlech, 193.
Cromwell, 193.

Darkness, 203.
Darmstadt, Grand Lodge of, 203.
D'Assigny, Doctor Fifield, 203.
Dates, Masonic. See Calendar
204.

Double.

Dathan, 204.
Daughter, Mason's.
See Mason's Wife and Daughter.

of Salem, 195.

of a Mason, 204.
David, 204.
Shield of. See Shield of
David, 204.
Dazard, Michel Francois, 204.
Deacon, 204.
Deacon's Bod. See Rod, Dea-

Cross, 194.

See Cross, Patriarchal, 195.

Jerusalem, 195.
Maltese, 195.
of Constantine. See Labarum, 195.
Passion, 195.
Patriarchal, 195.

Andrew's, 196.
Tau, 196.
Templar, 196.

St.

Teutonic, 196.

Thrice Illustrious Order of

the, 196.

Triple.
196.

See Cross of Salem,

Cross-Bearing Men, 196.

Crossing the Biver, 196.
Cross,

Jeremy

L., 196.

Cross-legged Knights, 197.

Masons, 197.

204.

con's, 204.

Deaf and Dumb,

204.

Death, 205.
of the Mysteries, 205.
Debate, 205.
Decalogue, 205.
Decius, 206.
Declaration of Candidates, 206.
the Master, 206.
Decorations, 206.
Dedication of a Lodge, 206.
the Temple, 209.

Crotona, 197.

Defamation.

Crow, 197.
Crown, 197.

Definition of Freemasonry, 210.

See Rack, 210.

Deformity, 210.

INDEX.

920

Director of Ceremonies, Grand,

Degrees, 210.

Ancient Craft. See Ancient

Craft Masonry, 211.
Androgynous, 211.
Apocalyptic.
See Apocalyptic Degrees, 211.

SeeHautes Grades,

High.
211.

See Honorary

Honorary.

Degrees, 211.

See Ineffable
Degrees, 211.
of Chivalry, 211.
of Knowledge, 211.
Philosophical. See Philosophical Degrees, 211.
Ineffable.

Symbolic.

Symbolic

See

Degrees, 211.

Deism, 211.
Deity. See Grand Architect of
the Universe, 212.

Delalande, Charles Florent Jacques, 212.

Joseph

Jer6me Francois,

212.

Delaunay, Francois H. Stanislaus, 212.

Delaware, 212.
Delegates, 212.
Delta, 212.

212.

See

of.

Anno Depo-

sitions, 213.

Depth of the Lodge,

213.

Deputation, 213.
Depute Grand Master, 213.

Deputy, 213.

Grand Chapter,

213.
Master, 213.
Lodge, 214.
Master, 214.
Dermott, Laurence, 214.
Derwentwater, 214.

Desaguliers,

Distress, 228.
District Deputy
228.

Grand Lodges,

Des Etangs, Nicholas

Charles,

216.

Design of Freemasonry, 217.

Destruction of the Temple,

Dove, 229.
Draeseke, Johann
Heinrich
Bernhardt, 229.
Drake, M. D., Francis, 229.
Dramatic Literature of Mason-

230.

Detached Degrees, 217.

Deuchar Charters, 217.
Deus Meumque Jus, 218.
Development, 218.

230.

Druidical Mysteries, 230.

Druses, 231.

Duad,

231.

Dualism, 231.
232.

Due East and West,

232.

Guard, 232.

Device, 218.
Devoir, 219.

Duelling, 232.

of a Knight, 219.
Devotions, 219.
Dialectics, 219.
Diamond, 219.
Dieseal, 219.
Dieu et mon Droit. See
Meumque Jus, 219.
le Veut, 219.
Dignitaries, 219.

Dumbness,

Dimit,
Diocesan, 222.
Dionysian Architects, 222.
Mysteries, 222.
Dionysus, 223.

232.

Examination, 232.

Form,

Dues, 232.

Dummy,

232.
232.

Dunckerley, Thomas, 232.

Dupaty, Louis Emanuel Charles
Mercier, 235.

Deus Duty,

gle, 237.

Knight of the Prussian. See

Knight of the Prussian
Eagle, 237.

Knight of the Red. See

Knight of the Red Eagle,
237.

Knight of the White and

Black. See Knight of the
White andBlackEagle,237

Knight of the Two

See Knight of the
Two Crowned Eagles, 237.
Ear of Corn, 237.
Eagles,

Crowned.

the Listening, 237.

and West, Knight of the.

See Knight of the East

and

235.

of the East, 238.

Easter, 238.
Monday, 238.

Ebony Box,

235.

and Pelican, Knight of the.

See Knight of the Eagle
and Pelican, 236.
Double-Headed, 236.
the. See Knight

Knight of

of the Eagle, 237.

Knight of the American.

238.

Eclectic Masonry, 238.

Rite, 239.

Union, 239.
Ecossais, 239.
Architect, Perfect, 239.
English, 239.
Faithful, 239.
French, 239.
Grand, 240.
Architect, 240.
Master, 240.
Knight, 240.
Master, 240.
Novice, 240.
of Clermont, 240.
of England, 240.
of Franville, 240.
of Hiram, 240.
of Messina, 240.
of Montpellier, 240.
of Naples, 240.
of Perfection, 240.
of Prussia, 240.
of St. Andrew, 240.
of St. George, 240.
of the Forty, 240.
of the Lodge of Prince
ward, 240.
of

EAGLE,

West, 238.

Grand, 238.
See India.
Knight of the. See Knight

Indies.

Eastern Star, Order of the, 238.

East Port, 238.
Eavesdropper, 238.

See Eagle,
Double-Headed, 229.

Dub,

217.

Diploma, 223.

See

Dotage, 229.
Double Cube, 229.
Headed Eagle.

Drop Cloth,

gle, 237.

Knight of the Gold. See

Knight of the Gold Ea-

East, 237.

228.

Documents, Three Oldest.

Krause, 228.
Dog, 228.
Dolmen, 228.
Dominican Republic, 228.

ry, 229.

John Theophilus,

See Knight of the American Eagle, 237.

Eagle, Knight of the Black. See
Knight of the Black Ea-

Earthen Pan, 237.

Dresden, Congress of, 230.

Dress of a Mason. See Clothed,

214.

219.'

Grand Master,

Dormer, 229.

Deposite, 213.

Year

Directory, 223.
Roman Helvetic, 223.
Discalceation, Rite of, 223.
Disciplina Arcani.
See Discipline of the Secret, 224.
Discipline, 224.
of the Secret, 224.
Discovery of the Body.
See
Euresis, 226.
Year of the, 226.
Dispensation, 226.
Lodges under. See Lodges
under Dispensation, 226.
Dispensations of Religion, 226.
Dispersion of Mankind, 227.
Disputes, 228.
Distinctive Title, 228.
Distress, Sign of.
See Sign of

Donats, 228.
Door, 228.
Doric Order, 228.
Dormant Lodge, 229.

Demeter, 212.
Demit, 212.

Denmark,

223.

the

Sacred

Ed-

Vault of

James VI., 240.

of the Three J. J. J., 240.
of Toulouse, 240.
of the Triple Triangle, 240.
Parisian, 240.
Perfect, 240.

Ecossism, 240.

Ecuador, 240.

INDEX.
Edict of Cyrus, 240.
Edicts, 241.

Edinburgh, 241.
Congress of, 241.
Edwin, 241.
Egg, Mundane, 241.
Eglinton Manuscript, 242.
Egyptian Masonry. See Cagliostro, 242.

Eheyeh asher Eheyeh,

244.

Eight, 245.

Eighty-One, 245.
El, 245.

Elchanan, 245.
Elders, 245.
Elect. See Elu, 245.
Brother, 245.

Cohens, Order of. See Paschal is, Martin, 245.

Commander,

245.

Grand, 245.
Lady, Sublime, 245.
Little English, 245.
Master, 245.
of Fifteen, 245.
of London, 245.
of Nine, 246.
of Nine and Fifteen, 246.
of Perignan, 246.
of the New Jerusalem, 246.
of the Twelve Tribes, 246.
of Truth, Rite of, 246.

of Twelve. See Knight Elect

of Twelve, 246.
Perfect, 246.

and
See

Sublime Mason.
Perfection, De-

gree

of, 246.

Philosopher, 246.
Secret, Severe Inspector, 246
Sovereign, 246.
Sublime, 246.

Supreme, 246.

Emunah, 252.
Encampment,

267.

General Grand, 252.

Grand, 252.

En

Engrave, 254.
Enlightened, 254.
Enlightenment, Shock of. See
Shock of Enlightenment, 254.
Enoch, 254.
Brother, 256.
256.

Rite of, 256.

En Soph, 257.
Entered, 257.
Apprentice. See Apprentice,
257.

Entiek, John, 257.

Entombment,

257.

trance, 257.
257.
Eons, 257.
Rite of the, 257.
Ephod, 257.
Ephraimites, 257.
Epoch, 258.
Epopt, 258.
Equality, 258.
Equerry, 258.
Eques, 258.
Professus, 259.

Envy,

Erwin von Steinbach,

See Elchanan, 246.

Elements, 246.
Elephanta, 247.
Eleusinian Mysteries, 247.
Eleven, 249.
Eligibility for Initiation.
See
Qualifications of Candidates,
249.
Elihoreph, 249.
Elizabeth of England, 249.
of Portugal, 249.
Elohim, 249.
Eloquence of Masonry, 249.
Elu, 250.
Elul, 250.
Elus, 250.
Emanation, 250.
Emanuel, 250.
Embassy, 250.
Emblem, 250.
Emerald, 251.
Emergency, 251.
Emergent 'Lodge, 251.
Meeting, 251.
Emeritus, 251.
Emeth, 251.

See Tri-

Excellent, 267.

Masons, 267.

Faith, 272.
Faithful Breast.
See Breast,
the Faithful, 272.
Fall of Water. See Waterfall,
272.

Family Lodge,

272.

Fasces, 272.

Favorite Brother of St. Andrew,

272.

John, 272.
Feast, 272.
Feasts of the Order, 272.
Feeling, 272.
Fees of Honor, 272.
Felicity, Order of, 272.
Feld Loge, 273.
Fellow, 273.
Craft, 273.
Perfect Architect, 273.
St.

John

Fellowship, Five Points of. See

Points of Fellowship, 273.
Female Masonry. See Adoption,
Bite of, 273.
Masons, 273.
Fendeurs, 273.

Ferdinand IV., 274.

the

Evergreen, 266.
Exalted, 266.
Examination of Candidates, 266.
the Ballot-Box, 267.
Visitors, 267.

Bernard

Faculty of Abrac, 272.

260.
Esoteric Masonry, 260.
Essenes, 260.
Esther, 263.
Eternal Life, 264.
Eternity, 264.
Ethics of Freemasonry, 264.
Ethiopia, 265.
Etymology, 265.
Euclid, 265.
Legend of, 265.
Eulogy, 266.
Eumolpus, 266.
Eunuch, 266.
Euphrates, 266.
Euresis, 266.

Excavations, 267.

Extrusion, 271.
Eye. See All-Seeing Eye, 271.
Ezekiel, Temple of. See Temple
of Ezekiel, 271.

272.

Ernest and Falk, 260.

Evangelist.
See St.
Evangelist, 266.

Extended Wings of the Cheru-

F.\,
Fabre - Palaprat,
Raymond, 272.

Equivocation, 259.
Eranoi, 259.

Eleham.

269.

Exoteric, 269.
Expert, 269.
Expositions, ?69.
Expulsion, 270.

Ezel, 271.
Ezra, 271.

angle, 259.
Equity, 259.

Erica, 259.

Exclusion, 268.
Exclusiveness of Masonry, 268.
Excuse, 269.
Executive Powers of a Grand
Lodge. See Grand Lodge, 269.
Exemplification of the Work,

bim, 271.
Extent of the Lodge, 271.
External Qualifications, 271.
Extinct Lodge, 271.
Extra Communication, 271.
See Points Extraneous, 271.

Entrance, Points of.

of Entrance, 257.
Shock of. See Shock of En-

Equilateral Triangle.

See Very Excellent,

268.

famille, 252.

of,

See Super Excel-

lent, 268.

Very.

England, 252.

Legend

See Right Excel-

lent, 268.

Super.

252.

Election of Officers, 246.

Elective Officers, 246.

5Q

Excellent Master, 267.

Most. See Most Excellent,
Right.

251.

Englet, 254.

243.

Eminent, 251.
Emperor of Lebanon, 251.
Emperors of the East and West,

Encyclical, 252.

Mysteries, 242.
Priests, Initiations of the,

921

VI., 274.
VII., 274.

Fervency, 274.
Fessler, Ignaz Aurelius, 274.
Rite of, 275.
Festivals, 276.
Fidelity. See Fides, 276.
Fides, 276.
Fiducial Sign, 276.
Fifteen, 276.

INDEX.

922
Finances, 277.
Finch, William, 277.

Freirnaurerei, 298.

French, Benjamin Brown, 298.

Rite, 299.

Fines, 277.
Fire, 277.

Philosophers.

See TJieoso-

phists, 277.
Pillars of. See Pillars of
Fire. 277.
Purification by. See Purification by Fire, 277.
Worship, 277.
Fish, 278.
Five, 278.
Pointed Star, 278.

Points of Fellowship. See

Points of Fellowship, 279.
Senses, 279.

Fixed Lights, 279.

Flaming Sword, 279.

Friendly Societies, 299.

Friend of St. John, 299.
Truth, 299.
Friendship, 299.
Fund of Benevolence, 299.
Funds of the Lodge, 300.
Funeral Rites. See Burial, 300.
Furlac, 300.
Furniture of a Lodge, 300.
Fustier, 300.

Future

Shepherd, 317.
Sign of the, 317.
Goose and Gridiron, 317.
Gormogons, 317.
Gothic Architecture, 317.
Constitutions, 318.
Mysteries.
See Scandinavian Mysteries, 318.
Gourgas, John James Joseph,

318
Grades, 318.

Grammar, 318.
Grand Architect,

Life, 300

G300.
Gabaon,

Golgotha, 316.
Good Samaritan, 316.

318.

of the Universe, 318.

Chapter, 318.

302.

Commander,

Gabaonne, 303.
Gabor, 303.

of the

319.

Eastern

Star,

Floats, 279.
Floor, 279.
Cloth, 279.
Flooring, 279.
Florida, 279.

Gabriel, 303.

Fludd, Eobert, 280.

Garinous, 303.

Consistory, 319.
Council, 319.
East, 319.

Folkes, Martin, 280.

Fool, 281.
Footstone, 281.
Foot to Foot, 281.
Fords of the Jordan, 281.

Gassicourt, Cadet de, 303.

Encampment. See Encamp-

Foreign Country, 281.

Foresters' Degrees, 281.

Gaedicke,
303.

319.

Johann

Christian,

"

Galahad, 303.
G.\ A.-. 0.\ T.\ U.\, 303.

Gaston, John, 303.

Gates of the Temple, 303.
Gauntlets, 303.
Gauge. See Twenty-four Inch

Forest of Lebanon. See Lebanon, 281.

Forfeiture of Charter, 281.

Form,

General Assembly.

of the Lodge, 282.

Formula, 282.
Fortitude, 282.

Forty-Seventh Problem, 282.

Foul, 284.
Foundation-Stone, 284.
of.
See Stone of Foundation, 284.

Fountain, 284.
Four, 284.
Crowned Martyrs, 284.
Fourfold Cord, 287.
Fourteen, 288.
France, 288.
Francis II., 290.

Francken, Henry A., 290.

Franc-Macon,
Franc-Maconnerie, 290.

Frankfort-on-the-Main, 290.
Franklin, Benjamin, 290.
Frater, 291.
Fraternally, 291.
Fraternity, 291.
Fraternize, 291.
Frederick of Nassau, 291.
the Great, 291.
William III., 294.
Free, 294.
and Accepted, 294.

Born, 294.

Freedom, 295.
Fervency, and Zeal, 295.

Freeman, 295.
Freemason, 295.
Freemasonry, History of, 296.
Freemasons of the Church, 297.
Free- Will and Accord, 298.
Freimaurer, 298.

ment, Grand, 319.

High

Inspector, Inquisitor

Master, 321.
Architect, 321.

Mason, 321.

See Assem-

of all Symbolic Lodges.

321
of Light, 321.

Grand Chapter, 304.

High Priest, 305.
Lodge, 305.
Generalissimo, 308.

Gentleman Mason,

308.

Genuflection, 308.

Geometrical Master Mason, 309.

Geometric Points, 309.
Geometry, 309.
Georgia, 309.

of

Two and

Twenty, 309.
Germany, 309.
Ghiblim, 310.
Gibalim, 310.
Giblim, 310.
Gilds, 310.
Gilkes, Peter WiUiam, 312.
Girdle, 312.
Glaire, Peter Maurice, 312.
Gleason, Benjamin, 312.
Globe, 312.
Glory, Symbol of, 313.
Gloves, 313.
Gnostics, 314.
Goat, Riding the, 315.
God, 315.
Godfather, 316.

Goethe, John Wolfgang von, 316

Golden Candlestick, 316.
Fleece, 316.

Key, Knight of the. See

Knight of the Golden Key,
316.

Lance, Knight of the. See

Knight of the Golden
Lance, 316.

Com-

319.

Lodge, 319.
Manuscript, 321.

bly, 304.

German Union

Priest, 319.

Inquiring Commander, 319.

mander,

Gauge, 303.
Gavel, 303.
Gebal, 304.
Gedaliah, 304.
Gemara. See Talmud, 304.

281.

Conclave, 319.
Conservators, 319.

Offerings, 321.
Oflicers, 321.
Orient, 322.
Pontiff, 322.
Principals, 322.
Prior, 322.
Secretary, 322.
Stewards, 322.
Lodge, 322.
Tiler, 322.
Treasurer, 322.
Wardens, 323.
Grasse Tilly, Alexandre Francois Auguste Comte de, 323.
Grave, 323.
Greater Lights. See Lights, Symbolic, 324.
Greece, 324.
Mysteries in, 324.
Green, 324.
Greeting, 324.
Gregorians, 324.
Greinemann, Ludwig, 325.
Grip, 325.
Groton, 325.
Ground-Floor of the Lodge, 325.

King

Solomon's

Temple,

325.

See Due Guard, 325.

of the Conclave. See Knight
of the Christian Mark,325.
Guards, 325.
Guerrier de Dumast, 325.

Guard.

Gugomos, Baron Von,

Guibbs, 326.

325.

INDEX.
Guillemain de

St. Victor, Louis,

High Grades,

Illinois, 358.
Illiteracy, 359.

Priesthood, Order of, 338.

Priest of the Jews, 340.
Twelve, 341.
Hindustan, Mysteries of, 341.
Hinnom, 342.
Hiram, 342 ; Abif, 342
or Huram, 342.
Hiramites, 345.
Hiram, King of Tyre, 345.

Illuminated Theosophists, 359.

338.
Priest, 338.

326.

Gustavus IV., 326.

Guttural Point of Entrance, 326.
Gymnosophist, 326.

A/. B.\, 326.

H.\Hadeeses,

326.

Hagar, 326.
Haggai, 326.
Hague, The, 327.

Hah,

the Builder.

327.

Hail or Hale, 327.

Hall Committee, 327.
Masonic, 327.

Hiram

H.\ K.\

See Left Hand, 331.

Eight. Set Right Hand, 331.
to Back.
See Points of
Fellowship, 331.
See Points of
to Hand.
Fellowship, 331.

332.

Universal.
See Mesmeric
3Iasonry, 332.
Harnouester, 332.
of,

T.\, 346.

Ho-hi, 346.
Holiness to the Lord, 347.
Holland. See Netherlands, 347.
Holy Ghost, Knight of the.
See Knight of the Holy

Hanover, 331.
Haram, Grand, 331.
Hardie, James, 331.
Harleian Manuscript, 331.

334.

Heldmann, Dr. Friedrich,

334.

Helmet, 334.
Helmets, to Deposit, 335.
to Recover, 335.

Help.

See Aid and Assistance,

335.

Hemming, D.

D., Samuel, 335.

Inauguration, 362.

Indented Tarsel, 363.

Indelibility, 363.

348.

348.

Tessel, 363.
India, 363.
Indiana, 363.
Indifferents, 363.
Induction, 363.
Inductor, 363.
Industry, 364.
Ineffable Degrees, 364.
Name, 364.
Ineligible, 364.
Information, Lawful, 364.

Inherent Rights of a Grand

Master, 364.
Hoc Signo Vinces, 365.

Manuscript, 350.

Horn

of Plenty, 350.
Altar, 350.

Horns of the

In

Hoschea, 350.

Initiate, 365.
Initiated Knight and Brother
of Asia, 365.
Initiate in the Egyptian Secrets,
365.
in the Mysteries, 365.
in the Profound Mysteries,
365.
Initiation, 365.
In Memoriam, 365.
Inner Guard, 365.
Innovations, 365.
I.-. N.\ R.\ I.'., 366.
Insignia. See Jewels of Office,
367.
Inspector. See Sovereign Grand
Jnspector General, 367.
Installation, 367.
Installed Masters, Board of, 367.
Installing Officer, 367.
Instruction, 367.

Hospitality, 350.
Hospitaller, Knight. See Knight
Hospitaller, 350.
Hospitallers of Jerusalem, 351.
Host, Captain of the. See Captain of the Host, 351.

Hour-Glass, 351.
Hours, Masonic, 351.
of Initiation, 351.
How go Squares? 351.
H.\ R.\ D.\ M.\, 351.

Hu,

351.

Henrietta Maria, 335.

Hemy VI., 335.

Humility, 352.

Heredom, 335.
Hermaimes, 336.
Hermaphrodite, 336.
Hermes, 336.
Hermetic Art, 336.

Hungary,

Rite, 336.

In Activity, 362.

Incorporation, 362.
Indefeasible, 363.

Thirty-thirds, 349.
349.

334.

Impostors, 361.

Incommunicable, 362.

Thaddeus Mason, 333.

Honors, Grand,
Hasidim, Sovereign Prince, 333. Hoodwink, 350.
Hat, 333.
Hope, 350.

Height of the Lodge,

360.

Immortality of the Soul, 361.

Immovable Jewels. See Jewel*
of a Lodge, 361.
Implements, 361.

Sepulchre, Knight of the.

See Knight of the Holy
Sepulchre, 348.

Members,

Haupt-Hutte, 333.
Hautes Grades, 333.
Heal, 334.
Hearing, 334.
Heart, 334.
of Hiram Abif, 334.
Hecart, Gabriel Antoine Joseph,

Elect of the Fifteen, 360.

Imitative Societies, 360.

Inchoate Lodges, 362.

Masons, 348.

Harris,

Illustrious, 360.

Incense, 362.

Honorarium, 348.
Honorary Degrees,

332.

360.

of Stockholm, 360.
Illuminism, 360.

Ghost, 347.
Ground, 347.
Lodge, 347.
Name, 347.
of Holies, 347.
Place, 348.

Honorable, 348.

Prince of, 333.

Harpocrates, 333.

Illuminati, 359.
of Bavaria, 359.
of Avignon. See Avignon,

Immanuel,

Hirschau, Wilhelm von, 346.

Left.

Harodim, 332.
Grand Chapter

See

Abif, 346.

Hamburg, 330.
Hand, 330.

Harmony,

923

Hund, Baron Von,

352.

355.

Hutchinson, William, 355.

Hutte, 357.
Huzza, 357.

A. A.

T., 357.

1. I Am that I Am,
Herodem. See Heredom, 336.
Roval Order of. See Royal Iatric Masonry, 357.

Lodge

357.

of.

See Lodge of Ln-

struction, 367.

Order of Scotland, 336.

Heroden, 336.
Heroine of Jericho, 336.
Hesed, 337.

Iconology, 358.
Idaho, 358.

Instructive Tongue. See Tongue,

the Lnstructive, 367.

Idiot, 358.
Idolatry, 358.

Instrumental Masonry, 367.

Hexagon,

Igne

337.

Hieroglyphics, 337.
Hierogrammatists, 337.

Hierophant, 337.

High

Degrees, 337.
Highest of Hills. 337.

Natura

tegra, 358.
Ignorance, 358.
Ih-Ho, 358.
I. H. S., 358.
Ijar, 358.

Integrity, 367.

Renovatur

In-

Intemperance, 368.
Intendant of the Building, 368.
Intention, 368.
Internal Preparation. See Preparation of Candidates ,368
Qualifications, 368.

INDEX.

924
Intimate Initiate, 368.
Secretary, 368.
Introductor and Introductress,
368.
Intrusting, 368.
Investiture,- 368.
Invincible, 368.
Inwood, Jethro, 368.
Ionic Order, 368.
Iowa, 369.
Ireland, 369.
Irish Chapters, 370.
Colleges, 371.
See Irish ChapDegrees.
ters, 371.
Iron Tools, 371.
Isaac and Ishmael, 371.

the Evangelist. See Saint

John the Evangelist, 385.
Jones, Inigo, 385.

Crusader, 405.
Elect of Fifteen, 405.
Elect of Twelve, Sublime,

Stephen, 385.
Joppa, 386.
Jordan, 386.
Charles Stephen, 386.

405.
Hospitaller.

Illustrious or
Elect, 406.
Jupiter, 406.
Kadosh. 406.

Fords of the, 386.

Joseph II., 386.
Josephus, Flavius, 386.
Joshua, 386.
Journey, 387.

Journeyman,

Sabal, 371.
Sodi, 371.

Mahadon,

387.

372.
Jachinai, 372.
Jacobins, 372.
Jacob's Ladder, 373.

Jacques de Molay.

See Molay,

375.

Jah, 375.
Jamblichus, 375.
Janitor, 376.
Japan, 376.
Japheth, 376.
Jasper, 376.
Jebusite. See Oman, 376.
Jedadiah, 376.
Jehoshaphat, 376.
Jehovah, 376.
Jekson, 381.
Jena, Congress of, 381.
Jephthah, 381.
Jericho, Heroine of. See Heroine of Jericho, 381.
of.

See Knight of

Jericho, 381.
381.
Jerusalem, 381.

Jermyn, Henry,

Knight

of.
See Knight of
Jerusalem, 382.

387.

Warden, 387.
Jupiter, Knight of.
See Knight
of Jupiter, 387.
Jurisdiction of a Grand Lodge,
387.
Lodge, 388.
Supreme" Council, 388.
Justice, 388.
Justification, 388.
Just Lodge, 388.

KAABA,

382.

Precious, 383.

Jews, Disqualification of, 383.

Jezirah or Jetzirah, Book of, 384
Joabert, 384.

Joachim, Order of, 384.

Johannite Masonry, 384.
Johannites, 384.
John's Brothers, 384.

Johnson, 384.

of
of
of
of
of

389.
of, 392.

Kadosh, 392, 393.

Grand, Elect Knight,
Knight, 393.

393.

the

397.

Knighthood, 398.
Knight, 405.
Black. See Black Brothers,
405.

Commander,

405.

of the Temple.
See
Sovereign Commander of the Temple, 405.

Jerusalem, 407.
Justice, 407.
Malta, 407.
Masonic, 410.
Masonry, Terrible, 412.
Palestine, 412.
Patmos, 412.
Perfumes, 412.
Pure Truth, 412.
Purity and Light, 412.
Rhodes, 412.

tish, 412.

of the Thistle, 413.

of St. John of Jerusalem, 413
Palestine, 413.

Kamea,

of Masonry.

407.

Iris, 407.

Free 413.

of the Jesuits, 393.

Philosophic, 393.
Prince, 393.
of Death, 393.
393.
Kasideans, 393.
Katharsis, 393.
Keeper of the Seals, 393.
Kelly, Christopher, 393.
Key, 394.

Hope,

of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of Rose Croix.
See Hose
Croix, 412.
of St. Andrew, Grand Scot-

Kabbala, 389.
Kadiri, Order

See Knight of
Sun, 394.
See Prince of Key-Stone, 394.
Prince of.
Jerusalem, 382.
Kilwinning, 395.
Word, 382.
Manuscript, 396.
Jesuits, 382.
Mother Lodge, 397.
System, 397.
Jewel of an Ancient Grand Master, 382.
King, 397.
Member's, 382.
Kiss, Fraternal, 397.
Jewels, Immovable. See Jewels
of Peace, 397.
Kloss, Georg Burkh. Franz, 397.
of a Lodge, 382.
Movable. See Jewels of a Kneeling, 397.
Lodge, 382.
Knee to Knee, 397.
of a Lodge, 382.
Knigge, Adolph Franz FrieOfficial, 383.
derich Ludwig, Baron Von,

New,

Initiated Knights of, 406.

of Athens, 406.
of Aurora, 406.
of Beneficence, 407.
of Brightness, 407.
of Christ, 407.
of Constantinople, 407*

Overseer, 387.

JACHIN,

406.

of Asia, Initiated. See Asia,

Junior Adept, 387.

Entered Apprentice, 387.

Italy, 371.
Izabud, 372.

Illustrious

of Cromwell, 406.
Masonic, 406.

Jova, 387.
Jua, 387.

Jug Lodges,

Isis, 371.

See Knight of

Malta, 406.

Judah, 387.
and Benjamin, 387.

Ish Ckotzeb, 371.

Knight

John the Baptist. See Saint Knight Commander of theWhite

John the Baptist, 385.
and Black Eagle, 405.

of the Altar, 413.

of the American Eagle, 413.
of the Anchor, 413.
of the Ape and Lion, 413.
of the Arch, 413.
of the Argonauts, 413.
of the Banqueting-Table of
the Seven Sages, 413.
of the Black Eagle, 413.
of the Brazen Serpent, 413.
of the Burning Bush, 414.
of the Chanuca, 414.
of the Christian Mark, 414.
of the Columns, 414.
of the Comet, 414.
of the Cork, 414.
of the Courts, 414.
of the Crown, 414.
of the Door, 414.
of the Dove, 414.
of the Eagle, 414.
and Pelican, 414.
reversed, 414.

of the East, 415.

and West,

415.

of the Eastern Star, 415.

of the East, Victorious, 415.

White, 416.
of the Election, 416.

Sublime, 416.

INDEX.
Knight of the Golden Eagle,

416.

of the Grand Arch, 416.

of the Holy City, Beneficent, 416.

Holy Sepulchre,

416.

of the Interior, 416.

of the Kabbala, 417.
of the Lilies of the Valley,
417.

of the Lion, 417.

of the Mediterranean Pass,
417.

the Moon, 417.

the Morning Star, 417.
the Ninth Arch, 417.
the North, 417.
the Phoenix, 417.
the Prussian Eagle, 417.
the Purificatory, 418.
the Pyramid, 418.
the Rainbow, 418.
the Red Cross, 418.
Eagle, 418.
of the Rose, 418.
of the Rosy and Triple

of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of
of

Cross, 419.

of the Rosy Cross, 419.

of the Round Table, 419.
of King Arthur, 419.
of the Royal Axe, 419.
of the Sacred Mountain,
419.

the Sanctuary, 420.

the Sepulchre, 420.
the South, 420.
the Star, 420.
the Sun, 420.
the Sword, 420.
the Tabernacle, 420.
of the Divine Truths,

See Lamb, Paschal,

439.

Paschal, 439.

Lambskin Apron.

See Apron,

439.

Landmarks, 439.
Language, Universal,

443.

Lapicida, 444.

Larmenius, Johannes Marcus,

444.

Larudan, Abbe, 444.

Latin Lodge, 444.
Latomia, 444.
Latres, 445.
Latumus, 445.

Laurel Crown, 445.

Laurens, J. L., 445.
Laurie. See Lawrie, Alexander,
445.

Lawful Information. See Infor-

Parliamentary. See Parlia-

mentary Law, 445.

Two Crowned Eagles,

421.

of the West, 421.

of the White and Black
Eagle, 421.
of the White Eagle, 421.
of Unction, 421.

See Eques, Pro-

fessus, 421.

Prussian, 421.

Rower, 421.
Royal Victorious,

421.

Sacrificing, 421.

Knights of the East, Council

of,

421.

Knight Templar,

421.

Masonic, 427.
Knight, Victorious, 434.

Knowledge, 434.
Degrees of. See Degrees of
Knowledge, 434.

Konx Ompax, 434.

Legend, 456.
of Enoch. See Enoch, 456,
of Euclid. See Euclid, 456.
of the Craft, 456.
of the Gild, 459.
of the Royal Arch Degree,
459.

of the Third Degree, 459.

Legislation, 462.
Lehrling, 462.
Leland, John, 462.
Manuscript, 462.
Lemanceau, 464.
Length of the Lodge. See Extent of the Lodge, 464.
Lenoir, Alexandre, 464.
Lepage, 465.

Lerouge, Andre Joseph Etienne,

465.
Lesser Lights, 465.
Lessing,
Gottfried
Ephraim,
465.
Lessons, 465.
Letter of Application, 466.
Letters, Patent.
See Patents,
466.
Lettuce, 466.
Leucht, 466.
Level, 466.
Levi, Eliphas, 466.
Levite, Knight, 466.
of the External Guard, 466.
Levites, 466.
Levite, Sacrificer, 466.
Levitikon, 466.

Levy, '466.
Lewis, 466.
Lexington, Congress
Libanus, 467.

of, 467.

Libation, 467.
Libavius, Andreas. 467.
Liberal Arts and Sciences, 468.
Libertas, 468.
Libertine, 468.
Liberty of Passage, 469.
Library, 469.

Lieutenant Grand Commander,

469.
Life, 469.

Eternal.

See Eternal Life,

469.

446.

Member, 469.
Laws, General. See Laws of
Light, 469.
Masonry, 446.
Fixed, 471; Greater, 471.
Lights,
Local.
See Laws of MaLight, To bring
Ligure, 471.

sonry, 446.
of Masonry, 446.
Lawsuits, 446.

Lax Observance,

Perfect, 421.

Koran, 435.

of God.

Lawrie; Alexander, 445.

Law, Sacred. See Sacred Law,

Sword, 421.

Professed.

LABARUM,

437.
Labor, 437.
Laborare est orare, 437.
Laborers, Statutes of, 437.
Lacorne, 438.
Ladder, 438.
Brahmanical, 438.
Jacob's. See Jacob's Ladder, 438.
Kabbalistic, 438.
Mithraitic, 439.
of Kadosh, 439.
Rosicrucian, 439;
Scandinavian, 439.
Theological, 439.
Ladrian, 439.
Lady, 439.
Lalande. See De la Lalande, 439
Lamb, 439.

Law, Moral. See Moral Law, 445

Oral. See Oral Law, 445.

the Temple, 420.

the Three Kings, 420,
the Throne, 420.
the Triple Cross, 420.
Period, 420.

of the

Frie-

mation, Lawful, 445.

420.

of
of
of
of

Christian

derich, 435.
Kum, Kivi, 436.

Fleece, 416.
Key, 416.
Star, 416.

of
of
of
of
of
of
of

Krause, Carl

925

to,

471.

Lily, 471.

Work,

446.

471.

Limbs.
See
Qualifications,
Physical, 471.
Lebanon, 447.
Prince of. See Prince of Lindner, Friederich Wilhelm,
471.
Lebanon, 447.
Le Bauld de Nans, Claude Line, 471.
Linear Triad, 471.
Etienne, 447.
See Parallel
Lines, Parallel.
Lechangeur, 447.

Layer, 447.

Lecture, 447.
Lecturer, Grand, 448.
Lectures, History of the, 448.
Lefranc, 455.
Left Hand, 455.
Side, 455.

Legally Constituted.

See Con-

stituted, Legally, 455.

Legate, 455.

Lines, 471.

Lingam, 471.
Link, 472.
Linnecar, Richard, 472.
Lion's Paw, 472.
Literature of Masonry, 47.2.
Litigation. See Lawsuits, 432.
Livery, 472.
Livre d'Or, 472.

INDEX.

926
Local Laws.

See

Laws

of

Ma- Magicians,

sonry, 472.

Locke's Letter, 472.

Lodge, 472.
Chartered.
See Chartered
Lodge, 474.
See ClandesClandestine.
tine Lodge, 474.
Constituted.
See Constituted, Legally, 474.

Dormant.

See

Dormant

Lodge, 474.

See Emergent

Emergent.

Society of the, 481.

Magister Coementariorum, 481.
Hospitalis. See Master of
the Hospital, 481.

Lapidum,

481.

Militise Christi. See Master

of the Soldiery of Christ,

481.
Perrerius, 481.

Templi. See Master of the

Temple,'^!.
Magistri Comacini. See Como,
481.

Lodge, 475.
Extinct. See Extinct Lodge,
475.
Holy. See Holy Lodge, 475.

Magnanimous, 481.
Magnetic Masonry, 482.
Magus, 482.

Hours, 475.
Just. See Just Lodge, 475.

Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, 482.

Master, English, 475.

Maine, 482.
Maitre Macon, 482.

French, 475.
Occasional. See Occasional
Lodge, 475.
of Instruction, 475.
of St. John, 475.
Perfect. See Perfect Lodge,
475.

Regular. See RegularLodge,

475.

Room,

475.

Royal.

See Royal Lodge,

476.

Sacred.

See Sacred Lodge,

476.

Symbol of

the, 476.

Logic, 476.

Lombardy, 476.
London, 476.
Lost Word, 476.

Lowen,

Low

See Lewis, 477.

Loyalty, 478.
Luchet, Jean Pierre Louis, Marquis de, 478.
Luminaries, 478.
Lustration, 478.

Lux, 478.

Lux
Lux

e Tenebris, 478.
Fiat et Lux Fit, 479.
L. V. C, 479.
Lyons, Congress of, 479.

MAACHA, 479.
Mac, 479.
Macbenac, 480.
Maccabees, 480.
Macerio, 480.
Macio, 480.

Macon, 480.
Maconetus, 480.

Maconne, 480.
Egyptienne, 480.
Maconner, 480.
Maczo, 480.
Made, 480.

Madman,

480.
Magazine, 480.
Magi, 480.
Magic, 480.
Squares, 481.

See Operative

Masonry, 490.
Origin of See Origin of
Masonry, 490.
See Specula-

Masonry, 490.

Company

of,

490.

Mason, Scottish Master, 490.

Masons, Emperor of all the, 490.
Mason, Speculative. See Speculative Mason, 490.
Stone. See Stonemasons, 490
Sublime, 490.
Operative, 490.

Macon, 482.
Maitrise, 482.
Major, 482.
Illuminate, 482.
Majority, 482.
Make, 483.
Malach, 483.
Malachi, 483.
Mallet, 483.
Malta, 483.

Mason's Wife and Daughter, 490.

Mason, True, 490.
Masoretic Points, 490.
Massachusetts, 490.

Cross of.
See
Malta, 483.

Cross

of

See Knight of

Massonus, 491.
Absolute
Master,
Sovereign
Grand, 491.
ad Vitam, 491.
Ancient, 491.
Grand.
Architect,
See
Grand Master Archi-

Mantle, 484.
of Honor, 484.

tect, 491.
Perfect, 491.
Prussian, 491.
Blue, 491.
Builder, 491.
Cohen, 491.
Crowned, 491.
Egyptian, 491.
Elect. See Elect Master, 491.
English, 491.
Perfect, 491.
Four Times Venerable, 491.

Manual, 484.

Grand.

of.

Cross of

483.

Mandate, 483.
Mangourit, Michel Ange Bernard de, 483.
Manna, Pot of, 483.
.

Manningham, Thomas,

477.

Twelve, 478.

Operative.

tive

Maitresse Agissante, 482.

Man,

Lotus, 477.
Louisiana, 477.

and Sublime

Mason, 490.
Perfect, 490.
Philosopher, 490.
Practical, 490.
Masonry, 490.

Speculative.

Maier, Michael, 482.

Knight

Illustrious

Grand Master, 490.

of the Secret, 490.
Operative.
See Operative

Masons,

482.

Malta, 483.
Maltese Cross.
See
Malta, 483.

Loge, 476.

Louveteau.

Mah,

Mason,

483.

Point of Entrance, 484.

See Grand Master,

491.

Hermetic, 491.

Sign, 484.

Manuscripts, 484 and 634.

Illustrious, 491.

Marcheshvan,
Mark, 485.
Man, 486.

Symbolic, 491.
in Israel.
See Intendant
of the Building, 491.
in Perfect Architecture, 491.
in the Chair, 491.

485.

Master, 486.
of the Craft, Regular, 487.
Marks of the Craft, 487.
Marrow in the Bone, 488.

Irish, 491.

Kabbalistic, 492.

Marseilles, Mother Lodge of, 488.

Marshal, 488.
Martel, 488.
Martha, 488.
Martinism, 488.

Little Elect, 492.

Mason, 492.

Martin, Louis Claude de St. See

Saint Martin, 488.
Martyr, 488.
Martyrs, Four Crowned. See
Four Crowned Martyrs, 488.

Mystic, 493.
of all Symbolic Lodges,
Grand. See Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges,

Maryland, 488.
Mason, Crowned, 489.

of a Lod ge See Worshipful

Master, 493.
of Cavalry, 493.
of Ceremonies, 493.
of Dispatches, 493.
of Finances, 493.
of Hamburg, Perfect, 493.

Derivation of the Word, 489.

Masoney, 490.
Mason Hermetic, 490.
Masonio Hall. See Hall, Masonic, 490.

Most High and Puissant,

493.

Wise, 493.

493.
.

INDEX.
Master of Infantry, 493.
of Lodges, 493.
of Masters, Grand, 493.
of Paracelsus, 493.
of Secrets, Perfect, 493.
of St. Andrew, 493.
ofthe Chivalry of Christ,493.
of the Hermetic Secrets,
Grand, 493.
of the Hospital, 493.
of the Key to Masonry,
Grand, 494.
of the Legitimate Lodges,
Grand, 494.
of the Palace, 494.
of the Sages, 494.
of the Seven Kabbalistic
Secrets, Illustrious, 494.

of the Temple, 494.

of the Work, 494.
Past. See Past Master, 494.
Perfect. See Perfect Master,
494.
Architect, 494.
Irish. See Perfect Irish
Master, 404.

Philosopher by the

Number

494.

3,

by the Number

9,

494.

Hermetic, 494.
Private, 494.

Provost and Judge, 494.

Puissant Irish. See Puissant
Irish Master, 494.
Pythagorean, 494.
Eoyal. See Royal Master,
494.
Secret.
494.
Select.
494.

See Secret Master,

See Select Master,

Supreme

Elect, 494.

Theosophist, 494.

through Curiosity, 494.

to the

Number

15, 494.

True, 494.
Worshipful. See Worshipful Master, 494.
Materials of the Temple, 494.
Maters, 495.
Matriculation Book, 495.

Mature Age, 495.

Maul, or Setting Maul. See MaiMedals, 495.
[let, 495.
Mediterranean Pass, 495.
Meeting of a Chapter. See Convocation, 495.

of a Lodge.

See Communi-

cation, 495.

Meet on the Level,

495.
Meister, 495.
im Stuhl, 495.
Melancthon, Philip, 495.
Melchizedek, 495.
Degree of, 496.
Melech, 496.
Melesino, Rite of, 496.
Melita, 496.

Member, Honorary. See Honorary Member, 496.

Life. See Life Member, 496.
of a Lodge, 496.
Membership, Right of, 496.
Memphis, Rite of, 496.

Menatzchim, 499.
Mental Qualifications.

927
Mori ah, Mount, 508.
See

Qualifications, 499.
Menu, 499.
Mercy, 499.

Prince of. See Prince of

Mercy, 499.

Morphey, 509.
Mortality,

Symbol

of,

509.

Mortar, Untempered.
See Untempered Mortar, 510.

Mosaic Pavement, 510.

Symbolism, 510.

Seat, 499.

Meridian Sun, 499.

Merit, 499.

Mesmer, Friederich Anton, 499.

Mesmeric Masonry, 499.
Mesopolyte, 499.

Mesouraneo, 499.

Moses, 511.
Mossdorf, Friederich, 511.
Most Excellent, 511.
Master, 511.
Puissant, 511.

Worshipful, 511.

Metals, 499.

Metal Tools, 499.

Metropolitan Chapter of France,
500.

Mexico, 500.
Michael, 500.
Michigan, 500.
Microcosm. See Man, 500.
Middle Ages, 500.

Chamber,

Morin, Stephen, 509.

Moritz, Carl Philipp, 509.

Mot de Semestre,
Lodge, 511.
Motion, 512.
Motto, 512.

Mould, 512.
Stone, 512.

Mount Calvary.

See Calvary,

512.

500.

Moriah.

Miles, 501.

See Moriah, 512.

See Sinai, 512.

Military Lodges, 501.

Sinai.

Militia, 501.
Minerval, 501.
Minister of State, 501.
Minnesota, 501.
Minor, 501.
Illuminate, 501.
Minute Book, 501.
Minutes, 501.
Misconduct, 502.

Mourning, 512.

Mouth

to Ear, 512.

Movable Jewels. See Jewels of

a lodge, 512.
Muenter, Friederich, 512.
Munkhouse, D. D., Rev. Richard, 512.

Murr, Christoph Gottlieb von,

513.

Miserable Scald Masons. See

Scald Miserables, 502.
Mishna. See Talmud, 502.

Muscus Domus,

Mississippi, 502.
Missouri, 502.
Mistletoe, 502.

Myrtle, 513.

Mithras, Mysteries

511.

Mother Council, 511.

513.

Music, 513.

Mustard Seed, Order

of,

513.

Mystagogue, 513.
of, 502.

Mitre, 504.
Mizraim, 504.
Rite of, 504.
Moabon, 505.
Mock Masons, 505.
Modern Rite. See French Rite,
505.
Moderns, 505.
Molar t, William, 505.
Molay, James de, 506.
Monad, 506.
Monitor, 506.
Monitorial Instruction, 506.
Sign, 506.
Monitor, Secret.
See Secret
Monitor, 506.
Monogram, 506.
Montana, 506.
Montfaucon, Prior of, 507.
Months, Hebrew, 507.
Masonic, 507.
Montpellier, Hermetic Rite of,
507.
Monument, 507.
Moon, 507.
Moore, James, 508.
Mopses, 508.
Morality, 508.
of Freemasonry, 508.
Moral Law, 508.
Moravian Brethren, 508.
Morgan, William, 508.

Mysteries, Ancient, 513.

Mystery, 517.
Mystes, 517.
Mystical, 517.
Mysticism, 517.
Mystic Tie, 517.

Myth,

517.
Historical, 518.

Philosophical, 518.

Mythical History, 518.

Mythology, 518.

NAAMAH, 519.
Nabaiin. See Schools of the
Prophets, 519.

Naked,

519.

Name

of God, 519.
Names of Lodges, 521.

Namur,

525.

Naphtali, 525.
Naples, 525.

Napoleonic Masonry, 525.

National Grand Lodge of Ger<

many,

525.

Naymus Grecus, 525.

Nazareth, 526.
Nebraska, 526.
Nebuchadnezzar, 526.
Nebuzaradan, 526.
Negro Lodges, 526.
Neighbor, 527.

Nekam, 527.
Nekamah, 527.
Nembroth, 527.

INDEX.

928
Neophyte, 527.
1ST

eoplatonism, 527.

Ne

Plus Ultra, 527.

Netherlands, 527.
Net- Work, 528.

Nevada, 528.

Ne

Varietur, 528.

New

Brunswick, 528.
Hampshire, 528.

Jersey, 528.
York, 528.
Nicolai, Christoph Friederich,
528.
Night, 529.
Nile, 530.
Nil nisi clavis, 530.
Nimrod, 530.
Nine, 530.
Nineveh, 531.
Nisan, 531.
Noachidse, 531.
Noachite, or Prussian Knight,
531.
Sovereign, 532.
Noachites, 532.
Noah, 532.
Precepts of, 534.
Noffodei, 534.
Nomenclature, 534.
Nomination, 534.
Non-Affiliation, 535.
Nonesynches, 535.
Non Nobis, 535.
Resident, 535.
Noorthouck, John, 535.
North, 535.
Carolina, 535.
,
East Corner, 536.
Notuma, 536.
Nova Scotia, 536.
Novice, 537.
Maconne, 537.
Mythological, 537.
Scottish, 537.
Numbers, 537.
Numeration by Letters, 538.
Nursery, 538.
e

OATH,

538.

Corporal, 540.
of the Gild, 541.
Tiler's, 541.

OB,

541.

Obedience, 541.
of a Grand Body, 541.
Obelisk, 542.
Objections to Freemasonry, 542.
Obligated, 542.
Obligation, 542.
Oblong Square, 542.
Observance, Clerks of Strict. See
Clerks of Strict Observance,
542.

Lax.

See Lax Observance.

542.

Odd Numbers,

543.
Offences, Masonic. See Crimes,
Masonic, 543.
Offerings, the Three Grand. See
Ground-Floor of the Lodge,
543.
Officers, 543.
Jewels.
See Jewels, Official, 543.
Office, Tenure of, 543.
Oheb Eloah, 543.

Karobo.

See Oheb Eloah,

Ohio,

Sciences, 543.

558.

Out of the Lodge, 558.

Oval Temples, 558.
Overseer, 558.

Ox, 558.
Oyres de Ornellas, Pracao, 558.
Ozee, 558.
de, 559.

Paganism, 559.

Regulations, 544.

Palestine, 559.

Olive, 544.

Branch

in the East, Brotherhood of the, 544.

Oliver, George, 544.

See Alpha

Omega.

Explorations in, 559.

Knight of. See Knight of
Palestine, 559.

John

of.

See

Knight of

St.

John

of

and Omega,

St.

of Palestine, 559.

546.

Omnific Word, 546.

On, 546.

Palladic Masonry, 559.

Palladium, Order of the, 559.

Onyx, 547.
Opening of the Lodge,

Palmer, 560.
547.

Masonry, 549.
Masons, 549.
Oral Instruction, 549.

Law,

551.
Orator, 551.
Order, 551.
Name, 552.
of Business, 552.
of Christ. See Christ, Order of, 552.

of the Temple. See Temple, Order of the, 552.

Rules of, 553.

Orders of Architecture, 553.
Egyptian, 553.
of Knighthood, 553.
of the Day, 554.

Oregon, 554.
Organist, Grand, 554.
Organization of Grand Lodges.
See Grand Lodge, 554.
Orient, 554.

Grand.

560.

Paracelsus, 560.
Sublime, 560.
Parallel Lines, 560.

Option, 549.

Ordinacio, 554.
Ordination, 554.
Ordo ab chao, 554.

Pantacle, 560.

Papworth Manuscript,

Operative Art, 549.

See Grand Orient,

554.

Commander of the, 554.

Interior, 554.

France, Grand.
See
France, 555.
Order of the, 555.
Oriental Chair of Solomon, 555.
Philosophy, 555.
of

Rite, 555.

Orphan, 556.

Occasional Lodge, 543.

Occult Masonry, 543.

of,

Paine, Thomas, 559.

544.

Octagon, 543.

ance, 542.
Obverse, 542.

Mysteries

PAGANIS, Hugo

Oil, 544.

Old Man,

Occupied Territory, 543.

Relaxed, 542.
See Strict Observ-

Osiris, 557.

Oterfut, 558.
Otreb, 558.

543.
543.'

Orientation, 555.
Original Points, 555.
Origin of Freemasonry, 556.
Orleans, Duke of, 556.
Ormus or Ormesius. See Rose
Croix, Golden, 556.
Ormuzd and Ahriman, 556.
Ornaments of a Lodge, 556.
Oman the Jebusite, 556.

Strict.

Orpheus, 557.
Orphic Mysteries, 557.

Paris, Congresses of, 560.

Parliamentary Law, 561.
Parrot Masons, 561.

Parsees, 561.
Particular Lodges, 561.
Parts, 561.
Parvis, 561.
Paschal Feast, 561.
Paschalis, Martinez, 561.

Paschal Lamb.

See Lamb, Pas-

chal, 562.

Pas perdus, 562.

See
Passages of the Jordan.
Fords of the Jordan, 562.
Passed, 562.
Passing of Conyng, 562.
Password, 562.
Past, 562.

Master, 562.
Pastophori, 563.
Pastos, 563.
Patents, 563.
Patience, 563.

Patriarchal Masonry, 563.

Patriarch, Grand, 564.
of the Crusades, 564.
of the Grand Luminaiy, 564
Patron, 564.
Patrons of Masonry, 564.
Paul, Confraternity of Saint, 564
I.,

564.

Pavement, Mosaic.
Pavement, 564.

See Mosaic

Payens, Hugh de, 564.

P. D. E. P., 564.
Peace, 564.
Pectoral, 565.
of the High Priest, 565.
Pedal, 565.
Pedestal, 565.
Pedum, 565.
Pelasgian Religion, 565.
Peleg, 565.

INDEX.
Pelican, 565.
Pellegrini, Marquis of, 566.
Penal Sign, 566.
Penalty, 566.
Pencil, 568.
Penitential Sign, 568.
Pennsylvania, 568.
Work, 568.
Penny, 569.
Pentagon, 569.

Pentagram, 569.
Pentalpha, 569.
Perau, Gabriel Louis Calabre,
570.
Perfect Ashlar. See Ashlar, 570.
Initiates, Rite of, 570.
Perfection, 570.
Perfectionists, 570.
Perfection, Lodge of, 570.
Rite of, 571.
Perfect Irish Master, 572.
Lodge. See Just Lodge, 572.
Master, 572.
Prussian, 572.
Union, Lodge of, 572.
Perignan, 572.
Periods of the Grand Architect.
See Six Periods, 572.
Perjury, 572.
Pernetty, Antoine Joseph, 573.
Perpendicular, 573.
Persecutions, 573.
Perseverance, 575.
Order of, 575.
Persia, 575.
Persian Philosophical Rite, 576.
Personal Merit, 576.
Peru, 576.
Petition for a Charter, 576.
for a Dispensation, 577.
for Initiation, 577.
Peuvret, Jean Eustache, 577.
Pha'inoteletian Society, 577.
Phallic Worship, 577.

Phallus.

See Phallic Worship,

578.

Pharaxal, 578.
Pharisees, 578.
Phenicia, 578.
Philadelphes, Lodge of the, 578.
Philadelphia, 578.
Philadelphians, Rite of the. See
Primitive Bite, 578.
Philalethes, Rite of the, 578.
Philip IV., 579.
Philippian Order, 579.
Philocoreites, Order of, 579.
Philo Judseus, 579.
Philosopher, Christian, 579.

Grand and Sublime Hermetic, 579.

929

Piece of Architecture, 581.

Pilgrim, 581.
Penitent, 582.
See Scallop
Pilgrim's Shell.
Shell, 582.
Weeds, 582.
Pilgrim Templar, 582.
Warrior, 582.
Pilier, 582.
Pillar, 582.
Pillars of Cloud and Fire, 583.
of Enoch, 583.
of the Porch, 583.

Place, 587.

Planche Tracee, 587.

Plans and Designs, 587.
Platonic Academy. See Academy, Platonic, 587.
Plenty, 587.
Plot Manuscript, 587.
Robert, M. D., 587.

Plumb,

588.
Line, 589.
Rule, 589.

Royal, 602.
Theosophist, 602.
Priesthood, Order of High. See
High Priesthood, Order of, 602
Priestly Order, 602.
Primitive Freemasonry, 602.
Rite, 603.
Scottish Rite, 604.
Prince, 604.

See Adept, Prince,

604.

Depositor, Grand, 604.

Poetry of Masonry, 589.

Mason, 604.

Points, 589.

of Jerusalem, 604.
of Lebanon. See Knight of

of Entrance, Perfect, 589.

of Fellowship, Five, 590.
Twelve Grand. See Twelve

Grand

Points, 590.
Point within a Circle, 590.

Poland, 591.
Politics, 592.

Polkal, 592.
Polycronicon, 592.

Pomegranate, 592.

Pommel,

593.

Pontifes Freres.
See Bridge
Builders, 593.
Pontifex. See Bridge Builders,
593.
Pontiff, 593.

Grand. See Grand Pontiff,

594.

Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus

Christ, 594.
Poppy, 594.

Porch of the Temple. See Temple of Solomon, 594.

Porta, Gambattista, 594.
Portugal, 594.
Postulant, 594.
Pot of Incense, 594.
of Manna. See Manna, Pot
of,

594.

Prayer, 594.
Pre- Adamite, 595.
Precaution, 595.
Precedency of Lodges, 595.
Preceptor, 595.
Preceptory, 595.
Precious Jewels.
See Jewels,
Precious, 595.
Preferment, 595.

5R

Henry, 601.

Adept.

See Ma-

jority, 589.

Unknown, 579.
The Little, 579.
Unknown, 579.

Philosophy, Sublime, 580.

Phoenix, 580.
Physical Qualifications, 580.
Picart's Ceremonies, 581.
Pickaxe, 581.

Price,

Grand High. See Gh'and

High Priest, 602.
High. See High Priest, 602.

Pius VIL, 587.

Poursuivant, 594.

Scottish Rite, 580.

Lectures, 597.
Preston, William, 597.
Pretender, 601.
Previous Question, 601.

Priest, 602.

Pirlet, 587.

of Hermes, 579.
Sublime, 579.

Philosopher's Stone, 579.

Philosophic Degrees, 580.

Presiding Officer, 597.

Prestonian Lecture, 597.

Prichard, Samuel, 601.

Pinceau, 587.
Pine Cone, 587.

Plurality of Votes.

Prentice, 596.
Pillar, 596.
Preparation of the Candidate,
596.
Preparing Brother, 596.
President, 597.

Practicus, 594.

Prelate, 596.

of Lebanon, 596.

59

the

Royal Axe,

605.

of Libanus, 605.

of Mercy, 605.
of Rose Croix.
See Rose
Croix, Prince of, 605.
of the Captivity, 605.
of the East, Grand, 605.
of the Levites, 605.
of the Royal Secret.
See
Sublime Prince of the

Royal

Secret, 605.

of the Seven Planets, Illustrious Grand, 605.

of the Tabernacle, 605.

Princess of the Crown, 606.
Principal Officers, 606.
Principals, 606.
Principal Sojourner, 606.
Printed Proceedings, 606.
Prior, 607.

Grand.

See Grand Prior,

607.
Priory, 607.
Prison, 607.

Private Committee.
See Committee, Private, 607.
Privileged Questions, 607.
Privilege, Questions of, 607.
Probation, 607.
Problem, Forty-Seventh.
See
Forty-Seventh Problem, 607.
Processions, 607.
Proclamation, 608.
of Cyrus, 609.
Profane, 609.
Proficiency, 609.
Pro Grand Master, 610.
Progressive Masonry, CIO.

Promise, 611.
Promotion, 611.
Proofs, 611.

INDEX.

930
Property of a Lodge, 612.
Prophet, 612.
Prophets, Schools of the.

See

Schools of the Prophets, 612.

Proponenda, 612.
Proposing Candidates, 612.
Proscription, 612.
Proselyte of Jerusalem, 612.
Proselytism, 612.
Protector of Innocence, 614.
Protocol, 614.
Prototype, 614.
Provincial Grand Lodge, 614.
Master, 614.
Officers, 614.
Master of the Red Cross, 614.
Provost and Judge, 614.

Proxy

Reconsideration, Motion for, 633.

of the Ballot, 633.
Recorder, 633.
Records, Old, 633.

Reverential Sign, 645.

Revival, 645.

Rectification, 634.
Rectified Rite. See Martinism,
634.

Rhode

Rose Croix, Rite of.

See
Pose Croix, Pectified, 634.
Recusant, 634.

Red, 634.
Cross Knight, 635.
Knight of the.
Knight of the

tine, 635.

Sword of Babylon,

Prussia, 615.

Prussian Knight. See Noachite,

615.
615.

Publications, Masonic, 615.

Public Ceremonies, 617.

Puerility of Freemasonry, 618.
Puissant, 620.
Irish Master, 620.
Pulsanti Operietur, 620.

Punishments, Masonic, 620.

Purchase, 620.
Pure Freemasonry. See Primitive Freemasonry, 621.
Purification, 621.
Purity, 621.
Brothers of, 621.
Purple, 621.
Brethren, 621.
Lodges, 621.
Pyron, Jean Baptiste, 621.
Pythagoras, 622.

School

Rehum,

639.

Reinhold, Karl Leonhard, 639.

Reinstatement. See Restoration,

of Can-

didates, 623.
Quadrivium, 624.
Quakers, 624.
Quarrels, 624.
Quarries, 624.

639.
Rejection, 639.
Rejoicing, 639.

Board

of,

639.

Religion of Masonry, 639.

Religious Qualifications.

625.

RABBANAIM,

626.
626.

Rabbinism,
Rabboni, 626.
Ragon, J. M., 626.
Ragotzky, Carl August, 627.
Rains, 627.
Raised, 627.

Ramsay, Andrew Michael,

627.

633.

Roberts' Manuscript, 650.

Robes, 651.
Robins, Abbe Claude, 651.

Robison, John, 651.

Rockwell, William Spencer, 652.

Rod, 652.
Deacon's, 652.
Marshal's. See Baton, 652.
of Iron. 652.
Steward's, 653.
Treasurer's. See Staff, Treasurer's, 653.
Roessler, Carl, 653.
Roll, 653.
Roman Colleges of Artificers, 653
Romvel, 658.
Rosaic System, 658.

Croix, 659.

Brethren of the, 659.

See

Reprimand,

642.
Reputation, 643.
Residence, 643.

Philosophic, 660.
Prince of, 660.

Resignation of Membership, 643.

of Office, 643.

Sovereign

of Gold, Brethren of
the, 659.

Revelations of Masonry.
Expositions, 644.

Prince

of,

662.

Knights and Ladies of the.

See Knight of the Rose,
662.

Order of the, 662.

Rosenkreuz, Christian, 663.

Restoration, 643.
Resurrection, 644.
Returns of Lodges, 644.

Reverend, 644.

660.

Rectified, 662.

Rosicrucianism, 663.
Rosicrucian Society of England,

Reuben, 644.
631.

Rite, 649.
Ritter, 650.
Ritual, 650.
Robelot, 650.
Robert I., 650.

of Heredom, 660.
of the Dames, 660.
of the Grand Rosary,

Response, 643.

of,

Worshipful, 648.
Ring, Luminous. See Academy
of Sublime Masters of the
Luminous Ring, 648.
Masonic, 648.
Rising Sun, 649.

Representative
of a
Grand
Lodge, 642.
Representatives of Lodges, 642.
Representative System, 642.

Rawlinson Manuscript, 630.

Received and Acknowledged,

Recommendation, 632.
Reconciliation, Lodge of,

Excellent, 647.

Jacobite, 659.
Knight, 659.
Magnetic, 659.
of Germany, 659.

Resolution, 643.
Respectable, 643.

Reception, 631.
Recipient, 631.
Recognition, Modes

of.
See Knight of
Rhodes, 646.
Ribbon, 646.
Ridel, Cornelius Johann Rudolph, 646.
Right Angle, 646.
Eminent, 647.

Qualifications, 641.
Removal of Lodges, 641.
Renouncing Masons, 641.
Repeal, 642.
Report of a Committee, 642.
Reportorial Corps, 642.

Rite of, 630.

Ratisbon, 630.

631.

Knight

Rosa, Philipp Samuel, 658.

Rose, 658.
and Triple Cross,- 659.

Relief, 639.

Quarterly Communication, 625.

Quarternion, 625.
Quebec, 625.
Questions of Henry VI., 625.

Quorum,

See Old Regula-

tions, 639.

of, "622.

QUALIFICATIONS

636.
Letters, 636.
Reflection, Chamber of.
See
Chamber of Reflection, 636.
Reformed Helvetic Rite, 636.
Rite, 636.
Refreshment, 636.
Regalia, 637.
Regeneration, 637.
Regent, 637.
Reghellini, M., 637.
Regimental Lodge, 638.
Register, 638.
Registrar, Grand, 638.
Registration, 638.
Registry, 638.
Regular, 638.

Regulations.

Island, 646.

Rhodes, 646.

647.
Side, 648.

of Babylon, See Babylonish Pass, 635.

of Rome and Constan-

Installation, 614.

Rhetoric, 646.

Hand,

Cross, 635.
Legend, 635.

Master, 614.
Prudence, 614.

Pseudonym,

See

Ped

Revoke, 646.

See

666.
Cross, 666.

Rosy

Rough Ashlar.

See Ashlar, 666.

INDEX.
Round

King

Table,

Arthur's,

Saint John, Favorite Brother

of,

683.

666.

Towers of Ireland,

of.
See Lodge
of St. John, 683.
of Jerusalem, Knight
of.
See Knight of St.
John of Jerusalem,

Lodge

666.

Eowers. See Knight Rower, 666.

Royal and Select Masters. See
Council of Royal and Select

931

Masters, 666.

Arch, Ancient.

See

Kn ijht

John's Masonry, 683.

666.

Order, 683.
John the Almoner, 683.
the Baptist, 684.
the Evangelist, 684.
Leger. See Aldworth, 3Irs.,

Banners. See Banners,

Royal Arch, 667.
Captain, 667.

684.

Clothing, 667.

Martin, Louis Claude, 684.

Colors, 667.
Degree, 667.
Grand, 669.
Jewel, 669.
Masonry, 676.
of Enoch, 670.
of Ramsay, 670.
of Solomon, 670.
Zerubbabel, 670.
Robes, 670.
Tracing-Board, 670.

Nicaise, 685.

Word.

See Tetragrammaton, 671.

Working - Tools. See
Working- Tools, 671.
Ark Mariners, 671.
Arc, 671.

Axe, 674.
Lodge, 674.
Master, 674.
Order of Scotland, 675.
Priest, 678.
Secret, Sublime Prince of
the.
See Sublime Prince
of the Royal Secret 678.
R. S. Y. C. S., 678.
Ruffians, 678.
Rule, 679.

Rule of the Templars, 679.

Rulers, 680.
Russia, 680.

SABAISM,

680.

Sabaoth, 680.
Sabbath, 680.
Sabianism. See Sabaism, 6"SI.
Sackcloth, 681.
Sacred Asylum of High Masonry, 681.

Lodge, 681.
Sacrificant, 681.
Sacrifice, Altar of. See Altar, 681
Sacrifices 681.
Saint Adhabell,

681".

Alban, 681.
Albans, Earl of, 682.
Amphibalus, 682.

Paul's Church, 685.

Saints John, 685.
Festivals of. See Festivals,
686.

Saint Victor, Louis Guillemain

de, 686.

Francesco, 686.
Salix, 686.
Salle des Pas Perdus, 686.
Salomonis Sanctificatus Illuminatus, Magnus Jehova, 686.
Salsette, 686.
Salt, 686.
Salutation, 686.
Salutem, 686.
Salute Mason, 686.
Samaria, 687.

Salfi,

See Good Sa-

Samaritan, Good.
maritan, 687.
Samaritans, 687.

Domingo,
Sainte Croix,

682.

Emanuel Joseph

Guilhem de Clermont-Lodeve
de, 683.

Sanctum Sanctorum, 687.

Sandwich Islands, 687.
San Graal, 687.

Saint George's Day, 683.

Germain, 683.

Scott, Charles, 696.

Scottish, 696.
Degrees, 697.

Master.

See Ecossais, 696.

Rite, 697.

Templars.
See Templars
of Scotland, 698.
Trinitarians.
See Prince
of Mercy, 698.
Scribe, 698.
Scriptures, Belief in the, 698.
Reading of the, 698.
Scythe, 700.
Seal, 700.
of Solomon, 700.
Seals, Book of the Seven, 701.
Keeper of the, 701.
Search for Truth, 701.
Seceders, 701.

Second Temple.

See Temple of
Zerubbabel, 701.
Secrecy and Silence, 701.

Secretary, 702.

General of the Holy

Em-

pire, 702.

Grand.

See Grand Secre-

Societies, 703.

Sapphire, 68%.
Saracens, 688.
Sardius, 688.
Sarsena, 688.
Sash, 688.
Satrap, 689.
Savalette de Langes, 689.
Sayers, Anthony, 689.
Scald Miserables, 689.
Scales, Pair of, 690.
Scallop-Shell, 690.
Scandinavian Mysteries.
Gothic Mysteries, 691.

706.

Entered Apprentice, 706.

Warden,

See

See Red, 691.

Scenic Representations, 691.

Sceptre, 691.

Schaw Manuscript,

Secret Doctrine, 702.

Master, 702.

Vault. See Vault, Secret, 704

Sectarianism, 704.
Secular Lodges, 704.
Sedition Act, 704.
Seeing, 704.
Seekers, 704.
Select Master, 704.
Semestre, 705.
Senatorial Chamber, 705.
Seneschal, 705.
Senior Deacon.
See Deacons,

Sanhedrim, 688.
Sapicole, The, 688.

691.

William, 691.
Schismatic, 692.
693.

of the Prophets, 694.

Schrepfer, Johann Georg, 694.
Schroeder, Friederich Joseph

Wilhelm,

Scotland, 696.

Monitor, 703.
of the Secrets, The, 703.

Sanctuary, 687.

Andrew, Knight of.

See Schisms, 692.
Knight of St. Andrew, 681. Schneider, Johann August,
Andrew's Day, 682.
Schools, 694.
Augustine, 682.
Bernard, 682.

Masonic Association,

tary, 702.

Samothracian Mysteries, 687.

Scarlet.

Scientific
695.

Royal Order of. See Royal

Order of Scotland, 696.

683.

of the Ninth Arch,

Apron, 666.
Badge, 666.

Schroeder's System. See Schroeder, Friederich Ludwig, 695.

Sciences, Liberal.
See Liberal
Arts and Sciences, 695.

694.

Friederich Ludwig, 695.

Schroeder's Rite.
See Schroeder, Friederich Joseph Wilhelm, 695.

706.
Senses, Five. See Five Senses,
706.
Sentinel, 706.
Sephiroth, 706.
Septenary, 706.
Sepulchre, 706.
Knight of the Holy. See
Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, 706.
Serapis, Mysteries of. See Egyptian Mysteries, 706.
Sermons, Masonic, 706.
Serpent, 707.
and Cross, 707.
Knight of the Brazen. See
Knight of the Brazen Ser~
pent, 707.
Worship, 708.
Serving Brethren, 708.

INDEX.

932
Seth, 708.
Sethos, 708.
Setting Sun, 708.

Solomon, Temple of. See Temple of Solomon, 724.

Seven, 708.

Songs of Masonry, 725.

Son of a Mason, 726.
Sons of Light, 726.

Stars, 709.

Seventy Years of Captivity, 709.

Shaddai, 709.
Shamir, 709.
Sharp Instrument, 710.
Shastras, 710.

Sheba, Queen of, 710.

Shekel, 710.
Shekinah, 710.

Shem,

710.

Ham, Japheth,
Hamphorasch,

Stewards, 743.
Grand.
See

711.
711.

of the Prophets, 726.

of the Widow, 726.

Sorbonne, 726.
Sorrow Lodge, 726.
Soul of Nature, 726.
South, 727.

ard's Lodge, 743.

Stirling, 743.
Leger.
See Aldtvorth, 744.
St.
St.

Martin.

See Saint Martin,

Stockings, 744.
Stolkin, 744.
Stone, 744.
Corner. See

Corner-Stone,

744.

Cubical. See Cubical Stone,

*727.

744.

Grand Inspector General,

Shethar-Boznai. SeeTatnai, 711

See Grand Stew-

Lodge.

744.

Carolina, 727.
Sovereign, 727.
Commander of the Temple,

Sheriff, 711.

Grand Stew-

ards, 743.

Solstices, 724.

728.

Shew-Bread, 711.

Master, 729.

Shibboleth, 711.
Shield, 711.
of David, 712.

Prince Mason, 729.

Rose Croix.
See
Rose Croix, 729.

of

Manuscript, 744.
Stonemasons of the Middle Ages,
744.
Stone,

Nicholas.
See
Manuscript, 750.
of Foundation, 750.

Pavement,

Stone

Shock, 712.
of Enlightenment, 712.
of Entrance, 712.
Shoe, 713.

Spain, 729.
Sparticus, 730.
Speculative Masonry, 730.
Spes mea in Deo est, 732.

Rejected, 755.
Squarers. See Giblim, 755.

Shovel, 713.
Shrine, 713.
Side Degrees, 713.

Sphinx, 732.
Spire, Congress

William Leete,
Worship, 756.

Sight, Making Masons at, 713.

Sign, 715.
Signature, 716.
Signet, 716.
of Truth, 716.
of Zerubbabel, 716.
Significant Word, 716.
Sign of Distress, 716.
Silence.
See Secrecy and Silence, 717.
Silver and Gold, 717.
Cord, 717.
Sinai, 717.
Sintooism, 717.
Sir, 717.
Siroc, 717.
Sister Lodges, 718.
Sisters by Adoption, 718.
of the Gild, 718.
Situation of the Lodge, 718.
Six Lights, 718.
Periods, 718.
Skeleton, 719.
Skirrit, 719.
Skull, 719.
and Cross-bones, 719.
Slander, 719.
Slave. See Free Born, 719.
Sloane Manuscripts, 719.
Slip, 720.

of, 732.

Spiritualizing, 732.
Spiritual Lodge, 732.
Temple, 732.
Spoulee, John de, 733.
Spreading the Ballot, 733.

755.

White, 755.
755.

Strasburg, Cathedral

Congress

of,

of,

757.

758.

Strength, 758.

Stand to and Abide by, 738.

Strict Observance, Eite of, 758.

Striking Off, 758.
Stuart Masonry, 758.
Sublime, 760.
Degrees, 761.
Grand Lodge, 761.
Knight Elected, 761.
Masons, 761.
Prince of the Royal Secret,
761.
Solomon, 762.
Sublimes, The, 762.
Submission, 762.
Subordinate Lodge, 762.
Officers, 762.
Subordination, 762.

Star, 738.

Substitute Ark.

Sprengseisen, Christian Friederich Kessler von, 733.

Sprig of Acacia. See Acacia, 733.

Spurious Freemasonry, 733.

Spurs, 734.
Square, 735.

and Compasses, 735.

Squin de Flexian, 736.
Staff, 737.

Stairs, Winding.
Stairs, 738.

See Winding

Standard, 738.
Bearer, 738.

Blazing.

See Blazing Star,

738.

Eastern.

See Eastern Star,

Word,

738.

Five - Pointed.
See FivePointed Star, 738.

See Ark, Sub-

stitute, 762.

Candidate, 762.
Grand Master, 763.
763.

Succession to the Chair, 763.

Succoth, 765.

in the East, 738.

of Jerusalem, 738.
of the Syrian Knights, 738.
Starck, Johann August von, 738.
Stare Super Vias Antiquas, 740.

Sufferer, 765/
Summons, 765.
Sun, 765.

Smith, George, 720.

Smitten Builder, 721.
Snow, John, 721.
Snows. See Rains, 721.
Social Character of Freemason-

State, 740.
Stations, 740.
Statistics of Freemasonry, 740.

Moon, and Stars, 766.

Worship, 766.
Super Excellent Masons, 766.

Statute of Henry VI. See Laborers, Statute of, 741.

ry, 721.
Socius, 721.
Sodalities, 721.
Sofism, 721.

Statutes, 741.

Master, 766.
Superintendent of the Works,
Grand, 767.

So Help

Me

God, 722.

Sojourner.
See Principal Sojourner, 722.
Soldiers of Christ, 722.

Solomon, 722.

House

of,

St.

Clair Charters, 741.

William, 741.
Steinbach, Erwin of.
of Steinbach, 743.
Steinmetz, 743.
Step, 743.

Steps on the Master's Carpet,

743.

724.

SeeErwin

Sterkin, 743.

See Kn igft t
Sun, 766.

Knight of th e.
of

the.

Superior, 767.
Superiors, Unknown. See Unknown Superiors, 767.

Super-Masonic, 767.
Supplanting, 767.
Supports of the Lodge, 767.
Supreme Authority, 769.

Commander
769.

of the Stars,

INDEX.
Supreme Consistory,

Temple of Solomon,

769.

Sweden, 772.
Swedenborg, 773.
of,

775.

Swedish Rite, 776.

Switzerland, 776.

Sword, 778.
See Trowel
and Trowel.
and Sword, 779.

Tie, 815.

Sovereign Commander of
the.
See Sovereign Commander of the Temple, 804.
ofthe Sovereigns Grand
Commander of the,

Tierce, De la, 816.

Tile, 816.
Tiler, 816.

804.
Spiritual.

Tilly de Grasse.
Tilly de, 816.
Timbre, 816.

Naked

Tiler's, 780.

780.

Syllable, 780.
Symbol, 780.
781.

Symbolic Degrees, 782.

Lectures, 783.
Lodge, 783.

Machinery, 783.
Masonry, 783.
Symbolism, the Science

of,

783.

783.

Syndication of Lodges, 783.

Synod of Scotland,

784.

Syria, 784.
System, 784.

TABERNACLE,
Chief of the.

784.

See Chief of

the Tabernacle, 786.

Prince of the. See Prince
of the Tabernacle, 786.
Table Lodge, 786.
Tablets of Hiram Abif, 787.
Taciturnity, 788.
Tactics, 788.
Talisman, 788.
Talmud, 789.
Tamarisk, 790.
Taimehill, Wilkins, 790.
Tapis, 790.
Tarsel, 790.
Board, 790.
Tarshatha, 790.
Tassels, 790.
Tasting and Smelling, 790.
Tatnai and Shethar-Boznai, 790.
Tau, 791.
Cross, 791.
Team, 791.
Tears, 791.

Spiritual

Temple, 804.

See Work-

Theocratic Philosophy of Free-

masonry, 812.
Theological Virtues, 812.
Theoricus, 812.
Theosophists, 812.
Therapeutse, 813.

792.

Templarius, 792.
Templar Land, 792.
Origin of Masonry, 792.
Templars of England, 793.

son, 813.

Thirty-Second
Degree.
See
Prince of the Royal Secret,
813.
Six, 813.

Third Degree.

of Scotland, 794.

Temple, 795.

Grand Commander of
796.

of Ezekiel, 796.
of Herod, 7!'ti.

the,

See Grasse,

Titles, 816.

of Grand Lodges, 817.

Tito, 817.
Toasts, 817.
Token, 819.

Tolerance Lodge, 819.

Toleration, 819.
Tomb of Adoniram, 819.
of Hiram Abif, 819.
of Tyre, 819.

Tongue, 820.
See InstrucTongue, 820.
of Good Report, 820.
Topaz, 820.
Torches, 820.
Torgau, Constitutions of, 820.
Torrubia, Joseph, 820.
Tournon, M., 821.
Tow, Cable. See Cable Tow, 821.
Tower, Degree of the, 821.
of Babel. See Babel, 821.
Town, Salem, 821.
Townshend, Simeon, 821.
Tracing-Board, 821.
Trade Gilds. See Gilds, 821.
Instructive.
tive

Tradition, 821.

Tramping Masons,

822.

Transfer of Warrant, 822.

Transient Brethren, 822.
Transition Period, 822.
Transmission, Charter of, 822.
Travel, 822.
Travelling Freemasons, S22.

813.

Salverte, 814.
Life, 814.
Three, 814.
Globes, Rite of the
Lodge of the, 815.
Grand
Offerings.

Thread of

Floor

826.

Treasure, Incomparable, S_6.

Treasurer, 826.
Grand. See Grand Treasurer, 826.

Hermetic, 826.
See Sov- Trestle-Board, 826.

ereign Grand Inspector

General, 813.

Ground

Tiler's,

and Circumstances, 816.

Tirshatha, 816.

Ma- Travenol, Louis >

Thoux de

orden, 792.

See Oath,

Warrants, 826.
See Master

Tempelorden or Tempelherren- Thory, Claude Antoine,

Temperance, 792.
Templar. See Knight Templar,

Tiler's Oath.
816.

Time, 816.

of the, 804.

at the Temple, 805.

Templier, 805.
Templum Hierosolymse, 805.
Ten, 805.
Tengu, 805.
Tennessee, 805.
Tent, 805.
Tenure of Office, 806.
Tercy, 806.
Terminus, 806.
Terrasson, the Abbe Jean, 806.
Terrible Brother, 806.
Territorial Jurisdiction, 806.
Tessel, Indented. See Tessellated
Border, 808.
Tessellated, 807.
Border, 807.
Tessera Hospitalis, 808.
Testimony, 808.
Tests, 808.
Test Word, 809.
Tetractys, 810.
Tetragrammaton, 810.
Teutonic Knights, 811.
Texas, 811.
T.\ G.\ A/. 0.\ T.\ U.\, 812.
Thammuz, 812.
Thanks, 812.
Theism, 812.

Theurgy, 813.
Third Degree.

and

Mystic. See Mystic Tie, 815.

men

Pointing to the
Heart, 780.
Templar's, 780.

Symbol of Glory,

See

Urim

See
815.

the, 799.
Second, 803.

Workmen at the.

Grand, 779.
of State, 779.

Compound,

Thumm'nn,

Order of

Symbolism

Bearer, 779.

Sworn Brothers,

Thummim.

796.

of Zerubbabel, 798.

Council, 769.
Suspension, 771.
Sussex, Duke of, 772.

Rite

933

Grand

of

Lodge, 815.
Points, 815.
Senses, 815.
Steps.
See Steps on
Master's Carpet, 815.
Threshing-Floor, 815.
Tli rone, 815.

Triad, 827.
Triads, Druidical, 828.
Triad Society of China, 828.
Trials, Masonic, 828.
Triangle, 829.
Double. See Seal of Solomon and Shield of David,
830.

See
the

the

of Pythagoras.

See Pen-

talpha, 830.
Radiated, 830.
Triple, 830.

Tribe of Judah, Lion of the, 831.

Tribes of Israel, 831.
Tribunal, 831.

Supreme,
Triliteral

831.
832.

Name,

INDEX.

984
Trinidad, 832.
Trinosophs, 832.
Triple Alliance, 832.

Society of the, 833.

True Masons. See Academy of

True Masons, 833.
Trust in God, 833.
Truth, 834.
Tschoudy, Louis Theodore, 834.
Tuapholl, 835.
837.

ry, 839.

Twenty-Four Inch Gauge,

840.

One, 840.
Seven, 840.
Six, 840.

Two- Lettered Name,

840.

Tyler, 840.

Type, 840.
840.

841.

Tyrian Freemasons, 841.

TT.-. D.-., 841.

\J

Wayfaring Man,

Uden, Conrad Friederich,

Vehm-gericht.
See Westphalia, Secret Tribunal of, 853.
Veils, Grand Masters of the,

Welcome, 875.
Well Formed, True, and Trusty

844.

Universal Language. See Language, Universal, 846.

Harmony, Order of. See

Mesmeric Masonry, 846.

Universi Terrarum, etc., 846.
Unknown Philosopher, 846.
847.
Unutterable Name, 847.
Unworthy Members, 847.
Upper Chambers, 847.
Upright Posture, 848.
Uriel, 848.
Urim and Thummim, 848.
Uriot, Joseph, 849.

Wedekind,
Gottlieb,

Georg
Christian
Baron von, 874.

Weeping Virgin, 874.

Weishaupt, Adam, 874.
876.

Wesley, Samuel, 876.

West, 876.
Westphalia, Secret Tribunals
of,

West

876.

Virginia, 879.

White, 879.
Ball, 881.

Cross Knights, 881.

Mantle, Order of the, 881.

Masonry, 881.
Stone, 881.

William Henry, 881.

Widow's Son, 881.
Wife and Daughter, Mason's.
See Mason's Wife and Daughter, 882.

Wilhelmsbad, Congress

Winding

860.

Joachim

Sigis-

860.

Stairs, 882.

Window,
Wine,

886.
886.

Wings of the Cherubim, Extended, 886.

Wolfenbuttel, Congress

W^aechter, Eberhard, Baron von, 863.

Wages of a Master Mason, Symbolic. See Foreign Countries, 863.

of Operative Masons, 863.

of the Workmen at the

Temple, 864.
Wales, 865.
865.
865.

Wardens,

See

of, 888.
888.
Wood - cutters, Order of. See
Fendeurs, 888.
Woog, Carl Christian, 888.
Word, 889.
Lost. See Lost Word, 889.
Mason, 889.
Sacred, 890.
Significant. See Significant
Word, 890.
True, 890.
Work. See Labor, 890.
Working-Tools, 890.
Work, Master of the, 890.
Workmen at the Temple, 890.
Workshop, 892.
World, 892.
Worldly Possessions, 892.
Wealth, 893.
Worship, 893.
Worshipful, 893.

Woman,

Grand.

Petition, 887.

Witnesses. See Trials, 887.

Woellner, Johann Christoph
von, 887.

Wolf, 888.

Voigt, Friederich, 861.

Voting, 861.

Wands,

882.

Legend of the, 882.

Wind, Mason's, 886.

Wisconsin, 886.

of,

of,

Will, 882.
Wilson Manuscript, 882.

Wisdom, 887.
Withdrawal of

Right

872.
872.

Thomas Smith,

Grand, 859.

Right of, 861.

Vouching, 861.
See Voyages, 862.

land, 845.
States of America, 845.
Supreme Council, 846.
Unity of God, 846.
Universality of Masonry, 846.

Sojourners, 872.

Webb-Preston Work,

Visiting Brethren, 860.

mund,

of the Twenty-Two.
German Union of Two
and Twenty, 845.
United Grand Lodge of Eng-

Superiors, 846.

Virgin, Weeping. See Weeping

Virgin, 859.
Visible Masonry, 859.

Vivat, 860.
Vogel, Paul

Master's Degree, 844.

of German Masons, 8+4.
of Scientific. Freemasons,

Untempered Mortar,

854.

Perfect, 855.
Venezuela, 855.
Vengeance, 855.
Verger, 856.
Vermont, 856.
Vernh.es, J. F., 856.
Vertot, d'Auboeuf, Rene-Aubert
de, 856.
Vesica Piscis, 857.
Vexillum Belli, 857.
Viany, Auguste de, 857.
Vielle-Bru, Rite of, 857.
Villars, Abbe Montfaucon de,
857.
Vincere aut Mori, 857.
Vinton, David, 857.
Violet, 858.
Virginia, 858.

Visit,

Unfavorable Report, 843.

Uniformity of Work, 843.
Union, Grand Masters', 844.

872.

Weary

Visitation,

841.

Unaffiliated Mason, 841.

Unanimous Consent, 842.

872.

in Office, 850.
V Vale or Valley, 850.
Valley, 851.
Vassal, Pierre Gerard, 851.
Vault of Steel, 851.
Secret, 851.
Vedas, 853.

Venerable, 855.
Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges, 855.

Turquoise, 838.
Tuscan Order, 838.
Twelve, 838.
Illustrious Knights, 838.
Lettered Name, 838.
Original Points of Mason-

of,

Water-fall, 872.

TrACANCIES

853.

Turkey, 837.

Tyre, 840.
Quarries

Utah, 850.

Symbolism of the,

Turcopolier, 837.

Typhon,

Washington Territory,
Watchwords, 872.

Urn, 849.

Tau, 832.
Trivium. See Quadrivium, 832.
Trowel, 832.
and Sword, 833.

Tubal Cain, 835.

Tune, Freemasons',
Turban, 837.

Uruguay, 850.

Grand War-

dens, 866.

Warder, 866.
Warlike Instrument,

867.

War, Masonry in, 867.

Warrant of Constitution, 868.
Washing Hands. See LustraWashington, Congress

Lodge.

of,

869.

See

Worshipful^

See

Worshipful,

893.

Master.

tion, 869.

893.

Most, 893.

INDEX.
Worshipful,Right, 893.
Very, 893.
Wren, Sir Christopher, 893.
Wrestle, 894.
Writing, 895.

Wykeham, William

of,

895.

Wysacre, 896.

Year of Masonry,
of
of
of
of

the
the
the
the

900.

Deposite, 900.
Discovery, 900.
Order, 900.

World, 900.
Yeas and Nays, 900.
Yeldis, 900.

Yellow, 900.

XAINTRAILLES,

Madame

de, 896.

Xavier, Mier

Campello, Fran-

cisco, 897.

Jacket, 900.
Yevele, Henry, 901.
Yggrasil, 901.
Y-ha-ho, 901.

935
Zadok, 907.
Zarathustra, 907.
Zarthan, 907.
Zeal, 907.

Zedekiah, 907.
Zelator, 907.
Zendavesta, 908.
Zenith, 908.
Zennaar, 908.
Zerbal, 909.
Zeredatha, 909.
Zerubbabel, 909.

Xerophagists, 897.
Xerxes, 897.

Yod,

Xinxe, 897.

York

Zinnendorf, JohanD
von, 911.
Rite of, 912.

ZABUD,

Zion, 912.
Zizon, 912.
Zodiac, Masonic, 912.
Zoroaster, 912.
Zurthost, 914.

Y897.
Yates,
5

Giles Fonda, 897.

Yaveron Hamaim, 899.

Year, Hebrew, 899.
of Light, 899.

901.

Yoni, 901.
Constitutions, 901.
Legend, 902.
Manuscripts, 905.
Rite, 906.
907.

Zabulon, 907.

Wilbeim

ADDENDUM
TO

ORIGINAL WORK,
CONTAINING NUMEROUS OMITTED SUBJECTS AND THE
RESULTS OF LATER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY
TO THE PRESENT TIME.
BY
C.

T.

McCLENACHAN.
*

58

37

PREFACE TO ADDENDUM.
original very excellent Preface by

enlarge upon the

would be superfluous
IT Dr.
Albert G. Mackey,
which he
forth
to

in

most lucidly his objects and

sets

the fulness of his purpose in compiling the " Encyclopaedia of

its

Kindred Sciences," were

Freemasonry and

not that advancing time and continued investigation

it

have disclosed additional information in return for the deep and persistent
researches of eminent

and indefatigable seekers

otherwise an Addendum to
As
latest

his valuable

after

more

work would be

the young student or older devotee looks

for,

and

light in

Masonry,

entirely gratuitous.

is

entitled to receive, the

Masonic information and deductions derived from research in a work of

this class, I

have with diffidence undertaken

from the standpoint where he ceased

to carry

on the work of the Doctor

his labors ten years

ago

not by withdraw-

ing a word from, or interpolating, the original, but by means of a voluminous

Addendum

replacing the few pages of Supplement that concluded the original

work, and which consisted of material incidentally omitted in

This addition, therefore,

and
I

is

its

relative position.

a more complete compilation of subsequent discoveries

opinions.

have been induced to undertake

this pleasing task

because such action

fraternally invited toward the close of the Doctor's Preface,

and who

is

also says, " I

do not present this work as perfect, for I well know that the culminating point

human

of perfection can never be attained by

circumstances, I have sought to
for the

make

it

But under many adverse

effort.

Encyclopaedias are,

as perfect as I could.

most part, the result of the conjoined labor of

many

writers."

Neither

do I assume perfection in the Addendum, but hope to advance an additional

step toward completion.

Who

more appropriately should carry out

this

invitation

and

effort

of the

esteemed Doctor than one

who knew him intimately and revered him

a generation, and who

not improbable would have been selected by him, had

it is

the choice been given the original author and compiler to continue a
is

"the

result of the conjoined labor of

This Addendum, therefore,

who had no peer

is

many

for nearly

work which

writers."

offered as a loving tribute to

in his successful endeavors to

add

an esteemed author,

so materially to the general

information of the Craft.

C. T.

New York,

January

1,

1891.

McClenachan.

I
^0mm%

emou.

ALBERT GALLATIN MACKEY.

Great Giver, grant

The

*\T0
,JL

more

to

active. life, in the

me Thy

last gift

and

best,

gift of rest"

cause of the welfare of his fellow-man, can be referred

tn g reat er pride than that of

Albert Gallatin Mackey, who was

born at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 12th of March, 1807.

Having passed

four

years beyond the threescore and ten, ever studying the best interests of humanity,

the period for rest

became welcome,

and

of June, 1881, the eminent scholar and

He

thus, at "

Mason

was the youngest son of Dr. John Mackey,

born in Lancaster

district,

and a

Old Point Comfort," on the 20th

yielded to the inevitable in nature.

also a native of

lineal descendant of the celebrated

South Carolina,

Highland

chieftain,

Rob Roy Macgregor. At an early age, Albert the son became dependent upon his
own energy. After receiving an excellent English education and an elementary course

which he

subsequently and assiduously privately pursued,

tutor, receiving, at the

age of seventeen, the appointment of teacher of

in the classical languages,

he

became a

the public school on John's Island, in the neighborhood of Charleston.

While thus em-

ployed, he devoted himself so sedulously to the study of medicine that he was admitted
to the

South Carolina medical college

at Charleston,

receiving his diploma as a doctor of medicine.

and was graduated March,

His thesis in Latin obtained the

941

1832,
first

MEMOIR OF ALBERT GALLATIN MACKEY.

942
prize

an

equivalent to the

first

honor in other

tised his profession in the vicinity of Charleston,

Asiatic cholera.

Dr. Mackey, residing about

For some years he prac-

colleges.

which

fifty

city, in 1836,

was

visited

by the

miles from the city, hastened to the

scene of the plague, taking charge of a plantation on one of the neighboring islands

where the cholera was raging among the negroes.

Without

weeks he skilfully treated the disease, and finally checked

returned to the

city,

which became

1836, he married Miss Sarah

his

assistance, for several

its

He

progress.

then

permanent residence, and where, December

Pamela Hubbell.

28,

In 1838 he was elected demonstrator of

the college in which he was graduated

and was also appointed physician of the city almshouse.

anatomy in the South Carolina medical college

six years before

Although Dr. Mackey was devoted

especially his fondness for linguistic
to relinquish the practice of

to his profession, his strong literary taste,

and archaeological

medicine and to devote himself entirely to

Subsequently he was connected with

many

literary

and

and

pursuits, led him, about 1842,

literature.

political journals, such as the

Southern Quarterly Review, Literary Bulletin, Southern Patriot, Charleston Evening News,

and Morning

Total Abstinence Banner, Charleston Sun,

was the principal and of others the associate editor.

literary magazines,

and

successful
"

The Middle Ages,"

"

his lectures

Mackey was eminently

on the "Temperaments,"

of Woman," " The Poetry of Talismans,"

much favor wherever delivered.
Mackey attained his greatest celebrity, for to

The True Condition

were received with

subjects,

Masonry, however, that Dr.

It is in

some of which he

also contributed largely to

a lecturer on literary subjects, Dr.

whenever he entered the lyceum, and

and on other

He

his fugitive pieces are scattered over the pages of Southern

As

periodical literature.

Transcript, of

He

was

initiated,

passed, and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in 1841, in

St.

Andrew's

that and

its

Lodge, No.
Lodge, No.

kindred sciences he devoted the best years of his

10, at Charleston, S. C.
1,

immediately afterwards he

life.

affiliated

with Solomon's

of the same city, and in December, 1842, was elected Master thereof.

In the following year, December, 1843, he was elected Grand Secretary, and in March,
1845,

Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge of South

Carolina.

In both

offices

he was

continued uninterruptedly until 1866, combining with the duties of the Secretariat
that of preparing the Reports on Foreign Correspondence.

Royal Arch Masons of South Carolina, Dr.

1845,

Deputy Grand High Priest

when he was made Grand High

re-elections, until 1867.

Upon

in 1847,
Priest, in

Mackey was
and

In the Grand Chapter of

elected

filled

which position he served, by continuous

the organization, in 1860, in South Carolina of a

these important positions in the

in

in each successive year, until 1854,

Council of Royal and Select Masters, he was elected Grand Master.

he

Grand Lecturer

Grand

During the period

Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, and Grand

Council of South Carolina, he exercised a potential and beneficial influence over the

Masonry of that
to

State,

which grew under

one of great prosperity.

instructive lectures

he represented.

and

his fostering care

from a condition of weakness

His Annual Reports on Foreign Correspondence, and his

addresses, gave

him a reputation which was shared by the Bodies

In 1859, the Royal Arch Masons of the United States, at their triennial

convocation in Chicago, elected him to the highest position within their

gift,

that of

MEMOIR OF ALBERT GALLATIN MACKEY.

General Grand High Priest

Mackey took an

Dr.

an

interest

became a member of the Supreme Council

rite,

At an

for six years.

of the United States, and was immediately elected

tinuously occupied until his death.

its

for the

Southern Jurisdiction

Secretary-General, which he con-

For many years he was the oldest member of the

Rite in the United States, in virtue of which he held the position of

mark

Council, and, as a

ment, made the

As a contributor

Supreme Body, by

of respect and esteem, that

of Secretary-General, which

office

third office during his

to the literature

whom no

usually the sixth in rank, the

is

and science of Freemasonry, Dr. Mackey's labors

this country or in

Rob

Europe.

one has had better opportunities of judging, said in 1856, in his

Reminiscences, that "the character of Dr.

writer in all departments o

unless

Dean of the
special enact-

life.

have been more extensive than those of any other in

Morris, than

early period

Masonry, the abstruse philosophy of

in Scottish Rite

In 1844, he received the Thirty-third or ultimate degree of

which he found congenial.

that

which he held

office

943

Masonry

is,

Mackey

we

as a profound

and lucid historian and

conceive, unequalled

by any living

writer,

be the venerable Dr. Oliver of England."

it

In 1845, Dr. Mackey published his

first

Masonic work, entitled A Lexicon of Free-

masonry, which he from time to time revised, corrected, and enlarged, until

contained twice as

much matter

Of

as the first edition.

editions have been published in this country,

this

it

finally

book about eighteen

and four in England.

In 1851 he pub-

Then followed The Ahiman Rezon

lished his second work, entitled The Mystic Tie.

of

South Carolina, in 1852; Principles of Masonic Law, in 1856; Book of the Chapter, in

1858

Text-Book of Masonic Jurisprudence, in 1859

Carolina, in 1861

Manual of

the Lodge, in

1862

History of Freemasonry in South

Cryptic Masonry, in 1867

and Masonic Ritual, in 1869; Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry,

Masonic Parliamentary Law, in 1875.
of Freemasonry

Dr.

Mackey

Symbolism

in 1874;

and

Masonic periodical press of the country.

also contributed largely to the

In 1849 he established and edited the Southern and Western Masonic Miscellany, which

he discontinued after the close of the

of a Masonic review, the
the

title

first

fifth year.

tory, that

Upon
assume

it

appearance in July, under

its

of The American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry

two years, the publication was discontinued,

to

In 1857 he undertook the publication

number of which made

but, after

an existence of

being evident, as asserted in the valedic-

a Masonic magazine of so high a standard was in advance of the Masonic age.

the suspension of the Quarterly Review of Freemasonry, Dr.
editorial charge of a

in July, 1859

Mackey was

invited

department of the American Freemason, which he accepted

but his connection with that magazine continued for a year only

In 1865 he was solicited to take charge of a department in the Masonic Trowel, to

which he consented,
for the successive

his first article appearing in the

numbers he continued

In October, 1871, Dr.

his

Mackey again began

own, Mackey's National Freemason.

his Quarterly Review,

und consequently

was too profound

after three years it

September number of 1865, and

to write for nearly three years.

the publication of a Masonic magazine of

Although a periodical of great merit,

it,

like

in its disquisitions to suit the general reader,

was discontinued.

Immediately thereafter, Dr.

MEMOIR OF ALBERT GALLATIN MACKEY.

944

Mackey's services were secured

editors in January, 1875,

and

for the Voice of

Masonry, of which he became one of the

for over four years

was a constant contributor

to the

columns of that periodical.

Dr.

Mackey was

ever too

much

of a litterateur to become a politician by profession,

War of

drew him within

During the

late

the Rebellion, in opposition to the dominant sentiment of the people of his

own

yet the force of circumstances for a time

State (South Carolina)

and the opinions of

his

most

its lines.

influential

and nearest

friends,

he

maintained an undisguised allegiance to the Federal Union, and continued through the

He

whole contest zealously loyal to the National government.

tunity to afford relief to the Federal prisoners
his reach,

and many

still

whom

embraced every oppor-

the fortunes of war brought within

remember with gratitude the

services

he then rendered them.

In recognition of his well-known devotion to the cause of the Union, he was appointed,
in

July, 1865, by the President of the United States, Collector of Customs at the port

In 1868, in accordance with the reconstruction acts of Congress, a con-

of Charleston.

vention of the people of South Carolina was called to form a constitution.

To

this

convention he was chosen a delegate from the county of Charleston, and upon
organization was unanimously elected president.

held in pursuance of the

new

constitution, he

the Senate of the United States.

invitation of the

He

At

the

first

session of the Legislature,

was within one vote of being elected

subsequently withdrew from

Supreme Council of Scottish Rite Masons

its

for the

politics,

and

to

at the

Southern Jurisdiction

of the United States, removed, in 1870, to the city of Washington, D.

C, where he

continued to reside until, advised by his physician, he went to Old Point Comfort.
Virginia, and there died in June, 1881.

In the eulogy over Dr. Mackey, delivered by Past Grand Master Henry Buist, of
Georgia, before the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction, he said of the

Doctor

"He

was a fearless and gifted s'peaker; his language was courteous and manner
and occasionally, in his earnestness to maintain what he conceived to be
the -right, he became animated and eloquent. Positive in his convictions, he was bold
in their advocacy.
His course of action once determined on, supported by an approving conscience, no fear or disfavor or discomfiture could swerve him from his fixed
dignified;

purpose.

"Whatever was the emergency, he was always equal to it.

Where others doubted, he was confident; where others faltered, he was immovable;

"

where others queried, he affirmed.

" He was faithful to every public and Masonic duty.
his character.

He

never betrayed a

Treachery found no place in

trust.

" He was eminently sincere and loyal to his friends, and those who were most intimately associated with him learned to appreciate him the most.
"He was generous and frank in his impulses, and cherished malice toward none,

and charity

for all.

"His monument
"
is

He

is

is

in the hearts of those

no longer of this earth.

complete."

who knew him

His work among men

and

longest

is

ended

best.

his earthly record

C. T.

McC.

ADDENDUM.
ADAM
A.

In the Accadian, Greek,

(tf, Aleph.)
Etruscan, Pelasgian, Gallic, Samaritan,
and Egyptian or Coptic, of nearly the same
formation as the English letter. It originally meant with or together, but at present signifies one. In most languages it is
the initial letter of the alphabet; not so,
however, in the Ethiopian, where it is the
thirteenth.
The sacred Aleph has the numerical value of one, and is composed of
two Yods, one on either side of an inclined
Vau. It is said to typify the Trinity in
Unity. The Canaanite signification is Bull,
symbol of generation. The Divine name
in Hebrew connected with this letter is

rrnN, a h i h.
Aaron's Band. A degree instituted
in 1824, in Xew York city, mainly for social

purposes, and conferred in an independent

body. Its ceremonies were not dissimilar
to those of High Priesthood, which caused
the Grand Eoyal Arch Chapter of the State
to take umbrage, and the small gathering

Auditorium. A
deposit of records

secret place for the

a Tabularium.

Abercorn, Earl

of. James HamilLord Paisley, named Grand Master of

England by the retiring G. Master, the
Duke of Eichmond, in 1725. He was at
that time the Master of a Lodge, and assisted in instituting the existing Lodge of
ton,

Benevolence.

Abib. The

original

name

He-

first

of

the

Abib

year.

ecclesiastical
is

frequently

mentioned in the Sacred

Scriptures,
and signifies
green ears of corn or fresh
fruits.

Abibala.

The

first

Assassin in the Elu of the

Modern French

Eite.
Defrom the Hebrew
words Abi and balah, father

rived

of destruction.

dispersed.

Abaciscus.

The diminutive of Aba-

and, in architecture, refers to the

squares of the tessellated pavement or
checkered flooring of the ground floor of
the Solomonian Temple.
Abazar. The title given to the Master of Ceremonies in the Sixth Degree of
the Modern French Eite.
Abcbal. The father of Hiram, the
King of Tyre.
Abdiel. (Heb., Servant of God.) The
name of an angel mentioned by the Jewish
Kabbalists. He is represented in Milton's
Paradise Lost, Book Y., as one of the seraphim, who, when Satan tried to stir up a
revolt among the angels subordinate to his
authority, alone and boldly withstood his
traitorous designs
cus,

Acacia.

Acacia vera,

or Nilotica, in Africa, called

babul tree in India, and its
gum babul, which is similar to gum-arabic.

The bark of Acacia Arabica

tonic in India.

the faithless, faithful only he

honor and

5T

Acade*inie des Illumines d' Av-

A Hermetic system of philosophy, created in 1785.

The Entered Apprentice degree symbolizes the creation of man and
his first perception of light.
In the Eiohist form of the Creation we read, " Elohim
said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let him have
dominion over the fishes of the sea, over
the fowls of the air, over the cattle, and
over all the earth, and over every reptile
that creeps upon the earth
And Elohim
created man in his image in the image of
Elohim he created him male and female
he created them.
And Yah veh Elohim
formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed in his nostrils the breath of life,

Adam.

'

60

'

of

and man was made a living

faithfulness.

a powerful

innumerable false, unmoved,

Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal.

The name Abdiel became the synonym

is

ignon.

Among
Among

of the

brew month Nisan, nearly corresponding

to the month of March, the

being.''

945

With-

ADAM

946

ADAM

ADDENDUM.

out giving more than a passing reference to

the speculative origin and production of man
and to his spontaneous generation Principe
Generateura,s set forth by the Egyptians,
when we are told that " the fertilizing mud
left by the Nile, and exposed to the vivifying action of heat induced by the sun's
rays, brought forth germs which spring up
as the bodies of men," accepted cosmogonies only will be hereinafter mentioned thus
in that of Peru, the first man, created by the
;

is called Alpa Cam"Animated earth." The Mandans, one

of the North American tribes, relate that the
Great Spirit moulded two figures of clay,
which he dried and animated with the
breath of his mouth, one receiving the
name of First Man, and the other that of
Companion. Taeroa, the god of Tahiti,

Divine Omnipotence,

asca,

formed

man

as

of the red earth, say the in-

and so we might continue. But

Francois Lenormant remarks in the Be-

habitants

ginnings of History, let us confine ourselves

to the cosmogony offered by the sacred
traditions of the great civilized nations of
antiquity. " The Chaldeans call Adam the

man whom

the earth produced.

And he

lay without movement, without life, and

without breath, just like an image of the
heavenly Adam, until his soul had been

given him by the latter." The cosmogonic

account peculiar to Babylon, as given by
Berossus, says: "Belos, seeing that the
earth was uninhabited, though fertile, cut
off his own head, and the other gods, after
kneading with earth the blood that flowed

formed men, who therefore are endowed with intelligence, and share in the
divine thought," etc. The term employed
to designate " man," in his connection with
his Creator, is admu, the Assyrian counterpart of the Hebrew Adam.
(G. Smith,
Chaldean Account of Genesis.) Lenormant

from

it,

further says, that the fragments of Berossus

give Adoros as the name of the first patriarch, and Adiuru has been discovered on

the cuneiform inscriptions.

Zoroaster makes the creation of man the
voluntary act of a personal god, distinct
from primordial matter, and his theory
stands alone among the learned religions of
the ancient world.
According to Jewish tradition in the

Targumim and

and successively Noah took the place of

Seth, and so followed Abraham and Moses.
The worship of Adam as the God-like idea,
succeeded by Seth, Noah, Abraham, and
Moses, through the symbolism of pillars,
monoliths, obelisks, or Matsebas (images),
gave rise to other symbolic images, as where
Noah was adored under the emblems of a

man, ark, and serpent, signifying heat, fire,

or passion.
Upon the death of Adam, says traditional history, the pious Gregory declared that the " dead body should be kept
above ground, till a fulness of time should
come to commit it to the middle of the
earth by a priest of the most high God."
This traditional prophecy was fulfilled, it
is said, by the body of Adam having been
preserved in a chest until about 1800 B. c,
when " Melchizedek buried the body in
Salem (formerly the name of Jerusalem),
which might very well be the middle of the
habitable world."
The Sethites used to say their prayers
daily in the Ark before the body of Adam.
J. G. E. Forlong, in his Rivers of Life, tells
us that " It appears from both the Sabid
Aben Batric and the Arabic Catena, that
there existed the following short litany,
said to have been conceived by Noah.'
Then follows the prayer of Noah, which
was used for so long a period by the Jewish Freemasons at the opening of the
'

Lodge
"

'

O Lord, excellent art thou in thy truth,

and there

nothing great in comparison

the eye of
mercy and compassion. Deliver us from
this deluge of waters, and set our feet in a
large room.
By the sorrows of Adam, the
first made man
by the blood of Abel, thy
holy one by the righteousness of Seth, in
whom thou art well pleased; number us
not amongst those who have transgressed
thy statutes, but take us into thy merciful
care, for thou art our Deliverer, and thine
is the praise for all the works of thy hand
is

Look upon us with

of thee.

for evermore.

Amen, Lord.' "

Aud

the sons of

Noah

said,

The Master of the Lodge would omit the

reference to the deluge and add the following to the prayer " But grant, we beseech
thee, that the ruler of this lodge may be
:

Talmud, as also to Moses endued with knowledge and wisdom to inwas created man and struct us and explain his secret mysteries,
woman at the same time, having two faces, as our ljoly brother Moses did (in his lodge)
turned in two opposite directions, and that to Aaron, to Eleazar, and to Ithamar.(the
during a stupor the Creator separated Hav- sons of Aaron), and the several elders of
Maimonides,

the

Adam

vah, his feminine half, from him, in order

to make of her a distinct person.
Thus
were separated the primordial androgyn.

With Shemites and Mohammedans Adam

was symbolized in the Lingam, whilst with
the Jews Seth was their Adam or Lingam,

Israel."

Adam Kadmon.

In the Kabbalistic
to the first emanation from the Eternal Fountain. It
signifies the first man, or the first production of divine energy, or the son of God,
doctrine, the

name given

AFFILIATE

to it the other and inferior emanations

are subordinate.

Allah.

and

Affiliate,

Free.

ALPHABET

ADDENDUM.

n"7X,

(Assyrian (Fig.

elah;

Hebrew,

The French gave

the name of " free affiliates" to those members of a lodge who are exempted from the
payment of dues, and neither hold office

nor vote. Known among Americans as

" honorary members."
Africa. In the French Rite of Adoption, the south of the lodge is called Africa.
African Brotherhood. The Purrah is a strong brotherhood in the country
back of the Sierra Leone. The ceremonies

(Fig.

~+

ilu; Aramaic,.

The

Moah.)

ni'Sx,

(Fig.

1.)

1),

947

(Fig. 3.)

2.)

&JJ.

SS,

Arabic name of God, derived from (Fig. 2)

2/A,god,andthearticle(Fig.3)a/, expressing
the God by way of eminence. In the great
profession of the Unity, on which is founded
the religion of Islam, both terms are used, as,

are sealed to the uninitiated, and are discovered to be in progress by the howls and
dancing lights. Profane intrusion would
be death. The object or purpose of the
Two other
brotherhood is not known.
associations exist, known as the Samo and
the Bundo, but their ceremonies and definite object have not been promulgated.

pronounced "La ilaha ill' Allah," there

is no god but God, the real meaning of the
expression being, " There is only one God."
Africa, South. A movement com- Mohammed relates that in his night journey
menced in 1881 has proved to be au fait from Mecca to Jerusalem, on ascending
accompli in the constitution of a District through the seven heavens, he beheld above
Grand Lodge, English Constitution, for the throne of God this formula; and the
Natal, Free State, Griqualand West, and green standard of the Prophet was adorned
Transvaal in South Africa. There are few with the mystic sentence. It is the first
towns where Masonry flourishes as health- phrase lisped by the infant, and the devout
fully as it does in Cape Town.
Masonic Moslem utters the profession of the faith at
buildings in that section compare well all times, in joy, in sorrow, in praise, in
with some of the handsome structures in prayer, in battle, and with his departing
other countries. The Grand Lodge has in- breath the words are wafted to heaven for
stituted a Masonic Board of Education, among the peculiar virtues of these words
which is in its fourth year, and out of is that they may be spoken without any moa treasury of $2000 spent $1000 for edu- tion of the lips. The mourners on their
;

way

cation.

Agathopades. A liberal ecclesiastical order founded in Brussels in the sixteenth century. Revived and revised by
Schayes in 1846. It had for its sacred sign
the pentastigma . I.

Agenda. The order of business, or

order of the day. The prospective business to be brought before an association,
and frequently used in the higher degrees
of Masonry, thus the " Agenda Paper."
Also a book of precepts.
Ahab. Son and successor of Omri,
King of Israel from 918 to 897 B.C. He
married Jezebel, through whose influence
the Phoenician worship of Baal was introduced, the king turning to idolatry, and the
priests and prophets of Jehovah being
cruelly persecuted.
He was slain by an
arrow in the third war against Syria.
Alaska. Freemasonry was introduced
into the Territory of Alaska by Bro. James
Biles, Grand Master of Washington Territory, who granted, on April 14, 1868, a dispensation for the establishment of Alaska
Warrant of ConstituLodge, at Sitka.
tion was granted by the Grand Lodge of

Washington, September

17, 1869.

grave continue the strain in

Around the supreme
name is clustered the masbaha, or rosary,
of the ninety-nine beautiful names of God,
which are often repeated by the Mohamto the

melancholy tones.

medan in his devotions.

W.
Alliance, Sacred. An
(

8. Paterson.)

organization
of twenty-one brethren possessing the ultimate degree of the Scottish Rite, formed

New York, September 19, 1872, who assemble annually on that day. One by one,
in the due course of time, this Assembly is
to decrease until the sad duty will devolve
on some one to banquet alone with twenty
draped chairs and covers occupied by the
imaginary presence of his fellows. It was
instituted to commemorate the breaking of
in

a dead-lock in the close corporation of the

Supreme Council by the admission of four

very prominent members of the Fraternity.

Alphabet,

dumber

of Letters

in. In the Sandwich Island alphabet there

are 12 letters the Burmese, 19 Italian, 20
Bengalese, 21; Hebrew, Syrian, Chaldee,
Phoenician, and Samaritan, 22 each Greek,
24; Latin, 25; German, Dutch, and English,
26 each; Spanish and Sclavonic, 27 each
Persian and Coptic, 32 each Georgian, 35
Armenian, 38; Russian, 41; Muscovite,
;

AL-SIRAT

'948

Sanskrit and Japanese, 50 each Ethiopic and Tartarian, 202 each.

Al-Sirat. (Ar., the path.) The verynarrow bridge extending from this world to
the next over the abyss of hell, which must
be passed by every one who would enter
the Mohammedan paradise. Its width will
compare with a hair, the edge of a sword, or
the thread of a famished spider. The virtuous cross swiftly and safely, the sinful stumKoran.
ble and fall to the bottomless pit.
Anial-sagghi. (Great labor.) The
name of the 5th step of the mystic ladder
of Kadosh, A. A. Scottish Rite.

43

Amaranth, Order of the.

APRON

ADDENDUM.

Insti-

competition with the Supreme

Council of 33 degrees of the A. A. Scottish
Rite, from which he had been expelled.
Mimdi. Soul of the World.
A doctrine of the early philosophers, who
conceived that an immaterial force resided
in nature and was the source of all physical
and sentient life, yet not intelligential.
Egyptiaeo. In the Egyptian
year.
The date used by the Hermetic
Fraternity, and found by adding 5044 to
the Vulgar Era prior to each 20th July,
being the number of years since the consolidation of the Egyptian monarchy under
cessful

Anima

Anno

Menes.

Queen Christina of Sweden in

Aiuibis. or Anepn. Egyptian deity,
1653, and numbering 31, composed of son of Osiris and Nephthys.
The Greek
15 knights, 15 ladies, and the Queen as Hermes. Having the head of a jackal,
the Grandmistress. The insignia consisted with pointed ears and snout, which the

tuted by

of two letters A interlaced, one being inverted, within a laurel crown, and bearing
the motto, Dolce nella memoria.*. The annual festival of this equestrian Order was
held at the Epiphany. A society of a

similar name, androgynous in its nature,

was instituted in 1883, under the supervision
of Robert Macoy, of New York, to supplement the Order of the Eastern Star, having
a social and charitable purpose, the ritual of
which, as well as its constitutional govern-

ment, has met with much commendation.

Amenti. See Book of the Dead.
Honores Jnstitia. A motto
of the Grand Lodge of England used prior
to the union of 1813, and is to be found
graven on the " Masonic Token " of 1794,
commemorative of the election of the
Prince of Wales as M. W. Grand Master,

Amor

Nov.

24, 1790.

Amru.

The name given to the Phoenician carpenter, who is represented in some

legends as one of the Assassins. Fanor and
Metusael being the other two.
Ainshaspands. The name given in
the Persian Avesta to the six good genii or
powerful angels whocontinuouslywaitround
the throne of Ormudz, or Ormazd. Also the
name of the six summer months and the six
productive working properties of nature.
Auakiin. A small race of giants in
stature in the south of Palestine who
terrified the Hebrew spies upon entering
the Land of Promise from Kadesh-Barnea.

Ancient and Primitive Rite.

One

of

the

later

modifications or out-

growths from the Memphis Rite.

Accord-

ing to the constitution, the order dates

in France from 1838
in America from
1856; and in England from Oct. 8,
1853.
In 1865 the degrees of the order
were reduced in number from 95 to 33,
and the name of the Sovereign Sanctuary,
etc., changed to Supreme Council, as was
alleged by Harry Seymour, of New York,
then chief of the order, for the more suc;

Greeks frequently changed to those of a

At times represented as wearing a
double crown. His duty was to accompany
dog.

Hades (Amenand assist Horus in weighing their

actions under the inspection of Osiris.
the souls of the deceased to

thes),

Apex, Rite
Order

of.

See

Sat

B'hai,

of.

Apis. The sacred bull, held in high

reverence by the Egyptians as possessing
divine powers, specially the gift of prophecy.
As it was deemed essential the animal
should be peculiarly marked by nature,
much difficulty was experienced in procuring it.
The bull was required to be
black, with a white triangle on its forehead, a white crescent on its side, and a
knotted growth, like a scarabseus, under
the tongue. Such an animal being found,.
it was fed for four months in a building
facing the East.
At new moon it was
embarked on a special vessel, prepared
with exquisite care, and with solemn cere-

mony conveyed

to Heliopolis, where for

forty days it was fed by priests and women.
In its sanctified condition it was taken to
Memphis and housed in a temple with two
chapels and a court wherein to exercise.
The omen was good or evil in accordance

with which chapel it entered from the

court.
At the age of 25 years it was led to
its death, amid great mourning and lamentations. The bull or apis was an important
religious factor in the Isian worship, and
was continued as a creature of reverence

during the

Roman

domination of Egypt.

Apron, Washington's.

On

the

next page is a faithful representation of

the emblems, wrought in needle-work upon
white satin by Madame Lafayette, for a
Masonic apron, which the Marquis conveyed from Paris to General Washington
It was a cherished
at Mount Vernon.
memorial, which after Washington's death

was formally presented to the " Washington Benevolent Society," at Philadelphia.

ARABICI

ARKANSAS

ADDENDUM.

949

work on " The History of Freemasonry," the fourth volume of the six being at present in the hands of the publishThis is the Masonic work of the age.
ers.
his quarto

Archimagns. The chief officer of

the Mithraic Mysteries in Persia. He was
the representative of Ormudz, or Ormazd,
the type of the good, the true, and the beautiful, who overcame Ahriman, the spirit of
evil, of the base, and of darkness.
Architect, Engineer and.
in the

officer

marked " Initiation." The seal was ancient

before the abbey had an existence, and contains a perfectly distinct characteristic of
the Scottish Rite.

Arcade de la Pelleterie.

The

name

of derision given to the Orient of

Clermont in France, that is to say, to the
Old Grand Lodge, before the union in
1799.

Archaeology, Masonic. As well

expressed in The (London) Freemason, "We
are just at the portals of Masonic history,"
despite all that has been done and written
of late years, not only are we still on the
" threshold of inquiry," but we may have
to modify many of our views, and not a
The Guild thefew of our conclusions.
ory is still warmly supported in England.
Primceval religion, especially the " Pyramidical School," and the connection of
Masonry with the " Ancient Mysteries,"
are all again being carefully worked over.
Hermeticism is riot discarded, and, as our
numerous careful students press onward,
we may all be compelled to modify es-

many dogmatic declarations and

countless hasty assumptions. In all this,
Brother Robert Freke Gould, of London,
is revealing wonders by the publication of
sentially

Rite,

An

whose duty

it

charge of the furniture of the

Lodge. In the Scottish Rite, such officer
in the Consistory has charge of the general
arrangement of all preparatory matters for
the working or ceremonial of the degrees.
Argonauts, Order of. A German
androgynous Masonic society founded in
1775, by brethren of the Rite of Strict
Observance. Much of the myth of the
Argonauts was introduced into the forms
and ceremonies, and many of the symbols
taken from this source, such as meeting upon
the deck of a vessel, the chief officer being
called Grand Admiral, and the nomenclature of parts of the vessel being used.
The motto was Est Lebe die Freude, or Joy
is

Arahici. An Arabian sect of the

second century, who believed that the soul
died with the body, to be again revived
with it at the general resurrection.
Aranyaka. An appendage to the
Veda of the Indians supplementary to
the Brahnianas, but giving more prominence to the mystical sense of the rites of
worship.
Arbroath, Abbey of, England.
Erected during the 12th century. Rev.
Charles Cordinet, in his description of the
ruins of North Britain, has given an account of a seal of the abbey Arbroath

French

to take

forever.

Ariaiiism. The doctrine of Arius,

a presbyter of Alexandria, promulgated in
321 A. d., which was inconsistent with the
divinity of Christ.
Bishop Alexander insisted that the Son isco-eternal, co-essential,
and co-equal with the Father. Arius opposed this, and asserted that there was a
time when the Son was not, as the Father
begat the Son, and the latter therefore
could not be eternal.
The controversy
lasted

many

years,

when Alexander

called

a council of his clergy, which was attended by nearly 100 bishops, and Arius was

deposed and excommunicated.

Ariel. In the demonology of the Kabbala, the spirit of air; the guardian angel of
innocence and purity
hence the Masonic
synonym. A name applied to Jerusalem
a water spirit.
Arkansas. Dr. Mackey observes that
much obscurity concerns the early history
of Masonry in Arkansas. That the dis:

astrous conflagration of November, 1864,

which destroyed the Grand Lodge hall,
consumed all the records anterior to 1846.
Grand Secretary Blocher says that on February 22, 1882, three Lodges Washington,
Western Star, and Morning Star (C. W.
Moore asserted there was another) as-

sembled at Little Rock in convention and

organized the Grand Lodge.
Coleman s Masonic Calendar for 1880 says
the Grand Lodge was organized November
1

25, 1838.

The Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Ma-

950

ARK

AROBA

ADDENDUM.

sons was organized April 28, 1851, by three

Chapters, located at Fayetteville, Little

Baldric

Belt

body.

Battle-axe

diagonally crossing the

Weapon

Rock, and El Dorado, which had previously received charters from the General
Grand Chapter of the United States.
The Grand Council of Royal and Select
Masters was established in the year 1860.
The Grand Commandery of the Order
of the Temple was organized on March

raised to admit food

23, 1872.

rank.

A Lodge, Council, Chapter, Council of

Kadosh, and Consistory of the Scottish
Rite are established at Little Rock.

from elbow to shoulder.

Arlt Mariner, Royal, Jewel of.

The jewel of this degree prefigures the
teachings, which are unique, and draw
their symbols from the sea, rain, ark, dove,
olive-branch, and Rainbow. This last symbol, as El's sign, "overshadows" the ark,

with axe-blade

and spear-head.

Beaver Front

helmet, which

of

and

ia

drink.

BeakerThe drinking-cup with mouth*

lip.

For body.
Brassart Armor
Belt

Buckler A

the body.

Badge of knightly
to protect

arm

long shield for protecting

Corselet Breast-plate.
Crest Ornament on helmet

the

designat-

ing rank.

Cuirass Back-plate.
Fasces Armor for the

thighs, hung
Gadling Sharp metallic knuckles on
gauntlet.
Gauntlet Mailed gloves.
Gorget Armor for the neck.
Halberd Long-pole axe.
Hauberk Shirt of mail, of rings or
Helmet or Casque Armor for the
head.
Jambeux Armor for the
Jupon Sleeveless jacket, to the hips.
Lance Long spear with metallic head
from the

corselet.

scales.

legs.

and pennon.
Mace Heavy, short

staff of metal, end-

ing with spiked ball.

Mantle Outer

cloak.

Morion Head armor without

Pennon A pennant, or short

visor.

streamer

bifurcated.

Plume The designation of knighthood.

which really is the sign of Ishtar. The ark

is said to have contained all the elements
of Elohim's creative power, and in " about
nine months and three days there came

Sallet Light helmet for foot soldiers.

Spear Sword, spur, shield.
Visor Front of helmet (slashed), mov-

ing on pivots.

Aroba.

Pledge, covenant, agreement.

energies of Maiya;"
her symbol is the dove with the mystic
olive, which are sacred to her. The whole
underlying thought is that of creation.

(Latin, Arrhabo, a token or pledge. Hebrew, Arab, which is the root of Arubbah,
surety, hostage.)
This important word, in
the Fourteenth Degree of the Scottish Rite,

Armor. In English statutes, armor is

used for the whole apparatus of war ofIn the Order
fensive and defensive arms.
of the Temple pieces of armor are used to
a limited extent. In the chivalric degrees
of the Scottish Rite, in order to carry out
the symbolism as well as to render effect to
its dramas, armor pieces and articles for
use of knights become necessary, with
mantling, crest, mottoes, etc. Some are
herein enumerated

used when the initiate partakes of the

"Ancient Aroba," the pledge, or covenant
of friendship, by eating and drinking with
his new companions. The word is of greater
import than that implied in mere hospitality.
The word " aroba " appears nowhere
in English works, and seems to have been
omitted by Masonic writers.
The root
" arab " is one of the oldest in the Hebrew language, and means to interweave or
to mingle, to exchange, to become surety
for any one, and to pledge even the life
of one person for another, or the strongest
pledge that can be given (Genesis xliii. 9).
Jwdah pleads with Israel to let Benjamin

forth the pent-up

Aillettes

Square shields for the shoul-

ders.

Anlace Short dagger worn

dle.

at the gir-

is

ARTISAN
t

go with him to be presented in Egypt

to

Joseph, as the latter had requested. He

says: "Send the lad with me; I will be
surety for him;" and before Joseph he
makes the same remark in Gen. xliv. 32.
Job, in chap. xvii. 3, appealing to God,
says " Put me in a surety with thee who
is he who will strike hands with me?" (See
also 1 Sam. xvii. 18.) In its pure form, the
word "arubbah" occurs only once in the
:

Old Testament (Prov. xvii. 18) "

man
void of understanding striketh hands, and
becometh surety in the presence of his
friend."
In Latin, Plautus makes use of
the following phrase " Hunc arrhabonem
:

me accipe."
Artisan, Chief.

amoris a

An

AURORA

ADDENDUM.

officer

in the

Council of Knights of Constantinople.

Arundel, Thomas Howard,

Earl of. Tradition places Arundel as
the Grand Master of English Freemasons
from 1633 to 1635. This is in accordance
with Anderson and Preston.
Aryan. One of the three historical
divisions of religion the other two being
the Turanian and the Shemitic. It produced Brahmanism, Buddhism, and the
Code of Zoroaster.
Asarota. A variegated pavement
used for flooring in temples and ancient
edifices.

Ases. The twelve gods and as many

goddesses in the Scandinavian mythology.
Asia. In the French Rite of Adoption,
the east end of the Lodge is called Asia.

Assyrian Architecture. The discovery in 1882 of the remains of a town,

close to, and north of, Nineveh, built by
Sargon, about 721 b. c, in size about a mile
square, with its angles facing the cardinal
points, and the inclosure containing the
finest specimens of their architecture, revived much interest in archaeologists. The
chief place of regard is the royal palace.
which was like unto a city of itself, everything being on a colossal scale. The walls
of the town were 45 feet thick. The inclined approach to the palace was flanked
by strangely formed bulls from 15 to 19 feet

There were terraces, courts, and passage-ways to an innermost square of 150

feet, surrounded by state apartments and
The Hall of Judgment was
temples.
prominent, as also the astronomical observAll entrances to great buildings
atory.
were ornamented by colossal animals and
high.

porcelain decorations and inscriptions.

Astrology. A science demanding the
respect of the scholar, notwithstanding its
designation as a ''black art," and, in a
reflective sense, an occult science; a system
of divination foretelling results by the
relative positions of the planets and other
heavenly bodies toward the earth. Men

951

of eminence have adhered to the doctrines

of astrology as a science. It is a study well
considered in, and forming an important
part of, the ceremonies of the "Philosophus," or fourth grade of the First Order
of the Society of Rosicrucians. Astrology
has been deemed the twin science of astronomy, grasping knowledge from the
heavenly bodies, and granting a proper
understanding of many of the startling
forces in nature.
It is claimed that the
constellations of the zodiac govern the
earthly animals, and that every star has
its peculiar nature, property, and function,
the seal and character of which it impresses
through its rays upon plants, minerals, and
animal life. This science was known to the
ancients as the " divine art." See Magic.
Atossa. The daughter of King Cyrus
of Persia, Queen of Cambyses, and afterward of Darius Hystaspes, of whom she
had Xerxes. Referred to in the degree of
Prince of Jerusalem, 16th, Scottish Rite.

Atthakatha. An immense commentary of 258 volumes, on the canonical

books of Buddhism, and formerly regarded
of equal authority with them. It is
ascribed to Badhagosha, about 420 A. d.
The Tripitaka and the Atthakatha together
are said to contain two million lines.
" Audi, Tide, Tace." {Hear, see,
and be silent.)
motto frequently found
on Masonic medals, and often appropriately used in Masonic documents.
Auditors. The first class of the secret
system adopted by the Christians in their
early days. The second class were Catechumens, and the third were Tfie Faithful.
Auflseher. German for warden, or
overseer, having the erste or zweite, meaning
the first or second overseer.
Auger. An implement used as a
symbol in the Ark Mariner's Degree.
as

Augustus William, Prince of

Prussia.

Born in 1722, died in 1758.

Brother of Frederick the Great, and father

of King Frederick William II. A member
of Lodge " Drei Weltkugeln," Berlin.
Aurora. [Aurea hora, golden hour;

morning hour, the dawn of day.)

In Hebrew the light is called Aur, and in
its dual capacity Aurim.
Hence Urim,
lights
as, Thme, Thummim, perfections.
Ra is the sun, the symbolic god of the
Egyptians, and Ouro, royalty. Hence we
have Aur, Ouro, Ra, which is the double
symbolic capacity of " Light." Referring
to the Urim and Thummim, Re is physical
and intellectual light, while Thme is the
divinity of truth and justice.
Aurora is the color of the baldric worn
by the brethren in the 16th Degree of the
Scottish Rite, which in the legend is said
to have been presented by King Darius to

avpiog opa,

AVATAR

952

the captive Zerubbabel on presentation of

his liberty, and that of all his people, who
had been slaves in Babylon for seventy
years.

The descent of a Hindu

Avatar.
deity

Avis of Portugal.

See

Evora,

of.

Axe.

See Knight of

his conductor.
The high
placing his two hands on the goat,
made confession for the people, and pronounced The Name clearly, which the
people hearing, they knelt and worshipped,

delivered to

priest,

and

an incarnation.

Brothers

BALDER

ADDENDUM.

the

Royal Axe,

Mackey.

on their faces and said, "Blessed

Name, The Honor of His kingdom
forever and ever." The goat was then led
forth to the mountain-side and rolled down
fell

be the

to death.

One of Daniel's three

Azrael. (Heb., help of God.) In the
The King of Judah, Jewish and the Mohammedan mythology,
friends, 605 b. c.
the name of the angel who watches over
809 b. c.
Azazel. "Scapegoat," the "demon the dying and separates the soul from the
of dry places." Translated by others to body. Prior to the intercession of Mobe the fallen angel mentioned in the Book hammed, Azrael inflicted the death penalty
of Enoch, and identical with Sammael, the visibly, by striking down before the eyes
Angel of Death. Symmachus says, " the of the living those whose time for death
goat that departs;" Josephus, "the averter was come. See Henry W. Longfellow's

Azariah.

" caper emissarius."

he-goats, in all respects alike

exquisite poem, Azrael.

and
Aztec Writings. The key to the
equal, were brought forward for the day Aztec writings, it is alleged, has been disof atonement. The urn was shaken and covered by Rev. Father Damago Soto, of
two lots cast one was " For the Name," Concordia, Vera Cruz.
and the other "For Azazel." A scarlet
Azure. The clear, blue color of the
tongue-shaped piece of wood was twisted sky. Cerulean. The appropriate color of
on the head of the goat to be sent away, the symbolic degrees sometimes termed
and he was placed before the gate and Blue Degrees.

of

ills,"

Two

B.
B.

labial consonant stand(3, Beth.)

ing second in most alphabets, and in the
Hebrew or Phoenician signifies house, probably from its form of a tent or house, thus
:

of the

clergy, resulting

in

accusations,

through revenge, and final imprisonment.

He was noted as a Bosicrucian. Died 1292.
Bactylea. The sacred stones worshipped by the Phoenicians and Bactrians,
and believed by them to have fallen from
heaven.

Presumptively, meteoric stones.

Born 1741, died

Bahrdt, K. F.

1792.
A German teacher, said to have
been made a Mason in England, and on

Germany established "The

German Union," a ^wem-Masonic Society
nu- of six degrees "Young Men," "Men,"
his return to

and finally the Hebrew ^}, having the

merical value two. When united with the
leading letter of the alphabet, ^tf, it signifies Ab, Father, Master, or the one in
authority, as applied to Hiram the ArchiThis is the root of Baal.
(See
tect.
Mackey.) Hebrew name of Deity connected with this letter is ~nf"Q> Bakhur.

Bacon, Roger. An

English

monk

discoveries in many
sciences.
He was born in Ilchester in 1214,
educated at Oxford and Paris, and entered
the Franciscan Order in his twenty-fifth
year. He explored the secrets of nature, and
made many discoveries, the application of
which were looked upon as magic. He

who made wonderful

denounced the ignorance and immorality

"Elder Men," "Mesopolites," "Diocesans,"

and " Overseers." The society was shortlived, and its author imprisoned in 1789 for
a libel on Wollner, the minister.

Balder

or

Baldur.

The

ancient

Scandinavian or older German divinity.

The hero of one of the most beautiful and
the
interesting of the myths of the Edda
second son of Odin and Frigga, and the
husband of the maiden Nanna. In brief,
the myth recites that Balder dreamed that
his life was threatened, which being told
to the gods, a council was held by them
;

to secure his safety.

The mother

pro-

ceeded to demand and receive from every

inanimate thing, iron and all metals.

BAND

BENAI

ADDENDUM.

953

fire

and water, stones, earth, plants, beasts,

birds, reptiles, poisons, and diseases, that

was more elevated than the ordinary workmen, and were freeborn. The Conversi were

they would not injure Balder. Balder then

became the subject of sport with the gods,
who wrestled, cast darts, and in innumerable

filiates

ways playfully

tested his invulnerability.

This finally displeased the mischievous,

cunning Loki, the Spirit of Evil, who, in
the form of an old woman, sought out the
mother, Frigga, and ascertained from her
that there had been excepted or omitted
from the oath the little shrub Mistletoe.
In haste Loki carried some of this shrub to
the assembly of the gods, and gave to the
blind Hoder, the god of war, selected slips,
and directing his aim, Balder fell pierced
to the heart.
Sorrow among the gods was unutterable,
and Frigga inquired who, to win her favor,
would journey to Hades and obtain from
the goddess Hel the release of Balder.
The heroic Helmod or Herinoder, son of
Odin, offered to undertake the journey.
Hel consented to permit the return if all
things animate and inanimate should weep
for Balder.

All living beings and all things wept, save

the witch or giantess Thock (the stepdaughter of Loki), who refused to sympathize in the general mourning. Balder
was therefore obliged to linger in the kingdom of Hel until the end of the world.
Band. The neck ribbon bearing the
jewel of the office in Lodge, Chapter, or
Grand Lodge of various countries, and of
the symbolic color pertaining to the body
in which it is worn.
Bearer. The name of an
officer known in the higher degrees in the
French Rite. One who has in trust the
banner similar in station to the Standard
Bearer of a Grand Lodge, or of a Supreme
Body of the Scottish Bite.
small banner. An offiBanneret.
cer known in the Order of the Knights
Templar, who, with the Marshal, had
charge of warlike undertakings.
title
of an order known as Knight Banneret,
The banneret of
instituted by Edward I.
the most ancient order of knighthood called

Banner
;

Knight Bachelor was shaped

(Fig. l.)

(Fig.

2.)

like Fig.
(Fig.

1.

3.)

The Knights Banneret, next in age, had

a pennon like Fig. 2. That of the Barons
like Fig.

3.

Barbati Fratres.

Bearded Brothers
the Concraftsmen
versi
the Conventual Builders, admitted to the Abbey
Corbey in the year 851, whose social grade

at

an

known as
known among

earlier date

5U

in the Abbeys, used a quasi-monascould leave their profession whenever they chose and could return to civil
life.
Converts who abstained from secular
pursuits as sinful, and professed conversion
to the higher life of the Abbeys, without
becoming monks. Scholae or guilds of such
operatives lodged within the convents.
are told by Bro.Geo. F. Fort (in his " Criti-

tic dress,

We

Concerning the Mediaeval Conventual Builders, 1884") that the scholar of

dextrous Barbati Fratres incurred the anger of their co-religionists, by their haughty
deportment, sumptuous garb, liberty of
cal Inquiry

movement, and

refusal to

have their long,

flowing beards shaven hence their name

thus tending to the more fascinating attractions of civil life as time carried them
forward through the centuries to the middle
of the thirteenth, when William Abbott,
of Premontre, attempted to enforce the rule
of shaving the beard. l< These worthy ancestors of our modern craft deliberately refused," and said, " if the execution of this
order were pressed against them, 'they
would fire every cloister and cathedral in the
country.' " The decretal was withdrawn.

Bath Kol.

(Sipna,

Daughter Voice,

or Daughter of the Voice.) The Jews say

that the Holy Spirit spoke to the Israelites
in the days of the Tabernacle through the

Urim and Thummim, and under

the

first

Temple by the Prophets, and under the

second by the Bath Kol, an inferior divine
intimation to the oracular voice proceeding from the Mercy-Seat, as a daughter is
supposed to be inferior to the mother.
Mitzvah (Son of Commandment). An Israelite who attains the age
of thirteen years and one day, and is thenceforth responsible for his own sins corresponding to the Christian rite of confirmation. A Bar Mitzvah among the Orthodox
is bound to observe the three fundamental
principles of wearing the Talith, the Phylacteries, and the observance of the Mezuza.
hall or court-room in
Basilica.
which the king administered the laws.
Some of these were of vast size, accommodating the Tribunal, which consisted, in
addition to the curule chair of the praetor
and space required by the suitors and their
advocates, of seats for the jury approximating two hundred.
rectangular building, mentioned in

Bar

Anderson's Constitution.
Battery. A given number of blows
by the gavels of the officers, or by the
hands of the Brethren, as a mark of
approbation, admiration, or reverence, and
accompanied by the acclamation.

at times

Benai.

See Bonaim,

Mackey.

BENAKAR

954

Benakar.

BOOK

ADDENDUM.

The name of a cavern

to

Boehini. (D'D3

weepings.)

A pass-

which certain assassins fled for concealment. word in the Order of Ishmael. An angel
Benefit Societies. Societies of re- spoke to Hagar as she wept at the well
cent growth, known among the Masonic when in the wilderness with her son Ishorganizations of all classes and depart- mael. The angel is looked upon as a spirments, to render combined aid in case of itual being, possibly the Great Angel of
the death of a member. Organizations of the Covenant, the Michael who appeared
small or no capital, paying the officers an to Moses in the burning bush, or the
indifferent compensation, but levying an Joshua, the captain of the hosts of Jehovah.
assessment on each member for the benefit
Book of Mormon. This sacred
of the relatives or others in the event of book of the Mormons was first published
death of one of their number. These life in 1830 by Joseph Smith, who claimed to
insurance associations are generally pro- have translated it from gold plates which
tected by the laws of the State or other he had found under divine guidance secreted
Government, are exempt from execution, in a stone box. The number of Mormons
not liable to be seized by any legal or is estimated at about 150,000 in the United
equitable process to pay any liability of a States, and 50,000 in other countries.
member. They are based on well defined
Book of the Bead, containing the
insurance tables, and where integrity exists ancient Egyptian philosophy as to death
and the resurrection. A portion of these
success follows.
Benevolent Institutions, U. S. sacred writings was invariably buried with
There are five institutions in the U. States the dead. The Book in fac-simile has been
of an educational and benevolent character, published by Dr. Lepsius, and translated
deriving their existence in whole or in part by Dr. Birch. The myth of the " Judgfrom Masonic beneficence: 1. Girard Col- ment of Amenti" forms a part of the
"Book of the Dead," and shadows forth
lege, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 2. Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home, Louis- the verities and judgments of the unseen
world.
ville, Kentucky; 3. Oxford Orphan Asylum,
The Amenti was the Place of Judgment
Oxford, N. Carolina 4. St. John's Masonic
College, Little Rock, Arkansas 5. Masonic of the Dead, situated in the West, where
Osiris was presumed to be buried.
Female College, Covington, Georgia.
There
Beside the Stephen Girard Charity Fund, were forty-two assessors of the amount of
founded over a half century ago in Phila- sin committed, who sat in judgment, and
delphia, the capital investment of which is before whom the adjudged passed in suc$62,000, the annual interest being devoted cession.
There seems to be a tie which binds
"to relieve all Master Masons in good
standing," there is a Charity Fund of Freemasonry to the noblest of the cults
The most
$60,000 for the relief of the widows and and mysteries of antiquity.
orphans of deceased Master Masons, and striking exponent of the doctrines and lanan incorporated Masonic Home, which will guage of the Egyptian Mysteries of Osiris
now, in very early time, be made effective. is this " Book of the Bead," or Ritual of the
The District of Columbia has an organized Underworld, or Egyptian Bible of 165
Masonic charity, entitled St. John's Mite chapters, the Egyptian title of which was
Idaho has an Orphan Fund, " The Manifestation to Light," or the Book
Association.
Great depento which every Master Mason pays annually revealing light to the soul.
Indiana has organized the dence was had, as to the immediate attainone dollar.
Masonic Widows' and Orphans' Home So- ment of celestial happiness, upon the huciety.
Maine has done likewise and Ne- man knowledge of this wonderful Book,
braska has an Orphans' School Fund, al- especially of the principal chapters. On a
sarcophagus of the 11th dynasty .(chronolthough no building has been proposed.
Bible. {BipTcof, " Book.") A collective ogy of Prof. Lepsius, say B. c. 2420) is this
name for the writings constituting the pro- inscription " He who knows this book is
fessed rule of faith and practice of the one who, in the day of the resurrection of
Christian church, and composed of the Old the underworld, arises and enters in; but
Testament of 39 books, originally written if he does not know this chapter, he does
in the Hebrew language, mainly, and the not enter in so soon as he arises." The
New Testament of 27 books, written in conclusion of the first chapter says " If a
Greek. The Old Testament, to the exclu- man knows this book thoroughly, and has
sion of the New, is also the Bible of the it inscribed upon his sarcophagus, he will
Jews, and contains the oldest literature in be manifested in the day in all the forms
existence.
The New Testament was writ- that he may desire, and entering into his
ten within the first century of our era. The abode will not be turned back" (Tiele's
'

number

of Christians in the world

380,000,000 of Jews, 7,000,000.
;

is

about

Hist.

Egyptian ReL,

The Egyptian

25).

belief

was that portions of

BOOK

the Book were written by the finger of

Thoth, back in the mist of time, B. c. 3000.
The 125th chap, describes the last judgment. The oldest preserved papyrus is of
the 18th dynasty (b. c. 1591, Lep.). The
most perfect copy of this Book is in the
Turin Museum, where it covers one side of
the walls, in four pieces, 3Q0 feet in length.
The following extract is from the first
chapter
" Says Thot to Osiris, King of Eternity,
I
I am the great God in the divine boat
tight for thee
I am one of the divine chiefs
;

who
I

am

are the

Thot,

BUDDHISM

ADDENDUM.

True living Word of Osiris.

who makes to be real the word

of Horus against his enemies. The word

of Osiris against his enemies made truth in
Thot, and the order is executed by Thot.
I am with Horus on the day of celebrating
the festival of Osiris, the good Being, whose
Word is truth I make offerings to Ra (the
Sun) I am a simple priest in the underworld, anointing in Abydos, elevating to
higher degrees of initiation ; I am prophet
in Abydos on the day of opening or upheaving the earth. I behold the mysteries
of the door of the underworld; I direct
the ceremonies of Mendes; I am the assistant in the exercise of*their functions ; I
;

poses, first among the

there required, among

955

members, but if not

worthy profane; the

Master and the Hospitaller being the only

ones cognizant of the name of the beneficiary, together with the brother who suggests an individual in need of the assistance.
Brazen leaver. See Laver.
See
Pillars,
Brazen Pillars.

Mackey.
Bridge.

most significant symbol in

the 15th and 16th Degrees of the Scottish

Rite, at which an important event transpires.

The

characteristic letters

which appear on

the Bridge, L. O. P., refer to that liberty of

thought which is ever thereafter to be the
inheritance of those who have been symbolically captive for seven weeks of years.
It is the new era of the freedom of expression, the liberation of the former captive
thought. Liberty, but not License. See
Lahah Deror Pessah; also, Liber.

Brithering.
Masonic

The Scotch term

for

initiation.

Brothers of the Bridge.

Ac-

cording to Mackenzie, a charitable and

religious brotherhood which arose in the
south of France in the Middle Ages, the
members devoting themselves to building
bridges,

making

roads, erecting hospitals,

am Grand Master of the Craftsmen and

who set up the sacred arch for a sup- and
PORT."

See Truth.

Book of the Fraternity of

Stonemasons. Some years ago, a
manuscript was discovered in the archives
of the city of Cologne bearing the title of
Brilderschaftsbuch der Steinmetzen, with records going back to the year 1396. Steinbrenner ( Orig. and Early Hist, of Masonry,
says " It fully confirms the conclusions to be derived from the German
Constitutions, and those of the English and
Scotch Masons, and conclusively proves the
inauthenticity of the celebrated Charter of
p. 104)

Cologne."

Bosonian. Tlie. The

fourth degree

of the African Architects.

Job n

(of Auchinlek).
Bos well.
Scottish laird of the family of the biographer
His appearance in the
of Dr. Johnson.
Lodge of Edinburgh at a meeting held at
Holyrood in June, 1600, affords the earliest
authentic instance of a person being a
member of the Masonic fraternity who was
not an architect or builder by profession.

Kenning

s Cyclopaedia.

Box of Fraternal

Assistance.

box of convenient shape and

size

under

the charge of the Hospitaller or Almoner,

in the Modern French and A. A. Scottish
Rites, wherein is collected the obligatory
contributions of the duly assembled brethren at every convocation, which collections
can only be used for secret charitable pur-

otherwise providing for the comfort

protection of travellers and pilgrims.
Two bridges are mentioned, that of Bon
Pas, three miles from Avignon, 1177-1188,
and that over the Rhone, Pont d'Esprit,
commenced 1185.
Ramsay affirms that
this order united with the Knights of St.
John of Jerusalem, and afterwards with
the Roman builders, and thus would imply
a direct connection between them and Freemasonry. Several of the degrees of the
French system take some of their decorations from the Order of the Brothers of the
Bridge.
MS. Published for the
first time in Gould's History of Freemasonry,
vol. i.
Bro. Gould says, "This parchment
roll was presented to the G. Lodge of England by Mr. George Buchanan, Whitby,
March 3, 1880, who is of the opinion
that it is of the latter part of the seventeenth century say from 1660 to 1680,"
and this date seems to meet the approval
of the critical Gould. "The scroll was
found with the papers of the late Mr.
Henry Belcher, an antiquarian and is
presumed to have been among the effects
of the former Grand Lodge of All Eng-

Bnehanan

land"!

York).

Buddhism.
ciples of

Buddha.

The

religion of the dis-

over a great
extent of Asia, and is estimated to be
equally popular with any other form of
faith among mankind.
Its founder, Buddha, a word which seems to be an appella-

It prevails

:
;

BUL

956

tive, as it signifies

BURI

ADDENDUM.

the enlightened,

lived

ent XII., dated 27th April, 1738.

This

hundred years before the Chris- Bull was confirmed and renewed by that
tian era, and established his religion as a beginning Providas, of Benedict XIV., 17th
May, 1751 then followed the edict of Pius
reformation of Brahmanism.
The moral code of Buddhism is very per- VII., in 1821; the apostolic edict Quo
Graviora of Leo XII., in 1825 that of
fect, surpassing that of any other heathen
But its theology is not so free Gregory XVI., in 1832 Pius IX. in 1865
religion.
from objection. Max Muller admits that and finally that of Leo XIII., who ascended
there is not a single passage in the Bud- to the papacy in 1878, and issued his Bull,
dhist canon of scripture which presupposes or encyclical letter, " Humanum Genus,"
about

five

the belief in a personal God or a Creator,

and hence he concludes that the teaching
of Buddha was pure atheism. Yet Upham
(Ilist. and Doct. of Bud., p. 2) thinks that,
even if this be capable of proof, it also recognizes "the operation of Faith (called
Damata), whereby much of the necessary
process of conservation or government is
infused into the system."
The doctrine of Nirvana, according to
Burnouf, taught that absolute nothing or
annihilation was the highest aim of virtue,
and hence the belief in immortality was
repudiated. Such, too, has been the general opinion of Oriental scholars but Muller (Science of Religion, p. 141) adduces
evidence, from the teachings of Buddha, to
show that Nirvana may mean the extinction of many things
of selfishness,
without going so far as the
desire, and sin
extinction of subjective consciousness.
The sacred scripture of Buddhism is the
Tripitaka, literally, the Three Baskets. The
first, or the Vinaya, comprises all that relates to morality the second, or the Sitras,
contains the discourses of Buddha and the
third, or Abhidharma, includes all works
on metaphysics and dogmatic philosophy.
The first and second Baskets also receive
the general name of Dharma, or the Law.
The principal seat of Buddhism is the island
of Ceylon, but it has extended into China,
Japan, and many other countries of Asia.
See Aranyaka, Atthakatha, Mahabharata,
Pitaka, Puranas, Bamayana, Shaster, Sruti,
Tantra, Upanishad, Upadevas, Veda, and
Vedanga.
Bui. The primitive designation of the
month Marchesvan. See Zif.
Bull. (Lat., bulla, that which is round
or swelling.) The designation given to the
capsule of the seal attached to important
;

documents emanating from an emperor or

from a pope; and as thus applied to the

became the designation of the docuThe Bull is issued by the apostolic

chancellor when promulgated by a pope,
and dates from the day of incarnation, in
contradistinction to briefs, which are dated
seal, it

ment.

from the day of the nativity.

The several important Bulls which have
been issued by the popes of Borne intended
to affect the fraternity of Freemasons are
as follows the Bull In Eminenti of Clem:

in 1884,

Whatever may have been the severity of

the Bulls issued by the predecessors of Leo
XIII., he with great clearness ratifies and
confirms them all in the following language
"Therefore, whatsoever the popes our predecessors have decreed to hinder the designs
and attempts of the sect of Freemasons
whatsoever they have ordained to deter or
recall persons from societies of this kind,
each and all do we ratify and confirm by
our Apostolic authority."
At the same
time acknowledging that this " society of
men are most widely spread and firmly
established."

This

letter of the

Eoman

hierarchy thus

commences " The human race, after its

most miserable dejection, through the wiles
:

of the devil, from its Creator, God, the

giver of celestial gifts, has divided into two
different and opposite factions, of which
one fights ever for truth and virtue, the
other for their opposites. One is the kingdom of God on earth
the other is the
kingdom of Satan."
That, "by accepting any that present
themselves, no matter of what religion,
they (the Masons) gain their purpose of
urging that great error of the present day,
viz., that questions of religion ought to be
left undetermined, and that there should
.

be no distinction made between verities.

And this policy aims at the destruction
of all religions, specially at that of the
Catholic religion, which, since it is the
only true one, cannot be reduced to equality
with the rest without the greatest injury."
" But, in truth, the sect grants great
license to its initiates, allowing them to
defend either position, that there is a God,
or that there is no God."
Thus might we quote continuous passages, which need only to be stated to pro*
claim their falsity, and yet there are those
who hold to the doctrine of the infallibility
of the pope. See Bull, Papal, Mackey.
Buri. or Bure. The first god of
Norse mythology. In accordance with the
quaint cosmogony of the ancient religion
of Germany or that of Scandinavia, it was
believed that before the world came into
existence there was a great void, on the
north side of which was a cold and dark
region, and on the south side one warm

CALATRAVA

ADDENDUM.
and luminous. In Nifllieini was a well, or
the " seething caldron/' out of which flowed
twelve streams into the great void and
formed a huge giant.
In Iceland the
first great giant was called Ymir, by the
Germans Tuisco, whose three grandchildren were regarded as the founders of three
of the German races.
Coteinporary with Ymir, and from the

957

great frost-blocks of primeval chaos, was

produced a man called Buri, who was wise,
strong, and beautiful. His son married the
daughter of another giant, and their issue
were the three sons Odin, Wili, and We,
who ruled as gods in heaven and earth.
By some it is earnestly believed that upon
these myths and legends many symbols of
Masonrv were founded.

c.
C. The third letter of the English alphabet, but was not known in the Hebrew,
Phoenician, or early Aryan languages.
(Arabic, Ka'abah,
or
cubic building.) The square building or
temple i n Mecca. More especially the small
cubical oratory within, held in adoration
by the Mohammedans, as containing the

Caaba

Kaaba.

Born in Paris, January 23, 1769,

same city, November 21, 1821.
In early life he was a violent opponent of
Masonry, but became one of its chief supporters ere his death.
He was the author
of Le Tombeau de Jacques de Molay.

Louis.

and died

in

Calatrava, Military Order

Instituted 1158, during the reign of

of.

Sancho

PILGRIMS PRAYING UNDER THE PORCH OF THE KAABA, AT MECCA.

black stone said to have been given by an

angel to Abraham. See Allah.
The inner as well as the outer structure
receive their name from Ka'ab, cube. The

above engraving is from a forthcoming

work, Splendor of the Shrine, by William S.
Paterson, New York.

Cadet-Grassicourt, Charles

III., King of Castile, who conquered and

gave the Castle of Calatrava, an important
fortress of the Moors of Andalusia, to the
Knighls Templar, who subsequently relinquished their possession of it to the king.
The king, being disappointed in the ability
of the Templars to retain it, then offered

the defence of the place to

Don Kaymond

958

CALENDAR

CANOPY

ADDENDUM.

of Navarre, Abbot of St. Mary of Hitero,

a Cistercian convent, who accepted it. Don
Raymond being successful, the king gave
the place to him and his companions, and
Grand
instituted the Order of Calatrava.
Master was appointed and approve'd of by
the Pope, Alexander III., 1164, which was
confirmed by Innocent III. in 1198. The
knights had been granted the power of
electing their own Grand Master but on
the death of Don Garcias Lopez de Pardella, 1489, Ferdinand and Isabella annexed the Grand Mastership to the Crown
of Castile, which was sanctioned by Pope

7012th of the World, according to Eusebius.

5828th of the World, according to Scaliger.

5884th Anno Lucis. This date is used

by Craft Masons, as they date from the
Creation of the World.
5888th of the World, according to Usher
and the English Bible.
5376th of the World, according to the
Antiochian and Abyssinian Eras.
7386th of the World, according to the
Alexandrian Era.
7392-93d of the year of Constantinople,
used by the Byzantine historians. This is
Innocent VIII.
Calendar. Eras corresponding with the same in the Septuagint version of the
Bible.
It dates the Creation on the first
1884.
The year 1884 constitutes the 108th of of the Jewish month Tisri, 5508 B. c, or
the Independence of the United States, 7392 years ago. There are about a hundred
until July 4.
and forty eras respecting the age of the
1888th of the birth of Christ our present World.
The Hindu year is quite irregular. The
era having begun four years after his birth.
766th Anno Ordinis of the Knights Hindus divide the zodiac into 27 parts,
Templar, dating from their organization in from some of which they name the months.
;

1118 A. D.
1253d of the Persian Era, which began
June 19, N. S., 632 A. d.
1301st of the Hejra, and began November 2, 1883.
1332d of the Armenian Ecclesiastical

While they know our twelve signs, they

make no use of them. Each of theirs has
thirteen and a half degrees on an average
the sun moves through two and one-quarter

of Martyrs.
1922d of the Spanish Era, or Era of the

less than three years.

The Hindu
"Cycle of Jupiter" is sixty years, and is
important, because it was ever a practice in
Southern India, when dating documents, to
annex the name of the year of the cycle.

every month.

In every three years the

Hindus gain about one month more than

if they reckoned by solar time.
year.
Hence,
1600th of the Era of Diocletian, or Era they require an intercalary month in a

Csesars.

1929th of the Julian Era, or since the

reformation of the Calendar of Numa Pompilius.

2196th of the Grecian Era of the Seleucides.

2414th of the

Anno

Arch Masonry, and

Inventionis of Royal
dates from the build-

ing of the second Temple, 530 b. c.

2631st of the Babylonish Era of Nabonassar, which began February 26, 3967, J. P.
2637th of the Old Roman Era, a. u. c,
according to Varro.
2660th of the Olympiads of Greece, or
the last year of the 665th Olympiad, ending
in July.
3899th of the year of Abraham, used by
Eusebius.
4232d of the Deluge, according to Usher
and the English Bible.
4986th of the Cali Yuga, or Hindoo and
Indian Era.
5521st of the Chinese Calendar, beginning February 11, 1884, and the 17th in a
cycle of sixty years.
5644th of the Creation, according to the
Minor Era of the Jews. It ends on the
last day of the month Elul.
6243d of the Greater Rabbinical Era of
the Jews.

little

One year of Jupiter's cycle answers to the

time during which the planet passes through
the sign of the zodiac. The correctness of
calculation of Hindu lunar motions is little
excelled by astronomers of the present day.
Prior to the year 1752, the Christian
year began at the feast of the Annunciation, on the 25th March.
In Monstrelet's
chronicle, we find the year was counted
from Lady Day, or else from Easter and
in earlier ages from Christmas. See Anno
Egyptiaco and Yezdegerdian.
CalidL A sultan of Egypt about 1110.
A devotee of Secret Mystic Science, and a
disciple of the learned Prince Morieu.
Cancellarius. An office of high
;

rank and responsibility among the Knights

Templar of the Middle Ages, performing
the duties

of,

or similar

to,

Canopy, Celestial.

the Chancellor.
Ritualists

seem

divided in the use of the terms " Clouded

Canopy " and " Celestial Canopy " in the

For the former, see " CanFirst Degree.

opy, Clouded " and " Covering of the
Lodge," by Mackey. It would seem that
the unclouded grandeur of the heavens
should not be without advocates.

CANT ALE VER

ADDENDUM.

Sir John Lubbock gives the following

description of the heavens filled with stars
in connection with the latest discoveries
" Like the sand of the sea, the stars of
heaven are used as a symbol of numbers.
now know that our earth is but a fraction of one part of at least 75,000,000
worlds.
But this is not all. In addition

their institution.
their austeriiy.

They were noted

Cartulary. An

officer

959
for

who has charge

of the register or other books of record.

Caryatides. The women of Cary;e,
a city of Arcadia, or the priestesses serving
in the Temple of Diana.
Female figures
used instead of columns for support in
buildings.
Figures of women serving to
support entablatures. When those of men
are used, they are termed Telamones and
Atlanjtes.
The inhabitants of Caryse having joined the Persians after the battle of
Thermopylae, the Greeks, after their victory over the Persians, destroyed the town,
slew the men, and carried the women into
captivity.
The female form, in national
costume, was used to support entablatures
as commemorative of their disgrace.
Catacombs. Subterraneous passages,
at times opening into small chambers,
formed generally in a soft rock which is
easily excavated, such as tufa. Catacombs
are to be found in many countries, and
are used either as places of sepulture or
concealment of the living.
Those near

We

luminous heavenly bodies, we cannot

doubt there are countless others invisible
to us from their great distance, smaller size,
to the

or feebler light indeed, we know that there

are many dark bodies which now emit no
light, or comparatively little.
Thus the
floor of heaven is not only 'thick inlaid
With patines of bright gold,' but studded
also with extinct stars, once probably as
brilliant as our own sun."
projecting block or
Cantalever.
bracket which supports a balcony. The
upper section or table of a cornice. The
eaves of the temple or other building.
;

Capitular Statistics.

CATACOMBS

Brother Jo-

H. Drummond, P. G. Master of Maine,

THE NORTHERN SECTION OF THE CATACOMB OF
whose figures are reliable, fixes the number
CALLIXTUS.
of Royal Arch Chapter Masons in North
America at 132,737 in 1883. See Statistics, Rome are on the Via Appia, to whose
dreary crypts the early Christians retired
Royal Arch.
Capripede, Ratur et Iiuci for seclusion and worship, and where the
A burlesque dining degree, bodies of many saints and martyrs were
Flige.
consigned.
The above engraving shows
mentioned in the collection of Fustier.

siah

Capuchin. One of the monks of the but a small portion of the northern secOrder of St. Francis. They went bare- tion of the catacomb of Callixtus. The
footed, were long-bearded, and wore a gown passage-ways were labyrinthian, consisting
or cloak of dark color made like a woman's of narrow galleries shooting out in most
unexpected directions, and at times ending
garment with a hood.
Carmelites. Monks of an order in a cell for the placing of bodies of the
established on Mount Carmel, in Syria, dead, one above the other, separated by the
during the twelfth century. They w ore a natural stone, with stone doors, on which
brown scapular passing over the shoulder were placed the letters D. M. (Deo Maxi
and diagonally across the back and body, mus) or X P, the Greek letters for Christ.
At irregular intervals these galleries exthus crossing the gown from right to left.
Carpenters, Order of. An organ- pand into wide and lofty vaulted chambers,
ized body in Holland and Belgium, with having the appearance of large chapels.
central point of assembly at Antwerp. They are reported as over twenty miles in
Their gatherings were at night in some length, although, in consequence of the
fallen portions, only about six miles would
neighboring forest.
Carthusians. A religious order seem to exist. The galleries are generally
founded by Bruno in 1080, and named about eight feet high and five wide. When
from Chartreux, in France, the place of the Lombards besieged Rome in the eighth
7

960

CATECHUMEN

ADDENDUM.

CHERUBIM

century, many of the catacombs were deFrescoes of considerable value

stroyed.
are still to be found in those that are now
open. The catacombs in Egypt were extensively explored by Belzoni in 1818,

throws upon the ancient chronology of the

Chaldean Empire. It dates from the time
of Nabonides, and records, among various
things, that this sovereign, digging under
the foundations of the Temple of the Sun-

the sarcophagus of Psammetichus,

formed of Oriental alabaster exquisitely
sculptured, was discovered and taken to
England. The catacombs of Paris are
The Twenty-sixth dequite extensive.
gree, Scottish Kite, contains much on this

god

when

subject.

Catechumen. One who had attained

the second degree of the Essenian or early
Christian Mysteries and assumed the name
of Constans. There were three degrees in
the ceremonies, which, to a limited extent,
resembled the Pagan services. Of the three
classes, the first were Auditors, the second
Catechumens, and the third the Faithful.
The Auditors were novices, prepared by
ceremonies and instruction to receive the
dogmas of Christianity. A portion of
these dogmas was made known to the
Catechumens, who, after particular purifications, received baptism, or the initiation
of the theogenesis (divine regeneration) but
the
in the grand mysteries of that religion
incarnation, nativity, passion, and resurrecnone was initiated but the
tion of Christ
Faithful. The Mysteries were divided into
two parts the first, styled the Mass of the
Catechumens ; the second, the Mass of the
;

Faithful.

Many beautiful ceremonies and much

instruction touching these matters will be
found in that most enticing degree called
Prince of Mercy, and known as the Twentysixth in the Scottish Rite services.
Cathari, Society of the.

An

Italian heretical secret society organized

in the twelfth century, with doctrines similar to the Albigenses and Manichees, pro-

claiming metempsychosis, and enforcing

enjoining charity, establishing
schools, and opposed to the judicial death
penalty. They disavowed the adoration of
the cross, with a feeling that an instrument
of torture should not be held in veneration.
Their secret services fell under the disapproval of the Church of Rome.
Cenephorus. The officer in charge
of the smaller sacred implements used for
the sacrifice, and who bore them with the
holy incense and other sacred light material

industry,

in the processional services.

Ceridwen. The Isis of the Druids.
Cylinder. The cylinder so recently discovered by Mr. Rassam
in the course of his excavations in Babylonia, which has attracted so much attention of the London Society of Biblical
Archaeology, is one of the most remarkable
yet made known, by reason of the light it

Chaldean

at Sippara, forty-five years after the

of King Nebuchadnezzar, came

upon a cylinder of Naramsin, the son of
N argon, which no one had seen for " 3200

death

years."
This gives as the date of the
ancient sovereign named 3750 B. c. This,
and the fact pointed out by Prof. Oppert,
that there was in those early days already
"lively intercourse between Chaldea and
Egypt," will have to be taken into account
by future Bible critics. This destroys the
conception of Abraham, the founder of
the Jews, as a wanderer or nomad, and
establishes the existence of two highly
civilized, as well as cultured, empires in
Egypt and Chaldea more than 5500 years
ago that the high-road between them lay
direct through Southern Palestine, and
that Abraham was a native of the one great
empire and an honored visitor in the other.
;

Thus has been opened up a new

investigation in the matter of

Akkadian

field for

Akkad and

civilization.

Chapter of R. Arch Masons,

An

Old. There is in Boston, Mass., a

chapter of Royal Arch Masons which was
h olden in St. Andrew's Lodge and formed
about the year 1764. See Royal Arch Masons, Massachusetts ; also, Pennsylvania.
Characteristics. The

prefix to sig-

natures of brethren of the A. A. Scottish

Rite is as follows To that of the Sovereign
Grand Commander, the triple cross crosslet, as in (1), in red ink.
To that of an
Inspector-General other than a Commander (2), in red ink. To that of a
Brother of the Royal Secret, 32 (3), in red
ink.
In the Northern Jurisdiction of the
U. S., a Rose Croix Knight will suffix a
triangle surmounted by a cross in red ink,
as in (4).
In all cases, it is usual to place
the degree rank in a triangle after the name.
:

i>

Cherubim or Kerwbim and

light has been thrown upon
the plastic form of these symbols during
the past few years, not only as to the
Cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant
spoken of in Exodus, Samuel, Kings, and
Chronicles, but those of Chaldeo- Assyrian
art which beautified the gates of the palace
of Sennacherib at Nineveh, and other struc-

Ark. Much

tures.

CHERUBIM

For the construction of the Ark, God

directed Moses that "the Kerubim shall
stretch their wings above it, covering the
propitiatory with their wings, and facing
one another, and the Kerubim shall have
their faces turned toward the propitiatory
(mercy-seat)." The Kirubi of the Assyrian type, in the shape of bulls with extended wings, in nowise meet the descripThe figures which can
tion given above.
be found in various places upon Egyptian
monuments, placed face to face on either
side of the Naos of the gods, and stretching out their arms, furnished with great
wings, as though to envelop them (Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians, 1878, vol. iii.), more fully meet the
idea in fact, it is convincing, when we remember the period, and note that all else
about the sacred furnishings of the Tabernacle, or Ohel-mo'ed, are exclusively
Egyptian in form, as well as the sacerdotal
costumes. (See L'Egypte et Mo'ise, by Abbe
Furthermore, this
Ancessi, Paris, 1875.)
was most natural, since the period was
immediately after the exodus. The Kerubim of the Ark were remodelled by Solomon after designs furnished by his father,

David

Chron. xxviii. 18).

(1

CHERUBIM

ADDENDUM.

961

forward-stretching wings of sparrow-hawks

or vultures, placed face to face, and birds
of this kind often enfold with their wings
the divine Naos.
The adornment of the Tabernacle, as
mentioned in Exodus, excluded every
figure susceptible of an idolatrous character, which is far from being the case in
what we know of the Temple of Solomon,

In the matter of plastic images, none was

admitted save only the Kerubim, which
were not only, placed upon the Ark, but

whose representations are woven into the

hangings of the Mishkan and the veil
which separates the Holy Place from the
Holy of Holies. It is therefore most probable that the Kerubim of Exodus were
great eagles or birds Kurubi while under the remodelling by Solomon these were
changed to Kirubi with human faces.

The prophet Ezekiel describes four hayydth or kerubim, two and two, back to
back, and going " each one straight forward " toward the four quarters. The
Kerubim of the Merkabah of Ezekiel have
four wings two lifted up and two covering their back and four human faces set
in pairs, to the right and to the left, one
of a man, one of a bull, one of a lion, and
one of an eagle the faces of creatures

which combine all the emblems of strength

depicted by the Chaideo- Assyrian bull.
Ezekiel (Yehezqel) thus describes the Ker-

ubim with

THE ISMIAN

CAR.

several faces which, alternately

with the palm-trees, decorated the frieze
around the interior of the temple at Jeru" Each Kerub had two faces, a
salem
man's face turned one way toward the
palm-tree, and a lion's face turned the
other way toward the other palm-tree;
and it was in this wise all around the
house."
:

Francois Lenormant,
Professor of Archaeology at the National
Library of France, in his Beginnings of
History, 1882, the Egyptian influence was
no longer supreme in its sway over the
Hebrews that the Assyro-Baby Ionian influence balanced it that the new Kerubim,
then executed, may have been different
from the ancient ones as described in Exodus; in fact, Kirubi after the Assyrian

At

this epoch, says

The following

information, furnished by
Lenormant, on the subject of Cherubim, is important: "Deductions were formerly made from the Aryan theory to
Prof.

support primitive tradition as to origin

and form, but these have been overthrown,
and the Semitic interpretation made manifest through finding the name of the Kerubim in the cuneiform inscriptions that
in place of referring the Hebrew word
kwub to the Aryan root grabh, to seize,'
the word is more properly of Semitic origin,
from the root Mrab, signifying bull,' or
a creature strong and powerful (501*13 )
Eeferring to the prophet Ezekiel i. 10 and
x. 14, the two parallel passages use the
word kerub interchangeably with shor,
bull,' the
face of a bull and face of a
;

'

'

THE ARK OF PHILE.

'

which formed a Merkabah (a chariot,

1 Chron. xxviii. 18), upon which Yahveh
was seated. In the Egyptian monuments
the gods are often represented between the
type,

61

'

'

which are synonymous expressions.

Since we have come to know those colossal
images of winged bulls with human faces,
crowned with the lofty cidaris, decorated
cherub,'

CHINA

962

CHROMATIC

ADDENDUM.

with several pairs of borns, which flanked

the gateways of the Assyrian palaces, a
number of scholars, intimately acquainted
with antique sculpture, have been zealous
in associating them with the Kerubim of
The winged bull with a
the Bible.
human head figures in a bas-relief in the
palace of Khorsabad as a favoring and
protecting genius, which watches over the

worked on a blue silk ribbon the Tao Sze

wears a cross of silver; and the Grand
Master one in gold.
The meetings are
called " Tents." For Chinese Faith,see King.
There is a District Grand Lodge of Free
and Accepted Masons at Hong Kong and
South China, which holds its Communications in December.

safe navigation of the transports that carry

the wood of Lebanon by sea. The bulls
whose images are placed at the gateways
of the palaces and temples, as described in

ism.

the above ideographic group, are the guardian genii, who are looked upon as living
beings. As the result of a veritable magical
operation, the supernatural creature is supposed to reside within these bodies of stone."
In a bilingual document, Akkadian with
an Assyrian version, we read invocations
to the two bulls who flanked the gate of
the infernal abode, which were no longer
simulacra of stone, but living beings, like
the bulls at the gates of the celestial palThe following is one of
aces of the gods.
the unique expressions made in the ears
of the bull which stands to the right of
the bronze inclosure
" Great Bull, most great Bull, stamping
before the holy gates, he opens the interior
director of Abundance, who supports the
god Nirba, he who gives their glory to the
cultivated fields,

my

pure hands

sacrifice

toward thee."
Similar expressions were then made in
the bull's left ear.
These genii, in the form of winged bulls
with human countenances, were stationed
as guardians at the portals of the edifices
of Babylonia and Assyria, and were given
the name of Kirubi thus, Kirubu damqu
lippaqid, " May the propitious Kirub guard."
Numerous authorities may be given to show
that the Chaldeo-Assyrians' Kirub, from
the tenth to the fifth century before our
era, whose name is identical with the Hebrew Kerub, was the winged bull with a
human head. The Israelites, during the
times of the Kings and the Prophets, pictured to themselves the Kerubim under
this form.*
;

China.

secret society, akin to Mais the " Most

sonry and indigenous to China,

Ancient Order of Suastica," or the Brotherhood of the Mystic Cross, said' to have been
founded 1027 b. c. by Fohi, and introduced
It contains three
into China 975 B. C.
degrees Apprentice Brothers, Tao Sze (or
Doctors of Reason), and Grand Master.
The Apprentice wears the Jaina Cross,
:

* " The figures of the Cherubim are said to have

defeated Dante's power of constructive imagination."

Chinese Classics and SymbolMr. Giles, well versed in matters

pertaining to Chinese literature, customs,
and archaeology, is the authority for stating
that in the written language of the Chinese
many curious expressions were in use seven
hundred years before the Christian era, or
only about two hundred years after the
death of King Solomon, bearing close
proximity to those used prominently in
Masonry. The following quotation from
the works of Mencius, the great disciple
of Confucius, is given in illustration "
Master Mason, in teaching his apprentices,
makes use of the compasses and the square.
Ye who are engaged in the pursuit of wisdom must also make use of the compasses
and the square." These two words, " compasses" and "square," in the Chinese language represent "order, regularity, and
propriety." Mr. Giles points out that in
the oldest of the Chinese classics, " which
embraces a period from the twenty-fourth
to the seventh century before Christ, there
are distinct allusions to this particular
symbolism." See King.
:

" The

Chromatic Calendar.
Five Points."

In the great Temple,

usually known as the Ocean Banner Monastery, at Honam, a suburb of Canton, China,
we find four colossal idols occupying a large
porch, each image being painted a different
color. Ch'i-kwoh, who rules the north and
grants propitious winds, is dark Kwangmuh is red, and to him it is given to rule
the south and control the fire, air, and
water To-man' rules the west, and grants
;

or withholds rain, his color being white;

while Chang-tsang, whose color is green,
rules the winds and keeps them within
their proper bounds, his supreme control
being exercised over the east. The old
custom of associating colors with the four
quarters of the globe has probably led to
the habit of describing the winds from
these respective points as possessed of the
same colors. The fifth, the earth, the central remaining point, still is conjectural.
Thus, we also find in China a set of deities

known

as the five rulers their colors, elements, and points may be thus represented
1. Black.
Water.
Back.
North.
2. Red.
Fire.
Breast.
South.
3. Green.
Wood.
Mouth.
East.
4. White.
Metal.
Knee.
West.
5. Yellow.
Earth.
Middle. Foot.
;

CHROMATIC

CLAVEL

ADDENDUM.

These again are in turn associated with

the planets, and the study of Chinese and
Babylonian planet-colors is full of curious
points of similarity.
Black, typifying the north, has two
direct opponents in symbolic colors, and
these are red and white. The first as implying ignorance arising from evil passions,
the second indicating ignorance of mind.
Ked-black is called in Hebrew O^ff, Ileum,

'

by

this color, the

made

963

Egyptians and Hebrews

the symbol of Earth. Its reference

to the West would imply the first point
whereat the profane bent the knee in supit

plication to the Deity.

Yellow, ^il \f,

Tseb,

gold color, desig-

nates a radiation of light, signifying to

shine, to be resplendent.
Man, or the
male principle, symbolized by ardent fire,
was represented by red, and the female
principle, identified with the idea of light
or flame, represented by yellow or lightcolored earth, over which the swift-footed
messenger bears tfie tidings of a Mason's
distress and the return of obligatory succor.
This light of the fire, the female of divine
beauty, the Egyptian Venus, was called
Athor, signifying dwelling of Horus, and
was thus represented.

from which comes Heume, an inclosing

wall.
Black from white, in Hebrew, is
*")nC> sehher, signifying the dawn of light
The
to the mind of the Masonic profane.
hand to back, as the words of wisdom are
about to be spoken.
In the Egyptian, the black Osiris appears at the commencement of the Funereal
Ritual, representing the state of the soul
which passes into the world of light.

Anubis, one of the sons of Osiris, who

weighs the soul in the scales of Amenti,
is the god of the dead, is black.
The
Conductor, or Master of Ceremonies, Thoth
Psychopompe, has the head of the black
Ibis.
See Truth.
Eed. In Hebrew, the fire of love, which
burns in the south, is jIHK, are, to burn.

and

On Egyptian monuments, and in their

temples, the flesh of men is painted red,
and that of women yellow. The same difference exists between the gods and goddesses, except where specially otherwise
defined.
Man's name in Hebrew signifies
red, and as the image of fire is love, it is
the universal tie of beings from breast to
breast.

verdure. JTp"),
the firmament, also the winds.
Green
designates the beginning, the creation, the
birth, as the world was called into being
in the wisdom of God by his word of mouth,
and Light was to appear in the East.
Phtha was the Egyptian Creator of the
world; he was at times represented with
his flesh painted green, and holding a
sceptre of four colors, red, blue, green, and
yellow: fire, air, water, and earth. The
god Lunus, the Moon, in Hebrew J"7*P>
irhe, is formed of one of the roots of
green, signifying to found or set in order.
Green is the symbol of Victory as well as
Hope, in the symbolic colors (of Mackey,

which

Circuit. Fort, in his Early History and

Antiquities of Freemasonry , says " Northern
kings, immediately upon acceding to the
throne, made a 'gait' or procession about
their realms.
According to the Scandinavian laws, when real property was transferred, possession was incomplete until a
circuit was made around the estate by the
:

Green.

see).

White.

p*V, Irq, viridis,

buyer and vendor."

During the installation ceremonies of

the Master of a Masonic Lodge, a procession of all the Craftsmen march around
the room before the Master, to whom an
appropriate salute is tendered. This Circuit is designed to signify that the new
incumbent reduces the Lodge to his possession in this symbolic manner.

Clavel, T. Begue. An abbe. A

writer, who published, in

French Masonic

-fin, Heur, to be white; 1842, a Histoire Pittoresque de la Franc-MaHeurim, to be noble and pure. connerie et des Societes Anciennes et Modernes.
The Egyptian spirits of the dead were This work contains a great amount of interclothed in white, like the priests. Phtha, esting and valuable information, notwiththe creator and regenerator, was frequently standing many historical inaccuracies, esrobed in a white vestment, symbol of the pecially in reference to the Ancient Acegg from which he was born, enveloped in cepted Scottish Rite, of which the author
the white or albumen. The head of Osiris was an adversary. Clavel is also the author
was draped in a white tunic. While the of another work, published in 1844, and
Chinese metaphorically represented Metal entitled Histoire Pittoresque des Religions,

Q*mn

964

CLECHE

Doctrines, Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses

de tous les Peuples du Monde. For the publication of the former work without authority, he was suspended by the Grand
Orient for two months, and condemned to
pay a fine. Clavel appealed to the intelligence of the Fraternity against this senIn 1844, he commenced the publitence.
cation of a Masonic Journal called the
Orand Orient, the title of which he subsequently changed to the Orient. As he had

not obtained the consent of the Grand

Orient, he was again brought before that
body, and the sentence of perpetual exclusion from the Grand Orient pronounced
against him. Heboid says that it was the
act of a faction, and obtained by unfair
means. It was not sustained by the judgment of the Craft in France, with whom
Clavel gained reputation and popularity.
Notwithstanding the Masonic literary labors of Clavel, an account of the time of
his birth, or of his death, appears to be obscure. His desire seemed to be to establish
as history, by publication, those views
which he personally entertained and formed; gathered from sources of doubtful
character, he desired they should not be
questioned in the future, semelpro semper.
Cleche. A cross charged with another
of the same figure, but whose color is that
of the field.
College, The regular Convocation of
the subordinate bodies of the Society of
Rosicrucians is called an Assemblage of
the College, at which their mysteries are
celebrated, by initiation and advancement,
at the conclusion of which the Mystic Circle is broken.
Established in
Colleges, Irish.
Paris about 1730, and were rapidly being
promulgated over France, when they were
superseded by the Scottish Chapters.
Colloeatio. The Greek custom of
exposing the corpse on a bier over night,
near the threshold, that all might be convinced of the normal death.

Colored Fraternities. The secret

societies of negroes claiming to

be Masonic

are quite extensive, embracing fourteen

Grand Lodges, to wit: that of Arkansas,
Colorado, Dominica, Illinois, Indiana, Liberia, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey,
New York, North Carolina, Ontario, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.

Companions, The Twelve. The

Eev. George

F.

Fort

relates

that

the

" twelve Companions of G. Master Hiram

correspond unquestionably to the twelve
zodiacal signs, or the twelve months of the
year.
The ground-work of this tradition
of the twelve is a fragment of ancient natural religion, common to both Oriental and

European nations

or,

CONVENTIONS

ADDENDUM.

derived from identical sources. The treacherous Craftsmen of Hiram the Good are
the three winter months which slew him.
He is the sun surviving during the eleven
consecutive months, but subjected to the
irresistible power of three ruffians, the winter months in the twelfth and last month,
that luminary, Hiram, the good, the beauteous, the bright, the sun god, is extinguished."
Connecticut. The first Lodge organized in Connecticut was Hiram Lodge, at
New Haven, which received its charter, in
1750, from St. John's Grand Lodge, of
Boston. Other Lodges were instituted,
some by authority from Massachusetts,
others from that derived from New York.
convention of delegates from twelve
;

Lodges assembled at New Haven, July 8,

1789, and organized the Grand Lodge of
Connecticut, Pierpont
Edwards being
elected Grand Master.
In 1796, there were three Royal Arch
Chapters in Connecticut. In 1797, these
Chapters had entered into an association,
probably with the idea of establishing a
Grand Chapter. On January 24, 1798, a
convention of delegates from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New
York was held at Hartford, when a conference was had on the subject of the two conventions, the delegates from Connecticut
united with those from the other States in
forming the " Grand Royal Arch Chapter
of the Northern States of America." By
the constitution then adopted, the " Deputy
Grand Chapter " of Connecticut was established.
The title was changed in the subsequent year for that of " Grand Chapter."
Webb gives the precise date of the organization of the Grand Chapter as May 17,
1798. See Royal Arch Grand Bodies in

America.

The Grand Council of Royal and Select

Masters was organized in 1819.
The Grand Encampment of Knights
Templar was organized September 13,
1827, but is now known as the Grand Commandery.

Conventions or Congresses
Masons in chronological
926. York,
England.

under Prince

1275. Strasburg, under

of

order:

Edwin of

Edwin Von

Stein-

bach.
1459. Ratisbon, under Jost Dolzinger.
1464. Ratisbon, under Grand Lodge of
Strasburg.
1469. Spire, under Grand Lodge of Strasburg.
1535. Cologne, by Hermann, Bishop of

Cologne.
1563. Basle,

more properly, was burg.

by Grand Lodge of Stras-

;
;

CORIUM

1717. London, by the Four Old Lodges.

Organization of Grand Lodge.
1730. Dublin, by the Dublin Lodges.
1736. Edinburgh. Organization and institution of Grand Lodge.
1756. The Hague, by the Royal Union
Lodge.
1762. Paris and Berlin, by nine commissioners nominated by the Sov. G. Council
of P. of Masonry.
1763. Jena, by the Lodge of Strict Ob-

servance.
1764. Jena,

by Johnson or Beeker, denounced by Baron Hund.

1765. Altenberg, a continuation wherein
elected G. M. of Rite of Strict

Hund was

Observance.
1772. Kohl, by Ferdinand of Brunswick
and Baron Hund, without success.
1775. Brunswick, by Ferdinand, Duke
of Brunswick.
1778. Lyons, by Lodge of Chevaliers Bienfaisants.
1778. Wolfenbiittel,

by Duke of Bruns-

wick.
1782. Wilhemsbad, an impotent session
for purification.
1784. Paris, a medley of Lovers of Truth

and United Friends.

1786. Berlin, alleged to have been convened by Frederick Second of Prussia.
1822. Washington, a mutual assemblage

of American Lodges.
1843. Baltimore, a mutual assemblage
of American Lodges.
1847. Baltimore, a mutual assemblage
of American Lodges.
1853. Lexington, Ky., a mutual assemblage of American Lodges.
1855. Paris, by Grand Orient of France.
1859. Chicago. A volunteer assemblage.
A convention of the
1875. Lausanne.
Supreme Councils of the Scottish Rite
of the World, which subsequently led to
an eternal bond of unity both offensive

and

CRATA

ADDENDUM.

defensive.

Coriuui. An armor worn by Roman

made of leather scales, and much

soldiers

965

made

the armor impervious to arrows, and

caused the glance of spears and javelins.

Coronet, Ducal.
ta.)

An

inferior

(Italian, Coronet-

crown worn by noblemen,

such as that of a British duke, adorned with

strawberry leaves that
of a marquis has leaves
with pearls interposed
that of an earl has the
pearls above the leaves
that of a viscount is
surrounded with pearls
only; that of a baron
has only four pearls. The ducal coronet
;

a prominent symbol in the Thirty-third

degree of the A. A. Scottish Rite.
Cosmist. A religious faith of late
recognition, having for its motto, " Deeds,
not Creeds," and for its principle the
service of humanity is the supreme duty.
The design of Cosmism is to join all men
and women into one family, in which the
principle of equality, together with that of
brotherly love {that is, love of the human
race), is the predominant one, and the
moral and material welfare of all the sole
aim and purpose.
The Cosmists are enjoined to act as follows To give one another encouragement
and aid, both material and moral to cultivate all their faculties; to contemplate
all mankind as brethren
to be courteous
and forbearing to each and all to practise
charity without publicity or ostentation.
is

Freemasonry is an intensely theistical

institution but its principles could scarcely
be better expressed than those above enumerated as the foundation of the Cosmistic
faith; more especially in the motto, " Deeds,
;

not Creeds."

There is an observable difference between

Cosmists and Secularists, Collectivists and
Positivists.

Cotty to, Mysteries of.

These were

instituted in Thrace, and thence found their

way into Greece and Rome, and were known
The memas the Rites of the Bona Dea.
The intrudbers were exclusively women.
ing of Clodius, in female disguise, into the
ceremonies, was severely paid for.

Council of Allied Masonic DeEngland. An organization re-

grees.

ported to have been formed in 1880 to embosom, protect, and promulgate all side

used in the time of Edward I. The leather

leaves or scales overlapping each other,

degrees of a Masonic or other secret character, and those otherwise unclaimed that
may appear as waifs. The central organization is termed the "Council of Allied
Masonic Degrees." One of its subordinates
is Ebor Council, at York.
Craft Statistics. See Statistics of
Craft Masons.
Crata Repoa. An Egyptian Rite

CRESSET

966

ADDENDUM.

1. Pastophoros or ApNeocoros or Fellow Craft. 3.

Melanophoros or Master. 4. Kistophoros,
Provost and Judge. 5. Balahate, Knight

of seven degrees:
prentice.

and

2.

Priest Philosopher.

6.

with other symbols." Upon the breast of

one of the Egyptian mummies in the museum of the London University is a cross
upon a Calvary or mount. People in those

Knephnu, King countries marked

(Royal Arch or Astronomos).

These were first
7. Propheta.
published in 1770, and appear
to have had no really ancient
origin or authority.

Cresset.

CUMULATION

An

open lamp

formerly having a cross-piece

filled with combustible material,
such as naphtha, and recognized
as the symbol of Light and
Truth.
Crimson. (Crimoysin, O.
Eng.) A deep-red color tinged
with blue, emblematical of fervency and zeal belonging to several degrees of the Scottish Rite as well as to the
Holy Royal Arch.
Crosier. The staff surmounted by a
cross carried before a bishop on occasions
of solemn ceremony. They are generally
gilt, and made light frequently of tin, and
hollow. The pastoral staff has a circular
head.
;

Crosses. In referring to the philosophic triads and national crosses, there

will be found in a work entitled The Celtic
Druids, by Godfrey Higgins, the following
" Few causes have been more powerful in
producing mistakes in ancient history than
the idea, hastily formed by all ages, that
every monument of antiquity marked with
a cross, or with any of those symbols which
they conceived to be monograms of Christ
the Saviour, was of Christian origin. The
cross is as common in India as in Egypt
or Europe."
The Rev. Mr. Maurice remarks {Indian Antiquities): "Let not the
piety of the Catholic Christian be offended
at the assertion that the cross was one of
the most usual symbols of Egypt and
India. The emblem of universal nature
is equally honored
in the Gentile and
Christian world.
In the Cave of Elephanta, in India, over the head of the
principal figure may be seen the cross,

their sacred water-jars,

dedicated to Canopus, with a Tau cross,
and sometimes even that now known as
the Teutonic cross. The fertility of the
country about the river Nile, in Egypt,
was designated, in distance on its banks
from the river proper, by the Nilometer,
in the form of a cross.
The erudite Dr. G.
L. Ditson says: "The Rabbins say that

when Aaron was made High

Priest he was
in the forehead by Moses with a
cross in the shape of that now known as
St. Andrew's."
Proselytes, when admitted
into the religious mysteries of Eleusis,
were marked with a cross. (See Cross,

marked

Mackey.)

Crowns. As

the result of considerable

Brother Robert Macoy presents nine principal crowns recognized in
heraldry and symbolism
1st. The Triumphal crown, of which there were three
kinds a laurel-wreath, worn by a General
while in the act of triumph
a golden
crown, in imitation of laurel -leaves and
the presentation golden crown to a conquering General. 2d. The Blockade crown
of wild-flowers and grass, presented by the
army to the commander breaking and relieving a siege. 3d. The Civic crown of
oak-leaves, presented to a soldier who
saved the life of his comrade. 4th. The
Olive crown, conferred upon the soldiery
or commander who consummated a triumph. 5th. The Mural crown, which
rewarded the soldier who first scaled the
wall of a besieged city. 6th. The Naval
crown, presented to the Admiral who won
a naval victory. 7th. The Vallary crown,
or circlet of gold, bestowed on that soldier
who first surmounted the stockade and
forced an entrance into the enemy's camp.
8th. The Ovation crown, or chaplet of
myrtle, awarded to a General who had
destroyed a despised enemy and thus obtained the honor of an ovation. 9th. The
Eastern or Radiated crown, a golden circle
set with projecting rays.
The crown of Darius, used in Red Cross
knighthood and in the Sixteenth degree
Scottish Rite, was one of seven points, the
central front projection being more prominent than the other six in size and height.
classification,

Cumulation of Kites.

The

prac-

by a Lodge of two or more Rites, as

the American or York and the Ancient
Accepted Scottish, or the Scottish and
French Modern Rites. This cumulation
of Rites has been practised to a considerable extent in France, and in Louisiana
in the United States.

tice

DECLARING

ADDENDUM.

967

D.
Lodges, and during the year fourteen dispensations were granted for new

D. The fourth letter of the Phoenician,

the Hebrew, the Greek, the Roman, and
of nearly all alphabets. In Hebrew it is
signifying the door of life, a rep*J, Daleth,
resentation of which was probably its original hieroglyph, thus

fifteen

Membership, 1533.
It has a
flourishing G. Chapter, and on May 14,
1884, a G. Commandery of K. Templar
was organized, with five Commanderies.
Lodges.

A robe worn by deacons

some Christian churches. Originally
made of linen, as shown by early Christian
paintings on the walls of the Catacombs at
Rome, but now generally made of heavy
Dalmatic.

in

woollen or silk material, as the planeta

worn by the priest. This article of dress
1 shows the approximation to the Hebrew has become quite common in many of the
Daleth 2, the Greek Delta, resembling the degrees of various Rites.
opening of a tent. The numerical value
Danibool. The vast rock temple of
of "| is four as a Roman numeral it stands the Buddhists in Ceylon, containing a profor 500. The Divine name in Hebrew con- fusion of carvings, figures of Buddha of
nected with this letter is ^Ut, Daghul, In- extraordinary magnitude. Monuments of
signis.
this deity are, in the common Singhalese
Dactyli. Priests of Cybele, in Phryg- term, called Dagoba, but the more general
ia, of whom there were five, which numname is Stupa or Tope. See Topes.
ber could not be exceeded, and alluded to
Daniel. The countersign with " Dathe salutation and blessing by the five fin- rius" for Monday in the 32d Degree, Scotgers of the hand.
tish Rite.
A Hebrew prophet, contempoDseclalus. A famous artist and mech- rary of Ezekiel, about 600 B. c. Carried
anician, whose genealogy is traced in the captive to Babylon in the fourth year of
Greek myths as having sprung from the Jehoiakim, but selected for instruction in
old Athenian race of kings, the Erechthei- all the learning of the Chaldeans by order
He is said to have executed the Cre- of the Court. His skill in the interpretadse.
tan labyririth, the reservoir near Megaris tion of dreams was famed. He became
in Sicily, the Temple of Apollo at Capua, Governor of Babylon under Nebuchadand the celebrated altar sculptured with nezzar, and the first ruler of the whole
He is said to Medo-Persian Empire, inferior only to
lions on the Libyan coast.
be the inventor of a number of the "Work- Darius, the king. Under Cyrus he had
ing Tools" used in the various degrees of been Grand Master of the Palace and
Masonry, the plumb-line and the axe, most Interpreter of Visions, as narrated in the
of the tools used in carpentry, and of glue. 15th Degree, Scottish Rite. He did not
Of him is told the fable of his flying safely return with his countrymen to Judea when
over the iEgean by means of wings made granted their liberty. It is a dispute as to
by himself. His nephew, Perdix, is the when he died, or where, but the majority
reputed inventor of the third Great Light favor Sushan, in Persia, when he was 90
in Masonry, the Compasses, which are ded- years of age.
At the present day a tomb
icated to the Craft. Through envy Daeda- is shown in this ancient city bearing his
lus is said to have hurled his nephew, Per- name; in fact, it is the only standing
structure there.
dix, from the Temple Athene.
Daniel was noted and
;

Dagraini, Hubert. A writer in

the Amsterdam Journal of November 3,
1735, on the subject. of Freemasonry, which
caused an edict from the States General
forbidding Masonic gatherings throughout
the country.
Dagran, !Loiiis. President of a
General Assembly of thirty Lodges, held
on St. John's Day, 1756, at the Hague, for
the formation of the Grand Lodge of HolIt was at this December meeting
Baron Van Aerssen Beyeren Van
Hogerheide was appointed Grand Master.
Dakota. The Grand Lodge was or-

land.
that

ganized July 21, 1875.

In 1883, there were

famed

for his piety,

and

as well for his

worldly possessions.

Dao. The Zend name

for light,

from

Daer, to shine.

Darakiel.

responsive word in the

23d Degree of the Scottish Rite.

S.XOTT.
Latin, Directio Dei.
Darius I. See Cyrus, King.
Decamis. An officer in the Knights
Templar system of Baron Hund, who, in
the absence of the Grand Master and his
Prior, possessed the right to preside in the

Chapter.

Declaring
ceases to visit

Off.

"When

and pay

his

a brother

monthly sub-

DEGREES

96^
scription,

DIU

ADDENDUM.

he thereby declares himself

off

In
[Symbolical Dictionary.)
England, A. F. A. Woodford says, the
brother "resigns." Various designations
rule in the United States, the chief one
being " dropped from the roll." In some
States the brother is punished by "suspenIf, however, in certain States, he is
sion."
clear of the books, upon application he can
receive a certificate to that effect, and be
dropped from the roll. In England he
In Scotland
gets a "clearance certificate."
a " dimit " is issued under the seal of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland.
the Lodge."

Degrees, when were Three Created ? Rather than rely upon any facts
that can be produced by American students,
it is safer to look to the earnest seekers for
historical light in the Mother Masonic country, especially to Brothers W. J. Hughan,
R. F. Gould, and " Masonic Student."
therefore make free with their printed opinions.
No one has ever contended that the
three degrees as we have them to-day were
the same before 1717, in arrangement, in
teaching, and in terminology, because, considering the alterations which have taken
place since 1721, to go back to that date
would be an absurd contention. There is
undoubted evidence of more degrees than
one previous to 1717, and that remembering
the continuous division of the Craft into
Masters, Fellows, and Apprentices from undoubted evidence, Masonic and un-masonic,
it is a fair hypothesis, in fact a rational and
logical argument, that esoteric ritual also
ran " on all fours " with exoteric arrangements.
To assume that the second and
third degrees were arranged between 1717
and 1721 or 1723, appears as the actual
negation of all evidence and common sense,
as it is impossible to suppose that Anderson
and Payne and the Masons of 1723 deliberately gave themselves to a tissue of misrepresentation. This position is confirmed
by the fact of the existence of a sodality of
a secreta receptio in the seventeenth century,
as may be found by Plot's statements, Ash<mole's diary, the Chester Harleian MS.,
and other evidence. True, the degrees were
technical and honorary, and mark no difference of teaching or secret symbolism,
but we have already in the eighteenth century a statement that a distinct threefold
division of degree teaching did exist, which
is hostile to the hypothesis that our present
arrangement dates from only 1717-1721.
That in Dermot's statement we have the
germ of truth of the whole matter, namely,
that from 1717 to 1721 the society was in a
weakly state, and that Stukeley's evidence
is important, on this particular.
But to
presume that all should lend themselves to
a falsehood in 1723, and again in 1738, and

We

that the Society of Freemasons had concocted the present system between 1717 and

1721-1723, and should suddenly come forward with two new degrees, is contrary to
experience. What evidence is there to
build up any new theory ? Let proof be
furnished by the production of a MS. ritual
of any part of the last century. The earliest ritual MS. evidence is transcribed 1715,
all

though probably composed earlier, but this

supports the antiquity of the degrees. The
printed evidence commences in 1721, and
certainly seems clearly to point to a longcontinued system of three degrees.
A. F. A. Woodford says: "The Scotch
Lodge minutes, or the acknowledged statutes of the Craft Lodges (1598), show two
steps, or degrees, to have then existed. Apprentices got the 'Mason Word;' then in
the admission of Fellow or Master,' there
was some sort of ceremony at which Entered Apprentices should, nay must, be
present. Subsequently, Apprentices were
excluded on the admission of Fellows and
Masters. The Apprentices were turned out
in 1759."
Deiseil. The counterpart of Tuathal.
Mackenzie, in the Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia, says " Deiseil is used by the Druids as
a term for the circumambulation of the sacred Cairns.
Derived from deas, south,
and tul, a course that is in a southward
direction following the course of the sun.
The opposite is Tuathal, in a northward
direction, as is observed at the present day
in approaching the grave with a corpse."
ruined town of Upper
Denderah.
Egypt, of great interest in consequence of
its astronomical allusions on the ceiling of
the main portico supported on twenty -four
columns, which is covered with figures and
This is in the principal
hieroglyphics.
temple, which is 220 by 50 feet. The numerous mythological figures are arranged
'

in zodiacal fashion. Recent archaeological

travellers doubt the reference to astronomy,
in consequence of the absence of the Crab.

The temple

dates from the period of Cleopatra and the earlier Roman emperors, and
is one of the finest and best preserved structThe chief deity
ures of the kind in Egypt.
was Athor, the goddess of night, corresponding with the Greek Aphrodite. See Zodiac.

Desert, The outer court of a tent in

the Order of Ishmael, or of Esau and Reconciliation.

IMu. (The " Shining light of Heaven.")

An Indian word applied to the Supreme
God, of the same signification as the Greek
words Zeus and Theos, and the Latin Deus,
in Sanskrit, Dewas; in
Dews; in Gothic, Thius; and in
North German, Tyr.

Jupiter (Jovis);
Lettish,

DIVINING-ROD
Divining-Rod,

or

Pedum.

Moderator, or royal Master, was

imaged with the ureus on his forehead, the pedum and the whip between his knees. The DiviningRod was a symbol of moderation.
pn, Heq, signifies a law, a statute,
or custom ppn, Seqq, a legislator,
a sceptre, a king, moderator, and
a Pedum. Hence, a staff. It is
represented by a crook surmounted
on a pole. The rod of the Rose
Croix Knight is dissimilar; it is
straight, white, like a wand, and yet
may be used as a helping or leaning

The

DccM's Constitutions.

Dowland Manuscript.
lished

pam-

(Adonai

in the Third Degree of the

Scottish Rite.

Founded

of.

First pub-

by James Dowland, in Gentleman's

Magazine, JVIay, 1815, vol. lxxxv., p. 489.

"Written on a long roll of parchment, in
a very clear hand, apparently early in the
seventeenth century, and very probably is
copied from a manuscript of earlier date."
Brother William J. Hughan says " Brother Woodford, Mr. Sims, and other eminent authorities, consider the original of the
copy, from which the manuscript for the
Gentlema?i's Magazine was written, to be a
scroll of at least a century earlier than the
date ascribed to Mr. Dowland's MS., that
is, about 1550."
Drops, Three. The mystic number
of drops of blood from the White Giant,
that in the Persian mysteries restored sight
to the captives in the cell of horrors when
applied by the conqueror Rustam. In India,
a girdle of three triple threads was deemed
holy so were three drops of water in Brittany, and the same number of drops of
blood in Mexico.
Examination. See Vouching,
:

staff.

Dominicans. Order

was canon-

sonic model, but androgynous, instituted at

Versailles, in 1784.

Found

nic died at Bologna, 1221, and

ized by Gregory IX. in 1233.

Dove, Knights and Ladies of

An extinct secret society, of a Ma-

phlet of twenty pages, in quarto, the title

being "The beginning and the first foundation of the Most Worthy Craft of Masonry with the Charges thereunto belonging. By a deceased Brother, for the benefit
of his widow. London printed for Mrs.
Dodd at the Peacock without Temple Bar.
Price, sixpence."
The only copy
1739.
known to exist is in the possession of Richard Spencer, London. See Spencer Manuscript in this Addendum.

Domino Deus Mens.

969

the.

elohai.)

EBAL

ADDENDUM.

at Toulouse, in 1215, by Dominic (Domingo) de Guzman, who was born at Calahorra, in Old Castile, 1170.
He became
an itinerant to convert the heretical Albigenses, and established the Order for that

purpose and the cure of souls. The Order

was confirmed by Innocent III. and Honorius III., in 1216. Dress, white garment,
with black cloak and pointed cap. Domi-

Due

Mackey.

Dyaus.
alted.

The

Sanskrit for sky bright, exDeity, the sun, the celestial

;

canopy, the firmament,

"Dye na

am

Sore,"

dem Sanskrit

romance, by

or "Die Wanderer

Ubersetzt."

Masonic

Von Meyern, which

appeared
at Vienna in 1789, and contains a complete
account of Masonic festivities.

E.
E.

The

the
HO
English and in the Grseco-Roman alphabets.
In form the Hebrew n is quite similar to Cheth, ff> which has a numerical
value of eight, while that of He is five. The
signification is window, and in the Egyptian hieroglyphs is represented by a hand
extending the thumb and two fingers. It
also represents the fifth name of God,
*)11il (Hadur), Formosus, Majestuosus.
Ebal. According to Mackenzie, the
following was introduced into the lectures
of Masonry in the last century " Moses
commanded Israel that as soon as they had
(Heb.,

fifth letter in

5W

passed the Jordan, they should go to She

chem, and divide into two bodies, each composed of six tribes one placed on, that is,
adjacent to, Mount Ebal the other on, or
adjacent to, Mount Gerizim. The six tribes
:

on or at Gerizim were to pronounce blessings on those who should faithfully observe

the law and the six on Mount Ebal were
to pronounce curses against those who
should violate it. This Joshua executed
;

(Deut. xxvii; Joshua viii. 30-35). Moses

enjoined them to erect an altar of unhewn
stones on Mount Ebal, and to plaster them
over, that the law might be written on the

EBAN

970

Shechem

altar.

is

the

modern

Nab-

lous."

Eban Bohan.

The

stone which

as a witness-stone, and which

afterwards served as a boundary-mark on
the frontier between Judah and Benjamin

Bohan

set

up

(Joshua xv. 6;

xviii. 17).

(Heb., iwrrpx, stone

stone set up by Samuel between Mizpeh and Shen, in testimony of
the Divine assistance obtained against the

Eben-Ezer.

of help.)

Sam. vii. 12).

The Arabian name of the

Philistines (1

EMis.

prince of the apostate angels, exiled to

the infernal regions for refusing to worship
Adam at the command of the Supreme,
Eblis claiming that he had been formed of
ethereal fire, while Adam was created from
clay.
The Mohammedans assert that at
the birth of their prophet the throne of
Eblis was precipitated to the bottom of
hell.
The Azazel of the Hebrews.
Ecbatana. An ancient city of great
interest to those who study the history of
the rebuilding of the temple. Its several

names were Agbatana, Hagmatana, and

Achmeta. Tradition attributes the founding of the city to Solomon, Herodotus to
Deioces, 728 b. c, the Book of Judith to
Arphaxad. It was the ancient capital of
Media. Vast quantities of rubbish now
indicate where the palace and citadel stood.
The Temple of the Sun crowned a conical
hill inclosed by seven concentric walls.
According to Celsus, there was thus exhibited a scale composed of seven steps or
stages, with an eighth at the upper ex-

The first stage was composed

of lead, and indicated Saturn the second,
of tin, denoted Venus; the third, of
copper, denoted Jupiter; the fourth, of
iron, denoted Mars
the fifth, of divers
metals, 'denoted Mercury; the sixth, of
silver, denoted the Moon
the seventh, of
gold, denoted the Sun
then the highest,
Heaven. As they rose in gradation toward
the pinnacle, all the gorgeous battlements
represented at once in Sabean fashion
the seven planetary spheres. The principal buildings were the Citadel, a stronghold of enormous dimensions, where also
the archives were kept, in which Darius
found the edict of Cyrus the Great concerning the rebuilding of the Holy Temple
in Jerusalem.
Eclectic
or) Union. See
Eclectic Union, in the body of this work.
The Eev. Bro. A. F. A. Woodward says
there are now twelve of these Lodges and
1396 brethren.
tremity.

(Bund

Ecossais d Angers, or Ecossais

d'Alcidony. Two degrees mentioned
5

in a
tions

work

EDWARD

ADDENDUM.

entitled Philosophical Consideraon Freemasonry.

An Icelandic word, literally

translated great-grandmother, as referred to
in Scandinavian poetry. There are in real-

Edda.

two books of this name which were

deemed inspired by the ancient Germans,
Norwegians, and Swedes, and there grew
out so many myths from these canonical
ity

writings, that great difficulty is now experienced as to what were apocryphal. The
myths springing from the old German theology are full of beauty they pervade Freemasonry extensively and so intimately that
they are believed by many of the best students to be the origin of a large number of
;

its

legends and symbols.

The older of the two, called The Edda

of Samund the Learned, was written in a
language existing in Denmark, Sweden,
and Norway as early as the eighth century.

Samund Sigfusson, an Icelandic

priest born
in 1056, collected thirty-nine of these poems
during the earlier portion of the twelfth
century. The most remarkable of these
poems is the Oracle of the Prophetess, containing the cosmogony, under the Scandinavian belief, from the creation to the
destruction of the world.
well-preserved
copy was found in Iceland in 1643.
The younger Edda is a collection of the
myths of the gods, and of explanations of
meters of Pagan poetry, and is intended
for instruction of young scalds or poets.
The first copy was found complete in 1628.

The prologue

is a curious compendium of
Jewish, Greek, Christian, Boman, and Icelandic legend. Its authorship is ascribed
to Snorro Sturleson, born in 1178; hence

called

Edda

of Snorro.

Edinburgh -Kilwinning Manuscript. See Kilwinning Manuscript

this Addendum.

Edward

in

the Confessor, King.

Said to have been a patron of Masonry in

England

in 1041.

Edward, Kings.

The

four kings,

numerically known as the First, Second,

Third, and Fourth, appear as favorers,
abettors, and protectors of the Institution
of Freemasonry.
Edward, Prince. Son of George
III., and Duke of Kent, was initiated in
1790, at Geneva, in the Lodge Be V Union
des Coeurs; was Grand Master of the Ancients, and resigned to the Duke of Sussex
on the memorable occasion of the Union
in England, 1813.

Edward

III. Manuscript.

manuscript quoted by Anderson in his sec(p. 71), and also by Preston, as

an old record referring to " the glorious
reign of King Edward III." The whole
of the record is not cited, but the passages

ond edition

that are given are evidently the same as

those contained in what is now known as

EDWIN

habit in dealing with those old documents. Compare, for instance, the following passages
From the Cooke MS. "When the master
and the felawes be forwarned ben y come
to such congregacions if nede be the Schereffe of the countre or the mayer of the Cyte
or alderman of the town in wyche the congregacions is holden schall be felaw and
sociat to the master of the congregacions
in helpe of hym agenst rebelles and upberyng (upbearing] the rygtof the reme."
Edward III. MS., as quoted by Anderson.
" That when the Master and Wardens preside in a Lodge, the sheriff if need be, or
the mayor or the alderman (if a brother)
where the Chapter is held, shall be sociate
to the Master, in help of him against rebels
and for upholding the rights of the realm."
The identity of the two documents is apparent. Either the Edward III. MS. was
copied from the Cooke, or both were derived from a common original.
Mackey.
Charges. The charges said
to have been given by Prince Edwin, and
contained in the Antiquity MS., are sometimes so called. See Antiquity Manuscript
in the body of this work.
ly, his

Edwin

called

because it was discovered many years ago

in the charter-chest of Eglinton castle. It
is written in the Scottish dialect, and bears
u
the date of XXVII. December, 1599." An
exact copy of it has been published by Bro.
Hughan in his Unpublished Records of the
Craft.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs. The extent of parallelism between the innumerable hieroglyphs on the tombs and monuments of India and Egypt and the symbols
and emblems of Freemasonry, taken together with their esoteric interpretation,
has caused very many well-thinking Masons to believe in an Indian or Egyptian
origin of our speculative institution of the
present day. So close and numerous are
these symbols and their meaning that it
becomes difficult for the mind to free itself
from a fixed conclusion and some of the
;

best students feel confident in their judgment to this end, more especially when trac-

ing the Leader,

"Moses,learned /Kl _
, ,^, ^,
in all the wis- l|l
dom of the
Egyptians," from that country to Palestine
with the twelve tribes of Israel and their
successors building that Holy House in
Jerusalem, which has become the chief Masonic symbol. Some have abominated this
theory on the ground of alleged polythe|

ELECT

ADDENDUM.

the Cooke MS., the archaic phraseology

having been modernized and interpolations
inserted by Anderson, as was, unfortunate-

Eglinton Manuscript. So

.^^
MSS
orMES,

971

ism existing among the Egyptians; but

this existed only at a later day in the life
of the nation, as it also existed among the
corrupted Jews in its worst form, for which
see 2 Kings ch. 17-21.
Bro. Thomas Pryer presents this evidence of a monotheistic belief, of pristine
purity, among the early Egyptians, ages
prior to Abraham's day.
give the
hieroglyphs and their interpretation

We

May

te

thy soul

-^hd^

attain (come)

Khnum

*****

(Spirit of

the forms of

God, one of

Amon, the

Crea-

The Creator
a

(the idea denoted by

building the walls of a

man

city)

of all

mankind

(literally

men).

*-

^wi

2^

3p5*

V-l

men and wo- ^Jw j|

mLM

in
May

thy soul attain

tor of all

to

Khntjm,

the Crea-

mankind.

How prophetical were the Books of

Hermes, "O Egypt, Egypt! a time shall
come, when, in lieu of a pure religion, and
of a pure belief, thou wilt possess naught
but ridiculous fables, incredible to posand nothing will remain to thee,
but words engraven on stone, the only monuments that will attest thy piety."
Egyptian Months. Named Thoth.
Paophi, Athyr, Choiak, Tybi, Mechir,
Phamenoth, Pharmuthi, Pashons, Payni,
Epiphi, and Mesore. The above twelve
months, commencing with March 1, were
composed of thirty days each, and the five
supplementary days were dedicated to Hesiri (Osiris), Hor (Horus), Set (Typhon),
His (Isis), and Nebti (Nephthys).
The
sacred year commenced July 20 the Alexandrian year, August 29, b. c. 25.
Elai beni aim ana alt (Hebrew,
terity;

M "7X, Hue venitefilii viduce). Third

Degree A. A. Scottish Rite.
Elai beni emeth (Heb, nnx 'J3 1 Ss,
Hue venitefilii veritatis). Sometimes applied
to the Twenty-sixth Degree of the A. A.
T\ydlX

Scottish Rite.

Elect, Symbolical.
of the

Fifth Degree

Reformed Rite of

Baron Von

Tschoudy.

Electa. Fifth Degree in the American

Adoptive system of the Eastern Star.
Elect, Depositary.
tioned in Pyron's collection.

A degree men-

ELECT

972

Elect,

Grand Prince of the

Three. A

degree mentioned in Pyron's

collection.

[Elu Irlandais.) The

of the high grades of the Chapters of

Elect, Irish.
first

that name.

Elements, Test of the. A

cere-

monial in the First and Twenty-fourth degrees of the A. A. Scottish Eite.

Elohim. JehoTah. The first of

these two words is an expression used
throughout the first chapter of Genesis, as
applied to God in the exercise of His creative
power, and signifies the " Divine Omnipotence, the Source of all power, the Power
of all powers," which was in activity in the
Creation. After which the expression used
for Deity is Jehovah, which implies the
Providence of God, and which could not
have been active until the world had been
created by Elohim. See Jehovah, Mackey.

Eniounah.

[Fidelity,

ENGLAND

ADDENDUM.

Truth.)

The

name

of the Fourth Step of the mystic ladder of the Kadosh of the A. A. Scottish

Eite.

England. During one period of the

eighteenth century there existed four Grand
Lodges in England 1. "The G. Lodge of
England," located at London; 2. "The G.
Lodge of all England," located at York.
3. " The G. Lodge of England according to
the Old Constitutions " and, 4. " The G.
Lodge of England and South of the Trent,"
which last two had their G. East at London.
Concession has been granted that the
first Grand Lodge formation was in 1717,
and theretofore were held "Assemblies"
irregularly convened. The second G. Lodge
bears date 1725, and emanated from that
immemorial Masonic Lodge that gave such
reverence to the city of York. The third
in the line was given birth by malcontents
who broke from the first parent about the
middle of the century. And the fourth,
whose existence lasted from 1779 to nearly
the close of the century, was instituted by
the York Grand Lodge in compliance
with the request of members of the Lodge
of Antiquity, of London but its existence
was ephemeral, in consequence of the removal of the disturbing cause with the
regular G. Lodge, and which granted the
number " Two " to the Lodge of Antiquity.
All subordinate Lodges existing at present, and which had their being prior to the
union, in December, 1813, were subjects of
either the first or the third of the above
designated four G. Lodges, and known respectively as the " Moderns " or the " Ancients," these titles, however, having no
recognized force as to the relative antiquity
of either. The "Ancients" have, at times,
:

been known as "Atholl Masons."

The

Grand Lodge of England has revised its

Book of Constitutions thirteen times since
the " Union " of 1813.
English Freemasonry is sui generis, or,
as the Eev. Bro. Woodford says, " indigenous and peculiar, in that it is, both in its
theory, its unity, and practical development, unlike any other known system. We
mean by this that it rests upon the three
symbolical grades, but makes the Eoyal
Arch the completion of the Masonic edi-

We have received it from our

Masonic forefathers, and such we mean to
hand it on to our Masonic children. It is
a system which is, after all, the foundation
of every other European, American, and
Asiatic system and in our opinion, whenever others have deviated from it, or contracted it, or expanded it, they have done

fice.

wrong. The English system is, in its practical development, cosmopolitan and universal, and, while it is both reverential

and

religious in all that pertains to the

great truths of Divine wisdom, it deprecates all controversial contention and ignores all denominational declarations."
All this appears sound, but we opine
that English Masonry in England changed
in its forms and ceremonies from time to
time, after having planted the fraternity
among distant peoples.

England, The First Record of

(grand Lodge

of. Bro. E. F. Gould

furnishes the valuable information that the
minutes of Grand Lodge commence 24th
June, 1723, and those bearing such date
are signed by "John Theophilus Desaguliers, Deputy Grand Master."
They are
entered in a different handwriting, under
date of 29th November, 1723, 19th February, 1724, 28th "Aprill 1724," and are not
signed at foot. On 24th June, 1724, the
Earl of Dalkeith presided in Grand Lodge,
and the following signatures are appended
to the recorded minutes
:

"Dalkeith, G. M., 1724" (sic).

" J. T. Desaguliers, Dep. G. M."
" Fra Sorrell, Senr., G. W."
" John Senex, Junr."
The minutes of 21st November, 1724,
17th March, 20th May, 24th June, and 27th
November, 1725, are unsigned. But to
those of 27th December, 1725, are appended the signatures of
" Eichmond & Lenox, G. Mr., 1725" [sic),
" M. Ffolkes, D. G. M.,"
and two G. Wardens.
Signatures are again wanting to the
proceedings of 28th February and 12th
December, 1726, but reappear under date
of 27th "Ffebry 1726" [27], viz.:
"Paisley, G. Mr., 1726 " {sic),
and the next three succeeding officers.
The minutes of the following 27th May

ENOCHIAN

973

was active about 1750. The Lodge " Irene,"

at Hamburg, was founded 1757.

Ethanim, or Tishri. The seventh

officers.

minutes were not signed on

confirmation, but were verified by the four
Grand officers, or such of them as took
The
part in the proceedings recorded.
minutes say that "the late G. M. went
away without ceremony " because Dr.
Desaguliers was re-elected Deputy G. M.
earliest

EiioeMan Alphabet. One

most

EVORA

ADDENDUM.

(1727) were signed by " Inchiquin, G. M.,

1727," and the next three succeeding

The

important

alphabets,

or

of the

ciphers,

to historic Masons is the Enochian,

in consequence of the revelations made in
that character. Tradition says the Christian princes were accompanied in their
journey to Palestine by Freemasons, who
fought by their side, and who, when at the
Holy City, discovered important MSS., on
which some of the historic degrees were
founded that some of these MSS. were in

known

msr-mm

first month of the

Hebrew civil year, commencing with the
new moon in September.

sacred month, or the

Europe. An appellation at times given

to the west

Eva.

We

En

bala," under Kabbala, Mackey.

Eostre. Easter, a name given to the
paschal festival in the spring of the year.
name found in one of
Erlking.

the sacred sagas of the Scandinavian mythology, entitled Sir Olaf and the Erlking 's
Daughter, and applied to the mischievous
goblin haunting the Black Forest of Thuringia.

Espe*ranee. Under the name of

"Chevaliers et Chevalieres de l'Esperance"
was founded in France, and subsequently
in Germany, an androgyn Order.
Said to
have been instituted by Louis XV., at the
request of the Marquis de Chatelet, and

in the

French Rite of Adoption.

Evangelieon. The gospel belong-"

ing to the so-called " Ordre du Temple
at Paris, and professedly a relic of the real
Templars. Some believe in its antiquity;
but others, from external and internal evidence, fix its date subsequent to the fifteenth
century. It is apparently a garbled version
of St. John's Gospel. It is sometimes confounded with the " Leviticon ;" but, though
bound up in the same printed volume, it is
entirely distinct.

i\&Vwysvw

^/v^XMrnu^
Syriac and others in Enochian characters
and that on their return, when at Venice,
it was ascertained that the characters were
identical with those in the Syriad column,
spoken of by Josephus, and with the oldest
copies in which the Book of Enoch was
The
written, and are of great antiquity.
brethren in the A. A. Scottish Rite are
largely instructed as to matters pertaining
hereto in the 13th and 14th Degrees.
present an exact copy of the alphabet, as may be found by comparison with
that in the Bodleian Library.
The name He No C H, in Hebrew, signifies "taught" or, more properly, "dedicated."
In the Koran Enoch is called
"Edris," from darasa, to study, which
word, more liberally translated, means,
"to read or to study with attention." See
Enoch, Mackey.
Soph. See " The Dogmatic Kab-

end of the Lodge.

The acclamation used

Evates. The second degree in the

Druidical system.
Of the three degrees
the first was the Bards, the second Evates
or Prophets, and the third Druids or Sanctified Authorities.

Eveilles, Secte des. (Sect of the

enlightened.) According to Thory, a society
presumed to be a branch of Weishaupt's
Illumines that existed in Italy.
Evergeten,
der. (From the
Greek evepyer^, a benefactor.)
secret
order after the manner of the Illuminati.
Woodford says it was founded in Silesia
about 1792, by a certain Zerboni of Glogan,
Lieut, von Leipzinger, the merchant Contessa, Herr von Reibnitz, and five others
that Fessler worked in it; that it used
Masonic forms.
Some of the members
got into difficulty and prison at Breslau
in 1796, and about 1801 the society became
defunct.
Evora, Knights of. There is a
very ancient city in Portugal of 1200 population.
Quintus Sertorius took it 80 B. c.
The Roman antiquities are unrivalled. The
aqueduct erected by Sertorius has at one
end a marvellous architectural tower rising
high above the city, perfect in its condition
as when built, 70 b. c.
In 1147, King Alfonso X, of Portugal, instituted the Order
of the New Militia in consequence of the
prowess exhibited by the troops in the
siege of Lisbon against the Moors. When
they conquered Evora in 1166, the king by
decree changed their name to Knights of

Bund

Evora.

EXCALIBAR

974

ADDENDUM.

Excalibar. King Arthur's famous

sword, which he unfixed from a miraculous stone after the unavailing efforts of
200 of his most puissant barons. Hence,
Arthur was proclaimed king. When dying, Arthur commanded a servant to
throw the sword into a neighboring lake,
but the servant twice eluded this command.
When he finally complied, a hand and arm
arose from the water, seized the sword by
the hilt, waved it thrice, then sinking into
the lake, was seen no more.
Exegetical

and Philantbropi-

According to Thory,
cal Society.
founded at Stockholm in 1787. It united
Magnetism to Swedenborgianism, and lived
a brief

life

at Strassburg.

Exodus. The

date of the Exodus has

been determined by the excavations recently made at Tel el-Maskhuta. This is
the name of large mounds near Tel el-Keber, excavated by M. Naville for the Egyptian Exploration Fund, wherein he found
inscriptions showing that they represent
the ancient city of Pithom, or Succoth, the
"treasure-cities" (Ex. i. 11), and that
Ramses II. was the founder. This was the
Pharaoh of the oppression. The walls of

FAMILIEN

the treasure-chambers were about six hundred and fifty feet square and twenty-two
feet thick.
From Pithom, or Succoth,
where the Israelites were at work, they

on their Exodus toward Etham

(Khetam), then to Pi-hachiroth (Ex. xiv.
The Exodus
2), and so on north and east.
took place under Meneptah II., who ascended the throne B. c. 1325, and reigned
but a short period. It was along the isthmus that the Egyptian army perished pur-

started

suing

the retreating Israelites as they

crossed between the Lake Serbonis and the
waters of the Mediterranean, amidst the
" sea of papyrus reeds," the yam suph, that
has often proved disastrous to single or congregated travellers. See S. Birch, LL.D., in
Ancient History from the Monuments,

Brugsch-Bey's lecture, 17th September,

1874 but more particularly the late discoveries above referred to, in Fresh Lights,
etc., by A. H. Sayce.
Expert, Perfect. Conferred in three
;

grades, and cited in Fustier's collection.

Expert, Sublime English. Mentioned in Fustier's collection.

Exterior. First grade of the Oriental
Rite, cited

by Fustier.

E.
The

sixth letter in the English and

F.
Latin alphabets, and the same as the Greek
digamma or the
or ph, and the vau of
the Hebrew, which has a numerical value
of six.
is the abbreviation of Frere or
Brother.
native IsraelFalk, I>e, Rabbi.
ite of Furth, who attracted some attention
in London at the close of the eighteenth
century in consequence of his presumed extraordinary powers, acquired through the
secrets of the Kabbala, as a Thaumaturgist.
It was alleged that he could and did transmute metals, and thereby acquired large
sums with which he was liberal to the poor.
merry incident is perhaps familiar to the
reader. An invitation was extended by the
Baal Shem (the sacerdotal pronouncer of
the Holy# Name) to the Doctor to call as a
visitor for a friendly and philosophical discussion.
This was assented to, when the
Doctor was asked to fix a time. He did so
by taking from his pocket a small taper
<j>

and handing

it

" Light this,

sir,

new friend, saying

when you get home, and

to his

you as soon as it goes out."

This the gentleman did next morning, exI shall be with

pecting an early call, but the taper appeared to have a charmed life, and it was
deposited in a special closet, where it con^
tinued to burn for three weeks, and until
in the evening the Doctor drove up to the
door and alighted,, much to the surprise
of the host, who, with wonderment, had
watched the bright-burning taper. As soon
as his visitor was announced, the light and
candlestick had disappeared. The Doctor
was asked if the candlestick would be returned, when he replied, " It is already in
furthe kitchen ;" and so it was found.
ther incident is mentioned of his leaving
upon his death a sealed box to his particular friend, Aaron Goldsmid, stating that to
open it portended evil. Aaron could not
withstand his curiosity, and one day opened
it, and ere the night came Aaron was picked
up dead.
lodge meetFamilien Imogen.
ing, according to the Germans, for the consideration of family or lodge matters, at
which visitors are expected or requested to
retire.
At times the term Conferenz Logen
is used to designate the lodge open for the
disposal of private affairs.

FANATICISM
Fanaticism. The

English interpre-

name

of the second assassin

of the G. Master, or mankind. The frenzy
that overbalances the mind. The Gravelot
or Eomvel of philosophical Masonry.
Fanor. The name given to the Syrian
Mason, who is represented in some legends
Amru and Metuas one of the assassins.
sael being the other two.
tation of the

Favorite Brother of Solomon.

The seventh degree of the Swedish

rite.

Feix-Feax. A word signifying School

of Thought, and is found in the
of the French Adoptive rite.

first

degree

Felicity, Order of. An androgynous system of four degrees instituted in

France by M. Chambonnet, 1743, and was
transformed five years thereafter into the
Knight of the Anchor.
Feuillants. An androgynous system, found in Fustier's collection, and governed by the statutes of St. Bernard.

Fidelity of

Order of.

Baden Durlach,

Instituted in 1716 by Charles

Margrave of Baden Durlach. The members of the Order were knighted, selections
being made only from the nobles of ancient
family.
The reigning princes were hereditary

Grand Masters.

Field Lodge,

or

Army

Lodge.

lodge duly instituted under proper authority from a grand body of competent jurisdiction, and authorized to exercise during
its peripatetic existence all the powers and
privileges that it might possess if permanently located. Charters of this nature,
as the name implies, are intended for the
tented field, and have been of the greatest
service to humanity in its trying hours,
when the worst of passions are appealed to.
Findel, J. O. A Masonic writer of
more than ordinary note, who was admitted
in the lodge " Eleusis zur Verschwiegenheit," at Baireuth, in 1856. He was editor
of the Bauhiitte, an interesting journal, at
Leipsic, in 1858, and added materially to
Masonic literature in founding the Verein
Deutscher Freimaurer, about 1860, and publishing, in 1874, Oeist

und Form der

Frei-

maurerei.

Firrao, Joseph.

cardinal priest

Who, in 1739, published an edict of the

Pope Clement XII. against Freemasonry.

Florian, Squin de.

The

first

ac-

cuser of Grand Master Jacques de Molay

and the Knights Templar. He was subse-

quently assassinated.

Fort Hiram. An

earthwork erected

on October 3, 1814, at Fox Point, Rhode

by the Grand Lodge, with the

Island,

members of the subordinate Lodges, about

two hundred and thirty in number. The
object
fence,

FOUR

ADDENDUM.

was to build a fortification for deand the G. Lodge, of which Thomas

97.

Webb was Grand Master, through

Deputy, Sen. G. Warden, and W. Bro.
Carlisle, were authorized to work on the
defences.
They formed a procession,

Smith
its

marched in the early morning to the Point,

and by sunset had completed their labors,
consisting of a breastwork four hundred
and thirty feet in length, ten wide, and five
high.
They then marched and countermarched upon the parapet from one extremity to the other, when the G. Master
gave the work the appellation of Fort Hiram, which was approved and sanctioned
by the Governor.
Forty. The multiple of two perfect

numbers

four and ten. This was deemed

a sacred number, as commemorating many
events of religious signification, some of
which are as follows The alleged period of
probation of our first parents in Eden the
continuous deluge of forty days and nights,
and the same number of days in which the
waters remained upon the face of the earth
the Lenten season of forty days' fast observed by Christians with reference to the
fast of Jesus in the Wilderness, and by the
Hebrews to the earlier desert fast for a
similar period of the forty years spent in
the Desert by Moses and Elijah and the
Israelites, which succeeded the concealment of Moses the same number of years
in the land of Midian. Moses was forty
days and nights on the Mount. The days
for embalming the dead were forty.
The
forty years of the reign of Saul, of David,
and of Solomon; the forty days of grace
allotted to Nineveh for repentance; the
forty days' fast before Christmas in the
Greek Church; as well as its being the
number of days of mourning in Assyria,
Phoenicia, and Egypt, to commemorate the
death and burial of their Sun God and as
well the period in the festivals of the resurrection of Adonis and Osiris
the period
of forty days thus being a bond by which
the whole world, ancient and modern, Pagan, Jewish, and Christian, is united in
:

Hence, it was deterreligious sympathy.

mined as the period of mourning by the
Supreme Council of the A. A. Scottish Rite
of the Northern Jurisdiction U. S.
Forty-two. The number of judges
required to sit by the body of the Egyptian
dead pending the examination, and without
which the deceased had no portion in

Amenti.

See Truths.

Forty-two-Iiettered Name.
Twelve-Lettered Name, Mackey.

Four New Years.

See

According to

there were four New Years.

The first of Nisan was the new year for
kings and festivals; the reign of a king
was calculated from this date. The first of
Elul was a new year for the tithing of cat-

the

Talmud

FOUR

976

The

tie.

first

ADDENDUM.

of Tishri was a

new year

for

civil years, for years of release, jubilees,

and planting.

new year

The

first

of Shebat was a

for the tithing of trees.

"Four

Oldlodges." Of the four

old Lodges which constituted the Grand
Lodge of England, on St. John the Bap"
tist's Day, 1717, the "Lodge of Antiquity
No. 2, London, was the first. It is said to
have existed from the year 1691, but Brother
Hugh an thinks it must be much older. The
Lodge meets by "Time Immemorial Conhaving no warrant, and, until
the " Union," was first on the roll a decision, however, by ballot, lost it its numerical priority.
As Lodges were known by
the house in which they met, Antiquity
Lodge was designated "The West Indian and
American"
" The Royal Somerset House and Inverness" No. 4, London, is the junior of the
four Lodges which constituted the Grand
Lodge. At that time it met at the "Bummer and Orapes " Tavern, Westminster, and
subsequently at the " Horn," which latter
gave the Lodge a name for many years.
This Lodge now represents three united
Lodges, the names of two of which are to
stitution,"

be found

in its present designation.

the four "original" Lodges, two only
have been on the roll from 1740 as of

Of

"Time Immemorial Constitution.'' The

original number "Two" ceased working
about 1736, and number " Three " accepted
a
is

"New

Constitution" (now No. 12), and

known as " Fortitude and Cumberland."

"The four original Lodges, after the

issue of the 'Regulations' of 1723, simply

enjoyed the advantage of being ahead of all

the Warrant Lodges, the privilege of assembling by 'Time Immemorial Constitution,'

the

and the honor of having established

Grand Lodge in the universe."

first

See Freemasonry, Early British.

France. Discussion and an attempted
avoidance of a threatening Masonic calamity by a large number of the fraternity of
France did not avail to prevent the General
Assembly of the Grand Orient of France
from completing its overthrow and that
of its subordinates by the almost unanimous adoption of the now famous amendment of Art. I. of the Constitution of Ma-

FRANKS

its Constitution, the Assembly adopting

the V'aeu IX., has decided and decreed that
the second paragraph of Article I. of the
Constitution shall be erased, and that for
the words of the said article the following
shall be substituted I. Being an institution essentially philanthropic, philosophic,
and progressive, Freemasonry has for its
immediate objects, search after truth, study
of universal morality, sciences and arts, and
the practice of benevolence. It has for its
principles, utmost liberty of conscience and
human solidarity, and its motto is Liberte,
Egalite, et Fraternite."
The adoption of the above was after a full
and deliberate consideration by its constituents, who for more than a year were in the
throes of deep deliberation and judgment.
In pursuing the above course France,
through the Grand Orient, rejected Masonry, and not Masonry France. The
result was deep and sorrowful consideration of the continuance of friendly relations by the Masonic powers of the world,
resulting in the rapid cessation of comity
and representation with a once proud Masonic Centre, which in letters of fire substituted force superieure and principe creature for the great Masonic symbol of God.
Consequently, as there can be no Masonry
without God, Masonry ceased to have an
organized existence in that country, and
although the Grand Orient continues to
exist in name, it is not Masonic.
The Supreme Council of the A. A. Scottish Rite in France, however, stood, and
still stands, true to all the principles of
Masonry, prominently including the Father
which is in Heaven, who was, is, and ever
shall be in his personal existence.
large
dependency of Craft Lodges owe allegiance
to the Supreme Council, the number at
last report being eighty-three, while those
which still linger about the Orient, not
confident of their future, including in the
geographical boundary of France all its
possessions and dependencies, will approximate two hundred and fifty, many of which
exist in name only, and are indifferent to

in

for its principles the existence of God, the

immortality of the soul, and the solidarity

Masonry.
A "Central Grand Lodge of France"
was attempted in 1879, and at another
period a " Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise " was assayed by several Lodges which
had become discontented with the discipline of the Supreme Council given to "La
Justice, No. 133," and to " Les Hospitaliers de Saint Ouen, No. 135," six other
Lodges having united with them, but they
met with varied success.

of mankind."
Substituted

sonry, on Sept. 14, 1877.

The following is the text of the amendment and of the original second paragraph

which was expunged

Original paragraph: " Freemasonry has

Franks, Order of Regenerated.

amendment

" Whereas,

Freemasonry is not a religion, and has

therefore no doctrine or dogma to affirm

political brotherhood that was instituted

in 1815, flourished for awhile, and imitated
in its ceremonies the Masonic fraternity.

"

"

FREDERICK
Henry

Louis, Prince
Frederick
of Prussia, was received into Masonry at
Berlin by Frederick the Great, his brother,
in 1740.

Freemasonry, Early British.

Brother Robert Freke Gould in the history
he is now writing, after years of research,
aided by the best English Masonic talent,
is

so succinct as to " late discoveries," that

on this most interesting Masonic subject

he is quoted " The minutes of Scottish
Lodges from the sixteenth century, and
evidences of British Masonic life dating
farther back by some two hundred years
:

(than the second decade of the last century) were actually left unheeded by our
premier historiographer, although many
authentic and invaluable documents lay ready to hand, only awaiting
examination, amongst the muniments in
By the collection
the old Lodge chests.
and comparatively recent publication of
many of the interesting records, so much
evidence has been accumulated respecting
the early history, progress, and character
of the craft as to be almost embarrassing,
and the proposition may be safely advanced
that the Grand Lodges of Great Britain are
the direct descendants, by continuity and
absorption, of the ancient Freemasonry
which immediately preceded their institu-

of such

tion,

which

will be demonstrated without

requiring the exercise of either dogmatism

or credulity.
" The oldest Lodges in Scotland possess
registers of members and meetings, as well
as particulars of their laws and customs,
ranging backward nearly three hundred
(These) will form an important
years.
link in the chain which connects what is
popularly known as the Lodges of Modern
Freemasonry, with their operative and
speculative ancestors.
There are no Lodge records in England
of the seventeenth century, and records of
only one between 1700 and 1717.
The original St. Clair Charters (see ante,
p. 741) in the custody of the Grand Lodge
of Scotland, dated, respectively, 1601-2 and
1628, are referred to by Gould. Then are
considered the Schaw Statutes, No. 1, of A. d.
1598 (see ante, p. 691), the Schaw Statutes,
No. 2, of A. d. 1599, and their relevancy to
"Mother Kilwinning" Lodge, Ayrshire, No. 0,

with an important certificate from William

Schaw, which proves that the document
of 1599 was intended exclusively for the
Masons under the jurisdiction of the Kilwinning Lodge. The subject of the "Lodge
of Edinburgh," No. 1, and its career from
its earliest records, dating back to 1599,
down to the year 1736, when the Grand
Lodge of Scotland was inaugurated, as
most fully described in Lyon's history of

*5X

FREEMASONRY

ADDENDUM.

62

977

Lodge, passes under review

then appears, as Brother Gould says, one
of the adornments of that history in the
fac-simile of the record of that Lodge,
showing that the earliest minute of the
presence of a speculative freeman Mason in
a Lodge, and taking part in its deliberaIt is to be
tions, is dated June 8, 1600.
noted that "the admission of General
Alexander Hamilton, on May 20, 1640, and
of the Right Hon. Sir Patrick Hume, Bart.,
on Dec. 27, 1667, are specially recorded as

this ancient

constituting these intrants 'Felow and Mr

off theforsed craft,' and 'Fellow of craft (and
Master) of this lodg,' respectively." It is
assumed that Master simply meant a compliment certainly, there was nothing corresponding with the ceremony of a Master
Mason's degree at that time. Many of the
operatives did not view the introduction
of the speculative element with favor, and
at one time they were arrayed in hostile
camps but eventually those who supported
the " Gentlemen " or " Geomatic Masons "
won the day, the Domatics having to succumb. In the Lodge of Aberdeen, the
majority in A. d. 1670 were actually nonoperative or speculative members.
On March 2, 1653, appears the important
fact of the election of a "joining member."
Again, Lyon declares that the reference to
" frie mesones," in the minute of Dec. 27,
1636 is the earliest instance yet discovered
of " Free-Mason " being applied to designate members of the Mason craft, and considers that it is used as an abbreviation of
;

the term "Freemen Masons." But while

concurring therein, as did Bro. Hughan,
Gould thinks the word freemason may be
traced back to 1581, when the "Melrose"
version of the " Old Charges " was originally written.
" Canongate Kilwinning" Lodge, No. 2, was
commissioned or warranted by the Lodge
of Kilwinning, No. 0, granting powers to
several of their own members resident in
the Canongate, Edinburgh, and dated Dec.
This, Bro. Gould says, was a
20, 1667.
direct invasion of jurisdiction, for it was
not simply a charter to enable their members to meet as Masons in Edinburgh, but
also to act as independently as " Mother Kilwinning" herself, with a separate existence,
which was the actual result that ensued.
"Scoon and Perth " Lodge, No. 3, is much
older than No. 2, although fourth on the
roll, though the authorities state that it
existed " before 1658," and the Grand Lodge
acknowledges this date at the present time,
placing Nos.
and 1, however, as "before
1598," and No. 57 (Haddington) at 1599,
there being also many bearing seventeenth
century designations.
The Lodge of "Glasgow St. John," No. 3,

FRERES

978

GABRIEL

ADDENDUM.

next mentioned as "an old Lodge,

undoubtedly, though its documents do not
date back as far as some of its admirers
have declared." The Rev. A. T. Grant is
quoted as saying that every line is inconsistent with the charter phraseology of the
period to which it has been assigned. But
Mr. W. P. Buchan states that the first
notice in the minutes of the " Glasgow In-

rey or Freia. Grimme,

bis, is

corporation of Masons" bears date September 22, 1620, viz., " Entry of Apprentices
to the Lodge of Glasgow, the last day of
Dec, 1613 years, compeared John Stewart,
&c." It is with strong argument allowed
the date of 1613, and was placed on the
roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in
1850 as No. 3, bis; it was exclusively
There is now but a solitary repoperative.
resentative left of the ancient ateliers, which
still

prefers isolation

union and fraternity

Melrose.
11
Glasgow

and independence to
the old Lodge of

.Kilwinning" Lodge,

No.

4,

dates from 1735.

" Canongate and Leith, Leith and Canongate " Lodge, No. 5, is authoritatively ac-

knowledged as dating from 1688.

Lodge of "Old Kilwinning St. John," Inverness, No. 6, was granted a Charter of
Confirmation on Nov. 30, 1737, its existence
being admitted from the year 1678, but a
cloud rests upon the latter record.
" Hamilton Kilwinning " Lodge, No. 7, is
considered to date from the year 1695.
Thus Bro. Gould, in his remarkable History, continues quoting old Charters, Laws,
Statutes, &c, back even to the 16th century,
in a most interesting manner, dissenting
largely from the early history of Bro.
George H. Fort, and as well from the An'
tiquities of Freemasonry, by Bro. Findel.
See "Four Old Lodges," in Addendum.

Freres

Pontives.

Builders of the Middle Ages,

See

Bridge

Mackey.

in his Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 191, 279, traces

the name Freia through

the ancient Teutonic dialects and explains it
to
signify plenty and
beauty. Also, see Thorpe,
Northern Mythology, vol.
i.,
The
pp. 197, 198.
column or pillar set apart to the goddess
Frey in the temple of Upsala became the
pillar of beauty or plenteousness.
Bro.
Fort says, in his Antiquities, the three divinities in the Norse temple at Upsala, in
Denmark, Odin, Thor, and Frey, were
typical supports of the universe,
Wisdom,
Strength, and Beauty, or the three of the
ten columns in the Hebrew sephiroth, in
the Jewish philosophy, designated as Sa-

pientia,

Pulchritudo,

and Fundamentum;

which, like the three columns existing in a

Lodge of Freemasons, symbolize the moralistic pillars of the world, represented by
the Lodge itself. An additional significant
fact confronts us at this point the column
of Beauty or Plenty, originally emblematic
of Frey, is situated in the south of the
Lodge.
A Masonic symbol sheaf of
grain always suspended above that station, denotes plenteousness.
Freia may
also be comparatively described as the
Scandinavian Isis.
Fnnd,Orand Masters9 . fund over
which the G. Master of the United G. Lodge
of England exercises exclusive control.
Fylfot. An ancient symbol well known
among Heralds.
It is sometimes known as the crux dissimulata, found in the catacombs
of Rome, and forms one of the
symbols of the degree of Prince
of Mercy, Scottish Rite System. See Jaina
:

Cross, in

Addendum.

a.
y

Chaldaic,
G. (Hebrew,
or hieroglyphic.)
The 7th letter
of the English and Roman alphabets. In the Greek and many other
alphabets it is the 3d in place in
the Russian, Wallachian, and some others
it is the 4th
in the Arabic the 5th, and
in the Ethiopian the 20th.
In Hebrew it is called " Gimel," is of
the numerical value of 3, and its signification is camel.
It is associated with
;

the third sacred name of God in Hebrew,

In Masonry it is
bl*U (Ghadol), magnus.
given as the initial of God. The Masonic
use of the letter tends to the belief of a
modern form in the ceremony of the Fellow
Craft Degree. See G. 0. D.
Gabriel. (Heb., Mighty one of God.
The chief of the seven archangels. He
interpreted to Daniel the vision of the
ram and the he-goat, and made the
prophecy of the "seventy weeks" (Dan.

GANGLER

and ix.) he announced the future

appearance of the Messiah (Dan. ix. 21,
In the New Testament he foretold to
27).
Zacharias the birth of John the Baptist
viii.

(Luke i. 11), and to Mary the birth of

Christ (Luke i. 26). Among the Rabbins
Gabriel is entrusted with the care of the
souls of the dead, and is represented as
having taught Joseph the seventy languages spoken at Babel. In addition, he
was the only angel who could speak Chaldee and Syriac. The Talmud speaks of
him as the Prince of Fire, the Spirit presiding over thunder. The Mohammedans
term him the Spirit of Truth, and believe
that he dictated the Koran to Mohammed.
G-ang'ler. The title given to the candidate in the Scandinavian mysteries, signifying vjanderer. The application is also
made to the sun.

Gaudin, Theobald.

Known

as

the monk Gaudini. Elected Grand Master

of Templars, 1291 died 1301.
Gerbier, Doctor. An energetic
Mason, and, as mentioned in The Royal
Masonic Cyclopcedia, one of the irremovable Masters of the ancient Grand Lodge
of France. He is said to have fabricated
the title of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France, which it was pretended had emanated from Edinburgh, in 1721.
;

Ghemoul

Biiiali

GOETIA

ADDENDUM.

Thebonnah.

(Prudence in the midst of vicissitude.)

The name of the seventh step of the mystical Kadosh ladder of the A. A. Scottish

979

This whirling of souls was supposed to be

accomplished by a process somewhat similar

to that of the metempsychosis of the

Hindus, the psychical spark being conveyed through bird, beast, or fish, and,
sometimes, the most minute insect. The
famous Rabbi, Akiba (followed by the
Rabbis Judah and Meir), declared that

none could come to the resurrection save

those of the Jews who were buried in the
Holy Land, or whose remains were, in the
process of ages, gradually brought thither.
In Picard's wonderful and laborious work
there are many references to this doctrine.
The learned may consult further authorities on this curious subject in the Kabbala
Denudata of Heinrich Khunrath, 1677.

Glastonbury, Holy Thorn

There

is

of.

an ancient market town in County

Somerset, Eng., with a population of 3700,

which owes its origin to a celebrated abbey, founded, according to tradition, in 60
A. D.
are further told that Joseph of
Arimathea was the founder, and the "miraculous thorn " which flowered on Christmas day was believed by the common people to be the veritable staff with which
Joseph aided his steps from the Holy Land.
The tree was destroyed during the civil
wars, but grafts nourish in neighboring
gardens. Glastonbury, has the honor of
ranking St. Patrick (415 a. d.) and St.
Dunstan among its abbots. In 1539 Henry

We

VIII. summoned Abbot Whiting to surrender the town and all its treasures, and

on his refusal condemned him to be hanged

Mentioned as and quartered, and the monastery confiswarden under Sir Christopher Wren, and cated to the king's use, which sentence was
said to have been Grand Master of Masons immediately carried into execution. King
Arthur is said to be buried in this place.
in England in 1685.
G. O. I>. The initials of Gomer, Oz,
Giheah. A Hebrew word signifying
a "hill," and giving name to several towns Dabar. It is a singular coincidence, and
and places in ancient Palestine. The only worthy of thought, that the letters comone requiring special mention is "Gibeah posing the English name of Deity should
of Benjamin," a small city about four miles be the initials of the Hebrew words wisdom,
north of Jerusalem. It was the residence, strength, and beauty the three great pillars,
or metaphorical supports, of Masonry. They
if not the birthplace, of King Saul.
In the French Rite it symbolically refers seem to present almost the only reason that
to the Master, who must be pure in heart, can reconcile a Mason to the use of the inithat the High and Holy One may dwell tial " G " in its conspicuous suspension in
therein.
The word is also used in the the East of the Lodge in place of the Delta.
The incident seems to be more than an acSwedish Rite.
Rite.

Gibber, Gabriel.

See Galahad, Mackey.

We learn
Gil g ul, Doctrine of.

Gilead.
from

Bro.

Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie's

certain of the learned

for many centuries, in
the doctrine of Gilgul, according to which
the bodies of Jews deposited in foreign
tombs contain within them a principle of
soul which cannot rest until, by a process
called by them " the whirling of the soul,"
the immortal particle reaches once more
the sacred soil of the Promised Land.
Cyclopcedia

that

Jews have believed,

cident.

"0"T Dabar, Wisdom, D.

Oz,
Strength, O.
\y
G.
"1JD3 Gomer, Beauty,
Thus the initials conceal the true meaning.

God and His Temple, Knight

A degree mentioned by Fustier.

of.

Goetia.

contra-distinctive term

to

Theurgia, the first signifying black magic,

the latter white magic. The demons of
darkness were invoked and no crime or
horror stayed the power.
Alchemy and

GOLDEN

980

chemistry were the powerful arms relied

"The

Atholl Lodges," &c, now engaged

" The History of Freemasonry, its Antiquities, Symbols, Constitutions, Customs, &c. embracing an investigation of the Eecords of the Organizations
of the Fraternity in England, Scotland, Ireland, British Colonies, France, Germany,
and the United States," to be completed in
six volumes, of which three are in the hands
of the subscribers, and from which judgment
can already be passed of their inestimable
value to all Masons. The history is " derived from official sources," and is not of
that "creationist school" so continuously
indulged in by Masonic book-makers. The
first chapter delves in the consideration of
" the four systems or sects, from each of
which, according to different schools of
thought, may be traced the modern system
of Freemasonry. These are the Ancient
Mysteries, the Essenes, the Eoman Collegia, and the Culdees." Then are considered "The Old Charges of British Freemasons," "The Stonemasons (Steinmetzen)
of Germany," "The Craft Guilds (Corps
d'lOtat) of France," " The Companionage,"
"Mediaeval Operative Masonry," "The
Statutes Kelating to the Freemasons,"
" Early British Freemasonry," &c. From
this illustrated quarto work, the liberty has
been taken of occasionally making extracts
in this Addendum, not, however, without
due consideration for the author.

on a great work,

on.

Golden Lion of Hesse-Cassel,

Order of the. Instituted by Frederick
14th of August, 1770, under a decree of
6th July, to recompense virtue and merit.
The Grand Master is the reigning sovereign of Hesse-Cassel. Motto, " Virtute et
II.,

Fidelitate."

Golden Stole of Venice.

[Cavali-

An

ancient order of
knighthood, conferred by the republic of
Venice. The number of knights was unlimited.
The decoration, worn over the
left shoulder, was richly embroidered with
flowers of gold, and being in width a handbreadth, fell behind and before to the knee.
An ambassador, for some distinctive serThe ducal robe
vice, was deemed worthy.
was of red material.
eri della Stola d'Oro.)

Golden Thaler, or Gold Gulden, we

are informed by Bro. Woodford, is the St.
John's offering, as it was called under the
strict observance in Germany, and which
amounted to one ducat, or, at the least, one
and two-thirds of a thaler, which was paid
by every member on

St. John's Day. This

kept up in many German
Lodges for the benefit of the poor fund.
Gomel. (Heb. ^DJ, L. retribuens.) Irregularly given as Gomer and Gomez. A
word found in the 26th Degree A. A, Scot-

practice

GRAIN

ADDENDUM.

is still

tish Rite, signifying reward.

Gonfalon. (Ital. Gonfalone, O. German,- Gundfano.) An ecclesiastical warflag or banner, a standard

used in several
;

of the chivalric degrees of Masonry. The

chief magistrates in Italian cities when
bearing this ensign are known as Gonfaloniers. The banner is triune, of white silk,
trimmed and mounted with gold.
Goodall. The reputed author of the
expose of Masonry, known as " Jachin and
Boaz." It is said that he was at one time
Master of the W. India and American
Lodge, now known as the Lodge of An-

Gould, Robert Freke. A

barris-

Grand Deacon
of the United Grand Lodge of England,
"
and author of The Four Old Lodges,"
Past

Senior

Gourgas, John James Joseph.

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1777, of a
patrician family, and emigrated to London
during the old French Revolution.
He
became well known as a merchant on the
Royal Exchange. Upon coming to America in the earliest days of the century, he
was initiated into Masonry in 1803, and
was passed and raised before the close of
the year. After receiving the Holy Royal
Arch, he gave his attention to the A. A.
Scottish Rite, then entering upon its youthful vigor, and received the Thirty-second
Degree on July 9, 1806, that of Inspector
on August 4, 1806, and was one of the
six Inspectors General who, on Novem8, 1808, established Concordia Crescimus Council of Princes of Jerusalem in
the city of Brooklyn. He became Deputy
Inspector on Nov. 12, 1808, Secretary of the
Holy Empire, N. Jur., in 1813, the Supreme
Council having been formed on August 5
of that year. He was Special Deputy from

ber

1822 to 1832, and then became Commander,

so continued until 1851, when he resigned.
He died in New York in 1863.

and

Grain of Mustard, Order of the.

tiquity.
ter- at-law,

(Ger. Der Or den vom Sen/ Kom.) An order

instituted in Germany, based on Mark iv.
30 and 32, the object being the propagation

of morality.

GRAND
important officer in the United Grand
Lodge of England a sim;

Grand

Master-General of Ceremonies of a Supreme Coun-

upon whom the order

of the Grand Body largely
depends, and who has
charge of the service or
ceremonies of whatever
nature that may trancil,

spire.

Grand Elect, Perand Sublime

fect

Mason.

The Fourteenth Degree of the

A. A. Scottish Rite. See Perfection, Lodge
of,

Mackey.
Gravelot.

The name of the second

of the three conspirators in the Master's
Degree, according to the Adonhiramite
Rite. The others are Romvel and Abiram.
The etymology of Gravelot is unknown.

G-ruiubaeh, Sylvester. Mentioned

in the legend of the Strict Observance, and
was the reputed Grand Master of the Templars from 1330 to 1332, and was the twentysecond Grand Master.
Gyninosopkists. (Signifying "naked
sages.")

those

981

Gypsies. Cornelius Van Paun, more

generally known as De Paun, in his Philosophical Researches on the Egyptians and
Chinese (Paris, 1774), advances the theory
that Freemasonry originated with the Gyp" Every person who was not
sies. He says
guilty of some crime could obtain admission to the lesser mysteries. Those vagabonds called Egyptian priests in Greece
and Italy required considerable sums for
initiation and their successors, the Gypsies, practise similar mummeries to obtain

An

ilar office to that of

HABAKKUK

ADDENDUM.

Grand Director of the Ceremonies.

name given by the Greeks to

Hindu philosophers who

ancient

lived solitarily in the woods, wore little

or no clothing, and addicted themselves to
mystical contemplation and the practice of
the most rigorous asceticism. Strabo divides them into Brahmans and Samans,
the former of whom adhered to the strictest principles of caste, while the latter admitted any one into their number regarding
whose character and kindred they were satisfied.
They believed in the immortality
of the soul and its migration into other
bodies. They practised celibacy, abstained
from wine, and lived on fruits. They held
riches in contempt, and abstained from sensual indulgences.

money. And thus was Freemasonry introduced into Europe." But De Paun is
remarkable for the paradoxical character
of his opinions. Mr. James Simpson, who
has written a rather exhaustive History
of the Gypsies (1866), finds (p. 387) "a considerable resemblance between Gypsyism,
in its harmless aspect, and Freemasonry
with this difference, that the former is a general, while the latter is a special, society
that is to say, the Gypsies Jiave the language, or some of the words and the signs
peculiar to the whole race, which each
individual or class will use for different
purposes. The race does not necessarily,
and does not in fact, have intercourse with
every other member of it. In that respect
they resemble any ordinary community of
men." And he adds " There are many
Gypsies Freemasons indeed, they are the
very people to push their way into a Masons'
Lodge for they have secrets of their own,
and are naturally anxious to pry into those
of others, by which they may be benefited.
I was told of a Gypsy who died, lately, the
Master of a Masons' Lodge
A friend, a
Mason, told me the other day of his having entered a house in Yetholm where were
five Gypsies, all of whom responded to his
Masonic signs." But it must be remembered that Simpson is writing of the Gypsies of Scotland, a kingdom where the race
is considerably advanced above those of
any other country in civilization and in
:

social position.

Mackey.

H.
H.

(Heb.

|"J,

an altar thus,
and finally the

Hebrew
The eighth

f7-)
let-

ter in the

al-

Cheth; the hieroglyph was

which
tion,

phabet, and in the- Hebrew has the value

in number of 8, while the Heb. H, He,

is of the same hieroglyphic formahas the numerical valuation of 5.

(Heb. plp^n, a strug-

Habakknk.
gle^ a favorite.)

The eighth of the twelve

minor prophets.

No

account

is

contained

in the Book of Habakkuk, either of the

events of his life or the data when he lived.
He is believed by many to have flourished

HABIN

982

about G30 b. c. In the 32d Degree of the

A. A. Scottish Rite, his name answers to
the passwords Tuesday and Xerxes.
Habin. (Heb. pan, intelligius.) Name
of the initiate in the fourth degree of the
modern French rite, sometimes given as
Johaben, or Jabin.
Habramah, or Jabamiah. (Fanum excelsum. ) Said to be used in the 30th
Degree of the A. A. Scottish Eite in France;
it is not used in America.
Haequet, O. A French notary at
Port-au-Prince, subsequently a member of
the Grand Orient of Paris, and President
of the Royal Arch Chapter at Paris in
1814.

Hafedha. The second of the four

gods worshipped by the Arab tribe of Ad,
before the time of Mohammed, to which
Hud, or Heber, was sent. These were
Sakia, the god of rain Hafedha, the preserver from danger Razeka, the provider
of food; and Salema, the god of health.
;

Hallelujah. (Praise the Lord.) Expression of applause in the degree of Sublime Ecossais, Heavenly Jerusalem, and
others.

Halliwell MS.

J. O. Halliwell took

name of Phillips, and edited, in 1840,

"The Early History of Freemasonry in
England," commonly known as the " Ma-

the

sonic

HEBREW

ADDENDUM.

Poem," or " Halliwell MS.," " Brit.

Museum

Bib. Regia 17 a ff 32." Bro.

Woodford remarks, in " Kenning's Cyclopaedia," that " it is somewhat curious that
to Grandidier and Halliwell, both nonMasons, Freemasonry owes the impetus
given at separate epochs to the study of its
archaeology and history. Mr. Phillips is
a well-known writer on general antiquities,
and has edited many very curious and important works." Halliwell considered his
MS. of a date " not later than the latter
part of the fourteenth century," that is,
more than half a century before the Strassburg Constitutions. For quotation from
this MS., see ante, p. 287.

Hamaliel. The name

of the angel
accordance with the Kabbalistical
system, governs the planet Venus.
that, in

Hamilton, Hon. Robt. M. A.,

M. I>. Born 1820; died May, 1880, at
Jamaica, of which island he was District
Grand Master. This English gentleman
was a member of the Queen's Body Guard.
He was appointed District G. Master of
Jamaica, Nov. 5, 1858; District G. Supt.
of Royal Arch Masons, Jan. 10, 1859;
Prov. G. M. M. M., 1877 and was a super;

numerary member of the Supreme Council, 33d, of England, and Prov. G. Master
of the Royal Order of Scotland.
Hands, United. Clasped hands are
a symbol of fidelity and trust. A Spanish

work was published at Vittoria, in 1774,

where three hands are shown united in the
vignette on the title.
Haphtziel. (Heb. Srysn, Voluntas
Dei.) A covered word used in the 23d Degree of the A. A. Scottish Rite.
Mar. The name of the second king in
the Scandinavian Mysteries.
Harbinger. The title of an officer
in the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and
also in the Knights of St. John the Evangelist.

Haruspices. Order
Haruspice appears

to

of. The word

come from haruga or

harvix, a ram for offering, and spicere, to

look: therefore implying a soothsayer or
aruspice. The founder of the Etruscan order
was Tages, doubtless a myth of self-creative power:
This order is claimed to have
been re-established in Rome at the time
of the foundation of the city. It embraced
two divisions, those who formed their judgment from the movements and habits of
animals as well as the flight of birds, and
those who judged and foretold events by
the inspection of the entrails of newly
killed animals.
These were the precursors
of naturalists and physiologists. The two
sections of the order were recognized as
JIaruspex, ab aris aspiciendis, and Extispex,
ab extis inspiciendis.

Hay ti.

Freemasonry, which had been

in existence for several years in the island

of Hayti, was entirely extinguished by the
revolution which drove out the white inhabitants. In 1809, the Grand Lodge of
England granted a charter for a Lodge at
Port-au-Prince, and for one at Cayes. In
1817, it constituted two others, at Jeremias

and

at Jacmel.

cial

Grand Lodge was

Subsequently, a Provinestablished under

obedience to England. Jan. 25, 1824, this

Provincial Grand Lodge declared its independence and organized the Grand Orient
of Hayti, which is still in existence but
in consequence of the want of official correspondence, we are left in great ignorance
as to the actual condition of Freemasonry
in Hayti.
;

Hebrew Chronology.

The

eccle-

year commences 1st Nisan, March,

but the civil reckoning begins 1st Tishri,
September, which is New Year's day.
The following dates are accepted by the
Hebrews, as given by Dr. Zunz in Remarks
prefacing " The 24 Books of the Holy Scriptures according to the Massoretic Text:"
siastical

BEFORE COMMON ERA.

3988, Creation.
2332, Flood.
2040, Abraham born.
1575, Moses born.
1495, Exodus.
1051, David acknowledged king.

HEBREW

ADDENDUM.

BEFORE COMMON ERA.

1015,
586,
536,
516,
330,

the research of other authorities.

The Temple was dedicated on five occa:

1st.

B. c. 1004,

nim and Abib)

2d.

B.

c.

(1

726,

15th day of Tishri (Etha-

Kings

when

viii. 2-62).
purified from the

abominations of Ahaz.
3d. b. c. 516, 3 Adar, upon completion of
Zerubbabel's Temple.

Herring, James. Born in London,

4th. B. c. 164, 25th Kislev, after the victory of Judas Maccabaeus over the Syrians,
the service lasted eight days.
5th. b. c. 22, upon completion of Herod's

England, January 12, 1794; died in France,

October 8, 1867
buried in Greenwood
Cemetery, New York, October 27, 1867.
The family emigrated to America in 1805.
James was initiated in* Solomon's Lodge,
Somerville, New Jersey, in 1816. He was
Master of Clinton Lodge, New York city,
;

Temple.

The three Temples were destroyed on the

same day and month of the year. The
"threefold destruction" of the Temple
took place on the 9th Ab, or

in 1827, 1828, 1832, and 1834, a period when

the anti-Masonic spirit was in its zenith.
He, with the remaining members of Clinton Lodge, united with St. John's, No. 1,

fifth ecclesias-

month. The destruction of the Solomonian Temple, by Nebuchadnezzar, took

place B. c. 588, or four hundred and sixteen
tical

in union December 18, 1834.

He
instituted the formation of Lodge of Strict
Observance, which was constituted by
Grand Lodge, December 27, 1843, R. W.

years after dedication. The taking of the

city of Jerusalem by Titus is commemorated as a fast day on the 17th Tamuz.
" Little " PassPassover, 14th Nisan
over, 15 th Iyar.
Pentecost, or " First Fruits," commemorating the giving of the law on Mount
Sinai, 6th Sivan.
Great Day of Atonement, 10th Tishri.
Feast of Tabernacles, 15-21 Tishri.
Fast for commencement of siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, 10th day of Tebeth.
Feast of Purim, 14th and 15th Adar.
King Cyrus liberated the Jews, b. c. 538.
King Darius confirmed the decree, b. c.
See Cyrus, King.
520.

and met

Hebrew Faith. See Talmud.

Heler, A. A tyler or tegulator.
the Anglo-Saxon "hilan."
"Hillyar" and " Hilliar."

Hermaiiclacl.
"Brotherhood.")
principal

cities

From

Also written

The.

(Spanish,
association of the
Castile and Aragon

An
of

Bro. Herring being the Master, with which

Lodge he remained until his death. On
the 3d September, 1828, he was appointed
Assistant Grand Secretary, and on June 3,
1829, was elected Grand Secretary, which
office he retained until 1846. He sided with
the "Phillips " or " Herring " Grand Body
at the split in Grand Lodge on June 5, 1849,
and remained its Grand Secretary until
1858, when, in June, the two Grand Lodges
were fused. He was a delegate to the Convention of Grand Lodges held in Washington March 7, 1842. Bro. Herring delivered the oration, on the 25th August,
1847, in St. John's Lodge, in commemoration of the M. W. G. Masters, Morgan
Lewis and Alex. H. Robertson, and other
eminent Masons, on the occasion of the
First Lodge of Sorrow held in America in
the English language. He was exalted in
Jerusalem Chapter, No. 8, R. Arch, N.
January 5, 1817, dubbed a Knight Templar
in Columbian Commandery, No. 1, N. Y.,
and was received a Sov, G. I. General, 33d
Scottish Rite.
Bro. Herring was a P. H.
Priest, P. G. G. Sec. of the G. G. Chapter,
U. S., P. G. Master of the G. Encampment,
N. Y.j and Officer of the G. G. Encampment of U. S., and P.
Representative
of the Orients of Brazil and France.

bound by a solemn league

for the defence

of their liberties in time of trouble. The
sovereigns approved this brotherhood as
agents for suppressing the increasing power
of the nobles, and without cost to the government. The Hermandad was first established in Aragon in the thirteenth century,
and in Castile about thirty years later,
while, in 1295, thirty-five cities of Castile
and Leon formed a joint confederacy,
pledging themselves to take summary vengeance on every robber noble who injured

983

a member of the association. The Santa,

or Holy Brotherhood, finally checked so
effectually the outrages of the nobles, that
Isabella of Castile, in 1496, obtained the
sanction of the Cortez to reorganize and
extend it over the whole kingdom.
Hermetic Philosophy. Pertaining or belonging to that species of philosophy which pretends to solve and explain all
the phenomena of nature from the three
chemical principles, salt, sulphur, and mercury.
Also that study of the sciences as
pursued by the Rosicrucian fraternity.
practice of the arts of alchemy and similar
pursuits, involving a duplex symbolism
with their peculiar distinctions.

First Temple commenced.

First Temple destroyed.
Cyrus's Decree.

Second Temple completed.

Alexander conquers Palestine.
The succeeding dates are in accord with

sions

HESSE

Hesse Cassel.
to

Freemasonry appears
have been founded in this electorate in

984

HIBBUT-HAKKEBER

1743, by a Lodge at Marburg, called " Zu

den drei Lowen," which afterwards took
the name of " Marc Aurel zum flammenden Stern." A lodge also appears to have

existed in 1771, at Cassel, called "Zum

blauen Lowen." In 1817 the Grand Mother
Lodge of Hesse Cassel was founded, which
lasted until 1821, when the government
In 1849 one was reclosed all Lodges.

opened by General von Helmschwerdt, but

was closed in 1855. It is now understood that this Lodge has been reopened.

it

HITTITES

addendum.

surrounded by a halo of holiness. His

duty was to maintain and also expound
the laws. He was the introductor of the
novices into the Eleusinian Temple, and
passed them from the lesser into the greater
mysteries, where he became the Demiurg,
and impressed the initiate, while instructing him, by his manner and voice. His
title of Mystagog was awarded because he
alone revealed the secret or mystery.
Hiferopliylax. Title of the guardian
of the holy vessels and vestments, as used

Hiblmt-Hakkeber. (Beating of in several Eites.

Mohammedan belief as
the sepulchre.)
Hiram. The King of Tyre ; was the
The ally of David, as well as of Solomon, and
to the state of the soul after death.
form and mode of judgment is explained was material in his service toward the buildin Al Koran.
The sarcophagus of an ing of the Holy House, notwithstanding
orthodox Moslem is so constructed that the God of the Hebrew differed essentially
the deceased can sit upright when notified from the ideal god of the people of Tyre.
by his angel of the approach of the exam- Hiram reigned over the Tyrians for thirtyiners, who question him as to his faith in four years
he permitted Solomon's ships
the unity of God and the mission of Mo- to participate in the profitable trade of the
hammed.
Satisfactory
answers insure Mediterranean, and Jewish sailors, under
peace; but if to the contrary, he is beaten the instructions of Tyrian mariners, were
on the temples with iron maces until he taught how to bring from India the gold to
roars with anguish.
The two angels, enrich their people and beautify the temple
Monker and JNakii, then press the earth of their king. Tradition says that Hiram
upon the body, which is gnawed and stung gave his daughter in marriage to King
by ninety-nine seven-headed dragons until Solomon (see Mackey).
the day of resurrection. As the MohamNear Tyre there is a tomb which, to this
medan was an imitative religion, we natu- day, has been pointed out as that of Hirally look for the origin of its customs and ram, King of Tyre, as delineated below.
beliefs in older faiths
thus the Hibbut-Hakkeber is found in the Jewish,
which taught that the angel of death
would sit on a new-made grave, the soul
would return to the body, which would
stand up, the angel striking it thrice
with a chain, half iron and half fire
at the first blow all the limbs were
loosened, at the second the bones were
dispersed, but gathered again by angels,
and the third stroke reduces it to dust.
This need not occur to those who died
on the Sabbath or in the land of Israel.
See Gilgul.
powerful nation, whose
Hittites.
hermit order es- two chief seats were at Kadesh, on the
Hieronymites.
tablished in the fourteenth century, formed Orontes and Carchemish, on the Euphrafrom the third Order of St. Francis. Fol- tes, and who subjected as allies, forces from
lowers of Thomas of Siena, who estab- Palestine, Lydia, and the Troad.
This
lished themselves among the wild districts great empire had at times contended with
of the Sierra Morena, and so forming a the Egyptian monarchs before the days of
community, obtained approval of Pope the exodus. The Assyrians also had felt
Gregory
in 1374.
their power.
They were foremost in arms
Hieropliant, or
st agog. The and in the arts, and carried their religion
Chief Priest of the Eleusinians, selected to the shores of the iEgean in fact, as
from the grade of Eumolpidens. He was shown by the recent explorations and disselected for his imposing personal presence, coveries of 1879, the early civilization of
and his dignity was sustained by the gran- Greece and other European nations was as
deur of his attire, his head encircled with much indebted to them as it was to the
a costly diadem. He was required to be Phoenicians. Egyptian inscriptions bear
perfect in animal structure, without blem- out the truth of these discoveries, and more
ish, and in the vigor of life, with a comfirmly establish Biblical history. Jerusamanding voice. He was presumed to be lem came within the influence of this great

XL

My

HOBEN

I-COLM-KILL

ADDENDUM.

985

empire. The Hittites were finally subdued his installation, although now generally
by the capture of their famous capital, disused, is a correct one, not precisely in
Carchemish, by Sargon, B. c. 717. For the feudal sense of homagium, but in the
Biblical references, see Judges i. 26 1 Kings more modern one of reverence, obedience,
and loyalty.
x. 28, 29
2 Kings vii. 6.
Hospitaller. An officer in each of
The system of writing by the Hittites was
unique their letters were hieroglyphic and the bodies of the A. A. Scottish Rite, and
their sculptures a peculiar and curious style in the Modern French Rite, whose duty it
of art, some of which may be found in the is to collect the obligatory contributions
British Museum. See Fresh Lights, etc., by of the members, and, as the custodian, to
disburse the same, under the advisement
Sayce, chap. 5.
Hohen. The name given, in some of of the Master, to needy brethren, or even
the high degrees, to one of the three con- worthy profanes who may be in distress.
spirators commemorated in the Master's The fund is entirely a secret one, and is
Degree.
The derivation is uncertain. reserved apart from all other receipts and
Oben, in Hebrew, means a stone; or it disbursements.
may be a corruption of Habbone, the
Howel. A Grand Officer of the G.
Orient in France in 1804. G. Orator of
Builder or Mason.
in. The Blind Fate mentioned the Grand Chapter in 1814.

Hod

in the Scandinavian mysteries.

Hughaii,

See Bal-

tory of

der.

Holy
and

City,

Knight of the.

last of the degrees of

ance, settled at

Moiii.

James. The

in England, in

The brotherhood of the world

the rectified
Bite of the Benevolent Knights of the
Holy City, or the Rite of Strict Observfifth

Wm.

Masonry

Wilhelmsbad in 1782.
tree of life and man in the

The

Zoroastrian doctrine of the Persians.

First employed by Entick,
in his edition of the constitutions, in reference to the installation of the Earl of
Kintore, in 1740, as Grand Master " Who
having been homaged and duly congratulated according to the forms and solemnity
of Masonry." He never repeats the word,
using afterwards the expression, " received
Noorthouck adopts this
the homage."
latter expression in three or four instances,
but more generally employs the word " recThe expression
ognized " or " selected."

Homaged.

"to do homage" to the Grand Master at

interested, will never

its

the

so deeply

have justice done to

historians unless there is placed among

first entitled to the crown of immor-

telles

He

is

his-

which the

the

was

name of William James Hughan.

Aubyn Lodge, No.

initiated in St.

954, Devonport, July 14, 1863, exalted in

1865 in Royal Arch Ch., No. 50, Glasgow,
and has been honored with membership in

many Lodges and departments of Masonry,

including the Order of the Temple, Royal
Order of Scotland, Scottish Rite, Rosicrucians, etc.
The fraternity has an international interest in him, and look forward
hopefully to the attainments by his continued labors, which have resulted already
so favorably.

Hur. (Heb. *y|H, liberty.) A term

used in the Fourth Degree of Perfect Mistress in the French Rite of Adoption.

I
I.

The ninth

letter in the alphabets of

Western Europe, called by the Greeks

Iota, after its Shemitic name.
The Hebrew
equivalent
10,

and

is

*>;

of the numerical value of

signifies a hand.

The

oldest forms

of the letter, as seen in the Phoenician and

Samaritan, have a rude resemblance to a

hand with three fingers, but by a gradual

character came to be
the smallest in the alphabet, and iota, or

simplification, the

5Y

"jot," is a synonym
thumb and two fingers

for

trifle.

The

much

used, and
are of great significance, in religious forms,
as well as in Freemasonry.
It is the position of the hand when the Pope blesses
the congregation, and signifies the Three
in One. The Hebrew letter ain, y, with
the numerical value of 70, possesses and
gives the English sound of the letter i.
I-Colin-Kill. An island south of
the Hebrides, once the seat of the Order
of the Culdees, and contains the ruins of

are

the monastery of St. Columba, founded

A. d. 565.
Tradition plants the founda-

;;;

ICONOCLASTS

986
tion of the

Eite of

Heredom on

this

island.

Iconoclasts. (Gr. eihon, image, and

Mazo, I break.) The name used to designate those in the Church, from the eighth
century downward, who have been opposed
to the use of sacred images, or, rather, to
the paying of religious honor or reverence
Image-worship
such representations.
prevailed extensively in the sixth and
seventh centuries in the Eastern Empire.
The iconoclast movement commenced with
the imperial edict issued, in 726, by the
Emperor Leo III., surnamed the Isaurian,
who allowed images only of the Eedeemer.
The second decree was issued in 730. This
was opposed strenuously by Popes Gregory
to

and

but without avail.

Lodges holding charters
from the Grand Lodge of Oregon and one
from that of Washington Territory met in
convention at Idaho City, on December 10,
II.

INDISCHE

ADDENDUM.

III.,

Idaho. Two

1867, and organized the Grand Lodge of

Idaho, which in its sessions is migratory.
Eoyal Arch Masonry was introduced by
the General Grand Chapter of the United
States, which granted a charter for Idaho

Chapter at Idaho City, September 18, 1868,

for Cypress at Silver City, and Boise at
Boise City, both September 20, 1870.

Ijar. H"N.) {%>) The eighth month

of the Hebrew civil year, and corresponding
with the months of April and May, beginning with the new moon of the former.

posed of balm, mycha, galbanum, frankincense, of each an equal weight, viz., 70

manehs myrrh, cassia, spikenard, and saffron, of each an equal weight, 16 manehs
costus, 12 manehs; the rind of an odoriferous tree, 3 manehs cinnamon, 9 minehs
soap of Carsine, 9 kabs wine of capers, 3
seahs and 3 kabs, and if caper wine could
not be had, strong white wine was substituted for it salt of Sodom, the fourth part
of a kab, and of an herb called maa-a-lay
o-shon, a small quantity. Eabbi Nathan
said a small quantity of the amber of Jordan. If honey was mixed with it, it was
profane and if it was deficient in any one
of its ingredients, the priest was accounted
worthy of death.
Eabbi Simeon, the son of Gamliel, says,
that the balm issues from an incision in the
tree called balsamon. The soap of Carsina
was to refine the omycha, that it might
have a handsome appearance. The wine
of capers was brought to soak the cloves or
;

mycha

might become hard.

the feet" was
the purpose, yet it was not used
was not decent to bring it into

therein, that

it

And though the "water from

proper for
because it

the temple.

Increase of Wages.

{Augmentaan increase of
wages, is, in the technical language of
French Masonry, to apply for advancement
_

To ask

tion de gages.)

for

to a higher degree.

Indian Calendar. The Indian

Illuminate Theosophists. One Hindu

of the grades of Benedict Chastanier,
apparently of a Swedenborgian nature.
The appellation given to
the most honored teacher of Mohammedanism.
The title of the Sultan, as the
spiritual chief of all Moslems.
doctrine reInimaterialism.
lating to the quality of God and of the
human soul, showing that He forms an
absolute contrast to matter, and is the
basis of the qualities of eternity, omnipotence, and unchangeableness.
The immateriality of the soul includes simplicity as
another of its qualities.
Impost. The point where an arch
Husenbeth
rests on a wall or column.
says imposts were "members of a secret
society of Tyrian artists who were hired
by King Solomon to erect the temple, in
order to distinguish them from the Jews,
who performed the more humble labors,
were honored with the epithet of free annexed to the name of builder or Mason,
and, being talented foreigners, were freed
from the usual imposts paid to the state
by the subjects of Solomon."

Imanm.

or

year begins in April, thus 1st Vaisakha, 13th April 1st Jyaishtha, 14th May
1st Ashadha, 14th June 1st Sravana, 16th
July; 1st Bhadrapada, 16th August; 1st
Asvina, 16th September; IstKartlika, 17th
October; 1st Agrahayana or Margasirsha,
16th November 1st Pansha, 15th December; 1st Magna, 13th January lstPhalguna, 12th February 1st Caitra, 13th March.
The days of the week, commencing with
Sunday, are Aditya, Soma, Mangala, Budha, Guru, Sukra, and Sani. The Hindu
era, until April 13, 1885, is 1937.
Indian Faith. See Buddhism.
:

Indische Mysterien. Indian

Mysteries. In the German Cyclopaedia
we find the following " The East Indians
:

which it is very
probable they received from the ancient
Egyptians. (?) These mysteries are in the
possession of the Brahmans, and their ancestors were the ancient Brachmen.
" It is only the sons of these priests who
have

still

their mysteries,

are eligible to initiation. Had a grown-up

youth of the Brachmen sufficiently hardened his body, learned to subdue his pas-

Incense. Regulations for Use.

From the Talmud we learn that the mix-

sions, and given the requisite proofs of his

abilities at school, he must submit to an
especial proof of his fortitude before he was

of the perfume of incense was com-

admitted into the mysteries, which proofs

lire

INDISCHE

ADDENDUM.

were given in a cavern. A second cavern

in the. middle of a high hill contained the
statues of nature, which were neither made
of gold, nor of silver, nor of earth, nor of
stone, but of a very hard material resembling wood, the composition of which was

unknown

to any mortal.
"These statues are said to have been
given by God to his Son, to serve as models
by which he might form all created beings.
Upon the crown of one of these statues
stood the likeness of Bruma, who was the
same with them as Osiris was with the
Egyptians. The inner part, and the entrance also into this cavern, was quite dark,
and those who wished to enter into it were
obliged to seek the way with a lighted
door led into the inner part, on
torch.
the opening of which the water that sur-

rounded the border of the cavern broke

loose.

" If the candidate for initiation was worthy, he opened the door quite easily, and a

spring of the purest water flowed gently

upon him and purified him. Those, on
the contrary, who were guilty of any crime,
could not open the door and if they were
candid, they confessed their sins to the
priest, and besought him to turn away the
anger of the gods by prayer and fasting.
" In this cavern, on a certain day, the
Brachmen held their annual assembly.
Some of them dwelt constantly there ; others came there only in the spring and harvest conversed with each other upon the
doctrines contained in their mysteries, contemplated the hieroglyphics upon the statues, and endeavored to decipher them.
Those among the initiated who were in the
lowest degrees, and who could not comprehend the sublime doctrines of one God,
worshipped the sun and other inferior
This was also the religion of
divinities.
the common people. The Brahmans, the
present inhabitants of India, those pure
descendants of the ancient Brachmen, do
not admit any person into their mysteries
without having first diligently inquired
into his character and capabilities, and
duly proved his fortitude and prudence.
No one could be initiated until he had
attained a certain age and before his initiation the novice had to prepare himself
by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and
other good works, for many days.
"When the appointed day arrived he
bathed himself and went to the Guru, or
chief Brahman, who kept one of his own
apartments ready in which to perform this
ceremony. Before he was admitted he was
asked if he earnestly desired to be initiated? if it was not curiosity which induced him to do so? if he felt himself
strong enough to perform the ceremonies
;

INIGO

987

which would be prescribed to him for the

whole of his life, without the exception of
a single day?
" He was at the same time advised to defer the ceremony for a time, if he had not
confidence in his strength. If
the youth continued firm in his resolution,
and showed a zealous disposition to enter
into the paths of righteousness, the Guru
addressed a charge to him upon the manner of living, to which he was about to
pledge himself for the future. He threatened him with the punishment of heaven
if he conducted himself wickedly
promised him, on the contrary, the most glorious rewards if he would constantly keep
the path of righteousness. After this exhortation, and having received his pledge,
the candidate was conducted to the prepared chamber, the door of which stood
open, that all those who assembled might
participate in the offering about to be
sufficient

made.
"Different fruits were thrown into the
while the High Priest, with many
ceremonies, prayed that God might be
present with them in that sacred place.
The Guru then conducted the youth behind a curtain, both having their heads
covered, and then gently pronounced into
his ear a word of one or two syllables,
which he was as gently to repeat into the
ear of the Guru, that no other person might
hear it. In this word was the prayer which
the initiated was to repeat as often as he
could for the whole day, yet in the greatest
stillness and without ever moving the lips.
Neither durst he discover this sacred word
unto any person. No European has ever
been able to discover this word, so sacred
is this secret to them.
When the newly
initiated has repeated this command several times, then the chief Brahman instructs
him in the ceremonies, teaches him several
songs to the honor of God, and finally dismisses him with many exhortations to pursue a virtuous course of life." See Pitris.
fire,

Ineffable Triangle.

The two

tri-

angles encrusted one upon

the other, containing the
Ineffable Name in Enochian characters, represented in the eleventh of the
Ineffable series. Good and
evil, light and darkness,
life and death, are here
not wanting in symbolism, foreshadowing the philosophic degrees,
and furnishing the true original of the two
interlaced triangles adopted in modern
Masonry. See Enochian Alphabet.

Inigo Jones MS. Brother Gould's

History (vol. i., p. 63) informs us that this
MS. was published only in the Masonic

INITIATE

988

Magazine, July, 1881.

MS., ornamented

A very curious

title

folio

Woodford became

its

possessor,

who men-

curious and valuable MS.

per se, not only on account of its special
verbiage, but because it possesses a frontispiece of Masons at work, with the words
Inigo Jones delin.' at the bottom. It is
also highly ornamented throughout, both
in the capital letters and with ' finials.' It
is of date 1607
. It is a peculiarly interesting MS. in that it differs from all known
transcripts in many points, and agrees with
no one copy extant." Brother Gould remarks, " This, one of the latest discoveries/
is certainly to be classed amongst the most
valuable of existing versions of our manu"
'
Constitutions.'
it

as

'

script

Initiate into the Sciences, The.

Brother Kenneth Mackenzie informs us
that this is the title of the second degree
of a Masonic system founded on the doctrines and principles of Pythagoras.
Inner Order. Name of the sixth
grade of Von Hund's Templar system.

Insect Sherman.

A Jewish belief

that the Solomonian Temple was constructed by Divine means, that the stones
were squared and polished by a speciallycreated worm called samis, and that the
stones by innate power came to the temple
ground, and were placed in position by
angelic aid. The worm has been designated " the Insect Sherman."
Intolerance. The arch-enemy of
Freemasonry.
Toleration is one of the
chief foundation-stones of the Fraternity,
and Universality and Brotherly Love are
ever taught. Notwithstanding, intolerance
has, and ever has had, its grip upon the
brotherhood, and insidiously does its silent

Human powers
circumscribed.
Man by

and undermining work.

limited or
nature is weak, and is largely the creature
of early education yet no institution has
such resisting power and is of such avail
as Freemasonry against that great enemy
of man, which has destroyed more of the
human race than any other evil power.
The synonym may be found in the Third
and Tenth degrees, A. A. Scottish Eite.
;

Inversion of Letters.

In some

of the French documents of the high

degrees the letters of some words were
inverted not apparently for concealment,
but as a mere caprice.
Hence Thory
(Fondat, p. 128) calls them inversions enfantines (childish inversions). Thus they
wrote siomo a?so^ for Rosse crucis. But

French cahiers and rituals, or, as

them, tuilleurs, words are inverted

call

that is, the letters are transposed for purposes of secrecy. Thus they would write

Nomolos for Solomon, and Marih for

Hiram. This was also a custom among
the Kabbalists and the Alchemists, to conceal secret words.

"a

'

are

in all

and drawing by they

Inigo Jones, old red morocco, gilt leaves,

dated 1607, was sold by Patrick & Simpson,
November 12, 1879, and described as " The
Ancient Constitutions of the Free and
Accepted Masons." The revered Brother
tions

IVORY

ADDENDUM.

Invisibles, lies.

secret order of

[The

which

Thory quotes a German

Invisibles.)

little

writer,

is

known.

who

says:

"C'est la secte la plus dangereuse; les

receptions des inities se font la nuit, sous
une voute souterraine, et la doctrine des
initians preche l'atheisme et le suicide."

We

need no more upon this

and

subject,

believe the society " sleeps the sleep that

knows no waking."

Ionian Islands. Freemasonry appears to have been founded at Corfu, by a

Lodge called "Loge de St. Napoleon,"
under the Grand Orient of France, in 1811.
Irani. ( Heb. Q *") )Jf, aureum excelsus.
The former ruling Prince of Idumea.
,

Ischngi. (Heb., ityffl, salus mea.)

One of the five Masters, according to the
Masonic myth, appointed by Solomon
the death of

Hiram

to complete the

after

Tem-

ple.

Isiac Table.

Known

also as

the

Tabula Isiaca, Mensa Isiaca, and Tabula

Bembina. A monument often quoted by
archaeologists previous to the discovery of
flat rectangular bronze
hieroglyphics.
plate, inlaid with niello and silver, 56 by
36 inches in size. It consists of three compartments of figures of Egyptian deities
and emblems; the central figure is Isis.
It was sold by a soldier to a locksmith,
bought by Cardinal Bembo in 1527, now
in Koyal Museum in Turin.

In the Mohammedan faith,

of the angel who, on the judgmorn, will sound the trumpet of

Israfeel.
the

name

ment

resurrection.

Order

society of
of.
Itratics,
adepts, engaged in the search for the Universal Medicine; is now extinct. Mentioned by Fustier.
(Inveni Verbum
I.'.wV.I.'.O.'.Ii.'.
in Ore Leonis.) Initial letters of significant
words used in the 13th Degree, A. A. Scottish Rite.
They have reference to the re-

covery of the key of the Sacred Ark, which

contains certain treasures. The Ark and
key having been lost in the forest during
a battle which occurred when the Jews were
journeying through the wilderness, the key
was found in the mouth of a lion, who
dropped it upon the ground on the approach of the Israelites. Much symbolical
teaching is deduced from the historical
its

myth.

Ivory Key. The

symbolic jewel of

JEWISH

ADDENDUM.
the 4th Degree, A. A. Scottish Rite. On
the wards of the key is the Hebrew letter

989

Izads.

The twenty-eight creations of

beneficent deity Ormudz, or Auraniazda, in the Persian religious system.

the

J.
The tenth

J.

letter in the

English

al-

phabet. It is frequently and interchangeably used with I, and written in Hebrew

as Yod (*>), with the numerical value of 10,
and having reference to the Supreme.
(Heb.,
Jaaborou

Hainmaim.

Q^n"1"l3J/'j

aguce transibunt.)

A word

of covered significancy in the 15th Degree

of the A. A. Scottish Rite. It also has
reference to the L. D. P. See Liber.
Jabeseheh. (Heb., H^D', Earth.)
Also written Jebschah. See /.*. N.\B. './.*.,

Mackey.

Jabulum. A corrupted word used in

two of the degrees of the A. A. Scottish
The true word
Rite, the 13th and 17th.
and its meaning, however, are disclosed to
the initiate.

Jafnhar. The second king in the

Scandinavian mysteries. The synonym for
Thor.

Jaheb.

(Heb., 3i"V> concedens.)

sain the 13th Degree of the
A. A. Scottish Rite.
Jaina Cross. Used by several orders,
and found in the abbeys of
Great Britain and on the monuIts significaments of India.
tions are many. This cross was
adopted by the Jainas, a heterodox sect of the Hindus, who dissent from
Brahmanism and deny the Vedas, and
whose adherents are found in every provThey are
ince of Upper Hindustan.

cred

name used

wealthy and influential, and form an important division of the population of India.
This symbol is also known as the Fylfot.
It is a religious symbol mentioned by
Weaver in his Funeral Monuments, by Dr.
H. Schliemann as having been found in the
presumed ruins of Troy, by De Rossi and
others in the Catacombs of Christian
Rome, and there termed the Crux dissimulata.
It has been found on almost every
enduring monument on the globe, of all
ages, and in both hemispheres.
Jainas. See above.

James II. and III. of Scotland.

See Stuart Masonry,

Mackey.

Jaminiin. or laininim.

(Heb.,

See I.\N.\B.\I.\, Mackey.

Japanese Faith. See Kojihi; also

water.)

Nihongi.

Book

Jasher,
of. (Heb., Sepher
ha-yashar, The Book of the Upright.) One
of the lost books of the ancient Hebrews,
which is quoted twice (Josh. x. 13; 2 Sam.
i. 18).
Hebrew minstrelsy, recording
the warlike deeds of the national heroes,
and singing the praises of eminent or celebrated men. An original is said to be in
the library at Samarkand.
Jeksan. (Heb., fp\) Name of one
of the sons of Abraham and Keturah
(Gen. xxv. 2). Used in the 3d Degree of
the A. A. Scottish Rite. See Jekson, Mac-

key.

Jephthah's Daughter. The

1st

in the American Order of the

Eastern Star, or Adoptive Rite. It inculcates obedience.
Color, blue. See Eastern

Degree

Star,

Mackey.

Jerusalem, Hearenly. The

city

of God. Mentioned and described in the

19th Degree, A. A. Scottish Rite. Mainly
taken from the Apocalypse xxi. 2.
large candlestick, of metal,
Jesse.
with many sconces, hanging from the ceiling, and symbolically referring to the
Branch of Jesse.
Jetzirah. Sepher, or
of.
(Heb., Book of the Creation.) See Jezirah,

Book

Mackey, A traditional document, said to

have been written by the Priest-King Abraham. It has six perakim, or chapters,
subdivided into thirty-three mishnas, or
The book is intended as a methodical view of the universe.
For Sepheroth, see Kabbala, Mackey.
sections.

Jewish Bites and Ceremonies.

period of excitement in favor of the

of Judaism centred upon and pervaded the people of various nations during
the early portion of the fourteenth century.
The ceremonies grew and took fast hold
upon the minds of the Romans, and, combining with their forms, spread to Constantinople and north-west to Germany and
France. The Jewish rites, traditions, and
legends thus entered the mystic schools.
It was during this period the legend of
Hiram first became known (Bro. G. H.
Fort), and Jehovah's name, and mystic
forms were transmitted from Byzantine
workmen to Teutonic sodalities and German guilds. Thus, also, when the Chrisrites

JEZEEDS

990
tian

enthusiasm

pervaded

North,

the

Paganism gave way, and the formal toasts

at the ceremonial banquets were drunk in
the name of the saints in lieu of those of
the Pagan gods.

Jezecds.

KENNING'S

ADDENDUM.

A Mohammedan

sect

in

second son of Abraham and Keturah, whose

sons appear to be the ancestors of the Sabeans and Dedanites, who inhabited part
of Arabia Felix. Same as Jeksan.
Joram. (Heb., Q*T)j7, excelsus.) One
of three architects sent by Solomon to superintend the cutting and preparing of
timber.

name
from the founder, Jezeed, a chief who slew
the sons of Ali, the father-in-law of MoJordan, Karl Stephan. Born
hammed. They were ignorant in the ex- 1700, died 1745. Privy Councillor to the
treme, having faith in both the Hebrew King of Prussia, and one of the founders of
Bible and Koran; their hymns were ad- the Lodge of the Three Globes, at Berlin.
dressed, without distinction, to Moses,
Joshaphat, sou of Ahilud. The
Christ, or Mohammed.
name of the Orator in the Degree of ProJobel. (Heb., ^2V,jubilans.) A name vost and Judge, A. A. Scottish Rite.
of God used in the Thirteenth Degree A. A.
Jnbalcain. Erroneously used for TuTurkey and

Persia,

which took

its

Scottish Eite.

Jochebed.

"03 V,

God-glori-

The wife of Amram, and mother of

Miriam, Moses, and Aaron.
Johaben. (Heb., jzrim Latin, Filius
Dei.) A name of continuous use in the A.
A. Scottish Rite, and also mentioned in the
Fourth and Fifth Degrees of the modern
French Rite.
Joinville, Chaillon de. See Ghail-

fied.)

lon de Joinville,

Jokshan.

Mackey.
(Heb., \&p\ fowler.)

The

which

Jubal was the second

Ada, and
was the founder of the science of music
while the third son, Tubal Cain, was a famous smith wright.
Jnbela-o-ni. The mythical names
balcain,

(Heb.,

son of

see.

Lamech by

his first wife,

of assassins, the true

interpretation

of

which is only known to the initiate who is

an esoteric student.
Judith. (Heb.,'JV-nn*.) Used in
the French Adoptive Masonry, and in the
Fifth Degree of Sov. Illustrious Ecossais.

K.
K. (Heb., 2, Caph, signifying hollow
of the hand.) This is the eleventh letter
of the English alphabet, and in Hebrew
has the numerical value
of 20. In the Chaldaic or
hieroglyphic it is represented by a hand.
deKabbalisfic Companion.
gree found in the archives of the Mother
Lodge of the Philosophical Rite of France.
Kansas. In the year 1855 there were
three Lodges in Kansas, holding warrants
from the Grand Lodge of Missouri. On
November 14, 1855, two of these Lodges

met in convention

at Leavenworth.
In
consequence of the absence of the third
Lodge, the convention adjourned until
December 27, 1855, on which day the two
Lodges of Smithton and Leavenworth met,
and, Wyandot Lodge being again absent,
the delegates of these two Lodges organized
the Grand Lodge of Kansas, and elected
Richard R. Reece Grand Master.
But these proceedings were considered
illegal, in consequence of the convention
having been formed by two instead of three
Lodges and, accordingly, another conven;

tion of the three chartered Lodges in the

Territory was held March 17, 1856, and
the proceedings of the previous convention
ratified by a re-enactment, the same Grand

Master being re-elected.

The Grand Royal Arch Chapter was established January 27, 1866.
The Grand Council of Royal and Select
Masters was organized December 12, 1867.
The Grand Commandery was organized

December

29, 1868.

Iarmatians. A Mohammedan

sect

that became notorious from its removal of

the celebrated black stone of the Caaba,
and, after retaining it for twenty -two years,
voluntarily surrendered it. Founded by
Karmata at Irak in the ninth century.

Kellermann, Marshal.
de Valmy,

member

Austerlitz,

and Waterloo.

Duke

of the Supreme Council and Grand Officer of Honor of G. O.

of France; elected 1814. Born 1770, d&d
1835.
Served in the battles of Marengo,

Kenning's Masonic Cyclopaedia.

Edited by Rev. A. F. A. Woodford,

London, contemporaneously with the
Encyclopaedia of Dr. A. G. Mackey, in
in

KENTUCKY

KINGS

ADDENDUM.

991

Under the title Marehesvan, there is

an error in the statement that it begins in
November. It does sometimes, but more
usually with October, and therefore corresponds to October and November.
Khetem el Matoiim. Mohammed,

America, but published subsequently by

the well-known Bro. George Kenning, 198
Fleet Street, London, to whom the work is
dedicated in affectionate terms. It is with
confidence and presumed liberty that we
have, on occasion, availed ourself of the
views and quoted the language of the Rev.
Bro. Woodford. Kenning's Cyclopaedia is
rendered unusually invaluable in consequence of the fulness of its bibliography.
Kloss's well-known Bibliographie der Freimaurer does not become so great a necessity,
having Kenning; yet other subjects have not
been permitted to suffer inconsequence of
the numerous short biographic sketches.
The work is an admirably-arranged octavo
of nearly seven hundred pages.

see.

Kentucky. Organized Freemasonry

was introduced by the Grand Lodge of

Rite.

Virginia, which, in the year 1788, granted

a charter for Lexington Lodge, No. 25, at
Lexington. This was the first Lodge instituted west of the Alleghany Mountains.
Three other Lodges were subsequently
chartered by Virginia, namely, at Paris,
Georgetown, and Frankford, and a dispensation granted for a fifth at Shelbyville.
These five Lodges met in convention at
Lexington on September 8, 1800. Having
resolved that it was expedient to organize
a Grand Lodge, and prepared an address to
the Grand Lodge of Virginia, the convenOn that
tion adjourned to October 16th.
day it reassembled and organized the
Grand Lodge of Kentucky, William Murray being elected Grand Master.
Chapters of Eoyal Arch Masons, independent of the Grand Lodge, were first
established by Thomas Smith Webb in
1816, and the Grand Chapter was formed
December 4, 1817.
The Grand Council of Royal and Select
Masters was organized December 10, 1827.
The Grand Encampment (now the Grand

degree formerly conferred in the presence

of five Past Masters, now in disuse.
degree in
of the World.
the system of the Philosophical Rite.
Kings,
FiYe. The sacred code
of the older Chinese^ The word king signifies web of cloth, or the warp that keeps
the threads in position, or upon which we
may weave the sombre and golden colors
that make up this life's pictured history.
This great light in Chinese secret societies
contains the best sayings of the best sages
on the ethico-political duties of life. They
cannot be traced to a period beyond the
tenth century B. c, although the religion is
believed to be older.
Some of the superior classes of Chinese
are believers in the great philosopher Laotse, and others in the doctrines of Confucius.
The two religions appear to be twin
in age, not strikingly dissimilar, and each
has been given a personality in color in
accordance with the character of ethics believed in by the two writers.
Lao-tse and
Confucius were the revivers of an older
religion, the former of whom was born 604
B. c, and the latter fifty-four years subse-

Commandery) was organized October

5,

1847.
Scottish

Masonry was introduced into

Kentucky, and the Grand Consistory organized at Louisville, in August, 1852, by
Bro. Albert G. Mackey, Secretary-General
of the Supreme Council for the Southern
Egyptian Deity, Amon,

in the position metaphorically used in rep-

resentations of Buddha and by the Hermetic

philosophers, one hand toward Heaven and
the other toward Nature,
An Egyptian Deity, presiding over transformation, and represented with the beetle in place of a head.
Kher-heto. The Master of Ceremonies in the Egyptian system of worship.
or Chesvan. (pen.) The
same Hebrew month as Marehesvan, which

Khepra.

Khesvan

Khon.

King of the Sanctuary. A

side

King

The

quently.

The five kings are, the Yih-King, or

Book of Changes the Shi-King, or Book
of Songs the Shu-King, or Book of An;

the Ch'un Ts'iu, or "Spring and

;" and the Li-King, or Book of
Rites.
The fourth book was composed by
Confucius himself, while the first three are
supposed to have been compiled by him,
and the fifth by his disciples from his
nals;

Autumn

Jurisdiction.

Kliem. The

the seal of the prophets.

The title given to the dead,
subject to examination as depicted in ch.
125 of the Book of the Dead in the Egyptian Ritual.
Khotbah. The Confession of Faith
under the Mohammedan law.
variation of the
fihurum-Abi.
name of Hiram Abi.
word used in the old Ritual of
Ki.
the Eighth Degree of the A. A. Scottish

teachings.

Dr. Legge, Prof, of Chinese Classics at

Oxford, England, and Dr. Medhurst assert
that there are no authentic records in China
earlier than 1100 b. c, and no alphabetical
writing 1500 B. c.
The grandeur of the utterances and brilliancy of the intellectual productions of

KISLEV

992

Confucius and Mencius, as law-givers and

expounders of the sacred code of the Chinese,, called The Five Kings, are much to
be admired, and are the trestle-board of
fully 80,000,000 of the earth's population.

The
or Chislev.
{hoD.)
month of the Hebrew civil year, and
corresponding with the months November
and December, beginning with the new
moon of the former.
Knewt-neb-s. The Egyptian god-

Kislev

third

dess personifying the West, facing the East.

Knife and Fork Degree.

Those

Masons who take more delight

in the refreshments of the banquet than in the la-

bors of the Lodge, and who admire Masonry only for its social aspect, are ironically
said to be "Members of the Knife and

Fork Degree."
The sarcasm was

first uttered by Dersaid in his Ahiman Bezon,

p. 36, speaking of the Moderns, that "it
was also thought expedient to abolish the
old custom of studying geometry in the

mott,

KRISHNA

ADDENDUM.

when he

Lodge; and some of the young brethren

made it appear that a good knife and fork
in the hands of a dexterous brother, over
proper materials, would give greater satisfaction and add more to the rotundity of
the Lodge than the best scale and compass
in Europe."

H. Sergeant, Without Temple Bar.

Dermott says Daniel Tadpole was the edi1767, by
tor.

Kojiki.

{Book of Ancient Traditions.)

oldest monument of Sintonism, the
ancient religion of Japan. It is written in

The

pure Japanese, and was composed by order

of the Mikado Gemmio, A. d. 712, and first
printed about 1625. The adherents of Sin-

tonism number about 14,000,000.

Koran. Was the son of Izhar, uncle
of Moses, and famed for beauty and wealth.
It is related that he refused to give alms,
as Moses had commanded, and brought a
villanous charge against Moses, who complained thereof to God the answer was that
the earth would obey whatever command
he should give; and Moses said, "O earth,
swallow them up;" then Korah and his
confederates were sinking into the ground,
when Korah pleaded for mercy, which Moses
refused.
Then God said, "Moses, thou
hadst no mercy on Korah, though he asked
pardon of thee four times but I would
have had compassion on him if he had
asked pardon of me but once." Al Bei;

ddwi.

Koran
ing.)

or

Al Coran.

[The Bead-

The book of faith of the Mohamme-

dans, or of about one-eighth of the human

It is a single volume of 114 chapters
of very unequal length, written in Arabic,
and containing the doctrines and pretended
revelations of Mohammed, "The Prophet,"
whose followers number over 180,000,000.
race.

Knight Evangelist. A grade formerly in the archives of the Lodge of " St.
Louis des Amis Reunis," at Calais.
Knights of

St.

John the Evan-

Krause Manuscript. A title somegelist of Asia in Europe. Founded

at Schleswig and Hamburg by Count of times given to the so-called York ConstituEcker and EckhofFen, in 1786, out of his tions, a German translation of which was
Order of the "True Light," founded the published by Krause, in 1810, in his Kunsterkunden.

previous year.

Knights of the True Light.

degree founded by Count of Ecker and

Eckhoffen, in 1785.
Knocks, Three. When the Craft
were to be called to labor in old North
Germany, " the Master should give three
knocks, a Pallirer two, consecutively and
in case the Craft at large were imperatively
;

demanded, one blow must be struck, morn(Ordnung

ing, midday, or at eventide."
Fort, in
der Sleinmetzen, 1462, Art. 28.)
his Early History, etc., says, " three strokes

body of

See York Constitutions, in the

this work.

Krishna or Christna.

sonry,

known

as "

Three Distinct Knocks,"

purporting to have been republished in

of the

Madura. The newly

born was named Krishna (in Sanskrit, sacred).
The Eajah of Madura had been in-'
formed in a dream that this son of Devanaguy should dethrone and chastise him for
all his crimes; he therefore sought the cerfines of the territory of

by a Master convened all the members of

that degree; two strokes by the Pallirer
called the Fellows, and by a single blow
each member was assembled in Lodge. In
the opening and closing of Teutonic tri- tain destruction of the
bunals of justice, the judge carried a staff
or mace, as an emblem of jurisdiction, and
order was enjoined by a blow on the pedestal by the Arbiter."
Kenning mentions an exposition of Ma-

One

Trimurti in the Hindu religious system.

The myth proceeds to state that Devanaguy, upon the appearance of Vishnu, fell
in a profound ecstasy, and having been
overshadowed (Sanskrit), the spirit was incarnated, and upon the birth of a child,
the Virgin and Son were conducted to a
sheepfold belonging to Nanda, on the con-

child, and ordained

the massacre, in all his states, of all the
children of the male sex born during the
night of the birth of Krishna. A troop of
soldiers reached the sheepfold of Nanda,
the lord of a small village on the banks of
the Ganges, and celebrated for his virtues.
The servants were about to arm in defence,

LANSDOWNE

ADDENDUM.
when the child, who was at his mother's
breast, suddenly grew to the appearance
and size of a child ten years of age, and
running, amused himself amidst the flock
The exploits of this wonder
of sheep.
child, his preaching the new or reformed
doctrine of India, his disciples and loved

his death, and tragic end, together with the

story of his revival after three days, and
ascension, are graphically told by many
authors, perhaps more brilliantly in La
Bible dans VInde, as translated into English by Louis Jacolliot.

Kulma.

companion Ardjouna, the parables, philo-

of Faith.

sophic teaching, the myth of his transfiguration, his ablutions in the Ganges before

of God.

The shape
Ii. (Heb., S; Samaritan,
.)
of the twelfth English letter is borrowed
from that of the Oriental lomad, coinciding
with the Samaritan. The numerical value
Hebrew is thirty. The Eoman numeral
Hebrew name of Deity, as an
equivalent, is nnS, Limmud, or Doctus.

in

is fifty.

This letter also

for Be, the creative fiat

French savant and naturalist, born in

1756, died 1825. President of the Legislative Assembly in 1791. Master of the Lodge
" De St. Napoleon " in 1805.
An account
of his installation is recorded by Kloss.

Lakak Deror Pessah. (Hebrew,

im rip
The initials of these three
1

HD>

?.)

Wormwood,

tish Eite, signifying liberty of passage and

liberty of thought. See Bridge, also Liber.

(Heb., ruj?S.)

An

Arabic

words are found on the symbol of the

Bridge in the Fifteenth Degree of the Scot-

a word used in the Order of Ishmael.

member of the G. Loge
ILabady.
de France, banished, in 1766, for alleged
libel.

Klin.

The Hindustani Confession

signifies a stimulus, gener-

ally female.

Iiaanah.

993

exile to Blois, in Oct., 1767, for

permitting Masonic assemblies at his residence contrary to the orders of the government.
Laboratory. The place where experiments in chemistry, pharmacy, etc.,
are performed the workroom of the chemAn important apartment in the conist.
ferring of the degrees of the Society of
Eosicrucians.
Ijabriim. From the Latin. A lip or
edge, as of a dish or font having reference
to the vase at the entrance of places of
worship for preliminary lustration.
place full of intricaLabyrinth.
cies, with winding passages, as the EgypThat
tian, Samian, and Cretan labyrinths.
of the Egyptians was near Lake Moeris,
which contained twelve palaces under one
roof, and was of polished stone, with many
vaulted passages, and a court of 3000 chambers, half under the earth and half above
them. Pliny states it was 3600 years old
in his day. The labyrinth is symbolical
of the vicissitudes and anxieties of life, and
is thus metaphorically used in a number
of the degrees of various Eites. Sage of
the Labyrinth is the eighteenth grade, Eite
of Memphis, in the Order of 1860. Sage
Sublime of Labyrinth, the fifty-fifth grade
of the same organization. See Catacombs.
;

Lacepede, B. G. E. de la Ville.
63
5Z

rjamaism. The name of the religion

prevalent in Tibet and Mongolia. (Tibet,
Llama, pronounced lama, a chief or high
Buddhism, corrupted by Sivaism,
priest.)
an adoration of saints. At the summit of
its hierarchy are two Lama popes, having equal rank and authority in spiritual
and temporal

affairs.

Lamballe, The Princess

of.
Niece of Marie Antoinette, murdered in
1792 at Paris. The Grand Mistress of the
so-called

Mother Lodge of " La Ma^onne-

rie d' Adoption."

lamma

Sabactani. An expression used in the Masonic French Eite of

Adoption.

Lamp, Knight of the InextinA degree so designated by

guishable.

Fustier and Thory.

Lance. A weapon for thrusting at an

enemy, usually adorned with a small flag,
made of tough ash, weighted at one end,
and pointed at the other.
Ganges, Savalette de. The Master
of " Les Amis Eeunis," who aided in
founding the system of Philaletes in 1775.
Lansdowne MS. This version of
the "Old Charges" is of very early date,
about the middle or latter half of the sixteenth century, as these "Free Masons Orders and Constitutions" are believed to
have been part of the collection made by
Lord Burghley (Sec. of State, temp. Edward
VI.),

who

died A. d. 1598.

LANTURELUS

994

ADDENDUM.

LESSER

Brother Gould, in his History (vol. i., p.

the "MS. is contained on the
inner side of three sheets and a half of

also recognized as a degree in the Rite of

Strict Observance.

stout paper, eleven by fifteen inches, making in all seven folios, many of the principal words being in large letters of an ornamental character. Mr. Sims (MS. Department of the British Museum) does not
consider these Orders ever formed a roll,
though there are indications of the sheets
having been stitched together at the top,
and paper or vellum was used for addiIt has evidently 'seen
tional protection.
It was published in Freemasons'
service.'
Mag., February 24, 1858, and Hughan's
Old Charges (p. 31). The catalogue of the
which consisted of
Lansdowne MSS.

stituted in Palestine,

61), says

'

'

twelve hundred and forty-five volumes,

bought by Parliament, in 1807, for 4925
has the following note on the contents
No. 48.
very foolish
of this document
legendary account of the original of the
in the handwritOrder of Freemasonry
ing, it is said, of Sir Henry Ellis."

'

'

lianturelus, Ordredes. Instituted,

according to Clavel, in 1771 by the Marquis
de Croismare. Its purposes or objects are
not now understood.

JLa Rochefou can It, "Bayers, Lie

Marquis de. G. Master of the " Rite
Ecossais Philosophique " in 1776.
of considerable note.

A Mason

Lasalle, Troufoat de. One of the

founders of the Mother Lodge of the " Rite
Ecossais Philosophique."

Liateran Councils. They were

five

in number, regarded as ecumenical, and

were held in the Church of St. John
Lateran in Rome, in 1123, 1139, 1179, 1215,
and 1512.

Latour d'AuTergne, Le Prince

of the Mother Lodge of the
"Rite Ecossais Philosophique" in 1805,
and member of the Grand Orient of France
in 1814.
large brazen vesLaTer, Brazen.
sel for washing placed in the court of the
Jewish tabernacle, where the officiating
priest cleansed his hands and feet, and as
well the entrails of victims. Constructed
by command of Moses (Exod. xxxviii. 8).
similar vessel was symbolically used at
the entrance, in the modern French and
Scotch Rites, when conferring the ApprenIt is used in many of the detice Degree.
grees of the latter Rite.
Lawful Information. See Vouch-

de. President

ing,

Mackey.
The Sacred ScriptBible, the Great Light in Ma-

ILaw, Sacred.
ures, the

sonry.

Lay

society founded
Brothers.
in the eleventh century, consisting of two
classes, who were skilled in architecture;

Lazarus, Order

of.

An

order in-

termed the " United

Order of St. Lazarus and of our Beloved
Lady of Mount Carmel." It was a military order engaged against the Saracens,
by whom it was nearly destroyed. In 1150
the knights assumed the vows of Obedience,
Poverty, and Chastity, in the presence of
William the Patriarch. In 1572, Gregory
XII. united the Italian knights of the order
with that of St. Maurice. Vincent de Paul,
in 1617, founded a religious order, which
was approved in 1626, and erected into a
congregation in 1632, and so called from
the priory of St. Lazarus in Paris, which
was occupied by the order during the
French revolution.
The members are
called Priests of the Mission, and are employed in teaching and missionary labors.

Iiemierre, A. M. Born in 1733,

died in 1793.
writer of merit who belonged to the "Neuf Sceurs," and was
present at the reception of Voltaire.
ILenning, C. The assumed name of
a learned German Mason, who resided at
Paris in 1817, where Krause speaks of him
as an estimable man and well-informed
Freemason.
He was the first projector
of the Encyclopadie der Freimaurerei, which
Findel justly calls " one of the most learned
and remarkable works in Masonic literature."
The manuscript coming into the
possession of the Leipsic bookseller, Brockhaus, he engaged Friedrich Mossdorf to
edit it.
He added so much to the original, revising and amplifying all the most

important articles and adding many new

ones, that Kloss catalogues it in his Bibliographic as the work of Mossdorf.
The
Encyclopadie is in three volumes, of which
the first was published in 1822, the second
in 1825, and the third in 1828.
second
edition, under the title of Handbuch der
Freimaurerei, was published under the editorship of Schletter and Zille.
Mackey.

JLeontica. Ancient sacrificial festivals

in honor of the sun

the officiating priests

being termed Leontes.

L-eo XII., Pope. Born in 1760, died

in 1829.
On the 12th of April, 1826, he
issued the well-remembered bull, beginning
"Quo graviora mala," against the Freemasons.

Lesser Lights.

The custom

preva-

lent in some localities, of placing the burning tapers, or three symbolic lesser lights,
east, west, and south, near the altar, is sometimes changed so that these respective lights
are burning on the pedestals of the Master
and his two Wardens at their several stations. In the old Teutonic mythology, and
in accordance with mediaeval court usage,

LEVIT

LUZ

ADDENDUM.

flaming lights or fires burned before each

column, similarly situated, on which rested
the image of Odin, Thor, and Frey. These
columns are further represented as Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty, sustaining the
"Starry-decked Heaven," roof or ceiling
colored blue, with stars.
Levit, Der. The Levite was the
fourth grade of the Order of the Knights
of the True Light.
Liber, liberty. Of which the
eagle, in the Rose Croix degree, is symbolLiberty of thought, speech, and
ical.
action, within the bounds of civil, political, and conscientious law, without license.
A book, and hence the word library, or
collection of books. It was also one of the
names of the god Bacchus. The freedom
which knowledge confers. Liber, the bark,
or inner rind of a tree, on which books
were originally written hence, leaves of a
book and leaves of a tree or, similarly in
Latin, folio of a book, the foliage of a tree.
Thus, the " tree of knowledge" becomes the
"book of wisdom " the "tree of life" beSee LakaJc
comes the "book of life."
Deror Pessah, Add., and Libertas, Mackey.
The Bridge mentioned in the Sixteenth
;

The

dren.

995

fabled wife of

married Eve, by

whom

Lily of the Valley.

in the

" Liberty,

nity."

Equality.

Frater-

before he
devils.

side degree

Templar system of France.

Lion, Chevalier dn.

[Knight of
of the
third series of the Metropolitan Chapter of
France.

The twentieth grade

the Lion.)

Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

See Tribe of Judah, Lion of the,

Mackey.

Livre d'Architectnre. The French

designation of the book of minutes.

Livre d'Eloquence.

French

expression for a collection of minutes of

addresses made in a Lodge.
Loki. See Balder.
Louis Napoleon. Second Adjoint
of the Grand Master of the G. Orient of
France. Nominated, in 1806, king of HolLouis Napoleon III. was widely
land.

known

as

an interested Mason.

Ludewig, H. E. An

energetic Mason, born in 1810, in Germany ; died in

1856, in America. By "powers from home"
this ardent brother attempted to set up an
independent authority to the existing Grand
Lodge system in the United States but,
like many such attempts, it flashed brilliantly for a season, but proved of ephemeral nature.
Lufton. One of the French terms for
Louveteau, or Lewis, which see, Mackey.
celebrated
Lully,
;

Raymond.

Degree, Scottish Eite, has the initials of

Liberty of Passage over its arches.
Lil>ert, Ordre de la. ( Order of
A French androgyn Order, inLiberty.)
stituted in Paris, 1744, and the precursor
of "La Maconnerie d' Adoption."

Adam,

he begat

chemist and philosopher, the seneschal of

Majorca, surnamed le docleur illuming. His
discoveries are most noted, such as the
mode of rectifying spirits, the refining of
silver, etc.
He was born about 1234. In
1276 he founded a college of Franciscans
at Palma, for instruction in Eastern lore,
and especially the study of the Arabic language, for which purpose he instituted several colleges between the years 1293 and
1311. He died in 1314. He is known as
Rosicrucian, and many fables
as to his longevity are related of him.

The motto of the French Free- an eminent

masons.

Libyan, or Lybic Chain. The

Eighty-fifth grade of the Rite of Memphis;
old style.
Iiicht,

Ritter

von Wahren.

Knight of the True Light, presumed to

have been founded in Austria, in 1780, by
Hans Heinrich Freiherr von Ecker and
Eckhoffen.

It consisted of five grades.

Iiichtseher,
{The Enlightened.)

Oder Erlenchtete.
A mystical sect estab-

lished at Schlettstadt by Kiiper Martin

Steinbach, in the sixteenth century. Mentioned in the " Handbuch," in 1566, by Pastor Reinhard Lutz. It delved in Scriptural
interpretation.
liilis. or Lilith. In the popular belief of the Hebrews, a female spectre, in
elegant attire, who secretly destroys chil-

Luiniere,
IAght. )

La Grande.

The Grand

A grade in the collection of Brother

Viany.

Lumiere, La Vraie.

{The True

Originally, acLight, or Perfect Mason.)

cording to Thory, part of the system of the
Eoyal York at Berlin.
Limns. An Egyptian deity, known as
Khons Lunus, and represented as hawkheaded, surmounted by the crescent and
disc. When appearing with the head of an
His woribis, he is called Thoth-Lunus.
ship was very extensive through ancient
Egypt, where he was known as Aah, who
presides over rejuvenation and resurrecChampollion. mentions in his Pantion.
theon a Lunus bifrons.
Luz. An ever-living power, according

'

LYON

996

old Jewish rabbins, residing in a

small joint-bone existing at the base of the
to the

To this undying

spinal column.

MAgON

ADDENDUM.

watered by the dew of heaven,

the immortality in man.

replied to

Lyon, David Murray. While this

encyclopaedia is not intended as a biographical sketch book, yet there are Masons so

prominent in its literature, and enjoying

so large a share of the affection of their
brethren, that some space is gladly accorded to a well-spring of memory. Such
is David Murray Lyon, of whom A. F. A.
Woodford speaks none too highly in that
most admirable work, known the world
over as Kenning' s Cyclopaedia of Freemason-

take none too

much

liberty in

abstracts.

" Bro. D.

ascribed

Hadrian, as to how man revived in the

world to come, 'From Luz, in the backWhen asked to demonstrate this,
bone.'
he took Luz, a little bone out of the backbone, and put it in water, and it was not
steeped he put it in the fire, and it was
not burned he brought it to the mill, and
that could not grind it he laid it on the
anvil, and knocked it with a hammer, but the
anvil was cleft, and the hammer broken."

We

making

principle,

is

"E. Joshua Ben Hananiah

ry.

Murray Lyon is, without doubt,

the foremost Masonic student of Scotland,
either of this or any other period ; and the
results of his continuous and arduous researches are to be found in all the books
and periodicals of the Craft for the last
twenty years, both at home and abroad.
It is simply impossible to furnish anything
like an accurate and complete list of his
many valuable contributions which have
adorned Masonic magazines from the time
of his initiation in the Lodge Ayr, St. Paul,
No. 204, Scotland, in 1856. ... His chief
works have been the History of the Mother
Lodge Kilwinning, Scotland, the History of
the Old Lodge at Thornhill, and, finally, the
History of the Ancient Lodge at Edinburgh
(Mary's Chapel), from the sixteenth century.
This grand work, a most massive
and splendid volume, has placed Bro. Lyon
in the front rank of Masonic authors.
.
Bro. Lyon enjoys the confidence and the
esteem of the Craft in Europe and America, and all delight to honor one so worthy,
in every sense, of their regard."
.

M
M.

Mem), which

signifies wafor its hieroglyph

a waving line, referring to the surface of
stands for
the water. As a numeral,

(Heb.,

ft,

ter in motion,

having

ism," and the "Kabbalah," are especially

commendable
of others,

may

in fact they, with numbers

be termed complete system-

atic expositions.
Bro. Mackenzie is an
Honorary Member 'of the Canongate KilThe sacred name of Deity, applied winning Lodge, No. 2, Scotland, and a
40.
to this letter, is "T^OQ, Meborach, Bene- Magus, IX., in the modern Eosicrucian

1000.

dictus.

In Hebrew

its

numerical value

is

system.

'

Mackenzie, Kenneth

II.
Macon. The liberty is herein taken
(" Cryptonymus.")
Editor of The Royal of giving from Eev. A. F. A. Woodford, edMasonic Cyclopcedia of History, Bites, Sym- itor of Kenning''s Cyclopaedia, London, Eng.,
bolism, and Biography, containing upwards the derivation of this word, thus: "The
of 3000 subjects, together with numerous Norman-French word for 'mason' as the
original archaeological articles on topics operative mason in early days was called
Me macon,' and this was corrupted into
never before treated in any similar work
published in London by Bro. John Hogg, maccon, maccouyn, masoun, masouyn, mesPaternoster Row.
This admirable and souyn, and even mageon. The word seems
standard work of nearly 800 pages, octavo, to come from maconner,' which had both
is replete with that useful information so its operative meaning and derivative meannecessary to the neophyte or the student in ing of conspiring, in 1238, and which again
Masonry. The thorough examination of comes from mansio,' a word of classic use.
the work incident to this present compila- Some writers have derived the word niacin
tion has further convinced the writer of its from maison but though maisonner and
extreme value. The liberty of quoting at maconner appear eventually to be equivatimes direct from The Royal Masonic Cyclo- lent to 'mansionem facere,' in its first
paedia is hereby acknowledged, as is further meaning, 'maison' seems to be simply a
mentioned in treating on various subjects wooden house, as 'maisonage' is defined
herein.
The treatises on " Eosicrucian- by Eoquefort to be 'Bois de charpente

'

'

'

'

'

'

MAgON

MAGI

ADDENDUM.

997

had later search, states that the earliest

was Der Freymaurer, published in 1738,
by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, at Leipfrom the Low Latin verb mansionare.' sic, of which he has a copy, and was folBe this as it may, we have in the word lowed in 1742 by Der bedachtige Freimaurer,
macon, as it appears to us, a clear evi- Hamburg, by Tr. Fr.Tentzel, 1742. In 1743
dence of the development of the operative the Aufmerksame Freimaurer appeared at
guilds through the Norman-French artifi- Gorlitz, and subsequently several others,
cers of the Conquest, who carried the opera- purely Masonic, all mentioned by Kloss.
tive guilds, as it were, back to Latin ter- Many new Masonic journals, also, beginminology, and to a Roman origin." See ning with the Neue europaische Fama, in
Mason, Mackey.
1737, and Des europaische Staas Secretdr, in
propre a batir

les

maisons,' and then

lie

C'est aussi Taction de batir.' Roquefort seems to prefer to derive maisonner

adds,

'

'

'

Ma^on dans la Toie Droite.

The
(
Way.)
The second
grade of the system of Avignon.
du Secret. {The Mason of
The sixth grade of the rethe Secret.)
formed rite of Baron Tschoudy, and the
seventh in the reformed rite of St. Martin.

Mason

in the Right

Ma^on

Thory.

Scottish Master,

See

Mackey.

Maeonne Maitresse.

Third grade
of the Maconnerie d' Adoption.
Maconnerie Rouge. [Red Freemasonry.)
The designation of the four
high grades of the French Rite. Bazot
says that the name comes from the color
worn in the fourth grade.

MaconniekeSocieteiten. Dutch
Masonic Clubs, somewhat like unto the English Lodges of Instruction, with more, perhaps, of the character of a club. Kenning-'s
Cyclopaedia says "there were about nineteen
of these associations in the principal towns
of Holland in I860.
1'

"Macoy's Cyclopedia." "A Genand Dictionary

of Freemasonry," containing some 300 engravings, by Robert Macoy, 33, published
in New York, which has passed through
a number of editions. It was originally
founded on A Dictionary of Symbolical
Masonry, by George Oliver, D.D.
Bro.
Macoy has occupied the prominent position of Deputy G. Master of the G. Lodge
of New York, and is, and has been for a
series of years, the G. Recorder of the
State G. Commandery of the Order of the
Temple, K. T.
eral History, Cyclopedia,

Macrocosm.

many

of the

London papers alluded

to

Freemasonry, such as the St. James' Evening Post, quoted lately by Bro. W. J. Hughan,
so early, too, as 1734
and probably later
"excerpta" relating to Freemasonry may
;

Macon, Ecossais, Maitre.

Mason,

1740, contained articles relating to Free-

masonry. In England the first Masonic

magazine was of 1793. Although we had
no English Masonic journal to boast of,

{[iciKpoc Koojuog,

the great

The visible system of worlds; the

outer world or universe. It is opposed to
Microcosm, the little world, as in man. It
has been used as the Macric soul in opposition to the Micric animal life, and as the
soul of the universe as opposed to the soul
of a single world or being.
subject of
much note to the Rosicrucians in the study
of the Mysterium Magnum.
Magazine. Mackey says the earliest
Masonic magazine was the Freimaurer Zeitung, issued in Berlin in 1783, but the Rev.
Bro. Woodford, of London, Eng., who has
world.)

be discovered. The first official calendar,

as we have said before, in England was
1777.
In France the first official journal
seems to have been Etat du Grand Orient
de France, in 1778
while the Etrennes
Infer essantes were published in 1797. There
is, however, in the St. James' Evening Post,
dated from Paris, January 2, 1738, reprinted
;

what

is

the Paris

letter, first

published,

we

believe, in the so-called Secrets of Masonry,

by S. P., London, 1737, as Bro. Hughan
points out, and which is also dated Paris,
January 13, 1737.
far this is original or fictitious is not now very easy
to say.
On this subject, Bro. Woodford
pays a handsome compliment to the American literary Masons in these words, which
ought never, it
we heartily endorse "

How

We

appears to us, to forget the great debt of

gratitude which Masonic students

owe

to

many admirable Masonic magazines

United States, which had

in the
not the success

they deserved, though many have flourished and are still to the fore, and to their
accomplished editors. Among these may
be fairly mentioned C. W. Moore, Dr. A.
G. Mackey, Bros. Hynemann, Brown, Morris, Bailey, Gouley, C. Moore, cum multis
designate specially two now
aliis."
at the meridian of literary genius
The
Voice of Masonry, by John W. Brown, of
Chicago, editor and publisher, and The
Freemason's Repository, now in its 13th
volume, edited by Henry W. Rugg, of
Providence, R. I.

We

Magi, The Three.

men

The "Wise

of the East " who came to Jerusalem,

bringing gifts to the infant Jesus. The
traditional names of the three are Melchior,
an old man, with a long beard, offering
gold Jasper, a beardless youth, who offers
frankincense Balthazar, a black or Moor,
with a large spreading beard, who tenders
;

MAGNA

998

MAN

ADDENDUM.

The patron saints of travellers.

myrrh*
"Tradition fixed their number at three,
probably in allusion to the three races
springing from the sons of Noah. The
Empress Helena caused their corpses to be
transported to Milan from Constantinople.
Frederick Barbarossa carried them to Co-

This figure

is

frequently found in India

Ether, or Heaven,
Air,

Fire,

logne, the place of their special glory as

the Three Kings of Cologne." Yonge.

Magi is the title of the three principal officers ruling the society of the Rosicrucians.

Water,

Magna

est Veritas et prarralebit. ( The truth is great, and it will prevail.

The motto of the Red Cross degree, or
Knights of the Red Cross.
Magnan, B. I*. A marshal of France,
nominated by Napoleon III., emperor, as
Grand Master of the Grand Orient of
France, in 1862, and, though not a member
of the great fraternity at the time, was initiated and installed Grand Master, February
8, 1862, and so remained until May 29, 1865.
Maliabharata. A Sanskrit poem,
recounting the rivalries of the descendants
of King Bharata, and occupying a place
among the Shasters of the Hindus. It contains many thousand verses, written at
various unknown periods since the completion of the Ramayana.
Mahadeva. (" The great god.") One
of the common names by which the Hindu
god Siva is called. His consort, Durga, is
similarly styled Mahadevi (the great godIn Buddhistic history, Mahadeva,
dess).
who lived two hundred years after the death
of the Buddha Sakyamuni, or 343, is a renowned teacher who caused a schism in the
Buddhistic Church.

Mahakasyapa.
ciple of

The renowned disBuddha Sakyamuni, who arranged

the metaphysical portion of the sacred

writings called Abhidharma.
III. (King of Scotland.)
Reported to have chartered the Lodge " St.
John of Glasgow " in the year 1057.
or Perfected Creation. The
symbol representingpe?fected creation, which
is " very common on ancient Hindu monuments in China," embraces so many of
the Masonic emblems, and so directly refers to several of the elementary principles
taught in philosophic Masonry, that it is
here introduced with its explanations. Forlong, in his Faiths of Man, gives this ar-

Malcolm

Man,

rangement

A is

the Earth, or foundation on which

all build.

Wa
densed

Ra

an egg, or as con-

fire and ether.

Fire, or the elements in motion.

or

wind

Juno, or Io ni

a con-

densed element.

Cha
Former.

As these symbols are readily interpretable by those conversant with Masonic hieroglyphs, it may be seen that the elements,
in their ascending scale, show the perfected
creation. Forlong remarks that " as it was
difficult to show the All-pervading Ether,
Egypt, for this purpose, surrounded her
figures with a powder of stars instead of
flame, which on Indra's garments were YoThis figure gradually developed, benis.
coming in time a very concrete man, standing on two legs instead of a square base,
the horns of the crescent (Air), being outstretched, formed the arms, and the refulgent Flame the head, which, with the
Greeks and Romans, represented the sun,
or Fire, and gives Light to all. To this
being, it was claimed, there were given
seven senses and thus, perfect and erect,
stood Man, rising above the animal state."
The seven senses were seeing, hearing,
tasting, feeling, smelling, understanding,
and speech. See Ecclesiasticus xvii. 5 :
"The Lord created man, and they received the use of the five operations of the
Lord and in the sixth place he imparted (to)
;

ih.emunderstanding,&ndmtheseveiiih speech,
an interpreter of the cogitations thereof."
The words " seven senses " also occur in
the poem of Taliesin, called "
Bid Mawr,
or the Macrocosm" (Brit. Mag., vol. 21, p.30).
See further the " Mysterium Magnum " of
Jacob Boehmen, which teaches " how the
soul of man, or his inward holy body,"
was compounded of the seven properties
under the influence of the seven planets

" I will adore my Father,

My God, my Supporter,
Who placed, throughout

my head,
my reason,
And made for my perception
The

Water, as in

Ka A ir,

Earth.

Ether, or

Heaven, the

cosmical

My

soul of

seven faculties
Earth, and Water, and Air,

Of Fire, and

And

mist,

and

flowers,

And
As

the southerly wind,

it were seven senses of reason

For

my

With

Father to impel

the

first I

me

shall be animated,

MANGO

MANUSCRIPTS

addendum.

With the second I shall touch,

With the third I shall cry out,
With the fourth I shall taste,
With the fifth I shall see,
With the sixth I shall hear,
With the seventh I shall smell."

dence of the other Lodges in the Masonic

procession, at the laying of the foundationstone of Nelson's monument on Glasgow
Green,' although at that time it was an
independent organization." The controversy as to this old (?) document was lively, but finally it was pronounced to be a
manufactured parchment, and the Grand
Lodge of Scotland declined to recognize
The fourth MS. is that of
it of value.
Krause, known as Prince Edwin's Constitution of 926.
Upon this unquestioned reliance had for decades been placed, then it
came to be doubted, and is now little credited by inquiring Masons. Bro. Gould closes
his recital of criticisms with the remark
'

Mango. The branches of this tree are

a prominent feature in all Eastern religious
ceremonies. The mango is the apple-tree
of India, with which man, in Indian tale,
tempted Eve.
Manicna^ans.. (Also termed Gnostics.)
sect taking its rise in the middle
of the third century, whose belief was in
two eternal principles of good and evil.
They derived their name from Manes, a
philosopher of Persian birth, sometimes
called Manichaeus.
Of the two principles,
Ormudz was the author of the good, while
Ahriman was the master spirit of evil.
The two classes of neophytes were, the
true, siddi him; the listeners, samma un.

Manicliiens, lies Freres.

999

se-

cret Italian society, founded, according to

Thory and Clavel, in the eighteenth century, at which the doctrines of Manes were
set forth in several grades.

Mann, Der. The Man, the second

grade of the " Deutsche Union."
Mann. By reference to the Booh of
the Dead, it will be found that this word
covers an ideal space corresponding to the
word west, in whose bosom is received the
setting sun.
Also see Truth.

" The original document, as commonly happens in forgeries of this description, is missing and how, under all the circumstances
of the case, Krause could have constituted
himself the champion of its authenticity, it
is difficult to conjecture. Possibly, however,
the explanation may be, that in impostures
of this character, credulity, on the one part,
is a strong temptation to deceit on the other,
especially to deceit of which no personal
injury is the consequence, and which flatters the student of old documents with his
own ingenuity." These remarks. are specially quoted as relating to almost all apocryphal documents. The fifth, the Charter
of Cologne, is the 37th manuscript mentioned in Dr. Mackey's schedule (see p.
;

634, also p. 173), and was believed by

to be of no authentic value.
Bro.

Manuscripts, Apocryphal. Hav- him

ing great reliance on the critical ability
and the excellent judgment of Bro. Robert
Freke Gould, of England, it is well to quote
the result of his examination of certain
manuscripts that have been accepted by
many in the past as without question. By
reference to page 634, ante, of this work, a
schedule of 37 manuscripts will be found.
No. 36 is the Leland-Loche Manuscript, of
It is the first of six documents fall1753.
ing within the category of apocryphal
MSS. mentioned by Bro. Gould. It was
also deemed apocrvphal by Dr. Mackey.
(See Leland MS.) Bro. Gould says: "It
remains to be noticed, that among the
Masonic annalists of our own day, there
yet lingers a solitary believer in the credibility of this MS.," and then quotes Bro.
Fort. The second is The Steinmetz Catechism, or the Entered Apprentice's Lecture
an eighteenth century one of the Krause
manuscripts Dr. Mackey's No. 34. The
argument is full as to the non-authenticity
of the document, and reference should be
had to Bro. Gould's History, pp. 489-92.
The third is the Malcolm Canmore Charter,
which came to light in 1806, consequent
upon the " claim of the Glasgow Freemen
Operative St. John's Lodge to take prece-

'

'

Gould

Bobrik and Dr. Schwetschke

and decisive examiners who
have pronounced against the genuineness
of the MS.
The sixth, the Larmenius
cites

careful

as

Charter, or the Charter of Transmission,

is

that "

upon which rests the claims of the

Order of the Temple to being the lineal sucKnights Templars,
which was not published until between
1804 and 1810, and its earlier history, if
cessors of the historic

it has one, is so tainted with imposture, as to remove any possibility of unravelling the tangled web of falsehood in

indeed

which the whole question is enveloped."

The argument following is voluminous, and
Bro. Gould's History should be consulted.
Manuscripts, Old. As a matter of
the first importance to students of the origin and history of Freemasonry, there is
herein given, in sequence of age, the old
records or MSS., so far as they have been

unearthed and classified; they all relate

to the old charges of British Freemasons.

The following

synoptical

list is

made up

from Bro. Robert Freke Gould's History,

p. 60-106.
" Halliwell," fourteenth century. Brit.
Museum (Bib. Reg. 17 1). Early History
of Freemasonry in England, by J. O. Halli-

vol.

i.,

1.

MANUSCRIPTS

1000

MARCONIS

ADDENDUM.

London, 1840, etc. MS. Published in Masonic Sketches. Written

on vellum 5x4 inches, bound in Russia, on six leaves, 5x4 inches.
15. "Buchanan," seventeenth century.
having thereon G. R. 11, 1757, and the royal
arms. Mr. Halliwell (Phillips) states, "this Freemasons' Hall, London.
Published in
Gould's History. A parchment roll 1660
is the earliest document yet brought to light
connected with the progress of Freemason- to 1680.
well, Esq., F. R. S.,

ry in Great Britain." Casley ascribes it to

the fourteenth century, and Kloss as between 1427 and 1445.

16. "

Kilwinning," seventeenth century.

"Mother Kilwinning Lodge," Scotland.*

Hughan's Masonic Sketches (Part II.).
Mu17. "Atcheson Haven," 1666. G. Lodge

2. "Cooke," fifteenth century. Brit.

fseum (Addl. MSS. 23,198). Published in
London, 1861, and edited by Mr. Matthew
Cooke, hence its title. Mr. Bond's estimate

(See

early fifteenth century.

is

Cooke's

MSS., by Mackey.) Wooden cover, vellum

sheets connected with twine, size of No. 1.
3.

"Lansdowne," sixteenth century.

Museum (No. 98, art. 48).

W. James Hughan, in his

B.

Published by
Old Charges, p.

of Scotland.
18.

"Aberdeen," 1670.

Ancient Lodge

19. " Melrose, No. 2," 1674.

at Melrose, Scotland.

Old Lodge

20. " Hope," seventeenth century. Lodge

of " Hope," Bradford, Yorkshire.
21. " York, No. 5," seventeenth century.

" York " Lodge, at York.

Mr. Bond places the date at 1600,
22. " York, No. 6," seventeenth century.
others earlier. The MS. is on the inner The "York" Lodge.
31.

sides of 3 i sheets stout

paper 11 x 15 inches,

making seven folios.

4. " Grand Lodge,"

1583.

G. Lodge of

England. First published by

Old Charges.
A parchment

Hughan

in

roll 9 feet
long, 5 inches wide. Date, Dec. 25, 1583.
5. " York, No. 1," seventeenth century.

The York Lodge, No. 236, York. A parchment roll, 7 feet by 5 inches, containing the
constitutions of Masonry.
6 and 7. " Wilson, Nos. 1 and 2," seventeenth century. Thirlestane House, Cheltenham. Published in Masonic Magazine,
1876. The MSS. are on vellum, and by
Rev. A. F. A. Woodford deemed to be of
sixteenth century.
Rev. A. F. A.
8. "Inigo Jones," 1607.
Woodford. Published in Masonic Magafolio MS., with ornazine, July, 1881.

23. "Antiquity,"
tiquity, London.

1686.

Lodge of An-

24. " Supreme Council, No. 1," 1686. 33

Golden Square, London.
The " York "
25. " York, No. 4," 1693.

Lodge,
Alnwick.
26. "Alnwick," 1701.
27. "York, No. 2," 1704. The "York"
Lodge.
G. Lodge of
28. " Scarborough," 1705.
Canada.
Wyatt Pap29. "Papworth," 1714.
worth, London.
Lodge of "In30. " Gateshead," 1730.
dustry," Gateshead.
Bodleian Li31. "Rawlinson," 1730.
brary, Oxford.
31 A. "Harris," 1738. (John Constable)

#
London.
A
mented title and drawing.
Late Transcripts of the Old Charges.
Rev. A. F. A. Wood9. " Wood," 1610.
Published in Masonic Magazine, June,
1881. On vellum, with illuminated letters
scattered throughout. Like No. 8, it refers
to the old " Constitutions of Masonrye."
At York,
10. "York, No. 3," 1630.
parchment roll of " Charges on
1779.
ford.

Masonry."
11. "Harleian, 1942," seventeenth cenB. Museum. Published in part in
tury.
Freemasons' Quarterly Review, 1836, also in
Hughan's Old Charges. The MS. contains
" The New Articles." Of age, early seventeenth century.
12. "Harleian, 2054," seventeenth century.
B. Museum.
"A book in folio, containing many tracts, etc.," written on four
leaves of paper, containing six and a half
pages.
13. " Sloane, 3848," 1646.

Published in

Old Charges.

B.

Museum.

Written on

paper.
14. " Sloane, 3323," 1659.

B.

Museum.

32. "Spencer," 1726. E. T. Carson, Cincinnati, Ohio.

A. F. A. Wood33. Woodford, 1728.
ford, London.
34. "Supreme Council, No. 2," 1728.

33 Golden Square, London.

35. " Melrose, No. 3," 1762.

Old Lodge

at IVtelrose
36. "Tunnah" (1720 or other).

W.

J.

Hughan, Truro.
37. "

Wren"

(1600 or other).

A. F. A.

Woodford, London.

Mar eon is. Gabriel

Matliien,

more frequently known as De Negre, from

his dark complexion, was the founder and
first G. Master and G. Hierophant of the
Rite of Memphis, brought by Sanrl Honis,
a native of Cairo, from Egypt, in 1814, who
with Baron Dumas and the Marquis de
la Rogne, founded a Lodge of the Rite at
Montauban, France, on April 30, 1815,
which was closed March 7, 1816. In a

MARCONIS

ADDENDUM.

work entitled The Sanctuary of Memphis,

by Jacques Etienne Marconis, the author
presumptively the son of G. M. Marconis

who styles himself the fouuder of the Rite

MASONIC

1001

crated depositary of the traditions of this

Sublime Order."
The above is enough to reveal the character of the father and reputed son for
truth, as also of the institution founded by

of Memphis, thus briefly gives an account

of its origin " The Rite of Memphis, or them, which, like the fire-fly, is seen now
Oriental Rite, was introduced into Europe here, now there, but with no steady beneby Ormus, a seraphic priest of Alexandria ficial light. Also, see Memphis, Mackey.
and Egyptian sage, who had been convertMarconis, Jacques Etieime.
ed by St. Mark, and reformed the doctrines Born at Montauban, January 3, 1795; died
of the Egyptians in accordance with the at Paris, November 21, 1868. See Memphis,
principles of Christianity. The disciples Rite of, Mackey.
victorious warrior-god,
of Ormus continued until 1118 to be the
sole guardians of ancient Egyptian wis- described on one of the Assyrian clay tabdom, as purified by Christianity and Solo- lets of the British Museum, who was said
monian science. This science they com- to have engaged the monster Tiamat in a
municated to the Templars. They were cosmogonic struggle. He was armed with
then known by the title of Knights of a namzar (grappling-hook), ariktu (lance),
Palestine, or Brethren Rose Croix of the shibbu (lasso), qashtu (bow), zizpau (club),
East.
In them the Rite of Memphis rec- and kabab (shield), together with a dirk in
each hand.
ognizes its immediate founders."
The above, coming from the G. HieroTheresa. Empress of Ausphant and founder, should satisfy the most tria, who showed great hostility to Freescrupulous as to the conversion of Ormus masonry, presumably from religious leanHer husband was
by St. Mark, and his then introducing the ings and advisers.
Memphis Rite. But Marconis continues Francis I., elected Emperor of Germany in
1745.
He was a zealous Mason, and had
as to the object and intention of his Rite
"The Masonic Rite of Memphis is a com- been initiated at the Hague in 1731, at a
bination of the ancient mysteries it taught Special Lodge, at which Lord Chesterfield
the first men to render homage to the Deity. and Dr. Desaguliers were present. He was
Its dogmas are based on the principles of
raised at Houghton Hall, the same year,
humanity its mission is the study of that while on a visit to England. He assisted
wisdom which serves to discern truth it is to found the Lodge " Drei Kanonen," at
the beneficent dawn of the development of Vienna, constituted in 1742. During the
reason and intelligence it is the worship forty years' reign of Maria Theresa, Freeof the qualities of the human heart and masonry was tolerated in Vienna doubtless
the impression of its vices
in fine, it is through the intercession of the Emperor.
the echo of religious toleration, the union It is stated in the Pocket Companion of
of all belief, the bond between all men, the 1754, one hundred grenadiers were sent to
symbol of sweet illusions of hope, preach- break up the Lodge, taking twelve prisoning the faith in God that saves, and the ers, the Emperor escaping by a back staircase. He answered for and freed the twelve
charity that blesses."
are further told by the Hierophant prisoners. His son, Emperor Joseph, infounder that "The Rite of Memphis is the herited good-will to Masonry. He was G.
sole depository of High Masonry, the true Master of the Viennese Masons at the time
primitive Rite, the Rite par excellence, of his death.
which has come down to us without any
Martinisiil. See Rite des Elus Coens.
alteration, and is consequently the only
Masoney. Used in the Strassburs:
Rite that can justify its origin and the Constitutions, and other German works of
combined exercise of its rights by consti- the Middle Ages, as equivalent to the modtutions, the authenticity of which cannot ern Masonry. Kloss translates it by Masonbe questioned.
The Rite of Memphis, hood. Lessing derives it from masa, Angloor Oriental Rite, is the veritable Masonic Saxon, a table, and says it means a Society
of the Table. Nicolai deduces it from the
tree, and all systems, whatsoever they be,
are but detached branches of this institu- low Latin massonya, which means both a
tion, venerable for its great antiquity, and club and a hey, and says it means an excluborn in Egypt. The real deposit of the sive society or club, and so, he thinks, we
principles of Masonry, written in the Chal- get our word Masonry. Krause traces it to
dee language, is preserved in the sacred ark mas, mase, food or a banquet. It is a pity
of the Rite of Memphis, and in part in the to attack these speculations, but we are inGrand Lodge of Scotland, at Edinburgh, clined to look at Masoney as simply a corand in the Maronite Convent on Mount ruption of the English Masonrie.
Lebanon." "Brother Marconis de Negre,
Masonic Colors. The colors approthe Grand Hierophant, is the sole conse- priated by the Fraternity are many, and
:

Marduk. A

Maria

We

;:

MASONIC

1002

even shades of the same color. The principal ones are blue, to the Craft degrees
to the Royal Arch ; white and
black, to the Order of the Temple ; while
all colors are used in the respective degrees

purple,

of the A. A. Scottish Rite: notably, the

nine-colored girdle, intertwined with a
tenth, worn in the Fourteenth Degree of
the last-named system.

Masonic literature.
ture of

Masonry,

Masons,

See Litera-

Company of.

One

of the
Livery Companies of London, but not one
of the twelve great ones. It had a coat-ofarms granted in 1464, confirmed by Thomas
Benett in 1521. It is doubtful, somewhat,
when this Company was actually incorporated by Royal Charter. Ashmole dwells
somewhat upon this. He calls himself the
" Senior Fellow " among them, but probably means that he was the oldest Freemason among those present. Whether Ashmole was admitted to what we call the
Second Degree is at present impossible to
but the Rev. Bro. Woodford says
state
" Though following the evidence of the
Scottish Minute Books as far as they are
decisive on the subject as we have, so far,
no available English evidence of that date
we should be inclined to say Fellow of
;

Craft."
"Fellows" appears to be indifferently used. The accepted "Fellows" seem
to have been nine in number.
There were
evidently two associations, the one being
the " Masons' or Freemasons' Company,"
the other the " Society of Freemasons," to

which Robert Padgett Clerk belonged, who

MSS.

in 1686.

Masons, Emperor of

all the.

degree in the collection of Fustier.

Masora.

Hebrew work on the

Bible, intended to secure

alterations or innovations.

it

from any
Those who

composed it were termed Masorites, who

taught from tradition, and who invented
the Hebrew points.
as Melchites.

They were

also

Massena, Andre. Duke

known

of Rivoli,

Prince of Essling, and a Marshal of France,

born at Nice in 1758. Early in the French
Revolution he joined a battalion of volunteers, and soon rose to high military rank.
He was a prominent grand officer of the
French Grand Orient. He was designated
by Napoleon, his master, as the Robber, in
consequence of his being so extortionate.

Mathoc.

{Amiability, sweetness.)

The

name

of the Third Step of the Mystic Ladder of the Kadosh of the A. A. Scottish
Rite.

cussed here. It holds a valued position for

instruction in the Society of the Rosicrucians, who hold that matter is subject to
change, transformation, and apparent dissolution but, in obedience to God's great
laws of economy, nothing is lost, but is
simply transferred.
;

Maurer. German
rerei is for Masonry,*

subject deemed of imporMatter.

tant study to the alchemical and hermetical devotee.
The subject will not be dis-

for Mason, as Mauand Freimaurer for

Freemason.

Maurer,

Mackey.

transcribed the Antiquity

MEDALS

ADDENDUM.

Orlis.

A German

operative expression, divided

Masonic
by some into

Gruss Maurer, Wort Maurer, Schrift Maurer,

and Brieftrager

that

is,

those

who

claimed aid and recognition through signs

and proving, and those who carried written

documents.

Maut. The consort of the god Amon,

usually crowned with a pschent or double
diadem, emblem of the sovereignty of the
two regions.
Sometimes a vulture, the
symbol of maternity, of heaven, and
knowledge of the future, shows its head
on the forehead of the goddess, its wings
forming the head-dress.
Horapollo says
the vulture designates maternal love because it feeds its young with its own blood
and, according to Pliny, it represents heaven
because no one can reach its nest, built on
the highest rocks, and, therefore, that it is
begotten of the winds. Maut is clothed in
a long, close-fitting robe, and holds in her
hand the sacred Anch, or sign of life.
Maximilian, Joseph I. King of
Bavaria, who, becoming incensed against
the Fraternity, issued edicts against Freemasons in 1799 and 1804, which he re-

newed

in 1814.

Mecklenburg.

Masonry was introduced here in 1754, but not firmly rooted

There are two Provincial G.
until 1799.
Lodges, with 13 Lodges and 1250 Brethren.

Medals. No

Masonic medal appears

to have been found earlier than that of

1733, commemorative of a Lodge being
established at Florence, by Lord Charles
Sackville. The Lodge appears not to have
but,
been founded by regular authority
;

however that may be, the event was commemorated by a medal, a copy of which
exists in the collection in possession of the
Lodge " Minerva of the Three Palms," at

Leipsic.
The obverse contains a bust representation of Lord Sackville, with the
inscription
" Carolvs Sackville, Magister,
Fl." The reverse represents Harpocrates in
the attitude of silence, leaning upon a
broken column, and holding in his left
arm the cornucopia filled with rich fruits,
also the implements of Masonry, with a
thyrsus, staff, and serpent resting upon the
fore and back ground.
The minimum of charity found among

MEGACOSM
Mark Masters
narius),

is

the

Eoman penny

weighing 60 grains

MEZUZA

ADDENDUM-

silver,

{de-

worth

1003

in
Meister. German for Master
French, Maitre; in Dutch, Meester; in
Swedish, Mastar; in Italian, Maestro; in
Portuguese, Mestre. The old French word
appears to have been Meistrier. In old
French operative laws, Le Mestre was frequently used.
See Marconis Gabriel
Memphis.
;

Mathieu.

THE PENNY OF THE MARK MASTER.

cents.
The above was struck at
Tiberius, A. d. 18. The por"
Tiberius ;" the reverse, the " Godtrait is
The inscription reads:
dess Clemency."
" Tiberius Caesar Augustus, the son of the
Deified Augustus, the High Priest."
Two medals, weighing 120 grains each,
of silver, about thirty cents, were struck off
at Jerusalem, under Simon Maccabee, the
Jewish ruler, b. c. 138, 139. They are the
oldest money coined by the Jews. The devices are the brazen laver that stood before
fifteen

Rome, under

the Temple, and three lilies springing from

one stem. The inscriptions, translated from
the Hebrew of the oldest style, says, " Halfshekel Jerusalem the Holy."
Bro. Eobt. Morris and Bro. Coleman, in
their Calendar, furnish much valuable information on this subject.
;

Mer-Sker. The space in which the

sun moves, as an Egyptian personification,
signifying the habitation of Horus.
Merzdorf, J. Ii. T. A learned German Mason, born in 1812. Initiated in
Apollo Lodge, at Leipsic, in 1834. He
resuscitated the Lodge "Zum goldenen
Hirsch," Oldenburg, and was for years
Deputy Master. He published Die Symbole,

etc.,

Leipsic, 1836,

and

later several

other works.

Mesliia, Meshiane. Corresponding to Adam and Eve, in accordance with

Persian cosmogony.
Metusael. The name given to the
Hebrew quarry man, who is represented in
some legends as one of the assassins. Fanor and Amru being the other two.

Mezuza.

The third fundamental principle of Judaism, or the sign upon the doorpost.
The precept is founded upon the
command, " And thou shalt write them
upon the posts of thy house, and on thy
vi. 4-9; xi. 13-21).
The
door-posts must be those of a dwelling;
synagogues are excluded.

gates" (Deut.

The Karaite

Jews affix
Mezuzas to synagogues, and

not to private houses. The

is constructed as
follows:
the two aboveportions
mentioned
of
Scripture are written on
ruled
vellum
prepared
according to Rabbinical
rules, then rolled and fitted
into a metallic tube. The
word Shaddai (Almighty)
is written on the outside of
the roll, and can be read,
when in the tube, through
The Mezuza is
a slot.
then nailed at each end on
the right-hand door-post,
while the following prayer
" Blessed
is being
said
Lord our God
art thou,
King of the Universe, who
hath sanctified us with His
laws, and commanded us
to fix the Mezuza." Under
the word Shaddai some
Jews write the three angelic names Coozu, Bemuchsaz, Coozu.
these some pray for success in business.

Mezuza

THE JEWISH HALF SHEKEL OF SILVER (TWO

SPECI-

MENS).

Megacosin.

An

intermediate world,

but not equal to the Macrocosm, and

yet greater than the Microcosm, or little

great,

world, man.

Meheii.

An

Egyptian mythological
whose body represented the tortuous course of the sun in
serpent, the winding of

the nocturnal regions.

The serpentine
course taken when travelling through darkness.
The direction metaphorically represented by the initiate in his first symbolic
journey as Practicus in the Society of the
Ilosicrucians.

Meliour. Space, the name given to

the feminine principle of the deity by the
Egyptians.

To

MILLIN

1004

ADDENDUM.

The Talmud estimates the virtue of the

Talith, the Phylacteries, and the Mezuza in
the following terms " Whosoever has the
:

phylacteries bound to his head and arm,

and the fringes thrown over his garments,
and the Mezuza fixed on his door-post, is
safe from sin for these are excellent memorials, and the angels secure him from
sin; as it is written, 'The angel of the
Lord encamped round about them that
fear Him, and delivereth them'" (Ps.
;

xxxiv.

7).

Millin de

Grand Maison, A. L.

1818. Founder of the

Magasin Encyclopcedique. He was a Mason under the Rite Ecossais, and also belonged to the "Mere Loge" of the "Rite

Born, 1759

died,

Ecossais Philosophique."

Miscliapliereth,
Miscliclian,
Misclitai, nu?n pwn, Tent of Testimony. NJDI p#D, Tent of Festival. See
Twenty-fourth Degree of the Scottish Rite.
is used in the Thirtieth Degree.

'btPD

(Viscum Album.)
In
Mistletoe.
Scandinavian countries called Mistel. A
parasitic evergreen plant bearing a glutinous fruit. When found attached to the
oak, where it is rare, it was an object of

MOABON

was profanation to touch it. It was gathered with ceremony, and then consecrated,
when it was reputed to possess every sanative virtue, and denominated "All Heal."
Mitchell, James W. S. A Masonic
writer and journalist, was born in the State
of Kentucky, in the year 1800. He was
initiated into Masonry in Owen Lodge, at
Port William, now Carrollton, Kentucky, in
the year 18^1. He subsequently removed
to the State of Missouri, where he took a
prominent position in the Masonic fraternity, and held the offices of Grand Master of
the Grand Lodge, Grand High Priest of the
Grand Chapter, and Grand Commander of
the Grand Commandery of Knights Templars.
In 1848 he established, in the city
of St. Louis, a monthly journal, entitled the
Masonic Signet and Literary Mirror, which
he removed to Montgomery, Alabama, in
1852, where it lasted for a short time, and
then was discontinued for want of patronIn 1858 he published The History of
age.
Freemasonry and Masonic Digest, in two
volumes, octavo. Brother Mitchell was a
warm-hearted and devoted Mason, but, unfortunately for his reputation as an author,
not an accomplished scholar, hence his

Scandinavian Myste-

style is deficient, not only in elegance, but

even in grammatical purity. His natural
capacity, however, was good, and his arguments as a controversialist were always

the Scandinavian, is
the coincident symbol of the acacia to the
Mason, the ivy to those of the Mysteries of
Dionysius, the myrtle to those of Ceres, the
erica or heath to those of the Osirian, the
lettuce to those of the Adonisian, and the
lotus or water-lily to those of India and
Egypt. The Mistletoe that caused the death
of Balder was deemed sacred as the representative of the number three. The berries
and leaves of the plant or vine grow in
clusters of three united on one stalk.
It

trenchant, if the language was not polished.

As a Masonic jurist his decisions have been
considered generally, but by no means universally, correct.
His opinions were sometimes eccentric, and his History possesses
much less value than such a work should
have, in consequence of its numerous inaccuracies, and the adoption by its author of
all the extravagant views of earlier writers
on the origin of Masonry. He died at
Griffin, Georgia, November 12, 1873, having
been for many years a great sufferer from
illness.
{Dr. Mackey.)
relic of black
Moabite Stone.
basalt, rounded at the top, two by four feet,
across it being an inscription of thirty-four
lines in the letters of the Hebrew-Phoenician alphabet, discovered in the ruins of
ancient Dibon, by Dr. Klein, a German
missionary, in 1869.
record of Mesha,
King of Moab, who (2 Kings iii. 5), after
Ahab's death, " rebelled against the King
of Israel." Chemosh was the national god
of the Moabites. The covenant name of
the God of Israel occurs in the inscription,
showing that the name was not then unpronounceable, or unknown to the neighboring nations. The described wars date
in the tenth century B. c.
(pxiD). He whom the Junior
Warden represents in the 14th Degree of
the A. A. Scottish Rite, as the tried and

superstitious regard

among the

Druids.

It

was from a fragment of this plant that the

dart was made which cost the life of Balder, according to the
ries.

See Balder.

The

Mistletoe, to

Moabon

MOHAMMED
Hiram

trusty friend of
Gen. xix. 36.)

Mohammed.
Mohrims.

ADDENDUM.

the Builder.

(See

See Koran.

Initiates, pilgrims, those

entering upon an important undertaking.

Moira,

Rawdon,

Francis

Born 1754, died 1826, A distinguished statesman and Mason. He was

Acting Grand Master of England from 1790
Also Grand Master of Scotland
to 1812.
in 1806.
As a Mason he was always energetic.
Dr. Oliver says, "To no person had
Masonry for many years been more in-

Baron.

debted than to the Earl of Moira, now

Marquess Hastings." He died while governor of Malta.
Moloch. (Heb. Molech, king.) The
chief god of the Phoenicians, and a god of
the Ammonites. Human sacrifices were
offered at his shrine,

and

it

was

chiefly in

the valley of Tophet, to the east of Jerusalem, that this brutal idolatry was perpetrated.
Solomon built a temple to Moloch
upon the Mount of Olives, and Manasseh,
long after, imitated his impiety by making
his son pass through the fire kindled in
honor of this deity. Wierus calls Moloch
Prince of the realm of tears.
First

Moloch, horrid king,

besmeared with

blood

Of human sacrifice and parents' tears

Though for the noise of drums and

timbrels

loud,

Their children's cries unheard, that passed

through fire
Nor content with such
To his grim idol.
Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led, by fraud, to build
His temple right against the temple of God,
On that opprobrious hill and made his grove,
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.
.

Par.

Lost, B. 1.

Moore, Charles Whitlock. A

distinguished American Masonic journalist, born in Boston, Mass., March 29, 1801.
His own account of his initiation into
Masonry is in the following words: "In
February, 1822, I was proposed for the
Massachusetts
degrees of Masonry in
Lodge, then, as now, one of the three
oldest in Boston, and but for the intervention of business engagements, I should
have been received into Masonry on the
evening of my coming of age. Before that

evening arrived, however, I was called

temporarily to the State of Maine, where,
in May following, I was admitted into
Kennebec Lodge, at Hallowell, with the
consent and approbation of the Lodge in
which I had been originally proposed. I
received the third degree on the evening
of the 12th of June."
On October 10, 1822, he affiliated with the
Lodge St. Andrew. In October, 1872, that
i

MORRIS

1005

Lodge celebrated his semi-centennial membership by a festival.

In 1825 he took the Capitular Degrees
in St. Andrew's Chapter, and was elected
High Priest in 1840, and subsequently
Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter,
He was made a Knight Templar in Boston
Encampment about the year 1830, and was
Eminent Commander in 1837. In 1841 he
was elected Grand Master of the Grand
Encampment of Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, which office he held for three years.
In 1832 he received the Royal and Select
Degrees in Boston Council, over which he
presided for twelve years. He was elected
General Grand Captain-General of the
Grand Encampment of the United States
in 1847, and General Grand Generalissimo
in 1850.
In 1844 he was received into the
Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and in the
same year was elected Secretary- General
of the Holy Empire in the Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction of the
United States, an office which he held until
his resignation in 1862.
"When he was elected R. G. Secretary
of the Grand Lodge in 1834," says Brother
John T. Heard, in his Historical Account
of Columbian Lodge (page 472), "it was
the moment when the anti-Masonic excitement was raging with its greatest violence in this State, and his first official act
was to attest the memorial written by him,
surrendering to the Legislature the act of
incorporation of the Grand Lodge."
The Grand Lodge surrendered its charter
and its corporate powers that it might
escape the persecution of an anti-Masonic
Legislature.
The memorial, however,
boldly stated that " by divesting itself of
its corporate powers, the Grand Lodge has
relinquished none of its Masonic attributes
or prerogatives." In Masonic authorship,
Bro. Moore is principally distinguished as
a journalist. In 1825 he established the
Masonic Mirror, which was merged in 1834
in the Bunker Hill Aurora, a paper with
whose Masonic department he was assoIn 1841 he commenced the publiciated.
cation of the Freemason's Monthly Magazine, which he published for 33 years, in
In 1828 and 1829 he
fact until his death.
published the Amaranth, or Masonic Garland ; in 1843 the Masonic Trestle-Board.
Brother Moore died at Boston, Mass., of

pneumonia, on December

12, 1873.

Morana. The

Bohemian goddess of
winter and death, Maryana of Scandinavia.
Mormon Faith. See Book of Mormon.

Morris, Robert, IX.I>.

Bom

August 31, 1818. Was first brought to

Masonic light March 5, 1846, in Oxford
Lodge, at a place of the same name in

1006

MOUNT

Mississippi.
The life of Bro. Morris has
been so active and untiring for the benefit
of the institution of Masonry, that he has

had the opportunity of

filling

very

many

positions in all the departments of Masonry,

and was Grand Master of Masons of the

Grand Lodge of Kentucky in 1858-59.
His writings cover Masonic jurisprudence,
rituals and hand-books, Masonic belleslettres, history and biography, travels, and
contributions to The Review, Keystone, Advocate, N. Y. Dispatch, and other papers and
periodicals. His Masonic songs and poetic
effusions stand out in prominent volumes
He is the author of We
on the shelf.
Meet upon the Level, which is sufficient to
render his

name immortal,

complete

biography of Bro. Eobert Morris would fill

volumes,
Mount Caf. In the Mohammedan
mythology, a fabulous mountain which

The home of the

encircles the earth.
giants and fairies, and rests upon the
sacred stone Sakhral, of which a single
grain gives miraculous powers. It is of
an emerald

color,

and

MYSTIC

ADDENDUM.

its reflected

light

is

the cause of the tints of the sky.

sweet and harmonious sounds being the

representative of that harmony which
should ever exist among the brethren, we
are apt to inquire what were the instruments used by the ancients in their mystical service.
The oldest ever discovered, we
believe, is a small clay pipe not over three
inches in length, found by Captain Willock
among the presumed ruins of Babylon if
so, it must be 2600 years old.
By the use
of the two finger holes, the intervals of the
common chord, C, E, and G, are produced,
or the harmonic triad. From the ruins of
Nineveh we have countless representations
of the harp, with strings varying from ten
to twenty-six
the lyre, identical in structure with that of the Greeks
a harpshaped instrument held horizontally, and
the six to ten strings struck with a plectrum, which has been termed the Asor,
from its resemblance to the Hebrew instrument of that name. There is also the
guitar-shaped instrument, and a double
pipe with a single mouthpiece and fingerholes on each pipe. The Assyrians used
musical bells, trumpets, flutes, drums, cym;

bals,

Mozart, J. C. W. L Born in 1756 at

Salzburg, and died December 5, 1791, at Vienna. One of the greatest and most delightful of musical composers. He first saw the
Masonic light about 1780, and was a member of the Lodge " Zur gekronten Hoff-

The Abyssinians
Kissar (Greek, Mthara).

and tambourines.

call their lyre the

nung,"

There is also the flute, called Monaulos,

which is of great antiquity, and named by
the Egyptians Photins, or curved flute.
The crooked horn or trumpet, called Buccina, and the Cithara, held sacred in consequence of its shape being that of the Greek

positions

delta.

this

There were many musical comand dedications to Masonry by

eminent composer.

Murat, Joacliini.

Born

in

1771,

Muta. The Eoman goddess of silence.

Muttra, or Mathura. The birth-

executed in 1815. The great cavalry gen- place of the Hindu Eedeemer, Krishna.
The capital of a district in the North-west
eral of Napoleon, and titular king of
Naples. In 1803 he was appointed S. G. Provinces of British India.
Warden in the Grand Orient of France.
Myrrh. A resinous gum of a tree
When the 5th Supreme Council of the growing in Arabia, valued from the most
World was established at Naples, on the ancient times (Gen. xxxvii. 25). It was
11th June, 1809, by the Supreme Council among the presents Jacob sent to Egypt,
at Milan, a concordat became necessary, and those brought to the infant Jesus by
and was executed 3d May, 1811, between the wise men of the East.
Mysteries, Mexican. Instituted
the Grand Orient which was created June
among the Mexicans (Aztecs), and was of
24, 1809, and the Supreme Council of NaThe adherents adopted
a sacred nature.
ples, whereby the latter should have sole
control over the degrees beyond the 18th, the worship of some special deity, Quetzalin like manner as signified in the concor- coatl (the Mexican Saviour), under secret
dat of France. King Joachim Murat ac- rites, and rendered themselves seclusive. A
cepted the supreme command of both bodies. similar order was that called Tlamacazajotl,
The change in his political surroundings also the order known as Telpochtliztli. It
is understood that under the sway of the
allowed him no permanent rest.
Murat, Joachim, Prince. Son Aztecs, the Mexican Mysteries had some
of the King of Naples. Was appointed Masonic affinities. See Aztec Writings.
Grand Master of the Grand Orient of
Mystic Crown, Knights and
France, and initiated February 26, 1825. Companions of the. A Society formHe resigned the office in 1861.
ed by the adherents of Mesmer, in August,
Musical Instruments, Ancient. 1787, of a beneficent, non-political, and nonAs in the Fellow Crafts' degree, music is sectarian nature, to which Master Masons
dilated upon as one of the liberal arts, the only were admitted.

NORTH

ADDENDUM.

1007

N.
(Heb. J.) The fourteenth letter in
the English and Hebrew alphabets
its
numerical value is 50, and its definition,
tf.

a final, Nun is written }, and

then is of the value of 700. The Hebrew
divine appellation is JOIJ, or Formida-

fish.

As

Naharda. Brotherhood

of. After the destruction of the Solomonial Temple, the captives formed an association
while slaves at Naharda, on the Euphrates,
and are there said to have preserved the
secret mysteries.

Naos.

The ark of the Egyptian gods.

chest or structure with more height than
depth, and thereby unlike the Israelitish
Ark of the Covenant. The winged figures embraced the lower part of the Naos,
while the cherubim of the Ark of Yahveh

were placed above its lid. Yahveh took

up his abode above the propitiatory or
covering between the wings of the cherubim, exteriorly, while the gods of Egypt
were reputed as hidden in the interior of
the Naos of the sacred barks, behind hermetically closed doors. See Cherubim.
Napoleon I. It has been claimed,
and with much just reason, as shown in his
course of life, that Napoleon the Great

was a member of the Brotherhood, and it

is said was initiated at Malta, between
June 12 and July 19, 1798. The Abeille
Magonnique of 1829, and Clavel, in 1830,
allege that he visited a lodge incognito in
Paris.
His life indicated favor to the fraternity, and in 1804 he appointed Joseph
Buonaparte G. Master of the Grand Orient.
Lucien and Louis Buonaparte were of the
fraternity, as also Jerome. Louis Napoleon
III. was a member of the Supreme Council A. A. Scottish Eite of France.
Rite of. See Philadelphians, Mackey.

Narbonne,

Neith. The Egyptian synonym of the

Greek Athene or Minerva.
Nemesis. According to Hesiod, the
daughter of Night, originally the personification of the moral feeling of right and
a just fear of criminal actions; in other
words, Conscience. A temple was erected
to Nemesis at Attica.
She was at times
called Adrastea and Rhamnusia, and represented in the earliest days a young virgin like unto Venus; at a later period,
as older and holding a helm and wheel.
there was a statue of Nemeof Parian marble executed by Phidias.
The festival in Greece held in her honor

At Rhamnus
sis

was

called Nemesia.

Xeocorns.
of the Temple.

name of

the guardian

Nephalia. Festivals, without wine,

celebrated in honor of the lesser deities.
Nergal. (Heb. 7JHJ.) The synonym
of misfortune and ill-luck. The Hebrew
name for Mars; and in astrology the lesser
The word in Sanskrit is Nrigal.
Malefic.
Templars. An Order of five
degrees instituted in France in the early
part of this century.
The degrees were
termed Initiati Intimi Initiati ; Adepti ;
Orientales Adepti; and Magnae aquilae
nigrae sancti Johannes Apostoli Adepti.
Nick. (Danish, Nikfcen.) The spirit
of the waters, an enemy of man, the devil,
or in the vulgate, " Old Nick."
Xicotiates, Order of. A secret order mentioned by Clavel, teaching the
doctrines of Pythagoras.
Nihongi. (" Chronicles of Nihon.")
The companion of the Kojiki; the two
works together forming the doctrinal and
historic basis of Sintonism. The Japanese
adherents of Sinsyn are termed Sintus, or
Sintoos, who worship the gods, the chief of

New

which is Ten-sio-dai-yin.
was composed about 720

The Nihongi

with the
evident design of giving a Chinese coloring
to the subject-matter of the Kojiki, upon
which it is founded.
A significant word in the
Mollis.
32d Degree of the Scottish Rite.
The
original old French rituals endeavor to
explain it, and say that it and two other
words in conjunction are formed out of the
initials of the words of a particular aphorism which has reference to the secret arcana
and " sacred treasure " of Masonry. Out
of several interpretations, no one can be
positively asserted as the original, although
the intent is apparent to him to whom the
same may lawfully belong.
formal. A perpendicular to a curve
and included between the curve and the
axis of the abscissas. Sometimes a square,
used by operative Masons, for proving anA. d.,

gles.

Xornae.

In the Scandinavian Mysthese were three maidens, known as

Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, signifying Past,
Their position is
Present, and Future.
seated near the Urdar- wells under the
world- tree Yggdrasil, and there determine
the fate of both gods and men. They daily
draw water from the spring, and with it and
the surrounding clay sprinkle the ash-tree
Yggdrasil, that the branches may not
wither and decay.
North. This point of the compass, or
place of Masonic darkness, must not be construed as implying that in the Temple of Solomon no light or ventilation was had from
teries,

1008

NORTH

this direction.

The Talmud, and

as well

Josephus, allude to an extensive opening

toward the North, framed with costly magnificence, and known as the great " Golden
Window." There were as many openings
in the outer wall on the north as on the
south side. There were three entrances
through the " Chel " on the north and six
on the south. See Temple.
While once within the walls and Chel
of the temple all advances were made from
east to west, yet the north side was mainly
used for stabling, slaughtering, cleansing,
etc., and contained the chambers of broken
knives, defiled stones, of the house of burnThe Masonic symboling, and of sheep.
ism of the entrance of an initiate from the
north, or more practically from the northwest, and advancing toward the position
occupied by the corner-stone in the northeast, forcibly calls to mind the triplet of

Homer
"

NYCTAZONTES

ADDENDUM.

Two marble doors unfold on either side;

Sacred the South by which the gods descend
But mortals enter on the Northern end."

So in the Mysteries of Dionysos, the gate

of entrance for the aspirant was from the
north but when purged from his corruptions, he was termed indifferently new-born
or immortal, and the sacred south door was
;

thence accessible to his steps.

In the Middle Ages, below and to the
right of the judges stood the accuser, facing
north to the left was the defendant, in the
Brother George I\
north facing south.
Fort, in his Antiquities of Freemasonry, says
' In the centre of the court, directly before
the judge, stood an altar piece, upon which
an open Bible was displayed. The south,
to the right of the justiciaries, was deemed
honorable and worthy for a plaintiff; but
the north was typical of a frightful and diabolical sombreness. Thus, when a solemn
oath of purgation was taken in grievous
criminal accusations, the accused turned
;

The judicial headsman,

in executing the extreme penalty of outraged justice, turned the convict's face

quence of this

belief, it

was ordered

that,

in the adjudication of a crime, the accused

should be on the north side of the court
enclosure. And in harmony with the Scandinavian superstition, no Lodge of Masons
illumines the darkened north with a symbolic light, whose brightness would be unable to dissipate the gloom of that cardinal
point with which was associated all that
was sinistrous and direful."
Star. This star is frequently
used as a Masonic symbol, as are the morn-

Worth

ing star, the day star, the seven stars.

Thus, the morning star is the forerunner
of the Great Light that is about to break
upon the Lodge; or, as in the grade of
G. Master Architect, twelfth of the Scottish system, the initiate is received at the
hour " when the day star has risen in the
east, and the north star looked down upon
the seven stars that circle round him."
The symbolism is truth; thus, the North
star is the pole star, the Polaris of the
mariner, the Cynosura, that guides Masons
over the stormy seas of time. The seven
stars are the symbol of right and justice
to the order and the country.
Novitiate. The time of probation,
as well as of preparatory training, which,
in all religious orders, precedes the solemn
profession at least one year. By dispensation only can the period of time be reduced.
Novices are immediately subject to a superior called Master of Novices, and their
time must be devoted to prayer and to
liturgical training.
Nuk-pe-imk. The Egyptian equivalent for the expression " I am that I am."
(Heb. pj, a fish, in Syriac an
inkhorn.) The Chaldaic and hieroglyphic
form of this Hebrew letter was like Fig.
1, and the Egyptian like Fig. 2, signify-

Nun.

Fig.

1.

Fig.

2.

toward the north.

northward. When Earl Hakon bowed a

tremulous knee before the deadly powers
of Paganism, and sacrificed his seven-year
old child, he gazed out upon the far-off,

gloomy north.
" In Nastrond, or shores of death, stood
a revolting hall, whose portals opened toward the north the regions of night.
North, by the Jutes, was denominated
black or sombre the Frisians called it fear
corner.
The gallows faced the north, and
from these hyperborean shores everything
In consebase and terrible proceeded.

ing fishes in any of these forms. Joshua

was the son of Nun, or a fish, the deliverer of Israel.
As narrated of the Noah
in the Hindu account of the deluge,
whereby the forewarning of a fish caused
the construction of an ark and the salvation of one family of the human race from
the flood of waters.
See Beginnings of
History,

by Lenormant.

Nyaya. The name

of the second of
the three great systems of ancient Hindu
philosophy.
Nyctazontes. An ancient sect who
praised God by day, but rested in quiet
and presumed security during the night.

ADDENDUM.

ORIFLAMME

1009

0.
O. The

fifteenth letter in the English

most of the Western alphabets. The
corresponding letter in the Hebrew and
Phoenician alphabets was called Ayn,
that is, eye; the primitive form of the
Phoenician letter being the rough picture
of an eye, or a circle with a dot in the
This dot will be observed in
centre.
ancient MSS., but being dropped

and

in

the circle forms the letter O. The

numerical value is 70, and in Hebrew is formed thus, V, the hieroglyphic being a plant, as well as
at times a circle or an eye.
Apple, Society of tlie. Instituted about 1658, and lapsed under the
disturbances in England during the reign
of James II., but it lingered among the
Stuart adherents for many years.
Oannes. The earliest instructor of

Oak

man in letters, sciences,

and

arts, specially in
architecture, geometry,
botany, and agriculture, and in all other
useful knowledge, was

the fish god Oannes

This univer(myth).
sal teacher, according
to Berossus, appeared
in the Persian Gulf,

on

bordering
lonia, and,

Baby-

although an

animal, was endowed

with reason and great
knowledge. The usual appearance of the
creature was that of a fish, having a human head beneath that of a fish, and feet
like unto a man. This personage conversed
with men during the day, but never ate
with them. At Kouyunjik there was a
colossal statue of the fish-god Oannes. The
following is from the Book of Enoch (Vol.
" The Masons hold their grand
II., p. 154)
festival on the day of St. John, not knowing that therein they merely signify the
fish-god Oannes, the first Hermes and the
first founder of the Mysteries, the first
messenger to whom the Apocalypse was
given, and whom they ignorantly confound
with the fabulous author of the common
Apocalypse. The sun is then (midsummerday) in its greatest altitude. In this the
Naros is commemorated." See Alexander
:

Polyhistor.

Obed. (Heb. ""p\J7, serving.) One

of nine favored officials, selected by Solomon after the death of H. Abif.
Obotk. Ventriloquism. It will be
64
6B

found so denominated in the Septuagint

version, Isaiah xxix. 3, also xix.

3.

Obrack, Hibernus. Grand Master

of the Order of the Temple in 1392, according to the chronology of the Strict
Observance of Germany.
Odein. (Heb. D1N-) The carnelian or agate in the high-priest's breastplate.
It was of a red color, and claimed
to possess medical qualities.
Odin. The chief Scandinavian deity
and father of Balder (which see).
The
counterpart of Hermes and Mercury in
the Egyptian and Eoman mythologies.
Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve, the
sons of Boer, or the first-born, slew Ymir
or Chaos, and from his body created the
world.
As ruler of heaven, he sends
daily his two black ravens, Thought and
Memory, to gather tidings of all that is
being done throughout the world.
The Druidical name for
Ogiiiius.
Hercules, who is represented with numberless fine chains proceeding from the
mouth to the ears of other people, hence
possessing the powers of eloquence and
persuasion.
Onecli. (Heb.pjy.) The bird Phoenix,
named after Enoch or Phenoch.
Enoch
signifies initiation. The Phoenix, in Egyptian mythological sculptures, as a bird, is
placed in the mystical palm-tree.
The
Phoenix is the representative of eternal
and continual regeneration, and is the
Holy Spirit which brooded as a dove over
the face of the waters, the dove of Noah
and of Hasisatra or Xysuthrus (which
see), which bore a sprig in its mouth.
Ophites. The Brotherhood of the
Serpent, which flourished in the second
century, and held that there were two
principles of aeons and the accompanying
theogony. This Egyptian fraternity displayed a living serpent in their ceremonies,
which was reverenced as a symbol of wisdom and a type of good.

Order Book.

The book

to

which

appeals were made, in the Order of

Strict Observance, as to matters of history,
usage, or ritual. It was invariably bound
in red.
The ancient banner
Oriflaninie.
which originally belonged to the Abbey of
St. Denis, and was borne by the Counts of
Vezin, patrons of that church, but which,
after the country of Vezin fell into the
hands of the French crown, became the
principal banner of the kingdom. It was
charged with a saltire wavy Or, with rays
all

OURIEL

1010

issuing from the centre crossways ; Seccee

into five points, each bearing a tassel of

green

See

Uriel,

Oziah.

(Heb. H'tJ^

Latin, Fortitudo

A prince of Judah, and the name

domini.)

of the Senior Warden in the Fifth Degree of

the French Rite of Adoption.

silk.

Ouriel.

PAKIKCHAI

ADDENDUM.

Mackey.

P.
English
P. The
and Greek alphabets, and the seventeenth
sixteenth letter of the

I
A^

|L

15
ter is

Papyrus.

of the Hebrew, in which last mentioned language its numerical value

is 80, is formed thus ), signifying a
mouth in the Phoenician. The sacred
name of God associated with this letnTl)> Phodeh or Redeemer.

Pacbacamac. The

Peruvian name

for the Creator of the universe.

Palestine, Order of. Mentioned

by Baron de Tschoudy, and it is said was
the fountain whence the Chevalier Ramsay
obtained his information for the regulation
of his system.
Palla. An altar cloth, also a canopy
borne over the head of royalty in Oriental
lands.

Palmer, Henry

L..

Born

in

New

York,* October 18, 1819.

A present resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and president of the Northwestern Mutual Life
Insurance Co. He is the author of the
celebrated report, in October, 1849, which
resulted in the union of the two Grand
Lodges in New York, the " Herring-Phillips " and the " New York " Grand Lodge.
Brother Palmer has occupied almost every
known position in Craft Masonry, and has
been the commanding officer of every one
He is P. G. Master of
of its departments.
the G. Encampment of K. T. of the U. S.,
and the present G. Commander of the Supreme Council of the A. A. Scottish Rite,
Northern Jurisdiction of the U. S. of

America.

Pantheism. A speculative system,

which, spiritually considered, identifies the
universe with God, and, in the material form,
God with the universe. Material Pantheism is subject to the criticism, if not to the
accusation, of being atheistic.
Pantheism
is as aged as religion, and was the system
of worship in India, as it was in Greece.
Giordano Bruno was burned for his pantheistic opinions at Rome in 1600.
Pantheistic Brotherhood.
scribed by

De-

John Toland,

in his Pantheisticon, as having a strong resemblance to

Freemasonry. The Socratic Lodge in Ger-

many, based on the Brotherhood, was of

short duration.

"

The papyrus leaf," says

Simons, in his Egyptian
Symbols, " is that plant which
formed tablets and books, and
forms the first letter of the name
of the only eternal and all-powerful god of Egypt, Amon, who in
the beginning of things created
J.

W.

the world," whose name signified

occult or hidden.
The word nSy>
ole, which signifies a leaf, and to inscribe
on tablets forms thy, olm, the antique origin
of things, obscure time, hidden eternity.
The Turin Funeral Papyrus is a book
published by Dr. Lepsius in original charThis
acter, but translated by Dr. Birch.
Book of the Dead is invaluable as containing the true philosophic belief of the
Egyptians respecting the resurrection and
immortality.
The manuscript has been
gathered from portions which it was obligatory to bury with the dead. The excavations of mummies in Egypt have been fruitful in furnishing the entire work.

Parikchai, Agrouchada.

An

work of the Brahmans.

According to a work by Louis Jacolliot,
1884, the Fakirs produced phenomena at

occult scientific

will with

superior intervention

or

else

with shrewd charlatanism processes that

were known to the Egyptians and Jew:

ish Kabbalists.
The doctrines are those
to the Alexandrian school, to the
Gauls, and as well to the Christians. In
the division of the Kabbala, the first
treated of the History of the Genesis or
Creation, and taught the science of nature
the second, or Mercaba, of the History of

known

the Chariot, and contained a treatise on

theology.
There were three degrees of initiation
among the Brahmans
1st. According to selection, the candidate
became a Grihasta, a Pourohita or Fakir,
or in twenty years a Guru.
2d. A Sannyassis or Cenobite and Vanaprasthas, and lived in the Temple.
Sannyassis-Nirvany or Naked
3d.
Cenobite.
Those of the third degree were visible
only once in five years, appearing in a column of light created by themselves, at
:

PARIS

PAKVIN

ADDENDUM.

midnight, and on a stand in the centre of

a great tank. Strange sounds and terrific
shrieks were heard as they were gazed upon
as demi-gods, surrounded by thousands of

Hindus.
The government was by a Supreme Council of seventy Brahmans, over seventy years
of age, selected from the Nirvany, and
chosen to see enforced the Law of the Lotus.
The Supreme Chief, or Brahmatna, was required to be over eighty years of age, and
was looked upon as immortal by the popuThis Pontiff resided in an immense
lace.
palace surrounded by twenty-one walls.
The primitive holy word composed of
the three letters A. XL M., comprises the
Vedic trinity, signifying Creation, Preservation, and Transformation, and symbol-

1011

Freemason'' s Magazine, Boston, 1863, p. 201.

In the year 1743, the " English Grand Lodge
of France " published, in Paris, a series of
statutes, taken principally from Anderson's
work of the editions of 1723 and 1738. It
consisted of twenty articles, and bore the
title of General Regulations taken from the
Minutes of the Lodges, for the use of the French.
Lodges, together with the Alterations adopted

Assembly of the Grand Lodge,

a rule of action
for the said kingdom. A copy of this document, says Findel, was translated into German, with annotations, and published in
1856 in the Zeitschrift fur Freimaurer of
Altenberg.
Parlirer. In the Lodges of Stonemasons of the Middle Ages, there was
ize all the initiatory secrets of the occult a rank or class of workmen called ParliBy some it has been taught that rers, literally, spokesmen. They were an
sciences.
the " ffonover," or primordial germ, as de- intermediate class of officers between the
fined in the Avesta, existed before all else. Masters of the Lodges and the Fellows,
Also see Manou, Book xi., Sloca 265. The and were probably about the same as our
following unexplained magical words were modern Wardens.
Thus, in the Strasalways inscribed in two triangles L'om. bourg Constitutions of 1459, it is said
Vrhom-sh'hrum. Sho'bim. Ramaya-Na- " No Craftsman or Mason shall promote
haraa.
one of his apprentices as a parlirer whom
He who possessed the word greater than he has taken as an apprentice from his
the A. U. M. was deemed next to Brahma. rough state, or who is still in the years of
The word was transmitted in a sealed box. apprenticeship," which may be compared
The Hindu triad, of which in later times with the old English charge that " no
Brother can be a Warden until he has
is the mystic name, represents the
union of the three gods, viz., a (Vishnu), passed the part of a Fellow-Craft." They
u (Siva), m (Brahma). It may also be were called Parlirers, properly, says HeldOm appears mann, Parlierers, or Spokesmen, because,
typical of the three Vedas.
first in the Upanishads as a mystical monoin the absence of the Masters, they spoke
syllable, and is thus set forth as the object for the Lodge, to travelling Fellows seeking
It is usually employment, and made the examination.
of profound meditation.
called pranava, more rarely aksharam. The There are various forms of the word.
Buddhists use Om at the beginning of Kloss, citing the Strasbourg Constitutions,
their Vidya Shad-akshari or mystical for- has Parlirer; Krause has, from the same
mulary in six syllables (viz., Om mani pad document, Parlierer, but says it is usually
me hiim). See Pitris and Indische Myste- Polier; Heldmann uses Parlierer, which
rien, in Addendum and Aum, in Mackey. has been now generally adopted.
Parole. A Mot de semestre, communiParis Constitutions. A copy of
these Constitutions, said to have been cated by the Grand Orient of France, and
adopted in the thirteenth century, will be in addition an annual word in November,
found in G. P. Depping's Collection de Docu- which tends to show at once whether a
ments inedits sur VHistoire de France (Paris, member is in good standing.
A part of this work contains the
Parsees. See Zend Avesta.
1837).
Reglemens sur les arts et metiers de Paris,
Parvin, Theodore S. Born Janurediges au Y&me siecle et connus sous le nom ary 15, 1817, in Cumberland Co., New JerThis sey. His journey in life gradually tending
de livre des metiers d'Etienne Boileau.
treats of the masons, stonecutters, plas- westward, he located in Ohio, and graduated in 1837 in the Cincinnati Law School.
terers, and mortar-makers, and, as Steinbrenner {Or. and Hist, of Mas., p. 104) says, He was appointed private secretary by
" is interesting, not only as exhibiting the Robert Lucas, first governor of Iowa, in
peculiar usages and customs of the Craft at which State he became Judge of the Prothat early, period, but as showing the con- bate Court and afterwards " Curator and
nection which existed between the laws and Librarian." Bro. Parvin was initiated in
regulations of the French Masons and those Nova Cesarea Lodge, No. 2, Cincinnati,
of the Steinmetzen of Germany and the Ohio, March 14, 1838, and raised the 9th
Masons of England." A translation of the of May following. He was exalted in Iowa
Paris Constitutions was published in the City Chapter, No. 2, January 2, 1845. He
:

OM

at the General

December

11, 1743, to serve as

;:

PASSAGE

1012
has held

many

addendum.

very prominent positions in

Masonry is, and has been since 1871,

Grand Recorder of the G. Encampment
K. T. of the U. S. A. In 1859 he received
the Degrees of the Scottish Rite and was
crowned in that year an Inspector-General
;

33d.

Passage. The Fourth Degree of the

Fessler Rite, of which Patria forms the
fifth.

" Passing the River." A mystical

alphabet said to have been used by the KabThese characters, with certain explanations, become the subject of consideration with brethren of the Fifteenth Degree
A. A. Scottish Rite. The following are
the characters
balists.

eh

z uv

7J3^V4 ATX
b

Pax
!

")

k L p

TobiseiiMi. ("Peace be with

Used in the Eighteenth Degree A.

'

air, and to the fishes in the

stream.' The judicial executioner, in carrying into effect this decree, severed the body
in twain, so that, to use the literal text, the
air might strike together between the two
parts.'
The tongue was oftentimes torn
out as a punishment.
law of the early
Roman Empire, known as ex Jure Orientis
Caesareo, enacted that any person, suitor
at law or witness, having sworn upon the
evangelists, and proving to be a perjurer,

the birds of the

'

should have the tongue cut from its roots.

A cord about the neck was used symbolically, in criminal courts, to denote
that the accused was worthy of the extreme penalty of law by hanging or de& * capitation. When used upon the person
of a freeman, it signified a slight degree

Peetasli.

The demon of calumny

/of subjection or servitude."

Some eminent brethren of the Fraternity insist that the penalty had its ori*" gin in the manner in which the lamb was
sacrificed under the charge of the Captain of the Temple, who directed the priests
and said, " Come and cast lots." Who is

"Who

A. Scottish Rite.
in

the religious system of Zoroaster, Persia.

Penalty. The origin of penalties invoked in Masonry has been the subject of
much research. In addition to what is so
well said by Dr. Mackey, as to obsecration,
it may be judicious to note the opinion of
Bro. G. F. Fort, and as well the law as set
down in the Talmud. Bro. Fort says, in the
29th chap, of his Early History and Antiquities, that " Penalties inflicted upon convicts of certain grades during the Middle
Ages, were terrible and inhuman.
"The most cruel punishment awaited
into and robbed a Pagan
According to a law of the Frisians, such desecration was redressed by
dragging the criminal to the seashore and
burying the body at a point in the sands
where the tide daily ebbed and flowed.
(Lex Frision., Add. Sap., Tit. 12.)
"A creditor was privileged to subject
his delinquent debtor to the awful penalty of having the flesh torn from his
breast and fed to birds of prey. Convicts
were frequently adjudged by the ancient
Norse code to have their hearts torn out.
(Grimm, Deutsche Eechts-Alterthumer, p.
And for the following, see pp. 693
690.

him who broke

temple.

The oldest death penalties of

700.)
the Scandinavians prescribed that the body
should be exposed to fowls of the air
Sometimes it was decreed
to feed upon.
and

that the victim be disembowelled, his body

burnt to ashes and scattered as dust to the
winds. Judges of the secret Vehmgericht
passed sentences of death as follows
Your
body and flesh to the beasts of the field, to

jainm K^b

you

PENNSYLVANIA

to slaughter?"
is to sprinkle?"
" Go and see if the time for slaughter approaches ? " " Is it light in the whole East,
even to Hebron ? " and when the priest said
" Yes," he was directed to " go and bring the
lamb from the lamb-chamber;" this was in
the north-west corner of the court. The
lamb was brought to the north of the altar,
its head southward and its face northward.

The lamb was then slaughtered a hole was

made in its side, and thus it was hung up.
The priest skinned it downward until he
came to the breast, then he cut off the
;

head, and finished the skinning he tore

out the heart; subsequently he cleft the
body, and it became all open before him
he took out the intestines, etc.; and, the various portions were divided as they had
cast lots. (The Talmud, Joseph Barclay,
;

LL.D.)

Pennsylvania. The
torical interest in

Masonic hisno one State of the Union

centred so thoroughly as in the origin of

Masonry and the formation of a Grand
fraternal rivalry
Lodge in Pennsylvania.
was warmly incited by this State claiming
priority over Massachusetts and all other
States as regards the great Brotherhood.
The question seems to be now permanently
removed from further inquiry.
Indeed,
Dr. Mackey, in his "brief sketch in the
body of this work, favored the Boston
theory, but regretted his error before the

printer's ink

had

dried.

PENNSYLVANIA

ADDENDUM.

now evident that a deputation was

by the Duke of Norfolk, Grand
Master of England, on June 5, 1730, to
It is

issued

Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, as " ProvinGrand Master of New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania, ordaining that
the brethren who do now reside, or who
cial

may hereafter reside, in all or any of the

said provinces, shall, and they are hereby
empowered, every other year on the

feast

PERSIA

1013

the loss of records their earliest minutes

only date 1767, and are thence continuous.
On September 5, 1789, by the adoption of
by-laws, the name of the Chapter appears
as Jerusalem Chapter, No. 3.
The Grand
Lodge of Pennsylvania, on the 26th of
December, 1795, opened the Grand Holy
Royal Arch Chapter under its sanction,
and thus was formed the first Grand
Chapter in America.

John the Baptist, to elect a ProvinPentacle, The. The "pentaculum

cial Grand Master, who shall have the Salomonis" or magical pentalpha,
not to
power of nominating and appointing his be confounded with Solomon's seal. The
Deputy Grand Master and Grand War- pentacle is frequently referred to in herdens." That the brethren in Pennsylvania metic formulae.
availed themselves of this authority on
Perfect Master. The Fifth Degree
St. John the Baptist's day, 1732, and in the A. A. Scottish Rite, wherein
Lodges
elected William Allen Grand Master that of Sorrow are frequently observed.
at the succeeding election, June 24, 1734,
Perfect Prussian . A grade inBenjamin Franklin, who had become a vented at Geneva in 1770, and belonging
member in February, 1731, was elected to the Noachite rites.
Grand Master. Other Grand Masters were
Perfect Stone. A name frequently
elected from time to time, among them given to the cubic stone discovered in the
very eminent men to wit, Thomas Hop- 13th Degree of Perfection, the 10th of the
kinson, Humphry Murray, James Hamilton, Joseph Shippen, William Ball, Joseph
Shippen, Philip Syng, Thomas Bond, James
of St.

Milnor, Josiah Randall, Chief- Justice GibGeorge M. Dallas, Chief-Justice Read,

and Col. James Page.
The original ledger account of the first
Masonic Lodge organized in Philadelphia,
"St. John's," has been discovered by the inson,

defatigable Junior Grand Warden, Clifford

P. MacCalla, in the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania, covering the dates from
June 24, 1731, to June 24, 1738. This
book is doubtless the oldest Masonic Lodge
record in America. It appears that it was
presented to the Historical Society by
George T. Ingham, of Salem, New Jersey,
on November 8, 1880, he having received
it from a descendant of David Hall, a
partner of Benjamin Franklin in the
printing and publishing business.
"Secessions and expulsions in England
marked the period from 1738 to 1752, when

another Grand Lodge was formed^ composed

of the seceding brethren, who ... divided the third degree, and from the latter
part of that degree formed a fourth degree,
styled the Holy Royal Arch," presumably

This division was practically set

by the Ancients, afterwards so
who were the Seceders, and were

in 1740.
on foot
called,

so recognized in contradistinction to the

Moderns, who adhered to the three degree
system. Of these latter, three Lodges existed in Pennsylvania in 1755.
In 1758

the Grand Lodge of England, Ancients,

issued warrants for Lodges Nos. 2 and 3 in
Philadelphia, the latter being styled Royal

Arch Lodge, No. 3. These Arch Lodges

continued and prospered, although from

Ineffable Series.
It denotes justice and
firmness, with all the moral lessons and
duties in which the mystic cube is calculated to instruct us.

Periclyte, or Paraclete.

{John

Christ promised to send after

him another paraclete. The followers of
Mohammed have accepted the implication,
claiming the newcomer to be Mohammed,
and that he is paraclete, or illustrious.
Persia. From late discoveries of inscriptions pertaining to Cyrus, as mentioned
in the excellent little London work, called
Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments
(pp. 166-186), A. H. Sayce, M.A., it would
appear that this king was a polytheist, and
that he was not a king of Persia, although
he acquired that country after his conquest
of Astyages, b. c. 559, between the sixth and
ninth years of Nabonidos. Cyrus was king
of Elam. The empire he founded was not
a Persian one ; Darius, the son of Hystaspes, at a subsequent period, was the real
founder of that kingdom. Prof. Sayce continues : " It was only as the predecessor of
Darius, and for the sake of intelligibility to
the readers of a later day, that Cyrus could
be called a king of Persia" (Ezra i. 2).
The original words of his proclamation,
"King of Elam," have been -changed into
the more familiar and intelligible " King
xiv.

16.)

PERSIAN

1014

of Persia." Elsewhere in the Bible (Isa.

xxi. 1-10), when the invasion of Babylon
is described, there is no mention of Persia,
only of Elam and Media, the ancestral dominions of Cyrus. This is in strict accordance with the revelations of the Monuments, and testifies to the accuracy of the
Old Testament records.

Cyrus never besieged Babylon, a city fifteen miles square. It opened its gates to
The
his general without battle, B. c. 538.
description,

by Herodotus belongs

to the

Mr. Bosanquet asserts

reign of Darius.
that the Darius of the Book of Daniel is
Darius the son of Hystaspes.
Cyrus had learned that a disaffected conquered people imported into a kingdom was
a constant menace and danger, and he returned the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem to
rebuild their city and be a fortress and
check upon Egypt. The nations which had
been brought from East and West were restored to their lands along with their gods.
So it was with the captives of Judah. His
dominions extended from the Hellespont
almost to India.
Cyrus was a worshipper of Merodach,
originally the Sun-god, who is mentioned
and intended by the name Bel, and Nebo,
His first act
his prophet (Isa. xlvi. 1).
after acquiring Babylonia was to restore the
Babylonian gods to their shrines, from
which they had been removed by Nabonidos,

and further asks

sion.

The theory

for their intercesthat Cyrus believed in

but one supreme god Ormudz must be

abandoned. God consecrated Cyrus to be
His instrument in restoring His chosen
people to their land, not because the king
of Elam was a Monotheist, but because the
period of prophecy, " ten weeks of years,"

was drawing to a close.

These statements are made upon the authority of the three inscriptions among
the clay documents lately discovered in
Babylonia by Mr. Rassam, and translated
by Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr. Pinches.
The first of these is a cylinder, inscribed

by order of Cyrus; the second a tablet,

which describes the conquest of Babylonia
by Cyrus while the third is an account
given by Nabonidos of his restoration of
the temple of the Moon-god at Haran, and
of the temples of the Sun-god and of
An unit at Sepharvaim.
Cyrus ascended the throne B. C. 559, and
was slain in battle against the Massage tae,
B.C. 529.
He was followed by Cambyses
(son) until B. c. 521, when he was succeeded
by Smerdis, a Magian usurper, who reigned
seven months. Darius I., son of Hystaspes,
a nobleman, conspired with six others and
murdered Smerdis, when, by device, Darius
obtained the throne over his companions,
;

PIKE

ADDENDUM.

The celebrated siege of Babylon

lasted two years the city finally succumbed
to the strategy of General Zopyrus, 516.
Darius reigned 36 years, died B. c. 485.
B. c. 521.

'

Persian Faith. See Zend

Philosoplms. The fourth

Avesta.

grade of
the First Order of the Society of Rosicrucians, as practised in Europe and America.
Phylacteries. The second fundamental principle of Judaism is the wearing
of phylacteries; termed by some writers
Tataphoth, "ornaments," and refer to the

law and commandments, as "Bind them

about thy neck write them upon the table
of thine head " (Prov. iii. 3 vi. 21 viii. 3).
;

The

phylacteries are worn on the forehead

and arm, and are called in Hebrew Tephillin, from Palal, to pray. These consist
of two leathern boxes. One contains four
compartments, in which are inclosed four
portions of the law written on parchment
and carefully folded. The box is made of
leather pressed upon blocks of wood specially prepared, the leather being well
soaked in water. The following passages
of the law are sewn into it Ex. xiii. 1-10,
11-16 Deut. vi. 4-9 xi. 13-21. On this
box is the letter > (shin), with three strokes
for the right side, and the same letter with
four strokes for the left side of the wearer.
:

The second box has but one compartment,

into which the same passages of Scripture
are sewed with the sinews of animals, specially prepared for this object.
The phylacteries are bound on the forehead and
arm by long leathern straps. The straps
on the head must be tied in a knot shaped
like the letter
(dalelh).
The straps on

the arm must go round it seven times, and

three times around the middle finger, with
a small surplus over in the form of the letter > (yod). Thus we have the >-]>, ShadThe phylacteries are
dai, or Almighty.

kept in special bags, with greatest reverence, and the Rabbis assert "that the single precept of the phylacteries
all

is

equal to

the commandments."

Pike, Albert. Born at Boston, Mass.,

December

29, 1809,

and

is still

living

and

laboring to consummate his Masonic life

work. After a sojourn in early life in
Mexico, he returned to the United States

and

settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, as an

editor and lawyer. Subsequent to the war
of the rebellion, in which he had cast his
fortunes with the South, he located in

Washington, D. C, uniting with ex-Senator Robert Johnson in the profession of the

law, making his home, however, in Alexandria.
His library, in extent and seleca marvel, especially in all that
pertains to the wonders in ancient literature.
Bro. Pike is the Sov. G. Commander
of the Southern Supreme Council, A. A.
tions, is

PINNACLES

POINT

ADDENDUM.

Scottish Kite, having been elected in 1859.

He is Prov. G. Master of the G. Lodge of
the Royal Order of Scotland in the U. S.,

1015

glyphic of the Egyptians. The name of

one of their gods is written with a deter-

and an honorary member of almost every

Supreme Council in the world. His standing as a Masonic author and historian, and
withal as a poet, is most distinguished, and
his untiring zeal is without a parallel.

Pinnacles. Generally ornamented

much used in Gothic archi-

terminations

They are prominently referred

tecture.
to in the Eleventh Degree of the A. A. Scottish Eite, where the pinnacles over the
three gates support the warning to all
evil-doers, and give evidence of the certainty of

punishment following crime.

(" Basket.") The Bible of Bud-

Pitaka.

dhism, containing 116 volumes, divided

into three classes, collectively

known

as

the Tripitaka or Pitakattayan, that is, the

" Triple Basket ;" the Soutras, or discourses
of Buddha; the Vinaga, or Discipline;
and the Abhadharma, or Metaphysics. The
canon was fixed about 240 b. c, and commands a following of more than one-third
of the human race the estimates vary
from 340,000,000 to 500,000,000. Masonically considered, this indeed must be a
great Light or Trestle-Board, if it is the
guide of the conduct and practice of so
vast a number of our brethren ; for are not
all men our brethren ?
Pitdali. (Heb. mE).) One of the
twelve stones in the breastplate of the
High Priest, of a yellow color. The Sanskrit for yellow is pita.
Pitris. Spirits. Among the Hin-

dus, Pitris

were

spirits

so

mentioned in

the Agrouchada Parikchai, the philosophical compendium of the Hindu spiritists,

a scientific work giving an account of the
creation and the Mercaba, and finally the
Zohar the three principal parts of which
treat " of the attributes of God," " of the
A
world," and "of the human soul."
fourth part sets forth the relevancy of
souls to each other, and the evocation of
Pitris.
The adepts of the occult sciences
were said by the votaries of the Pitris of
India to have "entered the garden of delights."
See Parikchai, Agrouchada ; also,
;

Indische Mysterien.

Pointed Cubical Stone.

The

"Broached Thurnel" (see Mackey), mentioned by Dr. George Oliver and others in
the Tracing-Board of an Entered Apprentice, and known to the French Mason as the
pierre cubique, has an axe inserted in the
apex. Brother William S. Rockwell considered this feature in the Tracing-Board
remarkable and suggestive of curious re" The cubic
flections, and thus reasoned
stone pointed with an axe driven into it,
is strikingly similar to a peculiar hiero:

minative sign affixed to

it,

consisting of a

smooth rectangular stone with a knife over

it; but the most singular portion of the
circumstance is, that this hieroglyphic,
which is read by Egyptologists, Seth, is the
symbol of falsehood and error, in contradistinction to the rough (Brute) stone,
which is the symbol of faith and truth.
The symbol of error was the soft stone,
which could be cut the symbol of truth,
the hard stone, on which no tool could be
;

used."

the true Egyptian name of the god

the name of Typhon,
at one time devoutly worshipped and profoundly venerated in the culminating
epoch of the Pharaonic empire, as the
monuments of Karnac and Medinet-Abou
testify.
But in time his worship was overthrown, his shrines desecrated, his name and
titles chiselled from the monumental granite, and he himself, from being venerated
as the giver of life and blessings to the
rulers of Egypt, degraded from his position, treated as a destroying demon, and
shunned as the personification of evil.
This was not long before the exode of the
children of Israel.
Seth was the father
of Judaeus and Palestinus, is the god of the
Semitic tribes who rested on the seventh
day, and bears the swarthy complexion, rrj
xpoa n-vppog, of the hated race. Seth is also
known by other names in the hieroglyphic
legends, among the most striking of which
is Bar, that is Bal, known to us in sacred
history as the fatal stumbling-block of
idolatry to the Jewish people. See Triangle and Square.
Points,
Five. See Chromatic
Calendar.
Point within a Circle. An addition to what Dr. Mackey very fully sets
forth as an explanation of the term and
emblem point within a circle, may be given,
by referring to one of the oldest symbols
among the Egyptians, and found upon
their monuments, which was a circle centred by an
M, supported by two
erect parallel serpents; the circle being
expressive of the collective people of the
world, protected by the parallel attributes,
the Power and Wisdom of the Creator.

Seth

is

known afterward by

The

A U

POMME

1016

The Alpha and Omega,

ADDENDUM.

or the Ijtf-.fiXL

Egyptian omnipotent
God, surrounded by His creation, having
for a boundary no other limit than what

representing

the

PRESS

The Freemason, weekly, London, Eng.

The Freemason Chronicle, weekly, London, Eng.

The Freemason's Calendar and PocketBook, published annually, for the benefit
of the Charity Fund, under the sanction of
the Grand Lodge of England, London, Eng.
The Kneph, England.
The Masonic Magazine, London, Eng.
The Cosmopolitan Masonic Calendar,
Diary, and Pocket-Book. Fourteenth year.
London. George Kenning.
Irish Freemason's Calendar and Directory.
Published by G. Lodge of Ireland,
Dublin. Printed by S. Underwood.
La Chaine d'Union, de Paris, weekly,
Paris, France.

Eepublique Maconnique, Paris, France.

Le Monde Maconnique, Paris, France.
Bulletin du G. Or. de France, Paris,

may come within his boundless scope, his

Wisdom and Power. At times this circle
represented by the Ananta (Sanskrit,
a serpent with its tail in its mouth.
The parallel serpents were of the cobra
is

eternity),

been suggestively said that the

Masonic symbol refers to the circuits or
circumambulation of the initiate about the
sacred Altar, which supports the three
Great Lights as a central point, while the
brethren stand in two parallel lines.

Pouiiiie Verte (Green Apple), Order of the. Mentioned by Mackenzie

as

an androgynous Order, instituted in

in 1780,

and afterwards

intro-

gary.
Bulletin of the Grand Orient of Belgium,
Brussels.
Bulletin Van Het, Nederlandsch.

Triunghiul, Bucharest, Roumania.

La Donna, Bologne, Italy.
Alpina, Switzerland.
Revista Pithagoras, Athens, Greece.
Revista Tinerfe, Canary Islands.

The Freemason, monthly, Sydney, N.

S.W.

duced into France.

Pooroosb. The

spirit or essence of
in the Indian religious system.
banner like unto
Portiforium.
the gonfalon, used as an ensign in cathedrals, and borne at the head of religious
processions.
Praxoeans. The followers of Praxeas in the second century, who proclaimed
a unity in God, and that He had suffered

Brahm

upon the

Die Bauhiitte, Leipzig, Germany.

Kelet, monthly, Budapesth, Hun-

The

species.
It has

Germany

France.
Bulletin Maconnique de la G. L. Sem.
Ecossaisse, Paris, France.
Le Droit des Femmes, Paris, France.
El Taller, Sevilla, Spain.
La Refbrma, Hellin, Albacete, Spain.
La Justicia, Madrid, Spain.
La Humanidad, Alicante, Spain.
Boletin Oficial de G. Orient, Spain.
El Mallete, Barcelona, Spain.
Groot Oosten, La Haya, Holland.

cross.

Press, Masonic.

The number of
the Masonic press throughout the world is
small, but the literary ability commands
attention.
In every nation Masonry has its
advocate and newsbearer, in the form of a
weekly or semi-monthly chronicle of events,
or the more sedate magazine or periodical,
sustaining the literature of the Fraternity.
The following schedule is, we regret to
say, incomplete

Australian Freemason, Sydney, N. S. W.

Freemason's Chronicle, monthly, Sydney, N. S. W.
The Rough Ashlar, monthly, Adelaide.
Victorian Freemason, weekly, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Masonic Record of Western India,
Allahabad, Asia.
La Revista Masonica, monthly, Lima;,
Peru.
Boletin Oficial de G. Orient, Venezuela.
La Abeja, Caracas, Venezuela.
Aurora Escocesa, Rio Janeiro, Brazil.
Boletin do Grande Or. do Brazil, Rio
Janeiro, Brazil.
La Acacia, monthly, Buenos Ayres.
El Promoter, Baranquilla, Colombia.
La Fraternite, Porte au Prince, Hayti.
La Tolerance, Porte au Prince, Hayti.
La Adelphia, Mayaguez, P. R.

PRESS

PULLEN

ADDENDUM.

1017

The Texas Freemason, Fort Worth.

El Abogado Christiano Ilustrado, Mex-

Texas.

ico.

Boletin del Sob. Cap. Tenoch, Mexico.

Boletin Masonica, monthly, Mexico.
La Esperanza, City of Mexico.
La Cadena de Union, Vera Cruz, Mexico.

El Heraldo Mexicano, Saltillo, Mexico.

El Diario del Hogar, City of Mexico.
La Tolerancia, City of Mexico.
La Trulla, organ of the Grand Logia
" El Sol," Vera Cruz, Mexico.
El Luveton, Coahuila, Mexico.
El Dia, Puebla, Mexico.
La Luz, Puebla, Mexico.
La Gacetillan, Leon Guanajuato, Mexico.
El Pensamiento, Yucatan, Merida.
El Simbolismo, Tlaxcala.
El Maestro do Escuela, Orizaba.
La Gran Logia, Habana, Cuba.
Luz de Aviguanabo, Habana, Cuba.
Boletin Oficial, Colon y Cuba, Habana.
El Oriente, semi-monthly, Habana, Cuba.
El Oriente Avisador, Mas. de Cuba,
Habana.
La Luz, Habana, Cuba.
La Escuadra, Habana, Cuba.
Cuba Masonica, Habana, Cuba.
La Union, Cienfuegos, Cuba.
Boletin Oficial del Sup. Con. de Colon,
Cuba.
El Delta, Cienfuegos, Cuba.
El Yucayo, Matanzas, Cuba.
La Fraternidad, Santiago de Cuba.
Revista Masonica, Santiago de Cuba,
Los Tres, Regla, Cuba.
The Canadian Craftsman, monthly mag.,
Port Hope, Ontario, Canada.
The Freemason, Toronto, Canada.

The Masonic

Tablet, London, Ontario,

Canada.

The Liberal Freemason, monthly mag.,

Boston, Mass.
Freemason's Repository, monthly, Providence, R. I.
Masonic Token, monthly. Portland, Me.
Loomis' Masonic Journal, New Haven,
Conn.

The Masonic Chronicle, Columbus, Ohio.

Masonic Review, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Mystic Tie, Beverly, W. Virginia.
Masonic Eclectic, Washington, D. C.
The Masonic Journal, New York.
Hebrew Leader, weekly, New York.
N. Y. Dispatch, weekly, New York.
El Delta, weekly, New York.
The Brooklyn Review, weekly, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Evening Chronicle, Philadelphia, Pa.

The Keystone, weekly, Philadelphia, Pa.

The Progress, Vicksburg, Miss.
Voice of Masonry, monthly, Chicago,
111.

Masonic Advocate, Indianapolis, Ind.

Masonic Home Journal/Louisville, Ky.

6C

Priestly Vestments.

The High

Priest ministered in eight vestments, and

the ordinary priest in four, the tunic, drawers, bonnet, and girdle.
To these the High
Priest added the breastplate, ephod, robe,

and golden plate, and when occasion required the Urim and Thummim.
Prinee of Jerusalem, Jewel of.
Should be a gold incrustation on a lozengeshaped piece of mother-of-pearl. Equipoise
scales held by hand, sword, five stars, one

larger than the other four, and the letters

and Z in Hebrew, one on either side of
the scales. The five-pointed crown, within
a triangle of gold, has also been used as a
jewel of this Sixteenth Degree.

Prince of Wales' Grand Lodge.

About the time of the reconciliation of the
two contending Grand Lodges in England,
in 1813, they were called, by way of distinction, after their Grand Masters,
That of
the " Moderns " was called the " Prince of
Wales' Grand Lodge," and that of the
" Ancients " the " Duke of Kent's Grand
Lodge." The titles were used colloquially,
and not officially.

Proclus. Known as the successor of

Syrianus as the head of the Athenian school.
Born in Constantinople, 412, died at Athens,
485.
Proclus was a Neo-Platonist, and
waged war against the new religion of Christianity, which caused him to be banished
from the city but was subsequently readmitted.
His works were chiefly mystical,
such as devoting hymns to the sun, Venus,
or the poetic muses, and so far were harm;

less.

Propyl sen
(also Propylon).
The
court or vestibule in front of an edifice.
Psaterians.
sect of Arians who
maintained, at the Council of Antioch, a.
d. 360, that the Son was dissimilar to the
Father in will that He was made from
nothing; and that in God, creation and
generation were synonymous terms.
Pnllen, William
An emi-

Hyde.

PUNJAUB

1018

nent and accomplished craftsman of England, who has become renowned among
English and American " workmen " for his
excellence in the conduct of the forms and
varied ceremonies of Masonry.
Punjaub. Freemasonry was founded
in Punjaub, India, in 1872, by an ardent
Mason, W. Bro. Major Henry Basevi, but
whose failing health caused him to forsake
his post shortly thereafter, leaving as his

M. Eamsay, who became

successor Major

Master. By last returns

received there were 21 Lodges, aggregating
725 members. It is reported authoritatively
that in 1879 the institution maintained,
clothed, and educated twenty-one chil-

E.

W. D. Grand

dren.

Purauas.

(" Knowledge."')

RAPHAEL

ADDENDUM.

The text-

books of the worshippers of Vishnu and of

Siva, forming, with the Tantras, the basis
of the popular creed of the Brahmanical
Hindus. There are about 18 Puranas, and
as

many more minor

works, called Upawritten in Sanskrit, and founded

to some extent upon the Mahabharata and
Eamayana. Otherwise their date is very
uncertain. The followers of Brahmanism
number about 175,000,000.
Purrah, The.
society of Sussu
negroes exercising similar powers to, and
for a somewhat similar purpose as, the
puranas,

all

Vehmgericht.

Pursuivant. The third and lowest

order of heraldic officers.
In Masonry,
the lowest officer in rank except the Tyler,
if

he

may

be termed an

officer.

QQ

(Heb. p,
or K, Koph.) The seventeenth letter in the English and modern
In the Phoenician or
Latin alphabets.
Ancient Hebrew its form was one circle
Its numerical value is
within another.
100.
The Canaanite signification is ear.

Q.

Quadrivium and Triviuni.

The

seven liberal arts and sciences. The Quadrivium, in the language of the schools,
were the four lesser arts, arithmetic, music,
geometry, and astronomy while the Triviuni were the triple way to eloquence by the
study of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
Qualifications of Candida tes
free man, uninfluenced and unimportuned by Masonic companions, coming of
his own will, without expectation of re;

ward or with

sinister intention, possessing

a favorable impress of the Brotherhood

from whatever other source, willing to submit to the forms and usages of the society,
imbued with a belief in the Almighty and
ever-living God, leading a virtuous life,
of lawful age, yet not in dotage, and possessed of moral courage, reasonable intelligence and education. And in the United
States not physically blemished by material imperfections of the body.

Quetzialcoatl. The Mexican idea

of the Deity of Enlightenment. The spiritman from whom they received their civilization, and for whose second coming they
wait. Him for whom they mistook Cortez,
and therefore welcomed him with joy.

R.
R.

(Heb.

"|,

Resh.)

The eighteenth

the English and other Western

alphabets. The word Eesh signifies forehead, and in the Phoenician and hieroglyphic character is thus repreIts numerical value is
200, and the equivalent as a name
of God is in'Hj Rahum, signifying clemency.
letter in

nsented.

Rainbow, The Most Ancient

Oi'der of the.

secret association
existing in Moorfields in 1760.

term sometimes
Raising Sheet.
given to one of the common properties
known to Master Masons.
The great epic of ancient India, deemed a sacred writing by
its people, narrating the history of Eama,

Ramayana.
Vishnu

incarnate, and his wife Siva.

about 24,000 verses, in seven
books, written in Sanskrit, and is ascribed
to Valmiki, who lived about the beginning

or

It contains

of the Christian era.

Raphael.

(Hebrew

interpretation,

RED
"

ROSICRUCIANS

ADDENDUM.

,?
The title of an
)
a Rose Croix Chapter. The name
of the angel, under the Kabbalistical system, that governed the planet Mercury.
messenger.
Brother. The sixth and last
degree of the Swedenborgian system.
Revelation, An extract from Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cycloptedia says
upon this subject " With infinite learning
and patience the author of The Book of
God, who preserves strict anonymity, has
endeavored to show that the work (Apocalypse) was originally revealed to a primaeval John, otherwise Oannes, and identical
with the first messenger of God to man.
This theory is sufficiently remarkable to be
mentioned here. The Messengers, twelve
in number, are supposed by the author to
appear at intervals of 600 years. Thus:
1, Adam, A. M. 3000
2, Enoch, A. M. 3600;
4, Brigoo, A. M. 4800
3, Fohi, A. M. 4200
5, Zarathustra, A. M. 5400
6, Thoth, A. M.
6000 7, Amosis or Moses, a. m. 6600 8,
Laotse, A. M. 7200 9, Jesus, A. m. 7800
10, Mohammed, a. m. 8400
11, ChengizKhan, a. m. 9000; and, 12, the twelfth
messenger yet to be revealed, A. M. 9600."
With the aid of this theory, the whole
history of the world, down to our own
days, is shown to be foretold in the Apocalypse and although it is difficult to agree
with the accomplished writer's conclusions,
supported by him with an array of learning and a sincere belief in what is stated,
no one with any taste for these studies
should be without this wonderful series of
books. The same author has published, in
two volumes, a revised edition of the Book
of Enoch, with a commentary, and he promises to continue, and, if possible, complete

The healing of God.

officer in

:;

Red

1019

The devotees of Martinez

Pasqualis, the founder, were called Martinistes, and were partly Hermetic and
partly Swedenborgian in their teachings.
Martinez was a religious man, and based
his teachings partly on the Jewish Kabbala
and partly on hermetic supernaturalism.
The grades were as follows: 1. Apprenti;

and Toulouse.

Compagnon

3. Maitre
4. Grand Elu
Apprenti Coen
6. Compagnon Coen
Maitre Coen; 8. Grand Architecte; 9.

2.

5.

7.

Grand Commandeur.

Rose Croix, Jewel of

the.

Al-

though there are six well-known Rose

Croix degrees, belonging to as many systems, the jewel has invariably remained
the same, while the interpretation has some.

his design.

Revels, Master of the.

An officer

attached to the royal or other eminent

household, whose function it was to preside when the members and guests were at
refreshment, physical and intellectual, to
have charge of the amusements of the court
or of the nobleman to whose house he was
attached during the twelve Christmas holidays.
In Masonic language, the Junior

Warden.

Revestiary

The wardrobe, or place

keeping sacred vestments. Distinctive
costumes in public worship formed a part
not only of the Jewish, but of almost all
for

the ancient religions.

what differed. There is here presented the

usual jewel of a Rose Croix Knight, and
also that of the M. Wise Sov. of an English
Chapter.

Rosierueians,

and

Rosicrucian Society, instituted in the fourteenth century, was an

extraordinary Brotherhood, exciting curios-

and commanding attention and scrutiny.

The members delved in abstruse studies
ity

many became

The revestiary was grossed

The Master of the osophy.

common to them all.

Wardrobe became a necessity.

Ancient

Modern. The

in

Anchorites, and were enmystic philosophy and the-

This strange Fraternity, asserted

by some authorities to have been instituted
Rite des Elus Coens, on Pre- by Roger Bacon near the close of the thirA system adopted in 1750, but teenth century, filled the world with renown
tres.
which did not attain its full vigor until as to their incomprehensible doctrines and
twenty-five years thereafter, when Lodges presumed abilities.
They claimed to be
were opened in Paris, Marseilles, Bordeaux, the exponents of the true Kabbala, as'em-

1020

ROSICRUCIANS

bracing theosophy as well as the science

of numbers. They were said to delve in
strange things and deep mysteries to be
enwrapt in the occult sciences, sometimes
vulgarly termed the " Black Art " and in
the secrets of magic and sorcery, which are
looked upon by the critical eyes of the
world as tending to the supernatural, and
a class of studies to be avoided.
These mystics, for whom great philanthropy is claimed, and not without reason,
are heard of as early as the commencement
of the fourteenth century, in the person of
Raymond Lully, the renowned scholiast
and metaphysical chemist, who proved to
be an adept in the doctrines, taught at the
German seat of hermetic learning in 1302,
and who died in 131.5. Fidelity and secrecy
were the first care of the Brotherhood.
They claimed a kinship to the ancient
philosophies of Egypt, the Chaldeans, the
Magi of Persia, and even the GymnosoThey were unobtrusive
phists of India.
and retiring in the extreme. They were
learned in the principles and sciences of
chemistry, hermeticism, magnetism, astrology, astronomy, and theosophy, by which
they obtained great powers through their
discoveries, and aimed at the universal solvent the Philosopher's Stone thereby
striving to acquire the power of transmuting baser metals into silver and gold, and
of indefinitely prolonging human life. As
a Fraternity they were distinct from the
Kabbalists, Illuminati, and Carbonari, and
in this relation they have been largely and
unpleasantly misrepresented.
Ignorance
and prejudice on the part of the learned as
to the real purposes of the Rosicrucians,
and as to the beneficence of that Fraternity, has wrought them great injustice.
Science is infinitely indebted to this Order.
The renowned reviver of Oriental literature,
John Reuchlin, who died in 1522; the
famous philosopher and classic scholar,
John Picus di Mirandola, who died in
1494; the celebrated divine and distinguished philosopher, Cornelius Henry
Agrippa, who died in 1535 the remarkable chemist and physician, John Baptist
Von Helmont, who died in 1644 and the
famous physician and philosopher, Robert
Fludd, who died in 1637, all attest the
power and unquestioned prominence of the
famous Brotherhood. It is not the part of
wisdom to disdain the Astrological and
Hermetic Association of Elias Ashmole,
author of the Way to Bliss. All Europe
;

ROYAL

ADDENDUM.

with Fludd's Apologia, the Chemische Hochof Christian Rosenkreuz, by Valentine

Andrae and the endless number of volumes, such as the Fama Ramissa, establish
the high rank in which the Brotherhood
was held. Its curious, unique, and attractive Rosaic doctrines interested the masses
of scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With the Rosicrucians
worldly grandeur faded before intellectual
elevation.
They were simple in their attire, and passed individually through the
world unnoticed and unremarked, save by
deeds of benevolence and humanity.
The Modern Society of Rosicrucians was
given its present definite form by Robert

zeit

Wentworth
;

association

was permeated by this secret organization,

and the renown of the Brotherhood was
preeminent about the year 1615. WessePs

Fama Fraternitatis, the curious work Secretions Philosophice Consideratis, and Gum
Confessione Fraternitatis, by P. A. Gabella,

which had

come under

his observation during some of

his researches. Brother
Little Anglicized it, giving it more perfect sys-

The purpose of
Robert Wentworth Little was to create a literary organization, having
in view a base for the
collection and deposit
tem.

of

Little,

England, but a few years

ago it is founded upon
the remains or the em-,
bers of an old German

archaeological
and
historical subjects pertaining to Freemasonry,
secret societies in gen-

of

eral,
and interesting
provincial matter
to
inspire a greater disposition to obtain historical
truth and to displace
error ; to bring to light
much in relation to a certain class of scientists and scholars, and the results of their
life-labors, that were gradually dying away
in the memories of men. To accomplish
this end he called about him some of his
most prominent English and Scottish Masonic friends inclined to literary pursuits,
and they awarded their approval and hearty
co-operation. See Rosicrucianism, Mackey.
;

Royal Arch Grand Bodies in

America. The

first meeting of delewhich arose the General Grand

Chapter was at Boston, October 24, 1797.

gates out of

The convention adjourned

to assemble at
Hartford, in January, 1798, and it was there
the Grand Chapter of the Northern States
of America was organized.
Again, on the
9th of January, 1799, an adjourned meeting was held, whereat it was resolved to
change its name to that of " General Grand
Royal Arch Chapter of the Northern States

ROYAL

RUSSIA

ADDENDUM.

1021

of America." On January 9, 1806, the and record of St. Andrew's Chapter in Bospresent designation was adopted, to wit
ton is to trace early Royal Arch Masonry
" The General Grand Chapter of Royal in Massachusetts.
The following is exArch Masonry for the U. S. of America." tracted from Comp. Thomas Waterman's
New York was determined upon as the admirable history of St. Andrew's Royal
place for the first convocation, September, Arch Chapter, the result of much earnest
1812, and the sessions to be made septen- research " The first meeting recorded of
nial.
It failed to meet at the appointed this Chapter was held on the 28th of Autime, but an important convocation was gust, 1769, and was then styled the Royal
held in New York city on June 6, 1816.
Arch Lodge, of which R. W. James Brown
Joseph K. Wheeler, G. Secretary, in his was Master." It is presumable this Lodge
introduction to the Records of Capitular derived its authority from the Grand Lodge
Masonry in the State of Connecticut, says, (Ancients) of England, as did that of the
after mentioning the names of the Chap- same name in Philadelphia, whereby it was
ters represented at the organization of the authorized to confer the Holy Royal Arch
Grand Chapter in 1798 " In tracing their Degree.
history it will be observed that all of these
Comp. Waterman adds " It appears by
Chapters obtained their authority from a the record that the Degrees of Excellent,
Washington Chapter in the city of New Super-Excellent, and Royal Arch were
York, with the exception of Vanderbroeck, conferred in the Royal Arch Lodge." WinNo. 5," chartered at an early date, by the G. throp Gray, on April 17, 1770, was elected
Chapter of New York, after which no more Master. On the succeeding May 14, " Most
Chapters were established by any authority Worshipful Joseph Warren, Esq.," was
outside the jurisdiction of Connecticut ex- made a Royal Arch Mason. No record
cept Lynch Chapter, No. 8, located at Read- appears between March 26, 1773, and
ing, and Weston, which was chartered by March 20, 1789.
In an old register-book,
the Grand Chapter of N. York, August 23, dated April 1, 1789, is found "Original
1801, which charter was signed by Francis members, April 1, 1789, M. E. William
Lynch, H. P. Grand Chapter of R. A. Ma- McKeen, H. P." The next recorded elecsons; James Woods, King; and Samuel tion, October 21, 1790, gives William Mc" On November 28,
Clark, Scribe which was admitted to mem- Keen, R. A. Master.
bership in G. Chapter of Conn., May 19, 1793, the Degree of Mark Master was connected with the other Degrees conferred in
1808.
"January 30, 1794, the
It is of interest here to note that the old- the Chapter."
est Chapter in New York State is Ancient, words Royal Arch Chapter are used for
No. 1, whose date of origin is lost, its rec- the first time in recording the proceedings
ords up to 1804 having been destroyed by of the Chapter."
" The Grand Royal Arch Chapter of MasFor
fire, but tradition fixes the year 1763.
years it wielded the powers of a Grand sachusetts was organized by delegates from
Chapter, and until 1799 was known as the St. Andrew's Chapter, Boston, and King
Old Grand Chapter. It granted charters Cyrus' Chapter, Newburyport, who assemfor Chapters in New York, New Jersey, bled at Masons' Hall, in the Green Dragon
and Connecticut. In this last named State Tavern, Boston, on Tuesday, the 13th of
March, A. D. 1798."
it issued a charter to Lynch Chapter (see
Ruchiel. In the old Jewish Angelabove), which was received into full fellowship by the G. Chapter of Connecticut, al- ology, the name of the angel who ruled the
though the G. Chapter of New York had air and the winds. The angel in charge of
been in existence some time before the one of the four tests in Philosophic Masonry.
charter was issued.
Russia, Secret Societies of.
On the formation of the Grand Chapter
of the State of New York, the numbers 1 First, the Skopzis, founded about 1740, by
and 2 were left vacant for the acceptance SeliwanoflP, on the ruins of an anterior sect,
of Old and Washington Chapters (which the Chlysty, which was originated by a
latter was an offspring of the former), who peasant named PhilippofF, in the sevenThe Skopzis practise selfat that time refused to place themselves teenth century.
under its jurisdiction. In 1806, Old Chap- mutilation and other horrors. They are
ter enrolled itself as " Ancient " under the rich, and abound throughout Russia and in
Second, the Montainists, who
State Grand Body, accepted the number Bulgaria.
one, and was further honored by having its declare that they have a " living Christ," a
H. Priest, James Woods, elected Dep. G. " living Mother of God," a " living Holy
Spirit," and twelve "living Apostles."
H. Priest. Also see Pennsylvania.
Royal Arcli Masonry, Massa- Their ceremonies are peculiar and but
statement of the origin little resembling those of Masonry.
chusetts.
:

'

'

'

'

ADDENDUM.

1022

SALADIN

s.
(Heb. D> Samech.) The nineteenth
the English alphabet. Its numerThe sacred application to
ical value is 60.
the Deity is in the name Somech, *]D1D,

S.

letter in

The Hebrew letter

Fulcieus or Firmas.
Shin (a tooth, from its formation, \tf) is
of the numerical value of 300.
Saadh. One of a certain Indian sect,
who have embraced Christianity, and who
in some respects resemble the Quakers in
Sometheir doctrine and mode of life.
times written saud,

Sabbal. ("The Burthen.") The name

of the sixth step of the mystic ladder of
Kadosh of the A. A. Scottish Eite.
walled inclosure withSaeelluni.
out roof. An ornamental chapel within a
church.
Sacred Law. The first Tables of Stone,

or

Commandments, which were

delivered

being a summary of the Avesta, or sacred

books.

(Zedukim.)

called from its founder Sadoc,

who

Saddneees.
about 250 years

b. c.

Jews, the Essenes wherefore, it has been

strongly favored that Jesus was himself
one of the last-named sect, who in many
excellent qualities resembled Freemasons.
Sagitta. The keystone of an arch.
The abscissa of a curve.
;

Saint Andrew.
Brother of St. Peter
and one of the twelve
Apostles. He is held
in high reverence by
the Scotch, Swedes,
and Russians. Tradition says he was
crucified on a cross
thus shaped, X- Orders of knighthood
have been established
in his name.
See
Knights ofSt. Andrew,

When

came down from the Mount and entered

into his tent, Aaron went to visit him, and
Moses acquainted Aaron with the Laws he
had received from God, together with the
explanation of them. After this Aaron
placed himself at the right hand of Moses,
and Eleazar and Ithamar (the sons of
Aaron) were admitted, to whom Moses
repeated what he had just before told to
Aaron. These being seated, the one on
the right hand, the other on the left hand
of Moses, the seventy elders of Israel,

who

who

pleased of the
common people were invited to enter, and
Moses instructed them likewise in the same
manner as the rest. So that Aaron heard
four times what Moses had been taught by
God upon Mount Sinai, Eleazar and Ithamar three times, the seventy elders twice,
and the people once. Moses afterwards
reduced the laws which he had received
into writing, but not the explanation of
them.
These he thought it sufficient to
trust to the memories of the above-mentioned persons, who, being perfectly instructed in them, delivered them to their
children, and these again to theirs, from
age to age."
The Sacred Law is repeated in the ritual
of the Fourteenth Degree A. A. Scottish
Lastly, all

his sons.

Rite.

Sadda.
gates.)

(Persian Saddar, the hundred

in the Persian tongue,

work

They denied the

resurrection, a future state, and the existence of angels. The Sadducees are often
mentioned in the New Testament, the
Talmud, and the Midrash. The tenets
of the Sadducees are noticed as contrasted
with those of the Pharisees. While Jesus
condemned the Sadducees and Pharisees,
he is nowhere found criticising the acts/
words, or doctrines of the third sect of the

to Moses on Mount Sinai, are referred to

in a preface to the Mishna, bearing this
tradition: "God not only delivered the
Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, but the
explanation of it likewise.
Moses

compose the Sanhedrim, came in, and

Moses again declared the same laws to
them, as he had done before to Aaron and

sect
lived

Mackey.
Saint Cons tan
tine, Order of.
Presumed to have been founded by the
Emperor Isaac Angelus Comnenus, in
1190.

Sakinat.

The Divine presence.

The

Shekinah, which see.

Sakti. The female energy of Brahma,

This
of Vishnu, or especially of Siva.
lascivious worship was inculcated in the
Tantra (" Instrument of Faith "), a Sanskrit work, found under various forms, and
regarded by its numerous Brahmanical and
other followers as a " fifth Veda."
Salaam. The name of the Arabic
form of salutation, which is by bowing
the head and bringing the extended arms
from the sides until the thumbs touch, the
palms being down.
More properly Salah-edSaladin.
din, Yussuf ibn Ayub, the Sultan of Egypt
and Syria, in the time of Richard Coeurde-Lion, and the founder gf the Ayubite
dynasty., As the great Moslem hero of the
third Crusade, and the beau-ideal of Moslem chivalry, he is one of the most impos-

SANDALPHON

ADDENDUM.

ing characters presented to us by the history of that period. Born at Takreit, 1137
died at Damascus, 1193. In his manhood
he had entered the service of Noureddin.
He became Grand Vizier of the Fatimite
Calif, and received the title of " the VicAt Noureddin's death,
torious Prince."
Salah-ed-din combated the succession and
became the Sultan of Syria and Egypt.
For ten succeeding years he was in petty
warfare with the Christians, until at Tiberias, in 1187, the Christians were terribly
punished for plundering a wealthy caravan
on its way to Mecca. The king of Jerusalem, two Grand Masters, and many warriors were taken captive, Jerusalem stormed,
and many fortifications reduced.
This
roused Western Europe; the kings of
;

France and England, with a mighty host,

soon made their appearance; they captured Acre in 1191, and Richard Cceur- deLion, with an invading force, twice defeated the Sultan, and obtained a treaty in
1192, by which the coast from Jaffa to
Tyre was yielded to the Christians.
Salah-ed-din becomes a prominent character in two of the Consistorial degrees of
the A. A. Scottish Rite, mainly exemplifying the universality of Masonry.
Sandalplion. In the Rabbinical
system of Angelology, one of the three
angels who receive the prayers of the Israelites and weave crowns from them.
Longfellow availed himself of this idea in
one of his most beautiful poems.

Sardinia. Freemasonry was introduced into this kingdom in 1739, when

Piedmont and Savoy were made a province.
Sastra. One of the sacred books of
the

Hindu

law.

SERAPHIM

1023

Arch Herald, Arch Scribe, Arch Auditor,

and Arch Mute. It promises overmuch.
The foregoing figure is termed the Mystery of the Apex.
Saxony. The first Masonic Lodge in
Saxony appeared at Dresden, in 1733;
within four years thereafter two others had
been established in Leipzig and Altenburg.
The Grand Body was formed in 1812.
("White Ox," or
Selior-Iiaban.
morally, "Innocence.")

The name of

the

Second step of the Mystic Ladder of Kadosh of the A. A. Scottish Rite.

Scorpion. A genus of Arachnida, of
numerous species, with an elongated body,
but no marked division between the thorax
and abdomen. Those of the south of Europe
and on the borders of the Mediterranean
have six eyes. This reptile, dreaded by
the Egyptian, was sacred to the goddess
Selk, and was solemnly cursed in all temples once a year.
Scottish Rite, A. A. See Supreme
Councils.

Scroll.

The

written

portion of the

Jewish law, read at stated periods before

the congregation, and preserved in the synagogue with great security.
Sefidd Schamagan. A secret Moslem Society, called also the Candidati, from
being clothed in white. They taught that
the wicked would be transformed, after
death, into beasts, while the good would be
reabsorbed into the Divine Creator. The
chief was known as the Veiled Prophet.
Sejjin. The Arabic register of all the
wicked, also the

title

of the residence of

Eblis.

Selamu Aleikum, Es.

The Ara-

bic salutation of " Peace be with

you "
;

Sat B'liai, Royal Oriental Or- which meets

der of* the.

Said to have originated in

India, and so named after a bird held sacred by the Hindus, whose flight, invariably
in sevens, has obtained for the Society the
appellation of the " Seven Brethren," hence

with the response "Aleikum

These expressions are promies Selaarn."
nently in use by ancient Arabic associations.
Semelius. An officer in the Sixth
Degree of the Modern French Rite, known
as the Grand Master of Dispatches.
Senses, Seven. See Man.
Sephora. Wife of Moses, and daughter of Raguel or Jethro, Priest of Midian.
Mentioned in the Fourth Degree of the
French Rite of Adoption.

D'SHEM

SinSerapliiin. (Heb.,
gular Seraph, signifying " burning, fiery."
Celestial beings in attendance upon Jehovah, mentioned by Isaiah. Similar to the
Cherubim, having the human form, face,
voice, two hands, and two feet, but six
wings, with four of which they cover their
face and feet as a sign of reverence
while with two they fly. Their specific
office is to sing the praises of the Holy One,

and convey messages from heaven

the name. It embosoms seven degrees
Arch Censor, Arch Courier, Arch Minister,

to earth.

of. A Swedish
Rite, instituted in 1334, revived in 1748.

Serapliiin,

Order

1024

SETTING-MAUL

The number

SEVEN

ADDENDUM.

new phase, which gave rise to festivals to

Luna being correspondingly celebrated
wooden hammer the day so set apart was known as Moon-

of knights, exclusive of the

royal family, was twenty-four.

Setting-Maul.

used by Operative Masons to "set" the

stones in their proper positions. It is in
Speculative Masonry a symbol, in the
Third Degree, reminding us of the death
of the builder of the Temple, which is said
to have been effected by this instrument.

In some Lodges it is very improperly used

by the Master as his gavel, from which it
totally differs in form and in symbolic sigThe gavel is a symbol of order
nification.
and decorum; the setting-maul, of death

by

violence.

day, or the second day of the week, that

following Sun-d&y.
"The Moon, whose

phases marked and appointed their holy

days "
(Cicero,
Tusculan Disputations,
Book I., ch. 28). In the Hebrew, Syrian,
Persian, Phoenician, Chaldean, and Saxon,
the word Seven signifies full or complete,
and every seventh day after the first quarter the moon is complete in its change.
In all countries the moon is best known
under the beautiful figure of the unveiling
Queen of Heaven.

Seven. The

sun was naturally the

great central planet of the ancient seven,
and is ever represented as the central light
of the seven in the branched candlestick.
Of the days of the week one was known as
Sol's day, or Sunday, and as the Sun
was the son of Saturn, he was ushered in by his father
Saturn (or Saturday), whom he superseded. The Jews
got their Sabbath
from the Babylonians about 700 b. c.
(A?ic. Faiths, p. 863
also see Philo Judaeus, Josephus, and Clement of Alexandria), while Sol's day dates
;

from time immemorial, and was always a

sacred one. In a phallic sense, when the
sun has been in conjunction with the
moon, he only leaves Luna after impregnation, and as Forlong, in his Rivers of
Life, expresses it, " the young sun is that
faint globe we so often see in the arms of
the new moon," which is in gestation with
the sun. The occult meaning of the word
Mi-mi perhaps is here revealed, as mentioned in 2 Kings xviii. 27, being defined
Firewater.
Mi is the name of the sun, and
as well signifies gold.
It is designated in
the musical scale, and is also the name of
fire in Burmese, Siamese, and cognate
tongues, as mentioned by Forlong in treating of the Early Faiths of Western Asia
(Vol. II., p. 65).
Next to the sun in beauty and splendor
the moon leads all the hosts of heaven.
And the Occidental, as well as the Oriental,
nations were strongly moved in their
imaginations by the awful majesty, the solemn silence, and the grandeur of that

body progressing nightly through

the starry vault from the distant plains
of India to ancient Egypt, and even those
far-off lands where the Incas ruled, altars
were erected to the worship of the Moon.
On every seventh day the moon assumed a

The relative values of Seven in the

musical scale and in the ancient planetary
formula are as follows
Si

Moon

Ut

Mercury

Silver.

Quicksilver.

Venus
Sun
Mars

Sol

Jupiter.

Iron.
Tin.

La

Saturn

Lead.

Re
Mi
Fa

Copper.
Gold.

The eminent

professor of music, Carl

Bergstein, in connection herewith, furnishes the information that Guido Aretinus, Monk, in the eleventh century, the
great reformer of music, invented the staff,
several keys, and the names ut, re, mi, fa,
sol, la, si ; they being taken from a prayer
to St. John to protect the voice, running
thus,

brilliant

Ut queant laxis ifesonare fibris

Mirsb gestorum Famuli tuorum
iabii reatum, Sancte Johannes.
Solve polluti

The

literal translation

rendered

of which would be

;;

SEVEN
the

polluted

SILENT

ADDENDUM.

"For that (or to enable) with expanded breast

Thy servants are able to sing the praise of Thy
Deeds, forgive

lips

the

sins

uttered."

oped,

1025

manhood commences, and we become

competent

legally

to all civil acts; at four

times seven man is in full possession of his

strength at five times seven he is fit for
the business of the world; at six times
seven he becomes grave and wise, or never
at seven times seven he is in his apogee,
and from that time he decays; at eight
times seven he is in his first climacteric;
at nine times seven, or sixty-three, he is in
his grand climacteric, or years of danger
and ten times seven, or threescore years and
ten, has, by the Royal Prophet, been pronounced the natural period of human life.
;

The

syllable ut has since been changed for

the more satisfactory do.
In the year 1562 there was printed at
Leipzig a work entitled Heptalogium Virgilii
Salsburgensis, in honor of the number seven.
It consists of seven parts, each embracing
seven divisions. In 1624 appeared in London a curious work on the subject of numbers, bearing the following title, " The Secret
of Numbers according to Theological, Arithmetical, Geometrical, and Harmonical Computation ; drawn, for the better part, out of
those Ancients, as ivell as Neoteriques. Pleasing to read, profitable to understand, opening themselves to the capacities of both

learned and unlearned; being no other

than a key to lead men to any doctrinal
knowledge whatsoever."
In the ninth
chapter the author has given many notable opinions from learned men, to prove
the excellency of the number seven.
" First, it neither begets nor is begotten,
according to the saying of Philo. Some
numbers, indeed, within the compass of
and that
ten, beget, but are not begotten
Others are begotten, but
is the unarie.
beget not, as the octonarie. Only the septenaries have a prerogative above them all,
neither begets nor is begotten. This is its
Secondly, this
first divinity or perfection.
is a harmonica! number, and the well and
fountain of that fair and lovely Sigamma,
because it includeth within itself all manner of harmony. Thirdly, it is a theological
number, consisting of perfection.
Fourthly, because of its compositure; for
it is compounded of the first two perfect
numbers equal and unequal, three and four
for the number two, consisting of repeated
unity, which is no number, is not perfect.
Now every one of these being excellent of
themselves (as hath been demonstrated),
how can this number be but far more excellent, consisting of them all, and participating, as it were, of all their excellent
virtues?"
Hippocrates says that the septenary
number, by its occult virtue, tends to the
accomplishment of all things, is the dispenser of life and fountain of all its changes
and, like Shakespeare, he divides the life
of man into seven ages. In seven months
a child may be born and live, and not beAnciently a child was not named
fore.
before seven days, not being accounted
fully to have life before that periodical day.
The teeth spring out in the seventh month,
and are renewed in the seventh year, when
infancy is changed into childhood. At
thrice seven years the faculties are devel;

"65

Shalal Shalom Abi.

^N whit? HlV, Diripuit pacem

(Hebrew,
patri.)

covered word in the Fifteenth Degree of

the A. A. Scottish Rite.
Shalasb Esriin. (Heb. Dntyy \thv-)
"Twenty-three," and refers to a day in the
month Adar, noted in the Sixteenth Degree of the A. A. Scottish Rite.

Shaster. ("Instruction.") Any book

held more or less sacred among the Hindus,
whether included in the Sruti or not. The
Great Shasters comprise the Vedas, the
Upavedas, and the Vedangas, with their
appended works of learning, including the
Puranas, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata.

Shebat.

(fD.EM

Hebrew

The

fifth

month

and corresponding with the months January and Februof the

ary,

civil year,

beginning with the new

moon

of the

former.

Shelnin lecka.

The password of

It is of Arabic
Peace be with you "

the Order of Felicity.

root, signifying, "

Sheuiitic.

One

of the three historithe other two

cal divisions of religion
being the Turanian and the Aryan and
embraces M'osaism, Christianity, the Eddaic Code, and Moslemism.
Sherinah, Insect. See Insect Sher-

mah.

Shesha.

The seven-headed serpent

upon which

floating in the cosmical ocean,

the throne of Brahma rested.

Shinto. The national worship of the

Japanese, and signifies the "path of the
gods." It is presumed to be more ancient
than the days of King Solomon, and is
analogous to sun worship.
Shonlkain. (Heb. \yiW, Fimbrio,
Stolkin, mentioned in thfe
Ninth and other Degrees of the A. A. Scot-

possessionis.)

tish Rite.

Sijel, Al.

The recording angel

in Is-

lam.

Silent Brotherhood. Dwellers in

the priories of Clugny and Hirsau in the
eleventh century were placed under rigid
Those of Clugny
discipline as to speech.
were the first to adopt the system of signs

1026

SILO AM

ADDENDUM.

SOLOMON'S

intercommunication, which sys- during the reign of Hezekiah. " He made

by consent or permissal, granted after the pool and the aqueduct, and brought the
application through three special messen- water into the city " (2 Kings xx. 20, Heb.
gersfrom the priory of Hirsan, was adopted B.). The discovery was an important one.
by that priory in all its elaborateness, and Prof. Sayce deduces the following: "That
indeed enlarged and perfected by the well- the modern city of Jerusalem occupies very
known Abbot William. The doctrine of a little of the same ground as the ancient
perfect silence in such extensive communi- one the latter stood entirely on the rising
These ground to the east of the Tyropoeon valley,
ties became noteworthy in history.
earnest and devoted men, under strong dis- the northern portion of which is at present
cipline, as "Conversi or barbatifraters" were occupied by the Mosque of Omar, while
encouraged by the abbeys of the Middle the southern portion is uninhabited. The
Their labors were conducted in Tyropoeon valley itself must be the Valley
Ages.
companies of ten each, under deans of the of the Sons of Hinnom, where the idolaters
monastery, who were in turn instructed by of Jerusalem burnt their children in the
It must be in the southern
wardens and superiors.
fire to Moloch.
Siloain Inscription. An inscrip- cliff of this valley that the tombs of the
tion accidentally discovered in 1880 by a kings are situated," they being buried unnative pupil of Mr. Schick, a German ar- der the rubbish with which the valley is
chitect, who had long settled in Jerusalem. filled; and "among this rubbish must be
It is chiselled in the rock that forms the the remains of the city and temple desouthern wall of the channel which opens stroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Here, as well
out upon the ancient Pool of Siloam, and is as in the now obliterated Valley of the
partly concealed by the water. The present Cheesemakers, probably lie the relics of
modern pool includes the older reservoir, the dynasty of David."
Hebrew inscriptions of an early date have
supplied with water by an excavated tunnel, 1708 yards long, communicating with hitherto long been sought for in vain.
the Spring of the Virgin, which is cut Seals and fragmentary inscriptions have
Several of
through the ridge that forms the southern heretofore been discovered.
part of the Temple Hill. The pool is on these seals have been found in Babylonia
the opposite side of the ridge, at the mouth and Mesopotamia, and are regarded as
of the Tyropoeon (Cheesemakers) valley, memorials of the Jewish exiles; but the
which is now filled with rubbish, and Schick discovery gives us a writing cer-

fpr daily

tern,

largely built over.

The inscription is on an artificial tablet
in the rock, about nineteen feet from the
opening upon the pool. The first intelligible copy was made by Prof. A. H. Sayce,
whose admirable little work, called Fresh
Light from the Ancient Monuments, gives
full details.
Dr. Guthe, in March, 1881,
made a complete facsimile of the six lines,

which read thus

" (Behold) the excavation now this is
the history of the excavation. While the
excavators were still lifting up the pick,
each towards his neighbor, and while there
were yet three cubits to (excavate, there
was heard) the voice of one man calling to
his neighbor, for there was an excess in
the rock on the right hand (and on the left).
And after that on the day of excavating,
the excavators had struck pick against pick,
one against the other, the waters flowed
from the spring to the pool for a distance
of 1200 cubits. And (part) of a cubit was
the height of the rock over the head of the
excavators."
The engineering skill must have been
considerable, as the work was tortuous, and
yet the excavators met at the middle.
There is no date, but the form of the letters show the age to be nearly that of the
Moabite stone. Scholars place the date
!

tainly as old as the time of Isaiah.

Simorgh. A

monstrous

griffin,

guar-

dian of the Persian mysteries.

Sirat, As or Al. See Al-Sirat.

" Sit Iaix et l,ux Fuit." A motto

frequently used in Masonry, although sometimes written, " Lux Fiat et Lux Fit," signifying, " Let there be light, and there
was light ;" the strict translation from the
Hebrew continues, " And the Lord took
care of the light, that it was useful, and
he divided the light from the darkness."
Sivan. (jVD.) The ninth month of the

Hebrew civil year, and corresponding with

the months May and June, beginning with
the new moon of the former.

Sniaragdine, Tablet of Hermes. The foundation of Hermetic knowledge, with an unknown author. Translated
in the Oedipus Aegyptiacus.
Sottas. Students in the universities

of Islam.

Soli Sanetissimo Saeruni. (" Sacred to the most holy Sun.") Mentioned
in the Twenty-eighth Degree, A. A. Scottish Rite.

Solomon's Temple and Serpent

The following description
of Solomon's Temple, by J. G. R. Forlong, in his admirable work, Rivers of Life,
should not be passed by in a Masonic en-

Worsliip.

SOLOMON'S

SOLOMON'S

ADDENDUM.

his experience under many

qualifications renders his opinion entitled
to weighty thought, yet he rends the Masonic ideal and great central symbol most

cyclopaedia;

1027

" No. II. is a Block Plan of Site, showing

that the shrine is to be placed true east
and west, so that the Ark or altar may see
the morning sun of the midsummer sol-

wofully.

Forlong says the Temple was a poor imgrand Egyptian temple near
Edfou, 20 miles south of Thebes. This
was 450 feet long and 140 feet broad, or
upwards of 14 times the size of the Hebrew
shrine, or that one of the Edfou temple
halls would swallow up the Jewish temple,
which was only 120 feet long, 40 broad, and
60 high with a tower porch 40 x 20 feet
and 240 high and further, that it may
have been gilt like the Buddhist temples
in Burmah.
The Holy of Holies was cut
off with " golden chains " from the rest of
the inner temple, and was 40 feet long
shrouded and bedecked with two hooded
serpents, called cherubim, and with chains
and garlands, which are serpent symbols.
The carvings, with like significancy, were
symbolic palm-trees, open flowers, and
cherubim, etc. Forlong continues, stating
that " according to the Arabic, Syrian, and
Alexandrian Bible, the porch should be
only 20 cubits high, but let us stand to the
orthodox Bible. That the ark-box with its
phallic tower is in accordance with the
whole of a Sivaik shrine that the towerporch is but the Egyptian obelisk, or the
Buddhist pillars, or those of Hercules which
stood near the Phoenician temple or the
itation of the

MR

spire of the Christian church. That the pillars Jachin and Boaz are within the towerporch. That an altar was an ark with a
'
mercy-seat,' or place of fire and sacrifice."
The following specifications and drawings are then given
" No. I. is a Ground Plan of Temple. This

has a total length of 120 feet, of

which the sanctum is 40 feet, and
beyond this, but separate, is the
spire and porch, 20 by 40 feet.
The Molten Sea (2Chron.iv. 10)
and a staircase appear to be on
each side at the entrance, whilst
in the porch is placed Jachin and
Boaz, the chariot of the sun, etc.
I am unable to comprehend the
details

of windows

and

over Mount Olivet, with a ray

bisects the inner and outer walls of
the inclosure, which I take to be trapezoidal in form, owing to the course of the
stice rise

which

cliffs

that

"No.

bound the summit eastwardly.

a Longitudinal Section of
Temple. This gives details of spire and
position of the phalli, Jachin and Boaz,
III. is

and determines their height as something

between 50 and 60 feet, also the elevation,
etc., of the sanctum and oracle.
The ark
having been early lost, I place a plain
maha-deva or stone, which the Rev. T.
Wilson tells us was all that existed in
the second temple.
"No. IV. is a Front
Section of Porch.
This
shows its appearance
from the front, with the
relative heights of temple in two stories but

0 0

the chroniclers are here

very defective, one making the sanctum portion
lower than the rest by
10 feet or so. "
J.
G. E. Forlong
adopts two feet to a
Solomon's cubit, which
is the amount allowed

doors,

upper and lower stories, and par4^>

titions, owing to the imperfect
and often contradictory terms
given in Kings and Chronicles but in the
leading figures no architect can make a
mistake. Such temples are especially common amongst the phallic worshippers of
;

southern India.
lofty entrance-porch
usually adorns the front on entering we
;

find phallic poles, with altars for sacrifice,

and in the innermost recess the sanctuary or oracle of the Cultus.

etc.;

by Sir Isaac Newton, and has been approved by eminent authority. At the entrance of the Temple stood the mighty
Baal, represented by chariots with horses
yoked, whilst ever around him and in the

SON

1028

ADDENDUM.

courts, sacred then to all heaven's other

orbs, were his priests, called chemorim,
burning incense to the sun, moon, and
There also
twelve zodiac constellations.

sat the temple- women weaving hangings,

which symbolized serpents. At the gate
of this " holy city of David and Solomon,"

where lived Joshua, the governor, were the

" high places " to phallic-worship, as Hindostan so well knows these, at the entering
In "the valley of
in of all her cities.
the sons of Hinnom " the drums of Tophim
were ever sounding, to drown from the ears
of loving but fanatical parents the wails
and shrieks of their offspring, consigned
by ruthless and bloody priests into the red
hot stomach of the great brass god Moloch,
or else clasped by his horrid arms to his
burning frame. See Temple.

Son of Hiram. A

mixed

tradition

a son of Hiram
Abif, and was appointed master of the
workmen who hewed the cedars and shaped
the timber for the temple, and was recognized for his geometrical knowledge and
skill as an engraver.
Soter. An appellation implying " Sa-

states

that

Aynon was

ST.

ANTHONY

house, in which the brithering ' was performed, was guarded, and all who passed
had to give the grip. The fees were spent
in the entertaining of the brethren present.
Like the Masons, the Squarmen admitted
non-operatives." In the St. Clair charter
of 1628, among the representatives of the
Masonic Lodges, we find the signature of
" George Liddell, deakin of squarmen and
now quartermaistir." This would show
that there must have been an intimate
connection between the two societies or
'

crafts.

("Revelation.")
A collective
of those Sanskrit writings supposed
by the Hindus to have been revealed by a
deity, and applied at first only to the Vedic
Mantras and Brahmanas, but afterward
extended to the older Upanishads.

Sruti.

name

St.

Alban's Regulations.

body of

this work.
St. Anthony.

An order taking its rise

from the

viour."

Spencer Manuscript.

Bro. Rich-

life

and hab-

of St. Anthony, the

hermit, who died about

its

ard Spencer, the celebrated Masonic bibliopolist of London, in the preface to his reprint of The Old Constitutions, published in
1871, says he possesses a Masonic tract of
twenty pages, printed in quarto, the title
of which is as follows: "The beginning
and the first foundation of the most worthy
Craft of Masonry, with the charges thereunto belonging. By a deceased Brother,
London:
for the benefit of his widow.
printed for Mrs. Dodd at the Peacock, without Temple Bar, 1739. Price sixpence."
This, he thinks, is very like the Constitutions o/1726, printed by him in 1870, and
is apparently copied from a similar manu-

The

The

regulations said to have been made by St.

Alban for the government of the craft are
referred to in the Stone MSS. cited by Anderson, in his second edition (p. 57), and
afterwards by Preston.
See /St. Alban, in

His disciples,
357.
called Anchorites, near
Ethiopia, lived in austerity and solitariness
in the desert, until
John, emperor of Ethiin 370, created
religious order
of knighthood, and bestowed privileges upon
them under the title of
opia,

them a

Anthony, who was

made patron of the
empire. They established monasteries,

St.

which Bro. Spencer

been reprinted by him, but
the unknown manuscript of which it is
supposed to be a copy has been entitled the

and wore a blue cross in the shape of a Tau.

The vow embraced chastity, defence of

Spencer Manuscript.

the Christian faith, to guard the empire,

script.

tract to

adopted a black habit,

refers has not

Squarmen.

The

companies

of
wrights, slaters, etc., in Scotland, in the
seventeenth century, were called " Squarmen." They had ceremonies of initiation,
and a word, sign, and grip, like the MaLyon {Hist of the L. at Edinb.,
sons.
p. 23) says: "The 'Squarnien Word' was
given in conclaves of journeymen and apprentices, wrights, slaters, etc., in a ceremony in which the aspirant was blindfolded and otherwise ' prepared
he was
sworn to secrecy, had word, grip, and sign
communicated to him, and was afterward
invested with a leather apron.
The entrance to the apartment, usually a public
;

'

obey their superiors, and go to war when

and wheresoever commanded. Marriage required a license. There were two classes
combatants and non-combatants the second class being composed of those coo old

Yet ere they retired

they were required to serve three years
for military duty.

against Arabian pirates, three against the

Turks, and three against the Moors.

The ancient monastery is in the deserts
of Thebais, surrounded by an oval wall
500 paces in circumference and 40 feet in
height.
It is entered by ropes let down
from the watch house, the crane being
turned by monks. By age, the cells, which

ST.

JOHN

STATISTICS

ADDENDUM.

by seven feet, have been

Grand Lodges.
reduced from 300 to 40. Advantage had
been taken of one of nature's curiosities
in obtaining abundant water from a riven Delaware
District of Columbia
rock, which is reached through a subterraFlorida
neous passage of 50 paces, extending be- Georgia
In France, Italy, and Idaho
yond the walls.
Spain there are ecclesiastical and military Illinois
are four by five

No. of Subordinate.

21

21

*82

organizations styled Knights of St. Anthony, who wear a plain cross, the principals a double cross. The chief seat is at

Indiana
Indian Territory

297
*12
683
470
.

Iowa ........
In the abbey rest the remains Kansas
Kentucky

Vienna.
of St. Anthony.
St. J oli ii 9 the

Evangelist.

Louisiana

The Maine

elaborate and expressive coat- of- arms of

the German Masons, as taken from an
authentic old drawing (Heideloff), A. d.
1515, a representation of which will be
found in the third volume of Gould's History, p. 145, tends to show that Dr. Mackey
had overlooked the same (see p. 684) when
writing as to the age when the Evangelist
was known to Masonry, if the German
Masons of 1515 were legitimately our foreThe coat-offathers .in the Fraternity.
arms has encrusted on a shield a ball,
toward the centre of which one point of
each of four compasses is directed, thus

........
......

Manitoba
Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan
Minnesota

......

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Brunswick
New Hampshire

New Jersey
New Mexico
New York

12

South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas

Utah
Vermont

Virginia

'.

Washington
West Virginia

Wisconsin

No. of Sub-

Grand Lodges.

ordinates.

Alabama

*274
*5
427

Arizona
Arkansas
British Columbia
California

Canada
Colorado
Connecticut

10
241

354
75
111

Wyoming
*

From Keport

8,501

424
13,000

750
15,831
20,499
5,252
15,434

629

494
3,050
3,964
5,329
2,766
16,155
21,558

491

100
231
65
*80
*189
12

8,742
9,400
3,025
4,070
13,387

650

of 1884.

Statistics of Capitular Masonry

Koyal Arch in the United States of America,
to July 1, 1890.
Grand Chapters.

Alabama
Arkansas
British Columbia
California

Canada
Members.

*68
35
*181

*412
*428

......

748
42,369
23,890
1,375
22,463
17,333
15,263
4,259
20,675

75,775
9,456
1,464
2,887
34,840
3,564
41,170

1,699
3,946
3,396
13,500

*34
*75
164

363
185
270
537
33
188
19

Members.

1,707
5,027
30,110
30,685
12,000
7,966
26,945
1,833
9,282
1,024
1,885
8,280
13,610

P. E. Island

Khode Island

Masonry

191

*15
*88
*223

Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania

Scotia

Quebec

330
432
108

*8
720
241
33
*67
488
*51
391

North Carolina
North Dakota

Nova

this shield is surmounted by an ornamental

breastplate and scroll-work of leaves, at the superior portion of which, from a ducal crown,
issues an eagle with uplifted wings and a pen
in its beak in a circle surrounding the head
are the words " S. Johannes Evangelista."
in the
Statistics of Craft
United States of America, and lhose countries
lying north of the s:mie, from latest reports
received up to July 1, 1890

38
441

1029

Colorado
Connecticut

Columbia

Florida
Georgia
Illinois

Indiana
Indian Territory

Iowa

1,689

100
4,650
3,807
1,716
44,610

357

Delaware
District of

Members.
725

1,524

441
2,000
13,279
5,443

184
6,449

STATISTICS

1030

Members.

Grand Chapters.

Kansas
Kentucky

3,917
2,490

Louisiana

584

Maine
Maryland

4,690
1,342
10,722
9,733
3,600
1,072
5,265
2,418

Massachusetts

Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

Nevada

353
338

New Brunswick
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York

2,607
2,736
15,646

North Carolina
North Dakota

Nova

603
355
517

Scotia

Ohio
Oregon
Pennsvlvania
Quebec

12,000

Rhode Island

1,957

South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas

1,095
2,097
4,235

851
12,467

435
407

Utah
Vermont

136
2,249
1,418

Virginia

Washington
West Virginia

470
652

Wisconsin

4,468

Statistics of

the Order of the

Temple

in all countries wherein

established, 1890

Grand Commanderies.

Alabama, 1889
Arkansas

it

Colorado
Connecticut

N. Dakota & South Dakota

Subor-

Members.

12
29
16
11
12

Georgia

Illinois

57
32
54
33
23
4
19

Indiana

Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana

Maine
Maryland
Mass. and Rhode Island, 1889
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi

Montana
Nebraska
New Hampshire, 1889

41

40
21
12
55
7

Missouri

has been

dinates.

California
.

STRASBURG

ADDENDUM.

22
10

209
350
2,475

Subor-

Mem-

dinates.

bers.

Utah
Vermont

102
1,093
1,064
201

Virginia

Washington
West Virginia

492

Wisconsin, 1889 ....

Wyoming, 1389
G. Enc. subordinates, 1889

Canada, 1890

England and Wales, 1884

Ireland,
Scotland,

"
"

" Stellato Sedet Solo."

2,191

161
1,932
31
112
44

990
2,800
1,100

270
("

He

sits

on his starry throne.") A symbolic expression in the Twenty-eighth Degree of the A.

A. Scottish Eite.

Strasburg, Constitutions of. On

April 25, 1459, nineteen Bauhiitten, or
Lodges, in Southern and Central Germany
met at Ratisbon, and adopted regulations
for the government of the German stonemasons. Another meeting was held shortly
afterwards at Strasburg, where these statutes
were definitively adopted and promulgated,
under the title of Ordenunge der Steinmetzen
Strassburg, or " Constitutions of the Stonemasons of Strasburg." They from time to
time underwent many alterations, and were
confirmed by Maximilian I. in 1498, and
subsequently by many succeeding emperors.
This old document has several times been
printed; in 1810, by Krause, in his drei
dltesten kunsterkunden der Freimaurerbrudersehaft; in 1819,

by Heldmann, in

die drei

dltesten geschichtlichenDenkmalederdeutschen

Freimaurerbruderschaft ; in 1844, by Heideloff,

in his Bauhiltte des Mittelalters in ihrer

939

wahren Bedeutung ; Findel also, in 1866, in-

1,734

serted portions of it in his Geschichte der

Freimaurerei, which work has been ably
translated into English by Bro. D. Murray

689
400
7,507
2,816
3,793
2,247
1,661

375
2,324
897
8,110
4,222
2,000

244

Lyon.

The invocation with which these Consticommence is different from that of

the English Constitutions. The latter begin thus: "The might of the Father of
tutions

Heaven, with the wisdom of the blessed

Son, through the grace of God and goodness of the Holy Ghost, that be three persons in one Godhead, be with us," etc.
The Strasburg Constitutions begin " In
the name of the Father, of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, and of the gracious Mother
Mary, and also her blessed servants, the four
holy crowned ones of everlasting memory,"
etc. The reference to the Virgin Mary and
to the four crowned martyrs is found in none
of the English Constitutions except the oldest of them, the Halliwell MS.
But Kloss
has compared the Strasburg and the English statutes, and shown the great simi:

3,253
271
1,268
1,473
1,401
8,663
231
6,351

New Jersey
New York

16
56

North Carolina
Ohio
Oregon

48
3

192

Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Texas

66
14
24

8,758

Grand Commanderies.

912
1,420

STRICT
larity in

many

See Vouching, in the

Stukely, I>r. In accordance with the

Doctor's diary, he "was made a Mason,
January 6, 1721, at the Salutation Tavern,
Tavistock street, London, with Mr. Collins
and Captain Rowe, who made the famous
diving engine.
The Doctor adds " I was
the first person in London made a Freemason in that city for many years.
had
great difficulty to find members enough to
perform the ceremony. Immediately upon
that it took a run, and ran itself out of breath
through the folly of its members." The
Stukely papers containing the Doctor's
diary are of continuous interest; and according to Rev. W.
Lukis, P. M., F. S.
A., " Pain (or Payne) had been re-elected

Sun of Mercy, Society of

Of this Society

'

We

tish Rite.

John's

Day

"We

Supreme Council.

Southern Jur. U. S. A
France
Spain
Northern Jur. U. S. A

A. Scot-

These Councils are organ-

ized in almost every country of the world,

a number being under royal patronage, and
in many nations are the governing power
over all existing Masonry.
synoptical
history of all the Supreme Councils that
have ever existed, with the manner of
their formation in chronological order, is
published in the Proceedings of the Su-

Grand Master in 1720, and Dr. Desaguliers

was the Immediate Past Grand Master."
The last mentioned Brother pronouncing
the Oration on June 24, 1721, at Stationers'
St.

little is

Supreme Councils, A.

(Evangelist), December 27, 1721,

met
at the Fountain Tavern, Strand, and by consent of the Grand Master present, Dr. Beal
constituted a new Lodge, where I was chosen
Master."
trite remark of Dr. Stukely as

tlie.

known, but Antoine

Joseph Pernetty, the presumed author of the
28th Degree, A. A. Scottish Rite, became a
devotee to it, and induced Swedenborg to
become a member. Its central point appears to have been Avignon and Montpellier and its nature Hermetic.

Hall: on the following

1031

to symbolism, was: "The first learning of

the world consisted chiefly of symbols, the
wisdom of the Chaldeans, Phoenicians,
Egyptians, Jews, of Zoroaster, Sanchoniathon, Pherecydes, Syrus, Pythagoras,
Socrates, Plato, of all the ancients that have
come to our hand, is symbolic."

of the regulations of both.

(Mackey.)

Strict Trial.
body of this work.

SUPREME

ADDENDUM.

preme Council for

the

Northern Masonic

Jurisdiction for 1881, pages 123-150. From

this article is taken the following list, giv-

ing the Supreme Councils which have

ceived general recognition

Grand Commander.
Albert Pike
Louis Proal
Manuel de Llanos y Persi

Constituted.

Orient.

Charleston

re*

May

Carlos de Castro
Domingo F. Sarmiento
Dr. Timoteo Riboli .

Montevideo
Buenos Ay res
Turin
.

Colon (Cuba)

Juan

Havana

31, 1801.
Sept. 22, 1804.
July 4, 1811.
Aug. 5, 1813.
Mar. 11, 1817.
June 11, 1826.
1829.
Nov. 2, 1830.
1833.
Oct. 26, 1845.
1846.
1856.
Sept. 13, 1858.
1858.
Mar. 25, 1859.

Mexico

Carlos Pacheco
A. S. De Castro Guedes
J. De D. M. Benevente
Manuel A. Bonillo
Prince Rhodokanakis

Mexico

April 28, 1868.

Belgium
Ireland
Brazil

Peru

New Granada
etc.

Juan M. Grau
Earl of Lathom

Scotland

Uruguay
Argentine Republic
Turin, of Italy

I.

Zuazo

Chili
Central America.
.

Greece
Switzerland
.

Lima

London
Edinburgh

....

S.

Tunis

Gustav Desmons

A. Zola

The following Supreme Councils have

been formed, but have not received formal
recognition and the courtesy of an exchange
Dominican Republic,
of representation
Florence, Hungary, Luxembourg, Naples,
Palermo, Rome, Turkey, and Venezuela.
The number of these Supreme. Bodies accomplishes 33.
On the 22d of September, 1875, a congress of the various Supreme Councils was
;

Cartagena

William H. Hutton
.

Canada
Egypt

Madrid

Dublin
Lavradio

Portugal

Boston
Bruxelles

Dr. F. Jose Cardoza .

Fr. Javier Mariatgui

England, Wales,

Henry L. Palmer
Pierre Vanhumbeek
John F. Townshend

Paris

Lisbon
Valparaiso

San Jose
Athens
Lausanne
Hamilton
Cairo

Tunis

Oct.

30, 1869.

May

11, 1870
27, 1870
24, 1872.

Nov.
July
Mar.

Oct.

May

30, 1873

1874
1878
11, 1880
16,

convened at Lausanne, Switzerland, to consider such matters as might then and there
be submitted for consideration and united
action, and be deemed for the general beneMuch speculation and lack
fit of the Rite.
of confidence was the result among many
of the invited participants lest they might
be committed by uniting in the conference.
The Congress, however, was held, and a
declaration of principles set forth. There

1032

SUPREME

ADDENDUM.

was also stipulated and agreed upon a

treaty, involving highly important measures, embraced within 23 articles, which
was concluded September 22, 1875. "The
intimate alliance and confederation of the
contracting Masonic powers extended and
extends under their auspices to all the subordinates and to all true and faithful Masons of their respective jurisdictions."

SYSTYLE

In the United States the number of this

and unenrolled, will approximate twenty-five thousand in the two Jurisdictions.
Its organizations are to be
found in every prominent city and many
towns, and in numerous instances possessing and occupying temples built specially
Rite, enrolled

accommodate its own peculiar forms,

elegant of structure and in appointments,
"Whoever may have illegitimately and and of great financial value.
The progress of this Rite in the last half
irregularly received any Degree of the A.
A. Scottish Rite can nowhere enjoy the century has been most remarkable, and its
prerogatives of a Freemason until he has future appears without a cloud.
been lawfully healed by the regular SuSword, Revolving. With the Cherpreme Council of his own country." The ubim, Yahveh stationed at the gate of
confederated powers again recognized and Eden, "to keep the way of the tree of
proclaimed as Grand Constitutions of the A. Life," the lahat ha'hereb hammithhappeketh,
A. Scottish Rite, the constitutions and stat- " The revolving phenomenon of the curved
utes adopted May 1, 1876, with the modifi- sword," or " the flaming blade of the sword
cations and " Tiler " adopted by the Congress which turns." There were two cherubim,
one at each side of the gate. These angels,
of Lausanne, the 22d of September, 1875.
The declaration and articles were signed or winged bulls, did not hold the weapon
by representatives of eighteen Supreme in their hands, but it was apart, separate
Councils, who recognized the territorial from them. The lahat ha'hereb was enjurisdictions of the following Supreme dowed with proper motion, or turned upon
itself.
Councils, to wit
There was but one, and presumably it was between the cherubim, suspendNorthern Jur., U. S.
Southern Jur., U. S.
ed at a certain height in the air. Prof.
Central America,
England,
Lenormant, in speaking of this terrible
Belgium,
Canada,
weapon, states, that "the circumference,
Chili,
Colon,
which was turned fully upon the spectator,
Scotland,
U. S. of Colombia,
could have been full of eyes all around, and
France,
Greece,
that when the prophet says ' that they had
Hungary,
Ireland,
a circumference and a height that were
Italy,
Mexico,
dreadful,' the second dimension refers to
Peru,
Portugal,
the breadth of their rims," and when adArgentine Republic,
Switzerland,
vancing with the cherubim against the irUruguay.
Venezuela.
reverent intruder at the forbidden gate, it
The same delegates, by virtue of the plen- would strike and cut him in pieces as soon
ary powers they held, and by which they as it should graze him. The symbolism
were justified, promised, for their princi- of this instrument has been fixed by Obry
pals, to maintain and defend with all their
as the tchakra of India, which is a disk
power, to preserve, and cause to be ob- with sharp edges, hollow at the centre,
served and respected, not only the terri- which is flung horizontally, after having
torial jurisdiction of the Confederated Subeen whirled around the fingers. "A weappreme Councils represented in the said on for slinging, shaped like a disk, movCongress at Lausanne, and the parties ing horizontally with a gyratory motion,
therein contracting, but also the territorial like that of a waterspout, having a hollow
jurisdiction of the other Supreme Councils centre, that the tips of the fingers can pass
through, whence seven divergent rays issue
named in the foregoing table.
It is not possible to give statistics as to toward a circumference, about which are
the number of the A. A. Scottish Rite Ma- studded fifty sharp points."
See Cherusons in the world, but calculating those, bim.
religious sect which
of whatever degree, who are governed by
Syrian Rite.
Supreme Councils in the different nations, had its origin in Syria, and which was anit is but reasonable to presume one-half of
ciently comprehended in the patriarchates
the entire Fraternity is of that Rite, and of Antioch and of Jerusalem. It was an exBefore the
as a matter of extensiveness, it is par ex- ceedingly flourishing system.
cellence the Universal Rite.
In many na- end of the fourth century it numbered 119
tions there is no other Rite known, and distinct sees, with a population of several
therein it confers all the degrees of its sys- millions. The liturgy is known as the Littem, including the first three. Among the urgy of St. James.
English speaking Masons, it builds its
Systyle. An arrangement of columns
structure upon the York or the American in which the intercolumniation is equal to
system of three degrees.
the diameter of the column.
to

TEMPLE

ADDENDUM

1033

To
T. The twentieth letter of the English
alphabet, and the twenty-second and last
of the Hebrew. As a symbol, it is conspicuous in Masonry. Its numerical value
as JO, Teth,

See Tau,

is 9,

but as

ft,

Thau,

it is

400.

Mackey.

Tabaor.
lete

Toffet. Edom.
Three obsonames which are sometimes given to

the three Elect in the Eleventh degree in

the A. A. Scottish Rite.
Tablets, Engraved. A designation
frequently used in the A. A. Scottish Rite
for the book of minutes or record; as in
the Rose Croix Chapter is used the term
'
engraved columns."
v

threads make thirteen, which, with the

value of the Hebrew word tsitsith, 600,
accomplishes 613, the number of precepts
of the moral law, and which is the number
of letters in Hebrew composing the decalogue.
613 represents 248 positive precepts, or members of the human body, and
365 negative precepts, or number of human
veins. Jesus of Nazareth wore the tsitsith
"And behold a woman
came behind
him and touched the hem of his garment"
(Matt. ix. 20) and he rebuked the Pharisees
for their ostentation in enlarging the " borders " (icpa(j>rreda, fringes) of their garments.
(Matt, xxiii. 5.)
Taljabad. Rendered in Hebrew thus:
1JT1SD, "Angel of Water," and found in the
Twenty-ninth degree of the A. A. Scottish
Rite ritual.
Tammiiz. JJDfV The tenth month
of the Hebrew civil year, and corresponding to the months June and July, beginning with the new moon of the former.
Peruvian triune
Tanga-Tango.
symbol, signifying " one in three and three
in one."
Tchandalas. Mentioned in the Institutes of Manu as a class of pariahs, or the
lowest in society, but are referred to as the
inventors of brick for building purposes,
:

as is attested by Vina-Snati and Veda

Vyasa. In the course of time they were
banished from the towns, the rites of
burial,
fire.

and the use of

They

rice,

finally emigrated,

water, and
and became

the progenitors of great nations.

Tebeth. /"Ojb- The fourth month
of the Hebrew civil year, and corresponding to the months December and January,
beginning with the new moon of the former.

Talitb. An oblong shawl worn over

the head or shoulders, named, from its
having four corners, the arba canphoth.
It is also called tsitsith, from the fringes
on which its holiness depends. The talith
The wool
is made of wool or camel's hair.
fringe is carefully shorn and specially spun.
Four threads, one of which must be blue,
are passed through eyelet holes made in
the four corners.
The threads being
double make eight. Seven are of equal
length
the eighth must twist five times
round the rest and be tied into five knots,
and yet remain equal in length to the
other seven. The five knots and eight
;

6E

Telamones.

Templar

See Caryatides.
Statistics. See Statistics

of the Order of the Temple.

Temple of

Soloist on, Plan

of,

ac-

cording to the Talmud, Josephus {Antiquities, xv., xi. 5, etc.), and the best Jewish
authorities.
See The Talmud, by Joseph
Barclay, LL.D., published in London,

John Murray, Albemarle Street.

The Temple was located toward and

1878,

along the north of an extensive square,

walled and triple colonnaded. The Royal
Tyropoeon Bridge, being at the south-west
approach, led into the "Mountain of the
House," or Court of the Gentiles, which

PLAN

OF

TEMPLE

SOUTH

NORTH

fiiii

*l
1034

TEMPLE

TEN EXPRESSIONS

addendum.

1035

21. The Ascent to the Altar, the which it

was a large open space for gathering of the
people and procuring offerings. On either was not permitted to touch.
Length, 135 cubits;
22. Court of Priests.
side of the openings through the wall
round the courts were fixed the " Slabs of breadth, 11 cubits.
23. Place of Ashes.
Warning," one of which was discovered in
24. The Laver and its pedestal.
Jerusalem in 1871, and contains these
25. The Draw-well.
words: "No stranger is allowed to pass

within the balustrade round the Temple

and enclosure. If found, the offender
must take the consequence, and his death
(For general description of
will follow."
Temple of Solomon, see ante, pages 796-8.)
No man was permitted to be irreverent
opposite the eastern gate of the Temple,
No
for it is opposite the Holy of Holies.
man was to go on the " Mountain of the
"
House with his staff, shoes, or purse, nor
with dust on his feet, nor is he to spit at
all.
It was also directed that every man
should greet his friend in The Name as
it is said: "And behold Boaz came from
Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers,
'The
be with you;' and they anbless thee.'"
swered him, 'The
The priests guarded the Sanctuary in
three places: in the Houses of Abtinas,
Nitzus, and Moked; the younger priests
in the upper chambers.
The Temple services were arranged by a
council of fourteen the High Priest, his
deputy the Suffragan, and twelve priests.
;

LORD

LORD

26. Steps to the

= 11 steps
27.
28.

Two

Porch

to the

Pillars

The Porch.

3+1 + 2 +

4-j-

Porch.
Jachin and Boaz.
In length 70 cubits, in

breadth 11 cubits.
29.

Chambers

30. Veil

of

Broken Knives.

at entrance of Porch, 20

by 40

cubits.
31. Unoccupied space, called "Circumference" and " The Descent of Rain-water."
32. Chambers round Sanctuary ; 3 tiers,
one above the other; total, 38.
Chamber, but not so
33. The Middle
specially designated.
Two tiers high.
34. Door of Sanctuary ; 10 by 20 cubits.
35. Golden Altar of Incense.
36. Candlestick.
37. Golden Table of Shewbread.
38. Two golden Pedestals, on which to

temporarily place the blood of the bullock

and

goat.

Two Veils, within the traksin, or partition-wall, which was a cubit in width. The
veils did not touch each other by three handbreadths ; hence the separation of the Holy
39.

Place from the Holy of Holies.

40. Holy of Holies
20 by 20 cubits.
41. Ark, resting on Stone of Foundation.
42. Chamber of Moked (Burning), and
chambers for sheep, baking, etc.
43. House of Nitzus, for the guards.
;

REFERENCES TO PLAN OF TEMPLE.

Wall round courts, with 13 openings.
The Chel; space between smaller wall

1.
2.

and wall of
3.

4.

23

court.

Shops.
Small Sanhedrin.

men

Contained 3 rows of

offerings -and burning hair.

9. Chamber of Lepers, where they shaved
their hair.
10. Chamber of Oil, for the candlestick
and flour-offerings.
11. Second Small Sanhedrin.
Contained 3
rows of 23 men each.
12. Chambers of Music, under the court,
for instruments and vocal practice.
13. Gate of Nicanor, approached by 15
steps.

Court of Israel.

for

supply of water

and

wood.

each.

The chief gate, called

5. Eastern Gate.
"Beautiful." (Acts iii. 2.)
chests at the
6. Court of Women, with
entrances for offerings.
7. Chamber of Wood, arranged for each
day's use.
8. Chamber of Nazarites, for boiling peace-

14.

44. Gates.
45. Chambers

Length, 187 cubits

breadth, 11 cubits.
15. Chambers of Vestments and Spicery.
16. Place of Blessing. A landing of 3 steps.
17. Chambers for salt, water, and skins.
18. Slaughter-house.
19. Tables of Cleansing.
20. Altar of Br :nt-offerings.

46.

Chamber

of

Hewn

Stone,

for

Great

Sanhedrin; 3 rows of 23 men each.

47. Water-gate for the Altar.
48.

Upper Chamber of Abtinas.

watch-

chamber.

Ten expressions. Using, as do the

Eabbins, the expression, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth," as one, we find nine other expressions in the first chapter of Genesis in
which " God said ;" thus making ten expressions by which the world was created.
There were ten generations from Adam to
Noah, to show that God was long-suffering
before he deluged the earth. For a similar
reason, says the Talmud, there were ten
generations from Noah to Abraham, until
the latter " took the reward of them all."
Abraham was proved with ten trials. Ten
miracles were wrought for the children of
Israel in Egypt, and ten at the Red Sea.
Ten plagues afflicted the Egyptians in
Egypt, and ten at the Red Sea. And ten
miracles were wrought in the Holy Temple.
See Ten, p. 805.

TENSIO-DAI-SIN

1036

THOR

ADDENDUM.

Tensio-Dai-Sin. A deity held in

adoration by the Japanese; the zodiacal
sun, with its twelve constellations, as the
representative of the god and his twelve
apostles.
This omnific being, like the zodiacal light, of triangular form, seen only
in the evening after twilight and in the
morning before dawn, and whose nature is
unknown, is possessed of ineffable attributes, inexpressible and unutterable, with
a supreme power to overcome eruptions of
nature and the elements. Like unto Masonry, there are four periods of festival,
to wit, in the third, fifth, seventh, and
ninth of the third, fifth, seventh, and
ninth months. The initiates are called
Jammabos, and wear aurora-colored robes,
like unto the light of the dawn of day.
Ternary Allusions. Some of the
well-considered and beautiful thoughts of
Rev. George Oliver on Ternary Allusions
as applicable to the construction of the
Temple services of Solomon are the three
principal religious festivals the Feast of
Passover, of Pentecost, and of Tabernacles.
The Camp was threefold. The Tabernacle,
with its precinct, was called "The Camp
of the Divine Majesty;" the next, "The
Camp of Levi, or little host of the Lord;"
and the largest, "The Camp of Israel, or
the great host."
The tribes were marshalled in subdivisions of three, each being
designated by a banner containing one of
the cherubic forms of the Deity. The Tem-

and Herod. The Jews speak of two that

have been, and believe in one, as described
by Ezekiel the Prophet, yet to come. The
Rabbis say " The third Temple we hope
and look for." See Three, Mackey.
Tetraclites. Believers in the occult
powers of the numeral four, and in a
:

Godhead

of four persons in lieu of three.

In this connection, the following figure is

worthy of examination, it being a star of
five points inclosing the three letters

of

Name, but forming the Tetragrammaton, the Shem Hamphorash. This

figure has been claimed to represent the
God Head.
the Ineffable

Theopasehites. Followers of Peter

the Fuller, who flourished in the fifth century, and believed in the crucifixion of all
three of the Godhead.
Theoricns. The second grade of the
"First Order" of the Society of Rosicru-

like manner, had three divisions

and three symbolical references histori- cians. See Rosicrucian.
The golden cancal, mystical, and moral.
Theriog. The 613 precepts into which
dlestick had twice three branches, each the Jews divided the Mosaical law.
Thus
containing three bowls, knobs, and flowers. the Hebrew letters ^*1fi numerically exple, in

In the Sanctuary were three sacred uten- press 613. See description of Talith.
sils
the candlestick, the table of shewThirteen, The. A Parisian society
bread, and the altar of. incense and three claiming to exercise an occult influence
hallowed articles were deposited in the during the First Empire. A society of
Ark of the Covenant the tables of the growing proportions in the United States,
law, the rod of Aaron, and the pot of intended to confound and uproot superstimanna. There were three orders of priests tion, with an indirect reference to Arthur's
and Levites, and the High Priest was dis- Round Table and the Judas of infamy.
tinguished by a triple crown.
Thokath. npin, strength. An exThree allusions may be observed through pression known to the Brethren of the
the whole of Jewish history. Thus, Elijah Scottish Rite in the Twelfth degree.
raised the widow's son by stretching himThomists. An ancient Christian
self upon the child three times.
Samaria church in Malabar, said to have been
sustained a siege of three years. Some of founded by St. Thomas.
the kings of Israel and Judah reigned
Thor, or Thorr, contracted from Thothree years, some three months, some three nar, and sometimes known as Donar. This
days.
Rehoboam served God three years deity presided over the mischievous spirits
before he apostated.
The Jews fasted in the elements, and was the son of Odin
three days and three nights, by command and Freyia. These three were known in
of Esther, before their triumph over Ha- mythology as the triune deity the Father,
inan.
Their sacred writings had three Son, and Spirit. Thor's great weapon of
grand divisions the law, the prophets, destruction or force was the Miolner, the
and the psalms.
hammer or mallet, which had the marvelIn the Masonic system there were three lous property of invariably returning to its
Temples those of Solomon, Zerubbabel, owner after having been launched upon its

"

THREE FIRES

mission, and having performed its work of

destruction.
Fires. Guardians of the Sixtyseventh degree of the Modern Rite of

Three

Memphis.

Three-Fold Cord.

triple cord
different colors
it is
used in several rites as an instructive symbol.
See Zennaar.

whose strands are of

Three Sacred

Utensils.

These

were the vessels of the Tabernacle as to

which the Rev. Joseph Barcla}7 LL.D.,
makes the following quotation " Rabbi
Jose, son of Rabbi Judah, said a fiery ark,
and a fiery table, and a fiery candlestick descended from heaven. And Moses saw them,
and made according to their similitude "
and thus comments "They also think that
the Ark of the Covenant is concealed in a
chamber under the Temple Enclosure, and
that it and all the holy vessels will be found
at the coming of the Messiah." The Apocrypha, however, informs us that Jeremiah
laid the Tabernacle, and the Ark, and the
Altar of Incense in a "hollow cave, in the
mountain, where Moses climbed up and
saw the heritage of God. And the place
shall be unknown until the time that God
gather his people again together, and receive them into Mercy." (2 Mac. ii. 4-7.)
The sacred vessels, which were taken to
Rome after the destruction of Jerusalem
in A. D. 70, and are now seen sculptured
on the Arch of Titus, were carried off to
Africa by the Vandals under Genseric.
,

Belisarius took them to Constantinople in

They were afterward sent back
A. D. 520.
to Jerusalem, and thence they are supposed
to have been carried to Persia, when Chosroes plundered the Holy City, in June, 614.
Hindoo association that
Thugs.
offered human sacrifices to their divinity
Kali. It was dreaded for its violence and

the fierceness of its members, who were

termed either Stranglers or Aspirants.
Thurible. From Turis, frankincense
metallic censer for
Ivos, a sacrifice.
burning incense. It is of various forms,
but generally in that of an ornamental cup
suspended by chains, whereby the Thurifer
keeps the incense burning and diffuses the
perfume.
Thurifer. The bearer of the thurible, or censer, prepared with frankincense,
and used by the Romish Church at Mass
and other ceremonials as also in the Philosophic Degrees of Masonry.
Thursday. The fifth day of the week.
So called from its being originally consecrated to Thor, or the Icelandic Thorr, the
god of thunder, answering to the Jove of
the Romans.
Tiluk. The sacred impress made upon
the forehead of the Brahman, like unto the

TORCHBEARER

ADDENDUM.
Tau

to the
Christian.

Hebrew, or the

cross to the

Tisri. n*D. The first month of

the Hebrew civil year, and corresponding
to the months of September and October,
beginning with the new moon of the former.

Titan of the Caucasus.

Fifty-third degree of the

Topes.

Memphis

The
Rite.

Pillars, also signifying towers

and tumuli. This is a corruption of the

Sanskrit word Stoopa, meaning mounds,
The Topes of the Karli
heaps, karns.
temple, a Buddhist shrine, which may be
seen up the Western Ghats from Bombay to Poona, are presumed to be Phallic
pillars placed in front, precisely as Solomon
placed his Jachin and Boaz. Some travellers state that only one of these pillars
stands at present. The pillars were shaft
plain, with a capital carrying four lions,
representing power and cat-like salacious-

Between these pillars may be seen the

lights all the Temple,
arched in the form of a horse-shoe, which
is the Isian head-dress and Maiya's holy
sign, and after which the Roman Church
adopts one of Mary's favorite head-dresses.
It is the "crown of Venus Urania."
These pillars are prominent features of
Buddhist sacred buildings, and when comness.

w indow which
T

great

posed of a single stone are called a Lat.

They are frequently ornamented with
honeysuckles. The oldest monument hitherto discovered in India is a group of these
monoliths set up by Asoka in the middle
of the third century B.C. They
were all alike in form, inscribed
with four short edicts containing the creed and principal

doctrines

These

of

Buddhism.

pillars stood originally

some sacred buildw hich have perished;

in front of

ings

they are polished, 45

in height,
lions.

feet

each

and surmounted by

The Thuparamya Tope,

handsome

in Ceylon, has 184

monoliths, 26 feet in height,

round the centre holy mound.

Torchbearer. The
in the

High Council

fifteenth officer

of the

Society of

TRAPPISTS

1038

ADDENDUM.

Rosicrucians also known as an officer in

the Appendant Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
One who bears a torch.
;

Trappists, Order of Religious.

An

order founded by the devotee of secret

organizations,

Tredic.

Count La Perch e, in 1140.

The king highest in rank in

the Scandinavian Mysteries.

Tree Alphabet. There are alphabets used among the Persians and Arabs
at the present day as secret ciphers, which
it can scarcely be doubted were original,
and ages ago adopted and recognized as
the ordinary business mode of communication among men. Among these the Tree
Alphabet is the most common. The Philosopher Dioscorides wrote several works
on the subject of trees and herbs, and made
prominent the secret characters of this alphabet, which became known by his name,
and was adopted and used by others.
The characters were distinguishable by
the number of branches on either side of
the tree; thus, the
is recognizable from
the SH, notwithstanding each has three
limbs on the left hand of the stem or trunk,
by the one having six and the other seven
branches on the right hand side.
As an example, here are nine of the
mystic characters and their relative values

TH

TLB

ATHW.H

SHYI.

TREE WORSHIP

and the Persea to Athor, whilst the Tamarisk played an important part in all the
rites and ceremonies of Osiris and Isis
and all who are orthodox will acknowledge
that Abram seemed to consider that he
could not worship his Jove till he had
planted his grove and digged a well (Gen.
xxi. 33).
His Oak or 'Terebinth,' or turpentine tree, on the plains of Mamre, was

commonly worshipped

till the fourth cenrevered by Jews to the

And again: "That long
ere Buddha or his saints were represented
by images and adored, long ere the caves
and temples of that faith had sanctuaries
for holy relics, the first actual symbol-worship
he can trace is that of the Bo tree, which he
describes as upon a bas-relief in a cave
called the Jodea-Gopa (Katak, Bengal),
proving how early that worship was introduced, and how pre-eminent it was among
the Buddhists of those days ;" and says J.
G. R. Forlong, in his Rivers of Life, or
Faiths of Man, "before Vedic days; and
can be found in almost every cave and
temple allied to the Phallic faith as certainly as can be found ever standing at the
entrance of these 'Houses of God' the
Phallic pillar or pillars. It is the old story
whether we turn to Solomon's temple, 1000
b. c, or to the Karli Buddhist temples,
which gaze down upon us from Bombay to
Poona, and which date from about the
Christian era."
The Bael tree, as a representative of the

tury A. c, and it
present hour."

triad

is

and monad, was always

offered at

The characters in the lower line given

above are of relative value, and known as
the Alphabet of Hermes or Mercury.
Tree Worship. The important position which this peculiar faith occupied

among the peoples in the earliest ages of

the world is apt to be overlooked in the
multitude of succeeding beliefs, to which
it gave many of its forms and ceremonies,
and with which it became materially
blended. In fact, Tree and Serpent Worship were combined almost at their inception.
So prominent a position does Tree
Worship take in the opinion of Fergusson,
in his absorbing work on Tree and Serpent
Worship, that he designates the Tree as
the first of Faiths and adds that " long
before the Theban gods existed, Tree and
Serpept Faiths flourished. The Methidy
tree was brought into the later religion, to
shade with holy reverence the tomb of
Osiris; the Sycamore was holy to Netpe,
;

Lingam worship, and the god was commonly to be found under an umbrageous
Bael.

All nations, Aryans in particular, considered tree planting a sacred duty. The
grand old trees became centres of life and
of great traditions, and the character of
the foliage had its symbolic meanings.
At the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, at
the autumnal harvest, Jews are ordered to
hang boughs of trees, laden with fruit,
round the borders of their booths, also
boughs of barren trees. The worshippers

TREE WORSHIP

TRIANGLE

addendum.

go to the synagogue carrying in their right

hand one palm branch, three myrtles, and
two willows, all tied together and in the
left hand a citron branch with fruit on it.
These they make touch each other, and
wave to the east, then south, then west,
and then north: this is termed Hosana.
On the seventh day of the Feast, all save
;

the willow bough must be laid aside.

The Palm, as a tree, yields more to man
than any other class of trees. Nineveh
shows the Palm surrounded by winged
deities holding the pine cone
symbol of
life, which there takes the place of the
Crux Ansata. The Phoenix resting on the
Palm signifies " Resurrection to eternal
life."
The four evangelists are depicted
in "an evangelum," in the library of the
British Museum, as all looking up to the
Palm tree. Christians, for a similar ideal,
erected a cross-bar, and placed an Alpha

1039

in the Bible of the "Tree of Knowledge"

after Genesis, but to that of Life, or the
"
Tree which gives Life" as in the Apocalypse ii. 7. This is also the Eastern name
and significance of the Lingam or Pillar
and when covered with carved inscriptions,
the Toth or Pillar in Egypt became known
as the " Tree of Knowledge."

Triangle and Square.

Delta was the

initial letter

As the
of Deity with

and an Omega on

it.

the ancients, so

modern

its

synonym

is

among

It is a type of the Eternal, the All-Powerful, the Self- Existent.

The material world is typified by the
" square" as passive matter, in opposition
to force symbolized by the triangle.
The Square is also an emblem of humanity, as the Delta or Triangle typifies Deity.

The

nations.

Delta, Triangle,

and Compasses are

essentially the same.

The raising one
point, and then another, signifies that the
divine or higher portion of our nature
should increase in power, and control the

baser tendencies.

This

is

the

real,

the

practical "journey toward the East."

The interlacing triangles or deltas symbolize the union of the two principles or
forces, the active and passive, male and
female, pervading the universe. (1.)

The two triangles, one white and the

other black, interlacing, typify the mingling of the two apparent powers in nature,
darkness and light, error and truth, ignoPALM TREE WITH

CROSS.

At Najran, in Yemen, Arabia, Sir William

Ouseley describes the most perfect tree
worship as still existing close to the city.
The tree is the Palm or Sacred date. The
Palm has always borne a most important
part in all the faiths of the world down to
the present day. The Jews gave the Palm
a distinguished place in architecture. The
tree and its lotus top, says Kitto, took the
place of the Egyptian column on Solomon's famous phalli, the Jachin and Boaz.
The two trees in Genesis were those of
Life and Knowledge, and were probably
drawn from the Egyptian and Zoroastrian
stories.
But no further reference is taken

rance and wisdom, evil and good, throughout human life. (2.)

TRIFELS

1040

TRYONISTS

ADDENDUM.

The triangle and square together form the relates to the law for man the second, " Yu
naya," and relates to the discipline of the
(3.), as seen in the Entered Ap;

pyramid

In this combination the

prentice's apron.

pyramid is the metaphor for unity of matter and force, as well as the oneness of man
and God. The numbers 3, 5, 7, 9, have
their places in the parts and points of the
square and triangle when in pyramidal
form, and imply Perfection. See Pointed
Cubical Stone.

Trifels.

The name of the ruined

cas-

from Madenburg, on a
mountain slope, where Sir Richard Cceur
de Lion was a prisoner for more than a
year, by decree of the emperor Henry VI.,
and until his liberation by the faithful
Blondel. Naught remains but thirty feet
of the tower and some fragments of wall.
It is recorded that there may be seen engraven deep in the window -stone of the
tle,

four

miles

tower this mark the passion cross standing

upon the square with an apex upward, and
having upon it an inverted TAU of proportionate size at an inclination of about
:

forty-nine degrees.

Three stones, two of

Trilithon.
which are placed parallel on their ends,
and crossed by the third at the top.

priests

and the third, " Abhidharma," and

pertains to the gods. It is estimated that

350,000,000 of people believe in these writings as sacred and canonical.
liight. Sit lux et luxfuit. The
translation from the Hebrew Bible of this
passage, so often quoted in Masonry, is:
" And the Lord said, ' Let there be light,
and it was light.' And the Lord took care
of the light, that it was useful ; and He divided the light from the darkness."
Cathedral.
Protestant
edifice erected at a seaport of Cornwall,
Eng., standing at the junction of two
rivers, the Allen and the Kenwyn. On the
20th May, 1880, the Grand Master of Masons (Prince of Wales) laid two cornerstones of the cathedral with great pageantry, pomp, and ceremony.
This was
the first time a Grand Master of Masons in
England was known to lay the corner-stone
of an ecclesiastical structure this was, also,
the first occasion on which the present

True

Truro

Grand Master had performed such a

ser-

Masonic clothing, surrounded with

his staff and officers, in rich robes and in
the costume of Masonry.
vice, in

Truth,

qjl, Thm, or HDJl, Thme,

and Truth. This was the
name of the Egyptian goddess. This one
of the three great Masonic principles is
represented among the Egyptians by an
ostrich feather; and the judicial officer
was also thus represented, "because that
bird, unlike others, has all its feathers
equal."
Horapollo.
The Hebrew word
\y, ion, signifies an ostrich, as also a
council; and the word n^f* Rnne, is interpreted, poetically, an ostrich, and also a
integritas, Justice

THE TRILITHON AT

ST.

MICHAEL'S MOUNT, LAND'S END.

Trinitarians, Order of. An androgynous order founded in 1198, in the

time of Innocent III., for the purpose of
ransoming Christians from the Moors.
Trinity, Religious Fraternity
of the Holy. Instituted at Rome by
St.

and Pitaka,
basket.
The canonical book of the Buddhists, written two hundred years after the
Tri,

three,

third (Ecumenical Council, or about 60

B. c.
The former Asiatic Indra doctrines
having become intolerable, Sakya, a reformer in religion, rejected the god Brahma, and the holy books of the Veda, the
sacrifices and other rites, and said:
law is grace for all." These sacred writings of the Hindus were called the Three
Baskets the basket of Laws, the basket of
Discipline, and the basket of Doctrines.
The first basket is called " Dharma." and

"My

from celestial
In the judgment in Amenti, the
soul advances toward
fruits

trees."

the

goddess

who wears

Philip Neri in 1548.

Tripitaka.

song ofjoy, or of praise; hence, "the happy

souls thus ornamented, under the inspection of the lords of the heart's joy, gathered

head

the

Thme,
on

her

ostrich

feather.

In the

Anubis

and

scale,

Horus

weigh the actions of the deceased. On one

side is the ostrich feather, and on the other
the vase containing the heart. (See next
page.) Should the weight of the heart be
greater than the feather, the soul is entitled
to be received into the celestial courts. The
forty-two judges, with heads ornamented
with ostrich feathers, sit aloft to pronounce
judgment. See Booh of the Dead.

Tryonists. Those Pythagoreans who

abstained from animal food.

TSAPHIEL

UNIVERSALISTS

addendum

1041

TRIAL IN AMENTI.

Tsaphiel. Wav.

angel governing the Moon, in accordance

with the Kabbalistical system.
Tsedakab. Hpiv, Justice. The first
step of the mystical ladder, known to the
Kadosh, Thirtieth degree A. A. Scottish

D*i^-

Tsidoni. OTtf, Venator. A Seeker

or Inquirer. A name used in the Twentydegree

of

the

A.

A.

Scottish

Rite.

term usec

infre-

quently to designate visitors.

Tub Baani Amal

Abal.

Heb.

just to reward
An expression found in the Thirlabor.
teenth degree A. A. Scottish Rite.
One of the three historthe other two
ical divisions of religion,
and
being the Aryan and the Semitic,
embraces the two' sacred codes of China,
viz., those of Confucius and Lao-tse.

S2X

SDj;

JU73

3ft3.

It

Turanian.

Rite.

second

Tsoiin.

Mirans Deus, the

is

u.
The

twenty-first letter of the English alphabet, is a modification of the

Greek letter T, upsilon ; it is in the Hebrew
j}), or in the Chaldaic and hieroglyphical,
the head of an animal with horns, hence
its symbolism.
has a close affinity to V,
hence they were formerly interchanged in
writing and printing.
Unhele. To uncover, or reveal. Spenser, in the Faery Queen, says, " Then sud-

meeting was known as the College of St.

Luke.
The society was a charitable one,
giving liberally to the poor. There were

denly both would themselves unhele."

Divine Charlatan," taking an active part

U.

United Friars, Fraternity

of.
1785, for the

society established in
" cultivation of a liberal and rational system of good fellowship." The place of

6F

66

number of Colleges, the " London College languished, and finally died a natural
death about 1825." Mackenzie gives the
particulars of this Fraternity.
a

Universal Aurora, Society of

tbe.

Founded at Paris, in 1783, for the

mesmerism; Cagliostro, "the

practice of
in

its

establishment.

Very

little at this

known of it.
Universalists, Order of.

day

is

ciety of a

so-

Masonic bearing, founded by

''

UNPUBLISHED

1042

Retif de la Bretonne, in Paris, about 1841,

and having but one degree.

work thus

entitled, edited by-

Brother Hughan, was lately published,

containing many MSS. of value, theretofore
unknown to the general Masonic public.
Many others have since been traced, and
the work of Masonic progress has a large
field in the near future which will be productive of great historic good.

Upadevas. Minor works regarded as

appendices to the four Canonical Vedas,
and comprising the Ayurveda, on medicine,
the Dhanurveda, on archery, the Gandharvaveda, on music, and the Silpasdstra, or
Arthasastras, on mechanics and other pracThese were looked upon as
tical subjects.
inspired works and so classed.

Upanishad.

("

Mystic")

name

given to certain Sanskrit works, of which

about 150 are known, founded upon the
Brahmana portion of the Vedas, and containing the " mysterious doctrine " of the
process of creation, the nature of a Supreme Being, and its relation to the human
soul.
The older Upanishads are placed
among the Sruti, or writings supposed to
be inspired. See Sruti.

"Upright

Man and Mason,

and given it strictly in charge ever to walk

and act as such before God and Man."
Admonition in the Apprentice Degree.
The definition of Man is interwoven with
the triangle or pyramid, hence true and
upright.
In S. P. Andrew's Radical Etymology, or the origin of Language and Languages, we find the following " Throughout the Indo-European family of languages,
:

ma

(changeable to me, mi, mo,

mu) means 'great/ and na (changeable to
ne, ni, no, nu) means
small,' as their
primal sense. Hence mana, mena, menu,
etc., mean great-small/ and thence ratio
or proportion/ allied with tapering, the
cone, pyramid, or triangle.
The Latin
men-sa is a surveyor's triangular measuring-board
me(n)ta, anything conical
the syllable

'

'

'

'

'

'

'

a mountain ' men-s, the mind,'

'ratio;' Sanskrit, ma; Latin, mensum; Eng., measure; hence, Sansk., mana,
manu, to think." Also see Man.
Ur. (Hebrew, ~\*)#,fire.) Fire, light, or

mon-s,

'

'

i.e.,

" Unpublished Records of the

Craft."

VAN RENSSELAER

addendum.

spirit.'

Usages, The peculiarity of constant

intercourse between the kings of Israel
and Tyre pending the construction of the
Holy House, has been frequently commented upon. That this was so is evident from the old sacred Scriptures, as well
as from cumulative history by Josephus
and others. This ancient custom of intercommunication would not be so marked,
had these two kings ever met, yet during
the years of construction, gifts and messages seem to have led to the more intimate
custom of propounding problems and diffiHence the inducement to
speculate upon whether there was any secret tie between these two kings or merely
cult questions.

and business.
The customs,
habits, and usages of the ancients are visible in every form and ceremony of Masonic
work, as well as in the instruction, except
where modern innovators have injured,
while endeavoring to improve, the timeworn yet mellowed services of the Brotherhood. One of the most beautiful expressions

friendship

occurring in the Catechism of Freemasonry is the answer to an interrogatory as to

the position of the hand in assuming the
vow of the First Degree to wit, " In accordance with ancient usages the right hand
has always been deemed the seat of FidelA somewhat similar expression ocity."
curs in relation to the casting off of the
shoe answer, " This was in accordance
with the usages of the ancient Israelites a
man plucked off his shoe and gave it to his
neighbor; this was testimony in Israel."
The shoe was the symbol of subjection
;

sent by rulers to princes. (4th Book

It was the symbol of huv.)
miliation and surrender with Germans and
The formal divestiture was surIsraelites.
render of title.

when

Ruth, 7th

V.
V. (Heb.

1,

Vagao, or Bagaos. Found

The twenty-second

vau.)

the English alphabet of the Hebrew, numerical value of six. Its definition
a nail, which in form it represents, and as a
divine name connected with it is Vf"), Vezio,
cum splendore ; the
and O in Hebrew
beiug equal. As a Roman numeral its
value is five.
letter in

Fourth Degree of the

in the

French Rite of

Adoption.

Valhalla.

The North German

or

Scandinavian hall of the gods.

Van Rensselaer, Killian Hen-

Born 1799, died January 28, 1881.

native of Albany, N. Y. State, and de-

ry.

V. D.

scendant of the well-known old Knickerbocker family, whose name he bore. He

had held various positions in Craft Masonry,
but in 1824 he became prominent in the A.
A. Scottish Rite, to which he devoted himself for the remainder of his life, becoming
an Inspector General on June 17, 1845. Bro.
Van Rensselaer commanded the Supreme
Council that rebelled against the ruling of
Edward A. Raymond, and thus was formed
another Supreme Body in the Northern
States,

whose

difficulties

were

finally over-

come, as were all schisms of every nature

of the Scottish Rite, on the 17th of May,
" Bro. Van," as he was familiarly
termed, resided during the last thirty years
of his life in the West, and died in California, an outlying suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio.
One more sincerely devoted to the cause
of Masonry, and without a day of relenting earnestness, will not in time be found.
V. I>. S. A. ( Veut Dieu Saint Amour.)
Four words supposed to be repeated by the
fraters of the Temple during certain pauses
While P. D. E. P.
in the ceremonies.
refers to the motto " Pro Deo et Patria."
Veadar. (~RNV) That is, the second
Adar.
month intercalated by the Jews
every few years between Adar and Nisan,
so as to reconcile the computation by solar
and lunar time. It commences sometimes
in Februarv and sometimes in March.
Vedanga. ("Limb of the Veda.")
collection of Sanskrit works on the
grammar, lexicography, chronology, and
ritual of the Vedic text. They are older than
the Upanishads, and are placed among the
Great Shasters, though not among the Sruti.
Signifying " truth " a sigVeritas.
nificant word in Templar Masonry. See
Truth.
1867.

and

Vessels of Gold

Silyer,

for

the service of the First Temple, were almost

numberless, according to Josephus thus
;

Gold.

Vessels of gold
Candlesticks

Wine cups
Goblets
Measures
Dishes
Censers

40,000
8,000
20,000
40,000
160,000
50,000

318,000

234,000

Vestments for the priests

Musical instruments

Stoles of silver for the Levites

Silver.

20,000
4,000
80,000
10,000
20,000
80,000
20,000

....

21,000
600,000
200,000

The vessels and vestments were always

protected by a hierophylax or guardian.
Veterans. Associations of Masons
" who, as such,

VOLTAIRE

ADDENDUM.

A.

S.

have borne the burden and

heat of the day " for at least 21 years' active

1043

service
in the State of Connecticut, 80
years.
number of these societies exist
in the U. States, their objects being largely
of a social nature, to set an example to the
younger Masons, and to keep a watchful
eye on the comfort of those whose years are
becoming numbered. The assemblies are
stated or casual, but in all cases annual for
a Table Lodge. These associations perpetuate friendship, cultivate the social virtues, and collate and preserve the history
and biography of their members.

Viceroy Eusebins. The name of

the second officer in the Conclave of the
Red Cross of Rome and Constantine.
" Virtnte et Silentio " and " Gloria
in Excelsis Deo," are significant mottoes of
the Royal Order of Scotland.
Vislinu. See Puranas.
Vitra. The representative

deity of
darkness in Vedic mythology, and the antagonist of Indra, as the personified light.
Vitra also represents ignorance, superstition, fanaticism,

and

intolerance, the op-

ponents of Masonry.

Voishnuvus. Those who worship

Vishnu, in white garments, and abstain
from animal food. Believers in the third
member of theTrimurti according to Hindu
mythology, in him who was believed to be
the preserver of the world, and who had undergone ten Avatars or incarnations, to
wit, a bird, tortoise, wild boar, andro-lion,
etc., of which the deity Krishna was the
eighth incarnation in this line of Vishna,
and in which form he was supposed to be
the son of Devanaguy and reared by the
shepherd Xanda.
(Frangois- Marie Arouet.)
Voltaire.
One of the most famous of French writers,
born at Chatenay, near Sceaux in 1694.
His early life was loose and varied. In
1728 he became infatuated with a Madame
du Chatelet. His literary works cover some
In 1743, government dis90 volumes.
patched him on a mission to Frederick the
Great, by whom he was held in high favor,
and in 1750, at the request of the king, he
made his residence in Berlin, but five years
later they quarrelled, and Voltaire moved
to Ferney, Switzerland. His literary talent
was most varied, and in invective he had
no equal. During his exile in England he
imbibed Deistical theories, which marked
his life. He was charged with atheism.
He was initiated in the Lodge of the Nine
Sisters, at Paris, February 7, 1778, in the
presence of Franklin and others distinguished in Masonry. Died May 30, 1778,
which gave rise to a memorable Lodge of
Sorrow held on the succeeding 28th of November.

1044

XYSUTHRUS

ADDENDUM.

W.
W.

letter of the Engwhich originated in the Middle Ages, is a double v, and is peculiar to
the English, German, and Dutch alphabets.

William, Emperor of
An honorary member

The twenty-third

lish alphabet,

Wahabites.

A Mohammedan

sect,

established about 1740, dominant through

the greater part of Arabia. Their doctrine
was reformatory, to bring back the observances of Islam to the literal precepts of the

Koran. Mecca and Medina were conquered

by them. The founder was Ibn-abd-ul-Wahab, son of an Arab sheik, born in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and
died 1787. Their teachings have been received by the Mussulman population of
India, and much uneasiness is feared there.

from.

Wallaehia, Grand Scottish Degree of. Found in Fustier's lists.

Wellington, Duke of. The 'Hero
of Waterloo," and the renowned, was initiated in LodgeNo. 494, aboutDecember, 1790.

" Westminster and Keystone."

The

third of the three oldest warranted

Lodges in England, having been chartered
The first is Friendship, No. 6, and
in 1721.
the second the British, No. 8. Those assembling without warrants are only two, and
are numbered two and four, "Antiquity"
and " Somerset House."
Wheat. An emblem of plenty under
the name of " Corn," which see in the body

of this work.

Widow, Sons of

the.

society

founded in the third century, by a Persian

slave, Manes, who had been purchased and
adopted by a widow. It consisted of two
degrees, Auditor and Elut.

many.

Ger-

of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland and protector
of Freemasonry in Germany, his son, the
crown prince, being deputy-protector.

Wolfgang, Albert, Prince of

Schaumberg. Born in 1699,

Liippe

One of the Masonic circle

Frederick the Great favored and
sought at times to meet.
died in 1748.

whom

Woodford Manuscript. A

man-

uscript in the possession of one of England's most esteemed Masons, Rev. A. F.

A.Woodford, editor of Kenning' s Cyclopaedia
of Freemasonry of 700 pages, London. Bro.
Hughan says it is almost a verbatim copy
,

of the Cooke MSS. The indorsement upon

it reads, " This is a very ancient record of
Masonry, which was copied for me by William Reid, Secretary to the Grand Lodge,
1728," etc. It formerly belonged to Mr.
William Cowper, clerk to the Parliament,
and subsequently to the historian, Sir J.
Palgrave.
Mason's. Nicolai, in the
appendix to his Essay on the Accusations
against the Templars, says that in a small
dictionary, published at the beginning of
the eighteenth century, the following definition is to be found, " Mason's Wound.
It is an imaginary wound above the elbow,
to represent a fracture of the arm occasioned by a fall from an elevated place."
The origin and esoteric meaning of the
phrase have been lost. It was probably
used as a test, or alluded to some legend
which has now escaped memory. Also, the
Master's penalty in the degree of Perfection.

Wound,

X.
X.

The twenty-fourth

letter

of the

English alphabet and the last letter of

the proper Latin alphabet. As a numeral
it

stands for ten.

Xystus.

In ancient architecture a
long and open, but sometimes covered,
court with porticoes, for athletic exercises.
Xysuthrus. The name of the Babylonish king at the time of the Deluge.
According to Berossus, ninth of a race
who reigned 432,000 years. Also, Adraha-

sis

of Surippak, son of Ubara-Tutu, the

patriarch, to whom, according to the Deluge

Tablet, the gods revealed the secret of the
impending deluge, and who erected an ark
accordingly, whereby he and his family
and sevens of all clean beasts were saved.
Xysuthrus means "shut up in a box or
ark," from the two characters signifying
" enclosed," and " box," respectively.
In
Accadian he is called Tamzi (Tam muz),

"The sun

of

life."

;;

ZACCHAI

ADDENDUM.

1045

Y.
Y. The

twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet, and is derived from the

It came into use by Roman
Greek T.
writers in the time of Cicero, in spelling

words borrowed from the Greek.

Yaksha.

The name

of a class of

demigods in Hindu mythology, whose care

is to attend on Kuvera, the god of riches,
and see to his garden and treasures.
Yalla. A word said to have been used
by the Templars in the adoration of the
Baphometus, and derived from the Saracens.
(Sankr. Yama, a twin.) Acsi.
cording to the Hindu mythology, the judge
and ruler of the departed the Hindu Pluto,
or king of the infernal regions originally
conceived of as one of the first pair from

Yam

whom the human race is descended, and

the beneficent sovereign of his descendants
in the abodes of the blest later, a terrible
He is
deity, the tormentor of the wicked.
represented of a green color, with red garments, having a crown on his head, his
eyes inflamed, and sitting on a buffalo,
with a club in his hand.
;

Yellow Caps, Society

of.

The

of a society said to have been founded by Ling-Ti, in China, in the eleventh

century.

name

Yezdegerdiau.

Pertaining to the

era of Yezdegerd, the last Sassanian monarch of Persia, who was overthrown by the
Mohammedans. The era is still used by
the Parsees, and began 16th of June, 632,
A. D.

One of a sect bordering on

Euphrates, whose religious worship
mixes up the Devil with some of the doctrines of the Magi, Mohammedans, and
Yezid.ee.

the

Christians.

Yggdrasil. The name given in Scandinavian mythology to the greatest and

most sacred of all trees, which was conceived as binding together heaven, earth,
and hell. It is an ash, whose branches
spread over all the world, and reach above
the heavens. It sends out three roots in
one to the
as many different directions
Asa-gods in heaven, another to the Frost;

(Heb., J, Zain.) Twenty-sixth and

of the English alphabet. In
Hebrew the numerical value is seven.
This letter was added to the Latin from

Z.

last letter

giants, the third tol^he under-world.

Under

each root springs a wonderful fountain, endowed with marvellous virtues. From the
tree itself springs a honey-dew.
The serpent, Nithhoggr, lies at the under-world
fountain and gnaws the root of Yggdrasil
the squirrel, Ratatoskr, runs up and down,
and tries to breed strife between the serpent and the eagle, which sits aloft.

York, Edward Augustus, Duke

of.

Initiated a

Mason

in 1766.

York, Frederick,

Duke of.

In-

Mason in " Britannia Lodge,"

London, November 21, 1787. A commem-

itiated

orative Masonic token was issued in 1795

the Duke of York having been installed
W. M. of the " Prince of Wales Lodge,"
March 22, 1793.

York Grand Lodge.

Brother

Woodford says this is a short title for " The

Grand Lodge of all England," held at
York, which was formed from an old Lodge,
in 1725, at work evidently during the seventeenth century, and probably much earlier.
The annual assembly was held in
the city of York by the Masons for centuries, and is so acknowledged virtually by
all the MSS. from the fourteenth century.
A list of Master Masons of the York Minduring its erection, is preserved, of the
fourteenth century ; and legend and actual
history agree in the fact that York was the
home of the Mason-craft until modern
times the "Charter of Prince Edwin"
being one of the earliest traditions. The
Grand Lodge preserved its position in the
north of England until 1792, when it
finally died out, it having constituted other
Lodges, and a " Grand Lodge, south of the
Trent" (at London). All of the " York "
ster,

Lodges succumbed on the decease of their

"Mother Grand Lodge." There has not
been a representative of the Ancient York
Grand Lodge anywhere whatever throughout this century.

Yug, or Yuga. One of the ages, according to Hindu mythology, into which
the Hindus divide the duration or existence of the world.

the Greek in the time of Cicero.

Greek

letter is zeta,

The

Zaeehai. (Heb., *3J.)

plied to the Deity.

A name

ap-

ZADKI-EL

1046

Zadki-el. The name of one of the

angels of the seven planets, according to
the Jewish rabbins; the angel of the
planet Jupiter.

Zaplinatn-paaneali.

An Egyp-

tian title given to the patriarch

Joseph by

the Egyptian king under whom he was

The name has been interpreted
viceroy.
"Revealer of secrets," and is a password
in the old rituals of the Scottish Rite.
Zarriel. The angel that, in accordance with the Kabbalistical system, governs the sun.
Zarvan-akar-ana. ("Time without limits.") According to the Parsees,
the name of a deity or abstract principle
which existed even before the birth of

Ahriman and Ormudz.

Zebulon. Son of Jacob and Leah;
in the exodus his tribe marched next to
Judah and Issachar, and received the terbounded on the east by the south
Lake of Galilee, including Rimmon, Nazareth, and the plain of Buttauf,
where stood Cana of Galilee. Heb. jv?3T,
Heaven, or the abode of God. See Jabulum.
ritory

half of the

Zeehariali. "The son of Iddo,"

born in Babylonia during the captivity,
who joined Zerubbabel on his return to
Palestine. A leader and a man of influence, being both priest and prophet.
Zelator.

The

first

degree in the First

Order of the Rosicrucian Society.

The holy

Zemzeiii.

ZOAN

ADDENDUM.

well in Mecca.
inner portion of a gentleman's house in India, devoted to the use
of females. In contrast with the front or
gentleman's portion, it is devoid of comforts.
Each woman has a small cell, on
second or third story, fronting on the inner
court of the square structure.

Zenana. The

No. 259."
1832,

Appointed

Deputy

Upon

Warden in
M. in 1840.
Duke of Sussex,

S.

G.

in 1839, Pro. G.

the decease of the

in 1843, the Earl became the chief ruler

of the craft, until March, 1844, when he
was elected M. W. G. M. He was Prov.

G. Master of North and East Yorkshire

from 1835 until he died, in 1873.

Zens.

Greatest of the national deities

of Greece, son of Chronos and Rhea, brother of

Poseidon and Hera, and

husband of the latter.
worshipped in
Mostly
Crete, Arcadia, and Dodona. Finally the great
Hellenic divinity, identified with Jupiter of the
Romans and Amon of the
Libyans. Zeus was represented as of majestic
form, holding in one hand
a sceptre, and in the other a thunderbolt,
signified by the above symbol.
Zi. In the Izdubar legends, a kind of
spiritual essence residing in every organic
thing, each created object having its special
Zi, of which the Supreme Being was a
more exalted genus. Zi was also by a
parity of reasoning regarded as the soul
of man, and even man himself.

Zieu or Ziggara. The

Accadian

name

for primaeval matter.

Zif. (Iyar) -)"N- The eighth

month

and 200,000

of the civil and the second of the sacred

year of the Hebrews, commencing on the
first of the new moon in the month of
April. The name of this month is mentioned but once in the Scriptures, and then
as relating to the date of the commencement of Solomon's Temple. The month
Bui, or Marchesvan, is mentioned as the
date of the completion of the Temple.
Zillah. Wife of Lamech, mother of
Tubal Cain and Naamah. One of the few
females mentioned as of the antediluvian

Zoroaster

period.

Zend A vesta.

("Commentary and
The Bible of the ancient Perand of the modern Parsees or Guewho number about 7000 in Persia

text.")

sians
bers,

who

is

in India.
It is ascribed to
(see Zend Avesta, Mackey),
said to have written 2,000,000

covering 12,000 cowskin parchments. In its present fragmentary state it

consists of the Vendidad, of 22 chapters,
being the one surviving part (the 20th) of
an original work of 21 parts the Yazna,
of 72 chapters the Visparad, of 23 chapters
24 sections called Yashts, and a few
fragments.
Zeraias. One of the three officers
appointed by king Solomon to superintend
the hewing of the timbers in the forests of
verses,

Lebanon.

Zetland,
Thomas Duudas,
Earl of. One of the most noted of the
noblemen of England, born in 1795, and
initiated in the " Prince of Wales Lodge,

Zinzendorf, Count von, Nieolaus liiidwig. Founder of the existing sect of Moravian brethren

also of a

which he called the

"Order of the Grain of Mustard-Seed."
He was ordained bishop of the Moravians
religious

society

in 1737, at request of King Frederick William I. of Prussia, went to London, and

was received by Wesley. In 1741 proceeded to Bethlehem, in America, and
founded the Moravian settlements.
prolific author of a hundred volumes.
Born at Dresden 1700, died 1760.

Zi titer n. An instrument of music of

28 strings drawn over a shallow box both
hands are employed in playing on it.
;

Zoan. An

Egyptian town, known to

ZODIAC

the Greeks as Tanais, presumed to have

been founded 3700 B. c, and probably
the residence of the Pharaohs of the

Exodus.

Zodiac.

Many

of the Egyptian tem-

ples contain astronomical representations

notably those of Esneh, Contra Latopolis,
and Denderah, were famous for their zodiAntiquity was accorded to
acal ceilings.

the records of the Egyptian empire by

calculations made from the positions of
the stars on the monuments and on these
Closer criticism now reveals
ceilings.
these positions to be fanciful and the data
The zodiac of Denderah has
unreliable.
been removed to Paris, where it forms the
chief ornament of the museum of the
Louvre.
Those remaining in Egypt are
Crosses will
suffering from deterioration.
be found to be a portion of five of the
signs of the zodiac.
Zoliar. (Heb. "lilf? splendor.) After
the surrender of Jerusalem, through the
victory of Vespasian, among the fugitives
was Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai, who re-

mained an Anchorite for twelve years,

became visionary, and believed he was
His son,
visited by the prophet Elias.
Rabbi ELiezer, and his clerk, Eabbi Abba,

when

visiting himself, took

ZUNI

ADDENDUM.

down

his pro-

nounced divine precepts, which were in

time gathered and formed into the famous

1047

Sohar or Zohar.
From this work, the
Sepher Jetzirah, and the Commentary of the
Ten Sephiroth was formed the Kabbala. The
Zohar, its history, and as well that of its
author, overflow with beautiful yet ideal
mysticism.
society founded

{"The Illuminated")
A
by Jacob Franck at the

beginning of the

last century.

Zoliariti.

Zonar.

The symbolic

girdle of the
Christians and Jews worn in the Levant,
as a mark of distinction, that they may
be known from the Mohammedans.
One of the
Zschokke, J.
I>.
most eminent Masons and German authors
known to this century. Born at Magdeburg, 1771, died 1848.
Zimi Indians.
tribe inhabiting

H.

New

Mexico, U.

S.,

whose mystic

services

have attracted the attention of Masonic

scholars in consequence of their similarity
to those in vogue by the Masonic fraternity.
These Indians have a formal religious initiation, in which the suppliant
kneels at the altar to take his vows, after
being received upon the point of an instrument of torture to the flesh. Among
their forms and ceremonies are facing the
east, circumambulation, tests of endurance,
and being peculiarly clothed. Incense is
burned, and the sun worshipped at its
rising.

INDEX TO ADDENDUM,

A
945.
jlx ? Aaron's Band, 945.
Abaciscus, 945.

Brothers of the Bridge, 955.

Buchanan MS., 955.

951.
Aryan, 951.
Asarota, 951.
Ases, 951.
Asia, 951.

Abdiel, 945.
Abditoriuin, 945.
Abercorn, Earl of, 945.
Abib, 945.
Abibala, 945.
Acacia, 945.
Academiedes Illumines d' Avignon, 945.

Buddhism,

Bull, 956.
Buri, or Bure, 956.

Astrology, 951.
Atossa, 951.

957.

Caaba, or Kaaba, 957.

,
Cadet-Gassicourt, Charles Lou

Atthakatha, 951.
Audi, Vide, Tace, 951.

946.
Affiliate, Free, 947.
Africa, 947.
South, 947.

is,

African Brotherhood, 947.

Agathopades, 947.

Calatrava,

Auger, 951.
Augustus William,

Calendar, 958.

Prince of

Alliance, Sacred, 947.

of Letters

959.

Capuchin, 959.
Carmelites, 959.
Carpenters, Order
Carthusians, 959.
Cartulary, 959.
Caryatides, 959.

952.

Amal-Sagghi, 948.
Amaranth, Order of the, 948.
Amenti, 948.
Amor Honores Justitia, 948.

Bacon, Roger, 952.

Bactylea, 952.
Bahrdt, K. F., 952.
Balder and Baldur, 952.

Ainru, 948.

Band, 953.

Amshaspands, 948.
Anakim, 948.
Ancient and Primitive Rite,
Anima Mundi, 948-

Banner Bearer,

Anno

Egyptiaco, 948.

Anubis or Anepu, 948.

Apex, Rite of, 948.
Apis, 948.

Apron, Washington's, 948.

Arabici, 949.

Aranyaka,

949.

Arbroath, Abbey of, 949.

Arcade de la Pelleterie, 949.
Archaeology, Masonic, 949.

Archimagus, 949.
Architect, Engineer and,
Argonauts, Order of, U49.

949.

Arianism, 949.
Ariel, 949.

Arkansas, 949.
Ark Mariner, Royal, Jewel
950.

Armor,

950.

Aroba, 950.

of,

Cenephorus, 960.
Ceridwen, 960.

Chaldean Cylinder, 960.

Chapter of Royal Arch Masons,

953.

An Old, 960.
Characteristics, 960.
Cherubim or Kerubim and Ark,
960.

China, 962.
Chinese Classics and Symbolism, 962.

Chromatic Calendar, " The Five

U.

S.,

of the Fraternity of Stonemasons, 955.

Bosonian, The, 95").
Boswell, John, 955.
Box of Fraternal Assistance, 955.
Brazen Laver, 955.
Pillars, 955.

959.

Cathari, Society of the, 960.

Banneret, 953.
Bar, Mitzvah, 953.
Barbati Fratres, 953.

Bridge, 955.

of,

Catacombs, 959.
Catechumen, 960.

Basilica, 953.
Bath Kol, 953.
Battery, 953.
Benai, 953.
Benakar, 954.
Benefit Societies, 954.
Benevolent Institutions,
954.
Bible, 954.
Bochim, 954.
Book of Mormon, 954.
of the Dead, 954.

Celestial, 958.

Cantalevers, 959.
Capitular Statistics, 959.
Capripede, Ratur et Luci Fuge,

in, 947.

Al-Sirat, 948.

of,

Calid, 958.
Cancellarius, 958.

Canopy,

Azariah, 952.
Azazel, 952.
Azrael, 952.
Aztec Writings, 952.
Azure, 952.

Alaska, 947.
Allah, 947.

Military Order

957.

Avis of Portugal, 952.

Axe, 952.

Agenda, 947.
Ahab, 947.

957.

Auditors, 951.
AufFseher, 951.

Prussia, 951.
Aurora, 951.
Avatar, 952.

948.

955.

Bui, 956.

Assyrian Architecture, 951.

Adam, 945.
Kadmon,

Number

Brithering, 955.

Arundel, Thomas Howard, Earl

of,

Abazar, 945.
Abchal, 945.

Alphabet,

Artisan, Chief, 951.

Points," 962.

Black, 963.
Red, 963.
Green, 963.
White, 963.
Yellow, 963.
Chronology, Hebrew.
brew Chronology.
Circuit, 963.

Clavel, T. Begue, 963.

Cleche, 964.
College, 964.
Colleges, Irish, 964.
Collocatio, 964.

1048

See He-

INDEX TO ADDENDUM.
Colored Fraternities, 964.
Connecticut, 964.

Conventions or Congresses, 964.

Conversi. See Barbati Fratres.
Corium, 965.
Coronet, Ducal, 965.

Gibber, Gabriel, 979.

Gibeah, 979..

Symbolical, 971.
Grand Prince of the Three,

Gilead, 979.
Gilgul, Doctrine

972.
Irish, 972.

Glastonbury, Holy Thorn of, 979.

G. O. D., 979.

Elohim.

Jehovah, 972.

Dagran, Louis, 967.

Dakota, 967.
Dalmatic, 967.

Dambool,

Exegetical and Philanthropical

Craft Statistics, 965.

Crata Repoa, 965.

Cresset, 966.
Crimson, 966.
Crosier, 966.
Crosses, 966.
Crowns, 966.

Cumulation of Rites, 966.

Cyrus, King. See Persia.
967.

Dactyli, 967.

Daedalus, 967.
Dagraim, Hubert, 967.

967.

Daniel, 967.

Darius I. See Cyrus, King.

Decanus, 967.
Declaring Off', 967.
Degrees, When were Three Created? 968.

Faithful,
F974.
,

Divining Rod or Pedum, 969.

Dodd's Constitutions, 969.
Domine Deus Meus, 969.
Dominicans, Order of, 969.
Dove, Knights and Ladies, 969.
Dowland Manuscript, 969.
969.

Gould, Robert Freke, 980.

Gourgas, John James Joseph,
980.

Grain of Mustard, Order of

Grand Chapter.

Eblis, 970.

Ecbatana, 970.
!

cut.

981.
Elect, Perfect and Sublime
Mason, 981.
Gravelot, 981.
Grumbach, Sylvester, 981.
Gymnosophists, 981.
Gypsies, 981.

H
The.

970.

Fanaticism, 975.
Fanor, 975.
Favorite Brother of Solomon,

Hallelujah, 982.
Halliwell MS., 982.

Hamaliel, 982.
Hamilton, Hon. Robert M. A.,
M.D., 982.
Hands, United, 982.
Haphtziel, 982.
Har, 982.
Harbinger, 982.
Haruspices, Order of, 982.
Hayti, 982.

Hebrew Chronologv,

III.

Louis, 977.

Freemasonry, Early British, 977.

Months, 971.
Elai beni almanah, 971.

6G

Hieronymites, 984.
Hierophant, or Mystagogue,
984.

Hierophylax, 984.

Hiram,

Gabriel, 978.

Hospitaller, 985.

Fylfot, 978.
971.

Hesse Cassel, 983.

Hibbut-Hakkeber, 984.

978.

Fund, Grand Masters',

Eglinton Manuscript, 971.

Egyptian Hieroglyphs, 971.

Hermanclad, The, 983.

Hermetic Philosophy, 983
Herring, James, 983.

984.
Hittites, 984.
Hoben, 985.
Hodin, 985.
Holy City, Knights of the, 985.
Horn, 985.
Homaged, 985.

Freres Pontives, 978.

Frey, or Freia, 978.

Manuscript, 970.

Edwin Charges,

982.

Faith. 983.
jHeler, A., 983.

Forty, 975.
Forty-two, 975.
Lettered Name, 975.
Four New Years, 975.
Old Lodges, 976.
France, 976.
Franks, Order of, Regenerated,

Prince, 970.

or Jabamiah, 982.

Hacquet, G., 982.

Hafedha, 982.

Kings, 970.

981.

Habramah

King,

Habakkuk,

Habin, 982.

See Cate-

976.

the Confessor,

981.
,

chumen.
Falk, De Rabbi, 974.
Familien Logen, 974.

Manu- Frederick Henry

script, 970.

See Connecti-

Director of the Ceremonies,

Fort Hiram, 975.

969.
970.

Eben-Ezer, 970.

Edda, 970.
Edinburgh-Kilwinning

the,

980.

Field Lodge, 975.

Findel, J. G., 975.
Firrao, Joseph, 975.
Florian, Squin de, 975.

Eban Bohan,

Edward

Gonfalon, 980.
Goodall, 980.

Feuillants, 975.
Fidelity of Baden Durlach, Order of, 975.

Sore, 969.

d'Alcidony, 970.

Golden Lion of Hesse-Cassel.

Order of, 980.
Stole of Venice, 980.
Thaler, 980.

975.

Dyaus, 969.

Eclectic (Bund or) Union, 970.

Ecossais d' Angers, or Ecossais

979.

Goetia, 979.

Gomel, 980.

Feix-Feax, 975.
Felicity, Order of, 975.

Drops, Three, 969.

Due Examination,

979.

Exterior, 974.

Deiseil, 968.
Dentlerah, 968.
Desert, 968.
Diu, 968.

Exodus, 974.
Expert, Perfect, 974.
Sublime English, 974.

Darakiel, 967.

E969.
Ebal,

Society, 974.

Dao, 967.

Dye na

of,

Emounah,

972.
England, 972.
The First Record of Grand
Lodge of, 972.
Enochian Alphabet, 973.
En Soph, 973.
Eostre, 973.
Erlking, 973.
Esperance, 973.
Ethanim, or Tisri, 973.
Europe, 973.
Eva, 973.
Evangelicon, 973.
Evates, 973.
Eveilles, Secte des, 973.
Evergeten, Bund der, 973.
Evora, Knights of, 973.
Excalibar, 974.

of,

God and His Temple, Knights

Elements, Test of the, 972.

grees, 965.

Thebounah,

979.

'

Cosmist, 965.
Cottyto, Mysteries of, 965.
Council of Allied Masonic De-

Binah

Ghenioul

Elai beni emeth, 971.

Elam. See Persia.
Electa, 971.
Elect, Depositary, 971.

Companions, The Twelve, 964.

1049

Gangler, 979.
Gaudin, Theobald, 979.
Gerbier, Doctor, 979.

978.

Houel, 985.

Hughan, Win. James,

Hur, 985.

985.

INDEX TO ADDENDUM.

1050

985.

Kentucky, 991.

1,

I-Colm-Kill, 985.

Khem,

Iconoclasts, 986.
Idaho, 986.
Ijar, 986.

Khesvan

Illuminate Theosophists, 986.

Khetem

Imaum,

Khon,

986.

Immaterialism, 986.
Impost, 986.
Incense, Eegulations for use, 9S6.
Increase of Wages> 986.
Indian Calendar, 986.
Faith, 986.
Indian
Indische Mysterien.
Mysteries, 986.
Ineffable Triangle, 987.
Inigo Jones MS., 987.
Initiate into the Sciences, 988.
Inner Order, 988.
Insect Shermah, 988.
Intolerance, 988.
Inversion of Letters, 988.
Invisibles, Les, 988.
Ionian Islands, 988.

or Chesvan, 991.
Nabiim, 991.

el

991.

Ludewig, H.

Khotbah, 991.

Khurum-Abi,

Ki, 991.
King of the Sanctuary, 991.
of the World, 991.
Kings, The Five, 991.
Kislev or Chislev, 992.

992.

Kulma, 993.
Kun, 993.

I,

993.

Laboratory, 993.

989.

Jaaborou Hammaim, 989.

Jabescheh, 989.
Jabulum, 989. See Zebulon.

Labyrinth, 993.
Lacepede, B. G. E. de la Ville,

Jafuhar, 989.
Jaheb, 989.

Lakak Deror Pessah,

Jaina Cross, 989.

Lamaism,

II.

and

Book

of, 989.

Jeksan, 989.
Jephthah's Daughter, 989.
Jerusalem, Heavenly, 989.
Jesse, 989.
Jetzirah, Sepher, 989.

Jewish Rites and Ceremonies,

989.

Jochebed, 990.
Johaben, 990.
Joinville, Chaillon de, 990.
Jokshan, 990.

Joram, 990.
Jordan, Karl Stephan, 990.
Joshaphat, Son of Ahilud, 990.

993.

Inextin-

guishable, 993.

Lance, 993.
Langes, Savalette de, 993.
Lansdowne MS., 993.
Lanturelus, Ordre des, 994.
La Rochefoucault, Bayers, Le

Marquis de, 994.

Lasalle, Troubat de, 994.
Lateran Councils, 994.

Laver, Brazen, 994.

Lawful Information, 994.
Law, Sacred, 994.

Lay Brothers, 994.

Lazarus, Order of, 994.
Lemierre, A. M., 994.
Lenning, C, 994.
Leontica, 994.
994.

Lesser Lights, 994.

Levit, Der, 995.
Liber. Liberty, 995.

Companion,

990.

Kansas, 990.
Karmatians, 990.
Kellermann, Marshal, 990.
Kenning's Masonic Cyclopaedia,

Mackenzie, Kenneth R,
996.

Secret, 997.
Ecossais, Maitre, 997.
Maitresse, 997.
Maconnerie Rouge, 997.
Magonnieke Societeiten, 997.
" Macoy's Cyclopedia," 997.
Macrocosm, 997.
Magazine, 997.
Magi, The Three, 997.
Magna est Veritas et praevalebit, 998.
Magnan, B. P., 998.
Mahabharata, 998.
Mahadeva, 998.
Mahakasyapa, 998.
Malcolm III., 998.
Man, 998.
Mango, 999.
Manicnseans, 999.
Manichiens, Les Freres, 999.
Mann, Der, 999.
Manu, 999.
Manuscripts, Apocrvphal, 999.
Old, 999.

Marconis,

Gabriel

Mathieu,

1000.

Jacques Etienne, 1001.

Marduk, 1001.
Maria Theresa, 1001.
Martinism, 1001.

Masoney, 1001.
Latour d'Auvergne, Le Prince Masonic Colors, 1001.

Leo XII.,

Jubalcain, 990.
Jubela-o-m, 990.
Judith, 990.

Kabbalistic
K990.

of,

Sabactani, 993.

de, 994.

Jezeeds, 990.
Jobel, 990.

990.

Lamma

Lamp, Knight of the

Jaminim, or Iaminim, 989.

Japanese Faith, 989.

993.

993.

Lamballe, The Princess

III. of Scotland,

989.

Jasher,

993.

993.

Jainas, 989.

James

Labrum,

996.
?

H., 996.

du

Labady, 993.

Magonne

Korah, 992.

Laanah,
L993.

'

Luz, 995.
Lyon, David Murray, 996.

"dans la Voie Droite, 997.

I.-.

Izads, 989.

Vraie, 995.

Macon,

992.

of the True Light, 992.

Knocks, Three, 992.
Kojiki, 992.

Krause Manuscript, 992.

Krishna or Christna, 992.

Order of, 988.

0.\ L.\, 988.
Ivory Key, 988.

La

Lunus, 995.

Knight Evangelist, 992.

Knights of St. John the Evangelist of Asia in Europe,

Koran or Al Coran,

V.*.

Lumiere, La Grande, 995.

Knewt-neb-s, 992.
Knife and Fork Degree, 992.

Ischngi, 988.
Isiac Table, 988.
Israfeel, 988.
Itratics,

E., 995.

Lufton, 995.
Lully, Raymond, 995.

991.

Iram, 988.

I.-.

Lily of the Valley, 995.

Lion, Chevalier du, 995.
of the Tribe of Judah, 995.
Livre d' Architecture, 995.
d'Eloquence, 995.
Loki, 995. See Balder.
Louis Napoleon, 995.

991.
Khepra, 991.
Kher-heb, 991.

Liberte, Ordre de la, 995.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,
995.
Libyan or Lybic Chain, 995.
Licht, Bitter von Wahren, 995.

Lichtseher, Oder
995.
Lilis or Lilith, 995.

Erleuchtete,

Literature, 1002.
Press.
See Press, Masonic.
Company of, 1002.
Emperor of all the, 1002.
Masora, 1002.
Massena, Andre, 1002.
Mathoc, 1002.
Matter, 1002.
Maurer, 1002.
Griiss, 1002.
Maut, 1002.
Maximilian, Joseph I., 1002.
Mecklenburg, 1002.
Medals, 1002.
Megacosm, 1003.
Mehen, 1003.
Mehour, 1003.
Meister, 1003.
Memphis, 1003.
Mer-Sker, 1003.
Merzdorf, J. L. T., 1003.

Masons,

INDEX TO ADDENDUM.
Meshia, Meshiane, 1003.

P1010.
5 Pachacamac,

Metusael, 1003.

Mezuza, 1003.
Millin de Grand Maison, A.

L.,

Palestine, Order
Palla, 1010.

Revestiary, 1019.
Rite des Elus Coens, ou Pretres,

1010.

1019.

of, 1010.

1004.
Mistletoe, 1004.

Mitchell, James W. S., 1004.

Moabite Stone, 1004.
Moabon, 1004.

Mohammed.

See Koran.
i

Mohrims, 1005.
Moira, Francis Rawdon, Baron,
j

1005.

Mormon.

setts, 1021.

See Zend A vesta.

Parvin, Theodore S., 1011.
Passage, 1012.
" Passing the River," 1012.

1006.
Muta, 1006.
Muttra, 1006.
Myrrh, 1006.
Mysteries, Mexican, 1006.

Crown, Knights and

Companions of the, 1006.

Mystic

of,

1007.

Naos, 1007.

Napoleon I., 1007.

Narbonne, Rite of,

1007.

Neith, 1007.

Nemesis, 1007.
Neocorus, 1007.
Nephalia, 1007.
Nergal, 1007.
New Templars, 1007.
Nick, 1007.
Nicotiates, Order of, 1007.
Nihongi. 1007.
Nonis, 1007.
Normal, 1007.
Nornae, 1007.
North, 1007.
Star, 1008.
Novitiate, 1008.
Nuk-pe-nuk, 1008.
Nun, 1008.
Nyaya, 1008.
Nyctazontes, 1008.

01009.
Oannes, 1009.
Oak Apple, Society of the, 1009.
Obed, 1009.
Oboth, 1009.
Obrack, Hibernus, 1009.
,

1009.

Odin, 1009.

Ogmius, 1009.
Onech, 1009.
Ophites, 1009.

Order Book, 1009.

Oriflamme, 1009.
Ouriel. See Uriel.
Oaiah, 1010.

Pax Vobiscum,

1012.

Sagitta, 1022.

Perfect Master, 1013.

Prussian, 1013.
Stone, 1013.
Periclyte, or Paraclete, 1013.
Persia, 1013.
Persian Faith. See Zend Avesta.
Philosophus, 1014.
Phylacteries, 1014.
Pike, Albert, 1014.
Pinnacles, 1015.
Pitaka, 1015.
Pitdah, 1015.
Pitris, Spirits, 1015.
Pointed Cubical Stone, 1015.
Points, The Five.
See Chro-

matic Calendar.
Point within a Circle, 1015.
Verte (Green Apple),
Order of the, 1016.
Pooroosh, 1016.

Pomme

Portiforium, 1016.

Praxoeans, 1016.
Press, Masonic, 1016.
Priestly Vestments, 1017.
Prince of Jerusalem, Jewel

of,

1017.

of Wales'

1022.

kJ, Saadh, 1022.

Sabbal, 1022.
Sacellum, 1022.
Sacred Law, 1022.
Sadda, 1022.
Sadducees, 1022.

Pennsylvania, 1012.
Pentacle, The, 1013.

Musical Instruments, Ancient,

Brotherhood

ern, 1019.

Royal Arch Grand Bodies in

America, 1020.
Arch Masonry, Massachu
Ruchiel, 1021.
Russia, Secret Societies of, 1021.

Peetash, 1012.
Penalty, 1012.

Morris, Robert, LL.D., 1005.

Mount Caf, 1006.
Mozart, J. C. W. G., 1006.
Murat, Joachim, 1006.
Joachim, Prince, 1006.

Naharda,
N1007.

Rose Croix, Jewel of the, 1019.

Rosicrucians, Ancient and Mod-

Parlirer, 1011.
Parole, 1011.

Parsees.
I

Moloch, 1005.
Moore, Charles Whitlock, 1005.
Morana, 1005.
Mormon Faith. See Book of

Odem,

Palmer, Henry L., 1010.

Pantheism, 1010.
Pantheistic Brotherhood, 1010.
Papyrus, 1010.
Parikchai, Agrouchada, 1010.
Paris Constitutions; 101

1051

Grand Lodge,

1017.
Proclus, 1017.
Propylaeum, 1017.
Psaterians, 1017.
Pullen, William Hyde, 1017.
Punjaub, 1018.
Puranas, 1018.
Purrah, The, 1018.
Pursuivant, 1018.

Saint Andrew, 1022.

Constantine, Order
Sakinat, 1022.

of,

1022.

Sakti, 1022.
Salaam, 1022.
Saladin, 1022.
Sandalphon, 1023.
Sardinia, 1023.
Sastra, 1023.
Sat B'hai, Royal Oriental Order
of the, 1023.
Saxony, 1023.
Schor-Laban, 1023.
Scorpion, 1023.
Scottish Rite, A. A. See Supreme Councils.
Scroll, 1023.
Sefidd Schamagan, 1023.
Seijin, 1023.
Selamu Aleikum, Es, 1023.
Semelius, 1023.
Senses, Seven. See Man.
Sephora, 1023.
Seraphim, 1023.
Order of, 1023.
Setting-Maul, 1024.
Seven, 1024.
Shalal Shalom Abi, 1025.
Shalash Esrim, 1025.
Shaster, 1025.
Shebat, 1025.
Shelum lecka, 1025.
Shemitic, 1025.
Shermah, Insect.
See Insect

Shermah.
Shesha, 1025.
Shinto, 1025.

Shoulkain, 1025.

Q1018.
.

Quadrivium and Trivium,

1018.
Qualifications of Candidates,
1018.
Quetzialcoatl, 1018.

R1018.
Rainbow,
?

The Most An-

cient Order of the, 1018.

Raising Sheet, 1018.
Ramayana, 1018.
Raphael, 1018.
Red Brother, 1019.
Revelation, 1019.
Revels, Master of the, 1019.

Al, 1025.
Silent Brotherhood, 1025.
Siloam Inscription, 1026.
Simorgh, 1026.
Sirat, As or Al.
See Al-Sirat.
" Sit Lux et Lux Fuit," 1026.
Sivan, 1026.
Smaragdine, Tablet of I Termes,
1026.
Softas, 1026.
Soli Sanctissimo Sacrum, 1026.
Sijel,

Solomon's Temple and Serpent

Worship, 1026.
Son of Hiram, 1028.
Soter, 1028.

INDEX TO ADDENDUM.

1052

Speculative Mason, The First.

See Freemasonry, Early Brit

Spencer Manuscript, 1028.

Squarmen,

1028.

ban's Regulations, 1028.

Anthony, 1028.
John, the Evangelist, 1029.
Statistics of Capitular Masonry,
1029.

of Craft Masonry, 1029.

of the Order of the Temple,
1030.

"Stellate Sedet Solo," 1030.

Strasburg, Constitutions of, 1030.
Strict Trial, 1031.

Stukely, Dr., 1031.

Sun of Mercy, Society of the,
1031.

Supreme Councils, A. A.

1044.

Wheat, 1044.
Widow, Sons of the, 1044.
William, Emperor of Germany,

Tree Alphabet, 1038. /

Worship, 1038.
Triangle and Square, 1039.

Sruti, 1028.
St.

Wellington, Duke of, 1044.

" Westminster and Keystone,"

Trappists, Order of Religious,

1038.

Tredic, 1038.

ish.

Scot-

tish Rite, 1031.

1044.

Trifels, 1040.

Wolfgang, Albert, Prince

Lippe Schaumberg,,1044.

Trilithon, 1040.
Trinitarians, Order of, 1040.
Trinity, Religious Fraternity of
the Holy, 1040.
Tripitaka, 1040.
True Light, 1040.
Truro Cathedral, 1040.
Truth, 1040.
Tryonists, 1040.
Tsaphiel, 1041.
Tsedakah, 1041.
Tsidoni, 1041.
Tsoim, 1041.
Tub Baani Amal Abal, 1041.
Turanian, 1041.

Woodford Manuscript,

Wound,

U1041.
, Unhele, 1041.
United Friars, Fraternity

1033.
,

Yaksha,
Y1045.
,

Templar

Statistics.

See Statis-

of the Order of the Tem])le.

Temple of Solomon, 1033.
Ten Expressions, 1035.
Tensio-Dai-Sin, 1036.
Ternary Allusions, 1036.
tics

Tetradites, 1036.
Theopaschites, 1036.
Theoricus, 1036.
Theriog, 1036.
Thirteen, The, 1036.
Thokath, 1036.
Thomists, 1036.
Thor, 1036.
Three Fires, 1037.
-Fold Cord, 1037.
Sacred Utensils, 1037.
Thugs, 1037.
Thurible, 1037.
Thurifer, 1037.
Thursday, 1037.
Tiluk, 1037.
Tisri, 1037.
Titan of the Caucasus, 1037.
Topes, 1037.
Torchbearer, 1037.

1045.

Yellow Caps, Society

Yggdrasil, 1045.

York, Edward Augustus, Duke

of,

of,

1045.

Frederick,

the, 1041.
Universalists,

Order

1041.

of,

1045

of,

Yezdegerdian, 1045.
Yezidee, 1045.

Universal Aurora, Society of

Tablets, Engraved, 1033.

Talith, 1033.
Taljahad, 1033.
Tammuz, 1033.
Tanga-Tango, 1033.
Tchandalas, 1033.
Tebeth, 1033.
Telamones. See Caryatides.

1045.

Yalla, 1045.

Yama,

1041.

Tabaor, 1033.

Mason's, 1044.

X1044.
, Xystus, 1044.
Xysuthrus, 1044.

Sword, Revolving, 1032.

Syrian Rite, 1032.
Systyle, 1032.

of

1044.

Duke

of,

1045.

Grand Lodge, 1045.

Yug, or Yuga, 1045.
J

" Unpublished Records of the

Craft," 1042.

Upadevas, 1042.
Upanishad, 1042.
" Upright Man and

Z1045.
Zacchai,
9

1045.
Zadki-el, 1046.

Mason," Zaphnath-paaneah, 1046.

j

1042.
Ur, 1042.
Usages, 1042.

V1042.
Vagao, or Bagaos,
j

Zarriel, 1046.

Zarvan-akar-ana, 1046.
Zebulon, 1046.
Zechariah, 1046.
Zelator, 1046.
1046.
Zenana, 1046.
Zend Avesta, 1046.
Zeraias, 1046.

Zemzem,
1042.

Valhalla, 1042.
Van Rensselaer, Killian Hen-

ry, 1042.
Zetland, Thomas Dundas, Earl
V. D. S. A., 1043.
of, 1046.
Veadar, 1043.
Zeus, 1046.
Vedanga, 1043.
Zi, 1046.
Vessels of Gold and Silver, Zicu or Ziggara, 1046.

1043.

Zif, 1046.

Veterans, 1043.
Viceroy Eusebius, 1043.
" Virtute et Silentio," 1043.

Vishnu.

See Puranas.

Vitra, 1043.

Voishnuvus, 1043.
Voltaire, 1043.

Zillah, 1046.

Zinzendorf, Count von,

laus Ludwig, 1046.
Zithern, 1046.
Zoan, 1046.
Zodiac, 1047.
Zohar, 1047.
Zohariti, 1047.

W1044.

, Wahabites, 1044.
Wallachia, Grand Scottish Degree of, 1044.

Zonar, 1047.

Zschokke, J. H. D., 1047.

Zuni Indians, 1047.

Nieo-

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.
BY CHAELES

T.

McCLENACHAN

The Form of Instruction for Pronunciation herein Adopted

Defined in the American Dictionary, by

is

NOAH WEBSTER,

the same
LL. D.

KEY
TO THE

PRONUNCIATION".
VOWELS.
REGULAR LONG AND SHORT SOUNDS.
A,

a,

long,

A,

a,

short,

A,

a,

Italian,

E,

e,

long,

E,

e,

short,

f,

i,

long,

I, I,

short,

0,6,

long,

d,o,

short,

U, u,

long,

ij,li,

short,

Y,y,

long,

short,

as in

"

Ale, Fate.

Add,F<U.

"

Arm,

"

Eve, Mete.

End,

Ice,

Fine.

"

III,

Fin.

Old, Note.

"

0dd,N6t.

"

Use,

"

Us,

"

My, Fly.

"

O^st,

Father, Far.

MU.

Hume.

HUm.

Nymph.

relating to diphthongs or
is adopted, omitting instruction
consonants.
to
references
or
tripthongs, occasional sounds,

The above simple

AccentThe

process

principal

accent

lighter mark, as in Ab'ra ca dab'ra.

also supply the place of the

hyphen.

secondary, by a
is denoted by a heavy mark; the
In the division of words into syllables, these marks

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.

1054

WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

PROPER

NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

Abacus

Ab'a-cus

A drawing boarda tray.

Abaddon
Abda

A-bad'don

The

Abdamon

Ab'da / m6n

destroyer, or angel of

[the bottomless pit.

Ab'da

Abelites

A/bel-ites

Abibalk
Abif

Abi-balk

Abiram

Ab-i'ram

Abrac
Abracadabra
Abraxas

Ab-rac'

Acacia

A-ca'ci-a

Acanthus

A-can'thus

Ab-If

Ab-'ra-ca-dab^ra

A-brax'as
A-ka'shi-a.

Accolade

Ac'co-lade'

Aceldama
Achad
Acharon Schilton

A-ceTda-ma

Field of blood.

A-chad

A-kad.

Acha-ron Schil-t6n

A'ka-ron Schil-ton.

Achias
Achishar

A-chias

A-ke'as.

Ae-hi'shar

Achmetha

Ach-'me-tha

Achtariel

Ach-ta'ri-el

Literally, a serpent charmer*

Acousmatici

A'cous-ma-ti'cl

A-coos'ma-te'cd.

Adar

A'dar

Adarel
Adeptus Coronatus

A'dar- el

Adonai

A'do-na'i

Adonhiram
Adoniram

Ad'on-hi / ram

Ado-ni'ram

Adonis

Ad-o'nis

Ad-ept'us Coro-na'tus

Adytum

Ad'y-tum

Aeneid

JE-ne'id

Aeon
Agapae

A do-nab/e.

^E-Sn

Eon.

Aga-pse

Ag'a-pe.

Ag-la

Ag'la

Ag-nus Dei

Agnus

Ahabath Olam
Ahashuerus

A'ha-bath

A-hits'-u-e'-rus

Aliiab

A-hi'ah

Ahiman Rezon

A-hi'man Re-zoo'

Ahisar

A-hi'sar

Ahesbar

A-hi'-shar

De'i

Aholiab

A-ho'li-ab

Ahriman

Ah'rl-man

Aichinalotarch
Aixlachapelle

Aks-la-sha'-pel'

Akirop
Alapa

Ag'nus Da/e.

Olam
A-he'a.

A-hi'sar.

Aich-maFo-tarch
A-ki'rop
A-ia-pa

Alethophile
Alfader
.

A-le'tho-phile
Al-fo'der

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.
WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

PROPER

Al

Amar-jah

A'mar-jah

Ameth

A'mfith

Alga-bll

Al-6m-jah
pi

nS.

Amicists

A'mi-cists

Amis Reunis

Amis Keunis

Amun

A'mtin

Anachronism

An-a'chro-nism

Andre
Andrea
Androgynous
Angerona

An'drS

Anno Depositionis
Anno Hebraico
Anno Lucis
Anno Ordinis

An'no

De'po-si'ti-o'nis

Anno

He'bra/I-co

An-drog'y-nous

An'nii-aire

An'sy-re6h
An'ti po-de'ans

Aphan-ism

Aporrheta

A'porr-he'ta

Araunah

A-rau'nah

Architectonicus
Archiviste

Ar'chi-tec-ton'i-cus

Arelim
Areopagus

Ar'e-lim

A re-6p

Armenbusche

Ar'men-busche

Artaxerxes
Astraea

Ar'-tag-zerk'-zez

Asnapper

As-nap'-per

Ar'chi-viste

Literally, valiant, heroic.

a-gus
*

As'tra-ea

Atelier

A'tel-ier

Attouchement
Aufseher
Auserwahlter

At-touch'ement

Baphomet
Barruel Abbe

An-dr6g'e-nous.

An'no Lu'cis
An'no Or'di-nis

A-phar'-sath-chltes

Baal
Baculus
Bafomet
Bagulkal
Baldacnin
Balsamo

Re'-u-ne.

An'ge-ro-na

Apharsathchites

Aum or Om

A'me

An'drea

Aphanism

Aynon

NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

Algabil
Al-om-Jali
Alpina

Annuaire
Ansyreeh
Antipodeans

1055

A-tou'sh-man.

Aufs6-her

Inspector, overseer.

Aus'er-wahl-ter

Chosen, selected.

Aum.

Om

Ay'non
Baal

Ba-a'lim.

Bacu-lus
JBa'fo-mSt

Ba'gul-kal
Bal'da-chin

Bal-sa'mo

Baph'o-mgt
Bar'ruel Ab'b6

Beaucenifer

Beau-cen'i-fer

Beauchaine
Beauseant

Beau-chaine
Beau'se

Tint

Bo-sha'ne.

Master.

1056

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.

WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

Bel
Belenus

Benac
Bendekar
Benyah
Beryl
Beyerle
Bezaleel

PROPER

Contracted form of Baal.

Bel

Be-lenus
Be'n&c
Ben'de-kar

Ben yah
Beryl
Beyerle
Be zal -eel

Boaz
Boeber

Bo

Boehmen
Bonaim
Bone

Boehmen

Literally, fleetness, strength.

az

B6-e'ber

B6-naim

Buh

Buhle
Bui

Buhle
Bui
Byblos

Cabiric

Cabul
Caduceus
Csementarius

Bo-nah'im.

Bone'

Bull

Byblos
Cabala

NOTATIONS,

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

Bui.

The

rain-god.

ca-b&'ia

Ca bir-ic
Cabul

Dry, sandy.

Cadu / ce-us

Peace, power, wisdom.

Ca'e-men-ta'ri-us

Cagliostro

Cagli-os'tro

Cahier
Cairns
Callimachus

Cah'ier

Cairns
Cal-lim'-a-clms

Carbonarism

Car'bo-nar-ism

Casinaran
Centaine

Cas'ma-ran

Cerneau
Chaldea
Chapeau
Cbasidim

Cerneau

Cbastanier

Chas'tan-Ier

Centaine

Cerno.

Chal-de'a

Chap'eau

Shap'o.

Cha'sid-im

Chasuble

Chas'u-ble

Chef-d'oeuvre

Chef-d'oeuvre'

Chesed
Chibbelum

Che'sed

Cochleus
Coetus

Coch'le-us

Compagnon
Consunimatum

Com-pan'ion

Contemplating
Corybantes
Coustos
Couvreur
Cromlech
Crotona
Crux Ansata

Con'-tem pla-ting

She-deu'vr.

Chib'be-lum

Co'e-tiis

Con'sum-ma'tum

Look around

carefully on all
[sides

Cor'y-ban'tes
~

Coustos
Cou'vrier

Cromlech
Cro-to'na

Crux

an-sa'ta

Ku'vrir.

'

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.
WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

PROPER

NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

Curetes
Cynocephalus

Cu-re'tes

Cyrene

Cy-re'n6

Daduclios
Dais
Da than

Da'is

Da'than

Dazard

Dazard

Cyn

Da

1057

6-c6ph'a-lus

du-chos

Delalande

De-la-lande

Delauhay

D6-lau'hay

De-la-lan'-d.

Demeter

Dg-me'ter

Desaguliers
Deuchar Charters

D6-sa-gu'liers

Deu-char' Charters

Deus Meuinque Jus

D6'us

Devoir

DS'voir

Dieseal

Dies-e'al

Dieu et nion Droit

Dieu le Veut
Demit

Dieu

6t

mou

Dieu

16

Veut

Me-um^ue Jus
D6
Droit

voa.

Dieu a mon droa.

Dieu 16 Veu-t.

De-mit

Dionysiaii

Di'o-nys'ian

Dionysus
Donats
Drseseke

Di'o-nys'us

Duad

Duad

Do'nats
Dra'e-seke

Druses

Dru'ses

Dupaty

Du'pa-ty

Ecossais

E'cos-sais

Ecossism

E'c5s-sism

Eheyeh

E-h6'y6h

Elchanan

El-chan'an

Eleham

El'6-ham

Eleusinian
Eiihoreph

E'leu-sm'i-an

A 'cos sais.

Al-kana'n.

El'i-ho'-reph

Elohini

El'd-him

Elu

El'u

Elul
Elus

El'us

Elul

Emeritus

E-m6r'i-tus

Emeth

Emunah

E'm6th
E mu nah

Encyclical
En famille

En

Ephod

E'ph6d

Eons
Eques
Epopt

Eons
Eques

Eranoi
Erica

E'ra-nSl

Esoteric

Es'-o t6r'ic

Essenes

Es's6n es

En-cy'cli cal
fa-mille'

En

fa-meel'

E'pSpt

E-ri'ca

Essen-ees.

1058

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.

WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

PROPER

Eumolpus
Eunuch

Eu-molpus
Eu'nuch

Exoteric
Ezel
Fasces

Ex'o-teVic

Division, separation.

E'zel

FaYces

Fendeurs

Fen-deurs

Fides
Fiducial

Fi'des

Freimaurer

Frei-mau'rer

Gabaon
Gabor

Ga'ba-on

Gsedicke

Gaedicke
Gala-had

Galahad
Garinus
Gebal
Gedaliah

NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

Fan-deiir.

Fi-duci al
Fri-mou'rer.

Ga'bor
Gad'ick

Ga-ri'nus

Ge'bal

Border, hilly.

Ge-daliah

Gemara

Ge-ma'ra

Gethsemane

Geth sem'-a-nS

Giblim

Gib'-lltes

Gnostics

Gnfts'tics

Nds'tiks.

Goethe
Golgotha

Goe'the

Go-teh.

Gormogons

Gor'mo-gons

Gorgo-tha

Gothic

Gdth'ic

Gugomos

Gu'gd-m6s

Guillemain
Guttural

Gut

Hadeases
Haggai

Hag'ga-I

Guil'16-main

Ge'ye-main.

-tiir-al

Ha-dees'-es

Hah

Hah'

Hail

Hail

Hale
Harnouester

Hale'

Harodim
Haupt-Hutte

Har'6-dim

Haupt-Hutte

Hout-hute.

Hautes Grades
Heal

Hautes Grades

Ho-gra-d.

Heal'

To make

Harn

Whence do you
To hide.
ouest-er

Hermaimes
Hesed

Her-maimes

Hoschea
Huzza

H6s

latric

I-at'ric

Iconology

I'con-Sl'o-gy

Ih-Ho

Ih-ho

Ijar

I-jar

He's6d

hail?

Harn-west-er.

legal.

Literally, " kindness."

che-a

Htiz-za'

Inimanuel

Im-man'-u-el

Interesting
Ionic
Ish Chotzeb

in'ter-6st-ing

I-on'ic

fsh -chotzeb

'

God with

us.

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.
WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

1059

PROPER

NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

God

Ishniael

Ish-ma'el

Ish Sabal
Ish Sodi

Ish-s&'b&l

Jachin
Jachinai

Ja-kin

To

Ja'clrin-ai

Ja'kin-ahl

Jali

Jah

Jamblichus
Joabert

J6-a'bert

is

hearing.

Ish-so'di
establish.

Jam'bll-chus

Joan
Joha
Joshua
Jua

Jo 'ah

Jubela
Jubelo
Jvibelum

Ju-be-la/

Ju-be-lum'

Kaaba

Ka-aba

Kabbala

Kab'ba-la'

Jah
Jah

Joha

is

brother.

is

living.

Josh'-u-a

Ju'a

Corruption of the above.

Ju-be-16'

Kadiri

Ka'di-ri

Kainea
Kasideans

Ka'me-a

Katharsis

Ka-thar'sis

Ka-ar'bar.

Ka'si-de'ans

6m 'pax

Konx Onipax

KSnx

Eiim Kivi
Labarum

Kuni Ki-vi
Laba-rum

Laborare est orare

Lacorne
Lalande

La'-bo-ra^re est 6-ra're

Lapieida

La'pi cl'da

Ladrudan Abbe

Lad'ru-dan Ab'be

Latomia

La'to-m6 / a

Latres

La-tres'

La-corne'

La'kor'na'.

La'lande'

Lechangeur

Le-chan'geur

Lefranc
Lehrling
Lenianceau

L6-franc"

Le-man-ceau'

La-man-so'

Lepage
Leucht

Le-page'

Le-pa'j.

Levitikon
Libertas
Linear Triad
Livre d'Or

Lehr'ling

Leucht
Le-vit'I-k5n

Lib-er

Liberty.

tas'

Lm'e-ar Tri'ad
Li'vre d'or

Le'vr

Louveteau

Lou-ve-teau'

Lou-v-to'.

Lux e tenebris
Lux Fiat et Lux Fit
Maacha
Macbenac

Lux e ten'e-bris
Lux Fiat 6t Lux

Maccabees
Macerio
Macio

Ma-a'cha

d'or.

Fit

Ma-ar'ka.

Mac-be-nac
Mac'ca-bees
Ma'ce-ri'd

Ma ci-o

Ma'she-o.

1060

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.

WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

Maconetus

Maconne
Maczo
Magi
Magus

PROPER

NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.
Ma'cdn e'tus
Ma'con-ne

Ma'-son-e

Ma

tus.

son-e.

Mac'zo

Magi
Magus
Mah er- Slialal-Hash-Baz Maher Sha-lal Hash-Baz
Mah
Mali
Maitre Ma-pon'
Maitre Macon
Mai'trSsse
Maitresse Agissante
Mai'trise
Maitrise
Ma-lach'
Malacli

Ma'ji.

Malachi

Mal-a'chi

Messenger of Job.

Mar che shvan

Mar'ch6s-van

Masoretic Points

Ma 'so-ret/ic points
Mas-so'nus

Meister
Melcliizedek

Mel-chiz'e dek

Ma s5n'.

Meist'er

Melecli
Melesino, Rite of

Meleck

Melita

Mei-rta

Menatzchim

MS-nat'chim

Malak.

MeTes-i'-nd

Menu

M6nu

Mesopolyte

Mes'6-po ly / te

Mesouraneo
Microcosm
Mizraim

MS'sSu-ra-ne'o

Mizraim

Moabon

Mo-a'bon

Mi'cro-cosm

Montfaucon, Prior of

Mont'fau

Mopses

Mop'ses

Mot de Semestre

Mot' d6 Se mes'tre

Mystagogue

Mys'ta-gSgue'

Mystes

Mys'tes

Naamah

Na-a'mah

NTabaim

Na'ba-im

Naplithali

Nafta

Naymus Grecus

con', Prior of

Mo'de-sS-mest-r.

li

Nebuzaradan

Nay mils Gre'cus

Neb u zar a dan

Nekam

Ng'kam

Nekamah
Ne Varietur

Ne Va

Ml nisi clavis

Nil-nisi-clavis

Nisan
Noachidae
Noffodel

No

Notuma
Novice Maconne
Oheb ELoah

Mg'tr

'

Massonus

Nonesynches
Nonis

MaY-gus.

Ne'ka-mah
ri e'tur

Nisan

The

first

month.

ach'i-dse

N5ff6-deP

Non6 syn

ches

No'nis

No

turn

Nftvice

6h6b

Ma con'ne

El-oah

Novice

Ma son

ne*

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.
WORDS OF

PROPER

DOUBTFUL, PRONUNCIATION.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

Ordo ab Chao

Or'do-ab-cha'o

Ormudz and Ahriman

On

On'

Ormudz and Ah

ri

Osiris

O-si'ris

Oterfut

6'ter-fut

Otreb
Ozee

O'trSb

Paganis, Hugo de
Paracelsus

Pa gams, Hugo de
Pa ra ceTstis

Pas perdus
Pastophori
Pastos

Pas' to-pho'rl
Pas'tos

Pedum

Pe'dum

Pedal

Pe'-dal

Pectoral

Pec

1061

NOTATIONS.

man

O'-zee

Pas' pgr-dus'

Pedes, the

feet.

-to ral

Perignan

Per'ig-nan

Phainoteletian Society

Phai'nd

Pharaxal

Ph' rax-al

te le'tian

Phi'la-le'thes
Philalethes
Philocoreites, Order of Phi lo-co-re / i-tes
Pi cart
Picart's Ceremonies
Pilier
Pilier
/

Pinceau

Pinceau

Pirlet

Pir'let

Planche Tracee
Polkal

P6l'kal

Pin

-so.

Plan'che Tra cee

Polycronicon
Postulant

Poly-cr6n'i-c6n

Pomegranate

PSme' -gran-ate

Pontiles Freres

P6nti-fes Freres

Pon'te-fees Frares.

Poursuivant

Pour-su'i-vant

Poor-su'e-van.

Proponenda
Pseudonym

Prdpo-nen'da
Pseu do nym

Pulsanti Operietur

Pul-san'ti

Pythagoras

Py-thag' -o-ras

Quadrivium
Quaternion

Qua-ter'ni-ftn

Pos'tti-lant

Ope

tur

Quad'ri-vl-um

Rabbanaim

Rabba-na/Im

Rabbinism
Rabboni

Rab'bin-ism

Ragon

Su'do-nim.
ri e

Rab-bo' ni

Ra'g6n
Rat is bon

Ratisbon
Recusant

Re-cu'sant

Rehum

Re hum

Robelot
Rose Croix
Rosenkreuz, Christian
Rosicrucianism
Sabaism

Ro'be-lSt

Rose Croix
Ro'sen-kreuz
Ro'si-cru'ci-an-ism

Sab'a-ism

My

Rabbi.

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.

1062

WORDS OP
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

PROPER

Sabianism

Sab'i-an-ism.

Saint Aclliabell
Saint Amphibalus
Saint Nicaise

Saint Am'phi-bal'us

Salix
Salle des
Salsette

NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

Saint Ad'ha-bell

Ni

Saint

Saint Nesace.

caise

Sal ix

Pas Perdus

Salle des-Pas'

Per dus'

Sal-sStte'

Sal' d6-pa'per-du.
S61-set'.

Salutem
Samothracian
San Graal
Sanhedrim

San-he-drim

Sapicole

Sa'pi-cole

Sal-u tern

Sa-mo-thra'ci an

San Graal

Saracens
Sarsena
Schismatic
Semestre
Seneschal

Schis-mat'ic

Sis-mat' Ic.

SS-meVtre

SS-mes'fcr.

Sen-e-schal

Se-ne-shal

Seniority

Seen-ySr'-I ty

Sephiroth
Sethos

Seph

Shaddai
Shamir

Shad-da-i

Shastras

Shas'tras

Shekinah

She-ki'nah

Shetharboznai
Shimshai

Shim

Sar' a-cens

Sar-se'na

i-r6th

Se'thSs

Shad-dahe.

Sham'ir

She'thar-bftz na-i
-shai

Sinai
Siroc
Socius

Si'nal

Sofism

So'fism

Si 7 roc
So' ci-us

Sorbonne

Sorbonne

Spes niea in Deo est

Steinmetz
Succoth

Sp8s me'-a in Deo'

S6r bo-n.
est

St6in m6tz

Suk-kSth

Synod

Synod

Tadmor

Tad'mdr

Tatnai
Tarshatha

Tat'na-i

Tau

Tau

Templum Hierosolymae

TeWplum

Tenets
Teng-u

Ten'-ets

Tessellated

Tes'se-la-ted

Tessera
Tetractys

Tes's6-ra

City of Palms.

Tarsha'tha

Hi'e ro-sdl'y-mse

Ten-gu

Te-trac'tys

Tetragrammaton

Tet' -ra-gram-ma-ton

Four-lettered name.

Thammuz

Thammuz

The Adonis

Theoricus
Therapeutse

The-or'i-ciis

Ther'a-peu'tse

of the Greeks

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.
WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

1063

PROPER

NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

Theurgy

The-ur'gy

Tliuniiiiiin

Thum'-niim

Timbre

Tlm'-bre

Tirshatha

Tir-shatha

Truth.

Tito

Ti-to

Torgau

Tor-gau

Triliteral

Tri-lit'e-ral

Trinosoplis

Tri' no-sophs

Tubal Cain
Tuapholl

Tu-a-pholl

Turcopolier

Tur'co-po li'er

Turquoise

Tur-koa-z.

Tyrian

Tur quoise
Ty'ph6n
Tyr i-an

Uriel
Uriui

U'ri-el

God

U'rim

Lights.

Typhon

Tu-lal

Cain

Vedas
Vehm-gericht

Ve'das

Veritas
Vesica Pisces

Ver'-i-tas

Vespasian
Vexillum Belli
Vielle-Bru
Vincere aut Mori
Vivat

Son of

Zillah.

is light.

Velim' ger-icht'
Ves'i-ca Pis-cis

Ves pa'-sian

Vex

il'lum Belli

Vi'elle Brii

V-ie-1 Brii.

Vin'c6-re aut Mori

Vi'vat

Ve'va.

Wilhelmsbad

WiT helms-bad

Wolfenbuttel
Xerophagists

Xe'ro-pha /gists

He'ro-fa'gists.

Xinxe
Yaveron Hamaini
Y-ha-bo

Xin'xe

Gin-ge.

Ya've-ron Ha' -maim

Ha

Y-ha'ho

E-haho.

Yod

YSd

Yoni

Yo'ni

Ea' ne.

Zabud

Zabtid

Endowed.

Zabulon

Za'bu-l6n

Dwelling.

Zadok

Za'dok

Righteous.

Zaberlaberbon
Zaratbustra
Zarthan

Za-her' -la-her-bon'

Remember

Zeonaar
Zeredatbah
Zerubbabel

Zen'naar

Zizon
Zoroaster
Zurtbost

Zi'zon

WSl-fen-buttel

ve-ron

Ha

maim.

the destruction.

Za'ra-thus-tra

Zarthan

Ze-rSd'-a-thah
Ze-rtlb'ba-bel

Z6

ro-as'ter

Zur-thost

Protection.

ADDENDUM.
WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

Abaciscus

PROPER

M AS,ONIC

A'ba-cis'ciis

Abazar
Abchal

A'ba z^r

Abdiel

Ab'diel

Abditorium
Abib
Abibala

NOTATIONS.

PRONUNCIATION.

Ab'chal

Ab'di to 'ri tlm

Ab'ib
Ab'i-ba'la

Ag-athopades
Ag-enda

A-gen'da

Al-Sirat

Al' Si-rat

A'ga-tho-pa / des

Amal-sagglii

Amal-Sag'ghi

Amenti
Amshaspands

A-menti'

Am-shas'pands

Anakini

An 'a-kini

Anima Mundi
Anubis or Anepu

An'i-ma Miin'di
An-u-bis or An-e-pu

Arabici

Aranyaka
Arbroath
Archi magus

A'ra-bi'ci

ran-ya / ka

Ar-broath

Ar'chi-ma'gus

Arianism

A'ri-an-ism

Aroba
Aryan

A-ro'ba

Asarota
Atossa

A'sa-ro'ta
A-tos'sa

At'thaka'tha

Avatar

A va-tar
A 'vis

Bactylea
Barbati Fratres

Bath Kol
Bar Mitzvah

A'ry-an

Atthakatha
Audi Vide Tace
Avis
Azazel

Giants.

Au-di Vi-de Ta ce
r

A-za'zel

Bac'tyl-e'a

Bar-ba'ti Fratres

Bath K61

Bar Mitz'vah

Basilica

Ba-sil'I-ca

Benai

Be-na'i

Bochim

Bo'chim

Bo 'kirn.

The

weepers.

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.
WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

Bosonian
Buri or Bure

Caaba

or

Kaaba

PROPER

1065

NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

B6-s6'nI-an

Bu'ri or Bu're

C3,-a

ba or Ka-a'ba

Calatrava
Calid
Cantalever

can'ta-ieVer

Capuchin

Ca-pu'chin

Cal'a-tra^il

Carid

Caryatides

Car'y-at'i-des

Catechumen

Cate-chu'men

Cathari

Cath'ar-i

Cenephorus
Ceridwen

Cen'e pho'rus

Cleche

Cle'che'

Kleech.

Collocatio

CdTlS-c&'ti-o

Col-lo ca'sheo.

Cottyto
Crata Repoa
Cresset

Co-tyt'6

Ce-rid'wen

Cr&'ta Ee-po'a
Cres'set

I>actyli

LWty-li

Daedalus

Daed'a-lus

Dambool
Dao

Da'6

D&m-bool

Darakiel

Da-ra-kiel'

Deiseil

DS-is'eil

Denderah
Diu
Dyaus
Dye na Sore

Den-d6'rah

Ebal

E'bal

Eban Bohan

Eban Bohan

Eblis

Eb'lis

Ecbatana

Di'u

Dyaus
Dy'e-na

So-re"

Ec-bat'a-na

almanah

Elal beni

Ela-i ben-i Al-ma'nah

Elohim

El-6-him

Emounah

E-mou'nah

Enochian
En Soph

E-no'chi-an

Eostre

E-os'tre

E-no'kee-an.

En' Soph

Esperance

Ethanim

Literally, bare.

or

Es'pe-rance

Tishri

Es'pe-ranse.

Eth'a-nlm

Evates

E-va'tes

Eveilles, Secte des

E-v6il-les Sect-e des

Evergeten Bundder
Evora

E'ver-ge'ten

Excalibar

Ex-cali bar

E-vS-ra

Bund

d6r

e va ea.

Bright, enlightened.

1066

PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY.

WORDS OF
DOUBTFUL PRONUNCIATION.

PROPER
NOTATIONS.

MASONIC PRONUNCIATION.

Familien Logen

Fa-mili-en Logen

Fanor